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An Alabama man who murdered his girlfriend is to be put to death by nitrogen gas on Tuesday, one of at least three executions to be carried out in the United States this week.Gregory Hunt, 65, was convicted of the 1988 rape and murder of 32-year-old Karen Lane, whom he had been dating for a month.Hunt is to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, which involves pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing the prisoner to suffocate.The execution is to be carried out at 6:00 pm Central Time (2300 GMT) at the Alabama state prison in Atmore.It will be the fifth execution in the southern US state using nitrogen gas, which has been denounced by UN experts as cruel and inhumane.Only one other US state, Louisiana, has used this method.Hunt’s execution is one of two scheduled for Tuesday.Anthony Wainwright, 54, is to be put to death by lethal injection at 6:00 pm Eastern Time (2200 GMT) at the Florida state prison in Raiford.Wainwright was convicted of the 1994 rape and murder of Carmen Gayheart, a 23-year-old nursing student and mother of two young children.Wainwright and an accomplice, Richard Hamilton, abducted Gayheart three days after escaping from a prison in North Carolina.Hamilton was also sentenced to death for Gayheart’s murder but died in prison.A third execution this week is scheduled to take place on Thursday in Oklahoma, where John Hanson, 61, is to be put to death for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Mary Bowles, 77.Hanson’s execution has been temporarily put on hold by a judge amid claims his rights were violated during a clemency hearing.Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has asked an appeals court to lift the stay to allow the execution to go ahead.The fourth execution this week is to be carried out in South Carolina, where Stephen Stanko, 57, is to be put to death by lethal injection.Stanko was convicted of the 2005 murders of his girlfriend, 43-year-old Laura Ling, and Henry Turner, a 74-year-old friend.There have been 19 executions in the United States this year: 15 by lethal injection, two by firing squad and two using nitrogen gas.The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while three others — California, Oregon and Pennsylvania — have moratoriums in place.President Donald Trump is a proponent of capital punishment and called on his first day in office for an expansion of its use “for the vilest crimes.”

Sean Combs’s defense lawyers on Tuesday will question a woman who dated the music mogul up until his arrest, and who has testified in agonizing detail that he pressured her into drug-fueled sex with escorts.After three days on the stand the woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane will face intense scrutiny from defense lawyers who have insisted that what prosecutors deem sex trafficking was in fact consensual.Jane told jurors how the final year of her relationship with the artist known as “Diddy” exploded into violence in June 2024.At the time Combs was already under investigation by federal authorities; his homes had been raided, and the now-infamous security footage of him assaulting his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura in a hotel was public.Throughout her testimony Jane, who began seeing Combs in early 2021, detailed how she had longed for a more traditional romantic relationship with him.But she said 90 percent of their time together resulted in sometimes days-long sex parties that saw Combs direct her to have sex with male escorts while he watched, even as she told him the encounters made her feel “sleazy” and “disgusted.”The June 2024 date at home was meant to be a chill night in, she said, but she and Combs got into a fight over his relationship with another woman.The argument escalated when Jane said she pushed Combs’s head onto a marble countertop and began hurling candles.”I was angry with him,” Jane said. “It was a built-up mix of everything… I just kept saying that I hated him.”Combs was livid: Jane told jurors he kicked down doors and ultimately put her in a chokehold. She managed to run out of the house barefoot but upon returning hours later he was still there. He kicked and punched her until she had a black eye and “golf-ball” sized welts, she said.Combs instructed her to ice the injuries and “put an outfit on.”Jane told jurors that she put on the requisite heels and lingerie for a so-called “hotel night” with Combs and a man he had invited.Through tears Jane said Combs gave her ecstasy and demanded she have sex with the man, and when she protested he said “you’re not going to ruin my fucking night.”When she said again she didn’t want to participate, he stood closely to her face as he asked in a “forceful” tone: “Then is this coercion?” Jane ultimately complied, and gave the escort oral sex: “I just felt like I wasn’t even in my own body,” she said.Jane told jurors Combs paid for her rent at the time and still does. He also continues to fund her legal costs.- ‘Sexual trauma’ -When Ventura — who last month testified of physical and psychological abuse in similarily excruciating detail — filed her 2023 civil lawsuit that opened the door for a federal investigation, Jane said she “almost fainted.””There was a whole other woman feeling the same thing,” Jane said.”I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish,” she messaged Combs, in text records read in court.After weeks of back-and-forth, Jane said Combs called her a “con artist,” and threatened to show sexually explicit videos to the father of her child.She had previously testified at length that she felt “obligated” to participate in hotel nights for “fear of losing the roof over my head” that Combs was bankrolling.Jane said that following their physical fight in the summer of 2024, they saw each other twice more before his arrest last September.The 55-year-old faces life in prison if convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.Jane’s story was not in the original indictment against Combs, but she was added after receiving a subpoena requiring she testify in November 2024 before a grand jury.She began speaking to prosecutors in January of this year.Jane testified that she told Combs’s defense team about the brawl last summer before she told prosecutors.She said she felt “obligated” to meet the defense team “due to my relationship.”Jane has not filed any civil suit against Combs, and said in court Monday she has no plans to.”I just pray for his continued healing,” she told jurors, “and I pray for peace for him.”The Manhattan federal trial is expected to last several more weeks.

President Donald Trump ordered active-duty US Marines and 2,000 more National Guard troops into Los Angeles on Monday, vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever.Trump’s extraordinary mobilization of 700 full-time professional military personnel — and thousands of National Guard troops — came on the fourth day of street protests triggered by dozens of immigration arrests in a city with huge foreign-born and Latino populations.California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move, posting on X that US Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”The deployment came after demonstrators took over streets in downtown LA on Sunday, torching cars and looting stores in scenes that saw law enforcement responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.Monday’s demonstrations unfolded largely peacefully, however, after weekend protests triggered by dozens of arrests of people authorities said were illegal migrants and gang members.”Pigs go home!” demonstrators shouted at National Guardsmen outside a federal detention center. Others banged on the sides of unmarked vehicles as they passed through police containment lines.One small business owner whose property was graffitied was supportive of the strongarm tactics.”I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.Others were horrified.”They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, 47, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”In the nearby city of Santa Ana, about 32 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Los Angeles, law enforcement fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades on protesters chanting against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as darkness fell.-‘Hit harder’ -Trump, speaking in Washington, branded the protesters “professional agitators and insurrectionists.”On social media, he said protesters spat at troops and if they continued to do so, “I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before.”Despite isolated and eye-catching acts of violence, officials and local law enforcement stressed the majority of protesters over the weekend had been peaceful.Schools across Los Angeles were operating normally on Monday, while the rhythms of life in the sprawling city appeared largely unchanged.Contrasting Trump’s descriptions of the protests, Mayor Karen Bass said “this is isolated to a few streets. This is not citywide civil unrest.”Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said local authorities were able to control the city.”The introduction of federal, military personnel without direct coordination creates logistical challenges and risks confusion during critical incidents,” he told reporters.At least 56 people were arrested over two days and five officers suffered minor injuries, Los Angeles Police Department officials said, while about 60 people were arrested in protests in San Francisco.Protesters also scuffled with police in New York City and in Austin, Texas on Monday.Police made several arrests after around 100 people gathered near a federal building in Manhattan where immigration hearings are held, an AFP reporter there saw, while law enforcement fired tear gas on dozens of protesters in Austin, NBC affiliate KXAN reported.Trump’s use of the military was an “incredibly rare” move for a US president, Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and a former lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force, told AFP. The National Guard has not been deployed over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement.US law largely prevents the use of the military as a policing force on home soil absent an insurrection.For good reason, VanLandingham said, explaining that troops such as the Marines are trained to use lethal force, as opposed to domestic peacetime law enforcement.”What does ‘protect’ mean to a heavily armed Marine??? Who has not/not trained with local law enforcement, hence creating a command and control nightmare?” she told AFP via email.The Pentagon said late Monday Trump had authorized an extra 2,000 guardsmen, seemingly on top of the 2,000 he deployed over the weekend.Around 1,700 guardsmen had taken up positions in Los Angeles by late Monday, the US Northern Command said on X.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has faced budget cuts before, but the impact of President Donald Trump’s policies has been even more “devastating” for reproductive health worldwide, chief Natalia Kanem told AFP.The agency has been targeted by US conservatives since the Kemp-Kasten Amendment’s enactment in 1985 by Congress, when the administration of then president Ronald Reagan rallied against China’s population policies, accusing Beijing of promoting forced abortions and sterilizations. All subsequent Republican presidencies have cut US funding to UNFPA, and the second Trump administration is no exception.”We’ve had over $330 million worth of projects ended,” virtually overnight, in “some of the hardest hit regions of the world” like Afghanistan, Kanem said in an interview coinciding with the release of the UNFPA’s annual report Tuesday. “So yes, we are suffering.”Kanem pointed to the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as an example, where over the years more than 18,000 pregnancies were delivered by “heroic midwives” who “conducted these over 18,000 deliveries without a single maternal death, which you know, in a crisis situation is extraordinary.” “Those maternity wards today have closed. The funding cuts immediately have meant that those midwives are no longer able to do their jobs,” Kanem said.Although it is too soon to estimate the precise impacts of the US cuts, they will inevitably result in increased maternal mortality and more unintended pregnancies, according to Kanem.”What’s different this time for UNFPA is that our ecosystem of other reproductive health actors who might be able to fill in for us,” Kanem said, adding they are “reeling from huge impact of having their funding denied.” The Trump administration has slashed many such external aid programs. “So it is very lamentable that this year, to me, has been drastically worse than ever before, precisely because now everybody is caught up in the whirlwind.” “The withdrawal of the United States from the funding arena for reproductive health has been devastating,” Kanem said.- Desire and rights -American policy is not only marked by funding cuts, but also a challenge to gender equality matters.”There will be debates about concepts, but there shouldn’t be any debate about the non-negotiability of the rights and choices of women and adolescent girls,” Kanem emphasized. “We always embrace change, but we should not compromise on these common values which spell the difference between life and death for women and girls all around the world,” she continued.”Women deserve support. Adolescent girls deserve to finish their schooling, not become pregnant, not be bartered or sent off into marriage as a non-solution to issues that families may face.”The UNFPA’s annual report, published Tuesday and based on the results of an survey of 14,000 people from 14 countries — nations which represent over a third of the world’s population — also underscores concerns that millions of people around the world cannot create the families they desire.More than 40 percent of those over the age of 50 reported not having the number of children they wanted — with 31 percent saying they had fewer kids than they desired and 12 percent saying they had more than they wanted.More than half of respondents said economic barriers prevented them from having more children. Conversely, one in five said they were pressured into having a child, and one in three adults reported an unintended pregnancy.The majority of people “live in countries where fertility rates have fallen so far and so fast that they are below replacement,” Kanem said. “We know that the issue of population pressure takes almost like a headline drastic view. Some people think there are way too many people. Others are saying we don’t have enough, women should have more babies,” Kanem said.”What UNFPA really cares about is a woman’s true desire, rights and choices,” Kanem said.

Immigration protests in Los Angeles are proving a stern test of Gavin Newsom’s leadership of California, but the unrest also hands the ambitious governor a unique opportunity, say analysts, as he weighs a presidential run in 2028.Rarely a shrinking violet, the 57-year-old chief executive of the country’s largest and richest state has eagerly taken up the Democratic Party’s cudgel against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Newsom spent the weekend attacking his Republican opponent, accusing him of deliberately stoking tensions by deploying California’s National Guard to downtown LA.A presumed frontrunner for the Democratic leadership, Newsom has made no secret of his political ambitions and appears to be relishing his chance for a public showdown with Trump.As the latest front in Trump’s immigration crackdown played out on the streets, the Democrat was brawling on social media, vowing to sue Trump over a “serious breach of state sovereignty.””Every political crisis is a political opportunity,” Jeff Le, a former senior official in California state politics who negotiated with the first Trump administration, told AFP.”In California, where President Trump polls at 30 percent, it’s a potential gift for the governor to showcase stark differences between the two.”Those differences were all too apparent as Trump upbraided the Democrat for a “horrible job,” while the president’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Newsom over any interference with deportations.Homan rowed back his comments after the Newsom gave a fiery interview with left-leaning MSNBC mocking his “tough guy” stance and calling his bluff.Le said Newsom’s defiant showing would delight a Democratic base “desperate for a fighter.” But he warned that a prolonged stand-off in LA — and particularly an escalation of violence or vandalism — could erode public sympathy, especially if Trump seeks to target California’s federal funding.- ‘Face of Democratic resistance’ -A former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom has been at the helm of the Golden State for six years, making it a haven for liberal priorities such as abortion access and anti-deportation “sanctuary cities.”He has been talked of as a future Democratic president for years, and has bolstered his national profile with bold overtures beyond his own state, including debating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Fox News.But he has courted controversy on his own side for appearing at times too chummy with Republicans, a criticism fueled by the launch in March of a podcast featuring friendly chats with provocative right-wing guests.His reputation also lost some of its sheen among centrists during the pandemic, when he was slammed by business owners for onerous public health restrictions.A lunch that Newsom attended with lobbyists at an opulent Napa Valley restaurant during the partial lockdown became infamous.An Economist/YouGov poll released last week showed Newsom has ground to make up, as his net popularity rating of -13 points is significantly worse than Trump’s still underwhelming -7 points.”There’s no question Gavin Newsom is trying to use this moment to elevate his national profile, casting himself as the face of Democratic resistance to Donald Trump,” said veteran political strategist Charlie Kolean.But the analyst cautioned that Newsom would damage his presidential ambitions if voters thought he was taking the side of criminals over security forces in his drive to be seen as a defender of civil rights. “Voters overwhelmingly want law and order — it’s one of the core issues Trump ran on and won big with,” Kolean told AFP.”Americans want leaders who protect public safety and stand with law enforcement — not ones who politicize unrest.”

President Donald Trump’s administration said Monday it was sending 700 US Marines and thousands more National Guard troops to Los Angeles, sparking a furious response from California’s governor over the “deranged” deployment.Trump had already mobilized 2,000 National Guard members to the country’s second most populous city on Saturday, with some 300 taking up positions protecting federal buildings and officers on Sunday.On Monday — the fourth day of protests against immigration raids in the city that have seen some scuffles with law enforcement — the Trump administration announced the mobilization of the 700 Marines as well as an “additional” 2,000 National Guard.A senior administration official told AFP that “active-duty US Marines from Camp Pendleton will be deployed to Los Angeles to help protect federal agents and buildings.” The official first gave a figure of 500 Marines, but later updated the number to 700.Deploying active duty military personnel like US Marines into a community of civilians within the United States is a highly unusual measure.The US military separately confirmed the deployment of “approximately 700 Marines” from an infantry battalion following the unrest.They would “seamlessly integrate” with National Guard forces that Trump deployed to Los Angeles on Saturday without the consent of California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.The deployment was meant to ensure there were “adequate numbers of forces,” it added.Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell then announced the mobilization of “an additional 2,000 California National Guard to be called into federal service to support ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) & to enable federal law-enforcement officers to safely conduct their duties.”It was not immediately clear if the “additional” 2,000 guardsmen were on top of the 2,000 that had already been mobilized, or only the 300 that were already in the streets of Los Angeles.Newsom wasted little time accusing the president of sowing “chaos” in Los Angeles.”Trump is trying to provoke chaos by sending 4,000 soldiers onto American soil,” the governor posted on X.Earlier, he slammed the “deranged” decision by “dictatorial” Trump to send in Marines.US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had first mentioned that the Marines could be deployed on Saturday.

Donald Trump likes to show off his strongman credentials at cage fights and military parades — and over the weekend, the US president did it by sending troops into Los Angeles.The move once again showed Trump pushing presidential power to its limits, at the start of a second term that has begun with what critics say is a distinctly authoritarian edge.Trump deployed the National Guard after clashes sparked by immigration raids, marking the first time since 1965 that a president has done so without a request by a state governor. His administration said Monday it was also sending 700 active-duty Marines to America’s second largest city.The Republican has warned that troops could be sent “everywhere” — sparking fears that he will send the military out into the streets across America to crack down on protests and dissent.”It’s a slippery slope,” William Banks, a law professor at Syracuse University, told AFP. “If the president tries to do more, he’s cutting against the grain in the United States of a long history of leaving law enforcement to civilians.”The protests in Los Angeles are in many ways the showdown that Trump has been waiting for.Trump has been spoiling for a fight against California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom, and he is now doing so on his signature issue of immigration.Newsom has bitterly accused the “dictatorial” president of manufacturing the crisis for political gain — while Trump suggested the governor, a potential 2028 presidential contender, could be arrested.Democratic California senator Alex Padilla slammed what he called “the behavior of an authoritarian government.”Rights groups have also opposed it. Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement that Trump’s response was “unnecessary, inflammatory, and an abuse of power.”- ‘Civil war’ -Trump said Monday that he does not “want a civil war” — but the situation is a golden opportunity to appear tough to his base.Indeed, Trump has long cultivated a strongman image and has previously expressed admiration for authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.This weekend, Trump will spend his 79th birthday watching tanks rumble through Washington at a parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the US army.And the order to send the National Guard into Los Angeles came shortly before Trump attended a UFC fight in New Jersey — a sport he has used frequently to appeal to macho voters.Critics however fear that Trump’s actions in Los Angeles are not just for show.Since returning to office, Trump has repeatedly pushed the boundaries of presidential power to target the US bureaucracy, universities, law firms, cultural institutions and anywhere else he believes liberal ideologies linger.Trump seemed to hint at what could come next when he pinned the blame for the Los Angeles unrest — without evidence — on “insurrectionists.” It appeared to be a clear reference to the Insurrection Act, which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force.- ‘Look strong’ -“Trump is pretty free and loose when it comes to the use of force,” Todd Belt, a political science professor at George Washington University, told AFP. “He knows it is popular with his base, and he always likes to look strong in their eyes.”Trump has talked for years about using the military against protests. Although he did not do so during his first term, his former defense secretary Mark Esper said Trump asked why Black Lives Matter protesters could not be shot in the legs.Conversely, Trump made no move to bring in the military when his own supporters attacked the US Capitol in a bid to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.Trump would not say if he would invoke the Insurrection Act when asked by reporters on Monday, but he and his advisors have been framing the issue in increasingly apocalyptic terms.His top migration advisor Stephen Miller has explicitly framed the Los Angeles protests as a battle for the future of Western civilization against an “invasion” of migrants.”The ‘war’ and ‘invasion’ framing have helped the administration make the case for the domestic use of these laws that are normally used to put down rebellions or invasions,” said Belt.

US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday announced he was dismissing all current members of a key federal vaccine advisory panel, accusing them of conflicts of interest — his latest salvo against the nation’s immunization policies.The removal of all 17 experts of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) was revealed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and an official press release.Kennedy, who has spent two decades promoting vaccine misinformation, cast the move as essential to restoring public trust, claiming the committee had been compromised by financial ties to pharmaceutical companies.”Today we are prioritizing the restoration of public trust above any specific pro- or anti-vaccine agenda,” he said in a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services.”The public must know that unbiased science — evaluated through a transparent process and insulated from conflicts of interest — guides the recommendations of our health agencies.”In his op-ed, Kennedy claimed the panel was “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest” and had become “little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”He added that new members were being considered to replace those ousted — all of whom were appointed under former president Joe Biden. ACIP members are chosen for their recognized expertise and are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest.”RFK Jr. and the Trump administration are taking a wrecking ball to the programs that keep Americans safe and healthy,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in response. “Of course, now the fear is that the ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion,” Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor who expressed concern about Kennedy’s track record during his Senate nomination but ultimately voted in his favor, wrote on X.”I’ve just spoken with Secretary Kennedy, and I’ll continue to talk with him to ensure this is not the case.”- ‘Silencing expertise’ -The decision drew sharp criticism from Paul Offit, a pediatrician and leading expert on virology and immunology who served on the panel from 1998 to 2003.”He believes that anybody who speaks well of vaccines, or recommends vaccines, must be deeply in the pocket of industry,” Offit told AFP. “He’s fixing a problem that doesn’t exist.””We are witnessing an escalating effort by the Administration to silence independent medical expertise and stoke distrust in lifesaving vaccines,” added Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a statement.Once a celebrated environmental lawyer, Kennedy pivoted from the mid-2000s to public health — chairing a nonprofit that discouraged routine childhood immunizations and amplified false claims, including the long-debunked theory that the Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism.Since taking office, he has curtailed access to Covid-19 shots and continued to raise fears around the MMR vaccine — even as the United States faces its worst measles outbreak in years, with three reported deaths and more than 1,100 confirmed cases.Experts warn the true case count is likely far higher.”How can this country have confidence that the people RFK Jr. wants on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices are people we can trust?” Offit asked.He recalled that during US President Donald Trump’s first term, several states formed independent vaccine advisory panels after the administration pressured federal health agencies to prematurely approve Covid-19 vaccines ahead of the 2020 election. That kind of fragmentation, Offit warned, could happen again.ACIP is scheduled to hold its next meeting at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta from June 25 to June 27.Vaccines for anthrax, Covid-19, human papillomavirus, influenza, Lyme disease, respiratory syncytial virus, and more are on the agenda.

A US judge on Monday rejected a $400 million lawsuit that actor Justin Baldoni filed against former co-star Blake Lively and The New York Times after she accused him of sexual harassment and other misbehavior.Back in December the Times reported that Lively had filed a complaint against Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath for allegedly inappropriate behavior and comments during the shooting of the movie “It Ends with Us.”The complaint said Baldoni — who also directed the film — had spoken inappropriately about his sex life and sought to alter the film to include sex scenes that were not in the script and had not been agreed to.It also said Heath had watched Lively while she was topless, despite having been asked to turn away. It further said Baldoni waged a PR campaign to wreck Lively’s reputation.A lawyer for Wayfarer, the studio behind the film, said in a statement released to the New York Times at the time that neither the studio, its executives, nor its PR team did anything to retaliate against Lively.”These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” lawyer Bryan Freedman wrote in December.Baldoni filed suit in January against the actress, her husband Ryan Reynolds and the Times, arguing that an article the paper ran in December defamed him.On Monday, Judge Lewis Liman of the US District Court in Manhattan dismissed the lawsuit filed by Baldoni.The judge said the Times had simply reported on Lively’s original legal filing alleging harassment on set and a retaliatory smear campaign, and that it had taken the trouble to seek a reaction from Baldoni to the actress’s allegations.The judge also rejected allegations by Baldoni that Lively, whose Instagram account has more than 43 million followers, had tried to seize control of the film and its promotion. Baldoni accused her husband, Reynolds, of wrongly describing him as a sexual predator.In a statement carried by US media, Lively’s lawyers celebrated what they called a “total victory” over Baldoni’s “retaliatory lawsuit.”Baldoni’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.Based on a best-selling novel by the US writer Colleen Hoover, “It Ends with Us” is a romantic drama that made more than $350 million at the box office in 2024, making it one of the biggest hits of the year.

Jurors reported getting closer to a verdict Monday in the sex crimes retrial of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, despite tensions raising the risk of a deadlocked jury and a mistrial.”We’re making good progress,” Judge Curtis Farber read in a final note from jurors wrapping up the third day of closed-door deliberations in the New York courtroom.Farber had previously read aloud two notes sent to him by the 12-member jury.In the first note, a juror expressed a desire to talk to Farber “about the situation that isn’t very good.”In the second, jurors wrote they “request the entire definition of reasonable doubt and rules of the jury especially to avoid a hung jury.”A hung jury occurs when a judge acknowledges that jurors have been unable to reach a unanimous decision after several days of deliberations. In that case, a mistrial would be declared and a new trial may be held.On Monday morning, Weinstein, whose downfall in 2017 sparked the global #MeToo movement, looked on impassively from his wheelchair, as the judge, prosecutors and his lawyers engaged in tense discussions.The jury must decide whether Weinstein — accused by dozens of women of being a sexual predator — is guilty of sexual assaults in 2006 on Miriam Haley and former model Kaja Sokola, and of rape in 2013 of then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann.Weinstein is on trial again after a New York state appeals court threw out his 2020 convictions, citing irregularities in the original proceedings. The former movie industry titan’s 23-year prison sentence for the initial conviction was thrown out, but he remains imprisoned for separate offenses.- ‘Playground stuff’ – On Friday, one juror came forward to report tensions between his fellow panelists, alleging “people are being shunned. It’s playground stuff.”He asked to resign as a juror, but Farber denied his request.Responding to the situation, Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala called for a mistrial, but the judge refused his request.At midday Monday, another juror sought to deliver a message of reassurance that matters had calmed down.”Things are going well, the tone is very different today, we are finding headways,” she told the judge, who appeared to breathe a sigh of relief. During the trial, the three alleged victims testified for several days, recounting how the powerful movie producer had forced them into sexual relations after luring them to his apartment or a hotel room in New York.On Wednesday, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg summarized the evidence of the three alleged victims by saying simply: “He raped three women, they all said no.”The Hollywood figure had “all the power” and “all the control” over the alleged victims, which is why jurors should find him guilty, she said.”The defendant thought the rules did not apply to him, now it is the time to let him know that the rules apply to him.”Weinstein did not take the stand but conceded in an interview with FOX5 television on Friday that he had acted “immorally.” He insisted he did nothing criminal, however.Weinstein’s defense team has suggested the women accused him to score a payday from a legal settlement or criminal damages.