Yoon Suk Yeol, the former president of South Korea, was found guilty of insurrection and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday. A court found him guilty of “abuse of authority and masterminding the insurrection” after declaring martial law in December 2024, Fox News noted. The ruling was lighter than the death penalty sought by prosecutors. JUST IN – South Korea's former President Yoon Suk Yeol found guilty of leading an insurrection and sentenced to life imprisonment for declaring martial law in 2024 — NYT pic.twitter.com/Wkrcfngfei — Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 19, 2026 Fox News shared further: Yoon, 65, denied the charges and argued that he had presidential authority to declare martial law and that his action was aimed at sounding the alarm over opposition parties’ obstruction of government. Prosecutors said in January that Yoon’s “unconstitutional and illegal emergency martial law undermined the function of the National Assembly and the Election Commission… actually destroying the liberal democratic constitutional order.” Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law lasted roughly six hours, sparking mass street protests before parliament quickly voted it down. Under South Korean law, masterminding an insurrection carries a maximum sentence of death or life imprisonment. According to the Associated Press, the court also “convicted and sentenced five former military and police officials involved in enforcing Yoon’s martial law decree.” The court found Yoon abused his authority by ordering military officials to arrest several key politicians, including Lee Jae Myung, the liberal opposition leader at the time who is now the country’s president. He will likely appeal the verdict. South Korean court sentences ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol to life in prison after finding him guilty of leading an insurrection with his martial law declaration. After Yoon declared martial law in December 2024, the hardline conservative was impeached, arrested and charged with a… pic.twitter.com/cbxzYyHGwA — AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 19, 2026 More from the Associated Press: As Yoon arrived in court, hundreds of police officers watched closely as Yoon supporters rallied outside a judicial complex, their cries rising as the prison bus transporting him drove past. Yoon’s critics gathered nearby, demanding the death penalty. There were no immediate reports of major clashes following the verdict. A special prosecutor had demanded the death penalty for Yoon Suk Yeol, saying his actions posed a threat to the country’s democracy and deserved the most serious punishment available, but most analysts had expected a life sentence since the poorly-planned power grab did not result in casualties. South Korea has not executed a death row inmate since 1997, in what is widely seen as a de facto moratorium on capital punishment amid calls for its abolition. Jung Chung-rae, leader of the liberal Democratic Party, which led the push to impeach and remove Yoon, expressed regret that the court stopped short of the death penalty, saying the ruling reflected a “lack of a sense of justice.” Song Eon-seok, floor leader of the conservative People Power Party, to which Yoon once belonged, issued a public apology, saying the party feels a “deep sense of responsibility” for the disruption to the nation.

Democratic Socialist, aka Communist, Zohran Mamdani has begun to destroy New York City. His budget is ridiculous, something Gov. DeSantis pointed out. Instead of cutting the budget, Zohran is going to collapse the city financially. One must wonder if that is the goal. Can anyone be this much of an economic illiterate? Mamdani isn’t going […] The post From Capitalism to Communism: Here’s How It’s Going in NYC So Far appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

WASHINGTON—If you live in the nation’s capital, you’ve probably heard that there’s sewage in the Potomac River. The issue began in mid-January, when a roughly 60-year-old sewer pipe in Maryland broke, resulting in sewage flowing into the river within the first five days, with additional spills happening this month. So far, roughly 250 million gallons of the sewage has made its way into the river. The spill has since become the subject of regional and national concern, largely because E. coli levels in the water are higher. The D.C. government says that it is “likely due to a recent rain event” rather than the spill, but still advises that people do not fish or otherwise have “unnecessary contact” with the river. But there’s some good news for Washingtonians: the tap water is still fine. “There is currently no impact to drinking water, and so I think as much as we can say that is extremely important to reassure folks. The federal government right now is doing a couple things,” EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Water Jess Kramer told The Daily Wire in a Thursday interview. “One is helping to ensure coordination across all the entities involved: the federal partners, the states, as well as the local governments.” President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Tuesday, asking for the governments of Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. to quickly step in, writing, “if they can’t do the job, they have to call me and ask, politely, to get it fixed.” “The Federal Government is not at all involved with what has taken place, but we can fix it. But remember, even in that case, with the Democrat Shutdown, we’ll have to bring in true Patriots to do the work because many are not working right now. These Democrat caused Disasters, both River and Shutdown, will only get worse,” Trump added, calling it a “Radical Left caused Environmental Hazard.” The incident has led to more tensions between the president and Maryland Governor Wes Moore (D), who posted a map on X on Wednesday that highlighted what is and is not considered federal jurisdiction. “Heard you weren’t sure about what is federal vs. local jurisdiction, Mr. President. So we wanted to make it easier for you. Many thanks to [the National Park Service] for this great map of federal land!” Moore wrote. Kramer said that she’s “never seen a governor so adamant to not take actions to protect the health of its citizens.” “The federal piece of this, I think that he’s pointing to when he’s talking about federal lands, is that is the National Park Service piece of it. But again, like I just discussed, that second bucket of remediation, that is really going to be led by National Park Service to ensure that the property is cleaned up to the levels and the specificity that’s necessary for the National Park Service,” she explained. “And so there is definitely a federal component here, but the break happened within the jurisdiction of Maryland. And so when we talk about cooperative federalism under the Clean Water Act, we really look at the state as the primary enforcement agency. And we, as EPA, the federal government, we have […] oversight authority that lays on top of that. And so we will step in if we need to,” she continued. She added that the “federal government is actively working to fulfill requests for assistance that we have gotten over the last 24 hours, from the various state government and local government partners. And those are things that we are providing to help ensure the protection of public health as well as helping to provide resources, to ensure the expedient cleanup and remediation of this site.” Earlier on Thursday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser declared a State of Emergency in hopes of getting federal help for the situation, including “100% reimbursement for costs incurred.” Kramer explained that the goals for remediation fall into three main categories: getting the sewage returned to the Potomac Interceptor, which diverts sewage to a water treatment center, from the canal in the next four to six weeks; having the land cleaned up after the “sanitary sewage” is back in the interceptor; and doing “necessary inspections and operations and maintenance” on the interceptor quickly to make sure there is not a repeat of the issue. FEMA is also playing a key role in the clean-up efforts, despite the current lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security, as Congress and the White House have yet to reach a deal regarding federal immigration enforcement tactics. “Democrats in Congress have shut down [FEMA] funding—leaving our hard working employees to work without pay—yet FEMA is now stepping in to coordinate cleanup of one of the largest raw sewage spills in U.S. history,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posted to X on Monday. “Thanks to gross mismanagement by Maryland’s Democrat leaders, hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage has reportedly been dumped into the Potomac River—flowing straight through our nation’s capital and endangering millions of people, wildlife, and the entire DC region’s water supply. Democrats are withholding paychecks from the men and women of [DHS] while they clean up this Democrat-created disaster. Unbelievable hypocrisy,” Noem added. When The Daily Wire reached out to Moore’s office for comment, they referred to the governor’s Wednesday remarks on the issue, where he said that the EPA did not attend a Maryland General Assembly hearing on the “cleanup status” and that “to blame Maryland in this when this is a DC pipe on federal land is asinine. It is disingenuous, absurd, and politically motivated.”

The Biden administration waved in an illegal immigrant and shielded him from deportation before he allegedly attempted to kill a woman by drowning her at a Florida beach, The Daily Wire has exclusively learned. Venezuelan illegal immigrant Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez, 26, allegedly preyed upon the woman, who was walking as she talked on the phone with her sister on Tiger Shores Beach in Stuart at about 11 p.m. Thursday, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said during a Monday press conference. The Biden administration paroled Hernandez Gonzalez into the United States in 2023 before granting him temporary protected status, preventing federal authorities from deporting him, the Department of Homeland Security told The Daily Wire Thursday. “Said Alexander Hernandez Gonzalez — a product of the Biden administration’s open-border policies brutally attacked a woman on the beach and attempted to drown and kill her,” Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. “She bravely fought back and survived this wicked attack. ICE has lodged an immigration detainer with the Martin County Sheriff’s office, and because of Florida’s cooperation with ICE, this sicko will never walk American streets again. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.,” she added. Credit: Martin County Sheriff’s Office Hernandez Gonzalez allegedly grabbed the woman by the throat as he pushed her into the ocean and tried to drown her during a 3-5 minute struggle before the woman lost consciousness, according to the sheriff. “During that struggle, she punched him, she grabbed his groin area trying to get him to release her,” Budensiek said. “He said he just held her down until she went limp,” he added. The Venezuelan national then fled the scene, believing that he murdered her, according to the sheriff. She miraculously later awoke on the beach and located an officer nearby to report the attack. Sheriff’s deputies searched the area for two days with no success. But on Sunday night, a woman called the Port St. Lucie police department to report that her boyfriend was “suicidal,” Budensiek said. When police responded to the report, they encountered Hernandez Gonzalez, who claimed that he murdered a woman on a nearby beach. Detectives with the Martin County sheriff’s office interviewed Hernandez Gonzalez, determining that he was the suspect in the drowning attack, according to Budensiek. Hernandez Gonzalez told authorities he was at the beach, where he had been smoking marijuana and drinking “some vodka,” when he encountered the woman and began attacking her, the sheriff said. He allegedly told investigators that “she made him angry, so he attacked her and drowned her” and that he only “stopped when he believed she was dead.” Before he fled the scene, Hernandez Gonzalez “grabbed her cell phone and threw it into the ocean,” according to the sheriff’s office. He then returned to his car, where he consumed more marijuana and vodka before leaving the area, authorities said. “When asked if he was remorseful, Hernandez Gonzalez stated he felt nothing,” the sheriff’s office said. Hernandez Gonzalez is charged with attempted murder.

Mayor Eileen Wang of Arcadia, California, declined to comment on her former fiancé’s conviction at the first City Council meeting since his sentencing, despite previously acknowledging their relationship. Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, was sentenced on February 10 to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to acting as an illegal agent of the People’s Republic of China without notifying the U.S. attorney general, as required by law. His guilty plea was entered and sentence imposed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Prosecutors alleged that from at least 2022, when Wang said she became a Democrat, to January 2024, Sun “knowingly acted within the United States as an agent of the PRC and officials of its government — without notifying the Attorney General,” a violation of federal law designed to expose foreign influence operations.  Sun worked as the campaign advisor to a candidate identified in court filings as “Individual 1,” who was elected to a Southern California city council seat in November 2022. While the individual was not named in court papers, Sun was listed as a campaign treasurer for Wang, then an Arcadia City Council candidate, on a 2022 campaign statement filing. During a December 2022 Arcadia City Council meeting, Wang publicly praised Sun while referring to him as her fiancé. “To my fiancé, Mike Sun, who walked streets with me every single day, who is a real leader of me,” she said at the time.  After Sun was indicted and charged, Wang sought to distance herself from that earlier characterization. In September 2025, she said, “No. 1, he’s not my fiancé. Whoever wants to say he’s my former fiancé, please prove it.”  Sun’s conviction stems from what prosecutors describe as extensive covert activity on behalf of the Chinese government, including the dissemination of pro-Beijing propaganda and surveillance of individuals and groups that China viewed as adversarial. According to federal prosecutors, his duties included efforts to counter pro-Taiwan independence advocacy and influence public opinion through a purported local news site.  According to the Department of Justice, Sun “closely surveilled the then-President of Taiwan during her April 2023 visit to Southern California, reporting directly to PRC officials on her movements.”  Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg condemned Sun’s activities, saying he “received and executed taskings from Chinese government officials, distorted our public discourse by disseminating Chinese propaganda, and surveilled groups in the United States that China viewed as threatening its interests as part of a campaign of intimidation.”  Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division also released a statement at the time of sentencing: “When Americans vote for elected officials, they expect them to represent the interests of their constituents — not those of a foreign adversary like the Chinese government,” he said. “By exploiting his position as a campaign advisor, Yaoning Sun attempted to undermine our political processes and democratic institutions for the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party.”  At the council meeting following Sun’s sentencing, Wang declined to address questions about his conviction or their prior relationship. Wang has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the case, and prosecutors have not charged her with any offense. However, her prior public references to Sun — and subsequent denials of that relationship — have drawn scrutiny in local and national media coverage.  Federal prosecutions of unregistered foreign agents are part of broader U.S. counterintelligence efforts to stem covert influence operations on domestic political processes. Criminal filings in this case made clear that individuals acting at the direction of foreign governments are required by law to register with the U.S. Attorney General, a requirement Sun failed to meet.   

President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has rebounded to levels slightly exceeding his 2024 election performance, according to a new national survey released this week. An InsiderAdvantage poll of 800 likely voters conducted on Wednesday found Trump’s approval rating at 50 percent, with 46 percent disapproving and 4 percent undecided. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points. The findings place Trump’s approval essentially in line with, or marginally above, his national popular vote showing in the November 2024 election against Kamala Harris, a benchmark closely watched by both parties as the administration enters its second year. InsiderAdvantage pollster Matt Towery said the numbers reflect a recovery from a softer patch earlier in the year. “After a period of weakness in his approval ratings, President Trump has come back to the 50% level, near to or exceeding his margin of victory against Kamala Harris in 2024,” Towery said in a statement accompanying the poll release. Towery attributed the uptick to a combination of immigration enforcement and economic sentiment, arguing that recent developments have cut against expectations of political fallout. “Basically it is a combination of ICE raids becoming orderly and strategic and obvious evidence that the economy is actually turning to the positive,” he said. “While the last government shutdown appeared to hurt Trump’s ratings, this one appears to be actually helping his numbers.” Towery also pointed to methodological divides in the polling industry, noting that firms with stronger historical performance measuring Trump’s support are showing similar trends. “There are clearly two camps of pollsters who utilize different methods of data collection and weighting,” he said. “But I would note that those firms who most accurately polled President Trump’s three elections use similar methodologies.” Other polling firms have reported a comparable rise. Rasmussen Reports, which has frequently shown Trump outperforming consensus averages, has also recorded an upward trend in the president’s approval in recent weeks. The White House welcomed the numbers, framing them as validation of the administration’s economic and domestic agenda. “President Trump is fighting hard every single day to make life affordable for working people — from delivering the largest middle-class working tax cuts in history, directing executive actions that made housing affordability hit a four-year high, and unleashing American energy dominance to bring the national average for a gallon of gas below $3,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, told The Daily Wire. “There is more to do, but President Trump is successfully delivering on his promise to Make America Affordable Again.” Despite the improvement, the poll shows a return to a familiar political reality: a deeply polarized electorate. As Towery put it, “Basically the country is where it is when Trump was elected — highly polarized, but at the moment, more supportive of Trump than not.”

Even liberal outlets like CNN appear to be struggling to accept some of the wild claims made by Governor Wes Moore (D-MD), widely considered a potential 2028 Democratic presidential contender even as he has denied plans to run. CNN anchor Kasie Hunt put Moore on the spot during a recent interview, citing a recent report from The Washington Free Beacon that questioned the veracity of some of his claims — in particular, his assertion that his great-grandfather had been “exiled” to Jamaica by the Ku Klux Klan. WATCH: CNN’s Kasie Hunt pressed Maryland Gov. Wes Moore yesterday on my @FreeBeacon reporting showing that his great-grandfather was not “exiled” to Jamaica by the Ku Klux Klan as he often claims. Hunt asked Moore if the records I found are wrong. Moore ignored the question. pic.twitter.com/1HNUQixpFY — Andrew Kerr (@AndrewKerrNC) February 19, 2026 “You say you are who you are,” Hunt began, adding, “The Free Beacon recently wrote about a story that you often tell about your great-grandfather and your family, and how and why they left the United States. They say that the story is — they report — they look at church records, they say the story is not true, that the Ku Klux Klan did not force your family to leave, your family left voluntarily.” “Now, you of course have said — and your spokesperson said — ‘Anyone who wants to question whether terror and intimidation were pervasive in that era should open a history book. Reach out to the KKK and ask what they were up to in South Carolina in the 1920s,”” Hunt continued, repeating Moore’s vague statement on the matter. “Fair enough. I think my question to you is, is there any truth to what The Free Beacon has written here?” Instead of addressing the point head-on, Moore chose to smear the outlet: “There is no truth to what a right-wing blog writes about me. No. There is not. Because I know my family’s history.” Moore then doubled down on his claim, saying that his grandfather had only been a toddler when the family, living in South Carolina at the time, had been “run out by the Ku Klux Klan.” Moore went on to speak about how his family had then returned to the United States years later — and once again suggested that anyone who questioned his version of events should ask the KKK for confirmation.  But Hunt did not appear entirely convinced. “And those church records that show that one of your family members left voluntarily to take over for someone who had passed away, those records are wrong?” she asked. “They should really ask the Ku Klux Klan about what their activities were during the 1920s,” he said again. The story Moore so often repeats is that his maternal great-grandfather, Rev. Josiah Johnson Thomas, had been preaching sermons against racism in their hometown of Pineville, South Carolina, and had thus angered the local KKK. In an effort to avoid a certain lynching, Thomas escaped with his family in secret to Jamaica. His young son, Moore’s maternal grandfather, vowed the family would return one day — and they did. But the records cited by reporter Andrew Kerr at The Free Beacon showed that Thomas had publicly accepted a transfer to a church in Jamaica — where he himself hailed from — when the pastor there had passed away unexpectedly. In addition, neither church records nor local reporting at the time mentions any conflicts between Thomas and members of the KKK, and Virginia Commonwealth University’s map showing the reach of the Ku Klux Klan at that time does not indicate there was ever a chapter operating in Pineville.

I’ve been fortunate to build a career as a working musician in the music industry for more than thirty years now. Over the course of my career, I’ve experienced the music business from the inside on every level. I’ve written, produced, and performed chart-topping songs not only for myself, but many other platinum artists. What I’ve seen is simple: the system isn’t working the way it should for the people who actually perform the music. Because of a loophole in the law, terrestrial radio has managed to avoid paying artists for the use of their music for more than a century. Today, American performers are being asked to give their work away under outdated rules, while everyone else in the chain gets paid. That imbalance doesn’t just hurt artists — it devalues the very creativity that sustains our culture. When music plays on the radio, songwriters and publishers are paid, but performers receive absolutely nothing. Meanwhile, Big Radio corporations like iHeart, Cumulus, and others pull in nearly $14 billion each year, selling advertising wrapped around the performer’s talent and work. They’ve built their entire business on the backs of American artists, yet still tell us we should be grateful for the “exposure” that comes from being played on the radio. “Shut up and be happy that we’re playing your music! You have no right to the income stream.” This is their mantra. Don’t get me wrong: radio has played an important role in my career as a country artist, and I appreciate the foundational place it holds in American music. There’s no better feeling than hearing your song on the radio for the first time. But gratitude for the radio’s role doesn’t mean we should accept a system that only lets one side of the table participate in the success. As of today, the United States is the only major democracy that does not pay artists when their music is played on terrestrial radio — putting us in league with countries like Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. So would it be fair to say we have a “Communist business model when it comes to terrestrial radio in America?” This question answers itself. What’s more, many nations that do pay artists are now withholding hundreds of millions of dollars owed to American performers because our own system refuses to recognize their rights. Money that should be coming home to American artists is instead being held overseas. To me, this issue is just common sense: If you use the music and leverage it to make money for your company, you should pay the artist. That’s how things work in this country. If you work hard, your work deserves to be honored with fair pay. That’s a core American value — AM/FM radio knows this, but they have the benefit of antiquated rules allowing them to take a free ride.  So they do. They’ve protected that free ride for decades with armies of lobbyists and political contributions designed to keep the system just the way it has always been. But now, we have a President who understands this fight. President Trump knows the entertainment business because he’s worked in it, and he has been a true friend to American artists. In 2018, he signed the Music Modernization Act to improve compensation and copyright laws for the digital era. Now, he’s supporting the next step: a bill that will finally ensure artists are paid fairly when their music is played on terrestrial radio. The American Music Fairness Act, introduced by Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in the Senate and Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) in the House, would require AM/FM radio corporations to start paying performers, just as digital radio already does. Royalties would go directly to artists. What about the mom and pop stations? Well, small, independent broadcasters would pay only a few hundred dollars a year for unlimited access to music, and Big Radio would finally pay its fair share. It’s no surprise this bill is already supported by conservative policy groups, more than 300 major recording artists, and community broadcasters alike. In December, Gene Simmons of Kiss testified before the Senate on behalf of the American Music Fairness Act, telling lawmakers, “If you are against this bill, you are un-American.” I believe he’s right. All of us deserve an America where hard work still matters, and fair pay still means something. Passing the American Music Fairness Act would send that message clearly. It would tell the world that we stand with artists — not with the Big Radio companies that continue to profit by exploiting them. It’s time for Congress to take action and finally right this ship. No more delays. Send the American Music Fairness Act to President Trump’s desk and deliver a victory for every American who believes that hard work and fair pay go hand in hand. * * * John Rich is an American country music songwriter, artist, and producer, best known as one half of the duo Big & Rich. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.