Glacial winds cut through Hannam-dong, an upscale neighbourhood in central Seoul home to the official residence of impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol , where a single invisible boundary divides thousands of demonstrators braving sub-zero temperatures. On one side are the supporters of the nationwide movement demanding Yoon’s removal from office. Their calls escalated dramatically after his shocking declaration of martial law on December 3 . On the other, Yoon’s supporters are standing firm, ready to shield him from authorities investigating charges of insurrection and abuse of power. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) made its first attempt to enter the compound on January 3, but was thwarted by about 200 of the president’s bodyguards. Officials insist they will return, with a larger force of 1,000 investigators and police officers
Category Archives: WORLD NEWS
Chinese companies made their presence felt at the tech industry’s annual flagship event CES 2025 , in terms of the number of participants and their smart products ranging from robotics and smart glasses to electric vehicles (EVs) and home appliances. Chinese companies made up about a quarter of the 4,500-odd exhibitors at the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas. That is in line with the attendance in 2024 and up from 493 in 2023 when China’s lifting of Covid-19 restrictions came too late for many firms. Artificial intelligence (AI) was a dominant theme, as more practical applications were on display across almost all segments of consumer electronics. The market will only get bigger in 2025, according to the Consumer Technology Association, which organises the CES. Global sales of consumer
Liverpool’s English striker #76 Jayden Danns celebrates scoring the team’s third goal during the English FA Cup third round football match between Liverpool and Accrington Stanley at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on January 11, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) Trent Alexander-Arnold’s stunning strike lit up Liverpool’s 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley to cruise into the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday as Chelsea thrashed Morecambe 5-0. Brentford were the only Premier League side to fall to lower league opposition as Plymouth, who sit bottom of the Championship, stunned the Bees 1-0 thanks to Morgan Whittaker’s late winner. There was never any hint of an upset at Anfield despite Arne Slot making eight changes for Liverpool. Alexander-Arnold was named captain in the absence of Virgil van Dijk
Making working people in Britain better off will be at the “forefront” of the chancellor’s mind during her visit to China, the Treasury has said, following criticism of the trip amid trouble on the financial markets at home. Rachel Reeves will meet her opposite number in Beijing this weekend to explore trade and investment opportunities in a bid to achieve the government’s main goal of growing the UK economy to raise living standards. However, her visit has been overshadowed by UK borrowing costs hitting a 16-year high and a fall in the value of the pound. The Conservatives accused Reeves of having “fled to China”, but the government has defended the trip. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the rise in borrowing costs was “a global trend that we’ve seen affecting
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba ’s repeated rebuffs by US president-elect Donald Trump may drive him towards Beijing, analysts say, sparking concerns that closer Sino-Japanese ties might complicate Washington’s Asia-Pacific policy. When Trump declined a request to meet Ishiba in November, it was widely seen as a snub to the Japanese leader. Additionally, when Ishiba suggested visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, this was also firmly rejected, with the president-elect’s team citing the 1799 Logan Act for avoiding contact with foreign leaders before his inauguration on January 20. Critics of that explanation highlight Trump’s recent meetings with leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau , French President Emmanuel Macron , and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as a private meeting with Prince William . Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba
The world’s largest gathering of humanity begins in India on January 13 with the opening of the Kumbh Mela, a six-week Hindu festival organisers expect to attract up to 400 million pilgrims. Organisers say the scale of preparations for the Kumbh Mela is akin to setting up a temporary country from scratch – in this case, one more populous than the United States and Canada combined. “Some 350 to 400 million devotees are going to visit the mela, so you can imagine the scale of preparations,” festival spokesman Vivek Chaturvedi said. Around 150,000 toilets have been built and a network of community kitchens can each feed up to 50,000 people at the same time. Construction takes place on the banks of river Ganges in the city of Prayagraj ahead of
Jan 10 – The US has announced an increased $25m (£20.4m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the day he was sworn in for a third six-year term in office. The inauguration ceremony was overshadowed by recrimination from the international community and Venezuelan opposition leaders. Rewards have also been offered for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. A new reward of up to $15m for Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino has also been offered. The UK also issued sanctions on 15 top Venezuelan officials, including judges, members of the security forces and military officials. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said those sanctioned were responsible for “undermining democracy, the rule of law, and human rights violations”. Foreign
At a tribute dinner ahead of receiving Israel’s highest civilian honor, Jewish leaders celebrated the former Conference of Presidents chairman’s decades of diplomatic achievement. By GREER FAY CASHMAN JANUARY 10, 2025 11:36 KNESSET SPEAKER Amir Ohana with Malcolm Hoenlein. (photo credit: SARAH DAVIDOVICH) Standing out against his fellow recipients of the President’s Medal of Honor this week was Malcolm Hoenlein, the former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations, a position that he held for more than three decades. Hoenlein continues to be involved with the Jewish world and Israel and is the non-resident President of the Great Synagogue of Jerusalem. The synagogue’s executive board hosted a dinner for Hoenlein on Tuesday evening, just 24 hours ahead of the presentation ceremony of the medals at the
Beijing’s point man on Hong Kong and Macau affairs has called on the two cities to best unleash the benefits of the “ one country, two systems ” governing principle, lauding it as China’s wisdom and a solution for the world to promote harmony and inclusion. Xia Baolong also said on Thursday that seven expectations Chinese President Xi Jinping laid out for Macau last month served as a reference for Hong Kong, and that the business community should act as a key driving force through the testing times of economic transition. In two speeches in Macau to mark the 25th anniversary of its return to Chinese administration in December, Xi called on the city to play a bigger role on the international stage, embrace diversity and inclusiveness, and avoid complacency.
Meta is studying how halting fact checking on its platforms would fare under EU law, a French minister said Wednesday, although the change so far only affects the US. Meta stunned the social media world Tuesday with its announcement that it would abandon professional fact checking in the US in favour of user-generated “Community Notes”, similar to those found on Elon Musk’s X platform. The Facebook and Instagram parent company “assured us that they plan to respect our rules and that they are keeping in mind this impact study, which is underway”, junior minister for digital technologies Clara Chappaz told AFP. A 3D printed logo of Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. Photo: Reuters The study would aim to “understand what the
President John Dramani Mahama has said despite the economic crisis that have plagued Ghana in recent years, his tenure would mark the beginning of new opportunities for Ghanaians. In his inaugural speech as he took office yesterday as the sixth president of the Fourth Republic, President Mahama assured that his administration would work to fulfil his electioneering campaign of resetting the country. President John Dramani Mahama with the sword of office at the inauguration ceremony yesterday. Photo. Ebo Gorman . “We are a people buffeted by severe economic crisis and hardships. In the last few years, we have legged from crisis to crisis but there is hope on the horizon. Today should mark the beginning of new opportunities. An opportunity for us to make a difference in our governance and
Belarus, which has been seeking closer economic ties with China, is often portrayed as a loyal ally of Russia even though its strongman president, the 70-year-old Alexander Lukashenko, has a history of fluctuating relations with the Kremlin, including feuds with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. These days, Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994 , seems increasingly focused on dealings with China, hardly missing an opportunity to praise the country and its leadership. As far back as in 2016, Lukashenko declared in a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that Belarus would be “a reliable friend of China forever”. In April 2019, he told Xi that Beijing “can always count on our support in any area”. In the years since, Lukashenko has referred to the friendship as “ironclad” and publicly
Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said on Tuesday that MediaTek will be able to sell the desktop central processor chip the two companies unveiled this week and that Nvidia has undisclosed plans for the chip. On Monday at CES 2025, Nvidia unveiled a desktop computer called Project DIGITS. The machine uses Nvidia’s latest “Blackwell” AI chip and will cost US$3,000. It contains a new central processor, or CPU, which Nvidia and MediaTek worked to create. Responding to an analyst’s question during an investor presentation, Huang said Nvidia tapped MediaTek to co-design an energy-efficient CPU that could be sold more widely. “Now they could provide that to us, and they could keep that for themselves and serve the market. And so it was a great win-win,” Huang said. MediaTek has partnered
The Next Drug Epidemic Is Blue-Raspberry Flavored How Galaxy Gas became synonymous with the country’s burgeoning addiction to gas. By Ezra Marcus , a freelance reporter who writes about crime and culture Photo: Quinn Batley This article was featured in One Great Story, New York’s reading recommendation newsletter. Sign up here to get it nightly. In early 2023, Alex took a job at Cloud 9, a strip-mall smoke shop off Atlanta’s I-85. He had recently graduated from college and wanted something laid-back; the shop, with its graffitied ceilings and cheesy blue-light displays, seemed like the ideal register job for a stoner with a music degree. It didn’t take long for him to realize that many of his customers weren’t there for rolling papers or vapes. They were coming instead for
Edmundo Gonzalez, who competed against incumbent Nicolas Maduro in July’s presidential elections, says masked men abducted his son-in-law in Caracas. Edmundo Gonzalez, the leader of Venezuela’s political opposition, has accused masked men of kidnapping his son-in-law, who remains missing. Gonzalez, who ran in the country’s contested presidential election in July, announced the news on social media on Tuesday. “This morning my son-in-law Rafael Tudares was kidnapped,” Gonzalez wrote. “Rafael was heading to my grandchildren’s school, ages 7 and 6, in Caracas, to drop them off for the start of classes, and he was intercepted by hooded men dressed in black, who put him in a gold-coloured pickup truck with the license plate AA54E2C and took him away. At this time he is missing.” Gonzalez himself currently faces an arrest warrant