LiveNewsWatch

Category: Business

  • Disney Removes ABC, ESPN from YouTube TV After Negotiations Fall Apart

    Disney Removes ABC, ESPN from YouTube TV After Negotiations Fall Apart

    Disney channels, including ABC and ESPN, are no longer available to YouTube TV users after the parties were unable to reach an agreement on a new content distribution agreement. The Disney Channel, FX, and Nat Geo are among the other networks that have disappeared from Google’s subscription TV service.

    In a blog post published late Thursday, Google’s premium TV service announced that Disney had acted on its promise to halt its programming while the talks were ongoing. The collapse might affect Saturday’s NBA, NFL, and NHL games as well as several college football games.

    With over 9 million users, YouTube is the biggest online TV provider in the United States.  Disney’s Hulu comes in second with almost half as many customers.

    Warnings scrolling across their screens in recent weeks have made viewers aware of the disagreement. Disney, according to YouTube, used the threat of a blackout as a negotiation tool to get its members to pay more. According to YouTube, Disney’s decision to remove its material also helps its own streaming services, Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.

    Frustration & Disappointment for Subscribers

    It stated, “We continue to urge Disney to work with us constructively to reach a fair agreement that restores their networks to YouTube TV, as we know this is a frustrating and disappointing outcome for our subscribers.”

    According to YouTube, if Disney material is inaccessible “for an extended period of time,” members will receive a $20 credit.  The basic membership option for YouTube TV costs $82.99 a month.

    Disney Removes ABC, ESPN from YouTube TV After Negotiations Fall Apart
    Talks Fail Between Disney and YouTube TV, Leading to Channel Removal Source: Web

    Disney cited the number of Top 25 teams competing this weekend to claim that YouTube TV is refusing to pay fair rates for its channels and has decided to “deny their subscribers the content they value most.”

    Furthermore, “Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we’ve successfully negotiated with every other distributor,” Disney stated, highlighting the company’s $3 trillion market capitalization. The business stated that it was dedicated to finding a solution as soon as possible.

  • US Treasury’s Bessent Confirms China’s Approval of TikTok Transfer Agreement

    US Treasury’s Bessent Confirms China’s Approval of TikTok Transfer Agreement

    The United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday that China had authorized the transfer agreement for the TikTok app, which allows users to record short videos. He said he expected the deal to proceed in the upcoming weeks and months, but he did not provide any other information.

    “In Kuala Lumpur, we finalized the TikTok agreement in terms of getting Chinese approval, and I would expect that would go forward in the coming weeks and months, and we’ll finally see a resolution to that,” he said on “Mornings with Maria” on Fox Business Network after President Donald Trump met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

    The meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping was praised as “amazing” and “12” on a 10-point scale. However, the deal that the two leaders achieved seems to be little more than a tenuous truce in a trade war that has yet to tackle its underlying reasons.

    The agreement unveiled Thursday, which calls for China to resume buying soybeans, halt its export restrictions on rare earths for a year, and reduce U.S. tariffs on China by 10%, essentially restores relations to the pre-tit-for-tat escalation period that preceded Trump’s “Liberation Day” offensive.

    So, China will appropriately resolve TikTok-related concerns with the United States, the Commerce Ministry of China stated in a statement earlier Thursday. According to a Chinese official, “the Chinese side will work with U.S. side to properly address issues related to TikTok.” ByteDance, a Chinese company that owns TikTok, did not immediately respond.

    Bytedance Ownership Breakdown

    After the U.S. Congress approved a bill in 2024 requiring TikTok’s Chinese owners to sell the service’s U.S. assets by January 2025, the status of the 170 million-user app has been unclear for more than 18 months. On September 25, Trump issued an executive order stating that the plan to sell TikTok’s U.S. business to a group of American and international investors satisfies the national security conditions outlined in the 2024 law. He also authorized the investors 120 days to finalize the deal.

    Additionally, he postponed the law’s implementation until January 20, 2026. According to Trump’s order, the new joint venture will be in charge of the algorithm’s functioning and the U.S. company’s security partners will retrain and oversee it. As per the deal on TikTok’s U.S. operations, ByteDance has appointed one of the seven board members for the new company; the other six positions are occupied by Americans.

    US Treasury’s Bessent Confirms China’s Approval of TikTok Transfer Agreement
    US Treasury Secretary Confirms China’s Approval of TikTok Transfer Deal Source: Web

    Furthermore, if ByteDance didn’t sell its U.S. assets, it would possess less than 20% of TikTok U.S. in order to meet the legal requirements that mandated the company shut down by January 2025.

    As part of ByteDance’s plan to sell U.S. assets of the short video app, U.S. Representative John Moolenaar, the Republican chair of the House Select Committee on China, stated this month that a license arrangement for the use of the TikTok algorithm would raise “serious concerns.”

  • US-China Talks Outline Rare Earths Deal, Tariff Pause Ahead of Japan Summit

    US-China Talks Outline Rare Earths Deal, Tariff Pause Ahead of Japan Summit

    According to the US Treasury Secretary, the two countries have reached an agreement on the framework of a possible trade agreement that will be considered when their presidents meet later this week. This includes a “final deal” on TikTok’s US operations and a postponement of China’s stricter rare earth mining regulations, Scott Bessent told CBS, the BBC’s US news partner.

    Additionally, he said that he did not expect President Donald Trump’s planned 100% tariff on Chinese imports to take effect, even though China will once again buy a lot of soybeans from the US. Both countries want to prevent the trade war between the two biggest economies in the world from getting worse. On Thursday, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet in South Korea.

    On the fringes of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia, which Trump is also attending as part of his Asia visit, Bessent spoke with top Chinese trade officials.  They conducted “constructive” talks, according to Beijing.

    According to Bessent, the nations had “reached a substantial framework for the two leaders” and “the tariffs will be averted.” Both negotiating teams “reached a basic consensus on arrangements to address their respective concerns,” according to a statement from the Chinese government. “Both sides agreed to further finalize specific details,” they stated.

    Trump’s Tariff Pressure & Political Play

    Trump has threatened and implemented broad taxes on imports from other nations since reentering the White House, claiming that the measure would increase American manufacturing and employment.

    Many nations, including the UK, have reached new agreements with the US as a result of the imposition of tariffs. However, he has threatened China with the highest levies. Although the two agreed to postpone the implementation of the levies while seeking a trade agreement, Beijing has responded with its own measures.

    In reaction to China’s tightening restrictions on the sale of rare earths, which are elements necessary for the manufacturing of many electronics, Trump earlier this month said that he would put an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports starting in November. The president of the United States accused Beijing of “becoming very hostile” and attempting to “captive” the world.

    US-China Talks Outline Rare Earths Deal, Tariff Pause Ahead of Summit
    China & US Talks Outline Rare Earths Deal, Tariff Pause Ahead of Summit in Japan Source: Web

    Supplying rare earths to US firms is a crucial negotiating chip because China produces over 90% of the world’s supply, which is used in everything from solar panels to smartphones. Many US companies that depended on the materials protested when Beijing last tightened export limits, after Trump’s increase in tariffs on Chinese exports earlier this year.

    According to Bessent, China will “delay that for a year while they re-examine it” on Sunday on This Week, a different news program. China is the world’s largest consumer of soybeans, which is another point of concern. US farmers suffered when China stopped all orders as the trade conflict intensified. Bessent suggested that the boycott would end shortly, but she would not elaborate.

  • Trump’s Sanctions Hit Russia’s ‘war ATM,’ but Enforcement Remains Key Challenge

    Trump’s Sanctions Hit Russia’s ‘war ATM,’ but Enforcement Remains Key Challenge

    In an unexpected reversal, the Trump administration announced “massive sanctions” on Moscow’s two largest oil producers on Wednesday, following nine months of trying to persuade Russia to make concessions through incentives alone, such as hosting a major bilateral summit on US soil or holding talks on repairing diplomatic relations.

    After speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone and securing an invitation to a second bilateral summit, this time in Budapest, President Donald Trump had just a week earlier retracted his plans to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

    Preparing that summit fell to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, one of Trump’s most aggressive Cabinet members with regard to Ukraine. However, the White House was finally struck by Russia’s unyielding insistence on tackling what it considers to be the “root causes” of the crisis.

    Trump stated on Wednesday that he didn’t want to “waste time” at another summit, but he did leave the possibility open, saying that “we’ll do it in the future.” As it became evident that his much-discussed Alaska summit had not been able to halt the rising conflict in Ukraine, Trump’s annoyance with Russia had been evidently increasing in recent months.

    This Deal – A Serious Blow to Russia’s War Machine?

    According to individuals who spoke to CNN last week, he even changed his mind on Ukrainian strikes deep within Russia, boosting intelligence sharing to assist Kyiv in targeting military and energy facilities. Even so, experts were taken aback by Wednesday’s decision to sanction the Russian oil giants and their subsidiaries after Trump’s repeated threats to increase sanctions against Moscow failed to materialize and the two presidents’ phone conversation last week suggested the US leader was still vulnerable to Russian pressure.

    Trump’s Sanctions Hit Russia’s ‘war ATM,’ but Enforcement Remains Key Challenge
    Trump’s New Sanctions Hit Russia Hard but Enforcement Remains Key Challenge Source: Web

    In written remarks to CNN, Maria Shagina, a senior scholar at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), stated, “It was actually surprising simply because there was always a discrepancy between Trump’s rhetoric and actions.” She stated, “It appears that Russia has overplayed its hand today, and Trump’s patience is wearing thin.” Experts and the energy markets are still trying to figure out how painful this will be for Russia.

    The Details and Implications of Newly Imposed Sanctions

    Although his government announced punitive secondary tariffs on India for its purchases of Russian oil in August, this is the first time Trump has directly sanctioned Russia since taking office again in January. The sanctions are standard in that US entities will be prohibited from conducting business with the listed corporations, Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as numerous subsidiaries, and their assets will be blocked in the US.

    However, the majority of experts concur that going after Rosneft and Lukoil is a big shift. RBC Capital Markets estimates that the two businesses together account for around half of Russia’s oil exports.

    Response of West to the Situation

    The appearance (whether intentional or not) of coordinating penalties with NATO partners, which had been standard procedure under the Biden administration, is another first for Trump’s second term. The European Union unanimously approved its 19th package of penalties on Wednesday, while the United Kingdom broadened its sanctions to include Lukoil and Rosneft a week earlier on October 15.  A complete transaction embargo on Rosneft is part of that package.

    Additionally, it targets Litasco, a Lukoil trading company in the United Arab Emirates that the European Union refers to as “Lukoil’s prominent shadow fleet enabler,” even though it does not specifically target Lukoil. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, stated, “This is a clear signal from both sides of the Atlantic that we will keep up collective pressure on the aggressor.” Von der Leyen also spoke with the US Treasury secretary on the phone Wednesday.

  • Trump’s Multi billion-dollar White House Ballroom Funded by Wealthy Donors, List Revealed

    Trump’s Multi billion-dollar White House Ballroom Funded by Wealthy Donors, List Revealed

    The identities of the affluent individuals and businesses funding US President Donald Trump’s new $250 million White House ballroom remain a mystery as work gets underway. On Monday, excavators and construction workers started pulling up sections of the East Wing as part of the groundbreaking for the elaborate 90,000 sq-ft project.

    The U.S. President has stated that he will personally fund a large amount of its construction and implied that certain unnamed benefactors would be prepared to invest over $20 million to finish the project. Some legal experts are worried about the funding mechanism because they believe it could be equivalent to paying for access to the administration.

    Richard Painter, who served as the Bush White House’s chief ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, told the BBC, “I see this enormous ballroom as an ethics nightmare.”

    Major Donors Funding W.H. Ballroom Project

    Painter continued, “It is raising money by gaining access to the White House and I dislike it. These corporations all want something from the government.” Senior executives from well-known US corporations, including Blackstone, OpenAI, Microsoft, Coinbase, Palantir, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, attended a dinner for prospective contributors on October 15 at the White House.

    The owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Manchester United, Shari and Edward Glazer, together with their siblings, were also in attendance, as was Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets NFL team.

    The BBC’s US partner, CBS News, obtained a commitment form that implied donors would be eligible for “recognition” for their contributions. Names engraved on the building could be one way to honor them, though designs are still being finalized.

    At first, the White House said that 650 people could be accommodated in the enormous building.  Trump stated this week that it can accommodate 999 people. So yet, only one contribution has been identified.

    Trump’s Multi billion-dollar White House Ballroom Project Funded by Wealthy Donors
    President Donald Trump’s Multi billion-dollar White House Ballroom Project Funded by Wealthy Donors Source: Web

    According to court filings, YouTube will contribute $22 million to the project as part of a settlement with Trump over a lawsuit alleging that his account was suspended after the disturbance at the US Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021. However, it’s unknown how many or how much of the remaining attendees have promised to donate. White House officials said they intend to make the formal list public, but it has not yet been released.

    Trump Remarks, “I will take it”

    The Trust for the National Mall, a non-profit organization that collaborates with the National Park Service and raises money for projects on the Mall and at the White House, would manage the gifts, according to documents that CBS was able to get.

    Trump claimed that several of the attendees at the luncheon for possible donors had been “really, really generous” and that some had inquired as to whether $25 million was a suitable donation. Trump stated, “I said – I will take it,”

    The White House has stated that future administrations will use the ballroom and that there was nothing improper about asking for donations.  It has stated that US taxpayers will not be charged for the restoration. The money given to the ballroom “will eventually pay for itself and save costs,” according to Martin Mongiello, a former executive chef at the White House and general manager of Camp David who has served under seven administrations, who spoke to the BBC.

    Furthermore, without accounting for other incidentals related to hosting large-scale events, the tents that are occasionally erected outside for gatherings – which he called “elbow to elbow” and “embarrassing” – often cost $1 million or more. However, Mr. Painter said it might be regarded as a “pay-to-play scheme,” which has plagued both political parties’ past White House administrations.