South Korea's Constitutional Court removes President Yoon Suk-yeol

Today's news: Asian stock markets continue negative trends in wake of Trump's tariffs; An American writer has been mistaken for Rodrigo Duterte's lawyer; Malaysia calls off search for MH370;  Iran and Afghanistan meet to resolve the refugee issue.

SOUTH KOREA

The Constitutional Court of South Korea has removed President Yoon Suk-yeol from office with a unanimous decision. The square in Seoul was divided between shouts of jubilation and despair among the demonstrators for and against the conservative president, who at the beginning of December had proclaimed martial law and was then impeached by the opposition, which controls the Parliament. The country will have to go to the polls within 60 days: the Democratic Party leader, Lee Jae-myung, is one of the favourites.

RUSSIA – NORTH KOREA

The North Korean university ‘Kim Il-sung’ will open a branch in the Akademgorodok university campus in Novosibirsk, Siberia, agreeing with the local university to exchange scientific and technological programmes, organise meetings and conferences, and allow students and professors from both countries to participate, with preparatory courses in North Korea for the students to be sent to Novosibirsk.

USA – ASIA

Asian stock market indexes fell for the second consecutive day after the announcement of the tariffs that US President Donald Trump would like to impose on all countries that trade with the United States. Japan, one of the Americans‘ major trading partners and the main foreign investor, has been hit with a 24% tariff and is facing a “national crisis”, according to Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s statement. Based on the messages leaked from the US administration, it doesn't seem that this time the tariffs are aimed at obtaining concessions from foreign countries.

PHILIPPINES

An American writer has been mistaken for the lawyer of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, who is facing legal proceedings at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Nicholas Kaufmann, mistaken for the almost-namesake Kaufman, found his Facebook wall invaded by messages from Filipino citizens asking him to ‘bring Duterte back home’. Despite being accused of several crimes committed during the ‘war on drugs’, Duterte is still widely popular.

MALAYSIA

The search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which began a couple of weeks ago, more than 10 years after the aircraft disappeared, has already been interrupted because ‘it is not the season’, according to the Minister of Transport, Anthony Loke, but ‘will resume at the end of this year’. MH370 was carrying hundreds of passengers travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, but its disappearance remains one of the greatest mysteries in world aviation.

AFGHANISTAN – IRAN

Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Mohammad Reza Bahrami, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Director General for South Asia, in Kabul yesterday to discuss bilateral relations, Afghan migrants in Iran and the long-standing dispute over the waters of the Helmand River. The meeting takes place at a time of growing tension over Iran's deportation of Afghan migrants.

ISRAEL

The investigation into the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest collaborators is being intensified: his advisor Jonatan Urich and former spokesperson Eli Feldstein are suspected of having accepted money from Qatar (considered one of the major sponsors of Hamas) to promote a positive image of themselves in Israel to the detriment of Egypt. Both countries have acted as mediators in the conflict with Hamas. Urich and Feldstein's detention was extended this week.

GEORGIA

The Prime Minister of Georgia, Iraklij Kobakhidze, has announced a government-wide reorganisation, in which a new ministry of ‘regional development’ will be established, detaching it from the ministry of infrastructure, and new managers will be appointed to the ministry of justice and the security council, including more loyal and ‘authoritative’ figures.

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