7 women and 5 men picked for jury in Harvey Weinstein's #MeToo retrial

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7 women and 5 men picked for jury in Harvey Weinstein's #MeToo retrial

2025-04-22 08:23 Last Updated At：08:52

NEW YORK (AP) — A jury of seven women and five men has been picked for Harvey Weinstein’s #MeToo rape retrial, a more female panel than the five women and seven men who convicted the onetime Hollywood honcho at his first trial five years ago.

Opening statements aren't expected until Wednesday, as prosecutors and defense lawyers still need time to finish picking the last of six alternate jurors — those who step in if a member of the main panel can't see the trial through.

Drawn from Manhattan's jury pool, the 12 members of the main jury include a physics researcher, a photographer, a dietician, an investment bank software engineer, a retired city social worker, and more.

After nine jurors were picked last week, three others and five alternates were tapped Monday during a marathon fourth day of jury selection. They and other prospective jurors were quizzed about their backgrounds, life experiences and various other points that could relate to their ability to be fair and impartial about the highly publicized case.

"You may hear sexual allegations here of a salacious nature — graphic, perhaps. Would hearing that indicate that … Mr. Weinstein must be guilty?” defense attorney Mike Cibella asked one prospective juror. The woman, who ultimately was chosen, answered no.

Potential jurors had been questioned privately about their knowledge of the case and opinions about Weinstein, and some people were excused after those queries behind closed doors.

Still, when the questioning moved into open court, prosecutor Shannon Lucey sought assurances that prospective jurors could put aside any position or feelings they had about the #MeToo movement. It was catalyzed in 2017 by a raft of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, then a high-flying movie producer and one of the most powerful people in his industry.

“Is there anyone who is going to think of the movement and think, ‘OK, that’s just something that I have to keep in the back of my mind when I’m deciding this case’? Everyone can put that aside?” Lucey asked a group of 24 possible jurors. All indicated they could do so.

Weinstein is being tried again on rape and sexual assault charges after New York’s highest court last year overturned his 2020 conviction and 23-year prison sentence. The Court of Appeals found that his trial had been tainted by improper rulings and prejudicial testimony.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone.

The retrial involves charges that he raped an aspiring actor in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and committed a criminal sex act by forcing oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006.

He also is charged with another criminal sex act count, based on an allegation from a woman who was not a part of the original trial. She alleges that Weinstein forced oral sex on her at a Manhattan hotel.

Stock market today: Wall Street surges before the bell on strong tech earnings

2025-05-01 20:06 Last Updated At：20:11

Wall Street surged early Thursday with a string of major U.S. companies posting strong quarterly earnings in an economic environment that has grown increasingly uncertain as the U.S. upends long-standing trade policies.

Futures for the S&P 500 jumped 1.2%, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8%. Nasdaq futures rose 1.8%, pulled higher by technology giants who issued better-than-forecast results.

Microsoft climbed 9.2% in off-hours trading after the software giant said sales in its cloud computing and artificial intelligence business contributed to a 13% increase in revenue and an even bigger jump in profits. Both figures beat Wall Street estimates.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, also handily beat analysts targets for revenue and profit in the period. Meta said strong advertising revenue on its social media platforms was boosted by artificial intelligence tools and its shares climbed 6.4%.

On the losing side was McDonald's, which saw its same store sales in the U.S. plunge by the most since 2020, when the pandemic effectively shut down the retail, dining and travel sectors.

Much like Chipotle last week, McDonald’s said its store traffic fell unexpectedly as economic uncertainty weighed on diners. McDonald's shares fell less than 1% before the bell.

General Motors lowered its profit expectations for 2025 on Thursday, citing a tariff impact of between $4 billion and $5 billion. , GM now foresees full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes in a range of $10 billion to $12.5 billion.

GM said earlier this week that it was reassessing its projections for the year and investors, now with new guidance from the automaker, sent its shares up 2.8%.

Uncertainty about what President Donald Trump’s trade war will do to the U.S. economy remains a key focus for investors.

The U.S. has been hit with the threat of a worst-case scenario called “stagflation,” one where the economy stagnates yet inflation remains high. Economists fear it because the Federal Reserve has no good tools to fix both problems at the same time. If the Fed were to try to help one problem by adjusting interest rates, it would likely make the other worse.

A more comprehensive report on the job market from the U.S. government arrives Friday. The on-again-off-again rollout of U.S. tariffs has created a lot of uncertainty about what’s to come.

The confusion has led to historic swings for financial markets, from stocks to bonds to the value of the U.S. dollar, that battered investors.

Many markets around the world were closed for May Day, or international Labor Day holidays.

At midday in London, Britain's FTSE 100 inched up less than 0.1%.

Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to finish at 36,452.30. As expected, the Bank of Japan decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged as worries mount over the impact of Trump’s policies. The central bank also cut its economic growth forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2026 by more than half, to 0.5% from 1.1% three months ago.

“Considering the significant downgrading of growth and inflation forecasts in its Quarterly Outlook Report, the central bank will likely take a long pause to assess the impact of high global trade policy uncertainty on growth and inflation,” Shigeto Nagai of Oxford Economics said in a report.

The U.S. dollar rose to 144.39 Japanese yen from 143.06 yen. The euro cost $1.1326, inching down from $1.1331.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.2% to 8,145.60.

In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude shed $1.34 to $56.87 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up $1.29 to $59.77 a barrel.