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South Korea’s political crisis took a dramatic turn on Friday when investigators were forced to abandon an attempt to arrest the impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, after a tense standoff with his security forces.
Hours after they entered the presidential compound in Seoul, anti-corruption officials said they were halting their attempt to execute a warrant to detain Yoon over allegations that his martial law declaration on 3 December amounted to an insurrection.
“Concern for the safety of personnel onsite led to the decision to halt the [arrest warrant’s] execution,” the Corruption Investigation Office said.
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What are the details of Friday’s standoff? Local media reports said anti-corruption officials – who are leading a joint team of police and prosecutors – entered the compound to find themselves blocked by troops under the control of the presidential security service.
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What happened on 3 December? Yoon declared martial law in an attempt to root out what he described as “anti-state, pro-North Korean” forces – a reference to opposition MPs in the national assembly. He did not provide any evidence for those claims, however. He was forced to lift the order six hours later after lawmakers forced their way past troops into the parliament building to vote it down.
Recordings by New Orleans attack suspect express extreme religious views
The FBI said it now believed the suspect acted alone in a terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day in which 14 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd celebrating on busy Bourbon Street.
Evidence has emerged that the chief suspect, 42-year-old US citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had expressed beliefs almost a year ago on Soundcloud that music, intoxicants, sex and other pleasures were evils deserving of destruction.
The FBI also announced it had found no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the explosion that occurred later on Wednesday of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a hotel owned by Donald Trump in Las Vegas, which resulted in the death of the driver.
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What do we know about the New Orleans attack suspect? It’s understood Jabbar was born and raised in Texas, served in the US army from 2007-15, and in 2022 was $27,000 behind on house payments, he said in court documents. Jabbar’s brother told AP that in recent months he’d isolated himself.
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Why didn’t steel bollards stop the attack? Seven years ago, officials began installing barriers at intersections in the French Quarter of the city. But the steel bollards were in the process of being replaced over New Year’s Eve.
‘Safe zone’ among areas targeted as death toll from Thursday’s Israeli airstrikes in Gaza rises to at least 43
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including 11 people in the sprawling al-Mawasi tent encampment designated as a humanitarian safe zone for civilians.
Among those killed in the al-Mawasi strike was the director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his deputy, Hussam Shahwan, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry.
“As the year begins, we got reports of yet another attack on al-Mawasi with dozens of people killed, another reminder that there is no humanitarian zone let alone a safe zone,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the head of Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Later on Thursday, separate Israeli airstrikes killed at least four people in central Gaza City and two in its Zeitoun district, medics said.
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What is the latest ceasefire news? The latest strikes in Israel’s 15-month war on Gaza – which has led to more than 45,500 Palestinian deaths and reduced the coastal strip to rubble – came as negotiations for a ceasefire-for-hostages deal appeared to have stalled again, despite pressure to conclude an agreement before Donald Trump takes office.
In other news …
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Elon Musk sparked anger in the UK and continued his praise for the global far right after he called for the release of the campaigner Tommy Robinson, who is in jail for contempt of court.
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The driver in the Las Vegas Tesla Cybertruck blast was a decorated US army soldier, officials said, Matthew Livelsberger having been a Green Beret who was deployed twice to Afghanistan.
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Italy’s foreign ministry pressed Iran for the immediate release of Cecilia Sala, a 29-year-old Italian journalist held in solitary confinement in Tehran.
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A small plane collided with a rooftop in Orange county, California, injuring 11 people.
Stat of the day: 200,000 people live in subdivided units as Hong Kong’s efforts to tackle ‘shoebox housing’ run into trouble
In Hong Kong, about 200,000 people live in subdivided units and smaller bed spaces jammed into apartments. The government has pledged to raise minimum standards of subdivided units, but critics say it doesn’t address the worst of the city’s low income housing such as so-called cage homes or coffin apartments.
Don’t miss this: Books to look forward to in 2025
2025 will bring new novels from Han Kang and Natasha Brown, and new nonfiction on Lennon and McCartney’s complicated kinship and the women in Pablo Picasso’s life. Check out the Observer fiction and nonfiction guides to the year ahead.
Climate check: The volunteers saving birds that fly into windows
Each year, more than a billion birds die in North America after crashing into windows. Across Toronto, a team sets out at dawn to rescue migrating birds that have collided with buildings, and keeps a record of the thousands each year that don’t make it.
Last Thing: Are dogs and owners on the same wavelength?
University of Cambridge scientists will examine if humans’ and dogs’ brains synchronize when they interact, in a way similar to parents and babies. The Guardian’s Nicola Davis got wired up and checked it out.
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