Seoul: first hearing against Chairman Yoon lasts 4 minutes

Today's news: China is considering selling the US operations of TikTok to Elon Musk; The number of casualties among Tibetan monks after last week's earthquake is unknown; Nawaf Salam, president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is the new prime minister of Lebanon; More anti-government protests in Georgia, joined by the march of descendants of victims of Stalinist repressions.

SOUTH KOREA

The first hearing of South Korea's Constitutional Court, which has to decide whether to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol from office, lasted only four minutes due to the absence of the defendant: Yoon's lawyers had already let it be known that the president would not appear in court because an arrest warrant for a separate charge of insurrection is still valid against him. The next hearing is scheduled in two days.

CHINA - USA

Chinese authorities are considering selling TikTok's US operations to Elon Musk to avoid a ban on the app's use in the US. Beijing would prefer the app to remain owned by ByteDance's parent company, which has appealed to the US Supreme Court against the law requiring the sale of assets, but it is likely that in the coming days the judges will agree with the US government. In the meantime, TikTok users in the US are migrating to a Chinese app called RedNote, (Little Red Booklet, in Italian), a competitor of TikTok that is very popular among young people in China and Taiwan.

TIBET

At least two Buddhist monasteries were damaged by the strong earthquake in Tibet last week but the number of casualties among Tibetan clerics remains unknown. According to online reports, the 6.8 magnitude earthquake reduced the roofs and walls of a monastery and a women's convent about 15 km east of the epicentre in Tingri county, China, to rubble. Some nuns were trapped under the rubble. But the Chinese authorities did not disclose information on the damage to the places of worship.

BANGLADESH

Bangladesh's anti-corruption agency has filed a series of cases against former premier Sheikh Hasina and some members of her family in a case of alleged theft of lucrative building land in a suburb of the capital, Dhaka. Hasina has been a refugee in India since August last year and tensions on the border have not abated: yesterday Dhaka summoned the Indian ambassador and accused Delhi of building fences along the border and deploying security forces.

LEBANON

Nawaf Salam, President of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Lebanon, a position that, in the sectarian division system, falls to a Sunni Muslim. His appointment, following Joseph Aoun's appointment as President, contrasts with Hezbollah's wishes: Mohammed Raad, a leading member of the Iranian-backed Party of God, has accused his opponents of promoting fragmentation.

RUSSIA

The Natsionalnyj Tsentr Informatizatsii Group, one of Russia's leading IT companies, created by the state agency Rostekh, has declared bankruptcy, after 10 years of huge state funding that has dried up and not been renewed, abandoning the task of digitising the entire Russian healthcare system, the post office and many other sectors of the economy.

GEORGIA

The uninterrupted protest demonstrations in Tbilisi were joined by a march of the descendants of the victims of the Stalinist repressions of 1937-1938, in which more than 30,000 Georgians died, from Philharmonic Square to Rustaveli prospekt, joining the other demonstrators in front of the parliament to demand the release of those arrested in recent days.

• Asia
• Today