Jimmy Kimmel on Trump: ‘His list of threats is now longer than Kash Patel’s bar tab’
Late-night hosts discussed the Trump administration’s confusing messaging about the war in Iran and why fruit-flavoured vapes have suddenly become a Republican priority.On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the host spoke about the conflict in Iran and how the strait of Hormuz is still to be reopened.While Trump claims that the US is close to a deal, Kimmel said it was “still very much in flux, as in what the flux are we doing over there?”Trump has been issuing more threats this week, which led Kimmel to joke that “his list of threats is now longer than Kash Patel’s bar tab”.It’s meant that gas prices are still sky high, with California experiencing the highest in the country.This week will also see Marco Rubio being sent to “make nice” with the pope including asking him “why God didn’t answer his prayers for smaller ears”.
Kimmel also said “he’s hoping to get the pope down to five commandments”.He then spoke about a pre-Mother’s Day event, where Melania Trump made comments about her husband’s empathy that led to both of them laughing at the same time.“I really feel like I brought those two back together,” he said.This week Trump has also been in a “reported beef” with Marty Makary, the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).The president has been “angrily bullying” him over the approval of fruit-flavoured vapes, which is important for “young Maga”.
Kimmel called it “as noble a cause as there is”.On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert spoke about the US “closing in on an end to the war” although reports suggested this week that an Iranian official called the terms an “American wishlist and not a reality”.At a press briefing this week, Marco Rubio claimed that Operation Epic Fury is over and now it’s being transitioned to Project Freedom, yet that was then halted after one day.Colbert said it was all “living up to the Trump family motto: when the going gets tough, bye, bitch”.He then spoke about the $1bn that will allegedly be going towards Trump’s ballroom from taxpayers.
Colbert called it all “bullshit” as despite Trump having “one unwavering promise” that the money would come from donors, this is now not the case.“To lie that blatantly takes a lot of balls and he still hasn’t built the room to store them,” he joked.This week has also seen RFK Jr try to change FDA rules to allow minors to use tanning beds.Colbert said it “comes as no surprise from someone who looks so hickory smoked”.He also spoke about the push to approve fruit-flavoured vapes for adults and, like many, claimed that this would ultimately be used more by children.
“Those kids need something to take the edge off after a couple of hours in the tanning booth,” he said.On Late Night, Seth Meyers called the situation with Iran “confusing and unclear” and also spoke about the problems with Trump and his cronies using the word “war”.They have been “desperate to avoid” using the word as it would make the invasion illegal as it was not officially approved by Congress.While Trump has often used the word “war”, he’s also been using “other dumber euphemisms”, such as “excursion” and “skirmish”.But “sometimes he gets tripped up on his own bullshit” and goes back to saying “war” or “mini-war”, to which Meyers said there is “no such thing”.
The attempt to rebrand it as Project Freedom had Meyers joke that “they’re treating the war like it’s HBO”.He also looked at Trump’s confusing social media posts this year and asked: “How can you expect to get an outcome when no one knows what outcome you want?”Meyers said that “Trump can’t hold one position for even a day” and is “still trying to bullshit his way out of it”.
Gas-fired power still looks a safe bet for Centrica in the renewables era
The eye-catching non-Hormuz news in energy-land last month was that Great Britain is set for a record-breaking summer for wind and solar power generation. The national energy system operator even thought there could be periods – a sunny weekend or a bank holiday afternoon of low demand, for example – when more renewable power would be available than the electricity grid needed.So, on the face of it, it is an odd moment for Centrica, the owner of British Gas, to fork out £370m to buy a 16-year-old combined-cycle gas turbine plant in south Wales. After all, the government’s clean power plan imagines that, come 2030, Great Britain’s entire fleet of gas plants will be used to generate only 5% of its electricity, down from 31.5% in 2025
Senate Democrats press top media regulator Brendan Carr to back off ABC
A group of prominent Senate Democrats sent a letter on Thursday to Brendan Carr, the Trump-aligned Federal Communications Commission chair, asking him to rescind the US media regulator’s order last week requiring ABC to apply early to renew its television licenses.The eight ABC-owned station licenses were not originally up for renewal until 2028 at the earliest and 2031 at the latest; now, the renewal requests must be filed by the end of May.Although Carr told reporters that the early license renewal request stemmed from an ongoing investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts of ABC’s parent company, Disney, the announcement came just a day after the president and his wife called on the network to fire Jimmy Kimmel, the late-night comedian, for a poorly timed joke. The letter called the early renewal demand an “extraordinary abuse of power” and an “unconstitutional abuse of the Commission’s powers”.“The campaign against Disney and its editorial decision-making, culminating in last week’s early-renewal order, is an egregious abuse of power and a clear violation of the First Amendment,” lawmakers state in the letter led by Senators Edward J Markey, Chuck Schumer, Maria Cantwell and Ben Ray Luján
Meta sues Ofcom over fines regime for breaches of Online Safety Act
Meta has launched a legal challenge against the UK’s media regulator over the fees and fines regime it is enforcing under landmark digital safety legislation.The Facebook and Instagram owner is claiming that Ofcom’s methodology for calculating the charges is flawed and should not be based on a company’s global revenue. Breaches of the Online Safety Act can be punished by fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue (QWR) or £18m – whichever is higher.In the case of Meta, which reported revenues of $201bn last year, Ofcom could in theory impose a fine of $20bn for breaches. Under regulations introduced in September, Ofcom’s fees will also be based on a proportion of an organisation’s QWR and apply to businesses that made more than £250m of this revenue a year
‘No one has done this in the wild’: study observes AI replicate itself
It’s the stuff of science fiction cinema, or particularly breathless AI company blogposts: new research finds recent AI systems can independently copy themselves on to other computers.In the doom scenario, this means that when the superintelligent AI goes rogue, it will escape shutdown by seeding itself across the world wide web, lurking outside the reach of frantic IT professionals and continuing to plot world domination or paving over the world with solar panels.“We’re rapidly approaching the point where no one would be able to shut down a rogue AI, because it would be able to self-exfiltrate its weights and copy itself to thousands of computers around the world,” said Jeffrey Ladish, the director of Palisade research, a Berkeley-based organisation which did the study.The study is one more entry in a growing catalogue of unsettling AI capabilities revealed in the past months. In March, researchers at Alibaba claimed to have caught a system they developed – Rome – tunnelling out of its environment to an external system in order to mine crypto
Russia’s return to sporting fold on hold for investigation into alleged doping cover-up
Russia’s return to international sport has been delayed following allegations that its head of anti-doping was involved in covering up drug test results at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.While the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that athletes from Belarus should now be free to compete under their own flag and anthem, it admitted it still had “concern” over Russia.Sources have confirmed that concern relates to recently reported claims linking Russian anti-doping agency director general, Veronika Loginova, with a government-supported doping programme at the Sochi Games.While not naming Loginova, the IOC’s president, Kirsty Coventry, said that the allegations had caused “great concern” and had “led to the World Anti-Doping Agency looking into a potential doping allegation”. “It is of huge importance for me to do whatever we can to ensure that the field of play, whenever any athletes are coming back to competition, is the cleanest and fairest field of play that we can provide,” added Coventry
Jannik Sinner not ruling out grand slam boycott in prize money dispute
Jannik Sinner refused to rule out participating in a player boycott of the grand slam tournaments and accused the majors of disrespect for the top players due to their lack of response in the ongoing prize money dispute.“It’s more about respect, you know?” said Sinner, the men’s No 1. “Because I think we give much more than what we are getting back. It’s not only for the top players; it’s for all of us players. Again, from men’s and women’s side, we are very, very equal
Financial stability risks are rising as AI fuels cyber-attacks, IMF warns; oil below $100 on Iran peace hopes – as it happened
Climate campaigners attack Shell over ‘windfall’ profits from Iran war
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