Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged a country considered a powerful democratic success story into months of turmoil

International News via Reuters:

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday there was still work to be done to address the fallout from the failed martial law bid by his predecessor a year ago, and the country needed to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

Marking the first anniversary of the shock announcement of martial law on December 3, 2024, Lee said former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s action had threatened an irreparable setback to the country, but the people rose up and stopped it with bare hands.

“The recklessness of those who tried to destroy constitutional order and even plan a war all for their personal ambitions must be brought to justice,” he said.

“The December 3 coup d’etat was not just a crisis for democracy in one country. If democracy in South Korea collapsed, it would have meant a setback…for world democracy.”

Yoon’s martial law declaration plunged a country considered a powerful democratic success story into months of turmoil, just as U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on trading partners rattled South Korea’s export-reliant economy.

Yoon was later ousted and Lee, who lost to him in a 2022 presidential vote, won a snap election in June with a mandate to steer the country out of the shock of martial law, as those who were accused of being involved were arrested and put on trial.

Since coming to office, Lee has managed to strike a U.S. tariff deal after two summits with Trump, but there remain deep fissures in society and concerns over whether the conservative side feels it is being persecuted.

Lee warned that reforming the country following the martial law crisis would be painful and time-consuming.

“But just as treating cancer by removing the cancer cells that have taken root deep inside the body, it cannot be completed that easily,” he said.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?

Yoon has remained defiant. In written comments to Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper published on Wednesday, he said his short-lived martial law was necessary to alert the public to a “national crisis”, and that he had complied with parliament’s demand to lift the decree.

The late-night declaration was overturned within hours by a majority parliamentary vote backed by Lee’s Democrats and some members of Yoon’s conservative party.

On trial for insurrection and facing life imprisonment or even potentially the death penalty, Yoon has denied ordering the arrest of opposition lawmakers and political enemies and argued that the martial law declaration caused no harm.

Former cabinet members and military officers are also among those on trial or under investigation. Yoon’s wife, Kim Keon Hee, is being tried on corruption and bribery charges, for which prosecutors asked for a 15-year jail sentence on Wednesday.

Some members of the conservative People Power Party have apologised for not blocking the martial law decree, but divisions remain as hardliners continue to accuse Lee and his party of stoking conflict for political purposes.

Lee proposed designating December 3 a national holiday to celebrate the role of the people in thwarting martial law and added that he believed they deserved to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.

For security reasons, Lee scrapped a plan to join a citizens’ march Wednesday evening to mark the anniversary.

Parliament Speaker Woo Won-shik guided a tour of citizens and journalists recalling the night a year ago when hundreds of soldiers descended on the parliament grounds. He showed the fence he scaled to enter the compound to lead a vote to cancel the martial law decree, muttering, “This is nuts, this is nuts.”

Reporting by Ju-min Park, Joyce Lee, Heejin Kim; writing by Jack Kim; editing by Ed Davies, Michael Perry and Mark Heinrich

The three individuals were detained on Tuesday as part of an EU fraud investigation and have now been released while the investigation is ongoing

International News via Reuters:

Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and two others have been formally accused of procurement fraud and corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office said on Wednesday. 

The three individuals were detained on Tuesday as part of an EU fraud investigation and have now been released while the investigation is ongoing, EPPO said, adding they were not considered a flight risk.

EPPO referred to the other two suspects as a senior staff member at the College of Europe in Bruges and a senior official from the European Commission. Three sources told Reuters that one of the detainees was senior EU diplomat Stefano Sannino.

Neither Mogherini nor Sannino could be reached for comment.

“All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty by the competent Belgian courts of law,” EPPO also said.

Their arrests followed raids at the EU’s diplomatic service in Brussels, at the College of Europe – an elite university in Bruges that educates many EU officials – and at the houses of suspects.

Mogherini was the EU’s high representative for foreign and security policy and head of its diplomatic service from 2014 to 2019. She became rector of the College of Europe in 2020.

According to EPPO, the investigation concerns “suspected fraud related to EU-funded training for junior diplomats.” 

Mogherini and Sannino, both Italian nationals, are well known in Brussels diplomatic circles, and news of their detentions sent shockwaves through the EU community.

Reporting by Charlotte Van Campenhout: Editing by Sharon Singleton

Residents forced to flee the only block of the eight not engulfed in flames a week ago returned briefly to their homes to retrieve belongings

International News via Reuters:

The death toll in Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades hit 159 on Wednesday, with police revealing that victims included an infant and a 97-year-old as they continued their search for remains in the scorched apartment complex.

Residents forced to flee the only block of the eight not engulfed in flames a week ago returned briefly to their homes to retrieve belongings, as hundreds of others housed in temporary accommodation struggled to rebuild their lives.

Meanwhile, investigators uncovered more bodies in the ruins, some of which have been found on rooftops and stairwells and others reduced to nothing more than ashes, authorities said.

INVESTIGATIONS INTO CAUSE OF FIRE, POSSIBLE GRAFT

Of the 159 bodies found, 140 have been identified. They comprise 91 females and 49 males, aged between one and 97 years.

Foreign domestic helpers from Indonesia and the Philippines are among 31 people still missing.

“We really want, if there are any bodies left at the scene, we can uncover them as soon as possible so that the surviving family, they can pay a final goodbye,” Police Commissioner Chow Yat-ming told a press conference on Wednesday.

Police have arrested 21 suspects for manslaughter in a probe into the cause of the fire, while Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body is also investigating possible graft.

Amid calls for transparency and accountability, the city’s leader John Lee has ordered a judge-led committee to investigate the cause of the deadly fire and review oversight of building renovations blamed for fanning the inferno.

Residents of Wang Fuk Court were told by authorities last year they faced “relatively low fire risks” after they complained about fire hazards posed by the renovations, the city’s Labour Department said.

Authorities have pointed to substandard plastic mesh and insulation foam used during renovation work at the high-rise estate for fuelling the blaze.

CITY TO PRESS AHEAD WITH ELECTION

The government will also press ahead with a “patriots only” legislative election scheduled for Sunday, despite doubts over turnout from a local population still reeling from the disaster.

The vote is seen by some analysts and residents as a test of legitimacy for the Hong Kong government as it tries to appease public anger over the fire amid an ongoing national security crackdown.

“Honestly, it’s infuriating. I think it lacks respect,” said Trent Heung, a 37-year-old mourner who travelled to lay flowers at the disaster site before work.

“Everyone is still mourning and I really don’t think anything else should be first priority except paying tribute and making sure all the victims and affected people are well taken care of.”

At least two people, including former pro-democracy district councillor Kenneth Cheung and a student who launched a public petition demanding an independent probe into the fire, have been detained by police since Saturday, two sources told Reuters. Both have now been released on bail.

China on Wednesday reiterated a warning against any efforts to use the disaster to “plunge Hong Kong back into the chaos” of 2019, when massive pro-democracy protests challenged Beijing and triggered a political crisis.

DISPLACED RESIDENTS STRUGGLE TO MOVE ON

Carrying suitcases and bags, inhabitants of the only block in the complex not destroyed by the 40-hour inferno were escorted to their homes and given a 90-minute window to pack up possessions on Wednesday.

“My whole life is there,” said a 60-year-old woman surnamed Lam, who was laden with empty bags, waiting for her daughter to help her pack up essentials from her apartment.

Authorities have not said when the unaffected building will reopen as they collect evidence in the criminal probe. 

More than 2,600 residents have been put in temporary accommodation, the government said, with 1,013 staying in hostels, camps or hotel rooms. Another 1,607 residents have moved into transitional housing units. 

Reporting by Mei Mei Chu, Joyce Zhou, Jessie Pang, Donny Kwok and Laurie Chen; Writing by Farah Master and John Geddie; Editing Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alex Richardson and Sharon Singleton

Many are also cutting their contributions to help support millions displaced by violence and climate change around the world

International News via Reuters:

Developing countries which host most of the world’s refugees could close their borders if Western states persist with aid cuts, the head of the Danish Refugee Council warned on Tuesday.

As countries like Britain and Germany tighten their asylum rules amid anti-immigration sentiment, many are also cutting their contributions to help support millions displaced by violence and climate change around the world.

Charlotte Slente, Secretary General of the Danish Refugee Council, which works in dozens of countries, said she was concerned that poorer states who take in 75% of them will also implement new restrictions.

“They are now being a bit abandoned by the donors,” she told Reuters in an interview in Geneva. “I’m a little bit afraid for what we’re going to see in terms of the reaction among these host nations, when they realise that less money will come in.”

She cited an example where Uganda, for years a generous host of refugees from Sudan, South Sudan and Somalia, has started restricting numbers.

Ugandan government officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other states are also under strain.

Chad has nearly 900,000 refugees from Sudan’s civil war but they are not getting enough aid and camps are filling up, said Slente who visited them last month.

The NGO has already had to cut back support to displaced people this year due to funding cuts, mostly by the United States which previously accounted for 20% of contributions, and has scaled back foreign aid dramatically under President Donald Trump.

The Danish Refugee Council has cut nearly 2,000 posts and scaled back aid in many countries, including nutrition supplies to mothers and their children in places like Cameroon and Afghanistan, Slente said.

Other donors have so far kept contributions to her NGO steady but Slente expects falling contributions from other European countries as they shift funds to defence.

Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala, Editing by Alexandra Hudson

The Small Arms Survey found that between 2015 and 2024, seven in 10 firearms that could be traced from six Caribbean nations came from Florida and Georgia

International News via Reuters:

Organized crime in the Caribbean is being fueled by arms trafficking that can be traced largely to a handful of areas in the U.S. states of Florida and Georgia, a study by Geneva-based Small Arms Survey has found.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has ramped up efforts against drug cartels, from classifying gangs as terrorist organizations to bombing alleged drug trafficking boats off the coast of Venezuela.

The Small Arms Survey – an independent research project whose findings are used by international governments and United Nations bodies – found that between 2015 and 2024, seven in 10 firearms that could be traced from six Caribbean nations came from Florida and Georgia.

Its analysis spanned the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Some 30% of all firearms seized in those countries and successfully traced to the U.S. were bought from dealers in just two counties in Florida – Miami-Dade and Broward.

The mayors of those counties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The report also looked at seizures by U.S. Customs officials, finding that 78% of Caribbean-bound illegal arms shipments were detected in ports around the Florida cities of Tampa and Miami, and Atlanta, Georgia.

Matt Schroeder, a senior researcher at the Small Arms Survey, noted that limited data on arms trafficking made it difficult to assess how trends were evolving, and called for further research.

“Any effective campaign against drug trafficking and organized crime has to look at the trafficking of weapons,” he said in an interview.

The issue has fueled diplomatic tensions in the region, with several countries across the Caribbean backing a Mexican government lawsuit that sought to hold U.S. gunmakers responsible for weapons trafficking to foreign crime groups. The U.S. Supreme Court threw out the lawsuit earlier this year.

Schroeder said strikes on alleged drug boats were unlikely to have a major impact on arms trafficking, and warned against possible diversion of resources away from U.S. Customs or U.S. law enforcement operations in the Caribbean. 

“If you’re going to have any meaningful decrease in the trafficking of weapons, it has to focus on improving the capacity of law enforcement specifically to detect contraband in the international shipments,” Schroeder said.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. agency that investigates illegal firearms use, has identified the Bahamas and Haiti as among the top markets for illegal U.S. firearms. It has said that growing gang power in Haiti has prevented the agency from obtaining accurate trace data since 2021.

Reporting by Sarah Morland in Mexico CityEditing by Matthew Lewis