accuses

A former British TV host who accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of fondling her breast has filed a libel action against him, alleging her reputation was smeared in the final days of last year’s historic recall election.

In the legal claim, filed in London’s High Court, Anna Richardson accused Schwarzenegger and two other people connected with his campaign of protecting the candidate’s “ruthless political ambition” by lying about an alleged groping incident in 2000.

In court papers, Richardson contends that the governor’s campaign operatives falsely described her as sexually provocative, saying she forced herself on Schwarzenegger after he appeared on her celebrity-driven show. That version of the encounter, provided by a Hollywood publicist long associated with the actor, appeared in a Los Angeles Times story published five days before last year’s gubernatorial recall election. Richardson was one of six women quoted in the story as saying Schwarzenegger had touched their bodies without consent.

The complaint, which seeks unspecified damages, was filed in May but remained confidential under British law because the governor had not been formally served with court papers. That occurred recently.

On Friday, a judge in London denied a motion by one of the governor’s co-defendants to block the case from going forward. Former campaign spokesman Sean Walsh unsuccessfully argued that the British court did not have jurisdiction. The judge’s ruling paved the way for a possible trial in London next year and raised the possibility that the governor could be forced to testify about his allegedly inappropriate treatment of women.

In addition to the governor and Walsh, the complaint names a third defendant, Sheryl Main, the Hollywood publicist whose comments in The Times triggered the legal action. She now works for the governor as a deputy communications director.

Requests for comment from Schwarzenegger and Main were referred to attorney Martin Singer. He did not return calls made to his Century City office. An attorney for Walsh, Thomas Hiltachk , said his client planned to appeal the ruling.

Richardson is the second woman to bring a libel action against Schwarzenegger since the recall. In July, a Los Angeles judge dismissed the other case, filed by former stuntwoman Rhonda Miller. She had alleged that the Schwarzenegger campaign defamed her after she publicly accused the candidate of sexual harassment.

In her suit, Miller said Schwarzenegger spokesman Walsh led reporters to believe she had a history of prostitution and drug abuse. In fact, that criminal record belonged to a woman with the same name.

The judge ruled that Miller, by holding a news conference, had become a limited public figure and was forced to show “clear and convincing” evidence that Walsh or the Schwarzenegger campaign knowingly provided false information — a burden of proof she was unable to meet.

The most recent case, however, is likely to last longer.

In Great Britain, according to legal experts, the standard for proving libel is easier than in the U.S. Here, it’s up to plaintiffs to prove that the allegedly defamatory remarks were false. There, the burden shifts to the accused, who must defend the truth of such statements.

“In a he-said, she-said case where the evidence is roughly even on both sides, it makes all the difference in the world who has the burden,” libel expert Rodney Smolla of the University of Richmond law school said in an interview earlier this year.

Richardson’s groping allegations against Schwarzenegger date to the December 2000 taping of an interview for her late-night British TV show about movies, “Big Screen.” Schwarzenegger was promoting his film, “The 6th Day.”

Immediately after the interview, Richardson said, Schwarzenegger pulled her onto his knee. “Before you go,” she quoted him as saying, “I want to know if your breasts are real.” Richardson said Schwarzenegger then circled her left nipple with his finger and said, “Yes, they are real.”

An account of the incident appeared in the British press within a few days and was included in a March 2001 article in Premiere magazine with the headline “Arnold the Barbarian.”

She reiterated the account in an interview with The Times last fall in the closing weeks of the recall battle.

When Walsh was asked by the newspaper to comment on Richardson’s allegations, he arranged for publicist Main to answer questions because she was present during the interview with Schwarzenegger in a suite at London’s Dorchester Hotel.

Main said in a telephone interview that Richardson, after finishing the interview, rose from her chair, cupped her right breast in her right hand and said: “What do you think of these?” Main said Richardson then sat in Schwarzenegger’s lap. With that, Main said, Richardson was escorted out of the room.

Main also said during the interview — in a remark not published at the time — that Richardson was dressed “rather provocatively, a very low-cut top and very short skirt.”

On at least that point, a videotape of the Schwarzenegger interview shows Main was wrong. Richardson was wearing a black, long-sleeve turtleneck and a black leather skirt that fell below the knee.

In her complaint, Richardson alleges that Main’s quoted remarks were intended to protect Schwarzenegger “from a catalog of sexual misconduct.”

Said one of her attorneys, Graham Atkins: “We look forward to proceeding swiftly to trial in order to vindicate Ms. Richardson’s reputation.”

US President Donald Trump said on social media that six Democratic lawmakers — all veterans and service members — should be arrested and put to ‘death’ for a video they published urging armed forces members to disobey ‘illegal orders’ from the administration.

“For me to be thrown out first is nothing short of despicable, and I think they have covered themselves in a huge embarrassment by treating me with such disrespect,” Murphy told ITV.

“I always pride myself on conducting myself as professionally as I can, try to treat the game with an incredible amount of respect.

“There are three other players in this tournament who weren’t even in China last week. The way I have been treated by Matchroom in this tournament is nothing short of despicable.”

In response, Matchroom said it spoke to Murphy afterwards and “share his frustrations”.

A statement read: “Our priorities are the players, we take pride in the fact they consider this event prestigious and want to prepare for it.

“For transparency and fairness, the groups [for the draw] are based on seeding. Scheduling is always a challenge every year, but we take on board the points and always strive to improve for next year and the future.”

Lei, ranked 31st in the world, opened up a two-frame lead before Murphy reduced the deficit.

However, Lei responded with a break of 61 to take the fourth frame with Murphy unable to respond in the fifth.

Meanwhile, England’s Judd Trump booked his place in the quarter-finals with a 4-1 win over Bai Yulu of China.

Reigning women’s world champion Bai, 22, won the opening frame of the first meeting between the players.

But men’s world number one Trump held his nerve to win the next two frames with breaks of 84 and 71, to secure a quarter-final meeting with Murphy’s conquerer Lei.

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday accused foreign-owned meat-packers of driving up the price of beef in the U.S. and asked the Department of Justice to open an investigation.

The Republican president announced the move on social media days after his party suffered losses in key elections in which the winning Democratic candidates focused relentlessly on the public’s concerns about the cost of living.

“I have asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the Meat Packing Companies who are driving up the price of Beef through Illicit Collusion, Price Fixing, and Price Manipulation,” Trump wrote in the social media post.

“We will always protect our American Ranchers, and they are being blamed for what is being done by Majority Foreign Owned Meat Packers, who artificially inflate prices, and jeopardize the security of our Nation’s food supply,” he continued.

Trump offered no proof to support his allegations.

Beef prices have soared to record levels in part after drought and years of low prices led to the smallest U.S. herd size in decades. Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, have also curbed imports.

Concentration in the meat-packing business has long been a concern for farmers and politicians on both sides of the aisle. There are four major meat-packing companies in the United States, and the largest beef company, JBS, is headquartered in Brazil. JBS USA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

“Action must be taken immediately to protect Consumers, combat Illegal Monopolies, and ensure these Corporations are not criminally profiting at the expense of the American People,” Trump said.

Last month, Trump suggested the U.S. would buy Argentine beef to bring down stubbornly high prices for American consumers, angering U.S. cattle ranchers.

Trump’s accusations have renewed a bipartisan presidential fight against rising food prices.

Then-President Biden talked with independent farmers and ranchers about initiatives to reduce food prices by increasing competition within the meat industry. And then-Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated last year, used her campaign to vow to crack down on food producers and major supermarkets “ price gouging.”

Superville and Karnowski write for the Associated Press. Karnowski reported from Minneapolis.

US Treasury accuses Pyongyang of stealing $3bn in digital assets to finance its nuclear weapons programme over three years.

North Korea has denounced the latest United States sanctions targeting cybercrimes that the US says help finance its nuclear weapons programme, accusing Washington of harbouring “wicked” hostility towards Pyongyang and promising unspecified countermeasures.

The statement on Thursday by a North Korean vice foreign minister came two days after the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on eight people and two firms, including North Korean bankers, for allegedly laundering money from cybercrime schemes.

The US Treasury accused North Korea of operating state-sponsored hacking schemes that have stolen more than $3bn in mostly digital assets over the past three years, an amount unmatched by any other foreign actor. The Treasury Department said the illicit funds helped finance the country’s nuclear weapons programme.

The department said North Korea relies on a network of banking representatives, financial institutions and shell companies in North Korea, China, Russia and elsewhere to launder funds obtained through IT worker fraud, cryptocurrency heists and sanctions evasion.

The sanctions were rolled out even as US President Donald Trump continues to express interest in reviving talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Their nuclear discussions during Trump’s first term collapsed in 2019 amid disagreements over trading relief from US-led sanctions on North Korea for steps to dismantle its nuclear programme.

“Now that the present US administration has clarified its stand to be hostile towards the DPRK to the last, we will also take proper measures to counter it with patience for any length of time,” the North Korean vice minister, Kim Un Chol, said in a statement.

He said US sanctions and pressure tactics will never change the “present strategic situation” between the countries or alter North Korea’s “thinking and viewpoint”.

Kim Jong Un has shunned any form of talks with Washington and Seoul since his fallout with Trump in 2019. He has since made Russia the focus of his foreign policy, sending thousands of soldiers, many of whom have died on the battlefield, and large amounts of military equipment for President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine while pursuing an increasingly assertive strategy aimed at securing a larger role for North Korea in a united front against the US-led West.

In a recent speech, Kim Jong Un urged Washington to drop its demand for the North to surrender its nuclear weapons as a condition for resuming diplomacy. He ignored Trump’s proposal to meet while the US president was in South Korea last week for meetings with world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

Rapper RBX has sued Spotify, alleging that the Swedish audio company has failed to stop the artificial inflation of music streams for artists like Drake and is hurting the revenue other rights holders receive through the platform.

RBX, whose real name is Eric Dwayne Collins, is seeking a class-action status and damages and restitution from Spotify. RBX, along with other rights holders, receive payment based on how often their music is streamed on Spotify, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in L.A. on Sunday.

Spotify pays rights holders a percentage of revenue based on the total streams attributed to them compared with total volume of streams for all songs, the lawsuit said.

The Long Beach-based rapper said that rights holders are losing money on Spotify because streams of some artists are being artificially inflated through bots powered by automated software, even though the use of such bots is prohibited on the platform, according to the lawsuit.

For example, the lawsuit notes that over a four-day period in 2024 there were at least 250,000 streams of Drake’s “No Face” song that appeared to originate in Turkey, but “were falsely geomapped through the coordinated use of VPNs to the United Kingdom in attempt to obscure their origins.”

Spotify knew or should have known “with reasonable diligence, that fraudulent activities were occurring on its platform,” states the lawsuit, describing the streamer’s policies to root out fraud as “window dressing.”

Spotify declined to comment on the pending litigation but said it “in no way benefits from the industry-wide challenge of artificial streaming.”

“We heavily invest in always-improving, best-in-class systems to combat it and safeguard artist payouts with strong protections like removing fake streams, withholding royalties, and charging penalties,” Spotify said in a statement.

Last year, a U.S. producer was accused of stealing $10 million from streaming services and Spotify said it was able to limit the theft on its platform to $60,000, touting it as evidence that its systems are working.

The platform is also making efforts to push back against AI-generated music that is made without artists’ permission. In September, Spotify announced it had removed more than 75 million AI-generated “spammy” music tracks from its platform over the last 12 months.

A representative for Drake did not immediately return a request for comment.

RBX is known for his work on Dr. Dre’s 1992 album “The Chronic” and Snoop Dogg’s 1993 album “Doggystyle.” He has multiple solo albums and has collaborated with artists including on Eminem’s “The Marshall Mathers LP” and Kris Kross’ “Da Bomb.” RBX is Snoop Dogg’s cousin.

Artificial intelligence continues to change the way that the entertainment industry operates, affecting everything from film and TV production to music. In the music industry, companies have sued AI startups, accusing the businesses of taking copyrighted music to train AI models.

At the same time, some music artists have embraced AI, using the technology to test bold ideas in music videos and in their songs.

Nov. 2 (UPI) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday renewed his call for support of a ballot initiative that would redraw congressional voting maps in the state.

Proposition 50 would change district boundaries to potentially favor Democrats, a reaction, Newsom has said, to a similar move by Texas Republicans that would benefit the GOP.

In an interview on NBC’s Meet The Press, Newsom said “the rules of the game have changed,” criticizing President Donald Trump for pushing the Texas initiative and accused him of “rigging” the 2026 midterm elections.

Newsom said he is “deeply confident” that California voters will approve Proposition 50 at the polls in a Nov. special election.

Democrats have moved away from a pledge by former first lady Michelle Obama, who said in 2016 that “when they go low, we go high,” in response to aggressive campaign rhetoric by then presidential candidate Donald Trump that leveled personal attacks against Democrats.

“I would love to go back to that,” Newsom said in the interview. “But politics has changed. The world has changed. The rules of the game have changed.”

“We want to go back to some semblance of normalcy, but you have to deal with the crisis at hand,” he said.

Newsom, who has said he is considering a bid for the White House in 2028, has also been critical of Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration in big cities across the country, including in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Portland.

Trump has claimed illegal immigration is responsible for rampant crime in those cities, despite a lack of evidence to back up his assertions.

Newsom signed on to an Oregon lawsuit to stop National Guard troops from patrolling Portland and has described the deployments as a “breathtaking abuse of power.”

He has also predicted the outcome of the Proposition 50 vote could shape the 2026 midterm elections.