The US government restarted regular deportation flights to Venezuela last month.

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY Pacific island leaders will meet South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol in Seoul on

The Rock says his team will contact the Grevin Museum after the Internet mercilessly mocked the waxwork model of the actor

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Former attorney Corey Fleming was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that he conspired with his longtime friend Alex Murdaugh to steal millions of dollars from trusting clients. Fleming previously pleaded guilty to the financial fraud charges that stem from Murdaugh’s alleged scheme to steal money from the estate of his dead housekeeper Gloria Satterfield. Satterfield died in a fall on the Murdaugh property in 2018. He was also involved in stealing money from the family of Hakeem Pinckney – a man whose family Murdaugh represented after he was killed in a car crash in 2009. While Fleming knew Murdaugh was asking him to do wrong, he previously said he didn’t realise the depth of his old friend’s depravity. The sentencing was handed down on the same day Fleming’s longtime friend Murdaugh appeared in court for his own hearing on financial fraud charges for the first time since he was sentenced to life in prison in the murders of of his wife Maggie and son Paul. Judge Clifton Newman set a trial date for 27 November. On 15 August, Fleming pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges and was sentenced to nearly four years (46 months) in federal prison. He is housed at the Charleston County jail awaiting a prison assignment. On 23 August, he pleaded guilty to all state charges. Judge Newman scheduled Fleming’s sentencing for today in Beaufort so that the court could hear from friends and family members, as well as victims. At the hearing on Thursday, prosecutor Creighton Waters urged the judge to not be fooled by Fleming’s claims that he was “recruited” by Murdaugh into stealing from the families of Satterfield and Pinckney. Mr Waters argued that Fleming, who was an attorney at the time, was hired to represent the families but then “behind the scenes colluded with the defendant”. “What Mr Fleming wants the court to believe is… that he was tricked and fooled by Mr Murdaugh like everyone else,” Mr Waters said. The prosecutor then pointed to the fake Forge scheme in which Murdaugh allegedly set up a firm called Forge - a fake company with the name of a real one, which was used to siphon off money from clients. Murduagh and Fleming are accused of securing payouts from insurance companies in Satterfield’s case and then sending nearly $4m in stolen money to the fake company. “It was a shakedown, plain and simple,” Mr Waters said of Fleming and Murdaugh’s treatment of the Satterfield family. At the hearing on Thursday, several people addressed the court on behalf of the victims. Tony Satterfield, the son of Gloria Satterfield, told the court, “I still forgive Mr Fleming.” Satterfield’s sister also addressed the court and said that the family forgives Fleming. “Gloria did not die in vain as her case brought out other corruption and dishonest misdeeds being done to others,” she said, adding that it brought corruption “to light”. Attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Satterfield family, spoke at the hearing and said the law profession is “stained” by Fleming’s crimes. Fleming surrendered his license to practice law in both Georgia and South Carolina, saying he dishonored the profession. “The profession we love has been stained,” he said. “Mr Fleming knew exactly what he was doing. He is a plaintiff lawyer... it is impossible.” He said the debacle involving Murdaugh, Fleming and Laffitte, has “stained our state.” Mr Bland said the judge and court will hear how Fleming is a good guy, but that “good guys can still do criminal things.” “I’ve been suing other lawyers for 30 years. Never seen a case where the lawyers took every single dollar. But that’s what Fleming and Murdaugh did. Every single dollar.” Mr Bland also went over several examples of violations and irregularities in how Fleming handled and filed the Satterfield case to show the depth of the conspiracy and the criminal behaviour. He says Fleming and Murdaugh sat on the $4.3m settlements knowing that Gloria Satterfield’s son Brian, a vulnerable adult, was being put out on the street because his mom’s trailer was being foreclosed on. Mr Bland called it “blatant thievery”. Fleming is the second Murdaugh associate ordered to prison since investigators began scrutinising every aspect of Murdaugh’s life in June 2021 after his wife and son were shot to death at their South Carolina home. Russell Laffitte, who was convicted of federal charges in November, appeared for a status conference on Thursday in his state case. One of his attorneys, South Carolina State Rep Todd Rutherford, asked the judge to delay a trial until the fall of 2024. Judge Newman said that he would make a ruling at a later date. Last month, Laffitte was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to helping Murdaugh steal money from settlements for clients after vehicle wrecks or work injuries. Laffitte is appealing his conviction and sentence. Read More Smiling Alex Murdaugh appears in court in shackles as trial date set in financial fraud case Outrage as South Carolina lawmaker stands to shake hands with convicted killer Alex Murdaugh in court Alex Murdaugh’s friend pleads guilty to helping steal from dead maid’s family

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Donald Trump’s lawyer on Sunday previewed a legal defence his client may make in court when his upcoming trial for his actions leading up to January 6 begins next year. Appearing on all the major networks, John Lauro fielded questions from journalists about the idea that Mr Trump was acting illegally when he approached then-Vice President Mike Pence with his plan for Mr Pence to halt or reverse the Senate’s certification of the 2020 election, allowing slates of false electors to be named to replace those set to vote for Joe Biden. Mr Lauro told journalists on NBC that Mr Trump had not directed his vice president to use his power as president of the Senate to interfere with the chamber’s process — instead, he characterised it as an “aspirational” request by the president. “Asking is aspirational. Asking is not action. It’s core free speech,” argued Mr Lauro on CNN. He went on to argue that Mr Pence’s refusal to comply with the request or demand was evidence itself that it had been the former. “I’m not saying that [the January 6 riot] was in any way appropriate, but the ultimate power of the presidency was transferred to Mr Biden,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash. It was the exact same language he used to describe Mr Trump’s overtures to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was revealed to have been pressured by the president to intercede in that state after Joe Biden was declared the lawful victor. On a now-famous phone call, Mr Trump suggested that Mr Raffensperger would be able to “find” more than 10,000 votes for him that would push him past Mr Biden’s total in the state. "That wasn't a threat at all,” Mr Lauro claimed on NBC. “He was asking for [him] to get the truth...That was an aspirational ask." He would go on to claim that asking Mr Pence to commit an act that violated the US Constitution was not inherently a crime. However, some crimes simultaneously represent violations of one’s constitutional rights, and in the case of Mr Trump this argument could falls flat given that the government will argue that an obstruction of the Senate’s ability to certify the election essentially represented a violation of every American’s right to be represented by the lawfully-elected president. Mr Lauro’s whirlwind Sunday media tour comes as he and the Trump legal team are set to respond to a new filing by the Justice Department seeking to limit what Donald Trump can say publicly about his ongoing prosecution. The federal government has argued that Mr Trump’s recent comments on Truth Social vowing vengeance against those involved with the investigation will have a chilling effect on witnesses; the ex-president is already charged with witness tampering among the dozens of counts he faces. Read More Inside the courtroom, it was clear this indictment is different for Donald Trump Pence and Trump lawyer share opposite stories of what ex-president said ahead of January 6 Trump insists he isn’t a ‘scared puppy’ in defiant attack on Nancy Pelosi Pence and Trump lawyer share opposite stories of what Trump said ahead of January 6 Pence skirts crucial questions about Trump’s election indictment Inside the courtroom, it was clear this indictment is different for Donald Trump

The invasive, non-native grasslands covering a quarter of the Hawaiian islands have been identified as a significant fire risk