South Korean authorities halt bid to arrest Yoon after hours-long standoff
South Korean authorities have suspended an attempt to arrest impeached President Yoon Suk-yeol after an hours-long standoff with his security team. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said on Friday that it had decided to halt its bid to detain Yoon over his short-lived declaration of martial law after the Presidential Security Service (PSS) blocked its investigators from entering his residence. “Regarding the execution of the arrest warrant today, it was determined that the execution was effectively impossible due to the ongoing standoff. Concern for the safety of personnel on-site led to the decision to halt the execution,” the CIO said in a statement. Investigators arrived at Yoon’s compound early on Friday morning to detain the embattled leader as part of an investigation into alleged insurrection and abuse of power related to his brief imposition of martial law on December 3, which plunged the East Asian nation into its deepest political crisis in decades. Advertisement But PSS chief Park Jong-joon denied investigators entry to Yoon’s residence, citing restrictions on access to locations potentially linked to military secrets, the state-funded Yonhap News Agency reported. Speculation about when and how authorities would take Yoon into custody has swirled since a Seoul court earlier this week granted prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant. Yoon’s security detail previously blocked investigators from executing several search warrants directed at the president. If arrested, the conservative leader would be the first sitting president to be detained in South Korean history. Before the CIO’s announcement, Yoon Kap-keun, a lawyer for Yoon, had reiterated that investigators were acting outside their authority and the law. Seok Dong-hyeon, another member of Yoon’s legal team, said it was unlikely that authorities would be able to take the president into custody on Friday. The liberal opposition Democratic Party had called on Acting President Choi Sang-mok to order the presidential security service to stand down, with lawmaker Jo Seung-lae saying it was the interim leader’s responsibility to prevent “further chaos”. “Do not drag the upright staff of the Presidential Security Service and other public officials into the depths of crime,” Jo said. The arrest warrant is viable until January 6, and gives investigators only 48 hours to hold Yoon after he is arrested. Investigators must then decide whether to request a detention warrant or release him. Advertisement In a defiant New Year’s message to supporters gathered outside his residence, Yoon pledged to “fight until the end to protect this country together with you”. Yoon has defended his brief martial law decree as legal and necessary, citing the need to “eradicate pro-North Korea forces” and investigate unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Braving freezing temperatures, thousands of Yoon’s supporters have rallied outside his compound in recent days to demand an end to the investigation and the reversal of his impeachment. “President Yoon Suk-yeol will be protected by the people” and “Illegal warrant is invalid”, protesters chanted on Thursday. Authorities have deployed about 2,700 police and 135 police buses in the area to prevent violence between pro and anti-Yoon protesters, Yonhap reported. If found guilty of insurrection, one of the few crimes for which a sitting president does not enjoy immunity from prosecution, Yoon faces severe penalties, including life imprisonment and the death penalty. Yoon, who served as the nation’s top prosecutor before entering politics, has been suspended from his duties since December 14, when the National Assembly voted 204-85 for his impeachment. Choi, the finance minister and deputy prime minister, has served as acting president since December 27, when the legislature voted to impeach Yoon’s initial successor, Han Duck-soo, over his refusal to immediately fill three vacancies on the Constitutional Court, which is deliberating whether to uphold Yoon’s impeachment or restore his presidential authority. Advertisement The court has up to six months to make its ruling, with at least six justices on the nine-member bench needed to uphold Yoon’s impeachment and remove him from office. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,044
Here are the key developments on the 1,044th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Here is the situation on Friday, January 3: Fighting The Ukrainian military said it carried out a high-precision strike on a Russian command post in Maryino, in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold chunks of territory after a major cross-border incursion. Russia’s military said air defence units had downed four Ukrainian missiles in the Kursk region, and Kursk’s regional governor said strikes had damaged a high-rise apartment and other buildings. Ukraine’s military released a video on social media of what it said was damage to a Russian base in Ivanovskoye, next to Maryino, in the Kursk region. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences had downed a series of drones late on Thursday targeting regions near the Ukrainian border, including two in the Belgorod region, two in the Bryansk region and one in the Kursk region. The governor of Russia’s Oryol region said four drones had been downed in the area. Moscow also said that Russian troops had downed a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet, 97 drones and six United States-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers. Ukraine said its forces shot down 47 of 72 Russian drones targeting the country overnight, and another 24 drones were lost – due to electronic jamming. Ukraine has opened a criminal probe into desertion and “abuse of power” after hundreds of soldiers were reported to have fled an army unit partly trained by France. The 155th Mechanised Brigade, dubbed “Anne of Kyiv”, was one of several military groupings formed last year as Ukraine sought to boost preparations for possible new Russian offensives. A Ukrainian court has sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for passing information to Moscow that could have helped it target missile strikes. Advertisement Politics Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that US President-elect Donald Trump could be decisive in the outcome of the war with Russia. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping [Russian President Vladimir] Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this,” Zelenskyy said in an interview. Economy Gas supplies in Europe remain stable, with the exception of Moldova, the European Union said after Russian gas transit via Ukraine stopped. The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Moldova’s breakaway Transdniestria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers, Sergei Obolonik, first deputy prime minister of the region, told a local news channel. A Russian tanker accident in the Black Sea last month resulted in 2,400 tonnes of oil being spilled and not 3,000 tonnes as initially assumed, authorities in Moscow said. The accident happened in mid-December when two Russian tankers crashed in a storm in the Kerch Strait. Ukraine intends to increase exports as the country enters its fourth year of war with Russia in 2025, Zelenskyy said. The country had already succeeded in boosting exports by 15 percent in 2024, he said. Regional tension Angered by Ukraine’s stoppage of Russian gas, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he would consider the possibility of reducing support for Ukrainians in Slovakia and repeated the threat of stopping electricity deliveries to its larger neighbour. The Lithuanian government said that the recent failure of the Estlink 2 undersea cable, which has been blamed on a Russian vessel, does not affect the planned synchronisation of the Baltic states’ electricity grid with Western Europe. Finland’s national power grid operator said it had asked a Helsinki court to seize the Eagle S oil tanker in a bid to secure the company’s claim for damages related to the severing of the undersea Estlink 2 electricity interconnector. The cable between Finland and Estonia was damaged on December 25 along with four telecoms lines. Advertisement Adblock test (Why?)
Syria’s ‘Princesses of Freedom’
Khijou comes back into the living room with her laptop. “Here he is,” she says. The picture of her son, Samir, is grim. In it, he’s still alive but his limbs are skeletal. He is starving from al-Assad’s siege over Moadhamiyet al-Sham in 2013. Samir’s ribs jut out from his skin, his bony elbow bent painfully. Three days later, Syrian officers allegedly kidnapped him after Khijou sent him for medical evacuation with a United Nations convoy. He never came back. “They took him to the Air Force Intelligence branch, that’s what we were told at the time,” she recalls. Samir would be 32 years old today, Khijou says – if, by some slim chance, he managed to survive all those years of prison. Other than that, “we don’t know anything”, she says. Perhaps he went to some other prison, she figures, maybe Sednaya. She is calm and composed at this possibility, a civilian journalist simply pointing out another injustice around her, the years of heartbreak seemingly calcified into the fact of Samir’s likely death. The chance that he’s still among the survivors becomes slimmer by the day. Today, Khijou shares his picture and name on social media in the hopes that someone, somewhere, might have information. Khijou al-Khateeb’s son Samir, then 21, who she photographed in 2013, just three days before his disappearance during the siege of Moadhamiyet al-Sham [Raghed Waked/Al Jazeera] Khijou’s other son, Muhammad, who shares a name with his 22-year-old cousin, is also gone. He fled to Germany a year ago through Europe’s forests, the thought of al-Assad’s fall a distant dream. Khijou supported him in taking the journey, fearing he, too, might get arrested at a regime checkpoint someday and never return. He’s now stuck in a refugee camp, unable to work or study. In Khijou’s profile picture on WhatsApp, pictures of the two young men are copy-pasted together side by side, looking so similar – Samir’s clean-shaven portrait from before 2013 next to Muhammad’s more up-to-date beard and moustache, posing in front of a wintry skyline in Germany. It’s not clear yet what justice might look like for families like the al-Khateebs. Legal justice for Syrian prison survivors has been limited. In 2022, a German court in Koblenz convicted Anwar Raslan, former head of investigations at the notorious General Intelligence Directorate’s Branch 251 in Damascus, of crimes against humanity. He was sentenced to life in prison. That case was successful because Germany has implemented “universal jurisdiction”, meaning the country’s legal system can prosecute crimes against humanity and other serious cases no matter where the crimes happened. “So that is still an option, of course, if any perpetrators are found in a country that implements universal jurisdiction,” explains international criminal lawyer Nadine Kheshen. Inside Syria, things might be different. As of now, it’s been less than a month since the fall of the al-Assad regime, so it isn’t yet clear how the justice system could play out for prison victims and their families. “It’s still not clear how the judicial and legal system will look, at least in the transitional period,” says Obai Kurd Ali, a Syrian lawyer and specialist in international human rights law at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. “People are still trying to understand the new system.” Most important, for survivors like the al-Khateeb sisters and others, is documenting what happened to them in the hopes of future accountability, Kurd Ali says. The sisters say they are willing to speak to lawyers and hope to someday “file a lawsuit” over what happened to them in prison. Khijou says she simply isn’t ready to forgive the people who imprisoned her and her family. “As female detainees, as mothers of detainees, as wives of detainees, we have no forgiveness,” she says, matter-of-factly. Behind her is the laptop with images of her son Samir’s starved, skeletal body. His absence still stings. Khijou’s husband, named Muhammad, now suffers severe depression. “It’s been two years now that he hasn’t been able to leave the house. He sits with us at home, but quiet. Silent. He doesn’t speak,” Khijou says. The elder Muhammad is with us, apparently, in the house, as we drink our sweet tea. But he remains hidden somewhere in the freezing apartment, beyond a series of closed doors, past Mayyasa’s ring light for her makeup videos, and Khijou’s industrial sewing machine. For now, the family have their quiet anger. Adblock test (Why?)
Shillong Teer Results TODAY January 3, 2025 Live Updates: Winning Numbers For Shillong Teer, Morning Teer, Juwai Teer
The results for both rounds can be checked on the official website, meghalayateer.com. In addition to Shillong Teer, other popular lottery games in Meghalaya include Khanapara Teer, Jowai Teer, and Ladrymbai Teer, all of which are legally regulated under the Meghalaya Amusement and Betting Tax Act.
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Her groundbreaking work in yield optimization and drift detection has set new standards for efficiency in semiconductor production processes
Delhi weather update: Dense fog grips Delhi-NCR, AQI plunges to ‘very poor’ level
The city’s air quality has taken a hit, dropping to the ‘very poor’ category after a brief improvement.
Trump taps team to work with US Treasury nominee Scott Bessent
President-elect Trump announced several appointments to his administration Thursday, including the team that will work with his nominee for the U.S. Treasury, Scott Bessent. In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that Ken Kies will serve as assistant secretary for tax policy. Kies, who has worked as a tax lawyer for 47 years, has served as the chief of staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation and the chief Republican tax counsel of the House Ways and Means Committee. Also joining the team is Alexandra Preate, who Trump appointed as senior counsel to the secretary. TRUMP PICKS MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COMMISSIONER KEVIN MARINO CABRERA FOR PANAMA AMBASSADOR Trump said Preate is an accomplished executive in public relations. Trump appointed Hunter McMaster to serve as the director of policy planning and Daniel Katz was appointed to serve as chief of staff. Katz, Trump wrote, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a graduate of Yale. Katz also served as a senior adviser at the Treasury Department. Trump’s appointment as deputy chief of staff in the Treasury Department is Samantha Schwab, who worked in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs during the president-elect’s first term. GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR? “All of them are incredible, hardworking Patriots, who will work tirelessly to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump said of the team. In addition to the Treasury Department appointments, Trump announced that Benjamin Leon James will serve as the next U.S. ambassador to Spain. “Benjamin is a highly successful entrepreneur, equestrian, and philanthropist. He came to the U.S. from Communist Cuba at 16-years-old, with only five dollars in his pocket, and proceeded to build his company, Leon Medical Centers, into an incredible business,” Trump wrote. “He has helped support many worthy causes, like La Liga Contra el Cancer, and important Medical Research at Johns Hopkins and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.” HOW PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP COULD PULL OFF ‘THE DEAL OF THE CENTURY’ AS HE ENTERS OFFICE Trump also appointed Joe Popolo to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Popolo helped transform the Freeman Company into what Trump called “the world’s leading live event brand experience company.” Popolo also serves as founder and CEO of Charles & Potomac Capital, LLC; the chairman of the board of Pinnacle Live, LLC; and, as a board member of Ondas Holdings. “Joe is an E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner, and also a recipient of the Dallas Business Journal’s Most Admired CEO Award,” Trump wrote. “He is a proud graduate of Boston College, a member of their Board of Regents, and also, a Patron of the Arts in the Vatican Museum.” Trump also appointed Cora Alvi to serve as his deputy chief of staff. Alvi, Trump wrote, most recently worked as the national deputy finance director for Donald J. Trump for President Inc.
New Orleans attacker had ‘remote detonator’ for explosives in French Quarter, Biden says
New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone and planted “remote detonator” explosives inside coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he drove a pickup truck at a high rate of speed into a crowd of people celebrating New Year’s on Bourbon Street, President Biden said at a news conference Thursday. “We have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack,” Biden said during a news conference about his administration’s 235 judicial confirmations. “They’ve established that the attacker was the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter, just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests.” NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: INSIDE BOURBON STREET TERRORIST’S HOUSTON HOME Biden stated that federal agents are investigating potential links to the Las Vegas explosion, also probed as a terror attack, and urged them to “accelerate” their efforts. Fourteen people were killed, and Jabbar died in a shootout with police. “As of now, they’ve just been briefed,” Biden said. “They have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far. I’ve directed them to keep looking.” The FBI identified Jabbar as the driver who crashed a rented truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The bureau told congressional lawmakers on Thursday that it had zero information about Jabbar prior to his attack. They also said that while Jabbar has said he was “inspired” by ISIS, investigators have not found any evidence that he was directed by ISIS. INVESTIGATORS USE TATTOO, PHOTOS TO IDENTIFY SUSPECT BEHIND CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION AT TRUMP HOTEL New Orleans hospitals treated a total of 37 victims who were injured in Wednesday’s attack. LCMC Health has not stated how many of those injured have since been discharged, nor has it clarified the condition of those still hospitalized. Authorities had been investigating a potential military connection between Jabbar and the Las Vegas suspect, who law enforcement identified to The Associated Press as Matthew Livelsberger. “As you know, there’s also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling anything out,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division Christopher Raia told reporters Thursday. “However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.” Jabbar, a U.S. native born in Texas, had previously served in the U.S. military. Authorities are still investigating how and when he became radicalized. Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
Fox News Politics Newsletter: Kash on Demand
Welcome to the Fox News Politics newsletter, with the latest updates on the Trump transition, exclusive interviews and more Fox News politics content. Here’s what’s happening… – What to know about the race for Speaker of the House – Trump says he’s not changed his mind on H-1B visas as debate rages within MAGA coalition – Biden gives presidential medal to Liz Cheney ahead of Oval Office exit President-elect Donald Trump’s allies are excoriating the FBI for its initial characterization of the brutal car attack in New Orleans as not terror-related, before the nation’s top federal law enforcement agency backtracked and launched a terrorism investigation allegedly connected to ISIS. “The FBI has a no-fail mission. There is no room for error. When they fail, Americans die. It’s a necessity that Kash Patel gets confirmed ASAP,” a source close to Trump told Fox News Digital on Thursday morning. Early Wednesday morning, chaos broke out on Bourbon Street in New Orleans as New Year’s Eve revelers partied on the streets. The suspect, later identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is accused of ramming a truck into the crowds on the beloved and famed party street, killing at least 15 and injuring dozens of others. Jabbar, who was armed with a Glock and a .308 rifle, was killed after opening fire on police. As details filtered to the public on Wednesday morning, law enforcement officials, including the FBI, held a press conference where a special agent initially told the public that the attack was not related to terrorism…Read more ‘RADICALIZATION’: New Orleans terror suspect’s brother says attack is sign of ‘radicalization’…Read more NEW ORLEANS: What we know about the victims of New Orleans terrorist attack…Read more AIRBNB LINK: Bomb-making materials found at New Orleans Airbnb linked to Bourbon Street terrorist: report…Read more WAR ON TERROR: New Orleans, Las Vegas suspects latest in long line of military radicals…Read more ISIS INFLUENCE?: Pro-ISIS group called on Muslims to conduct NYE attacks ahead of New Orleans massacre…Read more SIGNS OF TERROR: NYC protesters follow New Orleans attack by calling for ‘intifada revolution’ hours after rampage…Read more LAS VEGAS: Las Vegas police say Cybertruck that exploded at Trump hotel had fuel containers large firework mortars…Read more SUSPECT IDENTIFIED: Suspect behind Cybertruck that exploded at Trump hotel identified as active-duty U.S. Army soldier…Read more CHRISTIANS TARGETED: Christians increasingly persecuted worldwide as ‘modern and historical factors converge’…Read more 2025 SHOWDOWNS: As Trump returns to the White House, these are the elections to watch in 2025…Read more VICTORY RALLY: Trump to headline ‘victory rally’ in nation’s capital on eve of inauguration…Read more ‘LIVES DEPEND ON IT’: Republicans push for prompt Trump confirmations in wake of New Orleans attack…Read more ‘NO WAY IN HELL’: Derrick Van Orden targets Chip Roy over speakership vote: ‘Chip is fighting to keep his brand marketable’…Read more SPEAKER STRUGGLE: Mike Johnson gets public GOP Senate support ahead of tight House speaker vote…Read more CHANGING THE RULES: House Republicans move to change rules for vacating speakership one year after McCarthy’s ousting…Read more SPOKE TOO SOON?: Hochul’s Christmastime boast of safer subway came amid string of alarming violent attacks…Read more Get the latest updates on the Trump presidential transition, incoming Congress, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com.