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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol avoided an opposition-led attempt to impeach him over his short-lived imposition of martial law , as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. The scrapping of the motion is expected to intensify protests calling for Yoon’s ouster and deepen political chaos in South Korea, with a survey suggesting a majority of South Koreans support the president’s impeachment. Yoon’s martial law declaration drew criticism from his own ruling conservative People Power Party, but the party is also determined to oppose Yoon’s impeachment apparently because it fears losing the presidency to liberals. After the motion fell through, members of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party rallied inside the National Assembly, chanting slogans calling for Yoon's impeachment or resignation. The party's floor leader, Park Chan-dae, said it will soon prepare for a new impeachment motion. Opposition parties could submit a new impeachment motion after a new parliamentary session opens next Wednesday. “We'll surely impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, who is the greatest risk to Republic of Korea,” party leader Lee Jae-myung said. “We'll surely bring back this country to normal before Christmas Day or year's end.” Many experts worry Yoon won’t be able to serve out his remaining 2 1/2 years in office. They say some PPP lawmakers could eventually join opposition parties’ efforts to impeach Yoon if public demands for it grow further. The ruling party risks "further public outrage and national confusion if they don’t find a formula fast for Yoon’s departure,” said Duyeon Kim, a senior analyst at the Center for a New American Security in Washington. PPP chair Han Dong-hun said his party will seek Yoon’s “orderly” early exit but didn’t say when he can resign. Protests against Yoon are swelling On Saturday, tens of thousands of people packed several blocks of roads leading to the National Assembly, waving banners, shouting slogans and dancing. Protesters also gathered in front of PPP’s headquarters near the Assembly, shouting for its lawmakers to vote to impeach Yoon. A smaller crowd of Yoon’s supporters, which still seemed to be in the thousands, rallied elsewhere in Seoul, calling the impeachment attempt unconstitutional. Impeaching Yoon required support from 200 of the National Assembly's 300 members. The Democratic Party and five other small opposition parties, which filed the motion, have 192 seats combined. But only three lawmakers from PPP participated in the vote. The motion was scrapped without ballot counting because the number of votes didn’t reach 200. National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik called the result “very regrettable” and an embarrassing moment for the country’s democracy. If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days. The president apologizes for turmoil Earlier Saturday, Yoon issued an apology over the martial law decree, saying he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promising not to make another attempt to impose it. He said would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.” “The declaration of this martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said. Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement on Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.” The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea. The turmoil has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners like the U.S. and Japan. “Yoon’s credibility overseas has been undermined by declaring martial law, so he won’t be able to exercise leadership in his foreign policies especially when his days are numbered,” Kim, the analyst, said. “Its government bureaucracy will need to continue business as usual for existing alliance and foreign policy initiatives as best it can because there is a lot of important work to do globally.” Tuesday night saw special forces troops encircling the parliament building and army helicopters hovering over it, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift it before daybreak Wednesday. Eighteen lawmakers from the ruling party voted to reject Yoon’s martial law decree along with opposition lawmakers. PPP later decided to oppose Yoon's impeachment motion. Yoon’s speech fueled speculation that he and his party may push for a constitutional amendment to shorten his term, instead of accepting impeachment, as a way to ease public anger over the marital law and facilitate Yoon’s early exit from office. Lee told reporters that Yoon’s speech was “greatly disappointing” and that the only way forward is his immediate resignation or impeachment. His party called Yoon’s martial law “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.” Lawmakers on Saturday first voted on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate stock price manipulation allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife. Yoon accused of ordering arrests of politicians On Friday, Han, who criticized Yoon’s martial law declaration, said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.” Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s spy agency, told lawmakers Friday that Yoon had ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians including Han, Lee and Woo. The Defense Ministry said Friday it suspended three military commanders including the head of the defense counterintelligence unit over their involvement in enforcing martial law. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho has told parliament that Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun ordered the deployment of troops to the National Assembly. Opposition parties accused Kim of recommending to Yoon to enforce martial law. Kim Yong Hyun resigned Thursday, and prosecutors imposed an overseas travel ban on him. Kim Tong-hyung And Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated PressLPL Financial Reports Monthly Activity for November 2024Speaker schedules opposition motions after Tories opt against own non-confidence vote
AP News Summary at 3:38 p.m. EST3 ruled out, 4 others questionable for Vikings vs. Bears in Week 12 | Sporting News
US stocks surge to records, shrugging off upheaval in South Korea, France
(Source: Nasdaq) Wall Street’s main indexes climbed on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq touching record highs driven by gains in technology stocks, while investors awaited comments from U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later in the day. Crucial jobs data is due on Friday and investors are shoring up bets on a third consecutive interest-rate cut at the central bank’s Dec. 17-18 meeting. Salesforce (CRM.N), opens new tab provided the biggest boost to the blue-chip Dow on the day, jumping 8.8% to an all-time high after the enterprise cloud company beat Street estimates for third-quarter revenue and raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast. Other cloud companies also jumped, with ServiceNow (NOW.N), and Datadog (DDOG.O), adding 5.6% each. Information Technology stocks (.SPLRCT), hit a record high, buoyed by gains in megacaps such as Microsoft (MSFT.O), and Nvidia (NVDA.O). Marvell Technology (MRVL.O), advanced 21.6% to a record high after the chipmaker forecast fourth-quarter revenue above analyst estimates, while the broader Semiconductor index (.SOX), rose 1.6%. “Numbers from technology (Salesforce and Marvell) once again were pretty amazing and it just seems that we can continue to grow and hit these earnings. These numbers continue to give the tech rally legs,” said JJ Kinahan, CEO at IG Group North America. U.S. private payrolls showed a modest increase in November, while annual wages for workers staying in their jobs edged higher for the first time in 25 months. Separately, a survey from the Institute for Supply Management showed U.S. services sector activity slowed in November after logging big gains in recent months, while the final reading of the S&P services survey was revised lower to 56.1. At 11:31 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI), rose 235.16 points, or 0.53%, to 44,940.69, the S&P 500 (.SPX), gained 22.58 points, or 0.37%, to 6,072.46, and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC), added 171.83 points, or 0.88%, to 19,652.74. The CBOE Market Volatility Index (.VIX), Wall Street’s fear gauge, briefly dipped below 13 points for the first time since July. The Fed’s Beige Book, the central bank’s U.S. economic activity survey report, is scheduled for release at 2:00 p.m. ET. St. Louis Fed President Alberto Musalem spoke on the day, joining other Fed officials this week in signaling support for further rate cuts, but none pushed strongly for or against another reduction. U.S. stocks had a solid November after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election and his Republican Party sweeping both houses of Congress. Drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY.N), was up nearly 3% after its weight-loss drug Zepbound topped rival Wegovy in a head-to-head study. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.2-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.36-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and five new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 115 new highs and 74 new lows. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
Football clubs ‘alarmed’ by lack of consultation on regulator – Karren BradyIt’s been two weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election, but Stacey Lamirand’s brain hasn’t stopped churning. “I still think about the election all the time,” said the 60-year-old Bay Area resident, who wanted a Kamala Harris victory so badly that she flew to Pennsylvania and knocked on voters’ doors in the final days of the campaign. “I honestly don’t know what to do about that.” Neither do the psychologists and political scientists who have been tracking the country’s slide toward toxic levels of partisanship. Fully 69 percent of U.S. adults found the presidential election a significant source of stress in their lives, the American Psychological Association said in its latest Stress in America report. The distress was present across the political spectrum, with 80 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of independents surveyed saying they were stressed about the country’s future. That’s unhealthy for the body politic — and for voters themselves. Stress can cause muscle tension, headaches, sleep problems and loss of appetite. Chronic stress can inflict more serious damage to the immune system and make people more vulnerable to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, infertility, clinical anxiety, depression and other ailments. In most circumstances, the sound medical advice is to disengage from the source of stress, therapists said. But when stress is coming from politics, that prescription pits the health of the individual against the health of the nation. “I’m worried about people totally withdrawing from politics because it’s unpleasant,” said Aaron Weinschenk, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay who studies political behavior and elections. “We don’t want them to do that. But we also don’t want them to feel sick.” Modern life is full of stressors of all kinds: paying bills, pleasing difficult bosses, getting along with frenemies, caring for children or aging parents (or both). The stress that stems from politics isn’t fundamentally different from other kinds of stress. What’s unique about it is the way it encompasses and enhances other sources of stress, said Brett Ford, a social psychologist at the University of Toronto who studies the link between emotions and political engagement. For instance, she said, elections have the potential to make everyday stressors like money and health concerns more difficult to manage as candidates debate policies that could raise the price of gas or cut off access to certain kinds of medical care. Layered on top of that is the fact that political disagreements have morphed into moral conflicts that are perceived as pitting good against evil. “When someone comes into power who is not on the same page as you morally, that can hit very deeply,” Ford said. Partisanship and polarization have raised the stakes as well. Voters who feel a strong connection to a political party become more invested in its success. That can make a loss at the ballot box feel like a personal defeat, she said. There’s also the fact that we have limited control over the outcome of an election. A patient with heart disease can improve their prognosis by taking medicine, changing their diet, getting more exercise or quitting smoking. But a person with political stress is largely at the mercy of others. “Politics is many forms of stress all rolled into one,” Ford said. Weinschenk observed this firsthand the day after the election. “I could feel it when I went into my classroom,” said the professor, whose research has found that people with political anxiety aren’t necessarily anxious in general. “I have a student who’s transgender and a couple of students who are gay. Their emotional state was so closed down.” That’s almost to be expected in a place like Wisconsin, whose swing-state status caused residents to be bombarded with political messages. The more campaign ads a person is exposed to, the greater the risk of being diagnosed with anxiety, depression or another psychological ailment, according to a 2022 study in the journal PLOS One. Political messages seem designed to keep voters “emotionally on edge,” said Vaile Wright, a licensed psychologist in Villa Park, Ill., and a member of the APA’s Stress in America team. “It encourages emotion to drive our decision-making behavior, as opposed to logic,” Wright said. “When we’re really emotionally stimulated, it makes it so much more challenging to have civil conversation. For politicians, I think that’s powerful, because emotions can be very easily manipulated.” Making voters feel anxious is a tried-and-true way to grab their attention, said Christopher Ojeda, a political scientist at UC Merced who studies mental health and politics. “Feelings of anxiety can be mobilizing, definitely,” he said. “That’s why politicians make fear appeals — they want people to get engaged.” On the other hand, “feelings of depression are demobilizing and take you out of the political system,” said Ojeda, author of “The Sad Citizen: How Politics is Depressing and Why it Matters.” “What [these feelings] can tell you is, ‘Things aren’t going the way I want them to. Maybe I need to step back,’ ” he said. Genessa Krasnow has been seeing a lot of that since the election. The Seattle entrepreneur, who also campaigned for Harris, said it grates on her to see people laughing in restaurants “as if nothing had happened.” At a recent book club meeting, her fellow group members were willing to let her vent about politics for five minutes, but they weren’t interested in discussing ways they could counteract the incoming president. “They’re in a state of disengagement,” said Krasnow, who is 56. She, meanwhile, is looking for new ways to reach young voters. “I am exhausted. I am so sad,” she said. “But I don’t believe that disengaging is the answer.” That’s the fundamental trade-off, Ojeda said, and there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. “Everyone has to make a decision about how much engagement they can tolerate without undermining their psychological well-being,” he said. Lamirand took steps to protect her mental health by cutting social media ties with people whose values aren’t aligned with hers. But she will remain politically active and expects to volunteer for phone-banking duty soon. “Doing something is the only thing that allows me to feel better,” Lamirand said. “It allows me to feel some level of control.” Ideally, Ford said, people would not have to choose between being politically active and preserving their mental health. She is investigating ways to help people feel hopeful, inspired and compassionate about political challenges, since these emotions can motivate action without triggering stress and anxiety. “We want to counteract this pattern where the more involved you are, the worse you are,” Ford said. The benefits would be felt across the political spectrum. In the APA survey, similar shares of Democrats, Republicans and independents agreed with statements like, “It causes me stress that politicians aren’t talking about the things that are most important to me,” and, “The political climate has caused strain between my family members and me.” “Both sides are very invested in this country, and that is a good thing,” Wright said. “Antipathy and hopelessness really doesn’t serve us in the long run.”Twitch star Asmongold is warning that if Nintendo and the Pokemon Company win their infringement lawsuit against Palworld, there would be serious consequences in store for the entire games industry. Back in September, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company hit Palworld developer Pocketpair with an infringement lawsuit, demanding 10 million yen (about $66,000). One of the patents believed to have been infringed involves throwing an item to catch a monster , which, of course, has been a Pokemon staple ever since its inception. However, top Twitch streamer Asmongold has voiced some major concerns about this case and is worried that its ramifications could hurt gamers and developers looking to design their own titles. Asmongold explains why Nintendo needs to lose Palworld lawsuit During a Twitch broadcast, Asmongold watched a video from Bellular News about the Palworld situation, and after finishing it, remarked that he “really, really, really hopes [ Nintendo ] loses.” “I think it sets a terrible precedent for gaming,” he added. “What that does, is it creates a world where people who are trying to make new video games are limited by so many existing claimed land that they can’t build their own place.” (Segment begins at 19:08 ) According to Asmongold, companies being able to patent simple game features would be bad for players, because instead of making games, companies could just license mechanics. “That’s obviously much easier to do. All companies are going to try to make things as easy as possible for themselves,” he remarked. He also took issue with how Warner Bros owns Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor’s Nemesis system , a feature that allowed for more depth between the player and NPCs. Asmongold insisted that such a concept shouldn’t be owned to begin with. Related: Despite the lawsuit, Palworld hasn’t backed down from Nintendo, instead calling the situation “truly unfortunate” while still taking “appropriate” legal action.