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President Donald Trump said Monday he will attempt to strip states of the right to regulate the surging AI industry, arguing centralized rulemaking is vital to maintain US dominance.”There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI,” he posted on his Truth Social platform, announcing an executive order that would seek to prevent state-level regulation.Trump has made a major play to position the United States at the head of the global race to build and control AI tools predicted to transform everything from the way the economy works to military technology.However, the White House is running up against deep skepticism in Congress and within his own MAGA movement, where many voices are wary of the technology’s potential economic and social harms.They point to polls that show increasing concern about AI, especially among young people who are nervous about getting or keeping a job.Figures within his own MAGA movement, such as strategy guru Steve Bannon, complain of Trump’s closer ties to Big Tech that put the president out of touch with his political base.The announcement that he will sign an executive order centralizing AI regulation comes after Congress has twice refused to vote for allowing the overriding of state-level laws on AI.”We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS,” Trump wrote in his post.”THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS! AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY! I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week.”The order is likely to stir more political opposition and legal challenges even if no details are yet known about what it would say.A draft order seen by The Hill last month would have created a task force dedicated to challenging state AI laws and restricted certain broadband funding for states with AI laws deemed overly burdensome.The idea to stop states going their own way has been advanced by Trump’s AI and Crypto Czar David Sacks, a Silicon Valley insider, with the support of AI’s biggest players, including OpenAI boss Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.”State by state AI regulation would drag this industry to a halt, and it would create a national security concern as we need to make sure that United States advances AI technology as quickly as possible,” Huang told reporters during a visit to US Congress last week.Industry bosses complain that there are more than 1,000 AI-related bills currently moving through state legislatures.”How do you cope with those varied regulations (and)compete with countries like China, which are moving fast in this technology?” Google CEO Sundar Pichai told “Fox News Sunday.”

Here are the nominees in key categories for the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, which will be handed out on January 11.”One Battle After Another” leads all contenders with nine nods, followed by “Sentimental Value” with eight and “Sinners” with seven.- FILM -Best film, drama”Frankenstein””Hamnet””It Was Just An Accident””The Secret Agent””Sentimental Value””Sinners”Best film, musical or comedy”Blue Moon””Bugonia””Marty Supreme””No Other Choice””Nouvelle Vague””One Battle After Another”Best male actor, dramaJoel Edgerton, “Train Dreams”Oscar Isaac, “Frankenstein”Dwayne Johnson, “The Smashing Machine”Michael B. Jordan, “Sinners”Wagner Moura, “The Secret Agent”Jeremy Allen White, “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”Best female actor, dramaJessie Buckley, “Hamnet”Jennifer Lawrence, “Die, My Love”Renate Reinsve, “Sentimental Value”Julia Roberts, “After the Hunt”Tessa Thompson, “Hedda”Eva Victor, “Sorry, Baby”Best male actor, musical or comedyTimothee Chalamet, “Marty Supreme”George Clooney, “Jay Kelly”Leonardo DiCaprio, “One Battle After Another”Ethan Hawke, “Blue Moon”Lee Byung-hun, “No Other Choice”Jesse Plemons, “Bugonia”Best female actor, musical or comedyRose Byrne, “If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You”Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked: For Good”Kate Hudson, “Song Sung Blue”Chase Infiniti, “One Battle After Another”Amanda Seyfried, “The Testament of Ann Lee”Emma Stone, “Bugonia”Best supporting actorBenicio Del Toro, “One Battle After Another”Jacob Elordi, “Frankenstein”Paul Mescal, “Hamnet”Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”Adam Sandler, “Jay Kelly”Stellan Skarsgard, “Sentimental Value”Best supporting actressEmily Blunt, “The Smashing Machine”Elle Fanning, “Sentimental Value”Ariana Grande, “Wicked: For Good”Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value”Amy Madigan, “Weapons”Teyana Taylor, “One Battle After Another”Best directorPaul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”Guillermo Del Toro, “Frankenstein”Jafar Panahi, “It Was Just An Accident”Joachim Trier, “Sentimental Value”Chloe Zhao, “Hamnet”Best non-English language film”It Was Just An Accident” (France)”No Other Choice” (South Korea)”The Secret Agent” (Brazil)”Sentimental Value” (Norway)”Sirat” (Spain)”The Voice of Hind Rajab” (Tunisia)Best cinematic and box office achievement:”Avatar: Fire and Ash””F1″”KPop Demon Hunters””Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning””Sinners””Weapons””Wicked: For Good””Zootopia 2″Best animated feature”Arco””Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — Infinity Castle””Elio””KPop Demon Hunters””Little Amelie or the Character of Rain””Zootopia 2″- TELEVISION -Best drama series”The Diplomat””The Pitt””Pluribus””Severance””Slow Horses””The White Lotus”Best male actor, dramaSterling K. Brown, “Paradise”Diego Luna, “Andor”Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”Mark Ruffalo, “Task”Adam Scott, “Severance”Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”Best female actor, drama Kathy Bates, “Matlock”Britt Lower, “Severance”Helen Mirren, “Mobland”Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”Rhea Seehorn, “Pluribus”Best musical or comedy series”Abbott Elementary””The Bear””Hacks””Nobody Wants This””Only Murders in the Building””The Studio”Best male actor, musical or comedyAdam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”Glen Powell, “Chad Powers”Seth Rogen, “The Studio”Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”Best female actor, musical or comedy Kristen Bell, “Nobody Wants This”Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”Natasha Lyonne, “Poker Face”Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”Jean Smart, “Hacks”Best limited series or TV movie”Adolescence””All Her Fault””The Beast in Me””Black Mirror””Dying for Sex””The Girlfriend”Best male actor, limited series or TV movie Jacob Elordi, “The Narrow Road to the Deep North”Paul Giamatti, “Black Mirror”Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”Charlie Hunnam, “Monster: The Ed Gein Story”Jude Law, “Black Rabbit”Matthew Rhys, “The Beast in Me”Best female actor, limited series or TV movie Claire Danes, “The Beast in Me”Rashida Jones, “Black Mirror”Amanda Seyfried, “Long Bright River”Sarah Snook, “All Her Fault”Michelle Williams, “Dying for Sex”Robin Wright, “The Girlfriend”- FILMS WITH MOST NOMINATIONS -“One Battle After Another” – 9″Sentimental Value” – 8″Sinners” – 7″Hamnet” – 6″Frankenstein” – 5″Wicked: For Good” – 5

Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged “One Battle After Another” leads the nominations for the Golden Globes with nine, organizers announced Monday, as the race to the Oscars kicked into high gear.Norwegian family dramedy “Sentimental Value” was second with eight, followed by period horror movie “Sinners” with seven and Shakespeare family drama “Hamnet” with six.”Wicked: For Good” ended up with five nominations — a disappointing showing for the smash hit musical, which failed to secure a nod for best musical/comedy.The Globes, set for January 11, are widely seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards.The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals — widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet, and fueling the suspense. “One Battle After Another,” which centers on an aging revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his teenage daughter (Chase Infiniti), leads the contenders in the comedy/musical categories.The film is a rollicking ride featuring leftist radical violence, immigration raids and white supremacists.It won a pile of nominations, including best comedy/musical picture, best director and five acting nods: DiCaprio, Infiniti, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Teyana Taylor.”Sentimental Value,” a moving story of a fractured family, won nominations for Swedish legend Stellan Skarsgard and co-star Renate Reinsve. It is one of several foreign language films to gain traction in the main categories, along with Brazil’s “The Secret Agent” and South Korea’s “No Other Choice.””Wicked: For Good” — the blockbuster conclusion of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical — won nominations for Ariana Grande, as the bubbly pink-clad Glinda, and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, as the green-skinned Elphaba.It also earned two nods for best original song, but failed to make the best picture short list.Variety chief awards editor Clayton Davis predicted before Monday’s announcement that the best actress categories for the Globes would be a “Murderers’ Row” of worthy candidates — and indeed, they are.The women up for comedy-musical lead acting honors include Oscar winner Emma Stone (“Bugonia”), Erivo, Rose Byrne (“If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You”), Kate Hudson (“Song Sung Blue”), Amanda Seyfried (“The Testament of Ann Lee”) and newcomer Infiniti.On the drama side, past Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence (“Die, My Love”) and Julia Roberts (“After the Hunt”) will do battle with Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”), Reinsve, Tessa Thompson (“Hedda”) and Eva Victor (“Sorry, Baby”).Each main category will have six nominees, not five as in past years. – ‘Sentimental Value,’ ‘Sinners’ lead dramas -On the drama side, beyond the leader “Sentimental Value,” the top contenders all delve into the past. “Sinners,” from “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, stars Michael B. Jordan as twins in the criminal underworld who encounter a sinister force as they return home to racially segregated Mississippi in the 1930s.The film was a runaway box office success, and both Coogler and Jordan secured nominations. It led the nods for the Critics Choice Awards on Friday with 17.”It has so much going for it — it’s a big moneymaker, it was a culturally significant hit,” explained Davis.”Hamnet,” from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes — played by Buckley — contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England.Both stars earned nominations, along with Zhao.Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of “Frankenstein” earned five nominations including one for Jacob Elordi as the iconic monster.Oscar nominations are due on January 22, so the picks for the Globes will begin to map the road to the Academy Awards. The Globes also honor the best in television, with HBO’s black comedy anthology “The White Lotus,” sci-fi office thriller “Severance” and searing teen murder saga “Adolescence” leading the contenders.Last year’s Globes gala hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser was a hit with audiences, with more than 10 million tuning in.Glaser will return as host of the January 11 gala in Beverly Hills.

Meta will allow European users of Facebook and Instagram to share less data and see fewer personalised ads after it was fined for breaking EU digital rules, Brussels said Monday.The European commission said the US tech giant undertook to make the option available from January to settle a legal dispute over its “pay or consent” system that saw it hit with a 200-million-euro ($233 million) fine.”Meta will give users the effective choice between: consenting to share all their data and seeing fully personalised advertising, and opting to share less personal data for an experience with more limited personalised advertising,” the commission said.It was the “first time” that such a choice was offered on Meta’s social networks, the body that acts as the 27-nation bloc’s digital and antitrust regulator said.The move followed talks with the company, which was found in breach of digital competition rules over its “pay for privacy” system earlier this year. Under the system, which has been vehemently criticised by rights groups, users have to pay to avoid data collection, or agree to share their data with Facebook and Instagram to keep using the platforms for free.A commission probe concluded in April that Meta did not provide users with a less personalised but equivalent version of the platforms.Meta was fined and warned it could face daily penalties under the landmark Digital Markets Act (DMA) unless it complied with the law.The company had started giving European users the possibility of seeing less personalised ads already in November last year. But this did not spare it the fine. A commission spokesman declined to detail how the new offering improved on that but added that while the firm’s undertaking did not automatically close the case against it, it represented a “very good step forward” and “positive news” for EU consumers. Brussels would now monitor its “effective implementation” and “seek feedback and evidence from Meta and other relevant stakeholders on the impact and uptake of this new ad model”.Acknowledging the commission’s statement, Meta said: “Personalized ads are vital for Europe’s economy—last year, Meta’s ads were linked to €213 billion in economic activity and supported 1.44 million jobs across the EU.” 

US President Donald Trump took center stage on Sunday as host of the storied Kennedy Center’s flagship awards program, praising select entertainers and his own forceful overhaul of the storied arts venue.The Kennedy Center Honors highlight prestige in the arts, and this year’s honorees included “Rocky” actor Sylvester Stallone, country singer George Strait, disco legend Gloria Gaynor and rock band KISS.Since returning to office in January, the 79-year-old Republican president has declared war on what he calls “woke” viewpoints and the nation’s cultural institutions, including the Smithsonian, which have made significant efforts to highlight more diverse talents in recent years.”Each of these honorees has a story of success and triumph that would only have happened in the United States,” Trump told the audience, which included Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, US Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top members of his administration.While Trump’s predecessors were content to attend the show and watch musical performances and speeches from the presidential box, the former reality host donned a tuxedo and seized the opportunity to be on stage with the stars.”This is the greatest evening in the history of the Kennedy Center,” Trump said, telling the audience that he had toured the renovations he has initiated. “This place is hot.”The Kennedy Center, a living monument to the late former president and civil rights advocate John F. Kennedy, opened in 1971 and has long enjoyed bipartisan support. The awards started being given in 1978.Trump appointed himself board chairman for the Kennedy Center in February, and has taken to renovating the stately white marble complex overlooking the Potomac River in Washington.The show is scheduled to broadcast on CBS December 23, and Trump told the audience, while the taping was still in progress, “the show is already getting rave reviews.”- No-show to center stage -The president may be attempting to get ahead of criticism that this year’s stars were of a lower wattage than honorees of years past — which have included Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Aretha Franklin, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Placido Domingo and other world-class stars. During Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican president boycotted these evenings, because artists declared they didn’t wish to meet him based on his policies.This time many of the selected honorees are also Trump supporters or Republicans.Sylvester Stallone, 79, best known for the “Rocky” films, is an outspoken supporter of the president, who in turn named Stallone an “ambassador” to overwhelmingly Democratic Hollywood.MAGA donor and disco singer Gloria Gaynor, 82, was honored for her genre-defining hit and karaoke mainstay “I Will Survive,” among other songs.Country music’s George Strait, 73, and glam rock band KISS were also honored — without guitarist Ace Frehley, who passed away in October aged 74.British actor Michael Crawford, 83, known for his role in the musical “The Phantom of the Opera” was also honored — in a genre Trump has said he is fond of.Past Kennedy Center honorees were outfitted with a rainbow-colored ribbon collar, but that was deemed vulgar by the current White House. This year’s honorees received a redesigned gold medallion from jeweler Tiffany and Co., owned by the French group LVMH, which “hangs from a navy-blue ribbon, a color associated with dignity and tradition,” the Kennedy Center said in a statement. The Trump administration’s new loyalist leadership of the Kennedy Center has also ended drag shows and events celebrating the LGBTQ community.Media reports indicate ticket sales at the Kennedy Center have declined since the president and his associates took over.

US President Donald Trump commented Sunday on Netflix’s effort to acquire storied Hollywood studio Warner Bros., saying the streaming giant already has “a very large market share” and “it could be a problem.” “I’ll be involved in that decision,” Trump said upon arriving at the Kennedy Center Honors awards ceremony, referring to the decision facing federal regulators weighing the nearly $83 billion deal that has raised antitrust concerns and ire among Hollywood’s elite.Trump also lavished praise on Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who recently visited the White House, saying “he’s done one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies.”If completed in its currrent form, Netflix would absorb competing streaming platform HBO Max and Warner Bros. studios, which has produced film classics including “Casablanca” and “Citizen Kane,” over the decades, as well as more recent blockbusters like “Barbie.”The acquisition would give Netflix a massive catalog, with a vast array of content, including the Harry Potter films, the Lord of the Rings saga, and the superheroes of DC Studios — Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, for starters.But Netflix won’t be getting television channels if the deal goes through, like Discovery and CNN, which would be spun off from Warner Bros. prior to the sale.Parent company Warner Bros. Discovery officially put itself up for sale in October after receiving multiple unsolicited offers, beating out cable operator Comcast and media group Paramount Skydance.Paramount’s chief David Ellison is a major backer of Trump. 

Hollywood’s awards season shifts into high gear Monday when nominations for the Golden Globes are unveiled, with hit musical “Wicked: For Good,” Shakespeare family tragedy “Hamnet” and period horror movie “Sinners” leading the charge.Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged “One Battle After Another,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and mid-century sports dramedy “Marty Supreme,” starring Timothee Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow, are also top contenders.The Globes, set for January 11, are widely seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards, and the top Globes hopefuls are already on many insider short lists for the Oscars.The Golden Globes offer separate awards for dramas and comedies/musicals — widening the field of stars who could walk the red carpet, and fueling the suspense. “The headline of this year is: Comedy is where the drama is,” Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis told AFP.”Wicked: For Good” will battle for top comedy-musical honors with “One Battle After Another” and “Marty Supreme.”Also in the comedy mix is apocalyptic satire “Bugonia,” the latest quirky effort from Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos, featuring his frequent collaborator Emma Stone, who is tipped for a nomination along with co-star Jesse Plemons. For Davis, “Wicked” — the blockbuster conclusion of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical — is “still probably the populist choice” with wide appeal.Ariana Grande, as the bubbly pink-clad Glinda, and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, as the green-skinned Elphaba, are awards hopefuls again this year, even though Erivo was surprisingly cut from the Critics Choice Awards short list.For Davis, the best actress category for the Globes, and looking ahead to the Oscars, will be a “Murderers’ Row,” with a glut of worthy candidates.Each main category will have six nominees, not five as in past years. – ‘Hamnet’ and ‘Sinners’ lead dramas -On the drama side, the top contenders all delve into the past. “Hamnet,” from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao, stars Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare, who tries to forge a career as a playwright while his wife Agnes — played by Jessie Buckley — contends with the perils of plague and childbirth in Elizabethan England.The film, based on the novel by Maggie O’Farrell, draws on evidence that the couple had a son named Hamnet — a name that scholars say would have sounded indistinguishable from “Hamlet” at the time.”Sinners,” from “Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, stars Michael B. Jordan as twins in the criminal underworld who encounter a sinister force as they return home to racially segregated Mississippi in the 1930s.The film was a runaway box office success, and Jordan seems sure to secure a nomination. It led the nods for the Critics Choice Awards on Friday with 17.”It has so much going for it — it’s a big moneymaker, it was a culturally significant hit,” explained Davis, who added he “will not sleep a wink” until Coogler gets an Oscar nomination for directing.Also in the running is Guillermo Del Toro’s adaptation of “Frankenstein,” starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi.Oscar nominations are due on January 22, so the picks for the Globes should begin to more clearly sketch out the road to the Academy Awards. The Globes also honor the best in television, with the top Emmy nominees — “Severance” and “The Pitt” for the dramas, “The Studio” and “Hacks” for the comedies, and searing limited series “Adolescence” — expected to dominate the nominations. Actors Marlon Wayans and Skye Marshall will announce the main nominees for the 83rd Golden Globes from 1315 GMT Monday. The Globes are in year three of a revamp, and last year’s gala hosted by comedian Nikki Glaser was a hit with audiences, with more than 10 million tuning in.Glaser will return as host of the January 11 gala in Beverly Hills.

It is not a teenage dream, it’s Instagram official: pop star Katy Perry has posted a photograph of herself cuddling with Canada’s former prime minister, as secure a confirmation as any that the celebrities are dating.The 41-year-old “California Gurl” slipped the picture, showing the pair cheek to cheek in front of a colorful autumn backdrop, into a series of images on her Instagram account, which boasts 202 million followers.Her simple caption for the series posted late Saturday — which also includes video clips of the couple trying sushi — reads simply: “tokyo times on tour and more,” and features emojis including flowers and a red heart.Neither Perry — singer of mega hits like “Hot n Cold,” “Roar” and “I Kissed a Girl” — nor Trudeau have made public comments about their relationship. But Trudeau, 53, was seen at a Perry concert in July, and celebrity news website TMZ further fueled rumors when it aired video of the two hand in hand on a night out in Paris in October to celebrate the singer’s birthday.Trudeau served as prime minister from 2015 to 2025 as leader of the Liberal Party. On Thursday Trudeau reposted a photograph of the pair posing with Japan’s former premier, Fumio Kishida, and his wife Yuko.”Great to see you @kishida230. Katy and I were so glad to have the chance to sit down with you and Yuko,” Trudeau wrote.

Horror video-game movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” proved jump scares can still rake in the cash with a debut that ruled North American theaters, industry estimates showed Sunday.The second film in Universal’s “Freddy’s” franchise — about animatronic characters at a pizza shop, the tween girl (Piper Rubio) who befriends them, and the murderous if cheesy events that follow — brought in $63 million in the Friday-through-Sunday period, Exhibitor Relations reported.It earned another $46 million internationally.”Critics’ reviews are poor, but the genre is immune to reviews,” said David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.”The audience score is more important, and it’s very good for a horror picture, although not as good as the first pic.”Sliding to second spot was another sequel, Disney’s feel-good animated film “Zootopia 2.”The buddy cop comedy featuring a menagerie of talking animals battling stereotypes earned $43 million, for a two-week total of $220 million and a worldwide haul nearing the $1 billion mark.Dropping one spot to third place, with $16.8 million in its third weekend, was “Wicked: For Good,” Universal’s second chapter in the musical saga of Oz’s most notable witches — the green-skinned, outcast Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and popular pink-wearing Glinda (Ariana Grande).The “Wizard of Oz” retelling is based on the long-running Broadway musical, itself adapted from Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel.”JUJUTSU KAISEN: Execution” landed in fourth spot in its debut. The anime-based tale of violent sorcery released by GKIDS earned $10.2 million.In fifth with $3.5 million was Lionsgate’s “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” the third installment in the crime heist franchise. Rounding out the top 10 were:”Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” ($3.3 million) “Eternity” ($2.7 million)”Hamnet” ($2.3 million)”Predator: Badlands” ($1.9 million)”Merrily We Roll Along” ($1.2 million)

While the US Federal Reserve’s final interest rate meeting this year could see an unusual amount of division, financial markets view a third straight interest rate cut as nearly certain.When the Fed last met in October, Chair Jerome Powell asserted that another rate cut in December was “not a foregone conclusion,” pointing to “strongly differing views” within the central bank.Minutes from the Fed’s most recent meeting showed many officials expect a further uptick in underlying goods inflation as President Donald Trump’s tariffs bite.But recent comments from leading Fed officials also reflected support for cutting again because of a weakening labor market, even though inflation is still above the Fed’s two percent target.Next week’s outcome in the “deeply divided” Fed was “too close to call,” UniCredit said, also acknowledging that favorable comments from New York Fed bank chief John Williams towards a cut were a notable “intervention.””As one of the most senior members of the (Fed committee), it seems unlikely Williams would have said this without Powell’s prior approval,” UniCredit said.Policymakers generally hold rates at a higher level to tamp down price increases, but a rapidly deteriorating jobs market could nudge them to slash rates further to boost the economy.”Usually, as you get closer to a policy meeting, it becomes quite apparent and transparent what the Federal Open Market Committee is going to do,” said Nationwide Chief Economist Kathy Bostjancic, referring to the Fed’s rate-setting committee.”This time is very different,” she told AFP late last month.Financial markets rallied following Williams’ statement on November 21 that rates could go lower in the “near term.”Futures markets currently show more than 87 percent odds that the Fed will cut rates to between 3.50 percent and 3.75 percent, according to CME FedWatch.- Dearth of data -The Fed moved into rate cutting mode this fall, with rate cuts both in September and October.But a government shutdown from October 1 through November 12 sapped the central bank of most of the key data points for assessing whether inflation or employment is now the bigger priority.The latest available government data showed the jobless rate crept up from 4.3 percent to 4.4 percent in September, even as hiring beat expectations.While delayed publications on September’s economic conditions have trickled out, the US government has canceled full releases of October jobs and consumer inflation figures because the shutdown hit data collection.Instead, available figures will be published with November’s reports, but only after the Fed’s upcoming rate meeting.The US personal consumption expenditures price index rose to 2.8 percent on an annual basis in September, from 2.7 percent in August, according to delayed data released on Friday.The “Fed faces a bit of a paradoxical situation,” said EY-Parthenon Chief Economist Gregory Daco. “The Fed says these decisions will be data-dependent, but there isn’t a lot of data to go on.”Daco expects a “weak majority” to favor another interest rate cut, but believes there could be multiple dissents.- Looking beyond Powell -Besides Wednesday’s decision, the Fed will also release projections for its 2026 economic and monetary policy outlook.Next year will already mark a period of significant change with the conclusion of Powell’s tenure as chair in May.Trump, who has relentlessly criticized Powell for not cutting rates more aggressively, signaled this week that his chief economic adviser Kevin Hassett could succeed Powell.Hassett has appeared to be in lockstep with Trump on key economic questions facing the Fed. But if appointed, Hassett could also face pressure from financial markets to buck the White House on interest rates if inflation worsens.”The institutional constraints often end up leading appointees towards some level of political independence,” said Daco, noting decisions require a board majority.Whomever Trump picks will need to be confirmed in the US Senate.While UniCredit predicted “political interference will have a modest impact on Fed policy,” deeper consequences cannot be ruled out.”We have not assumed Trump will get de-facto control of the Fed,” UniCredit said, adding that such an outcome is “a non-negligible risk.”