Marco Rubio orders US officials to stop commentary that could strain Iran talks

Exclusive: memo came after Mike Huckabee’s remarks about Israel sparked alarm inside White House

The US secretary of state Marco Rubio told ambassadors in the Middle East to stop making public comments that could inflame tensions and undermine Donald Trump’s pressure on Iran to relinquish its capacity to produce a nuclear weapon, according to a memo obtained by the Guardian.

“Given rising tensions in the region, Chiefs of Mission and embassies at addressee posts must refrain from public statements, interviews, or social media activity that could in any way inflame regional audiences, prejudice sensitive political issues, or complicate US relationships,” the cable said.

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Huckabee’s Israel land remarks condemned as ‘dangerous and inflammatory’

Arab and Islamic governments issue statement denouncing comments made on Tucker Carlson podcast

Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, suggesting it would “be fine” for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East.

Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.

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Combative Carlson-Huckabee interview reveals US right’s chasm over Israel

Parts of Maga view Israel with suspicion, but US ambassador continues to believe in its divine right to much of the Middle East

Parts of the Maga right may be souring on Israel – but a hardline form of Christian Zionism seems to remain unofficial Trump administration policy, if a heated debate between Tucker Carlson and Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, is any indication.

On Friday, Carlson released a confrontational video interview with Huckabee, conducted at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, that vividly illustrated a gaping divide between two factions of the Republican party. On one side is a Christian nationalist stream of the Maga movement, which views the United States’s close relationship with Israel with increasing suspicion. On the other is an older Christian conservative establishment that views that alliance as a totem of US foreign policy – and in some cases believes that Israeli Jews possess a divine right to a large swathe of the Middle East, US public opinion be damned.

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US envoy Mike Huckabee says it would be ‘fine’ if Israel took all Middle East land

Rightwing Trump ally tells Tucker Carlson Israel has biblical right to land from ‘wadi of Egypt to the great river’

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, has contended to the podcaster Tucker Carlson that Israel has a biblical right to take over the entire Middle East – or at least the lion’s share of it.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Huckabee said to Carlson during an interview posted on Friday. The Trump administration appointee and former Arkansas governor discussed with Carlson interpretations of Old Testament scripture within the US Christian nationalist movement.

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Donations for Turning Point USA pour in after founder Charlie Kirk’s death

Fundraising efforts ramp up to open new chapters of influential far-right group as Kirk’s widow takes over as CEO

The powerful fundraising operation that rightwing activist Charlie Kirk led to build the influential college group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) is receiving a wave of support from large donors and Donald Trump allies since his murder, which suggests the group will remain a major force on the American right, campaign finance experts and consultants say.

New backing and appeals for help to sustain TPUSA have come from, among others, Lynn Friess, the widow of mega-donor Foster Friess, who was Kirk’s first major backer when he formed his campus-focused Republican group in 2012 at the age of 18. Friess pledged $1m to TPUSA days after the 31-year-old’s killing.

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Tucker Carlson channels Maga rage over Epstein files – and opens rift with Trump

As Maga supporters revolt over the Epstein scandal, figures like Tucker Carlson are now a gadfly of the White House’s handling of the controversy

As Donald Trump tries to contain an ugly rift with his own supporters about the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking scandal, influential media personalities in the Maga movement face a tricky dilemma.

Should they close ranks with the US president – who has denounced demands for more information on Epstein as a “waste [of] Time and Energy” about “somebody that nobody cares about” – or pick at a political wound that the Trump administration desperately wants to scab over?

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Irish Freemasons apologise for hosting Conor McGregor interview at Dublin hall

Organisation says it regrets renting premises for event with US commentator Tucker Carlson and will give fee to charity

The Freemasons of Ireland have apologised for hosting an interview between Conor McGregor and the US commentator Tucker Carlson at the organisation’s premises in central Dublin.

Philip Daley, the grand secretary of the Irish Freemasons, said the organisation regretted renting its hall for the event last week and would donate the fee to charity.

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Tucker Carlson credits demons for the invention of nuclear technology

Ex-Fox News host makes bizarre claim on Steve Bannon’s podcast, days after saying a demon attacked him in his sleep

Demons that Tucker Carlson claimed attacked him as he slept were also responsible for the invention of nuclear technology, the conservative former Fox News host said on Monday in another bizarre contention.

Carlson made the claim on the War Room podcast hosted by his fellow rightwing extremist Steve Bannon, a former White House adviser in the Trump administration who was released from prison last week after serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress.

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Tucker Carlson warms up crowd at Trump rally with bizarre spanking rant

Comments meant to portray ex-president as coming ‘home’ to White House to mete out discipline to Kamala Harris

The audience at a Donald Trump rally in Georgia on Wednesday erupted into bizarre chants of “Daddy’s home!” and “Daddy Don!” after an extraordinary and borderline creepy and sexist speech by far-right personality Tucker Carlson likening the Republican presidential candidate to an angry father spanking his daughter.

“Dad comes home. He’s pissed. Dad is pissed. And when dad gets home, you know what he says? ‘You’ve been a bad girl. You’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now,’” the former Fox TV host told the crowd in Duluth.

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Tory and SNP anger as speaker allows Labour’s amendment on Gaza ceasefire vote – UK politics live

Move will help Keir Starmer head off threatened rebellion from his MPs

New 20mph limits are helping cut speeds and will save lives, the Welsh government has insisted. PA Media says:

Drivers are travelling on average 4mph slower on main roads in Wales since the rollout of a new lower speed limit for built-up areas, data collected by Transport for Wales (TfW) shows.

The Welsh Labour government, which implemented the change in September last year, insists the lower speeds will lead to fewer collisions and people injured.

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Putin says he prefers Biden to Trump and mocks Tucker Carlson’s questions

Russian president says Biden is ‘more predictable’, in remarks likely to be attempt to make mischief in US election

Vladimir Putin has said he would prefer a Joe Biden presidency to a Donald Trump one and mocked the former Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson for a “lack of sharp questions” during their interview at the Kremlin last week.

Asked by a Russian state journalist on Wednesday to choose between Biden and Trump, Putin said without hesitation that the current US president was “more experienced, predictable, an old-school politician”, but added: “We will work with any US president who the American people have confidence in.”

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‘Talkshow or a serious conversation?’ Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin offered neither

Wide-eyed former Fox host tagged along as Russian president steered the conversation through Russian history and justifications for war

“Are we having a talkshow or a serious conversation?” Vladimir Putin asked Tucker Carlson at the start of their interview on Thursday.

By the end of the two-hour conversation, the answer was clear: neither.

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Journalist unrepentant over 2016 fracas with new Fox News host Jesse Watters

Ryan Grim calls Tucker Carlson replacement ‘a classic bully’ and says fight started when he backed colleague Watters had harassed

The US political journalist Ryan Grim broke the news of allegations against Brett Kavanaugh before his 2018 supreme court justice confirmation, and he was among the first to report on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s initial ascent to Congress.

Still, to some, he remains known as the guy who got into a fight at the 2016 White House Correspondents’ Dinner with Jesse Watters, who debuted Tuesday as host of the coveted 8pm Fox News slot made available by Tucker Carlson’s firing.

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