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Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show, which was abruptly pulled from the air last week after the US government threatened broadcasters, will be back on Tuesday, Disney announced Monday.The sudden suspension by ABC, which is owned by Disney, came after conservative complaints about comments Kimmel had made in the wake of the shooting of Christian activist Charlie Kirk.”Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” said a company statement.”It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.  “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”Kimmel’s abrupt disappearance from the airwaves, apparently after government pressure on broadcasters who distribute ABC, sparked fury in liberal America, with opponents saying Kimmel had been targeted because he is a frequent critic of President Donald Trump.Trump had celebrated Kimmel’s removal, calling it “Great News for America.”Opponents saw it as the latest step in creeping government control of free speech, which is an article of faith for many Americans as well as a right enshrined in the country’s constitution.Some on the political right were also uneasy, including people who regularly count themselves as Trump allies, like Ted Cruz, the conservative senator from Texas, and firebrand broadcaster Tucker Carlson.Trump has repeatedly complained about negative media coverage of him, and last week said he thought it was “illegal.”- FCC threat -The Kimmel episode unfolded a week after Kirk, a close Trump ally, was shot dead on a Utah university campus, setting off a bitter battle over responsibility in deeply polarized America, with conservatives — including Trump — blaming “the radical left.”Authorities have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and have not indicated they are looking for anyone else.In his show-opening monologue last Monday, Kimmel said “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid… as anything other than one of them.”He then showed footage of Trump pivoting from a question about how he had been affected by Kirk’s death to boasting about the new ballroom he is building at the White House, prompting laughter from the studio audience.”This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel said.Two days later, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates that broadcast Kimmel’s show.”I think it’s past time these (affiliates) themselves push back… and say, ‘Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out, because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC,'” he told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.Nexstar — one of the country’s biggest owners of ABC affiliate stations, which is in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar merger requiring FCC approval — then announced it would be removing the show from its stations.Sinclair, another media group that also yanked the show, said Monday it would not return it to the airwaves, despite Disney’s announcement.”Sinclair will be preempting Jimmy Kimmel Live! across our ABC affiliate stations and replacing it with news programming,” the company said on social media, using an industry term for removing a show.”Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return.”- Hollywood stars -Before Disney’s about-face was announced on Monday, a constellation of Hollywood stars signed an open letter calling the decision to pull the show “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation (that is) unconstitutional and un-American.””The government is threatening private companies and individuals that the President disagrees with. We can’t let this threat to our freedom of speech go unanswered,” said the letter by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).Signatories to the letter included Marvel star Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.After Monday’s announcement the ACLU welcomed the news, saying: “ABC made the right call.” 

Antifa, designated a “domestic terrorist organization” by US President Donald Trump on Monday, is a nebulous movement of left-wing “anti-fascist” activists that experts say is more a political ideology than an organized group.Trump’s move follows the September 10 assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and is one of several actions the Republican president has threatened to take against opponents he accuses of fomenting violence.- Who is Antifa? -Antifa stands for anti-fascism, and the name comes from early 1930s Germany, where socialist “anti-fa” groups attempted to stand up to the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.Antifa has no national leader or centralized organizational structure and is made up of “independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals,” according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said Antifa is “a kind of coalition politics of all kinds of radicals, from different kinds of socialists to communists, anarchists and more independent radicals.””Sometimes I compare it to feminism,” Bray, a historian at Rutgers University, told The Washington Post. “There are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are Antifa groups, but Antifa itself is not a group.”Anti-fascist groups in the United States have campaigned on a range of social justice issues in the past two decades but their principal focus has been countering the resurgence of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.One of the oldest, Rose City Antifa of Portland, Oregon, began in 2007 to shut down a neo-Nazi skinhead music festival called Hammerfest.Antifa-aligned activists, often masked and dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified in self-defense.Such protesters have been increasingly involved in direct confrontations with right-wing groups since Trump’s first election to the White House in 2016.During Trump’s January 20, 2017 inauguration, scores of black-clad, mask-wearing Antifa followers and other protestors smashed windows in Washington.In August that year, they were at the vanguard of counter-demonstrations when white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and engaged in physical fights with the rightists.- Can Trump designate Antifa as terrorists?Unclear.While federal law enforcement’s purview includes combating domestic terrorism, the United States has no statute that permits designating domestic groups as terrorist organizations, as there is for foreign groups like the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.During his first term in office, following the protests against police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Trump announced that he would designate Antifa as “terrorists” on the same level as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State but nothing came of it.The global terror designation is a powerful tool for law enforcement: it permits the arrest and imprisonment of someone who merely expresses support for those jihadist groups or others. That law has not been expanded to domestic groups for good reason: such a law, many fear, could tempt a leader to deploy it against political rivals and would violate First Amendment free speech protections.

US President Donald Trump signed an order Monday designating the left-wing Antifa movement as a domestic terrorist organization, the White House said, in a move sparked by the killing of right-wing ally Charlie Kirk.Antifa is a shorthand term for “anti-fascist” used to describe diffuse far-left groups, and there have been questions since Trump first mooted the designation last week about how to define it.Trump’s order on Monday described Antifa as a “militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government” and was using “violence and terrorism” to suppress free speech.”Because of the aforementioned pattern of political violence designed to suppress lawful political activity and obstruct the rule of law, I hereby designate Antifa as a ‘domestic terrorist organization’,” said the order.But in an apparent nod to the questions about how to define Antifa, his order accused it of using “elaborate means and mechanisms to shield the identities of its operatives.”It used the same methods to hide its sources of funding, and recruit new members, the order said.Trump’s order also casts a net wide against the nebulous group. His order says US authorities can act against “any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support.” Trump has repeatedly warned of a crackdown on left-wing groups since the assassination of activist Kirk, who was killed on September 10 at a Utah university campus, sparking right-wing rage.US authorities have charged suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, with murder. Robinson justified the attack by citing the “hatred” he accused Kirk of spreading, according to investigators. – Rise in violence -But Trump has also threatened action against what he has called Antifa since his first term. He has blamed it for various wrongs from violence against police to being behind the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021 that aimed to block Joe Biden’s presidential election win.Critics of the Republican president warn such a move could be used as a pretext to quash dissent and target political rivals.While Kirk was a vocal conservative, the United States has seen violence targeting members of both political parties in recent years, amid a sharp rise in polarization and easy access to firearms.Antifa — whose name has roots in socialist groups in 1930s Germany that opposed Hitler — has a track record of confronting right-wing groups and engaging in civil disobedience.Antifa-aligned activists, often dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified as self-defense. During Trump’s first inauguration in January 2017 scores of black-clad, mask-wearing Antifa and other protestors smashed windows and burned a car in Washington.Antifa was also involved in counter-protests to racist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia later that year. 

Antifa, designated a “domestic terrorist organization” by US President Donald Trump on Monday, is a nebulous movement of left-wing “anti-fascist” activists that experts say is more a political ideology than an organized group.Trump’s move follows the September 10 assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk and is one of several actions the Republican president has threatened to take against opponents he accuses of fomenting violence.- Who is Antifa? -Antifa stands for anti-fascism, and the name comes from early 1930s Germany, where socialist “anti-fa” groups attempted to stand up to the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis.Antifa has no national leader or centralized organizational structure and is made up of “independent, radical, like-minded groups and individuals,” according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service analysis.Mark Bray, author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said Antifa is “a kind of coalition politics of all kinds of radicals, from different kinds of socialists to communists, anarchists and more independent radicals.””Sometimes I compare it to feminism,” Bray, a historian at Rutgers University, told The Washington Post. “There are feminist groups, but feminism itself is not a group. There are Antifa groups, but Antifa itself is not a group.”Anti-fascist groups in the United States have campaigned on a range of social justice issues in the past two decades but their principal focus has been countering the resurgence of neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups.One of the oldest, Rose City Antifa of Portland, Oregon, began in 2007 to shut down a neo-Nazi skinhead music festival called Hammerfest.Antifa-aligned activists, often masked and dressed entirely in black, protest against racism, far-right values and what they consider fascism, and say violent tactics are sometimes justified in self-defense.Such protesters have been increasingly involved in direct confrontations with right-wing groups since Trump’s first election to the White House in 2016.During Trump’s January 20, 2017 inauguration, scores of black-clad, mask-wearing Antifa followers and other protestors smashed windows in Washington.In August that year, they were at the vanguard of counter-demonstrations when white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, and engaged in physical fights with the rightists.- Can Trump designate Antifa as terrorists?Unclear.While federal law enforcement’s purview includes combating domestic terrorism, the United States has no statute that permits designating domestic groups as terrorist organizations, as there is for foreign groups like the Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.During his first term in office, following the protests against police brutality sparked by the murder of George Floyd, Trump announced that he would designate Antifa as “terrorists” on the same level as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State but nothing came of it.The global terror designation is a powerful tool for law enforcement: it permits the arrest and imprisonment of someone who merely expresses support for those jihadist groups or others. That law has not been expanded to domestic groups for good reason: such a law, many fear, could tempt a leader to deploy it against political rivals and would violate First Amendment free speech protections.

The US Treasury said Monday it stood ready to “do what is needed” to support Argentina’s economy, as President Javier Milei battles to calm jittery financial markets.Self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” Milei, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has been faced with a run on the peso, having to sell off dwindling foreign reserves in the aftermath of a provincial election trouncing for his party.As he seeks a US loan to cover debts reaching maturity, Milei is due to meet Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday.Bessent wrote on X Monday that “all options for stabilization are on the table.”These may include “swap lines, direct currency purchases, and purchases of US dollar-denominated government debt from Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund,” he said. Swap lines are transactions in which two central banks agree to swap their currencies at a set exchange rate for a specified period.The Argentine peso has been falling sharply since Milei’s party was beaten by the center-left Peronist movement in a Buenos Aires provincial election on September 7.The vote was seen as a litmus test for national legislative elections scheduled for October 26.Bessent wrote that Argentina “is a systemically important US ally in Latin America” and Washington was confident Milei’s “support for fiscal discipline and pro-growth reforms are necessary to break Argentina’s long history of decline.””Opportunities for private investment remain expansive, and Argentina will be Great Again,” he added.Milei thanked Washington for its “unconditional support for the Argentine people.”The budget-slashing libertarian wrote on X that “those of us who defend the ideas of freedom must work together.”International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva also welcomed Bessent’s statement and underscored “the crucial role of partners in promoting strong policies for stabilization and growth for the benefit of the people of Argentina.”- ‘Working on it’ -Argentina’s Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein, meanwhile, said “there has been much speculation” on a possible Treasury loan, “with amounts of $30 billion mentioned, which is absolutely incorrect…”He told Radio Mitre it was true that “we are working on it, but for a much smaller amount.”The United States in April backed an agreement Argentina struck with the International Monetary Fund for a loan of $20 billion, as well as $12 billion from the World Bank and another $10 billion from the Inter-American Development Bank.Bessent at the time poured cold water on the idea of a direct credit line from the United States. Argentina, which has a track record of economic crises and hyperinflation, is the IMF’s biggest debtor. It borrowed $44 billion from the IMF in 2018 — the lender’s biggest-ever loan — and has since renegotiated repayment terms.The government in Buenos Aires said Monday it would suspend taxes on grain and meat exports until October 31 as part of efforts to boost the economy.The objective was to “generate a greater supply of dollars,” presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on X.Reducing taxes should make grain cheaper on the global market, boosting sales.Nicolas Pino, president of the SRA agricultural producers’ association, said the tax should be permanently scrapped for Argentina’s biggest export sector.Financial markets reacted to Monday’s developments with a rise in Argentine bonds and shares on Wall Street and in Buenos Aires, as well as a significant strengthening of the peso.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, visiting New York for the UN General Assembly, voiced hope Monday for a security deal that eases tensions with Israel but he played down the prospect of recognition.Sharaa, a former jihadist whose forces toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December, met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and later will deliver the first address in decades by a Syrian leader to the General Assembly.Syrian officials have set a goal of reaching military and security agreements by the end of the year with Israel, whose military has repeatedly battered its neighbor and longtime adversary in the chaos since Assad’s fall.”I hope that that will lead us to an agreement that will keep the sovereignty of Syria and also resolve some of the security fears of Israel,” Sharaa told the Concordia summit at a New York hotel on the sidelines of the UN summit.But he balked when asked if Syria would join the so-called Abraham Accords, in which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel in 2020.”Syria is different as those that are part of the Abraham Accords are not Israel’s neighbors. Syria has been subjected to more than 1,000 Israeli raids, strikes and incursions from the Golan Heights into Syria,” he said.He voiced doubts about trusting Israel, questioning whether it sought to expand in Syria and charging that Israel has violated peace agreements with two other neighbors, Egypt and Jordan.”There is also huge anger over what’s going on in Gaza, not only in Syria but in the entire world, and of course this impacts our position on Israel,” he said.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that there was a new window of possibility for peace with both Syria and Lebanon after an Israeli military campaign devastated Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shiite militant movement that was close to Assad.Sharaa met in May in Riyadh with US President Donald Trump, who took the advice of Saudi Arabia and Turkey to lift Assad-era sanctions on Syria, despite Israeli misgivings.Sharaa hailed Trump’s move and called on the US Congress to fully lift sanctions, which “put a burden on people who have already suffered from the former regime’s oppression.”Rubio, in his meeting with Sharaa, discussed Syria’s relations with Israel and called on the country to seize the chance to “build a stable and sovereign nation,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

US President Donald Trump on Monday urged pregnant people not to take Tylenol over an unproven link to autism, and urged major changes to the standard vaccines given to babies.The announcement comes as the White House has vowed to revolutionize health in the United States, as experts across medicine and science voice broad concern over the administration’s initiatives.Medical professionals have long cited acetaminophen as among the safest painkillers to take during pregnancy, especially as fever and pain can also pose dangers to both the mother and the developing fetus.But Trump insisted that “taking Tylenol is not good.””For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s for instance, in cases of extremely high fever that you feel you can’t tough it out,” he said.During his news conference Trump then pushed major changes to the routine vaccine schedule given to infants, insisting without evidence that there’s “no reason” to vaccinate newborns against the incurable, highly contagious Hepatitis B.Repeating anti-vaccine movement talking points, Trump said “I would say, wait until the baby is 12 years old and formed.”That statement stands in direct contradiction in the face of broad medical consensus formed over decades that the best way to prevent maternal transmission of the disease that can cause liver damage and cancer is to vaccinate newborns within the first day of life.His statement comes days after an influential advisory panel handpicked by health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stopped short of advising that a delay of one month of the first dose of Hepatitis B was warranted.They deemed more discussion was necessary — offering temporary relief to many experts in public health who said delaying that shot could have dire results.- New therapy approved -Identifying the cause of autism — a complex condition connected to brain development that many experts believe occurs for predominantly genetic reasons — has been a pet cause of Trump’s controversial health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr.Earlier this year, Kennedy — well-known for his anti-vaccine views and penchant for conspiracy theories — vowed he would release findings regarding autism’s cause by September 2025.The administration’s recent initiative to uncover autism’s roots has been widely criticized. Kennedy has spent decades pushing discredited claims that link vaccines to autism.He touted the drug leucovorin, a form of vitamin B first used to alleviate chemotherapy side effects, as an “exciting therapy” that could help children with autism.The FDA on Monday said it was approving the drug’s tablet form to help a subset of children who have “cerebral folate deficiency.”The Trump government’s expected focus on acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, is likely to meet broad critique.The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are among the major medical groups who have identified Tylenol as among the safest options for pain relief and fever reduction during pregnancy. Doctors already warn against its long-term use.Another common over-the-counter pain reliever, ibuprofen, is generally considered unsafe for pregnant people, especially after the 20th week.- ‘Nuanced and uncertain’ -A literature review published last month concluded there was reason to believe a possible link between Tylenol exposure and autism existed — but other studies have found an opposite result.Researchers behind the August report cautioned that more study is needed and that pregnant people should not stop taking medication without consulting their doctors.David Mandell, a psychiatric epidemiologist at the University of Pennsylvania, told AFP that research suggests the possible risks posed by taking Tylenol while pregnant seem “to be lower than the risk of having an uncontrolled infection during pregnancy.”The professor of psychiatry also emphasized that digging into the interaction of genetic and environmental factors is an area of critical research, but that to take on those studies with rigor demands decades of study and funding — and cast the Trump administration’s efforts as rushed.The Coalition of Autism Scientists earlier called it “highly irresponsible and potentially dangerous to claim links between potential exposures and autism when the science is far more nuanced and uncertain.””Secretary Kennedy’s announcement will cause confusion and fear,” said the group in a statement.

French President Emmanuel Macron recognized a Palestinian state at the United Nations on Monday,  spurring a wave of Western moves to defy Israel in making the landmark — if symbolic — move.Macron, speaking at a summit that Israel and its chief backer the US did not attend, called for an end to the war in Gaza.”The time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it,” Macron said in an address in the General Assembly.”The time has come to free the 48 hostages held by Hamas. The time has come to stop the war, the bombings of Gaza, the massacres and the displacement.”Macron, however, said France would not open an embassy to a Palestinian state until a ceasefire is in place in Gaza and all hostages released.The Palestinian Authority hailed France’s “historic and courageous” decision and its delegation gave him a standing ovation. Australia, Britain, Canada and Portugal recognized a Palestinian state, piling pressure on Israel as it intensifies its war in Gaza.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank to make statehood impossible.Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon said Israel “will take action.””They are not promoting peace. They are supporting terrorism,” he said.US President Donald Trump “believes (recognizing) is a reward to Hamas,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP ahead of the summit: “We should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation.”- Palestinian Authority presses Hamas -Other countries recognizing a Palestinian state on Monday included Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco and San Marino, according to Macron.Spain, Ireland and Norway already recognized a Palestinian state in May, and Sweden did so in 2014.The war was unleashed when Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, bringing a relentless counterattack by Israel.An independent state would be centered around the Palestinian Authority, which exerts limited control in the West Bank, and is the rival of Gaza-based Hamas.Israel has sought to minimize the distinction between the two, and Washington, in an unusual step, refused to allow Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas to attend.The 89-year-old veteran Palestinian leader, forced to address the summit virtually, called on Hamas to surrender its weapons to his Palestinian Authority.”We also condemn the killing and detention of civilians, including Hamas actions on October 7, 2023,” he said.France co-hosted the summit with Saudi Arabia, which has flirted with normalization with Israel, a top goal for Netanyahu. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, told the summit that all countries should follow suit and recognize a Palestinian state.- Limited practical effect -Germany, Italy and Japan, while all critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, are among major US allies that declined to recognize a Palestinian state.”A negotiated two-state solution is the path that can allow Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, security and dignity,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said.Britain, which backed a Jewish homeland in 1917, said it would back off recognizing a Palestinian state if Israel agreed a Gaza ceasefire. Instead, Israel launched a massive new campaign aimed at seizing Gaza City.But recognition, while historic, is unlikely to change facts on the ground.”Unless backed up by concrete measures, recognizing Palestine as a state risks becoming a distraction from the reality, which is an accelerating erasure of Palestinian life in their homeland,” said the International Crisis Group’s Israel-Palestine project director, Max Rodenbeck.The October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to official data.Israeli military operations since then have killed 65,344 Palestinians, mostly civilians, says the Hamas-run health ministry, figures the UN considers reliable.abd-gw-fff-sct/sms

Jimmy Kimmel’s late night talk show, which was abruptly pulled from the air last week after the US government threatened broadcasters, will be back on Tuesday, Disney announced Monday.The sudden suspension by ABC, which is owned by Disney, came after conservative complaints about comments Kimmel had made in the wake of the shooting of Christian activist Charlie Kirk.”Last Wednesday, we made the decision to suspend production on the show to avoid further inflaming a tense situation at an emotional moment for our country,” said a company statement.”It is a decision we made because we felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive.  “We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday.”Kimmel’s abrupt disappearance from the airwaves, apparently after government pressure on broadcasters who distribute ABC, sparked fury in liberal America, with critics saying Kimmel had been targeted because he is a frequent critic of President Donald Trump.Trump had celebrated Kimmel’s removal, calling it “Great News for America.”Opponents saw it as the latest step in creeping government control of free speech — an article of faith for many Americans, as well as a right enshrined in the country’s constitution.Some on the right were also uneasy, including people who regularly count themselves as Trump allies, like Ted Cruz, the conservative senator from Texas, and firebrand broadcaster Tucker Carlson.On Friday, Trump again complained about negative media coverage of him, which he said he thought was “illegal.”- FCC threat -The Kimmel episode unfolded a week after Kirk, a close Trump ally, was shot dead on a Utah university campus, setting off a bitter battle over responsibility in deeply polarized America, with conservatives — including Trump — blaming “the radical left.”Authorities have charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and have not indicated they are looking for anyone else.In his show-opening monologue last Monday, Kimmel said “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid… as anything other than one of them.”He then showed footage of Trump pivoting from a question about how he had been affected by Kirk’s death to boasting about the new ballroom he is building at the White House, prompting laughter from the studio audience.”This is not how an adult grieves the murder of somebody called a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish,” Kimmel said.Two days later, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr threatened the licenses of ABC affiliates that broadcast Kimmel’s show.”I think it’s past time these (affiliates) themselves push back… and say, ‘Listen, we’re not going to run Kimmel anymore until you straighten this out because we’re running the possibility of license revocation from the FCC,'” he told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson.Hours later, Nexstar, one of the country’s biggest owners of ABC affiliate stations, announced it would be removing the show from its stations.Nexstar is in the middle of a multi-billion-dollar merger with a rival that will require FCC approval.ABC then followed suit, pulling the show nationwide.- Hollywood stars -Before Disney’s about-face was announced on Monday, a constallation of Hollywood stars signed an open letter calling the decision to pull the show “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation (that is) unconstitutional and un-American.””The government is threatening private companies and individuals that the President disagrees with. We can’t let this threat to our freedom of speech go unanswered,” said the letter by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).Signatories to the letter included Marvel star Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro.

The White House on Monday said a US version of TikTok would feature a homegrown model of the app’s prized algorithm, potentially clearing one of the main obstacles to keeping the Chinese-owned platform online in the United States.Often described as TikTok’s “secret sauce,” the fate of the video-sharing app’s algorithm was one of the main question marks in persuading China to allow the platform’s transfer to US ownership.A law passed under President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, has forced current owner ByteDance to sell its US operations or face a ban of the hugely popular app in its biggest market.US policymakers, including Trump in his first presidency, have warned that China could use TikTok to mine data from Americans or exert influence through its state-of-the-art algorithm.Trump has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the ban while the White House looked for a team of domestic buyers for TikTok’s US business.As part of its ongoing trade talks with Beijing, it has also sought permission from Chinese authorities to allow one of their most successful tech champions to hand over the corporate reins — and algorithm — to Americans.Under the proposal presented by a senior White House official to reporters, TikTok’s US operations would move into a new joint venture based in the United States that would involve a majority-American board of directors.US cloud giant Oracle, which already works closely with TikTok in the United States, would serve as a security guarantor for the algorithm, ensuring that it remained separate from any Chinese involvement.- ‘Fully inspected’ -TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm is “going to be fully inspected and retrained by the security provider on US user data, and then it’s going to be operated by that US entity,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.The US official said the algorithm would be “continuously monitored” to ensure it is “not being unduly influenced.”The latest updates came after Trump hailed progress Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping on issues including TikTok, after both leaders spoke by telephone for the second time since Trump’s return to the presidency.Trump is expected to sign an executive order this week, declaring that the terms of the TikTok deal meet national security requirements, the US official said Monday.This would also help to assure doubters who worry that the arrangement between Trump and Xi could fall short of the US law’s obligations by leaving too great a role for ByteDance, which would keep control of TikTok globally.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News over the weekend that “there will be seven seats on the board that controls the app in the United States, and six of those seats will be Americans.”Trump separately added that conservative media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and his eldest son Lachlan could be among the investors who will take control of TikTok in the United States.Venture capital giants Andreessen Horowitz and Silver Lake are also reported to be part of the deal.Beijing, however, has said very little about any pending agreement.”On the TikTok issue, Xi noted that China’s position is clear: the Chinese government respects the will of enterprises and welcomes them to conduct business negotiations based on market rules, to reach solutions that balance interests and comply with Chinese laws and regulations,” state broadcaster CCTV said after the Trump-Xi phone call.