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AROUND THE WORLD
❧ South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law on Tuesday in an unexpected late-night broadcast. He threatened to “eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order.” According to the Yonhap News Agency, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Park An-su issued the following declaration:
All political activities, including those related to the National Assembly, regional assemblies, political parties, the forming of political organizations, rallies and protests are banned… The act of denying free democracy or attempting a subversion is banned; fake news, manipulating public opinion and false instigation is banned.
It seems clear at this moment that Yoon’s order has little to do with threats from the “communist forces” in Kim Jong-un’s regime and more to do with rooting out domestic opposition, whom he calls “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime.” Rather, Yoon seems focused on rooting out domestic enemies after the opposition Democratic Party moved earlier in the week to reduce funding for police and prosecutions and impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors.
A sweeping ban on any form of political dissent, it is the first declaration of martial law in South Korea since the 1980s, when the dictatorship used it to suppress labor organizers and student protests. Despite the danger, thousands of people turned out to protest in front of the parliament in Seoul, where police buses blocked the entrance. Demonstrators chanted, “Lift martial law, protect democracy,” and “impeach President Yoon.” The opposition—which holds a majority—gathered in the legislature and voted unanimously to lift his decree. In response to the swift and stirring mass mobilization, Yoon backed down and reversed the order, and his power grab appears to be backfiring as even leaders within his own party are now condemning him. Credit to the people of South Korea for their strident rebuke of this autocratic power grab. In the coming months, we may learn whether Americans have the fortitude to resist similar repression.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has suggested for the first time that he may be willing to cede occupied territory to Russia in exchange for an end to “the hot phase of the war,” and in exchange for NATO membership. Under this framework, Article 5 protections—which obligate all NATO members to protect other members of the alliance—would only apply to regions currently under Ukrainian control. While this would not immediately necessitate the West to fight Russia, it’s still quite a frightening prospect, since any attempt by Putin to attack within the defined bounds of Ukraine would require America and its allies to become involved in a direct war with another nuclear-armed power. (Business Insider)
A map of Russian territorial control in Ukraine, which includes the Donbas region and the Crimean Peninsula. The orange areas would not be under the NATO umbrella, while the white ones would. (Map: The Telegraph, Nov. 29, 2024)
In a perfect example of the dangers of a for-profit healthcare system, 47 doctors in Turkey are on trial for transferring newborn infants out of public hospitals and into private ones, then giving them unnecessary procedures in order to make more money. The so-called “Newborn Gang” is accused of causing the deaths of at least 10 children. Turkey’s President Erdogan insists these were only “a few rotten apples,” but as long as profit is involved in the practice of medicine, the incentive to do things like this will still exist! (Al Jazeera)
Michael Barnier—the conservative prime minister of France—is facing a no-confidence vote that might topple his entire government tomorrow. You might remember Barnier from when Emmanuel Macron undemocratically nominated him in September, despite the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) winning the largest portion of the French Parliament in July’s election. Now, it seems Barnier has pushed his luck and tried to force through an austerity budget that would cut prescription drug benefits and raise the tax on electricity, leading to challenges from both the Right and Left. Probably shouldn’t have done that, Mike! (Le Monde)
Another laughable centrist bites the dust. (Image: European Parliament via Flickr)
In Australia, more than 1,500 warehouse workers employed by the Woolworths supermarket chain are entering their second week on strike. They’re demanding pay increases, but more importantly, they want an end to the abusive “productivity framework” that penalizes them for missing arbitrary targets in the number of boxes they move per minute. (Red Flag)
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Unionize your workplace!
Whether you work in retail like the Australian Woolworths staff, or in food service, transportation, communications, or even banking, you and your co-workers need a union. It’s the only way to truly protect yourselves against abuse and exploitation from the bosses, and secure decent pay and benefits that can’t be taken away on a whim. The task of joining—or starting—a union is a big one, but there are some helpful guides to get you started, like this one from the Department of Labor, this one from Socialist Alternative, or this one from WikiHow of all places. Give it some thought!
Chad has become the latest African nation to cut its ties with the French military, with Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah announcing last Thursday that the country will “assert its full sovereignty” and expel the roughly 1,000 French troops currently stationed there. On the same day, Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said that France should close its military bases in his country too, so this post-colonial trend looks set to continue. (Politico EU)
Following a COP 29 agreement that activists and scientists found woefully inadequate, several small island nations on the front lines of the climate crisis have brought the largest case in the history of the International Criminal Court. They demand that major polluting countries be held to account for their role in causing the rise in Earth’s temperature. Over the next two weeks, 99 countries are expected to testify. (Associated Press)
London Fashion Week has become the first of four major fashion weeks to ban the use of exotic animal skins—like those of crocodiles, alligators, and snakes—from use in their collections. London also has already banned furs from use after Copenhagen and Melbourne did so. But the major fashion weeks in Paris, New York, and Milan still allow them. Animal activists say their next goal is to see the shows enact a ban on feathers plucked from real birds. (The Guardian)
CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, “What’s going on with our politicians and oligarchs?”)
❧ Going back on yet another of his previous promises, President Biden has pardoned his son Hunter. In a statement on December 1, the president said that Hunter had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted” for his various gun and tax-related felonies, leading to a “miscarriage of justice.” He’s only partly right. It’s true that Republicans have been laser-focused on exposing any possible Biden crimes, and that it’s relatively rare for someone to face prison time for lying on a firearms purchase form, as Hunter did when he filled out the “no, I’m not using drugs” box. But prosecution and imprisonment still do happen, especially to people without the wealth and privilege to effectively fight a court case, so it’s not like that alone is proof of “unfairness.”
Meanwhile, President Biden glosses over the more serious tax-evasion charges his son was facing, and he has alsogiven Hunter a blanket pardon for any offenses he’s committed from January 1, 2014 to December 1, 2024. That includes any potential corruption charges relating to Hunter's time on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where he received huge paychecks despite having no particular knowledge or experience in the energy industry. Besides being pretty shady in itself, using presidential pardon power in this way only lowers the bar for Trump to use it wantonly when he gets into office, including to pardon January 6 rioters or even someone like Derek Chauvin. And for that matter, where are the pardons for the multitude of people in prison today for petty offenses like shoplifting or selling marijuana, or for political prisoners like Native American activist Leonard Peltier or Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, both of whom are now senior citizens in poor health? Right now, it seems Biden’s capacity for mercy extends only to his immediate family.
It turns out “do you know who my father is?” is still the best defense in the U.S. legal system. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
After more than a year of funding and defending Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza, Joe Biden is finally trying to understand the Palestinian perspective now that he’s on his way out of office. This weekend, he was photographed leaving a Nantucket bookstore with a copy of Palestinian historian Rashid Khalidi’s book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, which describes Israel as a “settler-colonial” state built on the ethnic cleansing and displacement of the Palestinian people. “Four years too late,” Khalidi said. (The Forward)
Listening and learning (Video: Metro News, UK)
Like any team that suffers a losing season, the Democratic Party is looking for a new coaching staff. In the running for DNC chair, Ken Martin—the current chair of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, and an associate of Governor Tim Walz—appears to be in the lead, but other names including Bernie Sanders advisor Faiz Shakir have also been mentioned as contenders. The decision is set to be made on February 1, so we won’t have long to wait. (Politico)
We’ve also seen some of the first polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary. By far, the candidate in the lead is… Kamala Harris, with California Governor Gavin Newsom in a very distant second place. Polling slightly lower are more progressive options like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Tim Walz. This is a sad indictment of the current state of the Democratic Party, which seems totally out of ideas and bereft of leadership. But it’s also an environment that is arguably more open for a left insurgent than any point in recent memory. (FiveThirtyEight)
In a further counterexample to the idea that Donald Trump is somehow an anti-imperialist, the president-elect is now threatening a 100-percent tariff against any nation in the rapidly-expanding BRICS group that tries to move away from the U.S. dollar as a medium for international trade. It’s a transparent attempt to maintain both U.S. dominance over the world economy and the power to impose crushing sanctions and even straight-up steal the assets of other countries—and it may not work, as Chinese officials say they’ll continue promoting the yuan for international use regardless. (South China Morning Post)
AROUND THE STATES
Several prisoners at Virginia's Red Onion state prison have intentionally burned themselves to protest the abuse and discrimination they have faced from prison guards. Incarcerated journalist Kevin “Rashid” Johnson first publicized the story in October on Prison Radio, saying that “the racism and abuses were so intolerable that he and others were setting themselves on fire in desperate attempts to be transferred away from the prison.” A statement from Virginia’s legislature’s Black Caucus says prisoners have reported “medical neglect including the withholding of medicine, excessive stays in solitary confinement with one report of 600 consecutive days, inedible food having been covered in maggots and officers’ spit, and violent dog attacks.” After Johnson drew attention to the conditions, he was put in solitary confinement. (The Guardian)
In Texas, a group of activists is pushing for more regulations to protect mountain lion populations. After a push led by 70-year-old conservationist Monica Morrison and her organization Texas Native Cats, the state banned hunting mountain lions back in 2022. But as their population near the Southern border is believed to be in decline, Morrison is pushing for new requirements to study how many mountain lions are in the state. (Dallas Morning News)
With attention focused on our border with Mexico, the U.S. government has quietly been ramping up surveillance at the Canadian border as well. Since 2021, it has constructed at least three surveillance towers in Vermont and New York to apprehend migrants crossing the Northern border. Research on the same kind of towers on the Southern border has found that they often place asylum seekers in more danger by incentivizing them to take more dangerous routes, so the same may well happen to the North too. (Vermont Digger)
Next month, the Georgia state legislature will include a socialist: Gabriel Sanchez, a former waiter who was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and ran on a platform of “Housing, Healthcare and a Georgia for All.” Sanchez credits his “political awakening” in part to the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, who was his high school classmate growing up in Florida, and he was a vocal supporter of the Atlanta DSA’s recent Stop Cop City campaign. It’s unclear how much he’ll actually be able to accomplish in a Georgia legislature dominated by the GOP, but his victory is a sign that socialists can win anywhere in the country. (Marietta Daily Journal)
Sanchez (center, holding flag) at a recent Pride event. (Image: Sanchez for Georgia)
Writers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been on strike for more than two years after the paper imposed terms that raised healthcare costs and cut benefits. It is currently the longest ongoing strike in the country, and the National Labor Relations Board recently required the paper to resume bargaining with its employees after it was ruled to have not negotiated in good faith. (Penn Capital-Star)
CAT and HORSE FACT OF THE WEEK
Cats can ride horses!
A few weeks ago, we gave you the exciting news that dogs can drive cars—or at least, certain dogs in New Zealand can. But did you know that cats are accomplished equestrians? It’s true!
The article goes on to explain that Waffles was a “large, handsome cat, of no particular strain,” while the horse was called Kentucky. The two apparently had a close relationship, with Waffles living in Kentucky’s stable much of the time and leaving for daily jaunts through town:
As soon as the saddle is thrown on the horse by the groom, Waffles gets on it, and, sitting in the position caught by the camera, rides round to the front door[...] Then Waffles is returned to the stable and the two companions remain in company til ten o’clock, when Waffles is fetched to occupy his nightly couch on the rug in Mr. Guthrie’s dressing-room. The cat in the saddle on its way from the stable to Spruce Street daily attracts a throng of delighted and curious spectators.
Back in the 1890s, people had to make do with a single black-and-white image of this spectacle—but nowadays we have YouTube, and it looks like Waffles and Kentucky’s modern counterparts are doing just fine:
Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.
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