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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y,. and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., were supposed to meet with President Donald Trump this week to prevent a government shutdown, but Trump cancelled the meeting Tuesday. File Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo

Sept. 23 (UPI) — President Donald Trump canceled a planned meeting with Democratic congressional leaders to prevent a government shutdown Tuesday.

Trump planned to meet this week with the two as a Sept. 30 funding deadline to keep the government open nears. He was expected to meet with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Thursday.

But Tuesday, he posted on Truth Social that he’d canceled the meeting because he didn’t like the list of Democrats’ demands, which he painted as “Radical Left Policies that nobody voted for– High Taxes, Open Borders, No Consequences for Violent Criminals, Men in Women’s Sports, Taxpayer funded ‘TRANSGENDER’ surgery, and much more.”

Earlier Tuesday, Jeffries and Schumer said in a statement they planned to use the meeting to “emphasize the importance of addressing rising costs, including the Republican healthcare crisis. It’s past time to meet and work to avoid a Republican-caused shutdown,” they said.

Republicans want a “clean” seven-week stopgap spending bill, while Democrats introduced a measure that would keep the government open for four weeks while attaching other demands, Politico reported.

In a post on X, Jeffries responded to the cancellation by saying, “Trump Always Chickens Out,” referring to the acronym TACO, which he coined. He added that “extremists want to shut down the government because they are unwilling to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating America.”

One of the biggest sticking points is healthcare. Democrats are demanding any resolution include an extension of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

Schumer said on X, “Happy New Year, Mr. President [referring to Rosh Hashanah]. When you’re finished ranting, we can sit down and discuss healthcare.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that if a meeting happened, he would insist on attending.

“If there’s a meeting, I will certainly be there,” Johnson said. “But I’m not certain that the meeting is necessary.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., hold a press conference in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol on February 12. This week, the Democratic leaders are planning to meet with President Donald Trump to avert a government shutdown. File Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI . | License Photo

Sept. 22 (UPI) — President Donald Trump plans to meet this week with the two top Democratic leaders in Congress, as a Sept. 30 funding deadline to keep the government open nears, according to a source familiar with the planning.

Trump is expected to meet with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, both from New York, on Thursday after receiving a letter, the source told Roll Call, CBS and NBC News.

The president told reporters over the weekend he is not expecting any breakthroughs but will “continue to talk to the Democrats, but I think you could very well end up with a closed country for a period of time.”

“They want all this stuff. They don’t change. They haven’t learned from the biggest beating they’ve ever taken,” Trump said. “I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have an impact.”

One of the biggest sticking points is healthcare. Democrats are demanding any resolution include an extension of the Affordable Care Act‘s enhanced tax credits, which are currently set to expire at the end of the year.

“I hope and pray that Trump will sit down with us and negotiate a bipartisan bill,” Schumer told CNN on Sunday.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the meeting is still under consideration.

“Discussions are ongoing with both Republican and Democratic members of Capitol Hill,” Leavitt said. “I don’t have any meetings or any scheduling updates for you today. But what I will share is … what this White House wants and what Republicans want, we want a clean funding extension to keep the government open.”

The Republican bill to keep the government running narrowly passed Friday in the House before lawmakers left Capitol Hill for a week. The short-term funding measure that would have kept the government open through Nov. 21, and boost security funding for lawmakers by $88 million, failed in the Senate.

A Democratic measure, prioritizing heath care at the expense of Trump policies while keeping the government open until Oct. 31, also failed.

“Tens of millions of Americans are on the brink of their healthcare costs increasing by thousands of dollars per year, risking bankruptcy for many families,” Schumer and Jeffries wrote to Trump.

“We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the health care and quality of life of the American people.”

Millions of YouTube TV customers were spared an interruption of Fox News, Fox sports and local coverage after the two entertainment companies reached a 11th-hour truce following weeks of negotiations.

The two sides agreed Wednesday to continue talks to resolve their differences over distribution deal terms, pausing the threat of a channel blackout days before the start of the college football and NFL seasons.

The announcement came minutes before the 2 p.m. Pacific deadline. Neither company wanted to let a contract squabble disrupt some of their viewers’ favorite shows.

Fox News has a popular lineup with “The Five,” “Special Report with Bret Baier” and “Hannity.” Without a deal, sports fans could have missed out on Friday night’s Auburn-Baylor football game, Saturday’s high-profile contest between Texas and Ohio State and three regional Major League Baseball games airing on Fox.

In addition, Fox’s NFL season kicks off on Sept. 7, giving the two sides added motivation to find a resolution.

“We have reached a short-term extension with Fox to prevent disruption to YouTube TV subscribers as we continue to work on a new agreement,” YouTube said in a Wednesday afternoon blog post. “We are committed to advocating on behalf of our subscribers as we work toward a fair deal and will keep you updated on our progress.”

YouTube has about 10 million customers for its television service, making it the third largest pay-TV distributor in the U.S.

This is a developing story.

The dispute hinged on programming fees YouTube TV pays for Fox News, the Fox broadcast network, Fox-owned stations, including KTTV Channel 11 in Los Angeles, Fox Business, FS1 and the Big 10 Network.

Rupert Murdoch’s company relies heavily on the strength of Fox News — which ranked as the nation’s top-rated linear network in July — and its broadcast network that boasts big-name sports to maintain its programming fees.

Distribution fee disputes have become increasingly common amid a shift in economics.

Programmers, including Fox, have long counted on distribution fees paid by TV distributors that sell the channel bundles to consumers. But that source of revenue is under threat as viewers migrate to Netflix, Disney+ and other streamers — shrinking the pool of pay-TV subscribers.

“Fox is asking for payments that are far higher than what partners with comparable content offerings receive,” YouTube said late Monday in a blog post when tensions ran high. “Our priority is to reach a deal that reflects the value of their content and is fair for both sides without passing on additional costs to our subscribers.”

For its part, Fox said it was “proposing a fair, comprehensive deal to continue our relationship with YouTube TV.” It accused Google of using its leverage to try to extract unfair terms.

YouTube TV has been gaining subscribers at a time when others are losing them, giving the tech company increased market muscle. YouTube’s popular bundle — it also offers the NFL Sunday Ticket package of out-of-market games — has cut into the business of legacy pay-TV providers.

Nielsen ranks YouTube, including its video service, as the largest television distributor in the U.S. by share of viewership. In a Tuesday report, Nielsen said that YouTube captured 13.4% of all TV viewing in July, the sixth consecutive month the company has claimed the top spot.

Walt Disney Co. came in second that month with 9.4% of the audience.

Last year, YouTube generated $54.2 billion in revenue, second only to Disney, according to research firm MoffettNathanson. The analysts estimated that fast-growing YouTube TV would reach 10 million subscribers this year. That slightly trails Charter, which operates the Spectrum service, and Comcast.

GENEVA — Switzerland’s president and other top officials were traveling to Washington on Tuesday in a hastily arranged trip aimed at striking a deal with the Trump administration over steep U.S. tariffs that have cast a pall over Swiss industries like chocolates, machinery and watchmaking.

President Karin Keller-Sutter was leading the delegation after last week’s announcement that exports of Swiss goods to the U.S. will face a whopping 39% percent tariff starting Thursday.

That is over two-and-a-half times higher than the rate on European Union goods exported to the U.S. and nearly four times higher than on British exports to the U.S. Many Swiss companies in industries including watchmaking and chocolates have expressed concern about the issue.

It’s also more than the 31% that Switzerland had been set to face when President Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on products from dozens of countries in early April.

The Swiss government said the trip was “to facilitate meetings with the U.S. authorities at short notice and hold talks with a view to improving the tariff situation for Switzerland.”

Keller-Sutter, who also serves as Switzerland’s finance minister, has faced criticism in Swiss media over a last-ditch call with Trump before a U.S. deadline on tariffs expired Aug. 1. She was leading a team that included Economy Minister Guy Parmelin.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Trump alluded to the call, saying “the woman was nice, but she didn’t want to listen” and that he had told her: “We have a $41 billion deficit with you, Madame … and you want to pay 1% tariffs.”

“I said, ‘you’re not going to pay 1%,’” he added.

It was not immediately clear where that $41 billion figure came from. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States ran a $38.3 billion trade imbalance on goods last year with Switzerland.

Swiss officials have argued that American goods face virtually zero tariffs in Switzerland, and the Swiss government says the wealthy Alpine country is the sixth-biggest foreign investor in the United States and the leading investor in research and development.

Ivan Slatkine, the head of the Federation of Romandie Enterprises, which regroups companies in French-speaking Switzerland, told Le Temps newspaper that 39% tariffs amounted to a “hammer blow for the entire Swiss economy.” Some Swiss companies — like high-end watchmakers with little direct competition — might face less impact, but others in airplane parts, machines and mid-level watchmaking would be hit, he said.

“For all the companies that depend on the American market, it’s really bad news — in particular compared to rivals in the European Union, whose exports are taxed only at 15%,” he was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The trip comes a day after Switzerland’s executive branch, the Federal Council, held an extraordinary meeting and said it was “keen to pursue talks with the United States on the tariff situation,” the government statement Tuesday said.

After consulting with Swiss businesses, the council said it had developed “new approaches for its discussions” with U.S. officials and was looking ahead to continued negotiations.

“Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking U.S. concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,” a council statement said Monday.

Under the U.S. announcements Friday, Swiss companies will now have one of the steepest export duties — only Laos, Myanmar and Syria had higher figures, at 40-41%.

Keaten writes for the Associated Press.

US president and his EU counterpart strike sweeping 15 percent tariff deal to stabilise transatlantic trade.

The United States and European Union have reached a sweeping trade agreement, setting a 15 percent tariff on most goods, averting a major transatlantic trade war that could have rattled global markets.

The announcement came after a private meeting on Sunday between US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.

The deal comes just days before Washington was due to impose 30 percent tariffs on EU imports.

“It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it’s going to be great for both parties,” Trump told reporters. He added that it was “a good deal for everybody… a giant deal with lots of countries”.

Von der Leyen welcomed the deal, saying it would “bring stability; it will bring predictability that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic”.

Trump claimed the EU committed to buying about $750bn worth of US energy, increasing investment in the United States by another $600bn and placing a large order for military equipment. Both leaders confirmed that the agreed tariff rate of 15 percent would apply broadly to automobiles and other goods.

“We have the opening up of all of the European countries,” Trump said. Von der Leyen echoed that, noting that the 15 percent rate was “across the board, all inclusive” and that the European market was effectively now open.

The talks followed months of tense back-and-forth with Trump, who has long accused the EU of unfair trade practices. Just before negotiations began, he called the existing arrangements “a very one-sided transaction; very unfair to the United States”.

Von der Leyen pointed to the combined economic might of the two powers, describing their trade volume as the world’s largest, encompassing “hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars”.

She acknowledged Trump’s “tough” reputation as a negotiator, to which he replied: “But fair.”

Trade conflict averted

Earlier this month, negotiations appeared close to collapse when Trump threatened to proceed with the 30 percent tariff unless the EU matched the 15 percent terms he recently struck with Japan. Asked if he would accept anything lower, Trump flatly said, “No”.

Had no agreement been reached, Brussels had prepared a long list of retaliatory tariffs targeting everything from beef and beer to Boeing aircraft and car parts.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the US-EU deal was a positive move that helped avoid a trade war and a serious blow to the auto sector.

“This agreement has succeeded in averting a trade conflict that would have hit the export-orientated German economy hard,” he said in a statement. “This applies in particular to the automotive industry, where the current tariffs of 27.5 percent will be almost halved to 15 percent.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said it was “positive” that a trade deal had been reached; however, she needed to see the details, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

Trump and United Kingdom Prime Minister Kier Starmer are expected to meet on Monday, with trade also on the agenda. While a separate US–UK trade framework was unveiled in May, Trump insists the broader agreement is already concluded, though the White House admits some elements remain unfinished.

Trump will travel to Aberdeen on Tuesday to help open a third golf course under the family name. He and his sons are expected to cut the ribbon themselves.

The world’s two biggest economies have stepped back from the brink.

After imposing retaliatory tariff hikes at rates never seen before, the United States and China have agreed to a truce.

US taxes on Chinese goods will now fall from 145 percent to 30 percent, and China will cut theirs on US items from 125 percent to 10 percent.

Some of the levies have been scrapped altogether while others have been put on hold.

After weeks of considerable strain, many people are looking to see how global supply chains will be affected.

Is it the end of the global trade war, triggered last month by US President Donald Trump?

And what does it mean for those countries who had been anticipating big investments due to the steep duties on China?

Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam

Guests:

William Lee, chief economist, Milken Institute

Huiyao Wang, founder, Center for China and Globalization

Jayant Menon, former lead economist, Asian Development Bank