Bradie Tennell felt it was time to show a new side of her personality on the ice.

Tennell's usual clean and efficient short program was enough to take the women's short program Thursday night at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. To the 2018 American champion, it was a departure from her normal performances.

``It's fun and tacky,'' Tennell said after being so solid that she beat 2019 winner Alysa Liu in a bit of a surprise. ``It's fun to put that into my skating and explore that side.

``I kind of just lost myself in the performance. In warmup I felt shaky. I had to remind myself that I do this every day, so there's no need to be nervous.''

Despite an elbow infection that required treatment on Wednesday after Tennell couldn't straighten her arm for the pain, she earned 78.96 points.

``I am proud of how I skated,'' Tennell said. ``I love the program, it really embodies me.''

There's nothing wrong with Tennell's style at nationals, but it tends to get overshadowed on the international scene. Of course, that's not a concern this week.

``Luckily, I don't have to compete against them here,'' Tennell said with a smile when asked about the Russian jumping machines who dominate the sport.

The youngest U.S. winner last year at age 13 — she's not even eligible for senior international events yet — Liu is more daring with her jumps than any other American. She landed a triple axel, the only one of the competition, but stepped out on the landing, which was costly.

She was 3.56 points in back of Tennell.

``I did make a few mistakes, but that's how you learn,'' Liu said.

She will skate last in Friday night's free skate, which doesn't affect her at all.

``I don't care where I skate,'' she added with a smile.

Mariah Bell took third and might have challenged Liu had she not fallen at the end of her footwork. Bell shook her head as if to scold herself for such a bobble.

``Today, it felt really good,'' Bell said of her program. ``Maybe too good, and that's why I had that mistake.''

Two-time U.S. champion and 2014 Olympic team bronze medalist Gracie Gold, attempting a comeback after mental health issues derailed her career, was 13th. She drew a heartfelt ovation from the crowd at the end of her error-filled routine.

Gold said that considering where she was when she began her return, the night was a nine out of 10. As for the performance, after a long pause she rated it "three out of 10. OK, four."

Glenn had her best performance at nationals, an energetic and fast-paced routine that had her overcome with emotion when she was done.

Earlier, Olympians Alexa and Chris Knierim, coming off a poor season, put that disappointment far behind them in winning the pairs short program.

The husband/wife couple that helped the United States win a bronze medal at the team event of the 2018 Games in South Korea, took a lead of nearly seven points with what they both said was a long-sought clean performance.

``It was nice to be comfortable on the ice and put out a great short program,'' he said. ``Nothing felt easy going through it, but regardless we know we can put out a program like that. For us, it's been a long road to get here.''

hat road included a dismal 2018-19 campaign in which they changed coaches and locations, basically, Alexa said, living out of suitcases. It came a season after they won their second U.S. crown and was marked by a seventh-place finish at nationals last January.

They didn't have strong fall showings either, but they were ready Thursday. Their triple twist was huge, as was their throw triple flip. The Knierims cleanly landed their side-by-side triple toe loops, often a major obstacle for them.

``We've been driven to skate like this and it always seemed something would get in the way,'' Alexa Knierim said. ``It's been a while since we skated like that.''

Tarah Kayne and Danny O'Shea te 2016 national champs, were second at 70.35 points. Defending champion Ashley Cain-Gribble and Timothy LeDuc were third at 68.86.

The free skate is Saturday.

"Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra confronted Harvey Weinstein from the witness stand Thursday, testifying that the former Hollywood studio boss overpowered and raped her and made other crude overtures that included sending her X-rated chocolates and showing up uninvited in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a video in the other.

In a quivering voice, Sciorra told the jury that the burly Weinstein barged into her apartment in the mid-1990s, threw her on a bed and forced himself on her as she tried to fight him off by kicking and punching him.

She said that roughly a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened, and he replied: "That's what all the nice Catholic girls say."

Then, she told the jury, Weinstein leaned toward her and added menacingly: "This remains between you and I."

"His eyes went black and I thought he was going to hit me right there," Sciorra testified.

The 59-year-old actress became the first of Weinstein's accusers to testify at his trial, where the movie mogul whose downfall gave rise to the #MeToo movement is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his New York apartment in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in a hotel room in 2013.

Weinstein's lawyers sought to sow doubts about Sciorra's story, raising questions about her actions after the alleged rape and asking whether she had once described the encounter as "awkward sex," which she denied.

Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra, whose accusations date too far back to be prosecuted. Instead, she testified as one of four additional accusers prosecutors intend to put on the stand to show that the powerful Hollywood producer had a habit of preying on women.

Generally, prosecutors cannot bring up alleged crimes beyond the charges at a trial, but such evidence can be allowed if it shows a certain pattern of behavior. Five additional accusers were allowed to testify against Bill Cosby at the Pennsylvania trial that led to his 2018 conviction for sexually assaulting a woman.

Weinstein, 67, could get  life in prison if convicted.

The executive behind such Oscar-winning movies as "Pulp Fiction" and "Shakespeare in Love" has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.

Recounting an accusation she said she kept largely secret for decades, Sciorra testified that after raping her, Weinstein went on to try to perform oral sex on her, saying, "This is for you," as her body "shut down."

"It was just so disgusting," she said. She said she started to shake: "I didn't even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something."

At other points in the 1990s, she said, Weinstein sent her packages with Valium and a box of chocolate penises and turned up early one morning at her Cannes Film Festival hotel room in his underwear with the body oil and the videotape. She said he left after she frantically pushed buttons on the room phone to summon help.

The jury of seven men and five women  listened keenly and took notes on her testimony. Weinstein was mostly expressionless, sometimes appearing to purse his lips as he chewed mints.

During cross-examination, Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno noted that Sciorra never went to police or a doctor about the alleged rape.

"At the time, I didn't understand that that was rape," Sciorra said. She testified earlier that she once thought rape was a crime of strangers.

"I thought he was an OK guy. I felt confused. I felt like I wished I never opened the door," she said.

Rotunno also suggested that Sciorra's judgment and recollection were clouded by drinking — the actress replied that she remembered having only a glass of wine with dinner — and played a 1997 clip of Sciorra playfully telling late-night host David Letterman that she sometimes had fun with the media by making up stories such as her father raising iguanas for circuses.

Sciorra said she would never lie about something as serious as sexual assault.

The defense also highlighted an August 2017 text message in which Sciorra told a friend she was broke and was "hoping Harvey has a job for me."

The actress said she was just "fishing" to try to find out through the friend whether Weinstein knew that a reporter had gotten wind of her accusations. They were first published in The New Yorker two months later.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they come forward publicly.

Sciorra drew acclaim for her part in Spike Lee's 1991 movie "Jungle Fever" and her role as a pregnant woman molested by her doctor in 1992's "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle." She later appeared in a few episodes of "The Sopranos."

She said she met Weinstein at an industry event in Los Angeles in 1990 or 1991. By 1993, she had starred in one of his company's movies, the romantic comedy "The Night We Never Met."

She said the rape happened in late 1993 or early 1994, after Weinstein dropped her off from a movie-business dinner and then appeared, uninvited, at her door minutes later.

Sciorra later acted in another Weinstein-produced picture, 1997's "Cop Land," though she said she didn't realize when auditioning that his studio was involved.

She told no one at first about the alleged rape, not even her brothers, she said.

"I wanted to pretend it never happened," she said. "I wanted to get back to my life."

A nine-day solo photography exhibition on internationally famed Bangladeshi artist Shahabuddin Ahmed titled ‘Shahabuddin: The Painter, The Fighter’ by Iftekhar Wahid Iftee began at the Zainul Gallery of the Fine Art Faculty of Dhaka University (DU) on Thursday.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan inaugurated the exhibition as the chief guest while National Professor Anisuzzaman presided over the inaugural ceremony.

Thanking the organisers, the minister said Shahabuddin Ahmed is not only an artist or painter but also a national hero of the country who explored Bangladesh across the world. “He always tries to uphold the local culture, dance and rural life through his work.”

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhi have always been Shahabuddin’s ideals, he said.

Hailing Iftee, Asaduzzaman said he is a great photographer who tried to explore the works of the great artist through this exhibition.

Prof Anisuzzaman said Bangabandhu, the architect of the Bangalee nationhood and Bangladesh, is a constant hero of Shahabuddin Ahmed. “He painted Bangabandhu with the zeal of a freedom fighter and portrayed his real spirit.”

Renowned actress Shampa Reza, Managing Director of Omicon Group M Sharif Ul Alam and owner of Sahos Nazmul Huda Ratan were, among others, present.

Chinese thriller "Sheep Without a Shepherd" led the Chinese mainland box office Wednesday, raking in over 12 million yuan (about 1.8 million U.S. dollars) on its 41st day of screening, according to the China Movie Data Information Network Thursday.

The film depicts the story of a father trying to cover up the crime of his daughter, who committed the manslaughter of a police officer's son, dragging her family into struggles against the police.

It was followed by "Ip Man 4," the latest installment in the Chinese martial arts film franchise "Ip Man" based on the life of a legendary Wing Chun master.

The film grossed about 10.03 million yuan, accounting for 23.5 percent of the daily total, with its total box office revenue exceeding 1.17 billion yuan.

Chinese comedy film "Adoring" ranked third with ticket sales of about 7.68 million yuan.

Days before Christmas, acclaimed pianist João Carlos Martins ran to a Sao Paulo bar to show off his new gloves to friends. They were seemingly magical, enabling the 79-year-old to play songs with both hands for the first time in 21 years.

It sounds too good to be true, but the proof is in the playing. Sitting at his Petrof piano in his penthouse, Martins reels off Frédéric Chopin's nocturnes with aplomb. Before the gloves, he could only play songs slowly with his thumbs and, sometimes, his index fingers.

The Brazilian classical pianist and conductor, one of the great interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, announced his retirement last March after more than 20 surgeries — on his arms, fingers and brain — to stop pains from a degenerative disease and a series of accidents. Limited hand movement left him working mostly as a conductor since the early 2000s.

"After I lost my tools, my hands, and couldn't play the piano, it was if there was a corpse inside my chest," Martins told The Associated Press.

Martins' health problems date back to 1965. He famously rebounded after every setback — nerve damage in his arm inflicted during a soccer match in New York, a mugger hitting him over the head with a metal pipe while he toured in Bulgaria, and more. But even friends expected the latest surgery, on his left hand, to mark the end of his days on the piano bench.

That might have been his fate, were it not for a designer who believed the pianist's retirement had come too early. Ubiratã Bizarro Costa created neoprene-covered bionic gloves that bump Martins' fingers upward after they depress the keys, and which are held together by a carbon fiber board.

"I did the first models based on images of his hands, but those were far from ideal," Costa said. "I approached the maestro at the end of a concert in my city of Sumaré, in the Sao Paulo countryside. He quickly noticed they wouldn't work, but then he invited me to his house to develop the project."

Costa and Martins spent the subsequent months testing several prototypes. The perfect match came in December, and cost only about 500 Brazilians reals ($125) to build. Now Martins never takes off his new gloves, even when going to bed.

"I might not recover the speed of the past. I don't know what result I will get. I'm starting over as though I were an 8-year-old learning," he said, joined by his poodle Sebastian. His dog's name, of course, is a tribute to Bach.

The pianist's return was first reported by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo. Reporter Ricardo Kotscho said Martins hurried to the bar near his home before Christmas "like a boy who got a new toy."

Martins said he has received more than 100 gadgets in the last 50 years as miraculous solutions to his hand problems. None worked well or long enough.

"But these gloves do. I can even tune them accordingly," he said, showing how he can rearrange the glove's internal pads to play at a faster or slower tempo. "That doesn't mean it's all sorted. The muscle atrophy plays a role. Sometimes I try to play a speedy one and get depressed because it just doesn't happen yet."

The "extender gloves," as their inventor calls them, gave Martins a goal: Play the piano again at New York's Carnegie Hall in October, when he is scheduled to conduct a concert celebrating the 60th anniversary of his first appearance there.

Martins, meantime, is practicing early in the morning and late at night, to the delight of his neighbors, until he can interpret an entire Bach concert perfectly.

"It could take one, two years. I will keep pushing until that happens," he said. "I won't give up."