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Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein conceded that he acted “immorally” but insisted he did nothing criminal as jury deliberations on his fate in his sex crimes retrial paused for the weekend Friday.Jurors said after two days that they needed “more time” to deliberate on a verdict for Weinstein.He 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.Although Weinstein did not take the stand, he spoke out in an interview aired by FOX5 television Friday as the jury considered six weeks of testimony.”I have regrets that I put my family through this, that I put my wife through this, and I acted immorally…, but never illegal, never criminal, never anything,” he said.Weinstein pointed to comments by his defense attorney Arthur Aidala who suggested the three women who testified against him at trial “had four million reasons to testify, as in dollars.”Judge Curtis Farber issued initial instructions Thursday to jurors, one of whom had to be swapped out for an alternate after falling ill, before they retired to consider their verdict.He called on the panel to use “common sense” for this “very important decision” and reminded them that Weinstein was “presumed innocent.”On Friday, the jury panel of 12 heard a read back of emotional testimony from Weinstein’s former assistant Miriam Haley.The jury must decide whether Weinstein — accused by dozens of women of being a sexual predator — is guilty of sexual assaults in 2006 on Haley and former model Kaja Sokola, and of rape in 2013 of then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann.- ‘Playground stuff’ -One juror came forward on Friday 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.Aidala requested that a mistrial be declared, but the judge denied his motion, and the jury will continue to deliberate Weinstein’s fateMonday.On Wednesday, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg summarized the evidence of the three alleged victims of Weinstein who testified at the trial for jurors 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.”There is no reasonable doubt; tell the defendant what he already knows — that he is guilty of the three crimes.”Weinstein’s defense attorney insisted the sexual encounters were consensual, pointing to a “casting couch” dynamic between the movie mogul and the women.Weinstein, the producer of box office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.The cinema magnate, whose downfall in 2017 sparked the global #MeToo movement, has been on trial since April 15 in a scruffy Manhattan courtroom.He is already serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California in a separate for raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.

Five members of the far right Proud Boys convicted of orchestrating the US Capitol riot filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking $100 million in damages for alleged violations of their constitutional rights.The suit, filed in a federal court in Florida, claims the five were victims of “corrupt and politically motivated persecution” intended to punish political allies of President Donald Trump.Among the five plaintiffs is former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for directing the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.Tarrio, whose sentence for seditious conspiracy was the longest doled out to Capitol rioters, was among the more than 1,500 Trump supporters pardoned by the Republican president on his first day in office.In their suit, the Proud Boys members said they were victims of “egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump.”They accused government prosecutors of “evidence tampering, witness intimidation, violations of attorney-client privilege, and placing spies to report on trial strategy.”It said their convictions were “the modern equivalent of placing one’s enemies’ heads on a spike outside the town wall as a warning to any who would think to challenge the status quo.”The Proud Boys members demanded a jury trial and punitive damages of $100 million.The Trump administration agreed last month to pay nearly $5 million to the family of a woman shot dead by a police officer during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.Ashli Babbitt, 35, was shot as she tried to climb through a window leading to the House Speaker’s lobby during the assault on Congress by Trump supporters.Babbitt’s estate filed a wrongful death suit last year seeking $30 million.The case had been scheduled to go on trial, but the Justice Department reversed course after Trump won the November 2024 election and entered into settlement talks.The Capitol assault, which left more than 140 police officers injured, followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race.He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.

US President Donald Trump announced Friday a new round of trade talks with China in London next week, a day after calling Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in a bid to end a bitter battle over tariffs.The talks in the British capital on Monday will mark the second round of such negotiations between the world’s two biggest economies since Trump launched his trade war this year.”The meeting should go very well,” said Trump in a post on his Truth Social platform.The president added that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer would meet the Chinese team.The first talks between Washington and Beijing since Trump slapped levies on allies and adversaries alike took place in Geneva last month.While Trump had imposed a sweeping 10 percent duty on imports from most trading partners, rates on Chinese goods rocketed as both countries engaged in an escalating tariffs battle.In April, additional US tariffs on many Chinese products hit 145 percent while China hit back with countermeasures of 125 percent.Following the talks last month, both sides agreed to temporarily bring down the levels, with US tariffs cooling to 30 percent and China’s levies at 10 percent.But this temporary halt is expected to expire in early August and Trump last week accused China of violating the pact, underscoring deeper differences on both sides.US officials have accused China of slow-walking export approvals of critical minerals and rare earth magnets, a key issue behind Trump’s recent remarks.While Trump’s long-awaited phone call with Xi this week likely paved the way for further high-level trade talks, a swift resolution to the tariffs impasse remains uncertain.

US President Donald Trump has no plans to speak to billionaire Elon Musk and may even ditch his red Tesla car, the White House said Friday after a stunning public divorce fraught with risk for both men.Trump’s camp insisted that he wanted to move on from the row with the South African-born Musk, with officials telling AFP that the tech tycoon had requested a call but that the president was not interested.The Republican instead intended to focus on getting the US Congress to pass his “big, beautiful” spending bill — Musk’s harsh criticisms of which had triggered the astonishing meltdown on Thursday.Fallout from the blow up between the world’s richest person and its most powerful could be significant, as Trump risks political damage and Musk faces the loss of huge US government contracts.Trump phoned reporters at several US broadcast networks to insist that he was looking past the row. He called Musk “the man who has lost his mind” in a call to ABC and told CBS he was “totally” focused on the presidency.The White House meanwhile squashed earlier reports that they would talk.”The president does not intend to speak to Musk today,” a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity. A second official said it was “true” that Musk had requested a call. – Tesla giveaway? -Tesla stocks tanked more than 14 percent on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company’s market value, but recovering partly Friday.Trump was considering either selling or giving away the cherry red Tesla S that he announced he had bought from Musk’s firm at the height of their relationship. The electric vehicle was still parked on the White House grounds on Friday.”He’s thinking about it, yes,” a senior White House official told AFP when asked if Trump would sell or give away the Tesla.Trump and Musk had posed inside the car at a bizarre event in March, when the president turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom after viral protests against Musk’s role as head of the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).- ‘Expiration date’ -The move came despite apparent efforts by Musk to de-escalate.On Thursday, the SpaceX boss briefly threatened to scrap his company’s Dragon spacecraft — vital for ferrying NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station — after Trump suggested he could end Musk’s giant government contracts.But later in the day, Musk sought to deescalate, writing on his X social media platform:  “OK, we won’t decommission Dragon.”The tech magnate also kept a low profile early Friday.But there is no clarity on how the two big egos will repair the relationship, which had already been fraying badly, causing tensions in the White House.Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, whom Musk once called “dumber than a sack of bricks” in an argument over Trump’s tariffs, refused to gloat but said the tycoon had an “expiration date.””No, I’m not glad or whatever,” he told reporters. “People come and go from the White House.”Vice President JD Vance also stuck by Trump amid the blazing row — blasting what he called “lies” that his boss was “impulsive or short-tempered” — but notably avoided criticizing Musk. The tensions burst into the open this week when Musk called Trump’s flagship spending bill an “abomination” because it raises the US deficit. Then in a televised Oval Office diatribe on Thursday, Trump said he was “very disappointed” with Musk.The pair traded insults for hours on social media, with Musk at one point suggesting impeachment of Trump and signalling interest in forming a new political party.

He is almost certainly off the guest list for White House galas, but Elon Musk’s astonishing spat with Donald Trump could inflict damage for both men that goes far beyond catchy headlines and an incinerated friendship.On one side, there’s the US president — a man who has already shown unprecedented appetite for using the levers of power to go after opponents.On the other: the world’s richest man, with a business empire entwined deep into the heart of the US economy and space industry.”Get your popcorn,” Chaim Siegel, an analyst at financial services company Elazar Advisors told AFP.”I’ve never seen two people this big go at it this nasty in all my time in the business. Can’t be good for either side.”Trump allies worry that the messy breakup could have ramifications for his legacy and Republicans’ election prospects, as well as damaging the administration’s ties with Silicon Valley donors.Musk is also in jeopardy. Trump has threatened to scrap the tech mogul’s lucrative subsidies and federal contracts, potentially devastating Tesla and risking some $22 billion of SpaceX’s government income — even if it remains unclear how the US government itself would manage the fallout.- From policy to insults -The catalyst for the split was Trump’s sprawling domestic policy bill, a package that Musk has complained in increasingly apocalyptic terms will swell the budget deficit, undermining the president’s agenda.But the issue quickly has become extraordinarily bitter.Musk called Thursday for Trump’s impeachment, implying that the Republican was linked to the crimes of financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide after being charged with sex-trafficking to elite, international clients.The dust-up has rocked to the core the fragile coalition between the populists in Trump’s “MAGA” movement and the Musk-friendly “tech bros” whose podcasts and cash helped secure the Republican’s second term.Influential figures on the populist side hit back with calls for investigations into South African-born Musk’s immigration status, security clearance and alleged drug use.Meanwhile in Congress, Republicans are calling for a ceasefire, worried that the world’s richest man will use his deep pockets to exact revenge in the 2026 midterm congressional election.- Two big beasts -Trump and Musk were never obvious allies, but the flamboyant entrepreneur turned into the Republican’s surprise wingman — and mega-donor — during the 2024 election.Musk ended up spending $290 million to help the campaigns of Trump and other Republicans. He was then rewarded with overseeing the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which embarked on ruthless and, critics say, ideologically driven slashing of the State Department and other bodies.”Without me, Trump would have lost the election,” Musk posted on his social platform X at the height of a dust-up that US media labeled the “Clash of the Titans.”As president, Trump is arguably the most powerful person in the world.But Musk’s megaphone — X — is much bigger than Trump’s Truth Social and he is a prolific trash talker, instantly reaching many millions of people.Musk’s portfolio of almost 100 contracts with 17 government agencies also gives him enormous power over the federal bureaucracy, including the US space program.Trump, on the other hand, has ultimate say over those contracts. If Trump heeds his supporters’ calls for investigations he could tie Musk down for years, revoking his security clearances and issuing executive orders to gum up his business.- Congress in balance -Trump, 78, may need to walk a delicate line given the risk that Musk will lobby Congress to scuttle his budget plans.Republican lawmakers — most of whom are fighting elections next year — have welcomed Musk with open arms, nodding approvingly at his calls for federal cuts and grateful for his campaign cash.But when it comes to picking sides, most Republicans who have spoken out on the spat are sticking with Trump. The president has a long history of forcing wavering lawmakers to step back into line.”Every tweet that goes out, people are more in lockstep behind President Trump, and (Musk’s) losing favor,” Congressman Kevin Hern told political website NOTUS.Musk, who dreams of colonizing Mars, responded with a longer view of the situation.”Some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President,” Musk posted, “but I will be around for 40+ years.”

Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein conceded that he acted “immorally” but insisted he did nothing criminal as a jury deliberated on his fate for a second day in his sex assault retrial Friday.Weinstein is on trial again after a New York state appeals court threw out his 2020 convictions, citing irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at 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.Although Weinstein did not take the stand, he spoke out in an interview aired by FOX5 television Friday as the jury deliberated following six weeks of testimony.”I have regrets that I put my family through this, that I put my wife through this, and I acted immorally…, but never illegal, never criminal, never anything,” he said.Weinstein pointed to comments by his defense attorney Arthur Aidala who suggested the three women who testified against him at trial “had four million reasons to testify, as in dollars.”Judge Curtis Farber issued instructions Thursday to jurors, one of whom had to be swapped out for an alternate after falling ill, before they retired to consider their verdict.He called on the panel to use their “common sense” for this “very important decision” and reminded them that Weinstein was “presumed innocent.”On Friday, the jury panel of 12 requested to rehear the emotional testimony of two of the three women whose allegations are being prosecuted at this trial, former model Kaja Sokola and actress Jessica Mann.The jury must decide whether Weinstein — accused by dozens of women of being a sexual predator — is guilty of sexual assaults in 2006 on former production assistant Miriam Haley and Sokola, and of rape in 2013 of aspiring actress Mann.- ‘Rules apply to him’ -“He raped three women, they all said no,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said Wednesday as she recounted the evidence of the three alleged victims of Weinstein who testified at the trial.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.”There is no reasonable doubt; tell the defendant what he already knows — that he is guilty of the three crimes.”Weinstein’s defense attorney insisted the sexual encounters were consensual, pointing to a “casting couch” dynamic between the movie mogul and the women.”We don’t want to police the bedroom” except in cases of rape, Blumberg fired back.Weinstein, the producer of box office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.The cinema magnate, whose downfall in 2017 sparked the global #MeToo movement, has been on trial since April 15 in a scruffy Manhattan courtroom.He is already serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California in a separate for raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.

US hiring eased in May but remained resilient, government data showed Friday, in a gradual slowdown amid business uncertainty while scrutiny intensifies over the effects of President Donald Trump’s widespread tariffs.Hiring in the world’s largest economy came in at 139,000 last month, down from a revised 147,000 figure in April, said the Labor Department.The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.2 percent, while pay gains exceeded expectations at 0.4 percent.The figures indicate that the employment market remains healthy despite jolts to financial markets, supply chains and consumer sentiment this year as Trump announced successive waves of tariffs.Trump touted the “great job numbers” on his Truth Social platform.But there appears to be softening. Taken together, job growth in March and April was revised lower by 95,000, Friday’s report said.Shortly after its publication, Trump urged Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to go for a “full point” rate cut, calling Fed chief “a disaster” and again applying political pressure on the independent central bank.But Fed officials are taking a cautious approach as they monitor the tariffs’ impact on inflation.Trump has imposed a 10 percent levy on most trading partners and unveiled higher rates for dozens of economies, but experts say their effects take time to filter through.This is partly because of the president’s on-again, off-again approach to the trade war.His higher blanket tariff rates, although announced in April, were swiftly halted until early July, allowing room for negotiations.Trump’s tit-for-tat escalation with China brought both sides’ levies on each other’s products to triple digits too in April, a level effectively acting as a trade embargo.But the countries reached a deal to temporarily lower duties in May.- ‘Tough summer’ -For now, economists are keeping tabs on signals that US employers might be pulling back on hiring.”This is an ‘abundance of caution economy’ where businesses are only filling critical positions and job seekers, especially recent graduates, are struggling to find employment,” said Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union.She noted that nearly half the job gains were in health care, while the federal government continues to lose workers. Federal government employment was down by 59,000 since January.”A recession does not look imminent, but it will be a tough summer for anyone looking for full-time work,” Long said in a note.Economist Samuel Tombs of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the labor market was “cracking, but not crumbling yet.”While the market is slowing, the pace of cooling remains too gradual for the Fed to reduce interest rates at upcoming meetings. Officials have been awaiting more clarity on how much Trump’s new tariffs might lift inflation.Tombs warned that revisions to May’s employment data could “reveal a sharper slowdown.”On Wednesday, data from payroll firm ADP showed that private sector employment cooled to 37,000 in May, down from 60,000 in the prior month and marking its slowest rate since 2023.Initial jobless claims picked up in the week ending May 31, with economists warning that this could be a sign of a weakening labor market in response to Trump’s tariffs and the resulting uncertainty.Anecdotal data such as the Fed’s beige book survey of economic conditions and recent surveys of businesses have also indicated the levies are causing many firms to pause investment and hiring.All these mean that such effects could soon show up in government employment numbers.”Certainly, employment growth is going to slow down over the next few months,” said Dan North, senior economist at Allianz Trade North America.”We just haven’t seen the full effect of the tariffs, and we probably won’t for a few more months, especially given that they’re so choppy, on and off,” North told AFP.

Donald Trump may now offload a Tesla he said he bought earlier this year in a show of support for Elon Musk, a White House official said Friday, following a blazing row between the US president and his billionaire former advisor.The red electric vehicle, which retails for around $80,000, was still in a parking lot on the White House grounds on Friday, an AFP reporter said, a day after the very public meltdown between Trump and the South African-born tech tycoon.”He’s thinking about it, yes,” a senior White House official told AFP when asked if the Republican would sell or give away the Tesla.Tesla stocks had tanked more than 14 percent on Thursday amid the row, losing some $100 billion of the company’s market value, but leapt back in early trading Friday.Trump, who does not drive as a president, said he was buying the Tesla in March to boost support for his mega-donor, whose brand — and bottom line — has been hit hard by public outrage over his role in slashing US government jobs.At a choreographed publicity stunt that turned the White House into a pop-up Tesla showroom, Trump praised the EV as a “great product” and lashed out on social media at “Radical Left” attacks against the world’s richest person and his company.Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and another senior aide posed in the car as recently as last week, in a photograph posted on Musk’s social media network X.”Taking President Trump’s Tesla out for a ride,” Trump’s communications advisor Margo Martin posted.But the shiny red vehicle has now become an awkward symbol of the fiery political divorce between Trump, 78, and former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chief Musk, 53.Trump said he was “very disappointed” by Musk and threatened to end his government contracts after his ex-aide criticized the president’s flagship budget and policy mega-bill as an “abomination.”

From the Earth trembling as two of its biggest alpha males fall out to Korean leaders doing battle with toilet brushes, your weekly roundup of offbeat stories from around the world.- ‘Sad, so sad’ -It has been a bruising week for the world’s richest man and his former friend, the world’s most powerful one.First Elon Musk turned up in the Oval Office with a black eye he said he got from “horsing around with lil’ X” — his five-year-old son whose full name is X Æ A-Xii.”I said, ‘Go ahead punch me in the face,'” and the boy duly obliged, the 53-year-old tech billionaire told reporters when asked how he got the shiner as President Donald Trump thanked his “friend” for his “great work” for the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).Six days later the two were at each other’s throats, with Musk saying that the president should be impeached, that “without me Trump would have lost the election”, and mocking the US leader’s connections to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying the president is “in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.”Trump took time out from welcoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to the White House — telling him D-Day “was not a pleasant day for you” — to hit back hard.”I’m very disappointed in Elon. I’ve helped Elon a lot,” he said, before taking to his own social network to call Musk “crazy”, saying that he had sacked him and that he could save “billions and billions” by cancelling Musk’s government contracts and subsidies.The falling out — sparked by Musk criticising Trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill as an “abomination” — sent markets into a spin with Musk’s Tesla electric car marker losing $100 billion in share value in a few hours.Trump, however, appears to have made a new friend from the spat, Ashley St Clair, the mother of Musk’s 14th child, who is suing him for child support.”Let me know if u need any breakup advice,” said the rightwing writer, reaching out to the president on her ex’s X social network.- Trust the Dutch -With friends falling out, the world needs love — though possibly not of the kind depicted on an early prophylactic which has gone on display in the venerable Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.The 19th-century condom made from a sheep’s appendix is adorned with an erotic scene involving a nun and three gentlemen of the cloth displaying parts of their person better kept under their cassocks.The very rare printed piece from around 1830 “embodies both the lighter and darker sides of sexual health”, said the museum, whose curators believe it was a souvenir from a brothel.- Lavatorial politics -To South Korea, where broadcasters outdid themselves on election night with wacky graphics to illustrate the battle for votes between the liberal challenger Lee Jae-myung and conservative Kim Moon-soo.Eye-catching CGI that channelled hit TV show “Squid Game” also included the pair battling to unblock a WC with a toilet brush. In the end it was Lee who mounted the throne after winning a thumping election victory.”Can we go this far with people who might become the president?” wondered journalist Son Hyoung-an from broadcaster SBS, which is famous for its cheeky graphics. Too late now…burs-fg/jxb

Elon Musk is “very welcome” in Europe, a spokesperson for the European Commission quipped Friday, following the tech billionaire’s spectacular public falling-out with US President Donald Trump.The Trump-Musk political marriage blew up on Thursday as the president declared himself “very disappointed” in criticisms from his former aide and top donor — before the pair hurled insults at each other on social media.At the commission’s daily briefing, spokesperson Paula Pinho was asked whether Musk had reached out to the European Union with a view to relocating his businesses, or setting up new ones.”He’s very welcome,” she replied with a smile.The commission’s spokesperson for tech matters, Thomas Regnier, followed up by stressing — straight-faced — that “everyone is very welcome indeed to start and to scale in the EU”.”That is precisely the objective of Choose Europe,” he said, referencing an EU initiative in favour of start-ups and expanding businesses.Musk has been a frequent critic of the 27-nation EU — attacking its digital laws as censorship and berating its leaders, while cheering on the ascendant far-right in Germany and elsewhere.The tycoon’s row with Trump saw the president threaten to strip him of government contracts estimated at $18 billion — with Musk vowing in response to end a critical US spaceship programme.Explaining the rift, Trump said Musk had gone “crazy” about a plan to end electric vehicle subsidies in the new US spending bill — as the bust-up sent shares in Musk’s Tesla car company plunging.