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By Jasper Ward, Jarrett Renshaw and Bo Erickson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration has withdrawn its nomination of conservative economist E.J. Antoni as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the White House said on Tuesday. President Donald Trump nominated Antoni last month to lead the bureau, which is part of the Department of Labor and produces statistics closely watched by the markets, after firing the agency's head, Erika McEntarfer, and accusing her without evidence of manipulating the bureau's figures. “Dr. EJ Antoni is a brilliant economist and an American patriot that will continue to do good work on behalf of our great country," a White House official said in a statement, promising the president will announce a new nominee "very soon." The Senate committee overseeing the Labor Department never scheduled a confirmation hearing, and on Tuesday, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she remained concerned about Antoni's nomination. A person familiar with the nomination said several other Republicans expressed similar hesitation. CNN first reported that the administration had pulled Antoni's nomination. Antoni currently serves as chief economist at the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation and has been a critic of the BLS, whose monthly job market and inflation report is used by a global audience of economists, investors, business leaders, public policymakers and consumers. The U.S. lurched toward a government shutdown on Tuesday as a vote to extend funding past a midnight deadline failed in the U.S. Senate. A shutdown would delay the release of the September jobs numbers, which are due out on Friday. Antoni's nomination raised concerns among economists about the quality of BLS data. "The nominee will result in a surge in demand for private label data," Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US, said in August. Alex Jacquez, the head of policy and advocacy for Groundwork Collaborative, which describes itself as fighting "to change economic policy and narratives in order to build public power," said at the time that Antoni's selection was "a clear assault on independent analysis that will have far-reaching implications for the reliability of U.S. economic data." The BLS has come under scrutiny from Republicans after Trump took issue with its data. Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the committee that oversees the confirmation process, said in a statement that the "status quo" is not working with the jobs data. Trump added to growing concerns about the reliability of BLS and other federal government economic data when he fired McEntarfer on August 1. Her dismissal came hours after the agency reported much weaker-than-expected job growth for July and issued an historically large revision to its employment figures for May and June. (Reporting by Jasper Ward, Jarrett Renshaw and Bo Erickson; Editing by Don Durfee, Leslie Adler and Michael Perry)

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By Laila Kearney (Reuters) -Oil prices steadied in early trade on Wednesday after two consecutive days of losses as investors weighed potential OPEC+ plans for a larger output hike next month against the prospect of shrinking inventories in the U.S. Brent crude futures for December delivery rose 12 cents to $66.15 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose by 12 cents to $62.49 a barrel. On Monday, Brent and WTI both settled more than 3% lower, their sharpest daily declines since August 1. On Tuesday, they each fell at least 1.5% further. The prospect of shrinking U.S. crude oil inventories helped keep prices from falling farther. U.S. crude stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, market sources said, citing American Petroleum Institute estimates on Tuesday. Crude stocks fell by 3.67 million barrels in the week ended September 26, the sources said on condition of anonymity. Gasoline inventories, however, rose by 1.3 million barrels while distillate inventories increased by 3 million barrels from last week, the sources said. OPEC+ could agree to raise oil production by up to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, triple the increase made for October, as Saudi Arabia seeks to reclaim market share, three sources familiar with the talks said. Eight members of the group, which pumps about half the world’s oil, are considering a hike of 274,000 to 411,000 bpd, two of the sources said. A third source said the increase could reach 500,000 bpd. OPEC wrote in a post on X that media reports of plans to raise output by 500,000 bpd were misleading. Also in the U.S., President Donald Trump won Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's support for a U.S.-backed Gaza peace proposal, but the stance of Hamas was uncertain.  (Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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By Deepa Seetharaman and Dawn Chmielewski (Reuters) -OpenAI is releasing an AI video-generating app called Sora that lets people create and share AI videos that can be spun from copyrighted content and shared to social media-like streams.   Copyright owners, such as television and movie studios, must opt out of having their work appear in the video feed, company officials said, describing it as a continuation of its prior policy toward image generation.   The copyright policy is likely to ruffle feathers throughout Hollywood.  The ChatGPT-maker has been in talks with a variety of copyright holders in recent weeks to discuss the policy, company officials said. At least one major studio, Disney, has already opted out of having their material appear in the app, people familiar with the matter said.  Earlier this year, OpenAI pressed the Trump administration to declare that training AI models on copyrighted material fell under the "fair use" provision in copyright law.  "Applying the fair use doctrine to AI is not only a matter of American competitiveness — it’s a matter of national security," OpenAI argued in March.  Without this step, it said at the time, U.S. AI companies would lose their edge over rivals in China.  OpenAI officials said it put measures in place to block people from creating videos of public figures or other users of the app without permission. Public figures and others’ likeness cannot be used until they upload their own AI-generated video and give their permission. One such step is a "liveness check" where the app prompts a user to move their head in different directions and recite a random string of numbers. Users will be able to see drafts of videos that involve their likeness.  Videos in the Sora app can be up to 10 seconds long. OpenAI built a feature it calls Cameo that will let users create realistic-looking AI versions of themselves and insert themselves into AI-generated scenes.  "Our companies are in the business of competing for time and modifying consumer behavior," Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said in a research note, adding he saw Sora app as a direct competitor to longstanding social media and digital content platforms from Meta, Google, TikTok and others. (Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman in San Francisco and Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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By Diana Novak Jones CHICAGO (Reuters) -Uber is not liable for the sexual assault of a woman who said she was attacked by her driver on a ride she ordered from the ridesharing app, a California jury said on Tuesday, according to an attorney for the plaintiff. At the end of a three-week civil trial in San Francisco Superior Court, the jury found that Uber was negligent in terms of the measures it put in place to protect the anonymous woman's safety, but found that the negligence was not a substantial factor in causing the woman's harm, according to Celine Cutter, one of her lawyers. The case was the first to go to trial out of more than 500 lawsuits consolidated in California state court. There are also more than 2,500 lawsuits making similar claims that have been centralized in a federal court in California.  The woman, who went by Jessica C. at trial, sued in 2021, claiming she was assaulted by an Uber driver in 2016. During the ride, her driver pulled off on a side street, restraining, groping and kissing her, according to her attorneys. William Levin and Laurel Simes, two of the lawyers who represented her at trial, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Uber has worked for years to raise the bar on safety, and will continue to do so in the years ahead,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement. The woman's lawsuit was chosen to serve as the first "bellwether" for the state court litigation. In litigation with many plaintiffs asserting similar claims, bellwether trials are used to test the claims and establish what they may be worth. Judges may use the outcome of the trial to manage the remaining cases, or lawyers can use them to inform settlement negotiations. The woman's attorneys had asked the jury for between $175,000 and $1.2 million in compensatory damages for each year of her life, suggesting larger figures for the years closest to the assault. They did not suggest a number for punitive damages.  SAFETY PRACTICES IN THE SPOTLIGHT The lawsuits allege Uber was aware it had a problem with drivers assaulting riders, but kept data on how many assaults took place from the public and did not take action to address the issue. The plaintiffs have argued that Uber knew that things like assigning female riders to female drivers or requiring dash cams to record driver and passenger interactions would reduce assaults, but failed to broadly implement such programs. Uber has maintained it should not be liable for criminal conduct by the drivers it connects with passengers, and that its background checks and disclosures about assaults were sufficient. The lawsuits threaten to reopen wounds from Uber's early years, when the company was dogged by safety controversies, allegations of lax driver vetting, and a culture critics said prioritized growth over protecting passengers. The company has made safety a central talking point in recent years, publishing U.S. Safety Reports that detail reported sexual assaults, rolling out features such as in-app ride verification, video and audio recording of rides, anomaly detection, and partnering with survivor advocacy groups to reform driver training.  Uber has also touted the formation of a Safety Advisory Board chaired by former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and pledged $10 million through its “Driving Change” initiative to support organizations working to end gender-based violence. Despite these measures, Uber’s safety reputation has remained fragile. In its latest safety report published last year, covering the 2021–2022 period, Uber said reports of serious sexual assault on its platform have fallen by 44% since its first report in 2017–2018. But with thousands of cases still documented, critics say systemic risks remain. Prompted by an August New York Times report on the issue, a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee sent a letter last week to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi seeking information on the company’s protocols for responding to and preventing sexual assaults on its rides. (Reporting by Diana Novak Jones in Chicago and Akash Sriram in Bangalore; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Stephen Coates)

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By Melanie Burton and Renju Jose MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday he was concerned about a report that China's state iron ore buyer had taken steps to pause purchases of iron ore cargoes from miner BHP. Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday that state-owned China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) had asked the country's steelmakers and traders to pause purchases of BHP's dollar-denominated seaborne iron ore cargoes during annual price negotiations. "I am concerned about that and what we want to make sure is that markets operate properly," Albanese told reporters. "We have seen those issues in the past. I want to see Australian iron ore to be able to be exported to China without hindrance." CMRG has not responded to an emailed request for comment. A BHP spokesperson said on Tuesday the company does not comment on commercial negotiations. Albanese said he hoped the issue would be resolved quickly and acknowledged differences could happen during price negotiations. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would set up a meeting with BHP CEO Mike Henry. BHP's Australian-listed shares fell 1.13% in early morning trade. The miner is China's third-biggest iron ore supplier behind Rio Tinto and Brazil's Vale. RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a note on Wednesday that Chinese steel mills could try to offset BHP's volumes by purchasing ore from Fortescue, Rio and Vale, though that could increase costs for the mills. "If prolonged, the (pause) risks squeezing steel margins or forcing selective output cuts … but China cannot realistically walk away from BHP supply altogether," the note said. Iron ore is Australia's most valuable export product, though a government report in June said earnings from that could fall to A$105 billion ($69.39 billion) for the financial year ending in June 2026, from A$116 billion the prior year as global supplies increase. China, the world's largest iron ore consumer, buys about 75% of global seaborne iron ore and set up CMRG three years ago to buy ore on behalf of its steelmakers to gain more leverage as a large, single buyer. Diplomatic ties between Australia and China have improved since the Albanese-led centre-left Labor party was elected in May 2022. Relations had soured after the previous centre-right coalition government called for an international inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. China responded by imposing tariffs on several Australian commodities from late 2020, but they have since been lifted. ($1 = 1.5131 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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SEOUL (Reuters) -The U.S. has agreed to allow South Koreans to work to set up facilities at U.S. investment sites under existing temporary visas and open new channels to help its ally send workers to do business there, Seoul's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. But U.S. officials at a working group meeting offered no new answers to South Korea's argument for a wider access to U.S. visas for specialty workers despite reaffirming a commitment to advance trade and investment partnership, the ministry said. The U.S. side made up of Departments of State, Homeland Security and Commerce officials made clear South Korean workers can work to install, service and repair equipment needed as part of South Korean business investment in the U.S., it said. A new section dedicated for visas related to South Korean businesses will be set up at the U.S. embassy in Seoul and U.S. immigration authorities will open a new channel with South Korean missions to better coordinate visa matters, according to the foreign ministry. The working group was set up in the aftermath of a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor car battery facility under construction in the U.S. state of Georgia in September where hundreds of South Korean workers were arrested. The arrests, which stunned the South Korean government and public, highlighted the lack of access to the right class of U.S. visas for specialised South Korean workers needed at investment sites. The U.S. officials said a more fundamental change to U.S. visa systems to accommodate Seoul's demand for clearer and certain access for its specialty workers faced "practical legislative constraints," the South Korean ministry said. South Korea has pushed for years for a bill that would create or expand visa categories to accommodate skilled South Korean nationals who need to visit the United States. That bill has had difficulty getting through Congress because visas are linked to immigration, one of the most sensitive subjects in the United States, according to South Korea's foreign ministry. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stressed the "critical role" of the skilled workers of South Korean companies investing in the U.S. at the group's first meeting in Washington, the State Department separately said. The U.S. was committed to encouraging investment by companies from South Korea as one of the leading foreign investors in the country, it said in a statement. The working group will hold further meetings, South Korea's foreign ministry said. (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Jamie Freed and Lincoln Feast.)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will not agree to a deal with the United States for half of all semiconductor production to take place in the country, the island's top tariff negotiator said on Wednesday after returning home. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told U.S. television network News Nation over the weekend that Washington's pitch to Taiwan would be a 50-50 split in making chips, the vast majority of which are now made on the island. Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters upon getting back to the island that she had not discussed the 50-50 idea suggested by the U.S. during the talks. "Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips. Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions," she said, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency. Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment sent outside of U.S. business hours. Taiwan, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff. TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan. Taiwan's government said last month that it hoped for a more favourable tariff rate from the United States after talks achieved "certain progress". Speaking in parliament in Taipei on Tuesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng had had multiple talks with the United States on tariff issues. "The most critical substantive consultations are currently underway," he said. Cheng, speaking at the airport, said that "detailed" discussions had taken place which yielded "certain progress", the Central News Agency added. Separately, Taiwan's presidential office said late on Tuesday that President Lai Ching-te had met the visiting Luke J. Lindberg, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Lai said that a Taiwan agricultural delegation visiting the United States in September planned to buy $10 billion of U.S. agricultural goods over the coming four years, including soybeans, wheat, corn and beef. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Stephen Coates)

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By Diana Novak Jones CHICAGO (Reuters) -Uber is not liable for the sexual assault of a woman who said she was attacked by her driver on a ride she ordered from the app, a California jury said on Tuesday, according to an attorney for the plaintiff. At the end of a three-week civil trial in San Francisco Superior Court, the jury rejected the woman’s argument that Uber was to blame for her assault. The case was the first to go to trial out of more than 500 lawsuits consolidated in California state court. There are also more than 2,500 lawsuits making similar claims that have been centralized in a federal court in California.  The woman, who went by Jessica C. at trial, sued in 2021, claiming she was assaulted by an Uber driver in 2016. During the ride, her driver pulled off on a side street, restraining, groping and kissing her, according to her attorneys. Her lawsuit was chosen to serve as the first "bellwether" for the state court litigation. In litigation with many plaintiffs asserting similar claims, bellwether trials are used to test the claims and establish what they may be worth. Judges may use the outcome of the trial to manage the remaining cases, or lawyers can use them to inform settlement negotiations. The woman's attorneys had asked the jury for between $175,000 and $1.2 million in compensatory damages for each year of her life, suggesting larger figures for the years closest to the assault. They did not suggest a number for punitive damages.  SAFETY PRACTICES IN THE SPOTLIGHT The lawsuits allege Uber was aware it had a problem with drivers assaulting riders, but kept data on how many assaults took place from the public and did not take action to address the issue. The plaintiffs have argued that Uber knew that things like assigning female riders to female drivers or requiring dash cams to record driver and passenger interactions would reduce assaults, but failed to broadly implement such programs. Uber has maintained it should not be liable for criminal conduct by the drivers it connects with passengers, and that its background checks and disclosures about assaults were sufficient. The litigation threatens to reopen wounds from Uber's early years, when the company was dogged by safety controversies, allegations of lax driver vetting, and a culture critics said prioritized growth over protecting passengers. With hundreds of millions of dollars potentially at stake, the outcome could weigh on Uber's balance sheet and complicate its relationships with regulators and investors who have closely tracked its safety record. The company has made safety a central talking point in recent years, publishing U.S. Safety Reports that detail reported sexual assaults, rolling out features such as in-app ride verification, video and audio recording of rides, anomaly detection, and partnering with survivor advocacy groups to reform driver training.  Uber has also touted the formation of a Safety Advisory Board chaired by former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and pledged $10 million through its “Driving Change” initiative to support organizations working to end gender-based violence. Despite these measures, Uber’s safety reputation has remained fragile. In its latest safety report published last year, covering the 2021–2022 period, Uber said reports of serious sexual assault on its platform have fallen by 44% since its first report in 2017–2018. But with thousands of cases still documented, critics say systemic risks remain. Prompted by an August New York Times report on the issue, a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee sent a letter last week to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi seeking information on the company’s protocols for responding to and preventing sexual assaults on its rides. (Reporting by Diana Novak Jones in Chicago and Akash Sriram in Bangalore; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan will not agree to a deal with the United States for half of all semiconductor production to take place in the country, the island's top tariff negotiator said on Wednesday after returning home. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick told U.S. television network News Nation over the weekend that Washington's pitch to Taiwan would be a 50-50 split in making chips, the vast majority of which are now made on the island. Taiwan Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, told reporters upon getting back to the island that she had not discussed the 50-50 idea suggested by the U.S. during the talks. "Our negotiating team has never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on chips. Rest assured, we did not discuss this issue during this round of talks, nor would we agree to such conditions," she said, according to Taiwan's official Central News Agency. Neither the U.S. Commerce Department nor the Office of the United States Trade Representative responded to requests for comment sent outside of U.S. business hours. Taiwan, home to the world's biggest contract chipmaker TSMC, runs a large trade surplus with the United States. The island's exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff. TSMC, whose business is surging on strong demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing $165 billion to build chip factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, though the bulk of its production will remain in Taiwan. Taiwan's government said last month that it hoped for a more favourable tariff rate from the United States after talks achieved "certain progress". Speaking in parliament in Taipei on Tuesday, Premier Cho Jung-tai said Cheng had had multiple talks with the United States on tariff issues. "The most critical substantive consultations are currently underway," he said. Cheng, speaking at the airport, said that "detailed" discussions had taken place which yielded "certain progress", the Central News Agency added. (Reporting by Ben BlanchardEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday he was concerned about a report that China's state iron ore buyer had taken steps to pause purchases of iron ore cargoes from miner BHP. Bloomberg News, citing people familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday that state-owned China Mineral Resources Group (CMRG) had asked the country's steelmakers and traders to pause purchases of BHP's dollar-denominated seaborne iron ore cargoes during annual price negotiations. "I am concerned about that and what we want to make sure is that markets operate properly," Albanese told reporters. "We have seen those issues in the past. I want to see Australian iron ore to be able to be exported to China without hindrance." CMRG has not responded to an emailed request for comment. A BHP spokesperson said on Tuesday the company does not comment on commercial negotiations. Albanese said he hoped the issue would be resolved quickly and acknowledged differences could happen during price negotiations. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he would set up a meeting with BHP CEO Mike Henry. Iron ore is Australia's most valuable export product, though a government report in June said earnings from that could fall to A$105 billion ($69.39 billion) for the financial year ending in June 2026, from A$116 billion the prior year as global supplies increase. China, the world's largest iron ore consumer, buys about 75% of global seaborne iron ore and set up CMRG three years ago to buy ore on behalf of its steelmakers to gain more leverage as a large, single buyer. BHP is the world's largest listed miner and China's third-biggest iron ore supplier behind Rio Tinto and Vale. ($1 = 1.5131 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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