Harvey Weinstein has appeared in court over a new sex crime charge, accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel in New York in 2006.

The new indictment against the disgraced producer was first announced last week, just days after he underwent emergency heart surgery at a hospital in Manhattan to remove fluid on his heart and lungs.

Prosecutors did not give further details at the time, but said new charges were not part of the case that led to his now-overturned landmark #MeToo conviction in 2020.

Appearing in court in Manhattan in a wheelchair on Wednesday, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new first-degree felony charge.

He wore a dark suit and a blue tie, with a large bandage on his right hand, and responded emphatically when asked for his plea. “Not guilty.”

Weinstein, 72, has always maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.

The new indictment accuses the former movie mogul of forcing a sex act on a woman at some point between 29 April and 6 May 2006, in a hotel in downtown Manhattan.

He is also charged with a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, in relation to a previous New York State Supreme Court indictment, Manhattan’s district attorney Alvin Bragg Jr said. Weinstein has also pleaded not guilty to these charges.

“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Mr Bragg said. “This investigation is ongoing. If you have been sexually assaulted, I assure you that our team of dedicated prosecutors, investigators, social workers, and many more stand at the ready to support you.”

No details about the accuser involved in the new charge have been released.

“She will be fully prepared to speak her truth at trial to hold Mr Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers,” her lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said in a statement.

Why was Weinstein’s original conviction overturned?

As well as this, Weinstein is also facing a retrial over his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction, which was overturned by New York’s highest court in a landmark ruling in April.

The Court of Appeals ruled he did not get a fair trial as the judge who presided over the hearing had unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case.

Weinstein had been serving a 23-year prison sentence at the time. Despite the conviction being overturned, he has remained in custody due to another conviction last year, for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013.

The retrial is scheduled to start on 12 November, subject to possible delay due to the new indictment.

Prosecutors have said they will seek to include the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein’s lawyers say there should be a separate case.

Meanwhile, earlier in September, prosecutors in the UK dropped two charges of indecent assault brought in 2022, saying there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.

Once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, Weinstein co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, and produced films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.

A judge agreed last week to let Weinstein remain indefinitely in the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital instead of being transferred back to the infirmary ward at New York’s Rikers Island jail complex.

Sir Keir Starmer has received substantially more freebies than any other MP since becoming Labour leader, Sky News can reveal.

Government officials are worried the prime minister’s willingness to accept hospitality to go to football matches could amount to a conflict of interest given plans to overhaul the sport’s regulator which many clubs oppose.

The prime minister received two-and-a-half times more gifts and hospitality than the next MP, according to a league table compiled as part of Sky News’ Westminster Accounts project – which traces how money flows through our political system.

Minister dismisses concerns over free Swift tickets – live updates

Since December 2019, he received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.

The next highest in the league table is the Commons leader Lucy Powell on £40,289, while the prime minister received gifts roughly equivalent to the next five MPs combined.

The table does not account for those who received help with legal fees.

‘It’s nuts’

One member of the government called the situation “nuts” and said the freebies “should be banned”.

Sky News has also learnt that officials are warning the prime minister could be opening himself up to inappropriate lobbying by saying he will continue to accept football tickets.

Read more:
Westminster Accounts: How to explore the database for yourself
Westminster Accounts: Search for your MP

Ministers are usually told to avoid hospitality from any organisation connected to an ongoing government regulatory decision, and the future of a football regulator is under consideration at the moment.

The Premier League is one of the biggest donors of hospitality, and Sir Keir – a renowned Arsenal fan – has received almost £40,000 in tickets overall since December 2019.

Sir Keir declared £12,588 of gifts from the Premier League, which is lobbying against a football regulator; including four Taylor Swift tickets during the election campaign worth £4,000; two Euros finals tickets costing £1,628; and numerous tickets spanning several Arsenal matches costing well over £6,000 in total.

How to explore the Westminster Accounts

PM defiant in face of criticism

Sky News can reveal the prime minister ignored warnings from some in his senior team while in opposition. They feared the issue could cause him political damage, but he justified it by saying it was within the rules.

Senior Labour figures are incandescent that the story about freebies for the Starmer family has dragged on for days, and ministers going out with different and often contradictory explanations.

They blame a lack of political grip on the operation, intensifying pressure on Sir Keir’s chief of staff Sue Gray, and sparking private calls for her to be side-lined or sacked.

Sir Keir defended his right to continue to take football freebies earlier this week, saying: “If I don’t accept a gift of hospitality, I can’t go to a game.”

“Never going to an Arsenal game again because I can’t accept hospitality is pushing it a bit far,” he added.

Sky News asked Number 10 whether football donations were a conflict of interest and about the pre-election discussions about the appropriateness of accepting hospitality.

We also asked for comment on the fact Sir Keir is top of the table for gifts and hospitality, excluding legal donations.

They did not comment.

Biggest donor refreshes PM’s wardrobe

Most of Sir Keir’s gifts and hospitality – £86,708 of the £107,145 – were accepted in the last parliament, but £20,437 was declared in this parliament for accommodation that straddles the two periods.

The biggest donor of gifts and hospitality is Labour peer Waheed Alli, who gave the equivalent of £39,122.

These donations included an unspecified donation of accommodation worth £20,437, “work clothing” worth £16,200, and multiple pairs of glasses equivalent to £2,485.

Starmer’s chief of staff under fire

This comes on a bleak day for Sir Keir after the BBC revealed his chief of staff Sue Gray is paid more than £170,000, which is higher than the prime minister.

Ms Gray was the last government’s ethics chief and even the prime minister’s allies are incandescent she has not put a stop to this practice.

This is embarrassing for Sir Keir after he previously criticised the scale of Dominic Cummings’s salary, who was Boris Johnson’s chief of staff.

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The government does not deny the salary level but insists she did not set the level of her salary herself – which is higher than her predecessor.

However, this has been challenged for figures familiar with the process. They said successive chiefs of staff who preceded Ms Gray had to agree recommendations on adviser pay and advise on the decisions made by ministers.

US interest rates have been slashed for the first time in more than four years – by more than many expected – amid fears the world’s largest economy is flagging.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, brought interest rates down by 0.5 percentage points to 4.75% to 5%.

Unlike the UK, the US interest rate is a range to guide lenders rather than a single percentage.

Read more: What next for interest rates?

Bringing down inflation to 2% is a primary goal of the Fed and it has used interest rates to draw money out of the economy by making borrowing more costly since 2022, when the Ukraine/Russia price shock hit.

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Recent figures show the Fed is not far from its inflation target – with the main measure hitting 2.5% in August, the lowest rate in three years.

But signs of a weakening economy emerged last month as data on job creation led to recession fears.

The Fed signalled in its statement that while it was confident on both the inflation and growth outlooks, a slowdown in the pace of hiring was a cause for concern.

Only one member of its rate-setting committee dissented on the 0.5 percentage point reduction. Financial market participants had been split on whether it would go for the 0.25 option instead.

US stocks rallied in the wake of the decision, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and broader S&P 500 both up by more than 0.5% from flat positions moments before the rate decision was revealed.

The dollar was trading a cent lower versus sterling at $1.32.

Some market analysts said the Fed’s move showed Fed chair Jay Powell and his fellow policymakers had been too slow to react to the employment slowdown.

He told reporters: “We’re going to be making decisions meeting by meeting, based on the incoming data and the evolving outlook, the balance of risks… it’s a process of recalibrating our policy stance away from where we had it a year ago, when inflation was high and unemployment low, to a place that’s more appropriate given where we are now and where we expect to be.

“That process will time time”, he added, saying there would be no “rush”.

Michael Sheehan, fund manager of fixed income at EdenTree Investment Management, said: “Kicking off this cutting cycle with a 50 basis point reduction will undoubtedly vindicate those who had argued that the Fed had fallen behind the curve.

“Any doubts that this cutting cycle would be any less dramatic than previous ones have been firmly laid to rest.

“We expect this larger cut of 50 basis points to boost risk assets in the short term. The key for markets, and indeed the Federal Reserve, will be how far the softening of the labour market has to run.

“Powell will be hoping that taking aggressive action early will go some way to curtailing a substantial weakening and achieve the elusive soft landing.”

What about the UK?

It comes as the UK central bank the Bank of England meets on Thursday to make its own interest rate decision.

While the Bank will focus on UK economic data – and on Wednesday afternoon was expected by markets to hold rates – it could be influenced by US decision-making.

Lower interest rates tend to weaken currencies, so a big cut from the Fed could be good news for the pound.

While being able to buy more dollars is good news for people holidaying in the US and paying for imports like oil, it’s bad news for exporters who get less for their goods as a result and have a less competitive product.

Lower exports can slow inflation, meaning the Bank could be more likely to cut.