Sean Astin, who starred in 'Lord of the Rings' and 'Rudy,' is elected as SAG-AFTRA's new president

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The union that represents tens of thousands of actors and other entertainment and media professionals has elected Sean Astin as its new president.

On Friday, SAG-AFTRA elected Astin — an actor who appeared in “The Lord of the Rings,” “Stranger Things” and “Rudy” — to succeed Fran Drescher as its president. Astin is the son of the late Academy Award-winning actress Patty Duke and John Astin, who starred in the 1960s TV series “The Addams Family.”

Sean Astin defeated Chuck Slavin in a 79% to 21% vote. Michelle Hurd was elected secretary-treasurer.

Patty Duke, Sean Astin's mother, served as the Screen Actors Guild’s president from 1985-1988.

According to its website, SAG-AFTRA brings together Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. It represents approximately 160,000 actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, program hosts, recording artists and others.

Under Drescher, the union has navigated a pair of strikes involving film and television actors and a separate one involving video game and interactive media performers.

An earlier version of this story included a headline that misspelled Patty Duke’s first name.

Sean Astin attends the premiere of "The Choral" at Roy Thomson Hall during the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs if they don’t back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a message that came as a Congressional delegation met Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen and sought to lower tensions.

Trump for months has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” he said Friday, without providing details. “We need Greenland for national security.”

He had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.

Earlier this week, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington this week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to promote investment in rural health care in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)