March 21-April 19 ★★★ As you do your best to be who you are, you are confronted with parts of yourself that, lazily, want to hang right back. April 20-May 20 ★★★ In your quest for innovation, the Libran Moon is helping you find your sweet spot. Persistence leads to a beautiful functionality. May 21-June 20 ★★★ You may be happy enjoying the little things, but life, in the form of someone close to you, wants you to go further. June 21-July 22 ★★★ The Moon is in Libra. She is reminding you to relax and trust that the renewal you seek will soon unfold naturally. July 23-August 22 ★★★★ Your quest for truth is on steroids. The Sagittarian Sun is inspiring you to look far and wide. Keep on moving on. August 23-September 22 ★★★ Take your stand. Mercury in Sagittarius will help you know and articulate your point of view. It might stir up opposition. September 23-October 22 ★★★ The Moon is conjunct the South Node. The influence of the past is strong today. Take what you need. Leave the rest behind. October 23-November 21 ★★★ Take time for yourself. Connect with your heart’s desire — quietly. Take stock of your situation. Lick your wounds. November 22-December 21 ★★★ Chiron in Aries is insisting you stay on a healing path. You have energy to burn. Try not to let yourself get diverted. December 22-January 19 ★★★ Venus is slowly helping you open your mind to possibilities you have been keeping at arm’s length. Lighten your gaze. January 20-February 18 ★★★★ The Libran Moon is loosening your tongue and restoring your confidence. Articulate your feelings — lyrically. February 19-March 20 ★★★★ The Sagittarian Sun is making you feel adventurous. You are about to put your dreams into place. Neptune is stirring. Observe things quietly from a distance. There’s no need to show your hand, until you have one. Share your energy and your joy in your usual unconstrained way. Sweep everyone around you up in your slipstream. Key: ★★ Challenging ★★★ Encouraging ★★★★ Excellent
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By Josh Smith and Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's acting president faces an impeachment vote on Friday, intensifying a political crisis as the Constitutional Court meets for its first hearing on suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived martial law. The push to impeach Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who has been acting president since Yoon was impeached on Dec. 14, has thrown South Korea's once-vibrant democratic success story into uncharted territory and watched with concern by allies. The plan for a vote to impeach Han was unveiled on Thursday by the main opposition Democratic Party after he declined to immediately appoint three justices to fill vacancies at the Constitutional Court, saying it would exceed his acting role. It remained unclear how many votes are needed to impeach Han as acting leader. The threshold for a prime minister is a simple majority, while a two-thirds majority is needed for a president. It is also unclear whether Han and the ruling party would accept any outcome. If Han is suspended, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok will assume the acting presidency by law. Choi said on Friday impeaching the country's acting president would seriously damage the country's economic credibility and asked political parties to withdraw the plan. Choi spoke for the country's cabinet, flanked by ministers. Early on Friday, the South Korean won weakened to its lowest since March 2009, as analysts said there was little to reverse the negative sentiment stemming from the political uncertainty. The vote to determine Han's fate comes around the time the Constitutional Court on Friday will hold its first hearing in a case reviewing whether to reinstate Yoon or remove him permanently from office, after parliament's impeachment vote. It has 180 days to reach a decision. After weeks of defiance ignoring requests by the court to submit documents as well as summons by investigators in a separate criminal case over his martial law declaration on Dec. 3, a lawyer for Yoon said his legal representatives would attend Friday's hearing. Seok Dong-hyeon, a lawyer advising Yoon, named two lawyers for Yoon's legal team, one a former prosecutor and the other a former spokesman for the Constitutional Court. The two could not be immediately reached for comment. Yoon is not required to attend the hearing. If he is removed from office, a new presidential election would be held within 60 days. WORST POLITICAL CRISIS IN DECADES The events following the Dec. 3 martial law declaration have plunged the country into its gravest political crisis since 1987, when widespread protests forced the ruling party of former military generals into accepting a constitutional amendment bringing in direct, popular vote to elect the president. The turmoil has also spilled over into financial markets.Yoon shocked the country and the world with a late-night announcement on Dec. 3 that he was imposing martial law to overcome political deadlock and root out "anti-state forces". The military deployed special forces to the national assembly, the election commission, and the office of a liberal YouTube commentator. It also issued orders banning activity by parliament and political parties, as well as calling for government control of the media. But within hours 190 lawmakers had defied the cordons of troops and police and voted against Yoon's order. About six hours after his initial decree, the president rescinded the order. Yoon and senior members of his administration also face criminal investigations for insurrection over their decision to impose martial law. (Writing by Josh Smith, Jack Kim; Editing by Ed Davies and Michael Perry)A Timeline Of Dr Manmohan Singh’s Life
Luke Humphries defeats Luke Littler to retain Players Championship Finals titleRich countries' promise of $300 billion a year in climate finance brought fury at talks in Baku from poor nations that found it too paltry, but it also shows a shift in global political realities. The two-week marathon COP29 climate conference opened days after the decisive victory in the US presidential election of Donald Trump, a sceptic both of climate change and foreign aid. In the new year, Germany, Canada and Australia all hold elections in which conservatives less supportive of green policies stand chances of victory. Britain is an exception, with the new Labour government putting climate high back on the agenda, but in much of the West, concerns about inflation and budgetary shocks from Russia's invasion of Ukraine have dented enthusiasm for aggressive climate measures. At COP29, Germany and the European Union maintained their roles championing climate but also advocated a noticeably practical approach on how much money historical polluters should give poorer countries. "We live in a time of truly challenging geopolitics, and we should simply not have the illusion" otherwise, European climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told bleary-eyed delegates at COP29's pre-dawn closing session Sunday, as activists in the back loudly coughed to drown him out. But he vowed leadership by Europe, hailing COP29 as "the start of a new era for climate finance". German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, a Green party member and longtime climate advocate, called for flexibility on ways to provide funding. Europe should "live up to its responsibilities, but in a way that it doesn't make promises it can't keep", she said. Avinash Persaud, special advisor on climate change to the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, called the final deal "the boundary between what is politically achievable today in developed countries and what would make a difference in developing countries". Activists say that climate funding is a duty, not choice, for wealthy nations whose decades of greenhouse gas emissions most contributed to the crisis that most hits the poorest. This year is again set to be the hottest on record on the planet. Just since COP29, deadly storms have battered the Philippines and Honduras, and Ecuador declared a national emergency due to drought and forest fires. Wealthy historic emitters' promise of $300 billion a year by 2035 is a step up from an expiring commitment of $100 billion annually, but all sides acknowledge it is not enough. The COP29 agreement cites the need for $1.3 trillion per year, meaning a whopping $1 trillion a year needs to come from elsewhere. Even within the $300 billion commitment, some activists see too much wiggle room. "It is, to some extent, almost an empty promise," said Mariana Paoli, the global advocacy lead at London-based development group Christian Aid. She described the target as "creative accounting", saying there was not enough clarity on how much money would come from public funds and in grants rather than loans. She acknowledged the politics of the moment but said that wealthy nations had options such as taxation on fossil fuel companies. "There is a backlash because there is no political will," she said. In one closely scrutinised part of the Baku deal, countries will be able to count climate finance through international financial institutions toward the $300 billion goal. The text states that it is "voluntary" -- potentially opening the way to include China, which is the world's largest emitter but refuses to have requirements like long-developed countries. In a joint statement at COP29, multilateral development banks led by the Washington-based World Bank Group but also including the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank -- which has long faced US criticism -- expected that they together can provide $120 billion annually in climate financing and mobilise another $65 billion from the private sector by 2030. Melanie Robinson, director of the global climate program at the World Resources Institute, said there were good reasons to rely on multinational development banks, including how much capital they can leverage and their tools to advance green policies. "They are the most effective way to turn each dollar of finance into impact on the ground," she said. She agreed that the $300 billion was insufficient but added, "It's a down payment on what we need." Beyond the debate on dollar figures, she pointed to an initiative within the G20 by Brazil, which holds COP30 next year, to reform financial institutions so as to incorporate debtor nations as well as climate concerns. "There is really a much bigger opportunity for us -- which is shifting the whole financial system," she said. sct/giv