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South Korea’s Constitutional Court will issue its long-awaited ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment Friday, months after he was suspended for declaring martial law.Yoon’s December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule plunged South Korea into political chaos after he sent armed soldiers into parliament.Lawmakers defied the troops to vote the measure down and impeached Yoon soon after, but months of political instability have hit South Korea’s economy and left the country in leadership limbo, as US President Donald Trump targets the region with sweeping tariffs.The court held weeks of impeachment hearings to determine whether to officially remove Yoon from office and then took weeks to deliberate on the case, giving rise to speculation that the judges were locked in intense disagreements.”The president’s impeachment case verdict will be on April 4, 2025 at the Constitutional Court,” the court finally said in a statement Tuesday.For Yoon to be removed from office, at least six of the court’s eight justices must vote in favour. Confirmation of his impeachment would trigger elections which must be held within 60 days.Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans have been rallying for and against Yoon every weekend in the capital Seoul.Yoon, a former prosecutor, was detained in January on insurrection charges but released in early March on procedural grounds. He has remained defiant throughout and blamed a “malicious” opposition for the case against him.He is also the first sitting South Korean president to stand trial in a criminal case, facing charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.”I expect the Constitutional Court to issue a unanimous ruling to remove Yoon from office this Friday, as the case does not involve complex legality of his martial law declaration,” said Noh Hee-bum, attorney and a former Constitutional Court research judge. “The primary role of the Constitutional Court is to protect and uphold the Constitution, which Yoon’s declaration of martial law directly violated.”- Fresh elections? -Yoon’s party said it welcomed the court’s move to issue a ruling, saying it hoped the verdict would be “fair and impartial” and would not lead to further social unrest.The People Power Party “will respect and accept the court’s decision, and after the ruling, both the ruling and opposition parties… must take the lead in easing public divisions and promoting national unity,” PPP party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said.”After four long months of waiting, the Constitutional Court has finally responded to the people,” the opposition Democratic Party’s spokesperson said.”We believe the Court will demonstrate its firm resolve to defend the constitutional order and founding principles of the Republic of Korea by removing Yoon Suk Yeol, the insurrectionist, from office.”Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is currently frontrunner to win an election that would be triggered by Yoon’s formal dismissal.An appeals court last week overturned an election law conviction against Lee, potentially clearing the way for him to mount a presidential campaign.But if it is reinstated on appeal before the election, he will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and barred from running for office for five years, including the next presidential vote.Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the ruling on Lee may have appeared “to many Koreans to be reading the political tea leaves”.”This is the judiciary trying to unwind the lawfare of the past three years to allow South Korea’s political crisis to be resolved by an election rather than by the courts,” he said.In a separate case, the Constitutional Court last week dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as acting president — a role he took after the president was suspended for declaring martial law.Experts said the ruling did not have a direct legal correlation with the pending decision on Yoon’s impeachment, as it was not focused on the legality of martial law itself.

Bangladeshi Junayed Akter is 12 years old but the toxic lead coursing through his veins has left him with the diminutive stature of someone several years younger.Akter is one of 35 million children — around 60 percent of all children in the South Asian nation — who have dangerously high levels of lead exposure. The causes are varied, but his mother blames his maladies on a since-shuttered factory that hastily scrapped and recycled old vehicle batteries for profit, in the process poisoning the air and the earth of his small village. “It would start at night, and the whole area would be filled with smoke. You could smell this particular odour when you breathed,” Bithi Akter told AFP. “The fruit no longer grew during the season. One day, we even found two dead cows at my aunt’s house.”Medical tests showed Junayed’s blood had twice the level of lead deemed by the World Health Organization to cause serious, and likely irreversible, mental impairment in young children.”From the second grade onward, he didn’t want to listen to us anymore, he didn’t want to go to school,” Bithi said, as her son sat next to her while gazing blankly out at the courtyard of their home. “He cried all the time too.”Lead poisoning is not a new phenomenon in Bangladesh, and the causes are manifold. They include the heavy metal’s widespread and continued use in paint, in defiance of a government ban, and its use as an adulterant in turmeric spice powder to improve its colour and perceived quality. A great many cases are blamed on informal battery recycling factories that have proliferated around the country in response to rising demand. Children exposed to dangerous levels of lead risk decreased intelligence and cognitive performance, anaemia, stunted growth and lifelong neurological disorders. The factory in the Akter family’s village closed after sustained complaints from the community. But environmental watchdog Pure Earth believes there could be 265 such sites elsewhere in the country. “They break down old batteries, remove the lead and melt it down to make new ones,” Pure Earth’s Mitali Das told AFP.”They do all this in the open air,” she added. “The toxic fumes and acidic water produced during the operation pollute the air, soil and water.”- ‘They’ve killed our village’ -In Fulbaria, a village that sits a few hours’ drive north of the capital Dhaka, operations at another battery recycling factory owned by a Chinese company are in full swing.On one side are verdant paddy fields. On the other, a pipe spews murky water into a brackish pool bordered by dead lands, caked with thick orange mud.”As a child, I used to bring food to my father when he was in the fields. The landscape was magnificent, green, the water was clear,” engineer and local resident Rakib Hasan, 34, told AFP.”You see what it looks like now. It’s dead, forever,” he added. “They’ve killed our village.”Hasan complained about the factory’s pollution, prompting a judge to declare it illegal and order the power be shut off — a decision later reversed by the country’s supreme court. “The factory bought off the local authorities,” Hasan said. “Our country is poor, many people are corrupt.”Neither the company nor the Chinese embassy in Dhaka responded to AFP’s requests for comment on the factory’s operations.Syeda Rizwana Hasan, who helms Bangladesh’s environment ministry, declined to comment on the case because it was still before the courts. “We regularly conduct operations against the illegal production and recycling of electric batteries,” she said. “But these efforts are often insufficient given the scale of the phenomenon.”- ‘Unaware of the dangers’ -Informal battery recycling is a booming business in Bangladesh.It is driven largely by the mass electrification of rickshaws — a formerly pedal-powered means of conveyance popular in both big cities and rural towns.More than four million rickshaws are found on Bangladeshi roads and authorities estimate the market for fitting them all with electric motors and batteries at around $870 million.”It’s the downside of going all-electric,” said Maya Vandenant of the UN children’s agency, which is pushing a strategy to clean up the industry with tighter regulations and tax incentives.”Most people are unaware of the dangers,” she said, adding that the public health impacts are forecast to be a 6.9 percent dent to the national economy.Muhammad Anwar Sadat of Bangladesh’s health ministry warned that the country could not afford to ignore the scale of the problem.”If we do nothing,” he told AFP, “the number of people affected will multiply three or fourfold in the next two years.”

South Korea’s Constitutional Court will issue its long-awaited ruling on President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment Friday, months after he was suspended for declaring martial law.Yoon’s December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule plunged South Korea into political chaos, after he sent armed soldiers into parliament.Lawmakers defied the troops to vote the measure down and impeached Yoon soon after, but the months of political instability have hit South Korea’s economy and left the country in leadership limbo, even as US President Donald Trump targets the region with tariffs.The court has held weeks of impeachment hearings to determine whether to officially remove Yoon from office, and then took weeks to deliberate on the case, giving rise to a surge in speculation with some suggesting the justices must be experiencing intense disagreements.”The president’s impeachment case verdict will be on April 4, 2025 at the Constitutional Court,” the court said in a statement Tuesday.For Yoon to be removed from office, at least six of the court’s eight justices must vote in favour. Confirmation of his impeachment would trigger elections which must be held within 60 days.Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans have been rallying for and against Yoon every weekend in central Seoul.Yoon, a former prosecutor, was detained in January on insurrection charges but was released in early March on procedural grounds. He has remained defiant throughout and blamed a “malicious” opposition.He is also the first sitting South Korean president to stand trial in a criminal case, facing charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.- Fresh elections? -“After four long months of waiting, the Constitutional Court has finally responded to the people,” the opposition Democratic Party’s spokesperson said.”We believe the Court will demonstrate its firm resolve to defend the constitutional order and founding principles of the Republic of Korea by removing Yoon Suk Yeol, the insurrectionist, from office.” Yoon’s party said it welcomed the court’s move to issue a ruling, saying it hoped the verdict would be “fair and impartial” and would not lead to further social unrest.The People Power Party “will respect and accept the court’s decision, and after the ruling, both the ruling and opposition parties… must take the lead in easing public divisions and promoting national unity,” Kweon Seong-dong PPP party floor leader said.If the Constitutional Court decides to formally dismiss the president, it would trigger elections, which opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is currently frontrunner to win.An appeals court last week overturned an election law conviction against Lee, potentially clearing the way for him to mount a presidential campaign.But if it is reinstated on appeal before the election, he will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and barred from running for office for five years, including the next presidential vote.Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the ruling on Lee may have appeared “to many Koreans to be reading the political tea leaves”.”This is the judiciary trying to unwind the lawfare of the past three years to allow South Korea’s political crisis to be resolved by an election rather than by the courts.” In a separate case, the Constitutional Court last week dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, reinstating him as acting president — a role he took after the president was suspended for declaring martial law.Experts said the ruling did not have a direct legal correlation with the pending decision on Yoon’s impeachment, as it was not focused on the legality of martial law itself.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged dozens of countries attending an immigration crime summit on Monday to join forces to dismantle migrant smuggling gangs “once and for all”.Starmer is seeking to crack down on would-be asylum seekers arriving in England on flimsy small boats and has brought together delegates from more than 40 nations for the two-day meeting in London.The interior ministers of France and Germany were among those attending the Organised Immigration Crime Summit. China and the United States also sent representatives.The UK government is struggling to stop undocumented migrants embarking on dangerous boat journeys across the English Channel from France. “This vile trade exploits the cracks between our institutions … and profits from our inability at the political level to come together,” Starmer said. He argued that resources and intelligence must be shared and that governments need to “tackle the problem upstream at every step of the people-smuggling routes”.”There’s nothing progressive or compassionate about turning a blind eye to this,” Starmer added.Britain’s interior ministry, known as the Home Office, billed the gathering as “the first major international summit in the UK to tackle the global emergency of illegal migration”.In a video message, Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni hailed her country’s agreement with Albania to process asylum claims at detention centres in the non-European Union country.She claimed countries “criticised (it) at first but that then has gained increasing consensus”.Italian judges have repeatedly refused to sign off on migrants intercepted by Italian authorities at sea being detained in Albania, ordering them to be transferred to Italy instead, and the European Court of Justice is reviewing Rome’s policy.- Online recruitment -Starmer’s summit is designed to build on a plan that Britain, Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands signed in December to boost cooperation against irregular migration.Delegates from countries from where migrants set out, such as Vietnam and Iraq, and countries they transit through, such as those in the Balkans, also attended.It also brought together the heads of UK law enforcement agencies and counterparts from Interpol, Europol and Afripol.The Home Office said the summit would discuss the equipment, infrastructure and fraudulent documents that criminal gangs use.They would also look at how supply routes work and discuss how to tackle the online recruitment of migrants, including with representatives from social media platforms Meta, X and TikTok.The UK announced Sunday it was launching adverts on Zalo, the Vietnamese instant messaging system, to warn people of the dangers of people smugglers.Vietnamese nationals are among the top nationalities making the perilous sea voyage across the Channel to Britain.Similar UK campaigns have already been launched in Albania and Iraqi Kurdistan.UK officials are also keen to speak to China about how it can stop exporting engines and other small boats parts used in crossings.- Domestic pressure -Starmer told the meeting that since his Labour government took power in July, more than 24,000 people with “no right to be here” had been returned.But the number of undocumented migrants arriving across the Channel set a new record last week for the first three months of the year — at more than 6,600.At least 10 people are dead or missing after attempting the treacherous crossing so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.More than 157,770 people have been detected trying to enter Britain in dinghies since successive governments began collecting data in 2018.In February, Starmer’s government announced it was toughening immigration rules to make it almost impossible for undocumented migrants who arrive on small boats to later receive citizenship.Starmer is facing rising support for Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform UK party, which won roughly four million votes at July’s general election — an unprecedented haul for a hard-right party.Amnesty International said “everyone should be allowed to enter another country to seek asylum”, while the Refugee Council called on the UK government to focus on improving legal channels for gaining asylum.”Enforcement strategies alone will never work,” said Refugee Council CEO Enver Solomon.

Authorities in Thailand are investigating possible factors that led to the devastating collapse of a Bangkok construction site, where dozens remained missing on Monday, three days after a massive earthquake centred in Myanmar.The planned skyscraper was to house government offices, but the shaking reduced the structure to a pile of rubble in seconds.The collapse is the worst damage inflicted in Thailand by the 7.7-magnitude quake, which caused widespread destruction — and at least 1,700 deaths — in neighbouring Myanmar.Numerous high-rise buildings elsewhere in Bangkok were left unscathed with limited reports of major damage, prompting questions as to why the one tower was destroyed.Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt told reporters on Monday that only two buildings in the city remained inaccessible.Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra had expressed concerns on Saturday, questioning why the collapsed building was the only one in the capital to suffer major damage.”I have questions in my mind,” she said. “What happened from the beginning since it was designed? How was this design approved? This was not the first building in the country.”We have to investigate where the mistake happened.”Paetongtarn ordered a probe into the incident involving a group of experts who she said would report back to her this week.- Some substandard steel -Critics have said that the steel bars used to link the building’s concrete structures may have been too thin, or not of sufficient quality.A number of steel rods were taken from the rubble and put through various technical examinations in front of journalists on Monday afternoon.Industry minister Akanat Promphan said on Sunday that six types of steel had been found, all from a single producer.”The collapse of a building can come from several factors, from design, construction (and) material specification,” he said.”Most important is the standard of the materials.”Nontichai Likhitaporn, inspections director at the Thai Industrial Standards Institute, told a news conference that some of the steel was found to be substandard, though most was acceptable.Nattaphol Suthitham, from the Engineering Institute of Thailand, said the use of substandard steel would put the building at greater risk, but was not necessarily the sole cause of the collapse.The confirmed death toll for Bangkok stood at 19 on Monday, with fears that the number could significantly rise as dozens remain missing under the building’s rubble.Morning rain on Monday gave way to a hot, humid and overcast afternoon as responders worked to remove debris and locate any remaining survivors.Meanwhile, concerns have also been raised about Thailand’s emergency response system, after a text message alert system experienced delays when Friday’s quake struck.”Our problem is that the sending of messages was slow and did not cover enough people,” Paetongtarn said Saturday.The prime minister has called a meeting for Monday with government departments responsible for sending the SMS alerts to the public, Thai media reported.

Mitchell Starc claimed his first five-wicket haul in T20 cricket and Nitish Rana smashed a 36-ball 81 as Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals registered victories in the IPL on Sunday.Australian left-arm quick Starc returned figures of 5-35 as Delhi bowled out Hyderabad for 163, a target they overhauled with four overs and seven wickets to spare for their second straight win in this edition of the T20 tournament.In the second match of the day in Guwahati, Rana’s batting blitz helped Rajasthan to 182-9 and then kept down Chennai Super Kings to 176-6 for a six-run win – the team’s first after two losses.”Feels good,” said stand-in Rajasthan skipper Riyan Parag. “Took some time, it was two games but felt long. Felt we were 20 short but the bowlers stepped up and executed our collective plans.”Sri Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga returned figures of 4-35, delivering key blows against the Chennai batting order.The left-handed Rana put on 82 for the second wicket with Sanju Samson to lay the foundations of Rajasthan’s total.Afghanistan left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad broke the stand with the wicket of Samson, who is Rajasthan’s regular captain but playing only as a batsman due to an injury.Rana reached his fifty in 21 balls and bludgeoned the bowlers with 10 fours and five sixes in his stay at the crease. He was named player of the match.Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin cut short Rana’s knock when he had the batsman stumped.Parag hit 37 off 28 balls before being bowled by Sri Lankan pace bowler Matheesha Pathirana.In Chennai’s reply, England pace bowler Jofra Archer struck in the first over to have Rachin Ravindra caught behind for a duck as he celebrated his first wicket this IPL season.Hasaranga then took control and got a wicket in each of his four overs and his final strike of skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad for 63 derailed the Chennai chase.- ‘No ego’ -Earlier in Delhi’s second home of Visakhapatnam, Starc struck early and twice in one over to send back Ishan Kishan and Nitish Reddy. He then got fellow Australian Travis Head caught behind for 22 as Hyderabad slipped to 37-4 in 4.1 overs.Indian batsman Aniket Verma, who top-scored with 74, and South African wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen then put on an attacking stand of 77 in an attempt to hit back.Kuldeep Yadav, a left-arm wrist spinner, claimed figures of 3-22 before Starc completed his five to wrap up the Hyderabad innings.”There’s no ego in bowlers these days,” said player of the match Starc. “As a bowler you’ve got to think out of the box. You need to do things you wouldn’t normally do. It was nice to contribute in the win today, we move forward from here.”In reply, South African veteran Faf Du Plessis came out firing in his 27-ball 50 as he smashed India fast bowler Mohammed Shami for a six and three fours in a 15-run third over to set up the chase.Delhi, under new skipper Axar Patel, have rebuilt the team in their hunt for a first IPL title and brought in England great Kevin Pietersen as mentor.

Nitish Rana’s batting blitz combined with a four-wicket haul by Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga led Rajasthan Royals to their first victory of this IPL season against Chennai Super Kings on Sunday.Rajasthan depended on a 36-ball 81 by Rana to post 182-9 after being invited to bat first at their second home in Guwahati.Hasaranga then turned on the heat with his leg-spin to help restrict Chennai to 176-6 and a six-run win to bounce back from two losses in the T20 tournament.The left-handed Rana put on 82 for the second wicket with Sanju Samson to lay the foundations.Afghanistan left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad once again proved his worth as he broke the stand with the wicket of Samson, who is Rajasthan’s regular captain but playing only as a batsman due to an injury.Rana reached his fifty in 21 balls and bludgeoned the bowlers with 10 fours and five sixes in his stay at the crease.Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin cut short Rana’s knock as he had the batsman stumped to check Rajasthan’s surge.Stand-in-skipper Riyan Parag hit 37 off 28 balls before being bowled by Sri Lankan pace bowler Matheesha Pathirana.Pace spearhead Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Jofra Archer for a duck for his second wicket.Noor and Pathirana both returned figures of 2-28.In Chennai’s reply, Archer struck in the first over to have Rachin Ravindra caught behind for a duck as he celebrated his first wicket this IPL season.Archer had a disastrous start to the tournament when he went for 76 in his four overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad for the league’s most expensive bowling figures ever.Hasaranga struck with his first ball to send back Rahul Tripathi before skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad attempted to put the chase on track in his 63 off 44 balls.Hasaranga claimed a wicket each in his next two overs including impact player Shivam Dube to dent the opposition chase but Gaikwad stood strong to reach his fifty.Hasaranga dismissed Gaikwad in his last over to return figures of 4-35.M.S. Dhoni attempted to see his team over the line in his late blitz of 16 but fell to a stunning catch in the deep by Shimron Hetmyer off Sandeep Sharma who defended 20 runs in the final over.Ravindra Jadeja hit a valiant 32 not out as Chennai suffered their second straight loss after they started the season with a win over Mumbai Indians.

Australia’s Mitchell Starc claimed his first five-wicket haul in T20 cricket to help Delhi Capitals down Sunrisers Hyderabad for their second straight win in the Indian Premier League on Sunday.Starc, a left-arm quick, returned figures of 5-35 as Delhi bowled out Hyderabad for 163 in 18.4 overs in their second home at Visakhapatnam.South African veteran Faf du Plessis then smashed 50 off 27 balls and put on 81 runs for the first wicket with Australian batter Jake Fraser-McGurk, who hit 38, as Delhi achieved their target with four overs and seven wickets to spare.Hyderabad’s innings started badly as Abhishek Sharma was run out early for one when he was involved in a mix-up with fellow opener Travis Head.Starc then struck twice in one over to send back Ishan Kishan and Nitish Reddy and then got fellow Australian Head caught behind for 22 as Hyderabad slipped to 37-4 in 4.1 overs.Indian batter Aniket Verma, who top-scored with 74, and South African wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen then put on an attacking stand of 77 in an attempt to hit back.Klaasen fell on 32 off 19 balls to Mohit Sharma, but Aniket kept up the charge in an eye-catching 41-ball knock laced with five fours and six sixes.Fraser-McGurk ended Aniket’s blitz with a stunning catch at deep mid-wicket when he timed his jump to pluck a travelling ball out of the air and hand spinner Kuldeep Yadav a prized wicket.Kuldeep, a left-arm wrist spinner, claimed figures of 3-22 before Starc completed his five to wrap up the Hyderabad innings.In reply, Du Plessis came out firing as he smashed India fast bowler Mohammed Shami for a six and three fours in a 15-run third over to set up the chase.Du Plessis fell after his 50 to Indian leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari who took a beating at the hands of Fraser-McGurk but hit back with his second wicket in the same over.Ansari later bowled KL Rahul round his legs before Abhishek Porel, on 34, and Tristan Stubbs, on 21, steered the team home in an unbeaten stand of 51.Delhi, under new skipper Axar Patel, have rebuilt the team in their hunt for a first IPL title and brought in England great Kevin Pietersen as mentor.Hyderabad, winners in 2016 under David Warner, have two losses and one victory in three outings this season.

Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra overcame a rocky start to clinch the Hero Indian Open by two strokes on Sunday for his maiden DP World Tour title.Chacarra, 25, came into the final round as overnight leader but slipped after carding a double bogey on the first and a bogey at the third round at the DLF Golf and Country Club near New Delhi.But a burst of birdies at the sixth, ninth, 11th, 12th and 14th holes saw bounce back to open up a four-shot lead.Chacarra finished on four under par, two shots clear of Japan’s Keita Nakajima, who won the title last year, in second place. Joost Luiten of the Netherlands was another stroke back in third.”Man it was a tough day,” Chacarra said after the win. “We knew it was going to be a long day, going be a lot of pressure and I didn’t have the start that I really wanted.”Chacarra survived a late scare on the 17th hole when he found himself near the long grass after his second shot but escaped with a bogey.He closed his round with a par for a comfortable win in the end as he raised his hands to a cheering crowd.Chacarra was playing on a tournament invitation this week.”It means everything, I stayed patient,” he said. “I know when I play my best, I’m one of the best players in the world. I already proved that a million times.””I surround myself with good guys, have a good team. They trust me. My family probably didn’t sleep tonight. It’s just awesome. It is going to need to sink in, but really proud and I’m just, just happy.”Italy’s Andrea Pavan made Sunday a memorable day with a hole-in-one at the par-three 12th from 189 yards.