Tag: politics

South Korea Gets Its Fourth President in Five Months

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho became the fourth president of South Korea since December on Friday after a turbulent 2025 that began with protests for and against the arrest of ousted former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The South Korean government baffled international partners in the past 24 hours after acting President Han Duck-soo resigned on Thursday to prepare for a campaign in the June 3 special election to replace Yoon. Officials announced that Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok, who had already been president after Han was impeached in December, would replace Han temporarily, but Choi abruptly resigned, as well, leaving Lee as the chief executive of the country.

The wave of resignations and questions from international observers made for a confusing first day in office for Lee, the Korea JoongAng Daily reported, noting that the day began with an emergency cabinet meeting that participants were initially unsure was even legal. The various resignations meant the cabinet was too small to make quorum, raising legal questions that Seoul ultimately decided had been decided in favor of a meeting by past precedent.

The current chaos began when Yoon, elected in a deeply bitter election in 2022, announced on the night of December 3 that he would abruptly impose martial law on the country in response to the left-wing Democratic Party obstructing his agenda at the National Assembly, the federal lawmaking body. Yoon accused the Democrats of working with “North Korean communist forces” and attempting to overthrow the “constitutional order.”

The martial law decree lasted mere hours as National Assembly lawmakers stormed legislative chambers to organize an emergency vote against military rule. While lawmakers can legally vote down martial law, the martial law decree also meant that political activity, including legislative votes, was not legal, so lawmakers had to elbow past rows of heavily armed soldiers to organize the vote, the latter whom did not take much action to prevent the political figures from achieving their goal.

Following the end of martial law less than 24 hours after it was implemented, Yoon apologized, but the National Assembly voted to impeach him regardless. Han Duck-soo became acting president and was immediately impeached for allegedly taking too long to expedite Yoon’s impeachment case, leaving Choi as the acting president.

While Han defeated the case for his impeachment, Yoon did not, and was removed from the presidency. South Koreans will vote for his replacement on June 3.

Han resigned on Thursday to prepare a campaign to run in that election.

“Thinking of the weight of the responsibility I carry at this grave time, after thinking long and carefully about whether such a decision is in fact right and inevitable,” he declared on Thursday, “I decided that if this is the only way, I must take it.”

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Mexican Senator Brands President Sheinbaum as ‘Liar’ with Ties to Cartels

Mexican Senator Lilly Tellez (PAN-Sonora) blasted President Claudia Sheinbaum, demanding she “stop telling lies.” The senator accused her country’s president of having a close association with several lawyers who represent drug cartels during a fiery speech to the Mexican Senate.

The Senator representing the Mexican State of Sonora is routinely critical of President Sheinbaum’s seemingly soft approach to fighting organized crime in Mexico. Maria Lilly Del Carmen Tellez García, professionally known as “Lilly Tellez,” is a Mexican politician who was first elected as a senator in 2018 under the Morena Party. In 2019, Tellez left the Morena Party, and in 2020, she joined the National Action Party (PAN). She became an openly vocal critic of the Mexican government, often claiming with receipts that they are in bed with the cartels.

In June 2022, Breitbart Texas reported that the senator lashed out against the ruling party, saying, “How am I going to face off against the senator from Sinaloa, knowing she has all the support of the Gulf Cartel, and El Chapo’s Cartel?”

Tellez added, “How can we face off against you when you have the full support of the cartels, the mafia, knowing full well that once we get out of here we can be attacked by those criminals who are helping you to operate in the elections –this is having bravery and civic responsibility.”

Tellez stated that the decision to abandon the Morena Party was made when former President Manuel López Obrador, commonly referred to as AMLO, traveled to Badiraguato, Sinaloa, to shake hands with the mother of convicted drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán in 2020. Before becoming a politician, Tellez was well-known as an investigative journalist for TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest mass media company.

As an investigative reporter, Tellez conducted several investigations involving the Arellano-Felix Cartel. She also produced two documentaries denouncing Samuel Del Villar, a government official from Mexico City, as corrupt. On June 22, 2020, her car was shot at eight times by a group of unknown men. She survived the attack without injury. A bullet was discovered to have hit her seat belt buckle and caused the trajectory of the bullet to change course, possibly saving her life. As is often the case in Mexico, no suspects were ever arrested, and the case was closed.

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Gun Owners Group Calls for Inquiry into Firearms Industry’s Secret Sharing of Customer Data

A coalition of firearm owners is pressing federal regulators to investigate whether the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s chief lobbying group, covertly exploited consumer data for political purposes, despite publicly promoting itself as a defender of privacy.

In a formal appeal submitted to three federal agencies, Gun Owners for Safety is demanding accountability over a long-running data-sharing operation first exposed by a ProPublica report.

That investigation revealed that for years, the NSSF quietly received personal details from gun buyers, collected by manufacturers, without informing those individuals that their information would be funneled into a political targeting effort.

The group’s letter, sent to the FBI, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), described the practice as “underhanded” and deceptive.

Malcolm Smith, a longtime gun owner and member of the group, underscored the nonpartisan stakes of the issue. “Gun owners’ privacy is not a partisan or ideological issue,” he wrote. “No matter the industry, exploiting customers’ private data like their underwear size and children’s ages in a secret scheme is reprehensible and cannot be permitted.”

Gun Owners for Safety, backed by the gun violence prevention group Giffords, operates across nine states and is composed of firearm owners who support tighter safeguards around gun ownership, including safety measures and enhanced background checks. The organization was launched in 2019 under the leadership of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a gun violence survivor.

Regulatory responses to the complaint have been minimal so far. The ATF confirmed receipt of the letter but offered no additional comment. The FBI, FTC, and NSSF remained silent when approached by ProPublica for statements.

Though the NSSF is less widely known than the National Rifle Association, its influence spans the firearms business ecosystem, representing manufacturers, shooting ranges, ammunition retailers, and industry publishers.

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The Coup Against Sen. Fetterman Is Officially Underway

Three years ago, the Democratic Party nominated John Fetterman to the Senate, despite his significant health problems. It wasn’t a secret: Fetterman’s brain trauma was on full display during his horrendous debate against Dr. Mehmet Oz, where he stammered, stuttered, and (repeatedly) lost his train of thought.

Fetterman won anyway, beating Oz by nearly 5% points, helping the Democrats flip the only Senate seat of the 2022 midterms, giving the Donkeys control of the Senate for the first time since 2015.

It was an important election — and a Faustian bargain: In order to wrest control of the Senate away from the Republicans, they had to link their future to a brain-damaged man.

Just six weeks after taking office, Fetterman checked himself into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for clinical depression. He was hospitalized for over a month.

No matter: Even though Fetterman is routinely AWOL (he’s missed more votes than any other senator), when he’s there, he votes the way his party elders demand. 

At least, he used to.

But after breaking with the party on issues such as Israel and (gasp!) voting for a few Trump nominees, the liberal base is in a tizzy. They feel betrayed.

And now they’re planning a coup.

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German Secret Police Labels AfD “Confirmed Far Right” as AfD Takes the Lead in the Polls

The German secret political police have designated the most popular German political party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) as “confirmed far-right”, a legally undefined category that will make it hard for civil servants, cops and teachers to keep their jobs and be AfD members. Nevertheless the AfD continues to surge in the polls, now leading the RINO Christian Democrats by 2%, 26% over 24%.

Germany is the only Western country where the domestic intel agency holds press conferences and issues press releases defaming the largest opposition party as “far-right”.

In a presse release dated May 2, 2025, the German secret political police stated that “today, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has classified the “Alternative for Germany” (AfD)  as “confirmed far-right”, due to the extremist nature of the party as a whole and its disregard for human dignity.”

The decision was based on a 1,100 page brief compiled by the secret political police, Der Spiegel magazine reported, which has not been released to the public.

The BfV believes the AfD pursues an “ethnonationalist agenda” which goes against Germany’s “free democratic principles.”

Critics such as US Vice President JD Vance have countered that German censorship and arrests of political critics are a much greater danger to freedom and democracy.

The BfV charged that the AfD “aims to exclude certain segments of the population from equal participation in society, to subject them to unconstitutional, unequal treatment and thus illegally discriminate against them. Specifically, the AfD does not consider German nationals with a migration history from Muslim countries as equal members of a German people, which is defined ethnically.”

The AfD actually has many members from Muslim countries, such as Kurdish women’s activist Leyla Bilge or Albanian-German politician Enxhi Seli-Zacharias. Pakistani YouTuber Feroz Khan or Serb ex-Muslim Irfan Peci are also prominent AfD supporters. Many members of the “Jews in the AfD” are from Muslim ex-Soviet Republics, where life became increasingly difficult for Jews after independence.

What the BfV seems to mean here is that the AfD does not have many Muslim supporters, but even that has begun to change since the AfD is the only party in Germany to oppose gender ideology in schools and transing of kids, which most Muslims also vehemently reject.

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REPORT: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is Privately Telling Democrats to Stop the Trips to El Salvador

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has apparently figured out how bad it looks for members of his party to travel to El Salvador to advocate for illegals who have been deported by the Trump administration. He is quietly telling other Democrats to knock off the trips.

This week it was revealed that four of the Democrats who traveled to El Salvador stayed at a luxury resort. The optics of that could not be worse.

This entire affair has caused millions of Americans to wonder why Democrats would go to such lengths for people who are not even American citizens.

FOX News reports:

Jeffries distances himself from Democrat trips to El Salvador as border security debate splits party: report

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is privately signaling to fellow Democrats that it’s time to hit pause on trips to El Salvador aimed at spotlighting the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a move reflecting growing internal tensions over how the party is handling border security and immigration enforcement optics in the 2026 cycle.

Though Jeffries has publicly said Democrats are committed to securing Abrego Garcia’s return from a notorious Salvadoran prison, sources told The Bulwark that the New York Democrat has discouraged more lawmakers from traveling to the country.

One senior House staffer described the leadership’s position bluntly: “They want to let the El Salvador stuff slow down.”

“This is patently false, and thinly sourced innuendo,” said Jeffries staffer Christie Stephenson. “When Leader Jeffries says ‘more is more’ pushback on this lawless administration, he means it. As Leader Jeffries has repeatedly said, House Democrats will never stop fighting for the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.”

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How Shri Thanedar’s Impeachment Charge Against Trump Sparked an ‘Internal Furor’ Among Dems

Who is running the ship? Who has the conn? Because this latest impeachment push against President Donald Trump is already coming off the hinges. It might have already crashed into a wall—it’s hard to gauge something that has no chance at political life on the Hill. Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) filed several articles of impeachment against the president, which only made headlines because no one knew who this guy was. 

As some noted, he sounded like some Sith Lord from Star Wars. When a no-name congressman decided to take up the mantle of impeachment, you know something was off, and there was because Democrats were fleeing this stunt quickly. For starters, Shri reportedly told some co-sponsors that this was a sanctioned move by leadership. It very much was not. Axios added the push sparked an “internal furor” among Democrats (via The Hill): 

A trio of House Democrats asked to be removed as co-sponsors of a resolution to impeach President Trump, a sign that many in the party do not want to go down the path of trying to remove the president from office — at least at the current moment. 

Reps. Kweisi Mfume (Md.), Robin Kelly (Ill.) and Jerry Nadler (N.Y.) had signed on as co-sponsors of Rep. Shri Thanedar’s (D-Mich.) impeachment resolution — which includes seven articles of impeachment — but Tuesday afternoon, they went to the House floor and asked for their names to be taken off the legislation. The House clerk granted their request. 

Spokespeople for Kelly and Mfume said the lawmakers initially signed on to the effort because they assumed it had been reviewed by leadership. When they learned it was not, they asked for their names to be removed. 

“Congressman Mfume removed himself as a cosponsor from H. Res. 353 because he was made aware it was not cleared by Democratic leadership and not fully vetted legally — and he preferred to err on the side of caution,” the spokesperson for Mfume said. 

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Free Speech Under Direct Attack in Texas: House Passes RINO Dade Phelan’s Orwellian Bill to CRIMINALIZE Political Memes Without a Government-Approved Disclaimer

The Republican-led Texas House has officially caved to the radical Left’s war on free speech—and shockingly, it’s being spearheaded by none other than the state’s own scandal-plagued former House Speaker Dade Phelan.

On Tuesday, House Bill 366 passed with bipartisan support, making it a potential crime in the state of Texas to share or distribute AI-generated and “altered media”—including political memes—without a government-approved disclaimer on political ads.

According to the bill:

“A person may not, with the intent to influence an election, knowingly cause to be published, distributed, or broadcast political advertising that includes an image, audio recording, or video recording of an officeholder’s or candidate’s appearance, speech, or conduct that did not occur in reality, including an image, audio recording, or video recording that has been altered using generative artificial intelligence technology, unless the political advertising includes a disclosure from the person or another person on whose behalf the political advertising is published, distributed, or broadcast indicating that the image, audio recording, or video recording did not occur in reality.”

Let that sink in: Texas Republicans — yes, Republicans — are now trying to police memes.

The bill makes it a Class A misdemeanor for candidates, officeholders, or political committees to knowingly distribute political ads that use manipulated images, audio, or video—especially if created with generative AI—without an explicit disclosure that the content did not occur in reality. The law applies to any group spending over $100 on such materials and seeks to curb misleading media that could influence elections.

Under the bill, the Texas Ethics Commission will define the specific formatting for these required disclosures. However, media platforms and service providers like internet hosts, broadcasters, and billboard owners are exempt from liability.

If signed into law, the legislation will take effect on September 1, 2025.

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“The masters of the universe are Jews,” former US Senator declares in Israel

Ex-GOP Senator and Republican Jewish Coalition chair Norm Coleman proclaimed with a straight face that Jews control the world during a Jerusalem conference featuring a speech by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Former US Senator Norm Coleman has raised eyebrows by declaring that “the masters of the universe are Jews” at a major Zionist lobby event in Jerusalem. In an address to a summit hosted by the Adelson-funded Jewish News Syndicate on April 27, Coleman pointed to various major technology firms founded by Jews, suggesting the shared religion of the companies’ creators should translate into a greater zeal for censoring criticism of Israel.

“And when you think about it, the Masters of the Universe are Jews! We’ve got Altman at OpenAI, we’ve got [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg, we’ve got [Google founder] Sergey Brin, we’ve got a group across the board. Jan Koum, y’know, founded WhatsApp. It’s us.”

The remarks came as Coleman lamented that pro-Israel propagandists are “losing the digital war” in battle for the hearts and minds of younger generations, and called for more stringent censorship of pro-Palestinian speech.

“A majority or Gen Z have an unfavorable impression of Israel. And, my friends, I think the reason for that is that we’re losing the digital war. They’re getting their information from TikTok, and… and we’re losing that war.”

As numerous polls show young Americans are increasingly skeptical of Israel – with a recent survey showing 71% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans under age 49 now hold an unfavorable view of Israel – establishment politicians have consistently blamed TikTok’s algorithm for the decline in enthusiasm for genocide. In February, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, Mark Warner, revealed that the bill forcing China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok was motivated by the visibility of pro-Palestine content on the app.

For Coleman, though, it appears this wasn’t enough. “We have to figure out a way to win the digital battle,” he told summit attendees. “We’ve got to get our digital sneakers on, so that the truth can prevail over the lies. And when we do that, the future of Israel will be stronger because a majority of all Americans will support Israel. We’ll make that happen, we have to make it happen. Thank you, Baruch hashem.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took the stage directly after Coleman’s speech, highlighting Tel Aviv’s interest in the event, which was billed as the “Inaugural JNS Policy Summit to address Israel’s pressing strategic issues.”

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Kamala Harris mocked for ‘big return’ to the political stage with $25 per stream price tag

Former Vice President Kamala Harris wants to propel herself back into the national political conversation, as former aides are teasing an upcoming major speech criticizing President Donald Trump.

The failed presidential candidate will deliver the keynote speech at the Emerge 20th anniversary gala at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET.

The speech will be live-streamed, according to the organizer Emerge, a Democratic group that recruits and trains women to run for public office. 

It’s a major fundraiser as tickets cost up to $50,000 for a sponsor. But the group is also charging $25 per virtual watch. 

Harris is expected to deliver a ‘call to action,’ urging activists and future candidates for political office to have the courage to make their voices heard about Trump’s actions as president according to CNN.

‘She will reflect on the enduring promise of America and issue a call to action in the face of reckless economic policies and the urgent and escalating crisis facing America’s institutions and global leadership,’ a person with knowledge of Harris’ speech to the Los Angeles Times.

The group was founded after Harris won her race for San Francisco district attorney as her advisors believed there was a lack of resources to recruit women for political office.

‘Vice President Harris is the original Emerge woman,’ said A’shanti F. Gholar, president and CEO of Emerge, in a statement. ‘She continues to be a champion for Emerge and an advocate for elevating women in elected office.’

News of Harris’ return to the national stage drew mockery from critics.

‘When you fire a head coach the last person you want to hear from is a fired head coach,’ wrote Mike Lester on X.

‘Can’t wait to hear more about the duality of Democracy in this moment,’ wrote Steve Mur on X, mocking some of her empty messaging lines from the presidential campaign. 

‘Oh, this should be really good! Good in terms of comedy. Her speech writers are busy right now putting cackles and word salad together and some gibberish about her being middle class and Trump being a dictator,’ wrote Tom Johnson on X.

‘Everyone already knows she will fail at the speech given she slurs, makes up stories and gets lost in the middle of the stories,’ wrote X user Bret Weingart

Harris return to the public stage raises questions about the next step of her political career as she weighs whether or not she wants to run for Governor of California in 2026.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is term limited from running again and is already eying the 2028 presidential race.

Democrats are also watching Harris to see if she wants to run again for president in 2028, as she feels she did not have enough time to be fully competitive in her failed 2024 campaign.

Harris remains noncommittal about her political future, as she is taking her time to rest and reconsider her political future.

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