Bedugul Coffee: South Korea's ruling party stalls president's impeachment vote

Weekend Briefing

From Reuters Daily Briefing

By Robert MacMillan, Reuters.com Weekend Editor

Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. We have a strong story on El Hierro, the Canary island that is coping with a surge in migrant deaths and disappearances. And here's a good story you might have missed: Donald Trump might have gone quiet on voter fraud and election denial, but the movement marches on. Our World News podcast digs into what feels like a new European Cold War. And our latest City Memo takes you to Tokyo.

South Korea's ruling party stalls president's impeachment vote

REUTERS/Kim Soo-hyeon

Impeachment impasse: Members of Yoon Suk Yeol's party walked out of parliament as the opposition called on them to return and vote. Yoon apologized for briefly imposing martial law, but did not resign. Thousands of furious citizens assembled outside parliament, demanding impeachment.
And in Romania: The country's top court annulled an ongoing presidential election over accusations of Russian meddling and said the whole process would have to restart from the beginning. Analysts say the ruling may erode institutions, trigger protests and endanger the nation's pro-Western course. The U.S. has voiced concern about foreign interference.

Sergei Lavrov walks red-line tightrope

Open to discussion: Russia's foreign minister's words are the latest in a transmission of indications from Moscow that they're ready for some kind of settlement with Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has indicated a willingness to talk as well. Now we wait to find out if they can resist taking a needle to the trial balloons that Donald Trump's team is floating to end the war.
Going for two: President-elect Trump said he would end the Ukraine war by the time he's inaugurated on Jan. 20. It looks like he's trying to secure a Gaza ceasefire and a release of Israeli hostages by the same date. In Syria, rebel forces advanced on Homs and Kurdish fighters took control of the eastern desert. If the Islamist insurgents take Homs, it will cut off Damascus from the coast, which would be anything but good for Bashar al-Assad.

We'll always have Paris

Prayers for a president: The reopening of Notre Dame was supposed to be Emmanuel Macron's big triumph. Though the cathedral has recovered from a devastating fire, Macron and the French political landscape are well and truly scorched. It's a good photo opportunity for the incoming U.S. president however.
Georgia protests: Courts ordered the detention of two opposition leaders as Tbilisi cracks down on groups that have backed protests against the government's freezing of talks to join the EU. The sound of bursting fireworks has become the opposition's call to action. I recommend our correspondent Felix Light's story on young Georgians who see their nation at a crossroads.

TikTok: Sell it or shun it

Short video, long case: A U.S. appeals court upheld a law requiring China-based ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a ban in six weeks. Expect ByteDance to appeal to the Supreme Court. An asset manager who supports Trump is starting a fund that will avoid investing in companies that made commitments to DEI measures. Let's revisit in a year to see how it performs against the wider market.
48 hours later: New York police are scouring surveillance video, examining leads and seeking help in finding the person who shot and killed UnitedHealth executive Brian Thompson on Wednesday in the middle of Manhattan. He was last seen entering Central Park on an electric bicycle.

Before I forget…

- Hunter Biden received a pardon from his father. What about other Trump targets? In fact, what about everybody else? And Democrats are pointing their fingers in every direction about why Kamala Harris lost the presidential race.
- The Brussels Court of Appeal held Belgium accountable for the abduction of children of mixed European and African heritage in colonial-era Belgian Congo.
- Italy for the first time paid compensation to victims of Nazi war crimes, giving 800,000 euros to the heirs of a man killed in a 1944 civilian massacre in Tuscany.
- Some Germans say they're sick of feeling like second-class citizens thanks to all the migrants in their country, so they're migrating to another country: Hungary.
- Namibians elected their first female leader. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will extend SWAPO's 34 years in power since it led Namibia to independence from apartheid-era South Africa.
- A South Carolina mother sued Mattel for mistakenly putting a link to a porn website on packaging for dolls tied to the movie "Wicked."
- I remember how big a deal it was when Slayer played in Bangalore. More than a decade later, India is attracting even bigger names, from Coldplay and Dua Lipa to Ed Sheeran and Bryan Adams. They're venturing beyond the major cities, with Adams performing in Shillong, India's rock capital, and Sheeran starting his India tour in Pune.

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