World News

Summary

South Korea's main opposition party has called for President Yoon Suk Yeol to resign or face impeachment after his six-hour martial law declaration, deemed unconstitutional.

Yoon’s move, the first martial law since the 1980s, involved deploying troops to encircle parliament but was swiftly overturned by a 190-0 vote in the opposition-controlled legislature.

Critics, including U.S. officials, condemned the action as a democratic setback.

The Democratic Party, holding 192 seats with allies, may pursue impeachment, recalling South Korea’s history of ousting presidents through public and legislative pressure.

Yoon has yet to publicly respond.

Summary

A 27-inch asteroid, C0WEPC5, entered Earth's atmosphere over Siberia on Tuesday, creating a harmless but visible fireball.

This marked Earth's fourth detected asteroid strike of the year and only the 11th "imminent impactor" ever recorded.

The asteroid was detected by the Kitt Peak National Observatory ahead of impact, showcasing advancements in asteroid detection.

Separately, a larger asteroid, 2020 XR, measuring 1,200 feet in diameter, will safely pass Earth on Wednesday at a distance of 1.37 million miles.

Summary

Ukraine is pushing for NATO membership, proposing that only areas free from Russian occupation join initially. President Zelenskyy argues this could deter further Russian aggression and facilitate peace talks.

However, key NATO members, including Germany, oppose the idea, fearing it could escalate the conflict. France, Poland, and the Baltic states are more open to partial membership, while former NATO chief Stoltenberg supports fast-tracking the process.

NATO's new Secretary General Mark Rutte prioritizes arming Ukraine over membership discussions.

U.S. policy remains uncertain, especially with President-elect Trump reportedly skeptical of Ukraine's accession.

Additional Korean source.

TOKYO (AP) — Troops surround South Korea’s parliament overnight after the president declares martial law. He accuses pro-North Korean forces of plotting to overthrow one of the world’s most vibrant democracies. Lawmakers voice outrage, and hastily vote to end the declaration in an early-morning session.

Confusion, rumor and fear were spreading through South Korea before dawn Wednesday after the sudden edict by President Yoon Suk Yeol, the first martial law since more than four decades ago when the country was controlled by a dictatorship.

The declaration and a rushed vote by lawmakers to overturn it were moments of high drama for an unpopular leader who has struggled with political deadlock in an opposition-dominated parliament and scandals involving him and his wife.

While there was no direct evidence presented, Yoon raised the specter of North Korea as a destabilizing force. Yoon has long maintained that a hard line against the North is the only way to stop Pyongyang from following through on its nuclear threats against Seoul.

Amid the surreal scenes of troops massing around parliament, here are some things to know as this story unfolds:

Details on an “anti-state” plot are vague

Unanimously.

Coca-Cola has been accused of quietly abandoning a pledge to achieve a 25% reusable packaging target by 2030 in what campaigners call a “masterclass in greenwashing”.

The company has been previously found by researchers to be among the world’s most polluting brands when it comes to plastic waste.

In 2022, the company made a promise to have 25% of its drinks sold in refillable or returnable glass or plastic bottles, or in refillable containers that could be filled up at fountains or “Coca-Cola freestyle dispensers”.

But shortly before this year’s global plastics summit, the company deleted the page on its website outlining this promise, and it no longer has a target for reusable packaging.

The Russian Kilo-class submarine was sighted just 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Yonaguni Island, Japan’s westernmost territory just east of Taiwan, the Japanese Joint Staff said in a statement.

The submarine, accompanied by a Russian naval ship, was moving northeast between Yonaguni and the nearby island of Iriomote. It was the first sighting of a Russian submarine in those waters, the Joint Staff said.

It added that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces deployed a combat support ship and a P-3 survey aircraft for warning and reconnaissance operations. There was no breach of Japan’s territorial waters by the Russian warships, it said.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — After a ballot recount, a top Romanian court on Monday validated the first round of a presidential race in which a far-right outsider emerged as the frontrunner, plunging the country into turmoil amid allegations of electoral violations and Russian meddling.

The Constitutional Court’s unanimous decision came after it had asked the Central Election Bureau to recount and verify all 9.4 million ballots cast in the first round of the presidential election on Nov. 24. The election bureau approved the request and proceeded with the recount.

Monday’s decision is final.

Calin Georgescu, a little-known far-right populist and independent candidate, narrowly won the first round, beating the incumbent prime minister Marcel Ciolacu. Georgescu will face reformist Elena Lasconi, the leader of the Save Romania Union party, in a runoff on Sunday.

Lasconi beat Ciolacu by just 2,740 votes.

Maboula Soumahoro is a renowned French scholar and public intellectual. The holder of a PhD earned through studies both in France and at Columbia University in the US, she is an associate professor at the University of Tours, a specialist on the African diaspora, and one of France’s foremost academics when it comes to race relations.

So when the European parliament decided to invite her to an internal event last month as part of a dialogue to discuss ways to “promote equality and inclusion in the workplace”, it made perfect sense.

But the event never happened. First, the French far-right MEP Mathilde Androuët wrote to Roberta Metsola, the president of the parliament, seeking the cancellation of the event on the basis that Soumahoro had made statements with racist undertones and casting doubt on her expertise. Then the French far-right MEP, Marion Maréchal, formerly a member of the National Rally, led by her aunt, Marine Le Pen, weighed in, stepping up the pressure with a post on X that denounced Soumahoro in even more forceful terms as “an anti-White speaker”.

Maréchal’s criticisms would be laughable if they had not been so successful. In less than 24 hours the far right had, according to the French news organisation Mediapart, managed to have the event cancelled.

Summary

Vietnam’s High People’s Court upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, convicted of embezzlement and bribery in a record $12 billion fraud case.

Lan can avoid execution by returning $9 billion (three-quarters of the stolen funds), potentially reducing her sentence to life imprisonment.

Her crimes caused widespread economic harm, including a bank run and $24 billion in government intervention to stabilize the financial system.

Lan has admitted guilt but prosecutors deemed her actions unprecedentedly damaging. She retains limited legal recourse through retrial procedures.

Summary

A U.S.-backed Yale report alleges that Russia used presidential aircraft and state funds to deport 314 Ukrainian children from occupied territories, stripping them of their Ukrainian identity and placing many with Russian families.

The program, described as a Kremlin-led effort to “Russify” children, reportedly involved propaganda and coerced adoptions.

These actions may constitute crimes against humanity, beyond the war crimes charges already issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin.

Ukraine estimates 19,500 children have been taken, though Russia denies coercion and disputes Kyiv’s numbers.

Summary

A fiber optic cable connecting Sweden and Finland was damaged on land, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 businesses.

While Finnish authorities are investigating, Swedish officials suspect sabotage.

This incident follows recent undersea cable damage in the Baltic Sea, where two cables were severed in November, raising similar sabotage concerns.

The Baltic region, home to multiple NATO nations and Russia, has seen heightened tensions since the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in 2022.

Previous cases involved sightings of a China-flagged vessel, but Russia has denied involvement in any incidents.

Finnish police said Tuesday that “there is no reason to suspect any criminal activity” in connection with damage to two data cables running across the land border between Sweden and Finland, saying the damage was created by excavation work.

The two cables were repaired Tuesday, a day after they were damaged, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 businesses, a company providing digital infrastructure and data communication in Northern Europe said.

Global Connect said the internet cables were damaged in two separate places in southern Finland on Monday.

The first fiber breakage happened on Monday morning, the other one in the afternoon.

A senior White House official urged Kyiv on Thursday to lower conscription age to 18 to replenish the losses of manpower in Donbas, where Russian forces have spurred their advance on several strategic, heavily fortified strongholds.

“The need right now is manpower,” the unnamed official told reporters in Washington. “Mobilisation and more manpower could make a significant difference at this time, as we look at the battlefield today.”

Ukraine’s top brass has not even discussed the issue.

“No meetings to discuss this issue have been held, no suggestions on lowering [the conscription age] have been made,” a source in Ukraine’s General Staff of Armed Forces told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

So far, Kyiv has officially responded with a refusal and a rebuke.

“It doesn’t make sense to see calls for Ukraine to lower the mobilisation age, presumably in order to draft more people, when we can see that previously announced [Western military] equipment is not arriving on time,” Dmitry Litvin, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted on X.

“Because of these delays, Ukraine lacks weapons to equip already mobilised soldiers,” he wrote.