NEW YORK — A jury concluded Tuesday that The New York Times did not libel former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for an error in a 2017 editorial that she says damaged her reputation.

The jury deliberated a little over two hours before reaching its verdict after lawyers for Palin and the newspaper delivered closing arguments at a Manhattan federal court civil trial that is in its second week.

Palin testified Monday that death threats against her increased and her spirits drooped after an editorial about gun violence said her political action committee had contributed to political rhetoric that enabled an atmosphere of violence.

The Times corrected the article less than 14 hours after it was published.

Kenneth Turkel, an attorney for Palin, urged the jury to find the Times liable for defamation on the grounds that its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, either knew what he was publishing was wrong or acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

He told the jury it should award Palin compensatory damages for the harm done to her reputation and private mental anguish, adding that they should “find a number and let her get some closure to this thing.”

“To this day, there been no accountability,” he said. “That’s why we’re here.”

He told jurors not to be deceived by Palin’s “bouncy” persona on the witness stand.

“She doesn’t cry a lot,” Turkel said. “It may have been to them an honest mistake. For her, it was a life changer.”

Palin, who earned a journalist degree in college, sued the Times for unspecified damages in 2017, about a decade after she burst onto the national stage as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

Her lawsuit stemmed from an editorial about gun control published after U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, was wounded in 2017 when a man with a history of anti-GOP activity opened fire on a Congressional baseball team practice in Washington.

In the editorial, the Times wrote that before the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that severely wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others, Palin’s political action committee had contributed to an atmosphere of violence by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.

In a correction, The Times said the editorial had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map.

A tearful Bennet apologized to Palin from the witness stand when he testified last week, saying he was tormented by the error and worked urgently to correct it after readers complained to the newspaper.

Felicia Ellsworth, an attorney for the Times, said the jury cannot find the newspaper or Bennet liable because it would have to conclude that the error was intentionally published by editors who knew it was wrong.

“There’s not been one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake,” she said.

Ellsworth said Bennet and the Times “corrected the record loudly, clearly and quickly” once the error was discovered.

The lawyer pointed out that several Times editors testified consistently about the effort to correct the error and the importance they placed on accuracy while Palin’s claims were “supported by nothing other than her say so.”

And she noted that Palin’s status as a public figure meant that the jury would have to find “actual malice” to find in her favor.

“To Governor Palin, this is just another opportunity to take on fake news. To James Bennet, the truth matters,” Ellsworth said.

In February 2022, Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected Palin’s claims in a ruling issued while a jury deliberated. The judge then let jurors deliver their verdict, which also went against Palin.

The trial is occurring after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan restored the case last year.

The appeals court said Rakoff’s dismissal ruling improperly intruded on the jury’s work. It also cited flaws in the trial, saying there was erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and a mistaken response to a question from the jury.

NEW YORK — George Santos is defending his recent social media tirade to a federal judge who will be sentencing the disgraced former New York congressman later this week on fraud charges.

In a lengthy letter ahead of the Friday court date, Santos, 36, said he remains “profoundly sorry” for his crimes but protests that the seven-year prison sentence sought by prosecutors as “ridiculous” and overly harsh.

“Every sunrise since that plea has carried the same realization: I did this, me. I am responsible,” wrote the former Republican lawmaker, who pleaded guilty last summer. “But saying I’m sorry doesn’t require me to sit quietly while these prosecutors try to drop an anvil on my head.”

Prosecutors, in a filing last week, argued Santos “remains unrepentant” and has not shown genuine remorse, as his lawyers have claimed in their own filing seeking a lighter, two-year prison stint.

They cited a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, in which he disparaged the U.S. Department of Justice as a “cabal of pedophiles” and cast himself as a victim of prosecutorial overreach.

Santos, who admitted he deceived donors and stole the identities of nearly a dozen people to fund his congressional campaign, countered that his “colorful” posts are being wrongly “repurposed as a sword against me” by prosecutors.

“Contesting the severity of a proposed sentence is not the same as contesting guilt, and punishing protected speech because it questions punishment should trouble anyone who values fair prosecution over personal vindication,” he wrote.

Santos said calling himself the “scapegoat” in social media posts was in reference to prosecutors claiming he was the “organizer/leader” of his campaign’s financial fraud and warranted a stiffer sentence. He argued his former campaign treasurer, Nancy Marks, who has also pleaded guilty and faces sentencing next month, shares equal part in the blame.

“If I were the criminal mastermind they portray, I would be the clumsiest in modern memory: leaving a trail of screenshots pointing directly back to myself,” he wrote in the Saturday letter.

Santos also pushed back at prosecutors’ claims that he has not made efforts to pay the roughly $580,000 owed as part of his plea deal, saying he’s “liquidated personal assets, reduced my living expenses, and tried as hard as I could to raise some money for restitution.”

He added that he has not asked any of his friends or family to write letters to the court on his behalf, nor did he expect any supporters to attend Friday’s sentencing in Long Island federal court out of embarrassment and shame.

“I don’t want to bring anyone else in my life into this mess,” Santos wrote. “This is mine to deal with and mine alone.”

The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York’s office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.

Santos was elected in 2022 to represent parts of Queens and Long Island but served barely a year before being ousted by his House colleagues.

Santos fabricated much of his life story, leading to questions about how the political unknown had funded his winning campaign.

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Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

NEW YORK — Five years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and hauled to jail in handcuffs, the former movie mogul returns to a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday for a new trial covering the very same allegations — plus one that hasn’t been tried before.

It isn’t double jeopardy, but rather a legal redo after a New York appeals court overturned the landmark #MeToo verdict a year ago.

The state’s Court of Appeals threw out Weinstein’s convictions and 23-year prison sentence and ordered a new trial after finding that the original one was tilted by “egregious” judicial rulings and prejudicial testimony.

Jury selection could take a few days. Opening statements and the start of testimony are expected next week. Judge Curtis Farber said that in addition to 12 jurors, six alternates will be picked. Prosecutors expect the retrial to last a month.

Here’s what you need to know about Weinstein’s retrial:

In some ways, the new trial will be two trials spliced into one.

Weinstein, 73, faces charges involving two women from his original trial in 2020, Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley, and he’s being tried for the first time on an allegation from a woman who wasn’t in the first case.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone. Prosecutors are not allowed to retry Weinstein on certain counts that he was acquitted of during his first trial, including charges of predatory sexual assault and one count of first-degree rape.

The judicial reboot will play out in a different climate than Weinstein’s first trial, which drew intense media attention and saw protesters chanting “rapist” outside the courthouse.

The #MeToo movement, spawned by scores of allegations in 2017 against the ex-studio boss, has evolved and ebbed over time, and Weinstein has since been convicted in a separate rape case in Los Angeles — a verdict he is also appealing.

While some stars are still facing a legal reckoning for alleged sexual misconduct – like Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is set to go to trial next month – the drumbeat of allegations against powerful figures has abated from #MeToo’s early days.

Weinstein is being retried on two charges from his original trial: one count of criminal sex act for allegedly forcibly performing oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006 and one count of third-degree rape for allegedly assaulting an aspiring actor in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

Haley, a former production assistant on the Weinstein-produced “Project Runway,” testified at the 2020 trial that he pushed her onto a bed at his Manhattan apartment in June 2006 and forced oral sex on her, undeterred by her kicks and pleas of, “No, please don’t do this, I don’t want it.”

Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, acknowledged that she kept in touch with Weinstein, exchanged warm messages with him, and accepted an invitation to his hotel room two weeks after the alleged assault, where he pulled her into bed for sex. Under New York law applicable at the time, Weinstein has not being charged with rape in connection with Haley’s allegations.

Mann, who said she saw Weinstein as a “pseudo father” figure as she pursued an acting career after a rough upbringing, testified at the 2020 trial that he trapped her in a hotel room in March 2013, ordered her to undress as he loomed over her, and then raped her. She alleges that Weinstein raped her again eight months later at a Beverly Hills hotel, where she worked as a hairdresser.

Mann also kept in touch with Weinstein after the alleged assault, testifying that she sent him flattering emails, because “his ego was so fragile,” she said, and it “made me feel safe, worshipping him in this sense.”

In addition to Haley and Mann, Weinstein is also charged with one count of criminal sex act for allegedly forcing oral sex on a different woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2006.

That woman, who was not part of Weinstein’s first trial, has not been named publicly. The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have done.

Prosecutors said that the woman came forward to them just days before the start of Weinstein’s first trial but was not part of that case. They said they did not pursue the women’s allegations after Weinstein’s conviction, but revisited them and secured a new indictment after the first verdict was thrown out.

Weinstein’s lawyers contend that prosecutors shouldn’t have waited nearly five years to bring the additional charge.

New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, threw out Weinstein’s conviction in April 2024.

In a 4-3 decision, the court said then-Judge James Burke had denied Weinstein a fully fair trial by letting three women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case and his decision to let prosecutors confront Weinstein, if he had testified, over his history of brutish behavior.

The court labeled the allegations against Weinstein “appalling, shameful, repulsive conduct” but warned that “destroying a defendant’s character under the guise of prosecutorial need” did not justify some trial evidence and testimony. Burke’s term expired at the end of 2022, and he is no longer a judge.

In a dissenting opinion, Court of Appeals Judge Madeline Singas wrote that her colleagues in the majority were continuing a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”

The ruling came at “the expense and safety of women,” she wrote.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators who were arrested at Stanford University last year after they occupied and allegedly caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to a campus building are now facing charges.

The twelve people, current and former Stanford students, have been charged with felony vandalism and felony conspiracy to trespass, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday in a news release.

Those charged range in age from 19 to 32, the DA’s office said. They will be arraigned later this month at the Hall of Justice in San Jose.

A student journalist, who was arrested with the protesters but was not accused of participating in the vandalism, was not charged.

The Stanford takeover began around dawn on June 5, 2024, the last day of spring classes at the university in California’s Silicon Valley. Some protesters barricaded themselves inside the building, which houses the university president’s office. Others linked arms outside, The Stanford Daily reported at the time. The group chanted “Palestine will be free, we will free Palestine.”

The takeover ended three hours later.

Prosecutors accuse the demonstrators of spray-painting on the building, breaking windows and furniture, disabling security cameras and splattering a red liquid described as fake blood on items throughout the building. Damages were estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to prosecutors.

Cellphones belonging to those arrested showed communications about the planning of the operation, including a “do-it-yourself occupation guide,” prosecutors said.

The AP recorded at least 86 incidents last spring in which arrests were made at college or university campus protests against the war in Gaza across the U.S.

SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed legislation Monday to create a “turquoise alert” for when Native Americans go missing in the state.

The effort — which had overwhelming support among lawmakers — responds to a troubling number of disappearances and killings in Indian Country.

The “turquoise alert” system — taking its name from the blue-green mineral — will allow law enforcement to quickly share information. It will function much like “amber” and “silver” alerts that highlight the disappearance of children and the elderly. Cellphone alerts will be issued when law enforcement finds evidence of imminent danger in the disappearance of a Native American.

The legislation wasn’t just a policy achievement, but a victory for every Native American mother, daughter, sister and aunt who has ever been impacted by violence, said Tiffany Jiron, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

“This bill reflects our deep commitment to ensuring that no Indigenous person is left behind when they go missing,” Jirons said in a statement. “For far too long, Native women and girls have been overlooked, their cases ignored or delayed. The Turquoise Alert System is an essential step toward rectifying that injustice and ensuring that our people receive the protection they deserve.”

California, Washington and Colorado have similar alert systems, according to the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs. Arizona lawmakers are considering their own alert system as the brutal death of San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike reverberates through Native American communities.

New Mexico has 23 federally recognized tribes, including large portions of the Navajo Nation and land holdings of the Fort Sill Apache. The safety concerns of those communities were on prominent display during the 60-day legislative session that wrapped up in March.

BOISE, Idaho. — Idaho’s recently departed U.S. attorney has joined the prosecution team in the case against Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the killings of four University of Idaho students in 2022.

Joshua Hurwit will be a special deputy prosecuting attorney for the state in the murder trial scheduled for August, court documents filed this week show. Latah County Prosecuting Attorney Bill Thompson is leading the prosecution team.

Hurwit was a former President Joe Biden-nominated U.S. attorney for the District of Idaho from June 2022 until February. Hurwit joined the office in 2012 as an assistant U.S. attorney. He stepped down in February before the White House dismissed more than 50 U.S. attorneys and deputies.

Kohberger, 30, is charged with four counts of murder in the deaths of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves, students who were killed in the early morning of Nov. 13, 2022, at a rental home near their campus in Moscow, Idaho.

Autopsies showed the four were all likely asleep when they were attacked, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times.

Kohberger, who was a criminal justice graduate student at Washington State University, was arrested in Pennsylvania weeks later. Investigators said they matched his DNA to genetic material recovered from a knife sheath found at the crime scene.

A judge previously entered a not-guilty plea on Kohberger’s behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted.

A hearing is set for April 9 to consider pretrial motions, including arguments over whether an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis would preclude Kohberger from being eligible for the death penalty if convicted, and over whether jurors should hear audio of a 911 call hours after the killings, as the callers realized one of their roommates wasn’t waking up.

Kohberger’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 11 and expected to last more than three months.

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with a truck driver who wants to sue for triple damages over a CBD hemp product he says was falsely advertised as being free from marijuana’s active ingredient and resulted in him getting fired.

The 5-4 opinion clears the way for the trucker to seek triple damages under an anti-mob law. It doesn’t decide his underlying claims that the product’s THC content got him fired.

Douglas Horn said he wanted to treat chronic shoulder and back pain after a serious accident. He chose the product because it was advertised as being free from THC, which gives marijuana its high. CBD is a generally legal hemp compound that is widely sold as a dietary supplement.

But lab tests taken after Horn was fired for failing a routine drug test confirmed the product did have THC, he claimed.

Horn sued the Vista, California-based Medical Marijuana Inc. and sought triple damages under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, often known as RICO.

The company pushed back, disputing Horn’s account and saying he can’t sue for higher damages because he’s claiming a personal injury rather than harm to his business.

Horn says his firing was a business injury and he’s been financially ruined, and an appeals court allowed Horn’s claim to go forward.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

STARKE, Fla. — A Florida man who killed an 8-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs is set to be executed Thursday.

Edward James, 63, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Barring a last-minute reprieve, the execution is to be the second this year in Florida, which is planning a third in April.

Three other executions were scheduled this week around the United States: Louisiana put a man to death Tuesday using nitrogen gas for the first time as it resumed executions after a 15-year hiatus. Arizona on Wednesday lethally injected a man who had kidnapped and murdered his girlfriend’s ex-husband. Another lethal injection is planned Thursday in Oklahoma.

James drew the death penalty for the Sept. 19, 1993, killings of 8-year-old Toni Neuner and Betty Dick, 58, the child’s grandmother. James had been renting a room in Dick’s house in Casselberry. where Toni Neuner and three other children were also staying that night.

Court records show James drank up to 24 beers at a party, downed some gin and also took LSD before returning to his room at Dick’s house. The girl was raped and strangled to death. The other children were not harmed.

James, who pleaded guilty to the charges, was also found guilty of the rape and of stealing Dick’s jewelry and car after stabbing her 21 times. Court documents show James drove the car across the country, occasionally selling pieces of jewelry until he was arrested on Oct. 6 of that year in Bakersfield, California.

Police obtained a videotaped confession from James, who despite his guilty pleas was sentenced to death upon an 11-1 recommendation by a jury.

James’ lawyers filed several appeals with state and federal courts, all of which were denied. Most recently, the Florida Supreme Court rejected an argument that James’ longtime use of drugs and alcohol, several head injuries and a heart attack in 2023 led to mental decline that would make his execution cruel and unusual punishment.

The justices, however, agreed with a lower court decision that “James’s cognitive issues do not shield him from execution.” The court also rejected an argument from James’ lawyers that the heart attack he suffered in prison led to deprivation of oxygen that affected his brain and should be considered new evidence to halt the execution.

Even if it is new evidence, the court determined, the “defendant cannot establish that such evidence would likely yield a less severe sentence at a new penalty phase.”

The nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center said Florida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart.

Earlier this year, James Ford was executed for the 1997 killings of a couple in Charlotte County — witnessed by their toddler daughter, who survived. DeSantis also signed a death warrant for the April 8 execution of Michael Tanzi for the 2000 slaying of a woman in the Florida Keys.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — A member of a South African research team that is confined for more than a year at an isolated Antarctica base was put under psychological evaluation there after he allegedly assaulted and sexually harassed colleagues, government officials said.

The problems at the SANAE IV base were first reported by South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, which said it had seen an email from a team member to authorities last month claiming the man had attacked the base leader and made threats.

The email pleaded for help.

“His behavior has escalated to a point that is deeply disturbing,” the email said, according to The Sunday Times. “I remain deeply concerned about my own safety, constantly wondering if I might become the next victim.” The report said the man allegedly made a death threat.

South Africa’s Ministry of Environment, which oversees the research missions, said in a statement Monday night that the alleged assault on the base leader was reported on Feb. 27, and officials and counselors intervened remotely “to mediate and restore relationships at the base.” They were speaking with team members almost daily, it said.

“The alleged perpetrator has willingly participated in further psychological evaluation, has shown remorse and is willingly cooperative,” the ministry said, adding that he had written a formal apology to the victim of the alleged assault. It said the allegations were being investigated. No one was identified.

The nine-member team, which includes scientists, a doctor and engineers, is expected to stay at the base for about 13 months until next year, authorities said, living in close quarters through the hostile Antarctic winter, whose six months of darkness begin in June.

The base is on a cliff in Queen Maud Land and is surrounded by a glacial ice sheet, more than 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) from South Africa.

The next planned visit by a supply ship is in December, according to the South African National Antarctic Program. It takes the ship around 10 days to travel from Cape Town.

Authorities said they had decided not to evacuate anyone from SANAE IV, where the onset of unpredictable weather conditions meant the team was now confined to the base.

The ministry said all team members had undergone evaluations ahead of the trip to ensure they are able to cope with the “extreme nature of the environment in Antarctica” and the isolation and confinement, and no problems were identified.

“It is not uncommon that once individuals arrive at the extremely remote areas where the scientific bases are located, an initial adjustment to the environment is required,” it said.

Previous problems have been reported at another of South Africa’s remote research bases on Marion Island, a South African territory near Antarctica.

In 2017, a member of a research team there smashed a colleague’s room with an ax over an apparent love triangle, according to a report to South Africa’s Parliament. Lawmakers said it appeared the researchers were living in highly stressful conditions.

The National Science Foundation, the federal agency that oversees the U.S. Antarctic Program, published a report in 2022 in which 59% of women in the U.S. program said they’d experienced harassment or assault while on research trips in Antarctica.

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AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder in a fatal hit-and-run of a bicyclist in Albuquerque that was captured on video from inside the boy’s stolen car, law enforcement said Monday.

The teenager, who is believed to be the driver, and a 15-year-old have been charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, leaving the scene of an accident involving great bodily harm or death and unlawful possession of a handgun by a person, the Albuquerque Police Department said in a statement.

An 11-year-old, who police say was also involved, is too young to be charged with murder.

“APD detectives are working with the DA’s Office and CYFD to determine what charges he may face and whether he can be held on those charges,” according to the statement.

The 13-year-old is expected to be booked into the Juvenile Detention Center. Detectives are searching for the 15 and 11-year-olds.

Scott Dwight Habermehl, 63, was riding to his job at Sandia National Laboratory early in the morning in May when he was hit by a car after it swerved into the bike lane, according to police.

The crash was filmed from inside the car and circulated on social media. In the recording, a voice believed to be the 13-year-old can be heard saying he is about to hit the bicyclist, according to law enforcement. The car appears to accelerate and a voice believed to be the 15-year-old says, “Just bump him, brah.”

The driver asks, “Like bump him?”

A passenger says, “Yeah, just bump him. Go like…15…20.”

Loud sounds can then be heard in the recording, including “metal flexing,” according to law enforcement.

The video was posted on social media and reported to police. A middle school principal also reported the video to police after a student flagged it.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name people under 18 accused of a crime.