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U.S. President Donald Trump is talking with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Friday in a push to finalize a deal to allow the popular social media app TikTok to keep operating in the United States.The call between the two leaders began around 8 a.m. Washington time, according to a White House official and China’s Xinhua News Agency.The call may offer clues about whether the two leaders might meet in person to hash out a final agreement to end their trade war and provide clarity on where relations between the world’s two superpowers may be headed.This is the second call with Xi since Trump returned to the White House and launched sky-high tariffs on China, triggering back-and-forth trade restrictions that strained ties between the two largest economies. But Trump, a Republican, has expressed willingness to negotiate trade deals with Beijing, notably for TikTok, which faces a U.S. ban unless its Chinese parent company sells its controlling stake. Another call for Trump and Xi over trade tensions The two men also spoke in June to defuse tensions over China’s restrictions on the export of rare earth elements, used in everything from smartphones to fighter jets.“I’m speaking with President Xi, as you know, on Friday, having to do with TikTok and also trade,” Trump said Thursday. “And we’re very close to deals on all of it.”He said his relationship with China is “very good” but noted that Russia’s war in Ukraine could end if European countries put higher tariffs on China. Trump didn’t say if he planned to raise tariffs on Beijing over its purchase of Moscow’s oil, as he has done with India.The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Thursday didn’t confirm any upcoming summit between the leaders, but spokesperson Liu Pengyu said “heads-of-state diplomacy plays an irreplaceable role in providing strategic guidance for China-U.S. relations.”Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based think tank Stimson Center, predicted a positive discussion.“Both sides have strong desire for the leadership summit to happen, while the details lie in the trade deal and what can be achieved for both sides from the summit,” Sun said. Efforts to finalize the TikTok deal Following a U.S.-China trade meeting earlier this week in Madrid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the sides reached a framework deal on TikTok’s ownership but Trump and Xi likely would finalize it Friday.Trump, who has credited the app with helping him win another term, several times has extended a deadline for the app to be spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. It is a requirement to allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. under a law passed last year seeking to address data privacy and national security concerns.Trump said TikTok “has tremendous value” and the U.S. “has that value in its hand because we’re the ones that have to approve it.”U.S. officials have been concerned about ByteDance’s roots and ownership, pointing to laws in China that require Chinese companies to hand over data requested by the government. Another concern is the proprietary algorithm that populates what users see on TikTok.Chinese officials said Monday that a consensus was reached on authorization of the “use of intellectual property rights,” including the algorithm, and that the two sides agreed on entrusting a partner with handling U.S. user data and content security.Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, says TikTok’s data and algorithm must be “truly in American hands” to comply with the law. More trade issues on the table Top U.S. and Chinese officials have held four rounds of trade talks between May and September, with another likely in the coming weeks. Both sides have paused sky-high tariffs and pulled back from harsh export controls, but many issues remain unresolved.Trump in the call would likely “seek to make it appear that the United States has the upper hand in trade negotiations,” said Ali Wyne, senior research and advocacy adviser on U.S.-China issues at the International Crisis Group.Xi would likely “seek to underscore China’s economic leverage and warn that continued progress in bilateral relations will hinge on an easing of U.S. tariffs, sanctions and export controls,” Wyne said.No deals have been announced on tech export restrictions, Chinese purchases of U.S. agricultural products or fentanyl. The Trump administration has imposed additional 20% tariffs on Chinese goods linked to allegations that Beijing has failed to stem the flow to the U.S. of the chemicals used to make opioids.Trump’s second-term trade war with Beijing has cost U.S. farmers one of their top markets. From January through July, American farm exports to China fell 53% compared with the same period last year. The damage was even greater in some commodities: U.S. sorghum sales to China, for instance, were down 97%.Josh Gackle, chairman of the American Soybean Association, said he would be following the outcome of Friday’s call because China, the biggest foreign buyer of U.S. beans, has paused purchases for this year’s new crop.“There’s still time. It’s encouraging that the two countries continue to talk,” Gackle said. “I think there’s frustration growing at the farmer level that they haven’t been able to reach a deal yet.” Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Paul Wiseman contributed to the report. Didi Tang, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
SoftBank Group will lay off nearly 20% of its Vision Fund team globally as it shifts resources to founder Masayoshi Sons large-scale artificial intelligence bets in the United States, according to a memo seen by Reuters and a source familiar with the plan. The cuts mark the third round of layoffs at the Japanese investment conglomerates flagship fund since 2022. Vision Fund currently has over 300 employees globally. Unlike previous rounds, when the group was saddled with major losses, the latest reductions come after the fund last month reported its strongest quarterly performance since June 2021, driven by gains in public holdings such as Nvidia and South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang. The move signals a pivot away from a broad portfolio of startup investments. While the fund will continue to make new bets, remaining staff will dedicate more resources to Sons ambitious AI initiatives, such as the proposed $500 billion Stargate project an initiative to build a vast network of U.S. data centers in partnership with OpenAI, the source added. A Vision Fund spokesperson confirmed the layoffs without commenting on the details, and said in a statement: We continually adjust the organization to best execute our long-term strategy making bold, high-conviction investments in AI and breakthrough technologies, and creating long-term value for our stakeholders. The restructuring marks a return to Sons classic high-risk, high-reward approach of making massive, concentrated wagers, moving on from the sprawling venture capital model that defined the last era of the Vision Fund, and a period in which the group was forced to de-risk, sell assets and rebuild credibility after incurring billions in losses on its once high-flying bet on the office-sharing startup WeWork. This shift toward capitalintensive AI infrastructure reflects where Son who made his name with outsized bets and was an early champion of AI sees the path back to the top. He is now aggressively pursuing new investments in foundation models and the infrastructure layer, sometimes at premium valuations. In the past 12 months, Son has invested $9.7 billion in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2, which manages about $65.8 billion in total. SoftBank is also plotting a capital-intensive infrastructure strategy centered on its crown jewel, chip designer Arm. It has acquired chip firms Graphcore and Ampere Computing and taken stakes in Intel and Nvidia. These moves aim to build an ecosystem spanning chips, data centers, and models to support future AI adoptions. The capital-intensive strategy carries execution risk, underscored by recent delays in both the U.S. Stargate project and a similar joint venture with OpenAI in Japan, Reuters reported this week. SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said the company held a very safe level of cash of 4 trillion yen ($27 billion) on the company’s most recent earnings call in August. Krystal Hu, Reuters
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E-Commerce
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. Then an announcer spoke over him and replaced most of his critiques about President Donald Trump with flattery.Their guests the day after Kimmel’s suspension which also came two months after CBS said it would cancel Colbert’s show varied widely. Fallon’s guests were actor Jude Law, journalist Tom Llamas and actor and singer Jonathan Groff none of whom addressed Kimmel’s situation.Stewart and Colbert interviewed guests who could address censorship concerns raised by Kimmel’s suspension. Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maria Ressa spoke to Stewart.When Stewart asked Ressa, the author of “How to Stand Up to a Dictator,” tips on coping 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 Philippine then-President Rodrigo Duterte.“We just kept doing our jobs. We just kept putting one foot in front of the other,” Ressa said. Stewart makes special appearance to skewer Kimmel suspension Stewart’s show opened with a voice-over 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.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 U.S. 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.When Colbert talked with New Yorker editor David Remnick about Kimmel’s suspension, he said: “What we are seeing now is the government acting at the direction of the president of the United States to put pressure on, to manipulate, to silence and even to shut down institutions of the free word.”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. Audrey McAvoy and Hallie Golden, Associated Press
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