Latest news with #Weinstein
New York Post
a day ago
- Business
- New York Post
Bryant Park Grill boss claims age discrimination over ouster for new eatery run by Jean-Georges Vongerichten
Booted Bryant Park Grill operator Michael Weinstein accused the nonprofit that manages the New York City park of age discrimination for dumping him in favor of famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, according to a new court filing. Weinstein's Ark Restaurants has leased the handsome, glass-enclosed grill for 30 years from the Bryant Park Corporation. With $25 million in annual revenue, it's one of the nation's highest-grossing eateries. But Daniel Biederman, who heads the Bryant Park Corporation, didn't renew Weinstein and his Ark Restaurants' lease, which expired in April. Advertisement 5 Booted Bryant Park Grill operator Michael Weinstein accused the nonprofit that manages the New York City park of age discrimination for dumping him in favor of famed chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten. Steve Cuozzo He tapped Seaport Entertainment Group, a hospitality company in which multi-Michelin star holder, Vongerichten is a partner, to replace Ark. Weinstein is 81 years old, while Vongerichten is 68. 'By Dan Biederman's own admission, he used Mr. Weinstein's age against him from the beginning of this process,' said Ark's lawyer, Anthony Genovesi, in an amended version of a complaint Ark filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in April. 'What BPC did is discrimination plain and simple.' Advertisement The expanded complaint in the bitter legal feud also states, 'From the beginning of the [request for proposals] process, Biederman suggested that Mr. Weinstein's age, and 'succession' issues are reasons not to renew Ark Restaurants' leases.' Biederman, 71, countered to The Post: 'I never said he was too old to keep the Grill running. 'It's an 18-year lease,' he added. 'We asked all four applicants, how would the restaurant continue if they got hit by a bus?' Advertisement 5 Weinstein, 81, has leased the grill for 30 years from the Bryant Park Corporation enCourageKids Foundation 5 Daniel Biederman, head of the Bryant Park Corporation, countered to The Post: 'I never said he was too old to keep the Grill running. Bryant Park Corporation In an April letter to Judge Anar Rathod Patel, Biederman's lawyer, Gil Feder, wrote: 'Michael Weinstein is more than 80 years old, and his successor, Mr. Weinstein's 31-year-old son, lacks sufficient experience to inspire confidence that Ark can sustain its operations in the long term.' Weinstein sued the Parks Department, the BPC, the Seaport Group, and even the New York Public Library which abuts the restaurant and has an advisory say, over what Weinstein called an 'improper' and 'defective' bidding process. Advertisement Patel rejected Ark's request for an injunction to block its ouster, writing in April, 'Mere dissatisfaction with a competitive outcome does not constitute bad faith.' 5 Biederman tapped Seaport Entertainment Group, a hospitality company in which multi-Michelin star holder Vongerichten (above) is a partner, to replace Weinstein's Ark Restaurants. Tamara Beckwith Meanwhile, in one of the most curious battles the city's restaurant world has seen, Weinstein continues to run the Grill and an alfresco cafe despite the lease expiration. Biederman might move to evict Ark 'very soon,' his lawyer, Gil Feder, told The Post on Thursday. He added, though, that it might take several more months. 5 Weinstein continues to run the Grill and an alfresco cafe despite the lease expiration. Steve Cuozzo 'We must go through a legal process,' Feder said, which includes responding to Weinstein's latest court filing. The holdup means the Grill will remain open through the busy summer season. It will likely have to close for up to a year for renovations when Vongerichten's company takes the keys, The Post previously reported.
Techday NZ
2 days ago
- Business
- Techday NZ
Nearly half of developers say over 50% of code is AI-generated
Cloudsmith's latest report shows that nearly half of all developers using AI in their workflows now have codebases that are at least 50% AI-generated. The 2025 Artifact Management Report from Cloudsmith surveyed 307 software professionals in the US and UK, all working with AI as part of their development, DevOps, or CI/CD processes. Among these respondents, 42% reported that at least half of their current codebase is now produced by AI tools. Despite the large-scale adoption of AI-driven coding, oversight remains inconsistent. Only 67% of developers who use AI review the generated code before every deployment. This means nearly one-third of those working with AI-assisted code are deploying software without always performing a human review, even as new security risks linked to AI-generated code are emerging. Security concerns The report points to a gap between the rapid pace of AI integration in software workflows and the implementation of safety checks and controls. Attacks such as 'slopsquatting'—where malicious actors exploit hallucinated or non-existent dependencies suggested by AI code assistants—highlight the risks when AI-generated code is left unchecked. Cloudsmith's data shows that while 59% of developers say they apply extra scrutiny to AI-generated packages, far fewer have more systematic approaches in place for risk mitigation. Only 34% use tools that enforce policies specific to AI-generated artifacts, and 17% acknowledge they have no controls in place at all for managing AI-written code or dependencies. "Software development teams are shipping faster, with more AI-generated code and AI agent-led updates," said Glenn Weinstein, CEO at Cloudsmith. "AI tools have had a huge impact on developer productivity, which is great. That said, with potentially less human scrutiny on generated code, it's more important that leaders ensure the right automated controls are in place for the software supply chain." Developer perceptions The research reveals a range of attitudes towards AI-generated code among developers. While 59% are cautious and take extra steps to verify the integrity of code created by AI, 20% said they trust AI-generated code "completely." This suggests a marked difference in risk appetite and perception within developer teams, even as the majority acknowledge the need for vigilance. Across the sample, 86% of developers reported an increase in the use of AI-influenced packages or software dependencies in the past year, and 40% described this increase as "significant." Nonetheless, only 29% of those surveyed felt "very confident" in their ability to detect potential vulnerabilities in open-source libraries, from which AI tools frequently pull suggestions. "Controlling the software supply chain is the first step towards securing it," added Weinstein. "Automated checks and use of curated artifact repositories can help developers spot issues early in the development lifecycle." Tooling and controls The report highlights that adoption of automated tools specifically designed for AI-generated code remains limited, despite the stated importance of security among software development teams. While AI technologies accelerate the pace of software delivery and updating, adoption of stricter controls and policy enforcement is not keeping up with the new risks posed by machine-generated code. The findings indicate a potential lag in upgrading security processes or artifact management solutions to match the growing use of AI in coding. Developers from a range of industries—including technology, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing—participated in the survey, with roles spanning development, DevOps management, engineering, and security leadership in enterprises with more than 500 employees. The full Cloudsmith 2025 Artifact Management Report also explores other key issues, including how teams decide which open-source packages to trust, the expanding presence of AI in build pipelines, and the persistent challenges in prioritising tooling upgrades for security benefits.
Irish Examiner
4 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Sarah Harte: Same old crap being served up with a veneer of feminist empowerment
I was on the way back last week from moderating an event in Belfast, where we discussed the staggeringly high rates of domestic and sexual abuse north and south of the border. We also explored the obvious connection between the increasing number of increasingly younger victims and perpetrators of domestic and sexual abuse with the proliferation of porn. `Catching up with the news cycle for my column on the Belfast Enterprise train, two images in the news felt depressingly relevant to what we had been discussing at the '5 Books That Could Save Your Life' event. One was of Harvey Weinstein in a New York court last Wednesday in his wheelchair, having been found guilty of sexual assault. Weinstein was previously found guilty of rape in a separate trial in California and was sentenced to 16 years in that case. He also settled a civil case against him. At the heart of much of the testimony is the claim that, as a power player in the movie industry (he co-founded Miramax film studio), he used his "unfettered power" to abuse victims. Harvey Weinstein in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on June 5 where he was found guilty of sexual assault. Picture: Charly Triballeau via AP More generally, power and control lie at the heart of all domestic and sexual abuse cases. It is never simply a matter of the perpetrator's actions in a particular case. In the dock with him will be a deeply flawed ideology of masculinity that he has been sold from birth about his right to power and control over women. The decision by around 100 women to complain about a variety of sexual assaults and rapes by Weinstein (not all complaints ended in criminal charges) fuelled the #MeToo movement. Although it initially seemed like a watershed for the feminist movement, a backlash has been underway ever since. A counternarrative in the Weinstein case is that ambitious young women, with one eye to the main chance, took advantage of the casting couch to advance their careers. However, what that narrative does not consider is the vast power disparities between someone who is a gatekeeper and someone young, hoping to advance in their nascent film career, attending a meeting in a hotel room, crossing fingers and toes that they will emerge unscathed. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced last week that his office plans to retry the rape charge against Weinstein over an alleged 2013 attack on actress Jessica Mann. The cover of Sabrina Carpenter's 'Man's Best Friend' Album. This brings us to the second image of 26-year-old pop singer Sabrina Carpenter, released during the week to promote her forthcoming album, Man's Best Friend, which is set for release in August. On her knees, Carpenter is having her hair pulled by a faceless man in a suit (the suit presumably signifying power), mimicking a dog. This image upset domestic violence survivors and organisations, among others, including (hearteningly) some young fans who were savvy enough to decode and dislike the image. From Carpenter's point of view, who is trying to promote her album, it was successful, garnering plenty of attention and discourse on social media, where opinions seemed sharply divided. I stared at the picture and felt a fleeting moment of futility thinking "God, what's the point in sharing knowledge about domestic abuse, exploring solutions when marketing teams and photographers willingly pump this damaging crap out". The more traction images like this get, the more normalised they become. Carpenter in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine has spoken about how young female artists are picked apart publicly saying that 'girl power' and 'women supporting women' should be the reality but instead 'the second you see a picture of someone wearing a dress on a carpet you have to say everything mean about it in the first 30 seconds that you see it.' Hmmm. There is truth in what she says, but images are extremely powerful. We are more likely to remember information presented in images than information presented in text, a phenomenon known as the Picture Superiority Effect. We respond to and process visual data far faster than any other type of data. Sex positive Sabrina Carpenter's tours are big on 'horny choreography', sexual innuendoes complete with glittery bodysuits, garter belts and simulated sex. Fans lap it up. Her prerogative, you might say. Have fun, Sabrina. The whole sex positive idea that women should be free to express themselves sexually is both fascinating and complicated. Sex positive commentators would have it that cranks, often bitter middle-aged feminists past their sell-by date, try to police sexual expression and slut-shame other women. Women should be able to display their bodies as they wish. Somebody wrote on X (Twitter) that 'her [Carpenter] owning and doing what she wants with her body IS feminism'. There is something in this. I could never stand over the idea of promoting modesty to young women. I'm stone-cold on the concept of moral judgment and outrage. Down that way lies something we grew up with, or at its most extreme, what is being enforced by the Taliban in Afghanistan. However, questions like these are nuanced. There are often other dynamics behind a façade of sexual bravado, and 'anything goes' sex positivity is incredibly naïve without some component of critical analysis. Porn and violence against women The pornification of young people's psychosexual development is having disastrous effects. We see that vividly in the domestic and sexual abuse statistics. In January this year, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris spelt it out. Online violent pornography is driving much of the violence that gardaí are seeing in sexual assaults on women, rising levels of domestic violence, and normalising violence against women. Not all decisions we make around our sexuality are inherently empowering because not all decisions are made in a vacuum. The central question is when are choices rendered illusory by circumstances and socialisation? For example, you can say that a woman selling sex is autonomously doing so. Or you can dig deeper and say that no little girl says, 'When I grow up, I want to be a prostitute' so how did that little girl get there? And how did the guy who pays for her services get there? Carpenter's career is going gangbusters, but that image, far from satirising and subverting misogynistic tropes in a tongue-in-cheek way as some have claimed, reinforces them. It's up there with Nicole Kidman in 'Baby Girl', depicting a CEO down on her knees lapping milk from a dog bowl because a young male intern told her to. Fans argued the film advocated for middle-aged women's right to sexual pleasure. It received a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, accompanied by whoops and hollers. To me in both cases, a filmmaker and a photographer, try to get a rise out of us using tropes from porn. Successfully so, commercially, but you wonder at what cost culturally, because they are trafficking in a retrograde misogyny that does enormous damage, reinforcing women's submissiveness to men as the status quo. Veneer of female empowerment It's the same old sexist crap dished up in a shiny new package with a veneer of female empowerment. Fine for Carpenter and Kidman, whose success may protect them, but not so much for the regular Josephine, duped by the idea of individualist agency as a shield against exploitation. It also empowers future perpetrators to feel entitled to do to the 'bitch' what they want because an expectation is created. Messages like this is why we end up with characters like Weinstein, who was allowed to use his power in open sight to access young women's bodies in a consumerist neoliberal society that believes everything is for sale, baby, and why some young women end up finding themselves skirting a line between choice and coercion in a hotel room that ends in a courtroom.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Editorial: Stopping future Harvey Weinsteins — The NY Assembly must join the state Senate and pass the similar crimes bill
Harvey Weinstein is guilty, in a Manhattan state courtroom, of a 2006 sexual assault, again, just like he was found guilty in a Manhattan state courtroom five years ago of the same 2006 sexual assault. Weinstein's first conviction was thrown out and a new trial was needed because New York law does not allow the use of evidence from other, prior sexual offenses. That law needs to be changed and the state Senate passed a reform last year sponsored by chamber's No. 2 leader, Sen. Mike Gianaris, with a remarkable and overwhelming tally of 55-4. The Assembly and Speaker Carl Heastie need to match that before they break for the summer next Tuesday or another year will go by and prosecutors won't have all the tools they need to pursue horrible monsters like Weinstein. This is not a partisan matter; Gianaris is a Democrat, but every Republican senator voted for his measure, along with almost every Democrat. The numbers in the Assembly will be similar, provided Heastie brings forward the bill, sponsored by Assemblywoman Amy Paulin. Under the fix put forward by Gianaris and Paulin, New York would join the federal standard, which is also used by a good number of states, which permits admitting evidence of a defendant's prior sexual offenses in certain circumstances. What happened in the initial Weinstein prosecution in 2020 was the Manhattan district attorney asked the trial judge if it was permissible to use such testimony and the judge approved it, as did a unanimous appellate bench. Under New York law, that is occasionally allowed, on a case by case basis. But when it reached the state's highest court, it was narrowly overruled, tossing the whole Weinstein case and forcing this new trial. This time, the Manhattan DA didn't include any witnesses to testify about Weinstein's previous assaults and the jury still convicted him. But the law still must be reformed. As one expert points out, this verdict is yet further evidence that juries are capable of hearing evidence about multiple charges involving different victims without being overcome by prejudice, as they convicted Weinstein on one 2006 sex charge yesterday, but acquitted him of another from that same year. As to the third charge, from 2013, the jury will continue its deliberations today. The Gianaris/Paulin similar crimes bill, which 16 other states have, is fair to defendants and fair to victims. Such laws have been challenged in state and federal courts and determined to be constitutional. The sponsor's memo in the bill's justification mentions Harvey Weinstein and the reverse of his first conviction as the need for the legislation. That such an awful criminal is being invoked for something constructive to improve New York's criminal prosecution system is a tiny bit of justice. If the Assembly passes the bill and Gov. Hochul signs it, Weinstein can spend his coming many years in state prison thinking how he helped change the laws of New York in a positive way. But should Heastie not even allow a vote, Weinstein will still be heading to prison, but the law will remain badly out of date, denying future victims their chance for justice. Bring the bill to the floor, Mr. Speaker. _____
New York Post
13-06-2025
- New York Post
Harvey Weinstein accuser blames surprise reveal of her long-lost journal for disgraced producer walking on sex assault charge at NYC retrial
A former Polish model who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault blamed the surprise revelation of her decade-old journal – and her sister's betrayal – for jurors not finding him guilty of the rap this week. Kaja Sokola, 39, admitted feeling deeply hurt over a dramatic showdown on the stand when she learned her long-lost, private Alcoholics Anonymous recovery journal that Weinstein's defense attorney said had been given to them by her sister. 'I don't think there would be a verdict like that if my sister didn't give that journal,' she told The Post Friday. 3 Former Polish model Kaja Sokola, 39, who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, blamed the revelation of her decade-old journal for the longtime producer being found not guilty in the sexual assault case. Stephen Yang The lawyers used the journal – which mentioned two people who sexually assaulted Sokola, but not Weinstein – to sow doubt over her accusations that the Tinseltown terror forcibly performed oral sex on her at a Tribeca hotel in 2006, days shy of her 20th birthday. 'They were trying to use the dirtiest tactics that they can,' she said. But Sokola said she was still very happy the jury at Weinstein's bombshell Manhattan retrial convicted him on another woman's accusations because it ensures the perv producer likely will spend the rest of his life in prison. The squabbling jurors on Wednesday found Weinstein, 73, guilty of a criminal sex act charge for allegedly assaulting Miriam 'Mimi' Haley, a former TV production assistant. But they acquitted the disgraced sex fiend on the same charge connected to Sokola's accusations, which she had detailed in tear-filled testimony last month. Jurors also couldn't reach a verdict on a rape count stemming from a third victim, Jessica Mann, leading to a mistrial on that charge. 3 Sokola said that she's still very happy that a Manhattan jury convicted Weinstein on another woman's accusations because the perv producer likely will spend the rest of his life in prison. AP Sokola said the outcome regarding her charge didn't matter so long as Weinstein was held accountable for his predatory behavior. 'I'm not bitter,' she said, but added, 'I was surprised.' The psychotherapist's path to the witness stand came after an appeals court overturned Weinstein's conviction in his watershed 2020 Manhattan trial, in which Haley and Mann had testified, but not Sokola. Prosecutors brought Haley and Mann back for the retrial, and also asked Sokola to testify — which she said was a difficult decision for her to make. 'It is easy to forget we have this strength – it is not gone, it is there,' she told The Post. 3 Sokola told The Post, 'I don't think there would be a verdict like that if my sister didn't give that journal.' Stephen Yang Sokola testified that Weinstein assaulted her three times, starting when she was just 16 in 2002. But during cross-examination Weinstein's lawyers confronted her with the journal that included entries on 'rape' and 'forced sex' about other people who had allegedly sexually abused her, but that only mentioned the Hollywood producer once. Sokola contended she wrote about Weinstein's alleged rape in other diaries she no longer has access to — and felt blindsided by her sister's apparent collaboration with the producer's defense. 'She manipulated the situation and chose this one workbook,' the former model said. Weinstein's attorney Arthur Aidala didn't return a call for comment. Sokola, despite her painful experience, said she would not discourage survivors of sexual assault from coming forward. 'Don't stay alone with that, it's the most important thing,' she said.
