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The United States doubled steel and aluminum tariffs Wednesday, casting a pall on a gathering of OECD ministers as President Donald Trump’s intensifying trade war weighs on the world economy.Trump’s sweeping tariffs on allies and adversaries alike — including levies on imported steel and autos — have strained US ties with trading partners and sparked a flurry of negotiations to avoid the duties.And pressure is mounting as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a 38-nation grouping of mostly developed countries, cut its global growth forecast on the back of Trump’s levies.Trade, consumption and investment have been affected by the tariffs, OECD chief economist Alvaro Pereira earlier told AFP, warning that the US economy will see the biggest repercussions.While some of Trump’s most sweeping levies face legal challenges, they have been allowed to remain in place for now as an appeals process is ongoing.Against this tense backdrop, the Paris-based grouping is holding a ministerial meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic are set to hold talks on the sidelines of the gathering, with the bloc seeking to stave off higher levies from July 9 absent a compromise.Similarly, UK Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds met Greer on Tuesday to try and avert fresh tariff hikes on steel and aluminum.Despite the doubling of steel and aluminum tariffs Wednesday, imports from the UK will remain at 25 percent for now, while both sides work out duties and quotas in line with the terms of their trade pact.In their talks, Reynolds and Greer discussed a “shared desire to implement” the pact, including agreements on sectoral tariffs, as soon as possible, a UK readout said.But Trump’s latest salvo raises temperatures with various partners.The European Union has said it “strongly regrets” Trump’s plan to raise metals tariffs, cautioning that it “undermines ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution” with the United States.The bloc added that it was ready to retaliate.Canada, the largest supplier of steel and aluminium to the United States, has called Trump’s tariffs “illegal and unjustified”.- Looming deadline -The Group of Seven advanced economies — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — is due to hold separate talks on trade on Wednesday.”We need to come up with negotiated solutions as quickly as possible, because time is running out,” German economy minister Katherina Reiche said Tuesday, on the sidelines of OECD talks.French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin added: “We have to keep our cool and always show that the introduction of these tariffs is in no one’s interest.”Mexico will request an exemption from the higher tariff, Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said, arguing that it is unfair because the United States exports more steel to Mexico than it imports.”It makes no sense to put a tariff on a product in which you have a surplus,” Ebrard said.Mexico is highly vulnerable to Trump’s trade wars because 80 percent of its exports go to the United States, its main trading partner.On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the Trump administration sent letters to trading partners to push for offers by Wednesday as a deadline approached.Besides imposing 10 percent tariffs on almost all US trading partners in early April, Trump had announced higher rates for dozens of economies including the EU and Japan as he sought to pressure countries to correct practices Washington deemed unfair.These higher rates were paused for 90 days, but the halt is due to expire July 9.All eyes are also on rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.Trump has taken special aim at China this year, imposing additional levies of 145 percent on Chinese imports — triggering Beijing’s counter tariffs of 125 percent on US goods.Both sides agreed to temporarily de-escalate in May, but Trump accused China of violating the deal.The issue was China “slow walking the approval” of critical mineral exports and rare earth magnets, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender told CNBC on Monday.But he maintained Washington is making “good progress” overall in talks.

The organizer of this year’s San Francisco Pride didn’t expect rejection when she contacted sponsors, but amid US President Donald Trump’s anti-diversity offensive, several longtime backers have withdrawn their support.”It was quite frightening,” said Suzanne Ford, executive director of the California-based group which is among America’s most influential gay rights organizations.”In about a week and a half period, several corporations came back and said ‘We’re not sponsoring this year,'” she told AFP. In total, Ford’s group faced a $300,000 budget hole, with longstanding partnerships suddenly unwilling to fill it ahead of the late June festivities. “It’s disheartening,” Ford said.One of Pride’s major partners, the brewer Anheuser-Busch, has withdrawn, according to the organization. The brewing company did not respond to requests from AFP.The lack of sponsorships is “newsworthy for sure,” noted Eve Keller, co-president of the USA Prides network of nearly 200 march organizations nationwide.Several US companies have opted to stop financially supporting organized events, especially those in June, designated as LGBTQ Pride Month.Pride organizations are reluctant to call them out, however, for fear of cutting ties. “Some are still talking with us,” Ford said. “We hope they return.”In some cities where 2025 Pride marches have already occurred, groups proceeded with “tighter” budgets, according to Keller.”They just didn’t have headliners (or) could not hire the biggest, best band,” she added, although for her, the main focus in 2025 was to ensure the safety of participants.- ‘Between the lines’ -In San Francisco, the companies all pointed to “budgetary reasons” for scaling back their contributions, said Ford.But “I think you could read between the lines,” she added. “No one wanted to be on record saying anything, you know, that would hurt them with the administration or with people that support the administration.” Since returning to the White House in January, Republican billionaire Trump has led a crusade against programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).Companies that implement such policies are threatened with prosecution, and several major brands, including Meta, Target and McDonald’s, have either abolished their DEI programs or drastically reduced them.The so-called “anti-woke” pressure campaign comes as US capital Washington hosts WorldPride, a global event for LGBTQ rights, culminating in a major parade this weekend.June Crenshaw, one of the rally’s organizers, estimates she suffered “about a 20, 25 percent reduction” in business partnership and support.”So we’ve had to look at other ways in which to finance programming, etc, really leaning on the community and individual donations,” she said. WorldPride organizers also decided to turn away from their “long and strong partnership” with the Kennedy Center after President Trump seized the reins of Washington’s renowned cultural institution, Crenshaw added.- ‘Pinkwashing’ -According to Bob Witeck, a communications consultant on LGBTQ topics for major brands, companies fear that taking part in these events could expose them to “visible risk” during a sensitive political period and “put themselves in harm’s way needlessly.”But several firms “are still engaged,” he stressed, including “through the nonprofits they serve.”San Francisco’s Ford noted that “pinkwashing” — the practice of superficially promoting LGBTQ rights — is no longer fashionable.By contrast, companies are contacting her offering support “but not wanting any credit,” Ford said.They “just want to do the right thing.”

A US prisoner on death row and a Catalan jazz star who formed an unusual musical collaboration have released a second album together that rallies against capital punishment. Catalan musician Albert Marques and Keith LaMar, who performs over the phone from a maximum security prison in Ohio, debuted their new work “Live from Death Row” at a gathering in New York last Friday.On death row since 1995 after he was convicted of a crime he insists he did not commit, LaMar’s execution is scheduled for January 13, 2027.The album, which coincides with LaMar’s 56th birthday, chronicles the civil rights struggle of Black people like himself.It features compositions by Marques with lyrics by LaMar, alongside classics such as Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and “Alabama” by John Coltrane.LaMar said that music “saved his life” during solitary confinement, particularly jazz tracks like those on Coltrane’s 1964 album “A Love Supreme.””Music is the vehicle through which I’ve been able to resurrect my bid for freedom,” he told AFP.”I love it when a plan comes together, when the stars align to bring to fruition a dream that didn’t seem possible. That’s what this live album is — an impossible dream.”It follows 2022’s “Freedom First,” which turned into a clarion call for a fair retrial that could ultimately lead to LaMar’s release.”This music is about trust and faith (and) about stepping out even when you can’t see the stairs and believing that your foot will find something solid to stand on,” LaMar told AFP by email.- ‘This crazy thing’ -Marques, who is convinced of LaMar’s innocence, said “we have done this crazy thing at the highest possible level.”After staging concerts worldwide in recent years and “showcasing that we have done everything we could, we need help” to take the fight “to another level,” said Marques, a Brooklyn high school music teacher.”We may be tired, exhausted, but we cannot throw in the towel.”In 1995, an all-white jury found LaMar guilty of the deaths of five out of nine inmates and one guard killed during one of the worst prison riots in US history.During the incident, which happened in 1993, LaMar was already serving a sentence for the murder of a former friend during a drug dispute in his native Cleveland.LaMar, as well as recent journalistic investigations, claimed that exculpatory evidence was hidden at trial and destroyed, and other prisoners were rewarded with sentence reductions for implicating him.Ohio’s governor had postponed LaMar’s execution, originally scheduled for November 2023, due to the refusal of pharmaceutical companies to supply the components needed for lethal injection.However, the situation could change following President Donald Trump’s January 20 executive order directing the US attorney general to ensure states can access the necessary ingredients.Nineteen inmates have been executed so far this year, compared to 25 in all of 2024.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the renaming of a US Navy ship named after a gay icon, the assassinated former San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, a military affairs website reported Tuesday.Military.com said it had reviewed a memo from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy that said the move was in line with Hegseth’s purported goal of “reestablishing a warrior culture” in the US armed forces.Military.com quoted an unidentified defense official as saying that Navy Secretary John Phelan had been ordered by Hegseth to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, and the timing of the upcoming announcement — during LGBTQ WorldPride month — was intentional.CBS News said the navy is considering re-titling several other ships including two named after former US Supreme Court justices — Thurgood Marshall, the first Black member of the top court, and liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg.Responding to the reports, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said “any potential renaming(s) will be announced after internal reviews are complete.””Secretary Hegseth is committed to ensuring that the names attached to all (Department of Defense) installations and assets are reflective of the Commander-in-Chief’s priorities, our nation’s history, and the warrior ethos,” Parnell said in a statement.Democrat Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, condemned the reported move to rename the USNS Harvey Milk, calling it “a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream.””Harvey Milk proudly served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy and was a formidable force for change -– not just in California, but in our Country,” the California congresswoman said in a statement.”This spiteful move… is a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”Milk served as a US Navy diver at a time when there was a ban on homosexuality in the military.One of the first openly gay politicians in America, Milk was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, where he was instrumental in passing laws banning discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.Months later, in 1978, Milk was shot dead along with mayor George Moscone, by a disgruntled former city supervisor.Milk’s murder helped cement his reputation as a civil rights icon, and he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.The USNS Harvey Milk, a 227-metre (744-foot) refueling vessel, was christened at a ceremony in 2021 attended by then-secretary of the navy Carlos Del Toro.Since taking office, President Donald Trump has moved to ban transgender troops from the military and to dismantle diversity programs, claiming they “undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness.”

Canada’s wildfires, which have already forced evacuations of more than 26,000 people, continued their stubborn spread Tuesday, with heavy smoke choking millions of Canadians and Americans and reaching as far away as Europe.Alerts were issued for parts of Canada and the neighboring United States warning of hazardous air quality.A water tanker air base was consumed by flames in Saskatchewan province, oil production has been disrupted in Alberta, and officials warned of worse to come with more communities threatened each day.”We have some challenging days ahead of us,” Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference, adding that the number of evacuees could rise quickly.Every summer, Canada grapples with forest fires, but an early start to the wildfire season this year and the scale of the blazes — over two million hectares (494,000 acres) burned — is worrying.The provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba have been hardest hit. Both declared wildfire emergencies in recent days.”This has been a very difficult time for many Canadians,” federal Emergency Management Minister Eleanor Olszewski told reporters in Ottawa.”This wildfire season has started off more quickly, and it’s stronger, more intense,” she said, adding that the Canadian military has deployed aircraft to evacuate remote towns in Manitoba and was ready to also assist Saskatchewan and Alberta with firefighting.Climate change has increased the impact of extreme weather events in Canada, which is still recovering from the apocalyptic summer of 2023 when 15 million hectares of forests were scorched.As of Tuesday, there were 208 active fires across Canada. Half of them were listed as out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.Many of the affected populations are Indigenous, and some small communities have burned to the ground.- ‘Very intense few weeks’ -Heavy smoke from the fires, meanwhile, has engulfed part of the continent, forcing residents of four Canadian provinces and the US states of Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin to limit outdoor activities.”Smoke is causing very poor air quality and reduced visibility,” Environment Canada said in a statement.Wildfire smoke is comprised of gaseous pollutants such as carbon monoxide, along with water vapor and particle pollution, which can be particularly hazardous to health.Some of the worst smoke was in Alberta where three major oil sands producers — Canadian Natural Resources, MEG Energy Corp, and Cenovus Energy — this week evacuated workers and temporarily shut down hundreds of thousands of barrels of production per day.Huge plumes of smoke even reached Europe, the European Union’s climate monitoring service said Tuesday.Due to their very high altitude, they do not pose an immediate health risk, according to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), but are likely to result in hazy skies and reddish-orange sunsets.Additional plumes are expected to shade both continents in the coming days.”Central regions of Canada have experienced a very intense few weeks in terms of wildfire emissions,” noted Mark Parrington, scientific director at CAMS.Canadian authorities have forecast a more intense fire season than usual in central and western Canada, due in particular to severe or extreme drought.”The significant reduction in snowpack in the spring led to early exposure of soil and vegetation, accelerating surface drying,” explained University of Ottawa professor Hossein Bonakdari.”This early exposure acted as a silent amplifier, subtly setting the stage for extreme fires long before the first flame ignited,” he said.Elsewhere, extensive forest fires have been raging in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District since early April, particularly east of Lake Baikal, generating carbon emissions of around 35 million tons, Copernicus reported.

Tensions between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted Tuesday as the world’s richest man derided the president’s key piece of economic legislation in a startling rupture just days after exiting a controversial job in the White House.Musk was lauded by the Republican leader as he left his advisory role atop Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” last week, despite criticism over his failure to deliver on promises of radical spending cuts.”This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X as he followed its progress from the sidelines, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump’s agenda.”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”It was not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 trillion to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.But Musk’s previous criticism was more restrained, with the Tesla and SpaceX magnate offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.On Tuesday he said the bill — being considered by Congress — would burden “citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”His post laid bare an increasingly tense relationship between the White House and Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s 2024 election campaign.Musk has become disillusioned, US media reported, as his goals for White House action that would benefit him personally have gone unrealized.The bill he was criticizing cuts the electric vehicle tax credit — bad news for Tesla — while Axios reported that Musk was rebuffed in his efforts to extend his role beyond the statutory 130-day limit. He also failed to have his Starlink satellite system used for air traffic control, according to Axios, and was angered by Trump withdrawing the nomination of Musk ally Jared Isaacman to be NASA chief.The normally pugilistic Trump has pulled his punches, aware of his biggest backer’s enormous influence over young, tech-savvy and historically apathetic voters — a key Trump constituency in 2024.”The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk’s tweet.The spat came with House Republicans set to pass legislation sent from the White House to enshrine into law $9.4 billion of DOGE’s cuts, mostly money destined for public broadcasting and foreign aid.House Speaker Mike Johnson called Musk’s comments “disappointing,” adding that he had walked the entrepreneur through the bill on Monday, and that he “seemed to understand.”- Burgeoning debt -As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.DOGE led an ideologically driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.But its achievements fell far short of Musk’s original boast that he could save $2 trillion — more than the government’s entire discretionary spending budget for 2024.The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers less than a tenth of that total — just $180 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.Senate Democrats released a report Tuesday itemizing 130 examples of “unethical or potentially corrupt” administration actions they say have helped Musk dodge regulation and add $100 billion to his wealth.The report came as senators began what is expected to be a fraught month of negotiations on Trump’s mammoth policy package, expected to add between $2.5 trillion and $3.1 trillion to deficits over a decade.Trump said on Monday it was “the single biggest Spending Cut in History,” although he added: “The only ‘cutting’ we will do is for Waste, Fraud, and Abuse.”

The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called those testifying against his client “women with broken dreams” as he made his final pitch to jurors. A New York state appeals court had thrown out Weinstein’s 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg fired back saying that “we are here because (Weinstein) raped three people — that’s why we are here.”  Her closing argument will continue Wednesday.Judge Curtis Farber will then give instructions to the jury, who will deliberate on a verdictWeinstein, 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 again since April 15 in a scruffy Manhattan courtroom.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in this case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann, and his 23-year prison term, were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals.The tribunal ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.- ‘He didn’t listen’ -Some 20 years after the earliest incidents were alleged to have taken place, Aidala sought to cast doubt on the credibility of the accusers. He said it was not a question of whether his client engaged in sexual relations with the three women, but if those encounters were consensual. He described the encounters as “transactional” and “casting couch” scenarios involving young women who used their beauty and charm to make an older man open doors for them. Prosecutor Blumberg countered that “this is not a transaction, it was never about fooling around, it was about rape.”But Aidala insisted Weinstein was the one who was used, countering prosecutors who portrayed Weinstein as an all-powerful Hollywood figure.Aidala loudly reeled off metaphors to explain his version of events, seeking to win over the jury with jokes. He mimicked the victims to highlight inconsistencies, likening one of them to a child caught in a lie. The veteran defense attorney stressed that victims continued to associate with Weinstein after the alleged assaults, something they did not dispute, explaining that they feared jeopardizing their careers. Blumberg said “they knew it was necessary to stay on his side. They feared his retaliation, they buried (their) trauma as if nothing had happened.”During the trial, the three victims testified that their sexual encounters with Weinstein were not consensual.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that Weinstein first sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.She said one occasion Weinstein pushed her onto a bed and forced her to have sex.”I told him to stop,” she said, “but he didn’t listen.”Weinstein has appeared daily in a wheelchair, physically subdued, but laughing and joking with his legal team.This time, hearings have received less media attention, taking place in the shadow of the highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, on trial blocks away at federal court on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

The family of a man suspected of attacking a Jewish protest march with Molotov cocktails in the US state of Colorado was being held by immigration officials Tuesday, the government said.Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, said the wife and children of Mohamed Sabry Soliman had been detained.”We are investigating to what extent his family knew about this heinous attack, if they had knowledge of it, or if they provided support to it,” she said.Criminal investigations are typically carried out by the FBI and local law enforcement, not by the Department of Homeland Security.Soliman’s immigration status has been at the center of President Donald Trump’s administration’s response to the attack in the city of Boulder on Sunday, in which 12 people were injured.Officials were quick to say he was in the United States “illegally” having overstayed a tourist visa.But they also acknowledged he had applied for asylum and had been granted a work permit.Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said his department would clamp down on “terrorists” in the United States temporarily.”All terrorists, their family members, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should know that under the Trump Administration we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” he wrote on social media.The White House took to social media on Tuesday, appearing to taunt the family.”Six One-Way Tickets for Mohamed’s Wife and Five Kids,” the official account posted on X.”Final Boarding Call Coming Soon.” Soliman is expected to appear in court in Colorado on Thursday. He is expected to formally face federal hate crime charges, as well as state charges of attempted murder.He is suspected of throwing flammable liquid at a group of older people marching to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attacks.Investigators said he had with him an improvised flamethrower made from a backpack weed sprayer filled with gasoline.In one video that purportedly shows the attack, a shirtless man holding bottles in his hands is seen pacing as the grass in front of him burns.He can be heard screaming “End Zionists!” and “They are killers!” towards several people in red T-shirts as they tend to a person lying on the ground.

Elon Musk on Tuesday hammered US President Donald Trump’s proposed spending bill as a “disgusting abomination” as tensions between the pair burst into the open following the tech billionaire’s White House exit.Musk left his role as an official government employee last week, lauded by Trump for spearheading a federal spending cuts program, but disagreements between the duo have been building.”This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk posted on X, in by far his most caustic remarks on Trump’s spending plans.”Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong.”It was not Musk’s first comments on Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” which is set to add $3 million to US deficits over a 10-year horizon, despite deep cuts to health and food aid programs.But Musk’s previous criticism was restrained, with the ex-head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force offering only that it undermined his cost-cutting efforts.On Tuesday he said that the bill — being considered by Congress — would burden “citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”The escalation in rhetoric indicated bitter hostilities between the White House and Musk, who donated almost $300 million to Trump’s election campaign but has recently voiced frustrations.”The president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill, it doesn’t change his opinion,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a rapid response to Musk’s tweet.”This is one big, beautiful bill, and he’s sticking to it.”As the world’s richest person bowed out of his role as Trump’s cost-cutter-in-chief, their relationship appeared on an even keel as the Republican hailed his fellow billionaire’s “incredible service.”- Once inseparable -Trump even insisted that Musk was “really not leaving” after a turbulent four months in which the South African born tycoon cut tens of thousands of jobs, shuttered whole agencies and slashed foreign aid.Musk was once almost inseparable from Trump, glued to his side on Air Force One, Marine One, in the White House and at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.The right-wing magnate’s DOGE led an ideologically-driven rampage through the federal government, with its young “tech bros” slashing tens of thousands of jobs.But DOGE’s achievements fell far short of Musk’s original goal of saving $2 trillion dollars.The DOGE website claims to have saved taxpayers about eight percent of the $2 trillion figure so far — $175 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous serious inaccuracies in its accounting.But the non-governmental “Musk Watch DOGE Tracker” puts the verifiable figure at $16 billion — less than one percent of the goal.Tesla shareholders called for Musk to return to work as sales slumped and protests targeted the electric vehicle maker, while SpaceX had a series of fiery rocket failures.

The lawyer defending fallen Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein from rape and sexual assault charges called on jurors to give him the benefit of the doubt Tuesday before prosecutors make their closing argument at his retrial.A New York state appeals court had thrown out his 2020 convictions after irregularities in the presentation of witnesses at his original trial, forcing two victims of his alleged abuse to testify a second time.”If there is a doubt about their case, you gotta throw it out. These are the people they want you to believe, they’re all women with broken dreams,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said of the women who testified against Weinstein at this trial.Prosecutors will make their case to the jury later Tuesday.Weinstein, the producer of box-office hits “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has never acknowledged wrongdoing.He is serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted in California of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.Two of the accusers in the case — onetime production assistant Miriam Haley and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann — testified at Weinstein’s original trial.Their accounts helped galvanize the #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago, but the case is being re-prosecuted at a new trial in New York.His 2020 convictions on charges relating to Haley and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original trial was unlawful.The retrial also heard new evidence from Kaja Sokola, a Polish former model who testified that the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her when she was a minor at age 16.