Day: February 21, 2020

In the afternoon of their fourth day of deliberations, the jury in producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial sent a note to the judge.

They wanted to know if they could deliver a verdict on some of the charges but fail to reach a decision on the others.

The judge told them to keep deliberating. “It is not uncommon for a jury to believe that they will never be able to reach a unanimous verdict,” he wrote. “But, after further deliberations, most juries are able to reach a unanimous verdict.”

The jury’s request highlighted what’s become increasingly clear over the …

Mike Bloomberg’s slogan is that he can get it done. But actually, maybe it’s Elizabeth Warren who can. At least when it comes to forcing the former New York City mayor’s hand on releasing women who have complained about his past comments from nondisclosure agreements.

On Friday, Bloomberg announced that his company, Bloomberg LP, had identified three NDAs signed by women related directly to remarks he allegedly made and that it would release them if they wanted. He also said that Bloomberg will no longer offer confidentiality agreements to resolve sexual harassment or misconduct complaints.

“I recognize that …

Russia favors President Donald Trump to win the 2020 election — and, according to one report, is already interfering in order to help reelect him.

That’s the US intelligence community’s assessment, which was delivered to members of Congress in a classified briefing last week, five people familiar with the matter told the New York Times in a Thursday report.

The Washington Post on Friday morning corroborated that the briefing on election security happened and that Shelby Pierson, the chief election security adviser for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, repeatedly told lawmakers that Russia had “developed …

Sudan appears to have taken a disturbing step backward on its path toward democracy.

On Thursday, Sudanese security forces fired tear gas at demonstrators in Khartoum who were protesting the government’s removal of officers and soldiers who’d supported the revolution that overthrew the country’s longtime dictator, Omar al-Bashir, in April 2019.

After the coup against al-Bashir, an 11-member Sovereign Council took over in August; it will first be headed by senior military official Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for 21 months, and then will be chaired by a civilian for 18 months.

This 39-month transitional government is expected to uphold peace and …

Swati Mylavarapu still remembers the $20 check she sent to Pete Buttigieg by snail-mail in 2010.

Now, a decade later, Mylavarapu is the national finance chair of Buttigieg’s presidential bid — and she’s spending 100,000 times as much on Democratic causes in 2020.

Mylavarapu and husband Matt Rogers, who founded Nest and sold it to Google for $3 billion, are planning to spend at least $2 million on politics this year, a sum that will catapult them into the ranks of the top Democratic donors in the country.

Each in their late 30s, Mylavarapu and Rogers epitomize a new class …