A Russian missile struck a crowded outdoor market in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, including a child, and injuring 32 others. It was one of the deadliest attacks in Ukraine in months. Diana Khodak, who works in a pharmacy next to the market, described the attack.

Diana Khodak: “One woman walked into the pharmacy on her own. Her arm and leg were bleeding. She had a big wound on her arm. Another woman was scared inside by soldiers. She had one open fracture, and bone was sticking out of her leg.”

In Russia, officials say one person was injured, and at least three buildings and several cars were destroyed, as a Ukrainian drone struck Wednesday near the headquarters of Russia’s southern military district command in the city of Rostov.

Romania’s president said Wednesday parts of a Russian drone were found on its territory near the Danube River following a Russian assault on a Ukrainian port earlier this week. President Klaus Iohannis said Romania remains “on alert” after the attack and is in contact with its NATO allies.

President Klaus Iohannis: “If it is confirmed that these elements belong to a Russian drone, such a situation would be completely inadmissible and a serious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Romania, a NATO ally.”

Sudan’s military ruler has issued a decree ordering the dissolution of the Rapid Support Forces, the rival paramilitary group that’s been fighting Sudan’s army since April. The decree came amid continued heavy fighting in Sudan’s capital region. On Tuesday, witnesses said artillery attacks by the Sudanese army killed at least 32 people and injured dozens more in the city of Omdurman.

On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited Sudanese refugees in Chad, where she announced new U.S. sanctions on leaders of the RSF over widespread human rights abuses.

In Gabon, leaders of last week’s coup said Wednesday ousted President Ali Bongo has been released from house arrest and is free to seek medical care abroad.

Col. Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi: “The former president of the republic, Ali Bongo Ondimba, is free to move about. He may, if he wishes, travel abroad for medical checkups.”

Ali Bongo suffered a stroke five years ago that left him partially paralyzed. Members of his family, including his wife and son, remain under house arrest. They’re accused of “high treason” for looting Gabon’s treasury and enriching themselves at the expense of the country.

The World Food Programme says it will further slash the amount of humanitarian assistance it provides to Afghanistan, where more than 15 million people face severe food insecurity. WFP Afghanistan country director Hsiao-Wei Lee blamed a lack of funding for the latest cuts, which will see the U.N. agency provide emergency food aid to just 3 million Afghans.

Hsiao-Wei Lee: “This month we’re having to reduce another 2 million. That means 10 million people that we had served previously and who need assistance are going to bed hungry without any food assistance that WFP is able to provide.”

We’ll have more on the humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere, later in the broadcast. We’ll speak with Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The Biden administration said it is canceling all existing oil and gas drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and banning drilling on 13 million acres, or over half of the National Petroleum Reserve. But the new regulations will not block the $8 billion Willow project, which Biden approved earlier this year despite widespread objections from environmentalists and Indigenous activists. Climate activists are calling on the Biden administration to go further and end all oil and gas drilling.

A judge in Georgia has ruled that two of Donald Trump’s co-defendants in the state’s election subversion case will be tried together beginning on October 23. Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee on Wednesday granted a request by Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro for a speedy trial in the case, though he denied their request to be tried separately.

In Colorado, a new lawsuit seeks to bar Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. Six Colorado voters argue Trump’s actions before, during and after the January 6, 2021, insurrection disqualify him from running, citing the 14th Amendment.

A federal judge in New York has found Donald Trump liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll for a second time. Trump continued to mock and disparage Carroll even after a New York jury earlier this year ordered him to pay $5 million to Carroll for sexually abusing her at a department store in the 1990s and defaming her. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said a trial in January will be limited to determining how much to award Carroll in further damages.

The Senate’s top Republican says he has no plans to retire and will finish his term. Eighty-one-year-old Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell made the remarks Wednesday amid widespread speculation over his health following a series of falls, a concussion and two recent incidents where he froze up while answering reporters’ questions.

Reporter: “What do you say to those who are calling on you to step down? Do you have any plans to retire anytime soon?”

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “I have no announcements to make on that subject.”

Reporter: “But what do you say to those who” —

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “I’m going to finish my term as leader, and I’m going to finish my Senate term.”

This week McConnell released a letter from Congress’s attending physician, who said tests had ruled out a stroke or seizure.

The special counsel investigating President Biden’s son says he will seek a criminal indictment against Hunter Biden on tax and gun charges by September 29. This comes after a judge in July rejected a previous plea deal that would have seen Biden avoid jail time.

In Mexico, former Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum was selected by the governing Morena party as its candidate for the 2024 presidential election. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is not eligible to run again, since leaders can only serve a single six-year term, according to Mexico’s Constitution. Sheinbaum, a close ally of AMLO, is seen as a favorite ahead of next June’s election, as Morena rules 22 of Mexico’s 32 states. She spoke after her selection was announced.

Claudia Sheinbaum: “Today, democracy won. Today, the people of Mexico decided, and I am the national coordinator to defend the transformation based on the people of Mexico’s decision. This work is teamwork.”

Last week, an opposition coalition selected its presidential candidate, lawmaker Xóchitl Gálvez, meaning the two top contenders are women and Mexico is expected to elect its first woman president. Half of Mexico’s Congress is female, and its Cabinet is gender-balanced.

In more news from Mexico, the nation’s Supreme Court has decriminalized abortion, ruling bans on the procedure are a violation of women’s rights. Abortion is still considered unlawful in two-thirds of Mexican states, but people in those states can now receive abortions at federal medical facilities, and states will be barred from penalizing those patients and providers. It’s part of a wave of abortion rights victories across Latin America. Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay and Guyana have also moved to either legalize or decriminalize abortion.

Here in the U.S., anti-abortion crusaders are pushing new measures to make abortion access even more challenging. Texas cities and counties are passing new laws that criminalize driving through them to get to an abortion provider. New data shows abortions increased in the first half of the year in states that still allow the procedure. Those states have been absorbing patients forced to travel from places where abortions were banned following the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas Governor Greg Abbott to remove his dangerous floating border barrier in the Rio Grande. The Justice Department sued over the barrier in July, which has been implicated in at least two migrant deaths and many more injuries. The buoys are separated by circular saw blades along a 1,000-foot-long line. Governor Abbott has already appealed the order. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center called the buoys “a symbol of the hate-filled and inhumane policies Gov. Abbott has embraced as he continues to wage war on immigrants … the beautiful Rio Grande River has been turned into a militarized zone.”

Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso has filed a sexual assault complaint against Luis Rubiales, the head of the Spanish soccer federation, who forcibly kissed her during the World Cup trophy ceremony. The sexual assault was witnessed live by millions of people who were tuning in to celebrate Spain’s historic victory. Rubiales has been temporarily suspended by FIFA, while the team’s coach was fired. Hermoso’s teammates vowed not to play for the national team again unless management was changed. Meanwhile, protesters have been taking to the streets in Spain in solidarity with Jenni Hermoso.

Rosa San Segundo: “This is a crime. This is clearly sexual harassment under Spanish law. And not only under Spanish law, but also under European law, the Istanbul Convention, signed by Europe in 2011 and ratified by Spain in 2014, considers this as sexual abuse, and it is a crime.”

Here in New York, a court in Westchester County has exonerated a Black man nearly 48 years after he was wrongfully convicted on rape charges. Leonard Mack served more than seven years in prison after a jury found him guilty in 1975. DNA has since eliminated him as the perpetrator and identified a different man, who has confessed to the crime. The Innocence Project says it’s the longest-ever wrongful conviction to be overturned by DNA evidence. Mack was officially exonerated on Tuesday, his 72nd birthday.

Leonard Mack: “I thank God that finally the truth came out. And now I can truly say — now I can truly say that I’m free.”

Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Nancy Buirski has died at 78. Her first film, “The Loving Story,” chronicled the relationship which led to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision legalizing interracial relationships. It won a Peabody for its “gorgeous and sympathetic telling of a couple’s fight to persevere in the face of injustice.” Buirski founded and for 10 years ran the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. In 2017, she appeared on Democracy Now! to talk about her film “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” about a 24-year-old Black sharecropper who was gang-raped in 1944 and refused to be silenced. This is Nancy Buirski in the Democracy Now! studio.

Nancy Buirski: “Recy Taylor is amazingly courageous for speaking up. As you mentioned, very few women did that. They were afraid for their lives. Their families would be threatened, and their friends’ livelihoods would be threatened. So, what she did was extraordinary. And, you know, we made this film before this #MeToo movement. We had no idea that this would all erupt. But now, as I look back on it, I realize that Recy Taylor’s story is the first link in a long chain. It may—not even the first link. It really goes back to slavery. But it is a very pivotal link in a chain that goes right through the civil rights movement, right up through Black Power, and obviously is resolved today.”

Click here to see the whole interview.