South Korea's Lee Jae-myung: We will co-operate with Kim Jong-un
Act now to keep your subscription
We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Five Proud Boys leaders sue DOJ for $100 million over their Jan 6 prosecution
Five Proud Boys leaders who were convicted of spearheading the January 6 Capitol riot are suing the federal government and claiming that their constitutional rights were violated. The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday in a federal court in Florida, is seeking $100 million in restitution and comes after President Donald Trump pardoned almost all of the January 6 defendants on the first day of his second term, The Hill reports. The five men bringing the suit are Enrique Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl, Joe Biggs and Dominic Pezzola. Four of the men were convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy. Pezzola was acquitted but was convicted on other felonies associated with the infamous riot. They are claiming that "political prosecution" violated their constitutional rights. 'What follows is a parade of horribles: egregious and systemic abuse of the legal system and the United States Constitution to punish and oppress political allies of President Trump, by any and all means necessary, legal, or illegal,' their lawsuit alleges. In the filing, the Proud Boys accuse the FBI of using paid informants to spy on their defense team, allege they were denied bail, and claim that federal agents had altered what they say was exculpatory evidence relevant to their defense, according to the New York Times. The lawsuit will force the Department of Justice under Trump to either defend its prosecution of Capitol rioters or offer a payout to the right-wing gang members. Ed Martin, who is now the Justice Department's pardon attorney, has said he believes that the Capitol riot convicts deserve compensation for what he claimed was mistreatment by the federal government. Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the longest for any January 6 defendant before he was pardoned by Trump. The Proud Boys' lawsuit cites Trump's pardon in its language, arguing that it sought to "end a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years."
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Elon Musk's crash-out killed conservatives' momentum — and likely guaranteed passage of Trump's ‘big beautiful bill'
Earlier this week, it looked like Elon Musk had delivered arch conservatives a gift when he trashed President Donald Trump's ' One Big, Beautiful Bill.' On Tuesday, Musk called the legislation an ' outrageous, pork-filled, disgusting abomination.' It seemed like a boon for some of the fiscal conservatives in the Senate like Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin who criticized the fact the bill still blows up the deficit. Had Musk stopped there, he probably would have given fiscal conservatives additional leverage. House Speaker Mike Johnson had spent much of the first part of the year getting every faction of the House GOP on board with the bill despite fiscal conservative grumbling. But Johnson admitted during his weekly press conference that he had tried to call Musk with no response. Immediately, House Republicans and members of the Freedom Caucus — including its former chairman Scott Perry and Andy Ogles, who has tried to allow Trump to run for a third term — voiced their criticisms of the bill that they had when it was being deliberated. They could have voiced them at any moment but did not. It clearly showed that they had abandoned their fiscal conservative principles in fear of the pressure campaign from Trump. Had Musk kept his critiques strictly to the bill, the tech tycoon could have offered an effective counterweight to give conservatives leverage against leadership given his immense wealth and his wide reach as owner of X. But the world's richest man chose to blow that to smithereens when he turned the attacks personal. First, he said that Trump would not have won the presidency, Republicans would have lost the House and would have a smaller minority in the Senate had it not been for Musk's money, before huffing 'such ingratitude.' Then Musk lobbed the ultimate grenade when he said that Trump had not fully released the 'Epstein files' —information related to the late — because Trump was mentioned in them. The Tesla founder took it a step further by calling for Trump's impeachment. Not only did Musk's words permanently spike any chance for reconciliation, it killed any chances for budget reconciliation, the arcane process through which Republicans hope to pass the 'One Big, Beautiful Bill.' Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, who has spent much of the legislative process in the House trying to make the bill more conservative but ultimately voted for it, tried to split the difference. 'He's got concerns with the bill, he's a free American, and he can speak freely and and God bless him for what he's been doing to try to make improvements,' Roy told The Independent. 'Again, is it what Chip Roy would draft? Not even close. But did it move in the right direction to get to a place that I felt comfortable sending it to the Senate to see if they could make it better? Sure.' Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who has spent much of the new Congress trying to declassify information related to Epstein, said it was too early to tell about the Senate bill since text did not exist. 'I've always been a big fan of going back to pre-Covid spending levels,' Luna told The Independent, but understood it would require negotiation. Rep. Andy Harris, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who ultimately voted 'present' on the bill last month, said he agreed. 'I still think his concerns about the deficit are real,' he said. But the damage might already be done. If Republican elected have learned anything in the past decade, they've learned that their voters are not so much devoted to conservative ideals; they're devoted to Trump. Deviation from Trump, even in the name of conservative principles like restraining spending and balanced budgets, amounts to heresy. Musk's decision to start talking about forming another political party further alienates him from the GOP. He is now no longer part of the Trump coalition or even the Republican coalition. That means that fiscal conservatives cannot depend on him to drop millions of dollars for people opposed to the reconciliation bill or if he does, that it will immediately be tainted as money coming from a heretic. This makes Senate and House leadership's job easier. It gives them a foil to oppose and allows critics of the bill to tied to Musk. And they've already seen that most Republicans' bluster about spending levels are just that given that they will ultimately fold. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee spent much of the early parts of the reconciliation process intimating to reporters that he would not vote for the bill only to fold. As votes wrapped on Thursday, he did not seem worried about it all. 'It's just two biggest dogs in the pound, they're both gonna fight a little,' he said. Except now, Musk just defanged fiscal conservatives.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
US brings Kilmar Ábrego García, mistakenly deported to El Salvador, back to face charges
Kilmar Ábrego García, a 29-year-old from El Salvador who was mistakenly deported in March, has been returned to the US to face prosecution on two federal criminal has been accused of participating in a trafficking conspiracy over several years to move people from Texas to other parts of the country. El Salvador agreed to release Mr Ábrego García after the US presented it with an arrest warrant, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Friday. His lawyer has called the charges "preposterous".The White House had been resisting a US Supreme Court order from April to "facilitate" his return after he was sent to a mega-jail in El Salvador alongside more than 250 other deportees. In a two-count grand jury indictment, sealed by a Tennessee court last month, Mr Ábrego García was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and a second count of unlawful transportation of undocumented said the grand jury found that Mr Ábrego García had played a "significant role" in an alien smuggling ring - bringing in thousands of illegal immigrants to the indictment additionally alleges he transported members of MS-13, designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US. The Trump administration had previously alleged Mr Ábrego García was a member of the transnational Salvadorian gang, which he has denied. Bondi also accused Mr Ábrego García of trafficking weapons and narcotics into the US for the gang. Mr Ábrego García's lawyers have previously argued that he has never been convicted of any criminal offence, including gang membership, in the US or in El Sandoval Moshenberg, one of his attorneys, called the charges "preposterous" and the events an "abuse of power" at a Friday news conference. Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from local gangs in his home countryWhat is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?What we know about Kilmar Abrego Garcia and MS-13 allegationsOn 15 March, he was deported amid an immigration crackdown form the Trump administration, after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a war-time law that allows presidents to detain or deport the natives and citizens of an enemy Ábrego García was taken to the notorious mega-prison Cecot in El Salvador, known for its brutal conditions. While government lawyers initially said he was taken there as a result of "administrative error", the Trump administration refused to order his return. Whether or not the government had to "facilitate" his return to his home in the US state of Maryland became the subject of a weeks-long legal and political Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen demanded to see Mr Ábrego García in El Salvador, he was released to a different prison in that country. El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of Trump, said on social media on Friday that if the administration "request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn't refuse". Mr Ábrego García is expected to make an initial appearance at a Tennessee court on Friday, where US will request he be held in pretrial custody "because he poses a danger to the community and a serious risk of flight", according to the detention motion.
