5 important stories you may have missed

These days, it’s hard to stop politics from flooding your news feed. We take a moment every week to bring you important stories beyond the White House and the Capitol. Here’s what we’re reading now.

1. A former South Carolina police officer is set to be sentenced in the shooting death of Walter Scott

Former North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, right, is escorted from the courthouse by security personnel in Charleston, South Carolina. File photo by Randall Hill/Reuters

This week began with the sentencing hearing for Michael Slager, the former South Carolina police officer who shot and killed Walter Scott, an unarmed black motorist, after a traffic stop in 2015. Last year, Slager, who is white, faced murder charges over Scott’s death, which rose to national prominence in part because of a bystander’s cell phone video of the deadly encounter.

A mistrial was declared after the jury couldn’t come to an unanimous decision in the case. In May, Slager pleaded guilty to federal charges that he violated Scott’s civil rights. The plea agreement for lesser charges meant Slager’s fate would be decided by a judge and not a jury, halting proceedings for a federal trial. State murder charges also were dropped. [The Post and Courier]

Why it matters: Slager and his attorneys maintain that he shot Scott in self defense. Around the time Slager pleaded guilty, the Justice Department released a statement saying the former officer “willfully used deadly force on Walter Scott even though it was objectively unreasonable under the circumstances.” Prosecutors are seeking life in prison, while the defense has pushed for 10 to 13 years. Either way, Slager could be held accountable in Scott’s death by the end of the week, a rare occurrence in fatal police shootings.

2. A woman born without a uterus gave birth to a baby for the first time in the U.S.

A woman who received a uterus transplant has just given birth — the first time such a birth has been successful in the U.S. The woman, who is unnamed for privacy reasons, was born without a uterus, but received one via transplant as part of a clinical trial at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. The baby was born via scheduled Caesarean section, “healthy and screaming.” [TIME]

Why it matters: This is only the ninth time worldwide that a baby has been born from a transplanted uterus (eight women have successfully given birth to babies this way as part of a Swedish trial). The team at Baylor has completed eight transplants so far, but not all have been successful, and this is the first that has resulted in both a pregnancy and a birth, TIME reported.

Most of the women in the trial needed a transplant because they have a disorder that causes their uterus to be underdeveloped, but the procedure could work for women with cancers or other medical issues, doctors say. And unlike many other transplants, which must use an organ from a deceased donor, the uterus in this procedure can come from a living donor, which broadens the donor pool. Already, Baylor says, more than 70 women have expressed interest in donating.

3. African and European leaders are evacuating thousands of migrants from camps

Illegal migrants, who have been detained after trying to get to Europe, look out at a detention hut in Gheryan, outside Tripoli, Libya. Photo by Hani Amara/Reuters

African migrants trying to reach Europe often wind up in Libya, either because their boats capsize or they’re detained by the country’s coast guard. There, the migrants are not only detained in camps — they’re also sometimes bought and sold as slaves, CNN reported last week. Now, leaders in Africa and Europe are trying to evacuate migrants trapped in the slave trade in camps between their two continents, beginning with a United Nations mission last week to fly 240 Nigerians back home. [The Washington Post]

Why it matters: An African Union official told the Washington Post last week that anywhere from 400,000 to 700,000 African migrants are “stuck in Libya against their will.” Why? The Post points to the EU’s recent practice of paying countries, including Libya, to detain migrants before they reach Europe. But “instead of stemming their flow, it has forced migrants to travel along more dangerous smuggling routes and has swollen the number of people stuck in Libya,” the Post found.

The situation comes as Europe is grappling with how to handle the migrant crisis, including through a 200-country effort to develop a global compact on migration. On Sunday, the State Department announced it would pull out of that United Nations agreement, which the U.S. joined last year under President Barack Obama. The agreement “undermines the sovereign right of the United States to enforce our immigration laws and secure our borders,” the State Department said.

4. A war criminal killed himself in international court after his sentence was upheld

Slobodan Praljak, a general in the former Yugoslavian army, drank a vial of potassium cyanide Nov. 29 after the judge for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia affirmed his conviction of war crimes and crimes against humanity. After Praljak announced what he’d done, the judge closed the curtains for public viewing, and medical personnel tried to stabilize and revive Praljak. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in the Hague [The New York Times].

Why it matters: Praljak, 72, was one of six Croatian war criminals whose appeals were largely denied last week. During the Bosnian War, Praljak, a former theater and film writer and director, was named a general in the Croatian army. In 2013, he was convicted of persecuting, expelling and murdering Muslim civilians as part of a plan to create ethnically homogenous regions in post-Yugoslavian Bosnia. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and almost immediately appealed the conviction.

According to Reuters, his courtroom declaration of “Slobodan Praljak is not a war criminal!” echoes the opinions of many Bosnian Croats, who consider the tribunal and some of its convictions to be unjust. But one of the biggest unanswered questions is how Praljak was able to obtain the poison and bring it into the court unnoticed, especially since defendants are subjected to multiple strip searches before entering the court, the Times noted.

5. Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico more than 70 days ago. Where does recovery stand?

A man participates in the Nov. 19 Unity March to highlight the ongoing humanitarian and natural disaster crisis in Puerto Rico, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Photo by Yuri Gripas/Reuters

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico more than 10 weeks ago, it brought unprecedented damage to the island. Sixty-six percent of power on the island has been restored, FEMA told the PBS NewsHour, along with nearly three-quarters of the island’s cell sites. But it’s just the start of a long road to recovery.

As of last week, PBS NewsHour’s Ryan Connolly Holmes reports, FEMA had distributed around $230 million in aid to individual families, and has set aside another $464 million to repair infrastructure and public buildings — much less than the $94 billion Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello said the island needs to fully recover. [PBS NewsHour]

Why it matters:The deadline for Puerto Rico residents to apply for aid has been extended from Nov. 30 to March 18, FEMA said. But how much more aid, and where it will come from, is up in the air. The White House requested $44 billion in disaster relief last month, which would go toward recovery from several major hurricanes and wildfires that damaged large areas of the country this fall. Many members of Congress called that request inadequate. And House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said disaster relief funding isn’t likely to make it into the stopgap spending bill legislators are crafting to avoid a government shutdown later this month. Given Congress’ packed calendar before then, lawmakers aren’t likely to touch disaster relief funding at all before the end of the year.