NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, was sentenced in Manhattan to 15 years in prison Wednesday for a felony sex crime in another #MeToo reckoning. Weinstein’s sentencing for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley followed a legal odyssey spanning more than six years. His 2020 conviction was overturned by New York's highest court, citing testimony from other women whose allegations weren’t part of the case. A second jury found Weinstein guilty again at a retrial last year. Once among the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, Weinstein was an Oscar-winning producer whose hits included “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” But his downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the #MeToo movement. Weinstein, 74, is expected to appeal. He is now likely to remain behind bars until at least his late 80s. He has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone. Seated in a wheelchair, he was quickly wheeled out of the courtroom after the sentencing, while some of his accusers hugg
WASHINGTON — The extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes moved Wednesday to a courtroom in the nation’s capital, where a judge is hearing arguments on whether the president’s move banning three news organizations from White House grounds violates the Constitution. The administration has doubled down on its contention that it has the right to decide who can set foot in the White House. “Access to the White House is a privilege — not a right,” it said in a court filing late Tuesday. It also argued that the reporting of the three outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — poses a threat to national security. In his early comments about the case, Trump focused not on national security but on negative coverage by the outlets and allegations of “fake news.” The proceedings are historic, said Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “No president has taken this explicit of a step” to ban entire news outlets because he doesn’t like their reporting, she sa
UNITED NATIONS — Executives from three of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday amid warnings that increasingly powerful AI systems could soon improve themselves, slip beyond human control and pose a threat to international security. Among those addressing the 15-member council during the annual General Assembly gathering were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue, three of the industry's most prominent executives. "If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole," Anthropic's Amodei told the Security Council. Governments have grappled with how to oversee AI systems that are advancing faster than regulators can keep up while the United States and China — the two dominant players in AI development — remain divided over whether the technology needs global guardrails or should be left largely to market forces. “If AI is to be democratic, the most important decisions cannot be made by labs in San Francisco alone. They must be shaped t
WASHINGTON — When Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Washington for a state visit in 2015, he sought to calm the growing unease among the Americans about his country's rapid ascent. Xi largely succeeded, shaking hands with then-President Barack Obama to deepen economic ties and expand cooperation. In the Rose Garden, Obama declared that the U.S. “welcomes the rise of a China that is peaceful, stable, prosperous and a responsible player in global affairs.” Those days are over. Returning to the U.S. capital Wednesday for the first state visit in over a decade, Xi — more confident than ever — is seeking stability even as the globe's two largest economies compete over everything from artificial intelligence to space ambitions and global influence. Xi is expected to urge cooperation with the U.S. for the sake of the world. “In 2015, China was a rising power still, profoundly and quickly rising, but rising undeniably,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution's Center for Asia Policy Studies. Now, “China is risen.” Both economies have grown remarkabl
WASHINGTON — A White House official said Wednesday South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed shipbuilding cooperation and other topics during a meeting on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly this week. The official made the remarks in response to Yonhap News Agency's question about the meeting on Tuesday, where Seoul officials said that the leaders discussed key issues, including Seoul's push to acquire nuclear-powered submarines and secure rights to enrich uranium and reprocess spent nuclear fuel for peaceful civil purposes. "President Trump and President Lee had a brief meeting on the sidelines of the Leaders Reception at the United Nations General Assembly, where they discussed shipbuilding cooperation among other topics," the official said in an email. After the 30-minute meeting, a presidential official told reporters that Trump expressed interest in shipbuilding cooperation, as the Trump administration seeks cooperation with South Korea to rebuild the United States Navy and shipbuilding industry. Under last year's bilateral trade deal, So
Mounting inflation pressures and a strengthening economy look to be pushing the Federal Reserve towards an interest-rate hike on the eve of critical national elections, with traders on Wednesday piling into bets on a second straight Fed rate increase in late October. A closely watched measure of U.S. business activity, S&P Global's flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, jumped this month to its highest level since July 2021, S&P Global reported on Wednesday. The survey's measure of prices paid by businesses for inputs jumped to a nearly four-year high. Oil prices took a leg up on Wednesday, with Brent crude futures rising about 2 percent to $101.09 a barrel, and diesel fuel prices have surged to over $6.50 a gallon, as the US-Iran war continues to disrupt supply. Diesel has particular potential to broaden price pressures, as it powers the equipment and trucks used to make and move goods throughout the economy. The backdrop of rising inflationary risks and a strong economy means the Fed is likely to deliver more rate hikes, Fed Governor Michael Barr said on Wednesday in what's become a r
NEW YORK/CARACAS — Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday that the country would hold elections as part of a transition to "full democracy," but did not give a specific date for the vote. "I want to make this very clear at this General Assembly: there will be elections in Venezuela," said Rodriguez, who came to power after American forces captured then-President Nicolas Maduro in a January raid. Rodriguez said the government had initiated talks with the opposition and would guarantee the participation of all political forces. She added that national institutions were being prepared for the electoral process. "Venezuela has initiated a process of democratic transformation for its rebirth, an orderly, institutional, and verifiable process, to build a country that is freer for all, more prosperous, and more reconciled with itself," said Rodriguez. Venezuelan and U.S. authorities have previously emphasized the need for an election, yet no date — not even a tentative one — has been set. The opposition views the selection of an autonomou
MENLO PARK, California — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a small handheld gadget called Meta Charm for using its new Muse AI assistant in a surprise announcement at its annual device event on Wednesday. Meta said Charm would be ready to ship for holidays in December, but did not give a price. The AI device is about the size of an Apple AirPods case. The social media giant also unveiled virtual-reality glasses to use with a VR console and a pair of camera-free smart glasses for daily use, designed to ease the growing privacy backlash against AI devices that can take videos and pictures of people without consent. Priced at $1,299, the Meta VR Glasses aim to match the capabilities of bulkier and costlier rivals such as Apple's Vision Pro in a device that weighs about as much as a deck of playing cards, a design made possible by moving the battery and processor into a separate puck. They will launch in spring 2027. Meta is betting the VR device, which looks like a pair of dark wraparound frames and responds to eye, voice and hand gestures, can finally take to the mainstream a category lo
WASHINGTON — The United States and China have agreed to extend by two months a trade truce that was due to expire on November 10, allowing more time to work on a potentially bigger trade deal, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday. Bessent made the remarks on Fox News hours after his second meeting in four days with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to prepare for a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. "We met today to see if we could do a bigger deal as opposed to just a series of smaller things," the Treasury chief said, noting that the two-month extension of the trade truce agreed in Busan, South Korea in May would give the two sides "more time to see what we can do on the economic front." Bessent told reporters earlier that Beijing had raised the prospect of a more expansive U.S.-China trade deal during 12 hours of talks on Sunday, but gave no details of its potential scope. Wednesday's meeting lasted about 90 minutes, Treasury said. Asked if a deal could be negotiated by January 10, Bessent told Fox News that was n
UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL — Ukraine has transferred two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday in an address to the United Nations General Assembly. "Recently, we sent two North Korean prisoners of war to the Republic of Korea," said Zelenskyy in his speech. "These guys are not easy to capture alive. One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself. And he was shocked that fate did not let him die." Zelenskyy did not provide more details about the return. Ukraine captured the two North Koreans in Russia's Kursk region in January last year. They were the first North Korean soldiers to be apprehended alive since the country joined the Russia-Ukraine war in 2024. Zelenskyy said at the time that he would hand them over to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if he could facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia. Human rights groups, however, urged him to repatriate them to South Korea citing the risks of punishments the soldiers faced. South Korean media reported that the two c
WASHINGTON — Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have no shortage of difficult issues to cover when they sit down for talks on Thursday at the White House. China has resisted the Trump administration's urgings — and economic threats — to use its considerable leverage to prod Iran to agree to U.S. terms to end the nearly seven-month war. Xi wants to see Trump permanently halt arms sales to Taiwan and loosen export restrictions on cutting-edge advanced chips. And the two sides on Wednesday agreed to extend a one-year trade truce set to expire Nov. 10 for two months, kicking the can on finding a more durable agreement. All the while, both leaders seem to believe that time is on their side as they look to outmaneuver the other in what is expected to be the world's most significant economic and national security competition for years to come. “The president very much believes that over time the U.S. economy is going to grow, the U.S. will get stronger, the U.S. will keep making advances in AI and on technology, and that ... the U.S. will develop alternative sources of critical min
WASHINGTON — Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington Wednesday evening, where he received a rare greeting from U.S. President Donald Trump, who met his counterpart at the base’s airport instead of waiting for him to drive to the White House. Trump’s decision to greet Xi shows how far the U.S. president is going to honor China’s leader as he made his first state visit to the U.S. capital in more than a decade. Xi says China, US should be ‘partners, not rivals’ In a statement marking his arrival in the U.S., China’s leader wrote that his country and the U.S. “should be partners, not rivals.” “Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand and the two countries can contribute to each other’s success, thereby benefiting the wider world,” Xi said. Xi’s statement also suggested that the two sides “should move toward each other and work together to build a stable relationship — one where cooperation is the mainstay, competition is kept within proper limits, differences are managed and peace can be
