US President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and dozens of other allies who stood accused of trying to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

He also pardoned his former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in a proclamation that vowed to “end a grave national injustice”.

Others who benefited from the clemency were a number of so-called false electors, who were accused of trying to hijack the process to certify Joe Biden, a Democrat, as the winner of the election five years ago.

Trump’s move is largely symbolic, however, since pardons only apply to federal crimes and all of the recipients were charged by state-level prosecutors only.

Ed Martin, a justice department attorney, posted the “full, complete and unconditional” pardons on X.

The pardons, said the text of the proclamation, would continue “the process of national reconciliation”.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to the BBC: “Getting prosecuted for challenging results is something that happens in communist Venezuela, not the United States of America, and President Trump is putting an end to the Biden Regime’s communist tactics once and for all.”

This round of clemency does not apply to Trump himself – who denies any wrongdoing – though the president has long maintained he has the power to pardon himself. But any such proclamation by him would face legal challenges.

Giuliani declared bankruptcy two years ago after being found liable for $148m (£112m) for spreading falsehoods about Georgia election workers. He was disbarred as a lawyer in Washington DC and New York.

Source: BBC

President Donald Trump is changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, the White House announced Thursday, insisting the rebrand will project a more powerful image.

While the department’s official name is set in law, Trump in an executive order is authorizing use of the new label as a “secondary title” by his administration, a White House document said.

Defense officials are permitted to use to use “secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’…in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” according to the document.

It was not immediately clear when Trump planned to sign the order, but his public schedule for Friday said he would be signing executive orders in the afternoon as well as making an announcement in the Oval Office.

The president, a marketing-savvy real estate developer, has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he was mulling such a change.

Late last month, the 79-year-old Republican claimed the Defense Department’s title was too “defensive.”

The Department of War “was the name when we won World War I, we won World War II, we won everything,” he told reporters on August 25.

According to the White House document, the name change “conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve.”

Established in the early days of US independence, the Department of War historically oversaw American land forces.

A government reorganization after World War II brought it along with the US Navy and Air Force under the unified National Military Establishment, which in 1949 was retitled to the Department of Defense.

“Restoring the name ‘Department of War’ will sharpen the focus of this Department on our national interest and signal to adversaries America’s readiness to wage war to secure its interests,” the White House document said.

The move is the latest overhaul at the Pentagon since Trump took office in January and appointed former Fox News host Pete Hegseth to lead the sprawling department.

Hegseth, a combat veteran, has repeatedly touted the push to restore a “warrior ethos” in the department, and has lambasted prior administrations for policies he and Trump have derided as “woke.”

Hegseth notably has sought to expel transgender troops from the military and change the names of bases that honored Confederate troops back to their original titles, after they were renamed under former president Joe Biden.

While Trump’s order could potentially be rescinded by a future president, it “instructs the Secretary of War to recommend actions, to include legislative and executive actions, required to permanently rename” the department, the White House document said.

Source: AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has arrived in the Chinese capital Beijing along with his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, images appear to show.

Kim is in China to attend a “Victory Day” parade on Wednesday, which will see him rub shoulders with China’s President Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and other world leaders – making it his first multilateral meeting.

Kim crossed into China on Tuesday onboard his armoured train, which is said to include a restaurant serving fine French wines and dishes like fresh lobster.

Photos showed him stepping off his train at Beijing Railway Station accompanied by his daughter. South Korea’s spy agency has previously said she was Kim’s “most likely” successor.

Source: BBC

President Donald Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending US troops to back up any Ukraine peace deal but suggested air support instead, as European nations began hashing out security guarantees ahead of a potential Russia summit.

In a flurry of diplomacy aimed at ending the war, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders to the White House on Monday, three days after his landmark encounter with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

But while Trump said Putin had agreed to meet Zelensky and accept some Western security guarantees for Ukraine, those promises have been met with extreme caution by Kyiv and Western capitals, and many details remain vague.

Putin proposed holding the summit with Zelensky in Moscow, three sources familiar with Trump call told AFP. One source said Zelensky immediately said “no” to meeting in the capital of his country’s invader.

Source: France 24

The Kremlin has played down Donald Trump’s orders to move two nuclear submarines closer to Russia, saying Moscow did not want to be involved in polemics.

In the first official reaction since the US president’s comments last Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said American submarines were on combat duty anyway and dismissed the idea that there had been an escalation.

“Very complex, very sensitive issues are being discussed, which, of course, many perceive very emotionally,” Peskov said – though he added that everyone should be “very cautious” with nuclear rhetoric.

US envoy Steve Witkoff is due to visit Russia on Wednesday, according to Russian media.

Last week President Trump ordered two nuclear submarines to “be positioned in the appropriate regions” in response to what he called “highly provocative” comments by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Trump did not say whether they were nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed submarines.

Medvedev – who in recent years has espoused increasingly extreme rhetoric online – had accused Trump of “playing the ultimatum game” with Russia after the US president set a new deadline for Vladimir Putin to end the war with Ukraine.

Without referencing the Medvedev spat directly, Peskov said on Monday that while “in every country members of the leadership… have different points of view”, Russian foreign policy was dictated by Putin alone.

Medvedev did not react to Trump’s response and has not been active on X since sending the offending post.

Relations between the US and Russia improved significantly after Trump took office in January – although in recent months the US president has signalled he suspects Putin may not be truly committed to ending the war in Ukraine, which began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Now Trump has brought forward a deadline for Russia to reach a peace deal, threatening Moscow with severe tariffs targeting its oil and other exports if a ceasefire is not agreed by Friday 8 August.

Still, Washington and Moscow remain in contact and Peskov welcomed Witkoff’s trip later this week.

Source: BBC

South Korea’s former president has been rearrested over last year’s failed martial law bid that plunged the country into political turmoil.

Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached in April over the order, which saw military rule introduced for six-hours in December.

A senior judge at Seoul’s Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Yoon on Wednesday, citing fears he could destroy evidence.

Yoon, who was the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested, faces trial on charges of leading an insurrection over his attempt to impose martial law.

During Wednesday’s seven-hour hearing, a special counsel team argued for the arrest warrant on five key charges, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The charges include Yoon’s alleged violation of the rights of cabinet members by not inviting some of them to a meeting before he declared martial law.

Yoon initially attended the hearing alongside his lawyers to deny the charges, before being taken to Seoul Detention Center to await a decision on an arrest warrant.

He was first arrested in January following a lengthy stand-off, with investigators scaling barricades and cutting through barbed wire to take him into custody from his residence in central Seoul.

Yoon was released two months later after a court overturned his arrest on technical grounds, but still faces trial.

If found guilty, he could face life in prison or the death penalty.

Prosecutors have reportedly found evidence that Yoon ordered military drones to be flown over North Korea to provoke a reaction that would justify his martial law declaration, according to reports.

Other senior officials also face charges including insurrection and abuse of authority over the martial law declaration.

Insurrection is one of a small number of criminal charges from which South Korean presidents do not have immunity, but now Yoon is no longer president he is open to other criminal charges.

South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, was elected in June following a snap election after Yoon’s impeachment.

Lee campaigned on the promise to strengthen the country’s democracy following the crisis and appointed a special counsel team to investigate Yoon over the imposition of martial-law, as well as other criminal allegations surrounding his administration.

Source: BBC