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TAIPEI/WASHINGTON – Unable to just pick up the telephone to US President Donald Trump due to its unusual diplomatic predicament, Taiwan has hit upon a different way to bend his ear – an outreach to the MAGA world that has been backed by the White House.

Since taking office earlier this year, Trump has vacillated on his position towards China-claimed Taiwan as he seeks to strike a trade deal with Beijing. Trump says Chinese President Xi Jinping has told him he won’t invade while the Republican leader is in office, but is also yet to approve any new US arms sales to Taipei.

The fear in Taipei, which has long enjoyed strong unofficial support from Washington, is that a Trump-Xi meeting next week in South Korea could see some sort of “selling out” of Taiwan’s interests by Trump to Xi.

Four senior Taiwan officials described ongoing jitters over those talks and feeding into a “US skepticism” theory on the island that questions Washington’s security support.

In turn, they said, Taipei is reaching out through all possible channels to make clear its determination to defend itself is heard, especially by “Make America Great Again” supporters.

“Everyone in Taiwan is worried and it is the government’s job to make sure that it will not happen,” a senior Taiwan official told Reuters, referring to fears Trump could sacrifice Taiwan’s interests in talks with Xi.

Locked out of the White House given lack of formal diplomatic ties, Lai and his team have been courting conservative US media, including podcaster and radio host Buck Sexton, who interviewed Lai this month.

“We cannot simply call up Trump, so we have had to find other ways to talk to him,” said a second Taiwan official, who like the others spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.

One US administration official told Reuters that members of the Trump administration had encouraged Taiwan to engage with “new media” so it can engage with “real Americans instead of liberal elites”.

The US and Taiwan have a deep partnership on security, technology and manufacturing, and the government is in “close and continuous contact” with Taiwan at many levels, the official added.

COURTING MAGA
Lai told Sexton, from The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, that Trump should get a Nobel Peace Prize – an award Trump has lobbied for – if he can convince China to abandon the use of force over Taiwan.

Sexton, whose show airs on hundreds of US radio stations, did a separate segment lauding the island.

“Highly recommend any Americans visit. They’re big fans of USA here,” Sexton, who has described US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “our friend”, wrote from Taipei on X, where the post on the interview itself got more than 150,000 views.

A third Taiwanese official told Reuters the interview was “very positive” for Taiwan.

In June, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim, a fluent English speaker and formerly Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the United States, gave an interview to the Shawn Ryan Show, while in May, then Presidential Office spokesperson Lii Wen wrote an op-ed in the conservative Washington Times.

Taiwan’s presidential office told Reuters that communication with the United States was “smooth” and that Taiwan will continue to seek bipartisan and consistent US support.

“As for building broad, cross-party pro-Taiwan networks among our international friends and allies, including the United States, this has always been an important task of the governing team,” it said.

A US State Department spokesperson said the administration has been very clear that the “enduring US commitment to Taiwan continues, as it has for over four decades”.

KEY ALLIES GONE
Still, Taiwan has lost some key allies in the US national security system, including former Trump adviser John Bolton, charged this month with sharing classified information, charges he disputes. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, however, remains a strong supporter of Taipei.

In an effort to keep the Trump administration onside, Taiwan has been keen to underscore its commitment to spending more on defence.

“Ensuring peace through strength and boosting security through cooperation is our goal,” Lai this month told visiting foreign guests, including Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, who were in Taipei for a security forum.

Schlapp himself told the forum, organised by a Taiwan military-funded think-tank, that Taiwan and the US had a security partnership “that should not be diminished: that President Trump understands – he’s an ally in that fight”.

The State Department spokesperson said the US strongly supports Taiwan’s own efforts to bolster defence and deterrence through reforms and a commitment to increasing defence spending.

The administration has continued to give succour to Taiwan in other ways.

That includes allowing Taiwan’s foreign minister to visit New York last month while the U.N. General Assembly was taking place, and condemning China for “mischaracterising” World War Two-era documents to put pressure on, and isolate, Taiwan.

“The United States cannot abandon Taiwan. America’s greatness stems from its vital strategic importance, which is intrinsically linked to Taiwan,” the first Taiwan official said.– Reuters

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Thursday all trade talks with Canada were terminated following what he called a fraudulent advertisement in which former and late President Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs.

Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and autos earlier this year, prompting Ottawa to respond in kind. The two sides have been in talks for weeks on a potential deal for the steel and aluminum sectors.

“Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week the ad from his province with anti-tariff messaging had caught Trump’s attention. The ad showed Reagan, a Republican, criticizing tariffs on foreign goods while saying they caused job losses and trade wars.

“I heard that the president heard our ad. I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said on Tuesday.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation issued a statement late on Thursday saying the ad by the government of Ontario was “using selective audio and video” of Reagan and that the foundation was reviewing its legal options.

“The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address (by Reagan in 1987), and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks,” the foundation said in its statement.

The Canadian government had no immediate comment.

Trump has used tariffs as leverage on many countries around the world.

Trump’s trade war has increased US tariffs to their highest levels since the 1930s and he has regularly threatened more duties, sparking concerns among businesses and economists.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters on Thursday that Canada will not allow unfair US access to its markets if talks on various trade deals with Washington fail.

Next year, the US, Canada and Mexico are due to review their 2020 continental free-trade agreement. — Reuters

PARIS — Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be put behind bars on Tuesday, starting a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, in a stunning downfall for a leader once known for his swagger and taste for the global spotlight.

Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, will become the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after World War Two.

“I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper ahead of his incarceration.

ACCESS TO TV, LANDLINE AND PRIVATE SHOWER
The conviction caps years of legal battles over allegations that his 2007 campaign took millions in cash from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings.

While Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring with close aides to orchestrate the scheme, he was acquitted of personally receiving or using the funds.

He has consistently denied wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated, saying judges were seeking to humiliate him. He has appealed, but the nature of his sentence means he must go to jail as his appeal process plays out.

The former president has already been convicted in a separate corruption case, in which he was found guilty of trying to obtain confidential information from a judge in return for career favors, serving that sentence by wearing an electronic tag around the ankle.

At La Santé prison in Paris, which in the past has housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, Sarkozy will likely be held in the isolation unit, where inmates are housed in single cells and kept apart during outdoor activities for security reasons.

Conditions are similar to the rest of the prison: cells measure 9 to 12 square meters and, following renovations, now include private showers.

Sarkozy will have access to a television – for a monthly fee of 14 euros ($16) – and a landline telephone.

“THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” ON READING LIST
Sarkozy told Le Figaro he would take three books for his first week behind bars, including Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo” – the story of a man unjustly imprisoned who plots his revenge against those who betrayed him.

The decision to jail a former president has sparked outrage among Sarkozy’s political allies and the far right.

However, the ruling reflects a shift in France’s approach to white-collar crime, following reforms introduced under a previous Socialist government. In the 1990s and 2000s, many convicted politicians avoided prison altogether.

To counter perceptions of impunity, French judges are increasingly issuing “provisional execution” orders – requiring sentences to begin immediately, even as appeals are pending – legal experts and politicians told Reuters.

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office under the same “provisional execution” provision, pending an appeal early next year.

According to an October 1 Elabe poll for BFM TV, 58% of French respondents believe the verdict was impartial, and 61% support the decision to send Sarkozy to jail without waiting for the appeal.

President Emmanuel Macron, who had warm relations with Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, said on Monday he had met Sarkozy ahead of his incarceration.— Reuters

The head of Belarus’s security agency said his institution was trying to build contacts with Ukraine to help achieve a settlement of its more than 3-1/2-year-old war with Russia, the country’s state news agency reported on Sunday.

Ivan Tertel’s comments to state television followed reports last week that a senior Belarusian diplomat had held meetings with Europeans to try to ease the isolation long imposed on his country, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Tertel, whose remarks were reported by the Belta news agency, said meetings with Ukrainian officials were vital “in the current situation in order to come up with a consensus”.

“This work is also going on. Of course, a lot here depends on the Ukrainian side. Our president is working as much as he can to stabilize the situation in the region,” said Tertel, whose agency still uses its Soviet-era acronym KGB.

“And we have found a balance of the two sides’ interests in this very complicated situation with a tendency towards tension. I am convinced that we can eliminate this situation only through quiet talks and the search for compromise.”

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed the Kremlin to use his country’s territory to launch part of the 2022 war with Ukraine, but has kept his armed forces out of the conflict.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has long been shunned by the West on grounds of human rights violations. Punitive measures intensified after security forces crushed rallies by protesters accusing the president of rigging his 2020 re-election and again because of his support for the invasion.

But US President Donald Trump has appealed to Lukashenko in recent months, calling him a “highly respected leader” and sending an envoy to Minsk, which led to the release of more than 50 political prisoners.

Belarusian media quoted Lukashenko last month as saying that he wanted to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to help facilitate a settlement of the war.— Reuters

WASHINGTON – The US budget deficit shrank by $41 billion to $1.775 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year as an increase in revenue from President Donald Trump’s tariffs and cuts to education spending helped offset higher outlays on healthcare and retirement programs and interest on the debt, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.

The results for the year ended September 30, which include nearly nine months of Trump’s second term in the White House, compared to a $1.817 trillion deficit in fiscal 2024. It was the first time the annual deficit had fallen since 2022, when the unwinding of COVID-19 relief programs brought spending down.

The smaller deficit was aided by a record $195 billion in net customs receipts for the fiscal year, an increase of $118 billion from the prior year as new Trump tariffs rolled in.

Customs receipts in September reached a new record high of $29.7 billion, but the pace of increase slowed from August, when $29.5 billion was collected. Customs receipts were $7.3 billion in September 2024.

But this powerful new revenue source was partly offset by a $79 billion reduction in gross corporate tax collections for fiscal 2025, to $486 billion. About $45 billion of that reduction occurred in September, reflecting implementation of full capital equipment expensing and research deductions made retroactive to January 1 in the spending and tax-cut bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in July.

Total receipts for fiscal 2025 were a record $5.235 trillion, up $317 billion, or 6%, from fiscal 2024, largely driven by increases in withheld and non-withheld individual tax collections.

Fiscal 2025 outlays also were a record at $7.01 trillion, up $275 billion, or 4%, from the prior year.

A US Treasury official said the department calculated an estimated deficit-to-GDP ratio of 5.9% for fiscal 2025, compared to an actual fiscal 2024 ratio of 6.3%. The official declined to say what GDP estimate was used to calculate the ratio. Data on third-quarter GDP, which would be close out the 2025 fiscal year, has been delayed by the partial US government shutdown.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday that he wants to bring the ratio down to the 3% range by boosting economic growth and cutting or constraining spending.

Budget analysts said the number released on Thursday showed little progress toward that goal.

“Most of the fiscal policy changes are simply replacing tax revenue and spending with other sources without lowering the deficit,” said Kent Smetters, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis group. “So, we are still very much on an unsustainable path.”

TREASURY REPORTS SURPLUS FOR SEPTEMBER
For the 2025 fiscal year’s final month of September, the Treasury reported a record surplus of $198 billion, up $118 billion, or 147%, from the same month in the prior year. September is often a month of surplus due to quarterly tax filing deadlines for companies and individuals.

Receipts last month were up $17 billion, or 3%, to $544 billion, while outlays were down $101 billion, or 23%, to $346 billion.

The latest monthly surplus was boosted by a $131 billion cut to the Department of Education budget that was mandated in the recent spending and tax bill. For September, the education outlays were $123 billion lower than in September 2024.

For the full 2025 fiscal year, the Department of Education suffered the biggest cut in outlays, down $233 billion, or 87% from the prior year to just $35 billion.

That cut and the higher customs receipts masked continued increases in outlays for the Social Security retirement plan, the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs and interest on the US federal debt.

The interest expenditure reached a record $1.216 trillion for the full fiscal year, up $83 billion, or 7%, from fiscal 2024, making it the second-largest expenditure item after Social Security. Expenses for that program reached $1.647 trillion, up $127 billion, or 8%, from the prior fiscal year.

“There’s good news that the tariffs are generating higher revenue, but all major categories of spending are higher with mandatory spending and interest significantly so. The fundamentals remain deeply troubling,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. — Reuters

PARIS – Hours after his latest prime minister was forced to resign — unable to form a cabinet that lasted more than a day — French President Emmanuel Macron was spotted walking alone by the Seine in the chilly autumn morning.

Bodyguards kept their distance ahead and behind as he wandered out through a wrought iron gate onto the stone embankment in a black overcoat.

The scene, captured from afar on video and shown on French TV, evoked images of Charles de Gaulle seeking solace in the wind-swept plains of Ireland after his resignation in the late 1960s — a leader retreating inward as his political era drew to a close.

Macron is president until 2027, but the resignation of Sebastien Lecornu, his fifth prime minister in two years, has raised the chances that the one-time golden boy of French politics fails to make it to the end of his final term.

Macron appeared determined to avoid that fate on Monday, giving Lecornu two days for last-ditch talks with the opposition to try to chart a path out of the morass.

By asking Lecornu to give it one last shot, Macron signalled his distaste for the only other options he faces – fresh parliamentary elections that could hand power to the far right, or his own resignation, a measure he has repeatedly ruled out.

As his options have narrowed, the unpopular Macron has become increasingly isolated domestically, watching erstwhile allies distance themselves as they seek to bolster their own chances of succeeding him in the 2027 election.

Nearly half of French people blame Macron for the current crisis, while 51% of them believe his resignation could break the stalemate, according to an Elabe poll for BFMTV on Monday.

“Macron now finds himself isolated, without direction or support. He must draw the consequences: either resignation or dissolution,” far-right National Rally lawmaker Philippe Ballard posted on X.

FAILED 2024 ELECTION DECISION SPARKED ONGOING CRISIS
Since last year’s failed gamble to call a snap legislative vote, which produced a hung parliament split between three ideologically opposed blocs, Macron has tried to muddle through with minority cabinets.

Determined to preserve his economic legacy of tax cuts and a pension overhaul at a time of growing investor concern about France’s yawning deficit, Macron has appointed premiers from an ad-hoc alliance of conservatives and centrists.

For over a year, these governments struggled to pass deficit-reduction measures. Two prime ministers fell over their inability to fix public finances, but the so-called socle commun — or “common platform” — endured.

That changed with the dramatic rebellion of Bruno Retailleau, the conservatives’ most high-profile figure, who late on Sunday publicly criticised Lecornu’s cabinet hours after it was named.

Macron is hoping Lecornu can lure back the conservatives to the table, giving him a lifeline. If not, he could appoint a left-leaning prime minister, but the Socialists’ insistence on a wealth tax and reversing the pension reform makes them a hard sell for other parties.

PRESSURE ON MACRON NOT GOING AWAY
Despite Monday’s appeal to Lecornu, the pressure on Macron is unlikely to let up.

Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN)quickly called for a dissolution of parliament and new elections. Polls show her party leads voting intentions.

“The RN benefits from the centre’s collapse and picks up protest votes, seeing dissolution as a unique opportunity to finally govern,” said political analyst Stewart Chau.

Calls for Macron’s resignation, once confined to the fringes, are now entering the mainstream.

“France’s national interest demands that Emmanuel Macron set a date for his resignation, in order to preserve the institutions and unblock a situation that has been unavoidable since the absurd dissolution,” said David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes and a rising conservative figure, on social media.

Macron has repeatedly said he intends to serve out his full term. But faced with few palatable options, he may yet choose to end his presidency with a dramatic gesture — just like de Gaulle, who stepped down in 1969. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – As President Donald Trump’s regulators revamp bank rules, big lenders expect their capital requirements could fall, in a stunning victory for the industry which faced a big hike under former President Joe Biden, according to senior industry executives.

Aiming to cut red tape that Trump’s agency picks say is hurting the US economy, they are working on the most sweeping overhaul of US capital rules since the global financial crisis of 2008.

In addition to narrowing the “Basel Endgame” capital hikes which sparked unprecedented pushback from Wall Street banks, the Fed plans to reduce a capital surcharge levied on risky global banks, shrink a key leverage constraint, and overhaul annual tests that gauge whether lenders can withstand an economic shock.

The country’s largest lenders, which have lobbied hard for the long-sought review, are optimistic that the changes combined will result in their capital levels remaining flat or falling, said six industry and regulatory sources, including three top bankers.

That expected outcome, reported here for the first time, marks a dramatic turnaround for the industry which faced a 19% hike in 2023 under the draft Basel capital rules which proposed changes to how big banks gauge lending and trading risks.

While the Fed last September said that hike would be halved, the plan was never finalized and died with Trump’s election.

Big banks have long complained that capital rules are excessive and poorly calibrated, and that some of that cash could better serve the economy through lending. They also argue that they weathered the COVID-19 economic shock just fine.

Critics say efforts to chip away at the capital regime are dangerous, and could leave the industry vulnerable at a time when the outlook for the US economy is growing cloudy.

With big banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup together holding around $1 trillion in capital, even a small dip could free up billions of dollars for lending, trading, dividends and share buybacks.

“You’re going to see here the most aggressive streamlining or easing of bank regulations that we’ve seen certainly since Dodd-Frank and probably sometime before that,” said Ian Katz, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners, referring to the landmark 2010 post-crisis law that overhauled bank rules.

A Fed spokesperson declined to comment. The Fed’s new regulatory chief, Michelle Bowman, said last week that she wants the rules to “work well together” and did not necessarily expect capital to fall. Regulators will unveil a new Basel draft by early 2026, she added.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which are also working on the Basel draft, also declined to comment.

“America’s largest banks are the strongest in the world,” said Amanda Eversole, CEO of the Financial Services Forum which represents the country’s eight biggest banks. “Modernizing capital rules will let them put that strength to work – fueling growth for consumers, small businesses, and the economy.”

‘EXTREMELY CONSEQUENTIAL’
The sources, who declined to be identified discussing confidential regulatory issues, said they expect the new Basel draft to be broadly “capital-neutral” at a minimum. That means it would neither increase nor decrease system-wide capital, but change how it is distributed.

Trump’s pick for FDIC chair, Travis Hill, in January said “roughly” capital-neutral would be a “prudent starting point.”

To get there, regulators are expected to abandon a “dual stack” that would have required banks to comply with the stricter of two methods for measuring their risk capital which penalized banks with large trading businesses, and to ease a requirement to put capital aside for operational risks, like cyberattacks or lawsuits, two of the people said.

Capital reductions could then come as the Fed updates the “GSIB” surcharge to better account for economic growth, and as regulators tailor the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio, a risk-blind capital safety net, to each individual bank, three of the sources said.

After the industry sued the Fed in December, the central bank is also working to make its stress tests, which partly determine big lenders’ capital buffers, more transparent, likely helping them to optimize their results.

Two of the sources cautioned, however, that the regulatory discussions are ongoing and that Democrats on the Fed board may oppose changes that are too favorable to the industry.

Based on an analysis of industry materials, Washington-based group Better Markets, which advocates for tougher financial rules, estimates that banking system capital could fall by $200 billion if the industry secures all the relief it has been pushing for.

“It’s huge and extremely consequential,” said Phillip Basil, director of economic growth and financial stability at Better Markets. “It’s going to take a lot less to bring down a big bank.” — Reuters US

AMSTERDAM – Climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat to the natural resources that Europe needs for its economic security, the EU’s environmental agency said on Monday.

The European Environment Agency said biodiversity in Europe is declining due to unsustainable production and consumption, especially in the food system.

Due to over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution and invasive alien species, more than 80% of protected habitats are in a poor or bad state, it said, while water resources are also under severe pressure.

EUROPE’S FASTEST-WARMING CONTINENT
“The degradation of our natural world jeopardises the European way of life,” the agency said in its report: “Europe’s environment 2025”.

“Europe is critically dependent on natural resources for economic security, to which climate change and environmental degradation pose a direct threat.”

Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent and is experiencing worsening droughts and other extreme weather events.

But governments are grappling with other priorities including industrial competitiveness, and negotiations on EU climate targets have stoked divisions between richer and poorer countries.

EU countries last week confirmed that the bloc will miss a global deadline to set new emissions-cutting targets due to divisions over the plans among EU governments.

“The window for meaningful action is narrowing, and the consequences of delay are becoming more tangible,” executive director Leena Yla-Mononen said.

“We are approaching tipping points – not only in ecosystems, but also in the social and economic systems that underpin our societies.” — Reuters

US President Donald Trump celebrated the suspension of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel from the airwaves and said TV broadcasters should lose their licenses over negative coverage of his administration, adding fuel to a national debate over free speech.

Kimmel was embroiled in the effort by Trump and his supporters to punish critics of assassinated right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot with a rifle from afar while speaking to a crowd at a Utah university on September 10. Since then allies of Trump and Kirk have warned Americans to properly mourn the divisive figure or face the consequences.

The broadcaster ABC announced on Wednesday that it was yanking the late-night comedy show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” indefinitely. Writers, performers, former US President Barack Obama and others condemned Kimmel’s suspension, calling it capitulation to unconstitutional government pressure.

The American debate followed Trump to Britain on Thursday, when during his state visit he said Kimmel had been punished for saying “a horrible thing” about Kirk.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his office and the courts to attack unflattering speech about him that he has called defamatory or false. Throughout both his terms, Trump has threatened to rescind licenses for local broadcast affiliates of the national networks – licenses that are approved by the Federal Communications Commission, a nominally independent regulatory body.

Kimmel’s suspension came after owners of local TV stations had said they would stop broadcasting his celebrity-filled late-night show, and the FCC Chair Brendan Carr threatened to investigate Kimmel’s commentary about Kirk.

Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to the US, complained about receiving bad publicity from broadcasters, saying, “That’s something that should be talked about for licensing. … All they do is hit Trump.”

“I would think maybe their license should be taken away,” Trump said, although federal law prohibits the FCC from revoking a broadcaster’s license for negative coverage or other speech disliked by the government. “It will be up to Brendan Carr.”

Kimmel, a comedian who frequently lampoons Trump, said during his nine-minute opening monologue on Monday that allies of Kirk were using his assassination last week to “score political points.” Kirk, 31, was shot onstage while holding one of his frequent public debates with students over his political views in an event organized by his pro-Trump advocacy group, Turning Point USA.

A 22-year-old technical college student from Utah was charged with Kirk’s murder on Tuesday.

“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and do everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said.

Trump countered that Kimmel was untalented, had bad ratings, and “said a horrible thing about a great gentleman known as Charlie Kirk.”

“So, you know, you can call that free speech or not,” Trump said as he stood alongside British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “He was fired for lack of talent.” ABC has not said that it fired Kimmel, who has not commented on his removal from air.

Viewership of late-night shows and traditional TV in general has declined as audiences shift to streaming and social media. “Jimmy Kimmel Live” averaged 1.57 million viewers per episode for the TV season that ended in May, according to Nielsen.

In the week since Kirk’s murder, Kimmel is the most famous American to face professional blowback for comments condemned by conservatives as disrespectful of Kirk, alongside media figures, academic workers, teachers and corporate employees.

Prominent Democrats said Trump was mounting an assault on free speech rights guaranteed in the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Republicans have said they are fighting against “hate speech” that can spiral into violence, and accuse some Kirk critics of trying to justify his murder.

OBAMA JOINS CHORUS OF CRITICS
Obama urged media companies not to capitulate to government coercion.
“After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like,” Obama said in a statement.

Writers’ and actors’ labor unions called the targeting of Kimmel an unconstitutional attack on the right to disagree. The American Civil Liberties Union called it an unconstitutional attempt by the Trump administration to “silence its critics and control what the American people watch and read.”

Kirk’s death spurred an outpouring of grief among fans who saw him as a staunch advocate for public debate and conservative values. Others have challenged or derided Kirk’s support for right-wing politics and Christian nationalism and derogatory comments he has made about immigrants, African Americans, leftists and transgender people.

Hours before Kimmel’s suspension on Wednesday, Carr urged local broadcasters to stop airing the show.

Following Carr’s comments on the Benny Johnson podcast, two of the largest owners of local broadcasters – Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcast Group, both of which have merger deals pending before the FCC – then announced they would preempt Kimmel’s show with other programming in response to Monday’s monologue.

ABC, owned by Walt Disney, announced it was suspending Kimmel’s show indefinitely. ABC owns eight local TV channels subject to FCC licensing, including broadcasters in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden made the decision to suspend Kimmel’s show, a source with knowledge of the matter said. — Reuters

WASHINGTON – The US economy is showing some strains after years of resilience, with domestic demand moderating and job growth slowing, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said inflation was on a path to meet the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, but there were some risks that could push it higher, largely as a result of tariffs imposed on imports by the Trump administration.

“What we’ve seen over the past few years is that the US economy has proven to be quite resilient. We do see now that some strains are beginning to show,” she told a regular briefing. “Domestic demand has been moderating in the US, and job growth is slowing.”

Kozack said the front-loading of imports early in the year in anticipation of tariffs had caused some volatility in economic activity in the first half, and tariffs were now adding to inflation risks.

As a result of the combined factors, she said, the IMF saw scope for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, although it should proceed cautiously, with an eye on emerging data.

She told a regular briefing that a downward revision in US employment data announced on Tuesday was a “bit larger” than the historical average.

The US government said 911,000 fewer jobs were likely created in the 12 months through March than previously estimated, suggesting that job growth was stalling before President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs on imports.

Such revisions could be driven by a variety of factors, including statistical issues and some related to response and survey errors, she said, adding the issue would be discussed during the scheduled IMF review of the US economy in November.

The Labor Department’s inspector general on Wednesday said it was initiating a review of challenges that the Bureau of Labor Statistics faces in collecting and reporting US economic data after it made large downward revisions to nonfarm payrolls and cut its inflation data collection.

Earlier sharp downgrades to May and June payroll figures angered Trump, prompting him to fire BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer and accuse her, without evidence, of faking the data. Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni, chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, to replace her.

Kozack refused to be drawn on the credibility of US data, saying only that the IMF strongly advocated for accurate, timely and reliable data from all its members.

“This kind of data transparency strengthens the credibility of economic management in all countries,” she said. — Reuters US