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Trump signs order to get ‘transgender ideology’ out of military

Trump signs order to get ‘transgender ideology’ out of military
US President Donald Trump has previously promised to bring back a ban on transgender troops. Above, protesters at Times Square, New York on July 26, 2017 during Trump’s first presidency where he also banned transgender people from serving in the US military. (AFP)
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Updated 28 January 2025
AFP

Trump signs order to get ‘transgender ideology’ out of military

Trump signs order to get ‘transgender ideology’ out of military
  • He signed further orders reinstating service members dismissed for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine
  • He extended a wider government crackdown on diversity programs to the armed forces
Updated 28 January 2025
AFP

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE: US President Donald Trump said Monday he had signed an executive order ridding the military of what he called “transgender ideology,” in a potentially major setback for LGBTQ rights.
In a series of orders related to the military that Trump told reporters he had signed on Air Force One, he also called for the building of a US version of Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
The Republican signed further orders reinstating service members dismissed for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine, and extending a wider government crackdown on diversity programs to the armed forces.
“To ensure that we have the most lethal fighting force in the world, we will get transgender ideology the hell out of our military,” Trump told a Republican congressional retreat earlier in Miami.
Trump has previously promised to bring back a ban on transgender troops, but it was not immediately clear what specific steps were contained in the new order, which has not yet been published.
A White House official with him said the order involved “eliminating gender radicalism in the military.”
Trump’s orders came at the start of his second week back in the White House and on the day a welcome ceremony was held at the Pentagon for his new defense secretary, military veteran and Fox News personality Pete Hegseth.
“Thank you for your leadership Mr. President. We will execute!” Hegseth — who was confirmed last week despite concerns over his inexperience, and alleged record of heavy drinking and domestic violence — said on X.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly while Trump has repeatedly sought to keep them out of the ranks.
The US military lifted a ban on transgender troops serving in the armed forces in 2016, during Democrat Barack Obama’s second term as president.
Under that policy, trans troops already serving were permitted to do so openly, and transgender recruits were set to start being accepted by July 1, 2017.
But the first Trump administration postponed that date to 2018 before deciding to reverse the policy entirely, sparking criticism from rights groups.
Trump claimed that transgender service members were disruptive, expensive and eroded military readiness and camaraderie among troops.
Trump’s Democratic successor Joe Biden moved to reverse the restrictions just days after he took office in 2021, saying all Americans qualified to serve should be able to do so.
While the number of transgender troops in the American military is fairly small — with estimates of some 15,000 out of more than two million uniformed service members — their dismissal would reduce US forces at a time when the country is already facing difficulties recruiting new personnel.
Biden’s outgoing defense secretary Lloyd Austin appeared to criticize Trump’s plans during a farewell address earlier this month, saying: “Any military that turns away qualified patriots who are eager to serve is just making itself smaller and weaker.”
Transgender issues have roiled US politics in recent years, as states controlled by Democrats and Republicans have moved in opposite directions on policies ranging from medical treatment to what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
Trump has meanwhile repeatedly promised to build a version of the Iron Dome system that Israel has used to shoot down missiles fired by Hamas from Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
But he ignored the fact that the system is designed for short-range threats, making it ill-suited to defending against intercontinental missiles that are the main danger to the United States.
“We need to immediately begin the construction of a state-of-the-art Iron Dome missile defense shield,” Trump said in Miami, adding that it would be “made right here in the USA.”

Topics: Trump Returns Donald Trump transgender US

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Tracing the ‘Green Sahara’ in Chad’s northern desert

Updated 12 sec ago

Tracing the ‘Green Sahara’ in Chad’s northern desert

Tracing the ‘Green Sahara’ in Chad’s northern desert
Updated 12 sec ago
N’DJAMENA: A cloud of dust escapes from an excavation site in the sand of Chad’s arid north, where scientists are looking for signs of human habitation in an area once humid and called the “Green Sahara.”
Kneeling, armed with a brush and trowel inside the largest rock shelter at the Gaora Hallagana site in the Ennedi West province, Djimet Guemona, 35, meticulously removed every layer of sand.
“It’s as if we are turning the pages of a historic book to travel back in time,” said Guemona, an archaeologist at the National Center for Research and Development.
His face lit up at the discovery of each fragment of pottery or scrap of charcoal.
The scientific mission, conducted over five days in late July some 30 kilometers (nearly 19 miles) from Fada, the main town in Ennedi West, brought together Chadian archaeologists and geologists from universities in N’Djamena and Abeche.
It aimed to lay “the first cornerstone” of the chronological framework for ancient settlements in Ennedi, Guemona said.
The Natural and Cultural Reserve of Ennedi (RNCE) was created in 2018 in the Chadian province, which stands at the crossroads with Libya and Sudan and is home to a rich archaeological heritage.
Tens of thousands of engravings and paintings can be found on the rocky walls across the vast reserve’s more than 50,000 square kilometers (19,305 square miles).
Since the RNCE was included on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2016, the Chadian government brought in the South African organization, African Parks, to help run it for 15 years.
The head of the scientific mission funded by the group, Mahamat Ahmat Oumar, said 1,686 sites had been catalogued so far.
“But this likely represents less than a quarter of the total,” he said.
“There is enormous archaeological potential but it remains poorly documented,” Oumar added. “Research has been dominated by foreign scientists.
“Chadian researchers have not sufficiently invested in this part of the country.”

- Tourism -

Some sandstone rock formations, tinted pink, purple or orange depending on the time of day, are hard to access.
Even venturing onto the imposing blocks, which look like they have been placed on top of the sand, is a physical and logistical challenge in a province scorched by the sun.
Certain areas have also long been inaccessible due to the border region’s tumultuous history.
“There was a break in scientific exploration in the 1960s with the civil war until the 1990s,” said Oumar.
Remnants of shells and tank debris from the Chad-Libya war of 1978 to 1987 are still present and travel to the area remains “strongly discouraged” by the foreign ministry of the former colonial power France.
“It’s Lascaux times 100,000,” joked Frederique Duquesnoy, 61, an archaeologist and associate member of the Mediterranean Laboratory of Prehistoric Europe and Africa (LAMPEA), referring to the network of caves in southwest France famous for its ancient wall art.
Using a phone and a tablet, she employs an image enhancement tool to reveal paintings invisible to the naked eye.
“This herd of domestic cattle reflects a period when there were pastures, gallery forests and waterways here,” she said, pointing to a sandy stretch in front of the cave.
“It corresponds to the so-called ‘Green Sahara’ period” between 10,000 and 3,000 years BC, she added.
Further evidence of the humid era are the depictions of hippopotamuses, giraffes and elephants found in other rock shelters.
Fragments of pottery collected by Celestin Gabi, a 35-year-old Chadian doctoral student in archaeology at France’s University of Toulouse Jean Jaures, seem to support the hypothesis.
Some, adorned with wavy patterns, “could date back to 7,000 BC,” he said.

- Understanding -

After surveys and potential carbon-dating of the collected materials, the next step will be to organize large-scale digs to deepen understanding of the people who lived in Ennedi during the Early Holocene period and how they adapted to increasingly dry conditions.
“Better understanding this heritage will allow us equally to showcase it to the public and to attract a large number of visitors each year,” said Oumar.
“At the moment, only a handful of travel agencies share a market catering to wealthy tourists.”
The Chadian authorities are currently drafting a tourist development plan and African Parks hopes it will be finalized by the first half of next year.
“The only way of self-funding the preservation of this heritage is tourism,” said Hamid Kodi, 28, the deputy director of RNCE.
African Parks is the second biggest employer in the province after the state, with 149 staff.
The NGO, which oversees around 20 parks across Africa, has previously faced accusations of “neo-colonialist practices” and rights violations.
In Ennedi, African Parks promotes a more responsible management and its “support” for local people, in particular by assigning “management to young people in the region,” Kodi, who himself comes from Ennedi, said.

Trump hopes to settle TikTok’s fate on Xi call

Trump hopes to settle TikTok’s fate on Xi call
Updated 3 min ago
AFP

Trump hopes to settle TikTok’s fate on Xi call

Trump hopes to settle TikTok’s fate on Xi call
  • The telephone talks come as the world’s two biggest economies seek to find a compromise on tariffs
Updated 3 min ago
AFP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, who recently accused Xi Jinping of working to “conspire” against the United States, hopes to finalize the fate of video-sharing app TikTok and make progress on trade talks in a phone call with the Chinese leader on Friday.
“I’m speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok, and also trade,” Trump said Thursday in an interview with Fox News.
“And we’re very close to deals on all of it. And my relationship with China is very good.”
The call will be the second between the two men since Trump returned to the White House in January, and the third since the start of the year.
On June 5, the US president said Xi had invited him to visit China, and he issued a similar invitation for the Chinese leader to come to the United States.
So far, no travel plans have been made, but several analysts expect Xi to repeat his offer, especially knowing that Trump is always keen to be received with diplomatic fanfare.
TikTok
“Each leader will aim to signal that he has outmaneuvered the other” in trade talks focused on tariffs, Ali Wyne, an expert on US-China relations at the International Crisis Group, predicted in a note.
The pair could settle the TikTok drama, after Trump repeatedly put off a ban under a law designed to force Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons.
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he hoped to “finalize something on TikTok.”
Under the deal, TikTok’s US business would be “owned by all American investors, and very rich people and companies,” Trump said.
He said he believes TikTok had boosted his appeal to younger voters and helped him win the 2024 election.
The president on Tuesday again pushed back applying a ban on the app, which had been decided under his predecessor Joe Biden.
The Wall Street Journal raised the possibility of a consortium to control TikTok that would include tech giant Oracle and two California investment funds – Silver Lake and Andreessen Horowitz.
Tariffs
The telephone talks come as the world’s two biggest economies seek to find a compromise on tariffs.
Both sides dramatically hiked tariffs against each other during a months-long dispute earlier this year, disrupting global supply chains.
Washington and Beijing then reached a deal to reduce levies, which expires in November, with the United States imposing 30 percent duties on imports of Chinese goods and China hitting US products with a 10 percent tariff.
The phone meeting also comes after Xi organized a major summit this month with the leaders of Russia and India – and invited North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to observe a major military parade in Beijing.
“Please give my warmest regards to (Russian President) Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America,” Trump wrote to Xi on his Truth Social platform.
The US leader slammed India with punitive tariffs for its oil purchases from Moscow, and has called on European countries to sanction China for buying Russian oil, though Washington has not itself sanctioned Beijing.
“If they did that on China, I think the war (in Ukraine) would maybe end,” Trump told Fox News.

Topics: Trump Returns Donald Trump Xi Jinping US China TikTok

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To repel Russia, Ukraine wants Western allies to invest in its defense industry

To repel Russia, Ukraine wants Western allies to invest in its defense industry
Updated 11 min 42 sec ago
AP

To repel Russia, Ukraine wants Western allies to invest in its defense industry

To repel Russia, Ukraine wants Western allies to invest in its defense industry
  • If the strategy works, Ukraine’s weapons industry will eventually be able to help equip US and European armies, too, with cutting-edge drones and other military technology being developed in the midst of its war with Russia
Updated 11 min 42 sec ago
AP

KYIV: With little chance of NATO membership for Ukraine, the country’s Western allies have bought into an alternate strategy for helping it repel Russian aggression: invest billions in Ukraine’s weapons industry so it can better defend itself.
If the strategy works, Ukraine’s weapons industry will eventually be able to help equip US and European armies, too, with cutting-edge drones and other military technology being developed in the midst of its war with Russia.
One recent advance in Ukraine’s homegrown arsenal is a quadcopter drone that can evade Russian jamming devices, fly more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) and drop six kilograms (13 pounds) of guided explosives onto tanks and other high-value targets.
“The Ukrainians are the leaders in the world in terms of drone technology,” Keith Kellogg, the Trump administration’s special envoy for Ukraine said last week at a conference in Kyiv. “We are working with Ukrainians now to make sure we have got this drone technology exchange, which I think is very important.”
Europeans have been taking the threat from Russia more seriously since the second Trump administration began signaling that NATO members shouldn’t be overly reliant on the US to defend them. Anxieties across Europe were heightened last week after Russian drones launched from Belarus were shot down in Polish airspace.
For its part, Ukraine is seeking investment to triple its weapons production, become less reliant on Western partners to fight Russia – and hopefully deter future conflicts.
Ukraine’s weapons industry now meets nearly 60 percent of its army’s needs, up from 10 percent when Russia’s full-scale invasion began 3 1/2 years ago, according to its defense minister. But its military budget — $64 billion in 2024 — is less than half the size of Russia’s, which is why it turns to Western allies for weapons and, increasingly, money.
In addition to any private investment, and in lieu of NATO membership, security guarantees for Ukraine will likely center on European governments investing in its army — essentially paying Kyiv to build its own weapons and plugging in production gaps with mutually beneficial joint ventures.
European countries are eager to do this, said Fabien Hinz of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. “Ukraine has the advantage of having battle-tested systems, of having quite low production costs and having entities in place capable of producing these systems rapidly.”
Launching battle-tested drones
For both sides, the war has necessitated fast cycles of innovation as a matter of survival. How quickly a weapon can be developed, shipped to an army unit and improved upon is a matter of life and death.
Like most defense companies in Ukraine, the maker of the R-34 quadcopter drone — FRDM — communicates with soldiers at all hours of the day and quickly incorporates feedback. Its founder, Vadym Yunyk, is guided by the motto: Robots should die in the front lines, not people.
That underscores one of Ukraine’s disadvantages in this war — its lack of soldiers, which has been a key driver of innovation for Ukrainian defense companies.
Investments in artificial intelligence and robotics are enabling Ukraine to do what its allies could scarcely have imagined before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. With help from drones and autonomous vehicles, Ukrainian forces can now strike targets with remote-controlled weapons further afield and more precisely, as well as deliver supplies and evacuate the wounded from the front lines without risking other soldiers’ lives.
Ukraine’s small first-person view, or FPV, drones, are responsible for nearly 70 percent of Russian losses in manpower and weaponry within 15 kilometers of the front line, according to Ukrainian officials.
At the other end of the spectrum are its deep strike drones, which can reach over 1,000 kilometers to hit targets deep inside Russian territory.
FRDM’s quadcopter lies somewhere in the middle. The latest version of the weapon was modified from an earlier model to fly three times farther and carry more guided bombs.
“We learned very quickly how to scale any production. If the government places an order to produce 10,000 drones a year instead of 3,000, I will be capable of doing this in a month and a half,” Yunyk said.
Ukrainian developers boost traditional military wares
Drones aren’t the only area where Ukrainian defense companies are leveraging technology to offset Russia’s much bigger and better-equipped army.
Ukr Armo Tech’s armored personnel carrier, known as the Gurza-1, comes with sophisticated modifications designed to absorb drone strikes and better protect Ukrainian infantrymen, CEO Hennadii Khirhii said.
The Gurza-2, a more agile vehicle that can carry more men, will soon go into production.
Ukr Armo Tech produced 500 vehicles last year for the Ukrainian army, but Khirhii said it has plans to triple capacity.
“Even in the traditional subsector of armored vehicles, we are way ahead of some European companies,” said Pavlo Verkhniatskyi, a defense industry expert based in Kyiv.
“We know the calibers the Russians are using to shoot vehicles, we know the special munitions they use to penetrate armor,” he said. “All this knowledge is put into vehicles produced here.”
Ukraine bets on European investment to deter Russia
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said that, with greater financial support from Europe, Ukraine’s army and defense industry can become a “steel porcupine” that will make the country less vulnerable to attack in the future.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine is capable of producing at least $30 billion of weapons annually — or roughly three times what currently is budgeted for. It isn’t just money Ukraine is seeking; it also envisions licensing and manufacturing deals with Western arms companies.
Ukraine believes it has expertise to share.
What it has learned from more than three years of war with Russia is that 21st century weapons manufacturers must be able to adapt and deliver to the battlefield more quickly than their predecessors.
“It’s not just about your ability to feed the stocks,” said Arsen Zhumadilov, the head of the state’s procurement agency.
Yunyk said European defense companies have mid- to long-term planning, but they have yet to implement the kind of processes that allow for the type of innovation and rapid turnaround necessitated by modern warfare.
“If you want equipment relevant for today’s war conditions that is the only approach you can take,” he said.
Denmark was the first country to directly finance Ukrainian defense companies, rather than donate weapons. And earlier this month, Zelensky said Ukraine was partnering with Danish companies to build components for Ukrainian missiles and drones at a factory in Denmark — out of reach from Russian attacks. Britain has said it has similar plans.
Ukraine is set to receive 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) from a collection of countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Norway and Iceland, to produce artillery, strike drones, missiles and anti-tank systems. And Germany has made a similar deal, though terms haven’t yet been made public.
Ukraine is also hoping for more joint ventures, said Zhumadilov.
“When they enter the market they invest into the production and then they have their government pay for our ability to buy it and deliver it to the battlefield,” he said. “This is the best.”

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Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza grow in sports and cultural arenas

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza grow in sports and cultural arenas
Updated 35 min 2 sec ago
AP

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza grow in sports and cultural arenas

Efforts to punish Israel over Gaza grow in sports and cultural arenas
  • The backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza has spread into the arenas of sports and culture
  • Israel’s critics say it should be sidelined from international events like Russia has been since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022
Updated 35 min 2 sec ago
AP

GENEVA: A major cycling race in Spain was disrupted by protests against an Israeli team. A basketball game in Poland was preceded by fans booing the Israeli national anthem. And several European countries are threatening to boycott a signature entertainment event if Israel takes part.
The global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza has spread into the arenas of sports and culture. Israel’s critics say it should be sidelined from international events just like Russia has been since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Unlike Russia, which faced widespread condemnation and Western sanctions, Israel has not been shut out by global sports institutions like the International Olympic Committee or world soccer body FIFA. Besides the small international Muay Thai federation, there’s been little will in international sports to prevent Israeli athletes from competing under their national flag.
But Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez raised the temperature earlier this week by siding with pro-Palestinian protesters who disrupted the Spanish Vuelta cycling race, saying it’s time to boycott Israel from international sports events until the “barbarity” in Gaza ends. A day later, Spain’s public broadcaster joined three other European countries threatening to withdraw from and not carry next year’s Eurovision Song Contest – a hugely popular event in Israel and across Europe – if Israel is allowed to compete.
Earlier this month, some Hollywood filmmakers, actors and other industry figures signed a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions — including festivals, broadcasters and production companies.
Why, Sánchez asked, shouldn’t Israel be expelled from sports just like Russia?
“This is different,” the IOC’s executive director for Olympic Games, Christophe Dubi, said this week in Milan when asked to compare the two.
Both the IOC and FIFA have said the legal reasons for acting against Russia have not been reached in Israel’s case but haven’t given detailed explanations. The IOC has said Israel hasn’t breached the Olympic charter like Russia, when it annexed territories in eastern Ukraine. Also, European soccer federations and clubs are not refusing to play Israeli opponents.
FIFA declined a request for comment on its Israel policy and the delayed work of two panels reviewing formal complaints by the Palestinian soccer federation, which has long tried to bar Israel from competition over its treatment of Palestinians.
Israel reacts strongly to Spanish prime minister’s comments
Israel reacted strongly to Sánchez’ call for a sports boycott. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the Spanish leader an “antisemite and a liar.” Israel has dug in its heels in the face of international isolation and criticism of its military campaign, which came in response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.
The most notable exclusion from international sports was imposed on Apartheid-era South Africa. It did not compete at any Olympics after 1960 until the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games, two years after Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Russia was swiftly blacklisted by most sports federations after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Its athletes competed under a neutral flag at the Paris Olympics.
Currently there is no momentum for Israel to face the same fate. Still, some analysts said the move by Spain is significant, not least because it is a major soccer power set to co-host the 2030 World Cup. It also will host an NFL game next month and the opening stage of next year’s Tour de France bike rice.
“Until now we haven’t seen this type of outrage against Israeli action in Gaza,” said Antoine Duval of the Asser Institute, a Netherlands-based think tank. “I think this tide is turning now.”
Sports federations have complained about playing Israeli teams
How impactful Spain’s move will be remains to be seen. No world leader has so far followed Sánchez’ call for excluding Israel from international sports.
On Thursday, a British lawmaker in Birmingham called on European soccer body UEFA to “urgently cancel” soccer team Aston Villa’s Nov. 6 Europa League match against Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv “to ensure public safety and community harmony.” UEFA has not shown any indication it will do so.
Israel’s culture and sports ministry didn’t return messages seeking comment.
In Europe, several sports federations have groused about having to play Israeli teams, while noting they have no choice since Israel isn’t banned from international competitions.
“Facing Israel in these circumstances is not a scenario we would wish,” Basketball Ireland chief executive John Feehan said last month about being drawn to play Israel in a Women’s Eurobasket qualifying game in November. “But there has been no change in Israel’s status within sport.”
Feehan said Ireland’s basketball federation could face sanctions “should we elect not to play, which would be hugely damaging to the sport here.”
In men’s soccer, Italy and Norway will host Israel next month in a World Cup qualifying matches and both federations spoke this week of their dissatisfaction with the situation.
Italian soccer leader Gabriele Gravina said he was “well aware of the sensitivity of Italian public opinion” about the Oct. 14 game in Udine. But refusing to play would result in a 3-0 loss by forfeit, according to FIFA’s rules.
“Not playing also means clearly saying we’re not going to the World Cup, we have to be aware of that,” Gravina said, adding that a boycott would instead help Israel advance closer to the finals tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Norway, which will play Israel on Oct. 11, said it would donate profits from ticket sales to Doctors Without Borders for its humanitarian work in Gaza.
Fans voice their protests against Israeli teams
When the Israel men’s national team played in Poland at Eurobasket last month, there were protests outside the arena in Katowice. Inside, the Israeli anthem was loudly booed by fans.
Last year, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were involved in violent clashes with residents in Amsterdam while attending a soccer game there.
Protests inside stadiums are regularly seen in European soccer, even at the Champions League final in May. A “Stop Genocide In Gaza” banner in French was displayed during the game by Paris Saint-Germain fans congregated behind one goal in Munich.
UEFA did not open a disciplinary case, despite having rules prohibiting political messaging. It fueled the debate at its own Super Cup game in August: Before kickoff in Udine, banners saying “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” were laid on the field in front of the PSG and Tottenham players.
In tennis, Canada hosted Israel in the Davis Cup last weekend behind closed doors in Halifax, Nova Scotia, due to “escalating safety concerns.” The move came after hundreds of Canadian athletes and academics urged Tennis Canada to cancel the matches over Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank.
In 2023, Indonesia lost hosting rights for the men’s Under-20 World Cup for FIFA rather than accept Israel playing on its turf. But its stance appears to have changed.
Israeli media reported in July that the country’s gymnastics federation was invited by Indonesia to send a team to the world championships in Jakarta later this year. Indonesia is currently in talks with the IOC to be considered as a host for the 2036 Summer Games.

Topics: War on Gaza Israel boycott

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Late night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension with humor and solidarity

Late night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension with humor and solidarity
Updated 39 min 26 sec ago
AP

Late night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension with humor and solidarity

Late night shows address Jimmy Kimmel suspension with humor and solidarity
  • Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to Kirk’s killing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday and Tuesday nights, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk”
  • ABC suspended Kimmel’s show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show
Updated 39 min 26 sec ago
AP

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon opened their late-night shows Thursday using a mix of humor and solidarity with suspended ABC host Jimmy Kimmel.
Stewart opted for satire to critique ABC suspending “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Colbert took a more serious approach, calling his suspension “blatant censorship.” Fallon praised Kimmel and vowed to keep doing his show as usual but an announcer replaced most of his critiques about President Donald Trump with praise.
Their guests the day after Kimmel’s suspension — and two months after CBS said it would cancel the show hosted by Colbert, one of President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics on TV — also varied widely.
Stewart and Colbert interviewed guests who could address censorship concerns raised by Kimmel’s suspension, including journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa. Meanwhile, Fallon’s guests were actor Jude Law, journalist Tom Llamas and actor and singer Jonathan Groff — none of whom addressed Kimmel’s situation.
Stewart’s show opened with a voiceover promising adherence to the party line.
“We have another fun, hilarious administration-compliant show,” it said.
He lavished praise on the president and satirized his criticism of large cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight their crime.
“Coming to you tonight from the real (expletive), the crime ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” Stewart said.
“The Daily Show” set was refashioned with decorative gold engravings, in a parody of gold accents Trump has added to the fireplace, doorway arches, walls and other areas of the Oval Office.
Stewart fidgeted nervously as though he was worried about speaking the correct talking points. When the audience members reacted with an “awww” he whispered: “What are you doing? Shut up. You’re going to (expletive) blow this for us.”
He took on a more stilted tone when he started describing Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom, calling the president “our great father.”
“Gaze upon him. With a gait even more majestic than that of the royal horses that prance before him,” he said.
When Stewart asked Ressa, the author of “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” how to cope with the current moment, Ressa recounted how she and her colleagues at the news site Rappler “just kept going” when she was faced with 11 arrest warrants in one year under then-President Rodrigo Duterte.
“We just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other,” Ressa said.
Stewart normally hosts only on Mondays. The Emmy winner helmed “The Daily Show” from 1999 through 2015, delivering sharp, satirical takes on politics and current events and interviews with newsmakers. He returned to host once a week during the run-up to the 2024 US presidential election.
Fallon opened his “Tonight Show” monologue addressing Kimmel’s suspension. “To be honest with you all, I don’t know what’s going on. And no one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel, and he’s a decent, funny and loving guy, and I hope he comes back.”
Swift suspension after remarks on Kirk’s assassination
Kimmel made several remarks about the reaction to Kirk’s killing on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Monday and Tuesday nights, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
ABC suspended Kimmel’s show after a group of ABC-affiliated stations said it would not air the show, and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said his agency had a strong case for holding Kimmel, ABC and network parent Walt Disney Co. accountable for spreading misinformation.
Kimmel has not commented. His supporters say Carr misread what the comic said and that nowhere did he specifically suggest that Tyler Robinson — the man Utah authorities allege fatally shot Kirk — was conservative.
In July, CBS said it would cancel “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May. The network said it shut down the decades-old TV institution for financial reasons. But the announcement came three days after Colbert criticized the settlement between President Donald Trump and Paramount Global, parent company of CBS, over a “60 Minutes” story.
’The Late Show’ hosts past and present address suspension
Colbert started his monologue on Thursday with the animated song “Be Our Guest” from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” but replaced the lyrics with “Shut your trap. Shut your trap.”
He later addressed Kimmel directly, saying that he stands with him and his staff.
“If ABC thinks that this is going to satisfy the regime, they are woefully naive,” he said.
He also responded to remarks Carr made that it is important for broadcasters to push back on Disney programming “they determine falls short of community values.”
“Well, you know what my community values are, buster? Freedom of speech,” Colbert said to loud applause from his audience.
David Letterman, Colbert’s predecessor on “The Late Show,” lamented the networks’ moves.
“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media,” Letterman said during an appearance Thursday at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York. “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.”
He added that people shouldn’t be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what Letterman called “an authoritarian” president.

Topics: Jimmy Kimmel US Trump

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