🌏 Russia Bombs A Crowded Mall In Ukraine, Abortion Right Gains Around The World And More

Hello and welcome to the Almost newsletter, a weekly email to help you stay updated and make sense of important stories happening around the world including:

• 🌏 This Week’s Top Stories
• 👩 Women To Know
• 🙌 Good News For Your Week

Russia struck a busy shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk with a missile on Monday June 27, killing at least 18 people and injuring about 60 others, Ukrainian authorities said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 1,000 people had been inside the mall when the missile struck.

The strike set the building aflame, and video footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the wreckage of the building as emergency crew rushed in to search for victims.

“I flew head first and splinters hit my body. The whole place was collapsing,” Ludmyla Mykhailets, a 43-year-old woman who had been shopping in the mall, told Reuters from hospital, where she was being treated.

Dozens of people are still missing, and search and efforts are continuing, local authorities said on Tuesday afternoon, adding that they did not expect to find any more people alive.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has denied hitting the mall, saying it had struck a nearby depot containing weapons supplied by the US and European countries, which led to an explosion that set the mall on fire.

International media outlets could not independently verify the claim, and Ukrainian authorities said there were no military targets within the mall’s vicinity, the New York Times reported.

Also Happening Around The World

🇳🇴 Thousands of people flooded the streets of Oslo, Norway, in a protest against hate after a gunman killed two people and wounded 21 others outside a gay bar and several entertainment venues in the city.

🇪🇨 Following two weeks of staging anti-government protest over rising fuel and food prices across Ecuador, Indigenous organizations will end an 18-day strike after reaching an agreement with the government about their demands on Thursday June 30.

🇮🇳 Mohammed Zubair, a Muslim Indian journalist and a prominent critic of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, has been arrested on charges of insulting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between religious groups.

🇵🇭 Authorities in the Philippines have ordered journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa’s independent news organization, Rappler, to shut down, in another blow to press freedom in the country.

On Friday June 24, the US Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark 1973 ruling that guaranteed access to abortion as a constitutional right.

The decision is a massive setback for millions of women across the US, as more than half of the the country’s states are expected to outlaw or restrict abortion promptly after the decision, forcing women to travel elsewhere for abortion care.

But as we have witnessed around the world, countries are taking steps to advance abortion rights, and the efforts of the women on the ground – who campaigned, fought, protested – have proven that change is possible. The fight for the right to choose doesn’t stop here.

Here are nine countries that have advanced abortion rights in recent years.

More Women You Should Know About

🇮🇱 Women in Israel saw the country loosen its abortion laws to allow people to get abortion pills through the country’s universal health system and not have to appear in front of a special committee to get approval to terminate a pregnancy.

The capital of Mexico held a mass same-sex wedding as part of its Pride month celebrations on Friday, June 24th.

About 100 same-sex couples tied the knot at the ceremony, a day before the Gay Pride Parade in Mexico City, which made its return after being canceled for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mexico City legalized same-sex marriage in 2010, and since then, 26 Mexican states have also done the same

More Good News For Your Week

🇨🇦 The Canadian government is banning companies from producing or importing single-use plastics, including most plastic bags, takeout containers, cutlery and straws by the end of this year.

Thanks so much for opening this email. If you think a friend would like this, you can forward it to them! You can also follow Almost on Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. We also have a Chinese version.

Let us know your thoughts about this week’s news in the comments or by replying directly to this email ✨