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AI Company CEOs Calling To Slow The Development Of The Technology Over ‘End Of The World’ Warnings 

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Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei issued a proposal to slow down the advancement of artificial intelligence after multiple warnings that the technology could lead to the end of humanity. Almost immediately after, the heads of some of the largest AI companies in the US agreed, in order to ensure the safety of the public.

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jimmy kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel Says Talarico Interview Won’t Air on TV Because of FCC Pressure

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Jimmy Kimmel said Wednesday that an interview with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico will be released online rather than broadcast on ABC, a decision the late-night host attributed to pressure from the Federal Communications Commission under President Donald Trump.

The interview, scheduled for Thursday, will instead appear on the YouTube channel for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Kimmel said the change was intended in part to protect ABC’s local television stations, particularly those in Texas, from potential regulatory scrutiny.

“Out of consideration for our local stations, especially our ABC affiliates in Texas, who would have to deal with this nonsense, my interview tomorrow with James Talarico will not air on television.”

Talarico, a Democratic state representative, is running for U.S. Senate in Texas against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton. His planned appearance on Kimmel’s show comes amid an ongoing dispute over how federal political broadcasting rules apply to late-night and daytime television programs.

In January, the FCC issued guidance addressing the equal time rule, which generally requires broadcast stations that allow a legally qualified political candidate to use their airwaves to provide comparable opportunities to other candidates seeking the same office. The agency specifically addressed late-night and daytime talk shows in the memo, marking a shift from how it had treated such programs for years.

Twenty years earlier, an FCC decision had found that certain late-night and daytime talk programs could qualify for an exemption from the rule. The January guidance put renewed scrutiny on whether interviews with candidates appearing on those programs should receive that protection.

Kimmel accused the administration and the FCC of using that regulatory authority to interfere with ordinary decisions broadcasters make.

He said that during Trump’s administration, the Federal Communications Commission “has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network, ABC, our affiliates, our local stations, based on simple, traditional editorial decisions, guest bookings it would seem they don’t like.”

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The FCC has disputed broader accusations that its enforcement of the equal time rules amounts to censorship. Chairman Brendan Carr said earlier this year, during a separate controversy over a Talarico television appearance, that broadcasters remained free to interview candidates as long as they followed applicable regulations, including by offering comparable opportunities to other qualified candidates.

Kimmel is not the first late-night host to say regulatory concerns affected whether an interview with Talarico could be shown on broadcast television.

In February, Stephen Colbert said CBS would not air his interview with Talarico after the network’s lawyers raised concerns about the FCC’s equal time requirements. The interview was ultimately posted online instead.

“He was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast.”

CBS said in a February statement that “the show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates.”

The network also said Colbert’s team had been presented with options for providing other candidates with opportunities under the rule before “The Late Show” chose to post the Talarico interview on YouTube.

Talarico’s appearance on another ABC program also attracted FCC scrutiny that month. The agency opened an investigation involving “The View” and its interview with Talarico over questions about the equal-opportunities requirements.

The disagreement over the rule has extended beyond the networks and their hosts. FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the commission’s Democratic member, criticized the January guidance when it was released, arguing that the agency had not formally changed its regulations and warning that broadcasters could interpret the announcement as pressure to alter editorial decisions.

The dispute also comes as ABC’s parent company, the Walt Disney Co., is engaged in a legal fight with the FCC. In April, the commission, led by Carr, directed Disney’s eight ABC-owned local television stations to file for early renewal of their broadcast licenses. Disney sued over the decision last month.

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In its lawsuit, Disney and ABC characterized the commission’s actions as an unconstitutional campaign of retaliation and argued that the accelerated license proceedings threatened the network’s editorial independence. The FCC rejected that characterization and said its investigation includes allegations of unlawful discrimination by Disney.

Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly attacked Kimmel publicly and called for the comedian to be fired.

ABC temporarily pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” from the air about a year ago following Kimmel’s comments about conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated in September of last year. The program returned nearly a week later.

When he returned, Kimmel addressed the controversy directly, saying that “it was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man.”

Kimmel also revisited his clashes with the agency when “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” returned from a planned summer hiatus on Sept. 8. In his first monologue back, he noted that the program had been on the air since 2003 and took a pointed swipe at Carr over what Kimmel described as an unsuccessful attempt to use the FCC’s regulatory authority against the show.

The clash over Talarico’s appearance is particularly striking, Kimmel said Wednesday, because political candidates have long appeared on late-night talk shows. Kimmel said he has interviewed candidates including Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz and Trump during more than two decades as a late-night host without similar problems.

Trump sat for an interview with Kimmel in 2015 while campaigning for president, a previous appearance Kimmel contrasted with Wednesday’s scrutiny over his planned conversation with Talarico.

“At that time, when he was the one sitting next to me, he seemed to have no problem with the idea of talk show hosts interviewing candidates. In fact, he was very eager to come back for another interview, which he did just before he became the nominee in 2016. But for some reason, and I can’t seem to figure out what that reason is, something has changed.”

Because the interview will appear on YouTube rather than ABC’s broadcast stations, it will not be subject to the FCC’s broadcast rules in the same way.

tariffs

Canada Imposes New Tariffs on U.S. Imports Amid Deepening Trade War

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The trade fight between the United States and Canada entered a new phase Tuesday, when Canadian retaliatory tariffs took effect on roughly $20 billion worth of American imports.

The measures arrived after weeks of increasingly hostile rhetoric between President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose government has vowed to answer U.S. tariffs “dollar for dollar.” Carney has described Canada as “at war” as he seeks to cast himself as a defender of the country against Trump’s trade policies.

The broader trade fight began after Trump returned to office last year and threatened tariffs on Canada and Mexico, accusing both countries of failing to do enough to prevent drugs and migrants from crossing into the United States. Some Canadian provinces later responded by pulling American liquor from store shelves.

The two governments later eased some of their toughest measures, but other disputes continued to strain the relationship. Trump declined to extend the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement beyond 2036, and officials from the two countries have also clashed over NATO and Trump’s repeated remarks about Canada becoming the 51st state.

Relations deteriorated sharply this summer, after Trump accused Canada of discriminating against American industries and threatened 50 percent tariffs on certain Canadian products unless the countries reached an agreement within 30 days.

Negotiations continued through much of August, and Trump at times suggested a deal was close. Instead, the talks broke down before the deadline, with officials from each country accusing the other of introducing unreasonable demands at the last minute.

Carney later said Washington had “asked too much and offered too little.” He also accused the administration of seeking influence over Canada’s trade agreements with other countries, which he portrayed as a threat to Canadian sovereignty. He said the U.S. “signature was written in pencil” on previous agreements.

Washington subsequently placed tariffs on hundreds of Canadian products, including cheese, wine, clothing and hockey sticks. Canadian officials responded by promising their own duties after Labor Day.

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Those tariffs are now in effect. The Canadian duties range from 15 percent to 50 percent, with the rate on each product designed to match the corresponding U.S. tariff. Products facing the highest rate include certain American dairy products, perfume, video game consoles, golf equipment, fishing rods, steel, aluminum and some clothing. Cheese, carpeting and some household appliances face 25 percent duties, while some industrial equipment is taxed at 15 percent. The measures extend the pattern of retaliation that has come to define the dispute.

Canada initially planned to include some U.S. seafood among the products facing tariffs but later removed those goods following pushback from the lobster industry.

For the moment, the direct economic damage may be relatively contained. The affected products represent only a fraction of the enormous volume of goods traded between the neighboring countries each year.

Economists have warned, however, that the Canadian tariffs could hit manufacturers in states such as Michigan and Indiana, as well as dairy producers in Wisconsin and Vermont, especially hard.

But the greater risk is that each round of retaliation produces another, expanding the number of products subject to tariffs and increasing costs for companies and consumers on both sides of the border.

“This tit-for-tat retaliation is bad for Canadian businesses and consumers, and bad for American businesses and consumers,” said Brad Wood, the senior director for trade and innovation at the National Foreign Trade Council, whose board includes companies such as Caterpillar, Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor and Walmart.

“Every escalation is one more layer of barriers that ultimately Canada and the United States need to resolve.”

The uncertainty now, he said, is whether Trump will act on his latest threats.

Those threats have continued to multiply. U.S. officials have derided Canada’s economy and military, while Trump has announced 50 percent tariffs on Canadian automotive and steel imports beginning in January and suggested Friday that he could attempt to stop trade between the two countries altogether.

He has also escalated his attacks beyond tariffs. Trump signed an executive order seeking to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America and, on Sunday, criticized Canada’s currency.

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“Canada’s (currency) Dollar imbalance with the U.S. is unacceptable,” he wrote on social media. “It has been that way for years — but no longer!”

Hours before the Canadian tariffs went into effect, Trump turned his attention to Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer, declaring on social media that there would be “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES!”

Trump also accused Canada of blocking “our GREAT American Banks, and Companies,” and urged Americans to avoid Canadian products.

“BUY AMERICAN. FLY ON AMERICAN AIRLINERS. ENJOY AMERICAN LIQUOR AND BEVERAGES. SAIL ON LAKE AMERICA,” Trump wrote.

Bombardier responded by emphasizing the company’s extensive ties to the American aerospace industry. It produces important aircraft components, including wings, in California and Texas and relies on a broad U.S. supply chain.

“Bombardier is a strong contributor to the sector, creating tens of thousands of jobs across the United States.”

The confrontation with Canada is only one front in Trump’s broader effort to reshape U.S. trade through tariffs, which have remained a centerpiece of his economic agenda despite court setbacks, disputes with foreign governments and growing concerns about their domestic effects.

His administration is preparing another slate of tariffs aimed at dozens of countries it has accused of unfair trade practices. Officials are expected to argue that some countries produce excessive quantities of certain goods—a phenomenon the administration calls “excess capacity”—contributing to persistent U.S. trade deficits.

The new duties, which could be announced as soon as this week, are intended to replace some tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February.

Trump has gone further still, threatening to stop trade with countries that sell more goods and services to the United States than they buy from it. The United States runs trade deficits with dozens of countries, including major partners in Europe and Asia, meaning such a policy could have sweeping economic consequences if carried out.

The administration’s continuing reliance on tariffs also comes as policymakers remain concerned about inflation. Because tariffs are taxes imposed on imported products, businesses and consumers can pass their costs along through higher prices.

For Canada and the United States, meanwhile, there is little indication that the cycle of retaliation is nearing an end. Canada’s new tariffs have now answered the U.S. measures imposed in August, while Trump continues to threaten still more penalties — leaving two longtime allies increasingly entrenched in a trade confrontation that only months ago both governments were trying to negotiate away.

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Trump Launches Midterm Push as GOP Faces Unexpectedly Tight Races

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President Donald Trump is preparing to spend the final stretch before the November midterms campaigning across some of the country’s most competitive races, including in states Republicans once had little reason to worry about. One of those places is Alaska, where Trump says he will campaign for Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan as Democrats seek an upset in a state the president won comfortably just two years ago.

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George Santos Gets Kalshi’s First Permanent Ban Over Insider Trading

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George Santos has become the first person to be permanently barred from the prediction market Kalshi, which said Monday that it had also imposed a $71,356 penalty on the former New York congressman after determining that he engaged in insider trading.

The disciplinary action adds to growing scrutiny surrounding prediction markets, which have surged in popularity over the past year as users wager billions of dollars on the outcomes of political races, entertainment events and other real-world developments. Kalshi, for example, offers markets ranging from election results to questions about who will marry on “Love Is Blind.”

That rapid growth has also raised new questions about how prediction markets should be regulated, whether some offerings run afoul of state gambling laws, and how platforms can prevent people with access to nonpublic information—or control over an outcome themselves—from trading on it.

In April, three political candidates were found trying to place bets on their own races. And last week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates prediction markets at the federal level, fined a White House teleprompter operator $172,000 for betting on what President Trump would say during his speeches.

Another case announced Monday involved Laurie Buckhout, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s closely watched 1st Congressional District, who acknowledged betting on her own campaign. Buckhout said she had made a “dumb mistake” and cooperated with Kalshi’s investigation. The company said she traded less than $1,000 and suspended her from the platform for three years.

The case marked the first publicly known instance of a current congressional nominee being caught wagering on their own race. Buckhout, a retired Army colonel endorsed by Trump, is challenging Democratic Rep. Don Davis in a district considered one of the GOP’s stronger opportunities to pick up a House seat in the midterm elections. She lost to Davis by fewer than 2 percentage points in 2024 before Republican state lawmakers redrew the district.

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Santos had already faced federal penalties for his own trading before Kalshi announced its punishment. Last month, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered him to pay roughly $35,000, including a $17,500 civil penalty and more than $17,500 in surrendered profits, over wagers tied to whether he would attend Trump’s State of the Union address in February. The agency concluded that Santos had engaged in manipulative trading in a market whose underlying outcome he could personally influence. The settlement also imposed a three-year trading ban and brought the CFTC’s investigation into the trades to a close.

In the days before the address, Santos publicly indicated that he intended to be there.

“I’m gonna be in the gallery,” Santos said in a video he posted on X.

Behind the scenes, however, Santos was also trading on the possibility that he would not attend. Around the time of the State of the Union, Kalshi detected that he had placed wagers against his own attendance, The New York Times previously reported.

Santos ultimately did not appear at the speech.

Kalshi subsequently referred the matter to both the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The CFTC later found that Santos had engaged in manipulative activity “designed to affect the price of the swap.”

The federal regulator said Santos traded contracts concerning his attendance between Feb. 12 and Feb. 25 while also posting publicly about whether he planned to go. According to the agency, those statements moved prices in directions that benefited his positions, allowing him to earn more than $17,500 from the trades.

Kalshi also pursued its own investigation and eventually reached a similar conclusion about his conduct.

“The Kalshi compliance department has established reasonable cause to believe that George Santos engaged in trading activity in certain markets related to his attendance at the State of the Union address.”

The platform announced disciplinary actions against several other people on Monday related to insider trading. Those cases resulted in temporary three-year bans, according to an emailed statement from the company.

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Santos received the far more severe punishment of a permanent ban because, Kalshi said, he was the only person among those disciplined who did not cooperate with its investigation.

Santos declined to comment when asked about the company’s findings.

He nevertheless responded publicly to Kalshi after news of the punishment emerged.

“Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”

The remark came as Kalshi and other prediction-market companies face an ongoing legal fight over whether their products should remain federally regulated as financial markets or fall under state gambling laws.

Santos also accused Kalshi of failing to abide by what he described as a 30-day notice period, saying the company had given him that notice on Aug. 7 before permanently barring him from trading.

It was not his first public attack on the company. Santos had previously denied wrongdoing in connection with his trades, calling the allegations “preposterous,” and later described Kalshi as “a predatory app” on social media.

The episode represents another legal and ethical controversy for Santos, whose brief congressional career unraveled amid revelations about false claims he had made about his personal and professional history.

Santos was charged with fraud in 2023 after The New York Times and other news organizations reported that he had extensively fabricated parts of his biography. Later that year, the House voted to expel him, making him one of only a small number of members in American history to be removed by their colleagues.

He was subsequently sentenced to seven years in federal prison. Santos served only a portion of that sentence before Trump commuted it last fall, leading to his release.

lake ontario

Trump Signs Order Seeking to Rename Lake Ontario As ‘Lake America’

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President Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing the US government to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” escalating tensions with Canada just days after trade negotiations between the two countries broke down.

Trump signed the order in the Oval Office on Thursday. Asked whether the move was intended as a message to Canada, the president said it was not, though he added that the country’s northern neighbor “has been ripping us off for a long time on trade.”

“We notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So we’ve done everything that you have to do, and this is official, effective immediately.”

The announcement comes during one of the most strained periods in recent US-Canada relations. Trade talks collapsed last week, after which Washington imposed new 50% tariffs on $20bn (C$28bn) worth of Canadian goods. Canada has said it will answer with “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs beginning next month.

Trump also accused Canada of seeking the benefits of being part of the United States without actually being one, saying: “They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state.”

Canadian leaders quickly rejected Trump’s attempt to rename the lake.

Prime Minister Mark Carney pointed to the name’s centuries-old history, saying Lake Ontario had been known by that name for more than 400 years—long before either the Canadian Confederation or the US Declaration of Independence.

Carney also highlighted the Indigenous roots of the name, writing that “Ontario” derives from the Wendat word “Ontari’io,” which he said means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”

“We know that the United States is changing — their trade relations, their foreign policy, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadian women and men also know that things must be called by their name, and this lake is called Lake Ontario — today and forever.”

Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivered a similar response, writing: “It’s Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world. Now and forever.” Other Canadian ministers and provincial premiers also dismissed the new designation.

Canadian Industry Minister Mélanie Joly had already brushed aside Trump’s threats to rename the lake earlier in the week. “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period,” she said. “We’re proud of our Great Lakes.”

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Lake Ontario is the smallest of the five Great Lakes and forms part of the international boundary between the Canadian province of Ontario and New York state. Four of the Great Lakes — Ontario, Huron, Michigan and Erie — have names derived from indigenous words, while Lake Superior’s name comes from an anglicized French term.

The lake also gave its name to Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, which includes both Toronto and the national capital, Ottawa.

Although Trump has significant authority over the names the US federal government uses for geographic features, his executive order cannot compel Canada or other countries to adopt the new name.

No single internationally recognized organization is responsible for naming shared international waters.

The executive order supports the new designation by emphasizing the lake’s physical and historical connections to the United States. It says the deepest portions of Lake Ontario lie within US territory and asserts that the United States contains most of the lake’s water by volume. The order also describes the lake as having played a longstanding role in American “exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense.”

Under Trump’s order, the US Department of the Interior has 30 days to update the Geographic Names Information Service, the federal government’s official database for domestic geographic names.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the announcement and quickly signaled that his department would carry it out. “We’re on it, Mr. President!” Burgum wrote.

“The places and waters that border our nation and support our economy should reflect the greatness of the United States,” he said, adding that the US Geological Survey “maps our country for the world to see, and we are PROUD to implement your Executive Order to rename LAKE AMERICA.”

Reaction among US politicians, however, was sharply divided.

Democratic lawmaker Debbie Dingell of Michigan — which borders four of the five Great Lakes — called Trump’s order “idiotic” and said she planned to introduce legislation in Congress that would reverse the change.

“The Great Lakes are a shared treasure that generations of Americans and Canadians have worked together to protect,” Dingell wrote.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, said her state would continue referring to the body of water as Lake Ontario. New York is the only US state bordering the lake.

Marc Isaacs, a Canadian maritime attorney, told NBC News before Trump signed the order that neither the US nor the Canadian government controls the naming rights to the lake, meaning Washington’s decision would impose no obligation on Canada or other countries. “The Americans can call it whatever they want to call it,” Isaacs said. “It is Lake Ontario.”

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The move echoes one of Trump’s earliest geographic-renaming efforts after returning to the White House in 2025, when he signed an order directing the federal government to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Mexico rejected that change, arguing that one country cannot unilaterally rename an international body of water shared with other nations. The dispute also spilled into the technology industry after Google changed how the gulf appeared in its Maps service.

Apple also adopted “Gulf of America” in its Maps service following Trump’s directive, even as the new terminology failed to gain widespread acceptance internationally.

Google Maps users in the United States see “Gulf of America”, while users in Mexico continue to see “Gulf of Mexico”. People accessing the service elsewhere see “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)”.

That name change also triggered a dispute between the Trump administration and the Associated Press.

The White House barred AP journalists from some presidential events after the news organization declined to use “Gulf of America” as its standard terminology. The AP later sued the administration, and the resulting legal fight remains unresolved.

And Trump suggested Lake Ontario may not be the end of his renaming campaign. Pointing to the Gulf of America and his new designation for the lake, he mused Thursday about doing something similar with an ocean.

“Now, all we need is an ocean. So, maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

US and Canadian officials have traded accusations in recent days over which side was responsible for the collapse of trade negotiations. Both governments have said the other introduced last-minute demands that made an agreement impossible.

Nevertheless, there were indications Thursday that negotiations could eventually resume.

Canadian US trade minister Dominic LeBlanc said Washington had withdrawn some demands concerning French-language labeling requirements, which Canada had identified as one of the sticking points in the talks.

The US has maintained that it never made demands involving language requirements.

For now, however, the fight over trade has been joined by a fight over geography — with Trump saying he has completed the necessary US paperwork to call the shared lake Lake America, and Canadian leaders making clear they have no intention of following him.

Kennedy Center

Kennedy Center Must Pay $252,000 to Musician It Sued Over Trump Name Protest

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A judge in Washington, DC, has ordered the Kennedy Center to cover more than $250,000 in legal fees for jazz musician Chuck Redd, months after the institution unsuccessfully sued him over his decision to pull out of a Christmas Eve performance.

Redd had been scheduled to host the Kennedy Center’s annual holiday jazz concert, an event he has led for nearly two decades. The drummer and vibraphonist withdrew from the Dec. 24 performance after the center’s board voted to add President Donald Trump’s name to the performing arts venue. Redd told CNN at the time that he “was saddened to see this name change.”

In an email to a Kennedy Center employee, Redd also said he would feel deeply uncomfortable performing at the venue while Trump’s name remained on the building.

The Kennedy Center responded by suing Redd in March, alleging that his withdrawal less than a week before the concert amounted to a breach of contract and caused financial and reputational harm to the institution. The lawsuit sought an unspecified amount in damages.

“As a result of Defendant Redd’s malfeasance, the Center was forced to cancel the Christmas Eve Jazz Jam concert at the last minute, depriving hundreds of members of the public the Christmas Concert offered by the Center, and causing the Center reputational, marketing, and concert preparation damages.”

The dispute had already escalated shortly after Redd canceled. Richard Grenell, then president of the Kennedy Center, sent the musician a letter condemning the decision and tying it directly to Redd’s objections to the renaming.

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Before the Kennedy Center ultimately filed suit, Grenell had threatened to seek $1 million from Redd and characterized his withdrawal as a “political stunt.”

“Your decision to withdraw at the last moment—explicitly in response to the Center’s recent renaming, which honors President Trump’s extraordinary efforts to save this national treasure—is classic intolerance and very costly to a non-profit Arts institution,” Grenell, a longtime Trump confidant, wrote.

Grenell was replaced as head of the Kennedy Center in March.

The case did not survive. In June, Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, dismissed the Kennedy Center’s lawsuit after concluding that it had failed “to state a valid breach of contract claim.” Redd, she found, had never signed an agreement before canceling the performance.

Jones Bosier also found that the Kennedy Center did not appear to have suffered financial harm from the cancellation, noting that the Christmas Eve concert was free.

On Monday, Bosier issued another ruling in the dispute, awarding Redd more than $252,000 in legal fees and ordering the Kennedy Center to pay within 45 days.

Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, the attorneys representing Redd, are prominent employment lawyers who have previously represented Christine Blasey Ford, who testified during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation process.

Banks told CNN in a statement the ruling was a rejection of the institution’s effort to punish the musician for opposing the name change.

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“The Trump-controlled Kennedy Center tried to silence opposition to its illegal name change by filing a meritless lawsuit against jazz musician Chuck Redd. The court rightly dismissed that breach of contract lawsuit, finding there was no contract and no damages, and was brought against Mr. Redd based on his protected opposition.”

In a separate statement Tuesday, Banks said people should not have to spend their time and money defending themselves against lawsuits she described as baseless and politically motivated.

Redd’s attorneys later sought more than $258,000 in legal fees and related costs. Kennedy Center lawyers challenged that request ahead of the ruling, arguing in court filings that the amount was excessive and calling the calculation “astonishing.”

The controversy surrounding the center’s name also continued outside the courtroom. In May, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name had been added to the institution without the required congressional approval and ordered it removed. The Kennedy Center appealed that ruling.

Later in June, following a legal back-and-forth, Trump’s name was removed from both the exterior of the Kennedy Center building and the institution’s website. The letters were taken off the marble facade as scaffolding and tarps were erected around part of the building, temporarily obscuring portions of the original name.

The dispute with Redd came amid a wider backlash to Trump’s changes at the Kennedy Center during his second term. Artists and audience members boycotted the institution, particularly after its board voted to add Trump’s name, while center officials criticized performers who withdrew from scheduled appearances. The lawsuit against Redd marked the most aggressive action the institution had taken against an artist who backed out of a planned performance.

The Kennedy Center has also faced uncertainty over its immediate future, with a largely empty performance calendar since July as its board considers Trump’s proposal to close the venue for two years of renovations.

A spokesperson for the Kennedy Center said the institution plans to appeal the decision.

Trump Accuses China of 2020 Election Interference Ahead of Midterms

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President Donald Trump used a primetime White House address on Thursday to renew his push for sweeping changes to US election laws, while accusing China of interfering in the 2020 presidential race and warning of what he described as “shocking vulnerabilities” in American voting systems. The half-hour speech came three months before November’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.

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Trump Says July 4th Celebration Will Feature ‘TRUMP RALLY’ on National Mall

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President Donald Trump said Monday that the Independence Day celebration on the National Mall will include what he described as a “TRUMP RALLY,” adding a distinctly political framing to an event traditionally centered on the country rather than any one president or party.

The main July 4th event on the National Mall, known as the “Salute to America,” is expected to include a parade, military demonstrations and other activities before concluding with a fireworks display over the monuments, according to the National Park Service.

Freedom 250, a public-private partnership launched by the White House last year, had previously announced the July 4th event as the nation’s “premier Independence Day celebration,” but did not mention Trump’s involvement.

“Set against the iconic backdrop of the National Mall, Salute to America will bring together citizens from every corner of the country to honor and celebrate the United States,” Freedom 250 said in a release earlier this month.

But Trump, in a post on Truth Social, said the evening would also serve as a large-scale rally tied to America’s 250th anniversary celebration.

“On July 4th, at The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, in beautiful and safe Washington D.C., we are going to host the most spectacular TRUMP RALLY of them all, a ‘TRIBUTE TO AMERICA. Starting at 7 P.M. EST, this HUGE Celebration will honor our Country’s People, Spirit, Strength, Resolve, and Triumphs.”

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Trump also said the event would include what he described as the largest fireworks show in history.

The announcement stands out because celebrations marking the signing of the Declaration of Independence have generally been treated as nonpartisan commemorations of the nation as a whole. Trump, however, has repeatedly placed himself at the center of events connected to America’s semiquincentennial.

His latest plans follow other instances in which he has faced criticism for using the presidency to elevate his own image or advance personal interests during events that would typically be viewed as apolitical national celebrations.

After several artists withdrew from a concert series connected to the “Great American State Fair,” Trump made himself the host of an opening ceremony celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

Some performers who backed out reportedly said they had not realized how closely the event was tied to Trump. Trump later promoted the June 24th event as “a Rally to end all Rallies!”

On Sunday, his 80th birthday, Trump also hosted a UFC fight night at the White House, an event billed in part as a celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary. His family simultaneously promoted a business venture tied to the spectacle, selling gold coins priced at up to $12,000.

Some of Trump’s supporters praised the White House UFC event as a way to rally Americans around the anniversary.

“Fight for freedom. Fight for our way of life. Fight for America,” the Homeland Security Department wrote on X.

Democrats, meanwhile, have criticized Trump’s growing role in the anniversary celebrations as improper and potentially unethical, with some opening investigations into sponsorships connected to the events.

The president’s July 4th announcement also comes after several states declined to take part in the “Great American State Fair” on the National Mall. Officials have said many of those decisions were driven largely by cost, though a spokesperson in one Democratic-led state cited concerns about the event’s partisan tone.

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The event will be staged against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial and Reflecting Pool, which he said he recently renovated. The Interior Department is still working to remove “residual algae” from the Reflecting Pool.

Trump previously delivered remarks at the Lincoln Memorial during the White House’s “Salute to America” celebration on July 4th in 2019, though critics at the time argued the event resembled a political rally.

In recent days, Trump has also invoked the site’s history, comparing the crowd for his 2019 address near the Reflecting Pool to the crowd that gathered there for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

“That’s where MLK made his great speech, and they said he had a million people. And I made a speech there for July 4th a few years ago and … that was packed. They said I had 25,000 people. They said [King] had a million, but when you look at the picture, the people were packed even tighter at mine. I had more people than him, but they said I had 25,000, he had a million. But I’m not going to argue with Martin Luther King.”

In his Monday post, Trump said the July 4th rally would feature military bands, orchestras and ceremonial units performing what he called “patriotic melodies,” as well as favorite hits from his own “playlist.”

“We will have none of those people that put you to sleep and constantly complain!” the president said, appearing to refer to artists who have criticized him.

“There will be incredible Flyovers and Airshows featuring our Top Military Pilots and Equipment, and I will deliver keynote remarks that you will not want to miss.”

The National Mall has long hosted July Fourth celebrations, including the 1976 bicentennial, which drew an estimated 1 million people. President Gerald Ford marked the bicentennial with a formal address in Philadelphia earlier that day, but did not speak to the crowd gathered on the Mall.

gas

US Inflation Increased To 3.8% Last Month As War With Iran Continues

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According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, US inflation rose to 3.8% in April as the war in the Middle East continues to drive energy prices and everyday costs up in America. Prices rose by the same percentage within the past year, marking the highest jump since 2023. 

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This is the second official measure of the consumer price index, which measures the price of basket goods and services since the beginning of the war with Iran. In March, prices rose 3.3%, up from 2.4% in February, according to reports.

In April, energy prices rose 3.8%, accounting for over 40% of the overall monthly increase. Gas prices rose by 28.4%, with the national average price for a gallon of gas steadily increasing every month since the US-Israel war with Iran began. 

The Guardian reported that higher energy prices directly correlates with the ongoing closure of the strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil and gas typically passes through. 

Oil prices are climbing this week after Donald Trump called Iran’s response to US peace proposals “totally unacceptable.” 

Airfare pricing has also increased 20.7%. Costs essential to everyday living are also increasing, including food (3.8%) and energy services like electricity and utilities (5.4%).

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Australia, Canada, South Korea, and other nations are also experiencing rapid inflation. According to a new survey from PwC, British households are also bracing for an increased cost of living. Asia’s manufacturing sector has also reported signs of strain with increased costs. 

The Trump administration is continuing to campaign for lower interest rates to make borrowing money in the US cheaper. The Fed usually increased interest rates during times of high inflation to cool off spending and lower prices. 

Incoming US Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh has emphasized that he believes interest rates should be lower, and rising inflation may make it more difficult for him to be able to make the case to do so. 

Warsh needs to convince the rest of the Fed’s 11 voting members that despite these increased prices, the Fed should continue to cut rates. Only one member of the board voted to lower rates at its meeting last month over slow job growth and uncertainty in the Middle East. 

Rates are currently sitting at 3.5% to 3.75%. 

The US Senate is expected to confirm Warsh as Fed chair in the coming days and the end of ongoing Fed chair Jerome Powell’s term is Friday.