'Disgraceful' former CNN star slammed for vile joke about Trump's dead ex-wife - as White House hits back
Former CNN reporter Jim Acosta has been slammed with backlash after making a vile joke about President Donald Trump 's deceased ex-wife, Ivana.
Acosta made the remark during a Monday interview on The Contrarian podcast while discussing the Trump administration's immigration policies.
The correspondent's crude remark prompted a response from the White House, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling Fox Digital he is a 'disgraceful human being.'
'Where are the ICE raids at the Trump properties?' he began his tangent on the No Kings Day episode of the show.
'Could somebody call ICE on the Trump golf course in Virginia? You're telling me there's nobody in there that is undocumented or has some kind of squirreliness going on with their paperwork?'
The left-leaning 54-year-old went on to Trump's personal life, asking: 'How many immigrants has he married?'
'He's got one buried at his golf course in New Jersey! Isn't she buried by the first hole or the second tee or something like that?' he said as liberal reporter April Ryan and show host Jennifer Rubin cackled along.
Trump's first wife, Ivana, who passed away in 2022, is buried at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Aside from the White House's take on Acosta's dig, Trump supporters have taken to social media to tear into the correspondent.
'Jim Acosta is a whole new level of Messed Up,' one man reacted on X.
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Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
US energy investors juggle exposure as tax bill debate rolls on
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As the solar sector has already been hit by rising interest rates - which lifted the cost of system installations - the speedy gutting of federal support has greatly dimmed the prospects for several companies in the space. Stocks in solar inverter manufacturer Enphase (ENPH.O), opens new tab and panel makers First Solar (FSLR.O), opens new tab, Sunrun (RUN.O), opens new tab and SolarEdge (SEDG.O), opens new tab have all dropped by 20% or more within the past month as ramifications of the bill proposals were digested. Shares in the Invesco Solar ETF plumbed five-year lows in April, and are down more than 50% over the past two years as investors jettisoned positions and the sector's outlook darkened under the anti-renewables Trump administration. Several energy investors looking to get out of the solar space have pivoted their funds into the nuclear power sector, which has gained support under the current Trump administration. The Global X Uranium ETF (URA.P), opens new tab has gained more than 35% in value over the past month, and recently scaled its highest levels in more than a decade. Investors have been drawn to the fund by the likelihood of a tightening in the supply of uranium - the main fuel used by nuclear power plants - should more reactors get commissioned once the tax bill becomes law. Stocks in companies tied to geothermal energy production have also rallied recently as provisions tied to supporting the sector were preserved in the latest round of bill wrangling. Shares in Nevada-based Ormat Technologies (ORA.N), opens new tab, which makes power converters for geothermal plants, are up more than 30% since early May. Energy investors have also recently increased positions in funds and companies within the traditional oil and gas sector, as the gutting of clean energy subsidies will likely increase demand for fossil fuels. Shares in the SPDR Energy Select Fund - which holds several major oil and gas producers - have rallied on the recent tensions in the Middle East and due to the brighter outlook for U.S. gas demand if renewable generation is stalled. Firms with large natural gas production businesses stand to gain further if the proposed bill slams the brakes on renewable power growth and increases the U.S. power sector's dependence on gas. Shares in the companies tied to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector have also fared well lately due to the Trump administration's support for expanding LNG exports. Shares in Cheniere Energy (LNG.N), opens new tab - the top U.S. LNG exporter - are up around 10% year-to-date and over 50% over the past year. Investors have also increased their exposure to ETFs and companies dedicated to upgrading the U.S. power grid, which have upbeat outlooks regardless of how the final tax bill looks. 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Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X, opens new tab.
BreakingNews.ie
31 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Iranian police reports intercepting drones and identifying hostile domestic drone facilities
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Wednesday briefing: How Trump's unpredictability is shaping the Middle East crisis
Good morning. In Alberta, Canada yesterday, leaders of six of the G7 countries set out their stalls on the conflict between Iran and Israel. Keir Starmer insisted that de-escalation was still the plan; Emmanuel Macron said that 'the biggest mistake that can be made today is to try to change the regime in Iran by military means'. But more than 3,000km away in Washington DC, the G7 leader who matters most was charting his own course – and bringing the US closer to entering the war. Within 24 hours Donald Trump shifted from promises that a deal could be done to demands for Tehran's 'unconditional surrender'. To his supporters this was a genius strategic manoeuvre and all part of the plan; to residents of the Iranian capital it is a much more ominous shift. The thousands who streamed from the city were not only responding to his Truth Social post calling for an immediate evacuation – but they may consider that Trump's past assertions that he wants to keep the US out of any conflict now look extremely unreliable. Last night, following a situation room briefing with his national security team, he was said to be weighing his options. A senior Israeli official told CNN: 'We are waiting for the decision of the president.' It is still unclear whether any strategy underpins Trump's public interventions – or if he has simply been shifting with the tides. Today's newsletter, with the Guardian's Andrew Roth in Washington DC, examines the available clues. Here are the headlines. Abortion rights | British MPs have voted to decriminalise abortion, marking the biggest step forward in reproductive rights in almost 60 years. The change means that women who terminate their pregnancy outside the existing legal framework, for example after the time limit or by buying pills online, will no longer face arrest or prison. Tariffs | Donald Trump is threatening to keep 25% tariffs on UK steel imports unless it gives specific guarantees over the Indian-owned steelmaking plant at Port Talbot in south Wales, sources have told the Guardian. The US is seeking assurances that raw materials for the plant will not be imported from overseas. Ukraine | Russia launched a sustained missile and drone attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, killing at least 16 people in what the Ukrainian president called 'one of the most horrific attacks' on the Ukrainian capital since the full-scale war began in spring 2022. UK news | The public must 'keep calm' over the ethnicity of grooming gang offenders, the author of a high-profile report has urged, saying police data from one region suggested race was proportional with the local population. Health | Cannabis use may double the risk of dying from heart disease and increase the risk of stroke by 20%, according to a global review of data. A linked editorial said the analysis 'raises serious questions about the assumption that cannabis imposes little cardiovascular risk'. After leaving the G7 summit a day early, skipping meetings with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, Donald Trump made a confounding leap in his public messaging on the new conflict in the Middle East. In Alberta on Monday, he had suggested that a nuclear deal with Tehran remained 'achievable'; on the overnight flight back to DC, he said he was 'not too much in the mood to negotiate'; when he landed, he told reporters that he was 'not looking for a ceasefire', but a 'complete give-up' by Iran. Meanwhile, he posted on social media that 'IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON' and that 'everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!' Later yesterday, he demanded Iran's 'unconditional surrender' and mused on how easy it would be to kill the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. 'It has shifted in the last day in a very significant way,' Andrew Roth said. Meanwhile, as Dan Sabbagh explains in this analysis piece, the US has stepped up its military presence in the region. 'The rhetoric has risen exponentially, and the pieces to do it are there,' Andrew said. 'We don't know if that's a pressure tactic or a statement of intent, but either way it makes US involvement more likely.' What happened at the G7? The Alberta summit was meant to be an opportunity for the group of wealthy nations to reach useful agreements on major international issues: Ukraine, Gaza and Trump's tariffs were all on the table. But even before Trump's early exit, that agenda was torpedoed by Israel's new attack on Iran. Trump co-signed a brief statement before his departure calling for a 'de-escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, including a ceasefire in Gaza', and asserting that 'Iran can never have a nuclear weapon'. 'There's nothing the president said that suggests that he's about to get involved in this conflict,' Keir Starmer said. 'On the contrary, the G7 statement was about de-escalation.' That analysis would appear to be based on a touching faith in Trump's commitment to international diplomatic norms rather than abiding by whatever he's said last. What do we know about what Trump wants? Trump is reportedly obsessed with winning the Nobel peace prize. His consistent message to voters during the 2024 election campaign was that a vote for him was a vote to end foreign wars – and many took him at his word. As the news of Israel's strikes on Iran broke last week, Trump's secretary of state, Marco Rubio, emphasised that the US was 'not involved in strikes against Iran'; but Trump himself declined to comment on whether the US participated, and said that the White House had been fully apprised of Benjamin Netanyahu's plans. Israeli officials have briefed the media that public statements by the US and Israel were 'strategically coordinated to lull Tehran into a false sense of security' – but that should be treated with scepticism, since it has not been corroborated by reporters in Washington. In any case, the arc of Trump's comments in recent days has been to imply closer cooperation with Israel as Iran has appeared weakened. 'His shift towards Israel reflects the facts on the ground,' Andrew said. 'The most important thing for Trump is always to come out with a win: if he tries to restrain Israel and fails, he looks weaker than if he endorses an option he was against a month ago.' But with Iran so far avoiding any provocative strike on US interests in the region, it isn't clear what would prompt him to cross the line into direct military involvement. The simplest path might be to continue to use militaristic rhetoric in support of Israel's operation, but refrain from ordering US forces to attack Tehran. Israel would dearly love to have the US as a full ally in the conflict, since it is unable to penetrate Iran's most deeply buried nuclear facilities without US bunker-busting bombs. And with reports that Trump has encouraged new talks between his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his Iranian counterparts, it is also possible that Trump will present Tehran with an ultimatum: commit to ending all nuclear enrichment in Iran, or face US bombing. How does this play out politically in the United States? Trump is seeking to balance a tension that goes to the heart of the modern Republican party's identity crisis: on the one hand, pressure from traditional conservative hawks who have long yearned for an all-out assault on Iran; on the other, the isolationist tendency in his Maga movement, which viewed his stated aversion to new military adventures as a key tenet of his appeal. 'There was never really a coherent strategy, because he has surrounded himself with people with very different views, and their influence waxes and wanes,' Andrew said. 'And he's finding out that he has a lot of support from across his base that's very hawkish on Iran, or very pro-Israel. At the moment, he is empowering those people, and sidelining the Maga isolationist wing.' In this piece, Andrew lays out how public that schism has now become. Prominent Maga pundits like Tucker Carlson have accused the hawks of being 'warmongers'; senior advisers like the vice-president, JD Vance, are also thought to be averse to military action, fearful that a major Middle East entanglement will derail their hopes of a strategic pivot to the containment of China in the Pacific. But, Andrew writes, 'traditional Republicans such as Senator Tom Cotton, as well as senior Pentagon officials … have continued to impress upon Trump the need for a more hawkish Iran policy'. And Trump himself derided Carlson's position as 'kooky'. He has also dismissed the assessment of his spy chief Tulsi Gabbard - who, Andrew writes here, 'he nominated specifically because of her skepticism for past US interventions in the Middle East' - that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon. And yesterday he posted a truly unsettling text message from his ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, that sought to compare him to Harry Truman in 1945 – the US president who decided to drop nuclear bombs on Japan. Vance, meanwhile, tied himself in knots as he sought to explain Trump's stance to the Maga base: 'People are right to be worried about foreign entanglement after the last 25 years of idiotic foreign policy,' he said. But he claimed that Trump had 'earned some trust on this issue', and added: 'He is only interested in using American military to accomplish the American people's goals.' What impact are his comments having on the ground? Iranian civilians are not the only ones hanging on Trump's every word. In Tehran, there are still some hopes Trump will act as a brake on Netanyahu's offensive: Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, said on Monday that 'it takes one phone call from Washington to muzzle someone like Netanyahu'. On the other hand, that same ambiguity is allowing Netanyahu to present Israel's attack as coming with the approval of the White House – and may be extending the conflict as Israel hopes that the longer it drags on, the more likely it is that an Iranian escalation forces Trump's hand. If that happens, it would suggest that however aggressive Trump's posture is publicly, he is ultimately leaving American foreign policy to be decided by the belligerents in a conflict which he has long claimed he wants to avoid. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion 'Iran is also an unpredictable actor here,' Andrew said. 'There's always a risk when missiles are flying both ways. And the longer this goes on, the higher the chance of an escalatory event.' Gabrielle Drolet (above) freelances in the strangest corners of writing, from horse newsletters to erotica apps. In this long read, she writes with clarity and humour about navigating a career shaped by chronic pain. Aamna It is a very bad week in the UK for people who don't own a fan. Remove yourself from their sorry ranks with the Filter's guide to the best of them. Archie Iran had been slowly improving politically, economically, and socially – then Israel attacked. Esfandyar Batmanghelidj argues the strikes risk derailing progress and setting the country on a far more dangerous path. Aamna Weight loss jabs have transformed the treatment of obesity, but recent research suggests they may not produce such drastic weight loss in everyday settings. Aamna In New York magazine, Suzy Hansen makes the case that Israel has committed numberless war crimes in Gaza – and perhaps brought the edifice of humanitarian law down at the same time. Her piece is clarifying, devastating, and utterly essential. Archie Football | Ahead of an expected debut for Trent Alexander-Arnold (above left with Jude Bellingham) for Real Madrid in the Club World Cup on Wednesday, Barney Ronay writes that he faces a formidable challenge to succeed: 'Even the opening act in Miami feels vital, the first step in a high‑wire act.' Cricket | The Netherlands and Nepal have etched their names in the cricket record books after the two sides could not be split until a third super over eventually found a winner in the Dutch in their T20 clash in Glasgow. Tennis | Emma Raducanu's stalker has been blocked from buying tickets for the Wimbledon Championships this month in the public ballot, it has emerged. Security staff checked the waiting list following the man's February restraining order in Dubai. 'Trump demands 'unconditional surrender' by Iran as tensions rise' – that's the Guardian this morning. The Telegraph says 'Trump poised to join war on Iran' and the Mail says similarly 'US poised to join Iran war'. The Times has 'Trump: we won't kill ayatollah – for now' while the i paper goes with 'Trump threatens Supreme Leader of Iran, but won't kill him 'for now''. The Financial Times' splash headline is 'Trump calls for Iran's 'surrender' and leaves way open to US role in conflict'. The Express runs with 'Grooming gangs 'one of biggest scandals ever''. The Mirror is on that one too: 'Grooming victim's plea – speak up for justice'. And now the weather – '33 degrees – heatwave in flaming June' – brought to us by the Metro. Air India crash and the miracle of seat 11A Aviation journalist Jeff Wise on the crash of flight AI171, in which at least 270 people died, and how one passenger in seat 11A managed to survive. A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad The war in Gaza and Israel's intensifying occupation of the West Bank have taken an unimaginable toll on Palestinian children. Their injuries, deaths, and displacement have dominated the news, but what about their inner lives? Acclaimed photographer Misan Harriman set out to explore this by hosting a photography workshop for Palestinian children who fled to Egypt. He gave them cameras, taught them how to use them – and stepped back. The result is a powerful, series of intimate and sometimes heartbreaking images. 'They understand what bearing witness means,' Harriman says. 'It's just a beautiful, maybe even cathartic experience for them.' And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
