Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel had his biggest audience in a decade when he returned to US TV screens a week after pressure from Donald Trump’s government saw him forced off the air, Disney said Wednesday.The comedian was benched by the entertainment giant’s ABC network after officials threatened to yank broadcast licenses, purportedly over comments Kimmel made in the wake of the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.But after a public outcry and complaints from usually reliable Trump allies that this was a government attempt to chill free speech, the suspension was reversed and Kimmel was back on the air on Tuesday, delivering a biting monologue attacking censorship.”A government threat to silence a comedian the president doesn’t like is anti-American,” Kimmel told viewers.”The president of the United States made it very clear he wants to see me and the hundreds of people who work here fired from our jobs. Our leader celebrates Americans losing their livelihoods because he can’t take a joke.”Early figures showed more than six million people tuned in to the broadcast, even as the show remained unavailable to almost a quarter of American households because of a boycott by companies that own local TV stations, Disney said.By comparison, “Jimmy Kimmel Live” drew an average of 1.42 million viewers across its full 2024/2025 season — meaning the audience increased more than threefold Tuesday.It was the show’s best performance in 10 years, Disney added. A further 26 million people watched Tuesday’s monologue on social media, it said.Trump, who frequently complains about negative media coverage and regularly targets Kimmel and other late-night comedians with invective, had celebrated when he was taken off the air, calling it “Great news for America.”Before the show’s return, Trump told reporters Kimmel had “no talent… he had no ratings.””Well,” quipped Kimmel on Tuesday night’s show. “I do tonight.””He tried did his best to cancel me. Instead, he forced millions of people to watch the show. That backfired bigly,” he added to wild studio applause.

Americans exhausted by the firehose of news in 2025 were being offered a brief respite Wednesday, as Fat Bear Week got under way in Alaska.The annual tongue-in-cheek contest pits bears against each other as they stuff themselves with salmon to prepare for months of hibernation.The unwitting competitors — known only by their numbers — battle it out in a series of head-to-head votes, with hundreds of thousands of people around the world expected to cast a ballot.The winner at the end of the week will be the bear voters judge to have piled on the most pounds.The online contest began in 2014 with just a few thousand people voting, but has now turned into an outsize exercise in democracy.Organizers said that around 1.2 million votes were cast from more than 100 countries in Fat Bear Week 2024.”Like a bear’s body mass in late summer, anticipation for the tournament continues to grow,” said a statement from Katmai Conservancy and Explore.org, who organize the contest.”Last year, 128 Grazer won her second Fat Bear Week championship and became the first mother bear to win. Does she have the size and story to earn a three-peat?”Voters compare before-and-after pictures of the enormous animals in Katmai National Park, Alaska to see which one looks best equipped to thrive in the lean months of hibernation.The aim is to raise awareness of brown bears and their habitat in Alaska, and the risks they face from human activity.Around 2,000 bears in the park start chubbing up in late summer and early fall. They can eat up to 100 pounds (45 kilograms) of salmon a day as they prepare for five months of hibernation.During the deep sleep, the animals rarely wake to eat, drink or even go to the toilet, emerging famished — and a lot thinner — in the spring.Voting in this year’s poll — at explore.org/fat-bear-week — closes at 5:00 pm Tuesday in Alaska (0100 GMT Wednesday).

US President Donald Trump mocked Joe Biden Wednesday by putting a picture of a so-called “autopen,” instead of his likeness, in a new gallery of presidential portraits in the White House.Republican Trump has alleged, without evidence, that Biden’s use of the automated technology to sign pardons and other documents was part of a cover-up of the Democrat’s cognitive decline.Now he has doubled down on the allegation by putting a picture of Biden’s signature and the device, in place of his portrait, in a new “Walk of Fame” located in the colonnade that runs along the White House Rose Garden.”The Presidential Walk of Fame has arrived on the West Wing Colonnade. Wait for it…” Trump’s Communications Advisor Margo Martin posted on X along with a video of the new display.The camera pans along a line of black and white, gold-framed presidential portraits, hanging along the colonnade in chronological order, before it  reaches the picture of the autopen representing Biden.The White House separately posted a photo of Trump himself — whose portraits as the 45th and 47th US president are on either side of Biden’s — looking at the new addition.The Biden autopen portrait will be visible by guests attending a dinner later Wednesday in the Rose Garden, where Trump has recently replaced the grass with a patio.Trump had previewed the move in an interview with the conservative Daily Caller earlier this month, saying: “We put up a picture of the autopen.”The 79-year-old almost obsessively bashes his now 82-year-old predecessor, seeking to blame him for a host of ills including inflation and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.The Biden autopen portrait is meanwhile the brashest step yet in billionaire property developer Trump’s revamp of the more than 200-year-old presidential residence in Washington.Trump notably has covered the Oval Office with gold decorations, installed huge flagpoles and is now building a giant ballroom.He has also moved a painting of Democrat Barack Obama from its original position and, breaking with precedent, hung several paintings of himself in the White House.

US President Donald Trump demanded an investigation Wednesday into what he called “triple sabotage” after an escalator, teleprompter and sound system malfunctioned as he addressed the United Nations.The UN has said the events that happened while Trump was at its headquarters in New York on Tuesday were accidental, and partly blamed them on White House staff.But in a long, angry social media post, Trump described the string of mishaps as “very sinister,” called for people to be arrested and said the Secret Service was also probing.”This wasn’t a coincidence, this was triple sabotage at the UN. They ought to be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.”I’m sending a copy of this letter to the Secretary General, and I demand an immediate investigation. No wonder the United Nations hasn’t been able to do the job that they were put in existence to do.” Footage showed the 79-year-old president and First Lady Melania Trump getting on the escalator at UN headquarters on Tuesday before it stopped with a lurch, forcing them to walk up.Then, as he began his speech, he noted his teleprompter was not working.He spent much of the rest of the speech bashing the world body, accusing it of funding illegal migration that was turning Western countries into “hell” and failing to support his peace efforts in Gaza and Ukraine.But while Trump struck a mostly joking tone about the escalator, his mood hardened a day later.”A REAL DISGRACE took place at the United Nations yesterday. Not one, not two, but three very sinister events!” he wrote.Trump said the escalator stop could have been a “real disaster.””It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first,” he said.Trump then complained that his teleprompter for his speech was “stone cold dark” for the first 15 minutes, and that the sound in the UN auditorium was “completely off.”The US president called for the security tapes for the escalator to be saved, adding: “The Secret Service is involved.”- UN points to White House -UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday issued a statement addressing the uproar, saying a videographer from the US delegation “may have inadvertently triggered the safety function” on the escalator.”Regarding the teleprompter, we have no comment since the teleprompter for the US president is operated by the White House,” he said.A Secret Service official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the agency was “looking into what the UN said to corroborate it.”Reached for comment after Trump’s post on Wednesday, a UN official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed to Dujarric’s earlier statement.Regarding the alleged sound issues, the official said: “The sound system was designed to allow people at their seats to hear speeches being translated into six different languages through earpieces.”Mike Waltz, the newly installed US ambassador, said on X that he had formally demanded the “complete results” of the UN’s probe of the escalator incident, as well as a “detailed explanation of the teleprompter failure’s root cause, along with immediate plans to implement robust preventive measures.””The United States will not tolerate threats to our security or dignity at international forums. We expect swift cooperation and decisive action,” Waltz added.

The United States said Wednesday it was in talks with Argentina on a $20 billion program of economic support, buoying the South American nation’s markets and embattled leader Javier Milei.The right-wing Milei, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, has been struggling to ease market jitters ahead of midterm elections, which could determine the future of his austerity agenda.The battered peso rebounded after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced his department was negotiating with Argentine officials on “a $20 billion swap line.”Argentina’s currency rose 1.8 percent to 1360 pesos to the dollar on the announcement, which came a day after Bessent and Trump held talks with Milei in New York.Since Friday, the peso has gained over 10 percent.Bessent added that Washington was also ready to buy Argentina’s dollar bonds, among other measures.”As President Trump has stated, we stand ready to do what is needed to support Argentina,” he wrote on X.Milei thanked the US president and Bessent for their “support and confidence.”In a later address to the UN General Assembly in New York, he lavished praise on Trump for saving the United States and the world from “catastrophe,” citing the Republican president’s migration and trade policies.”We are not…the only ones making the difficult decisions demanded by this historical moment,” he said. “President Trump, in the United States, also understands that it is time to reverse a dynamic that was leading the United States to a catastrophe, and we know that a catastrophe in the United States is a global catastrophe,” he added.- ‘Inherited a mess’ -Swap lines are transactions that usually involve two central banks agreeing to swap their currencies at a set exchange rate for a specified period.It is unclear, however, whether the talks with Argentina involve the US Federal Reserve.Bessent also said Washington was prepared to deliver “stand-by credit” from the Treasury’s exchange stabilization fund.Milei on Wednesday also met Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with which Argentina concluded a $20 billion loan agreement in April.”Very constructive meeting,” she wrote on X afterward.”We stand with Argentina as it implements policies to safeguard stability, reduce inflation, rebuild reserves, and boost growth prospects,” she added.During his talks with Milei on Tuesday, Trump had sought to downplay his ally’s woes, promising “help” while saying: “I don’t think they need a bailout.””He, like us, inherited a mess and what he’s done to fix it is good,” Trump told reporters.- Top Democrat against ‘bailout’ -Milei’s election was cheered by investors in 2023 but he has begun to hemorrhage support after two years of biting austerity and a corruption scandal involving his sister.His party was beaten by the center-left Peronist movement in Buenos Aires provincial elections on September 7.The vote, which sent the peso into a tailspin, was seen as a litmus test for national legislative elections scheduled for October 26.Milei has accused the opposition of deliberately stoking “panic” to weaken him.The Trump administration’s plans to use Treasury funds to smooth his path to the elections raised eyebrows domestically. Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, wrote a letter dated Monday to Bessent seeking further information about a potential “bailout” of Argentina.”It is deeply troubling that the president intends to use significant emergency funds to inflate the value of a foreign government’s currency and bolster its financial markets,” she said.Bessent shot back at Warren’s criticism, saying she and others “failed to act when presented with a historic opportunity to stabilize Latin America economically and geopolitically during the Obama years.”