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South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in the country late Tuesday local time, the first such declaration since the country democratized in the 1980s. The opposition-held National Assembly quickly voted to overturn the declaration, and the president formally lifted the order early Wednesday local time. The opposition party is now urging Yoon to resign or face impeachment.
Yoon's announcement implemented temporary military rule, banning political activities and labor actions while placing media under government control. Violators were subject to arrest without a warrant. Thousands gathered around the National Assembly to protest through the night and were met by military police, though no violence was reported.
South Korea is the world's 14th-largest economy and a major US ally in Asia. Its conservative president, elected in May 2022, based his decree on the alleged presence of antistate, pro-North Korean influences within the country. Yoon's decision comes as the opposition liberal coalition, which widened its control of the legislature in elections this year, has sought to reduce his budgets and impeach several cabinet members in recent days. |
The Indian Space Research Organization and the European Space Agency are set to launch the Proba-3 solar probe today from Sriharikota, India. The mission consists of two satellites that will study the sun's corona—the outer layer that can reach temperatures of around 2 million degrees and significantly influences Earth through solar flares and mass ejections.
Proba-3 aims to demonstrate precision formation flying, with the satellites maintaining a 150-meter separation to create artificial solar eclipses. The approach allows for extended observations of the sun's corona, lasting up to six hours per orbit, and can generate approximately 50 artificial eclipses annually. The mission has been in development for more than a decade, involving contributions from 14 European countries. See the five questions the project seeks to answer here.
The launch follows the success of ISRO's past missions such as Aditya-L1, India's first space-based solar observatory, and Chandrayaan-3, which made history by achieving a soft landing in the moon’s south polar region. |
China yesterday banned the export of specific rare minerals to the US that are used for technology and military applications, citing national security concerns. The decision came a day after the US expanded its restricted-trade list of Chinese companies for certain types of chips and reflects an escalating tech rivalry between the world's two largest economies.
The banned minerals include gallium, germanium, antimony, and other elements needed for manufacturing advanced technologies like semiconductors. China accounts for roughly 63% of US antimony imports, 54% of germanium imports, and 53% of gallium imports. China is also the world's largest producer of all three elements, particularly gallium. Gallium and germanium are used to produce things like mobile phones, solar panels, fiber optic cables, and infrared technology, while antimony is used in flame retardants, batteries, and nuclear weapons.
Trade tensions between the US and China have been rooted in national security concerns, a battle for technological leadership, and more. See an overview of the US-China trade relationship here. |
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Sports, Entertainment, & Culture |
> Oregon, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame top final College Football Playoff rankings before conference championship week; see complete 12-team bracket (More) | Israel Vázquez, three-time boxing world champion, dies of cancer at age 46 (More) |
> Georgia's longest-ever criminal trial, which involved Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and 28 total codefendants, ends as two codefendants found not guilty of racketeering charges (More) |
> "A Different Man" wins best feature at Gotham Awards for independent films (More) | Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Drake top Billboard's list of the 21st century's greatest pop stars (More) |
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> Amazon reportedly partnering with AI startup Anthropic to build an AI supercomputer; "Ultracluster" will combine hundreds of thousands of Amazon's in-house Trainium chips (More) |
> Theoretical study suggests evidence for primordial black holes—hypothetical objects made right after the Big Bang that could be microscopic in size—may be found in hollowed planetoids (More) | Heard about black holes but don't know how they work? Click here (More) |
> Researchers discover gene involved in photosynthesis that can boost poplar tree height by about 30% in the field, 200% in a greenhouse; gene also increases the biomass of other plant species (More) |
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> US stock markets close mixed (S&P 500 +0.1%, Dow -0.2%, Nasdaq +0.4%), with S&P 500, Nasdaq closing at record highs (More) | US job openings rose to 7.7 million in October, beating analyst expectations; the figure is up 372,000 jobs from September's 3.5-year low (More) |
> Walmart buys TV maker Vizio for $2.3B in all-cash deal; the acquisition, first announced in February, enables Walmart to expand its advertising business and collect data on customers' viewing, shopping habits to serve targeted ads (More) | BlackRock to buy credit manager HPS Investment Partners for $12B (More) |
> Food production giant Cargill, the US' largest privately held company, says it will lay off 5% of its global workforce, or an estimated 8,000 employees, amid dropping food prices following the COVID-19 pandemic (More) |
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> US Supreme Court to hear oral arguments today in US v. Skrmetti, a case surrounding a Tennessee law banning puberty blockers, hormones for minors; decision expected by June (More) | See map of 25 states with similar ban (More) |
> Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister withdraws as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (More) | Trump says he will block Japanese Nippon Steel's $14.9B acquisition of US Steel (More) |
> Bangladesh summons India's top envoy after an attack on a consulate in India sparks protests in Bangladesh's capital; tensions between the two countries have been elevated as India refuses to extradite former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August (More) |
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*Disclosure: "Journal of Retirement Study Winter" (2020). The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, do not reflect actual investment results, and are not guarantees of your future results. Please follow the link to see the methodologies employed in the Journal of Retirement study.
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