Yoon forced to lift martial law, opposition calls for impeachment

Today's news: Tense summit in Ankara with Iranian foreign minister over Syria offensive; Cambodian court convicts 13 Filipino women hired for surrogacy on charges of ‘human trafficking’; Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP to lead the Maharashtra government:  Ukraine war lowering the level of the Volga.

SOUTH KOREA

After forcing President Yoon in full view to lift martial law, which had been proclaimed just a few hours earlier, six Korean opposition parties filed an impeachment motion against the head of state. The motion is expected to go to debate tomorrow and be voted on by parliament on Friday or Saturday. On paper, the petitioners are eight votes short of the quorum needed to impeach Yoon. But even prominent members of the ruling conservative front in Seoul in the notes distanced themselves from the president's attempt to declare martial law.

TURKEY-SYRIA-IRAN

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi made a tense visit to Ankara in the midst of the Turkish-backed Syrian rebel offensive to take Aleppo. Araghchi travelled to Turkey after Sunday's meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, where he reiterated Tehran's support for Damascus. Observers in Ankara had expected Araghchi to deliver a message from Assad encouraging a diplomatic solution to the escalation of the conflict. But this did not happen.

CAMBODIA-PHILIPPINES

A Cambodian court convicted 13 Filipino women on charges of human trafficking. The Philippine embassy explained that the women were actually recruited online to become surrogate mothers and were rescued from a home outside Phnom Penh. The women were pregnant at the time of their arrest in September. The women were sentenced to four years in prison for ‘attempted cross-border human trafficking’, but will only serve two years with the rest of their sentences suspended, the Kandal Provincial Court said in a statement on Monday.

INDIA

Devendra Fadnavis, the local leader of the BJP (Prime Minister Modi's Hindu nationalist party) will be the new head of government in Maharashtra, the large Indian state that includes the metropolis of Mumbai. The inauguration is expected tomorrow. The handover of the executive leadership to the BJP is the result of the broad success in the 20 November elections. It will govern together with the Shiv Sena led by outgoing Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar's National Congress Party.

MONGOLIA-AUSTRALIA

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto predicted on Wednesday an increase in consolidated mined copper production for the year 2025, due mainly to a 50 per cent increase in planned production from the Oyu Tolgoi plant in Mongolia.

RUSSIA

The course of the Volga, the main river in European Russia that flows into the Caspian Sea, is continually lowering its level due to actions related to the needs of war, without care for the surrounding environment, as local ecologists observe, in order to use the waters in various industrial war production projects, with protests even from local governors.

KYRGYZSTAN

The authorities of Kyrgyzstan intend to begin a major housing renovation project in the coming year, as was done in Russia in previous years, tearing down Soviet blocks of flats known as Stalinki, Khruščevki and Brežnevki according to their eras to build modern multi-storey apartment blocks in their place, and the legislative foundations are being prepared.

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