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Concern grows over U.S. military aid to Israel as some accuse Israel of violating the human rights of Gazans plus a look at how the aid destined to Ukraine will make a difference on the battlefield. Amnesty International releases its annual report and warns of a breakdown in international law.

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Washington — The United States on Thursday issued further sanctions on Iran, targeting Iranian drones, including their use by Russia in the war in Ukraine, as Washington seeks to ratchet up pressure on Tehran.  In a statement, the U.S. Treasury Department said the action, taken in coordination with the United Kingdom and Canada, targets over one dozen entities, individuals and vessels it accused of playing a key role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles to Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL).  MODAFL in turn supports Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Russia's war in Ukraine, the Treasury said. “Iran’s Ministry of Defense continues to destabilize the region and world with its support to Russia’s war in Ukraine, unprecedented attack on Israel, and proliferation of UAVs and other dangerous military hardware to terrorist proxies,” said Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence,Brian Nelson.  Washington also targeted two companies and a vessel involved in the shipment of Iranian commodities, the Treasury said. “The United States, in close coordination with our British and Canadian partners, will continue to use all means available to combat those who would finance Iran’s destabilizing activities," Nelson said. Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Sahara Thunder plays key role  The Treasury said it targeted a company named Sahara Thunder, accusing it of being a main front company that oversees MODAFL's commercial activities in support of the IRGC and Russia's war in Ukraine.  It said the company plays a key role in Iran's design, development, manufacture and sale of thousands of drones, many of them ultimately transferred to Russia for use against Ukraine.  As of 2022, Russian officials were negotiating a deal for Sahara Thunder to deliver and produce thousands of drones per year at a facility in Russia under U.S. sanctions, the Treasury said.  Sahara Thunder's leadership and shipping network, which the Treasury said the company relied on for the sale and shipment of Iranian commodities on behalf of MODAFL to jurisdictions including China, Russia and Venezuela, were also targeted.  An Iran-based company involved in the procurement and development of unmanned aerial vehicles, its leadership and an Iranian cargo airline were also among those hit with sanctions. The U.S. earlier this month had warned it would impose further sanctions on Iran following its unprecedented attack on Israel.  Washington has since taken measures, including targeting Iran's drone program, steel industry and cyber actors.  Iran this month launched more than 300 drones and missiles against Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in retaliation for a suspected Israeli airstrike on its embassy compound in Damascus on April 11 that killed elite military officers.

washington — The Biden administration is not taking any options off the table to respond to China's excess industrial capacity, which is a top concern for the U.S. and its allies, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on Thursday. China exporting its way to full employment is not acceptable to the rest of the world, Yellen said in a Reuters Next interview in Washington. Yellen said that during her trip to China earlier this month, she was "successful" in raising U.S. concerns with Chinese officials about Beijing flooding global markets with electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and other clean energy goods, threatening U.S. jobs. She added that Chinese officials acknowledge a problem with industrial overcapacity, but they need to address it. She said the issue, which threatens producers of similar goods in the U.S., Europe, Japan and emerging markets such as India and Mexico, was again "discussed intensively" with Chinese officials in Washington on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings last week. Yellen added that the problem will not be resolved "in a day or a week." "So it's important that China recognize the concern and begin to act to address it," Yellen said. "But we don't want our industry wiped out in the meantime, so I wouldn't want to take anything off the table." The Biden administration is completing a review of the "Section 301" unfair trade tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, which U.S. officials have said could lead to higher tariffs on some products. President Joe Biden last week called for the review to triple the Section 301 duties on Chinese steel to 25%. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai also told U.S. senators that the U.S. needed to take "early action, decisive action" to protect the fledgling American EV sector from Chinese imports. U.S. tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports are now about 27.5%, and few Chinese EVs are sold in the U.S. at the moment. "We have no problem with China producing and selling globally and exporting, but the United States and Europe and other countries also want to have some involvement in the ability to produce clean energy products that are going to be of great importance," Yellen said.  

The video shows an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, not Rafah.

Washington — U.S. President Joe Biden and leaders of 17 other countries with citizens believed or known to be held by Hamas are demanding the militant group accept a proposed cease-fire deal with Israel and release the hostages immediately.  The deal offered would “bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities,” they said Thursday in a statement released by the White House.  “Gazans would be able to return to their homes and their lands with preparations beforehand to ensure shelter and humanitarian provisions,” the statement said.  In addition to the United States, the 17 countries are Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.  Hamas has rejected a proposed deal that would bring a cease-fire immediately to Gaza in return for the release of women, wounded, elderly and sick hostages, a senior Biden administration official told reporters in a briefing Thursday. However, he said there are signals from the group that suggest they are still considering the offer.  Various reports suggest Hamas is demanding a complete cease-fire, the full retreat of Israel Defense Forces troops from Gaza, an increase in humanitarian aid, and the full return of displaced Gazans to the north. The group maintains that Israel is not allowing Gazans to go home in an unrestricted way as the IDF has not pulled back from central Gaza.  The official said the deal being offered to Hamas allows the “unrestricted return” of Gazans to the northern part of the Palestinian enclave and includes provisions for a United Nations mission to ensure shelter and other assistance “over the first weeks of the cease-fire” for the population returning north.  The statement follows the release by Hamas of a video showing Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Wednesday. The video appears to be the first proof that the 24-year-old survived a severe injury during his capture on October 7 from the Nova music festival, during the Hamas attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people. The U.S.-designated terrorist group took about 250 others hostage, some of whom were released during a brief truce in November. Israel’s military response in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people, mostly civilians, and has increased tensions in the Middle East. Video filmed on October 7 of Goldberg-Polin being taken hostage showed his left hand blown off, likely by a grenade. The video that Hamas released on Wednesday is undated and shows him with part of his left arm missing.  Biden and the leaders said Thursday they strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts. “Let us end this crisis so that collectively we can focus our efforts on bringing peace and stability to the region,” they said.  The senior administration official places the blame for the failure of negotiations on Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The official said Sinwar is “ultimately the decision maker” on whether Hamas accepts the deal.  The official declined to confirm reports that Sinwar recently emerged briefly from the Hamas-dug tunnels to meet with his militants above ground.  “Justice will come for Sinwar,” he said.

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ariel Henry resigned Thursday as prime minister of Haiti, leaving the way clear for a new government to be formed in the Caribbean country, which has been wracked by gang violence that killed or injured more than 2,500 people from January to March. Henry presented his resignation in a letter signed in Los Angeles, dated April 24, and released on Thursday by his office on the same day that a council tasked with choosing a new prime minister and Cabinet for Haiti was sworn in. Henry’s remaining Cabinet meanwhile chose Economy and Finance Minister Michel Patrick Boisvert as the interim prime minister. It was not immediately clear when the transitional council would select its own interim prime minister. Addressing a crowded and sweaty room in the prime minister's office, Boisvert said that Haiti's crisis had gone on too long and that the country now found itself at a crossroads. The members of the transitional council stood behind him, as well as the country's top police and military officials. “After two long months of debate ... a solution has been found,” Boisvert said. “Today is an important day in the life of our dear republic.” He called the transitional council a “Haitian solution” and directing his remarks toward them, Boisvert wished them success, adding, “I believe the determination is there.” After the speeches, the soft clink of glasses echoed in the room as attendees served champagne flutes toasted with a somber “To Haiti.” The council was installed more than a month after Caribbean leaders announced its creation following an emergency meeting to tackle Haiti’s spiraling crisis. Henry had pledged to resign once the council was installed. The nine-member council, of which seven have voting powers, is also expected to help set the agenda of a new Cabinet. It will also appoint a provisional electoral commission, a requirement before elections can take place, and establish a national security council. The council’s non-renewable mandate expires Feb. 7, 2026, at which date a new president is scheduled to be sworn in. Smith Augustin, a voting member of the council, said that it was not clear if the council would decide to keep Boisvert on as interim prime minister or choose another. He said it would be discussed in the coming days. “The crisis is unsustainable,” he said. Regine Abraham, a nonvoting member of the council, recalled the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, explaining that “that violence had a devastating impact.” Abraham said that gangs now controlled most of Port-au-Prince, tens of thousands of Haitians have been displaced by violence and more than 900 schools in the capital have been forced to close. “The population of Port-au-Prince has literally been taken hostage,” she said. Gangs launched coordinated attacks that began on Feb. 29 in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas. They burned police stations and hospitals, opened fire on the main international airport that has remained closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. Gangs also have severed access to Haiti’s biggest port. The onslaught began while Prime Minister Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for a U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country. He remains locked out of Haiti. “Port-au-Prince is now almost completely sealed off because of air, sea and land blockades,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF’s director, said earlier this week. The international community has urged the council to prioritize Haiti’s widespread insecurity. Even before the attacks began, gangs already controlled 80% of Port-au-Prince. The number of people killed in early 2024 was up by more than 50% compared with the same period last year, according to a recent U.N. report. “It is impossible to overstate the increase in gang activity across Port-au-Prince and beyond, the deterioration of the human rights situation and the deepening of the humanitarian crisis,” María Isabel Salvador, the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, said at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Monday. Nearly 100,000 people have fled the capital in search of safer cities and towns since the attacks began. Tens of thousands of others left homeless after gangs torched their homes are now living in crowded, makeshift shelters across Port-au-Prince that only have one or two toilets for hundreds of residents. “Although I’m physically here, it feels like I’m dead,” said Rachel Pierre, a 39-year-old mother of four children. “There is no food or water. Sometimes I have nothing to give the kids,” she said as her 14-month-old suckled on her deflated breast. Many Haitians are angry and exhausted at what their lives have become and blame gangs for their situation. “They’re the ones who sent us here,” said Chesnel Joseph, a 46-year-old math teacher whose school closed because of the violence and who has become the shelter’s informal director. “They mistreat us. They kill us. They burn our homes.”

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

JIUQUAN SATELLITE LAUNCH CENTER, China — China launched a three-member crew to its orbiting space station on Thursday as part of its ambitious program that aims to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.  The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft lifted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwestern China atop a Long March 2-F rocket at 8:59 p.m. (1259 GMT).  The spacecraft's three-member crew will relieve the Shenzhou-17 team, which has been staffing China's Tiangong space station since last October.  The China Manned Space Agency, or CMSA, held a send-off ceremony — complete with flag-waving children and patriotic music — for the Shenzhou-18 crew earlier on Thursday, as the three astronauts prepared to enter the spacecraft.  The trio is made of Commander Ye Guangfu, 43, a veteran astronaut who took part in the Shenzhou-13 mission in 2021, and fighter pilots Li Cong, 34, and Li Guangsu, 36, who are spaceflight rookies.    They are expected to reach the space station about six-and-a-half hours after liftoff.  China built its own space station after being excluded from the International Space Station, largely because of U.S. concerns over the Chinese military's involvement in the program. This year, the Chinese station is slated for two cargo spacecraft missions and two manned spaceflight missions.  The Shenzhou-18 crew will spend about six months on the space station. They will conduct scientific tests, install space debris protection equipment on the station, carry out payload experiments, and popularize science education, among other things, according to Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the CMSA.  Lin also said China was working toward eventually offering access to its space station to foreign astronauts and space tourists.  "We will accelerate the research and promotion of the participation of foreign astronauts and space tourists on flights on China's space station," he said in a press conference Wednesday.  The country is planning a mission to bring back samples from Mars around 2030 and three lunar probe missions over the next four years. It also wants to put astronauts on the moon by 2030.  China conducted its first crewed space mission in 2003, becoming the third country after the former Soviet Union and the U.S. to put a person into space using its own resources.  The U.S. space program is believed to still hold a significant edge over China's due to its spending, supply chains and capabilities. However, China has broken out in some areas, bringing samples back from the lunar surface for the first time in decades and landing a rover on the less explored far side of the moon.  The U.S. aims to put a crew back on the lunar surface by the end of 2025 as part of a renewed commitment to crewed missions, aided by private sector players such as SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Juba, South Sudan — South Sudanese farmers who have relied on United Nations agencies operating in that country now say they are afraid of losing a ready market for their produce should the U.N. follow through on its threat to scale down operations in the world's youngest nation. This comes after the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom expressed concerns about Juba's decision to impose taxes on some commodities purchased by the U.N. The United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan — UNMISS — has already scaled down its security operations in South Sudan. U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan Nicholas Haysom says Juba's move to enforce taxes on various services offered by the U.N. in South Sudan will lead to severe consequences, including cuts in aid and other humanitarian support. "Our concern is that the authorities have blocked our fuel, and we are unable to implement our mandate, including important elements, which affect and support South Sudanese — including the delivery of aid and food to vulnerable communities," he said. A joint statement by the United States, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom accused Juba of imposing taxes on a range of approvals and fees, contrary to international practice and to South Sudanese laws. These include the E-Petroleum Accreditation Permit, customs charges, the electronic cargo tracking note, the laboratory test on food rations, and the security escort fee. The U.N. warns this move has forced them to scale down operations in South Sudan, including security patrols, as a direct response to the action. "We have reached an agreement that the blocking of these vehicles is unlawful, and that they should be released as soon as possible," Haysom said. He warned that the ripple effect will be felt far and wide. So far, more than 60-thousand people are losing access to health services after the U.N. stopped airdrop exercises. South Sudan relies heavily on the U.N. for humanitarian aid. Amos Valerio is the chairperson of the Gitikiri farmer cooperative in Western Equatoria state that supports local farmers by connecting them with a ready market. One of their key markets is the World Food Program, which has been buying farm produce from local farmers and then taking this food to millions of South Sudanese in refugee camps across the country. "The fear we have right now is that if the U.N. withdraws from South Sudan, we will not have any partner again,” Valerio said. “We encourage the government to restore the U.N. to continue helping farmers and to continue with their activities in South Sudan.” Louise Wilson Mbiro, a farmer from Gitikiri Boma in Western Equatoria state, said she fears losing her biggest buyer of maize seeds. If the WFP leaves, farmers will not be able to sell the products they have already produced and those they were going to produce, she said, adding that the WFP’s presence and support encouraged farmers to produce more.  Before the WFP started buying their seeds, Mbiro said life was very difficult, and she could only sell one kilogram of maize at 5,000 South Sudanese pounds, which was not helping at all. But when WFP came, she said farmers could sell all their products at once, and get money in bulk, which was something that never used to happen. Currently, Mbiro said, she can sell 35 bags, and make 1 million South Sudanese pounds. Albino Akol Atak, South Sudan’s minister of humanitarian assistance and disaster management, said the government is trying to find a way to remove the taxes on the U.N.  "We are considering that as the contribution of [the] government of South Sudan to what they [the U.N.] are doing is exempt. Their operations including importation of some humanitarian asserts and any other equipment that are to be used to deliver services to the people of South Sudan.” Akol Atak said the exemption is part of the government's contribution to humanitarian assistance to its people.  But the U.N. says its fuel trucks are still being held up at various depots and the border. Unless the vehicles are released, Haysom said in a statement, the U.N. will stop most of its activities in South Sudan, including the support for vulnerable communities like refugees. The U.N. currently plays a leading role in ensuring stability in South Sudan as the country gears up for its first-ever general election in December.

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WASHINGTON — The nation's economy slowed sharply last quarter to a 1.6% annual pace in the face of high interest rates, but consumers — the main driver of economic growth — kept spending at a solid pace. Thursday's report from the Commerce Department said the gross domestic product — the economy's total output of goods and services — decelerated in the January-March quarter from its brisk 3.4% growth rate in the final three months of 2023. A surge in imports, which are subtracted from GDP, reduced first-quarter growth by nearly 1 percentage point. Growth was also held back by businesses reducing their inventories. Both those categories tend to fluctuate sharply from quarter to quarter. By contrast, the core components of the economy still appear sturdy. Along with households, businesses helped drive the economy last quarter with a strong pace of investment. The import and inventory numbers can be volatile, so "there is still a lot of positive underlying momentum,'' said Paul Ashworth, chief North America economist at Capital Economics. The economy, though, is still creating price pressures, a continuing source of concern for the Federal Reserve. A measure of inflation in Friday's report accelerated to a 3.4% annual rate from January through March, up from 1.8% in the last three months of 2023 and the biggest increase in a year. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose at a 3.7% rate, up from 2% in fourth-quarter 2023. From January through March, consumer spending rose at a 2.5% annual rate, a solid pace though down from a rate of more than 3% in each of the previous two quarters. Americans' spending on services — everything from movie tickets and restaurant meals to airline fares and doctors' visits — rose 4%, the fastest such pace since mid-2021. But they cut back spending on goods such as appliances and furniture. Spending on that category fell 0.1%, the first such drop since the summer of 2022. The state of the U.S. economy has seized Americans' attention as the election season has intensified. Although inflation has slowed sharply from a peak of 9.1% in 2022, prices remain well above their pre-pandemic levels. Republican critics of President Joe Biden have sought to pin responsibility for high prices on Biden and use it as a cudgel to derail his re-election bid. And polls show that despite the healthy job market, a near-record-high stock market and the sharp pullback in inflation, many Americans blame Biden for high prices. Last quarter's GDP snapped a streak of six straight quarters of at least 2% annual growth. The 1.6% rate of expansion was also the slowest since the economy actually shrank in the first and second quarters of 2022. The economy's gradual slowdown reflects, in large part, the much higher borrowing rates for home and auto loans, credit cards and many business loans that have resulted from the 11 interest rate hikes the Fed imposed in its drive to tame inflation. Even so, the United States has continued to outpace the rest of the world's advanced economies. The International Monetary Fund has projected that the world's largest economy will grow 2.7% for all of 2024, up from 2.5% last year and more than double the growth the IMF expects this year for Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Businesses have been pouring money into factories, warehouses and other buildings, encouraged by federal incentives to manufacture computer chips and green technology in the United States. On the other hand, their spending on equipment has been weak. And as imports outpace exports, international trade is also thought to have been a drag on the economy's first-quarter growth. Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF's managing director, cautioned last week that the "flipside″ of strong U.S. economic growth was that it was "taking longer than expected" for inflation to reach the Fed's 2% target, although price pressures have sharply slowed from their mid-2022 peak. Inflation flared up in the spring of 2021 as the economy rebounded with unexpected speed from the COVID-19 recession, causing severe supply shortages. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 made things significantly worse by inflating prices for the energy and grains the world depends on. The Fed responded by aggressively raising its benchmark rate between March 2022 and July 2023. Despite widespread predictions of a recession, the economy has proved unexpectedly durable. Hiring so far this year is even stronger than it was in 2023. And unemployment has remained below 4% for 26 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s. Inflation, the main source of Americans' discontent about the economy, has slowed from 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.5%. But progress has stalled lately. Though the Fed's policymakers signaled last month that they expect to cut rates three times this year, they have lately signaled that they're in no hurry to reduce rates in the face of continued inflationary pressure. Now, a majority of Wall Street traders don't expect them to start until the Fed's September meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.

NEW YORK — New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with "egregious" improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren't part of the case. "We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes," the court's 4-3 decision said. "The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial." The state Court of Appeals ruling reopens a painful chapter in America's reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures — an era that began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein. His accusers could again be forced to relive their traumas on the witness stand. The court's majority said "it is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant's character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them." In a stinging dissent, Judge Madeline Singas wrote that the majority was "whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative," and said the Court of Appeals was continuing a "disturbing trend of overturning juries' guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence." "The majority's determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability," Singas wrote. Weinstein, 72, has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following his conviction on charges of criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He will remain imprisoned because he was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York. Weinstein's lawyers argued Judge James Burke's rulings in favor of the prosecution turned the trial into "1-800-GET-HARVEY." The reversal of Weinstein's conviction is the second major #MeToo setback in the last two years, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a Pennsylvania court decision to throw out Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction. Weinstein's conviction stood for more than four years, heralded by activists and advocates as a milestone achievement, but dissected just as quickly by his lawyers and, later, the Court of Appeals when it heard arguments on the matter in February. Allegations against Weinstein, the once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love," ushered in the #MeToo movement. Dozens of women came forward to accuse Weinstein, including famous actresses such as Ashley Judd and Uma Thurman. His New York trial drew intense publicity, with protesters chanting "rapist" outside the courthouse. Weinstein is incarcerated in New York at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany. He maintains his innocence. He contends any sexual activity was consensual. Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala argued before the appeals court in February that Burke swayed the trial by allowing three women to testify about allegations that weren't part of the case and by giving prosecutors permission to confront Weinstein, if he had testified, about his long history of brutish behavior. Aidala argued the extra testimony went beyond the normally allowable details about motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan, and essentially put Weinstein on trial for crimes he wasn't charged with. Weinstein wanted to testify, but opted not to because Burke's ruling would've meant answering questions about more than two-dozen alleged acts of misbehavior dating back four decades, Aidala said. They included fighting with his movie producer brother, flipping over a table in anger and snapping at waiters and yelling at his assistants. "We had a defendant who was begging to tell his side of the story. It's a he said, she said case, and he's saying 'that's not how it happened. Let me tell you how I did it,'" Aidala argued. Instead, the jurors heard evidence of Weinstein's prior bad behavior that "had nothing to do with truth and veracity. It was all 'he's a bad guy.'" Aidala also took issue with Burke's refusal to remove a juror who had written a novel involving predatory older men, a topic the defense lawyer argued too closely resembled the issues in Weinstein's case. A lawyer for the Manhattan district attorney's office, which prosecuted the case, argued that the judge's rulings were proper and that the extra evidence and testimony he allowed was important to provide jurors context about Weinstein's behavior and the way he interacted with women. "Defendant's argument was that they had a consensual and loving relationship both before and after the charged incidents," Appellate Chief Steven Wu argued, referring to one of the women Weinstein was charged with assaulting. The additional testimony "just rebutted that characterization completely." Wu said Weinstein's acquittal on the most serious charges — two counts of predatory sexual assault and a first-degree rape charge involving actor Annabella Sciorra's allegations of a mid-1990s rape — showed jurors were paying attention and they were not confused or overwhelmed by the additional testimony. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations. The Court of Appeals agreed last year to take Weinstein's case after an intermediate appeals court upheld his conviction. Prior to their ruling, judges on the lower appellate court had raised doubts about Burke's conduct during oral arguments. One observed that Burke had let prosecutors pile on with "incredibly prejudicial testimony" from additional witnesses. Burke's term expired at the end of 2022. He was not reappointed and is no longer a judge. In appealing, Weinstein's lawyers sought a new trial, but only for the criminal sexual act charge. They argued the rape charge could not be retried because it involves alleged conduct outside the statute of limitations.