Congressional Democratic leaders called for the resignation of FCC Chair Brendan Carr for his role in pressuring Walt Disney’s ABC network to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air. Kimmel’s show was pulled Wednesday night after Carr told podcast host Benny Johnson he had a strong case to punish Kimmel, ABC and Disney over remarks the late-night host made about the killing of Republican activist Charlie Kirk.

Former President Barack Obama joined the furor with a rare public statement on a political controversy of the moment: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level,” Obama wrote in a social media post.

ABC's decision to suspend Kimmel's show follows a series of instances in which media companies seeking favorable regulatory treatment have taken action against on-air talent that have offended the Trump administration. 

In July, CBS announced it was ending its late night show hosted by Stephen Colbert, another Trump critic. The network cited costs associated with the show, although its parent Paramount Global was seeking FCC approval for its takeover by Skydance Media. The approval was later granted.

Trump, who for his part said Kimmel “was fired for lack of talent,” went one step further in his widening war on the media and potentially the First Amendment, saying US broadcast networks should face scrutiny over their licenses if they’re too critical of him.


 — Jordan Parker Erb

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Initial applications for jobless benefits in the US dropped by the most in nearly four years, reversing an unusually large jump in the prior week and consistent with low levels of layoffs in the economy. Initial claims decreased by 33,000 to 231,000 in the week ended Sept. 13, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. That’s in line with levels seen throughout this year and not far off the pre-pandemic trend. The Treasury market rally hit a wall after the employment data cast doubt on the outlook for further interest-rate reductions by the Fed this year.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to let him fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook while she fights his attempt to oust her, pulling the justices into a high-profile legal battle with major implications for the US central bank’s independence. The Justice Department asked the court on Thursday to at least temporarily pause a Washington federal judge’s ruling that has allowed Cook to remain in her position for now. The emergency request came after the Fed’s meeting earlier this week, which Cook participated in.

Canada is seeing a sharp increase in asylum-seekers entering through a border crossing between New York and Quebec as Trump’s policies drive away migrants and even some US citizens. Data from the Canada Border Services Agency show officials have received more than 5,500 asylum claims since the beginning of July at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing, a 263% increase from the same period last year. The spike underscores how Trump’s hard-line immigration approach — rolling back protections for hundreds of thousands of people who once held temporary legal status and expanding raids that sweep up people without criminal records — is reverberating beyond US borders.

As Hurricanes Helene and Milton ravaged the US last year, FEMA officials faced harassment and death threats sparked by a torrent of online conspiracies, according to agency emails and documents obtained by Bloomberg via a Freedom of Information Act request. The head of FEMA at the time, Deanne Criswell, was a target of a potentially dangerous attack known as "swatting" when police showed up in force to a rental property she owned as a result of a prank call. Other incidents included the doxxing of at least seven senior FEMA staffers, with sensitive personal information such as home addresses published online for the purpose of harassment.

The FTC and seven states sued Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary for failing to stem the use of automated ticketing bots and large-scale resale operations. The consumer protection agency said the nation’s largest ticketing platform failed to enforce its own purchase limits, which allowed resellers to buy up large numbers of passes for popular events, according to a lawsuit filed in California federal court Thursday. The agency said Ticketmaster systematically ignored ticket brokers that bypassed its limits since it earns money from resales.

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