Slut-shaming a political opponent? It’s the latest antic associated with controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who once joked about a murdered rape victim and called President Barack Obama an obscene name.
A story in Newsweek details how it all transpired. Senator Leila de Lima had launched hearings into Duterte’s ruthless crackdown on drug users and last month summoned a self-professed hitman to testify that Duterte had ordered death squads to kill addicts during his stint as a city mayor. That marked an escalation of the Duterte-de Lima feud that caused the president’s loyalists in the lower legislature to threaten to show a sex tape purportedly featuring de Lima and her married chauffeur, with whom de Lima admits having a relationship.
De Lima says she’s not sure if there is such a tape, but maintains that Duterte is trying to destroy her “at any cost.”
The slut-shaming approach—in which women are mocked for their sexual pasts but promiscuous men are praised—is indicative of how women are treated in the Philippines, says one observer, and it shows just how far Duterte and his supporters will go to muzzle dissenters. If that’s the case, then the response of women in the country was especially extraordinary. Female senators from different parties filed a resolution to denounce the planned showing of the alleged tape, and female users on Twitter and Facebook rallied behind the hashtag #EveryWoman to claim it was them, not de Lima, in the video. The actions caused lawmakers to back away from their threat to show the film and some are now expressing doubts that it even exists.
clairezillman
Fortune’s 18th annual Most Powerful Women Summit featuring on-stage interviews with Ivanka Trump, Apple SVP Angela Ahrendts, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative co-founder Priscilla Chan (and many more) kicks off next Monday. The invite-only confab is sold out, but here’s how at-home viewers can watch all the action.
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
| A May make-nice? |
| After trying to win over her own party and the British public last week, PM Theresa May embarked on a charm offensive with other EU leaders yesterday, visiting Denmark and the Netherlands, amid growing fears that she'll pursue a "hard Brexit." |
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| The smell of success | | Powerhouse perfumer Jo Malone tells the Telegraph how her dyslexia—"my different way of thinking"—has been the key to her success. | | Telegraph |
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THE AMERICAS
| Let's meet at Martha's | | The queen of all things home is bringing her appeal to a commercial space. Martha Stewart is launching a line of cafes that will operate inside Macy's locations as the department store extends its partnership with the lifestyle guru. The first one opened in Sacramento last weekend. | | Eater |
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| Another test for Tory | | Tory Burch is already a household name, thanks in large part to the tremendous popularity of her Reva ballet flat. The fashion designer is trying to duplicate that success with her Tory Sport line, which will be built on the back—er, bum—of a $125 pair of leggings. | | Business of Fashion |
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| Presidential power | | Donald Trump's most notable line from Sunday's debate was his pledge to "instruct" his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and possibly jail Hillary Clinton if he wins the White House. Fortune's Roger Parloff considered whether a President Trump could do such a thing, and one law professor told him the only precedents for Trump's vow "are to be found in dictatorships and banana republics, not the United States." Trump's campaign said the line was "a quip." | | Fortune |
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ASIA-PACIFIC
| Australia's richest person | | Fortune's Laura Cohn takes a closer look at Gina Rinehart, worth some $11.6 billion, who just made a bid for historic cattle company S. Kidman & Co. The mining magnet, who once said her definition of beauty is "an iron mine," takes a no-nonsense approach to business. | | Fortune |
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| Too much work | | Companies in Japan are supposed to reduce the hours of new moms and exempt them from overtime, but women in the country report that even those measures are not enough to keep them from moving to less demanding contract-based work. | | Japan Today |
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IN BRIEF
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| Donald Trump's groping comment inspired thousands of women to share their assault stories | | Time |
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| Tina Brown: 'If Hillary wins you'll see a lot of unleashed misogyny' | | Evening Standard |
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| Ruth Bader Ginsburg says Colin Kaepernick's protest is 'dumb and disrespectful' | | Fortune |
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PARTING WORDS
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| --Skinnygirl founder and Real Housewife of New York Bethenny Frankel on how she turned realty TV into business success. |
