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Former South Korean President Yoon sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to impose martial law

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Former South Korean President Yoon sentenced to five years in jail for attempting to impose martial law

Jake Kwon,Seoul correspondentand

Leehyun Choi,Seoul

EPA/Shutterstock Yoon Suk Yeol with grey hair and a navy suit speaking into a microphoneEPA/Shutterstock

Yoon was impeached in 2024 for his martial law attempt

South Korea’s impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol will be jailed for five years over abuse of power, obstructing justice and falsifying documents in relation to his failed martial law bid in 2024.

This is the first of the verdicts in four trials linked to his shock martial law decree. Although short-lived, the move triggered nationwide turmoil, sparking protests as MPs rushed to the national assembly to overturn Yoon’s decision.

Yoon’s actions “plunged the country into political crisis”, a judge said on Friday, noting that Yoon had “consistently shown no remorse”.

Friday’s ruling offers clues as to how the rest of Yoon’s trials could go. His string of charges range from abuse of power to campaign law violations.

The most serious charge is insurrection, for which prosecutors have demanded the death penalty. The verdict in that trial is expected in February.

About 100 supporters of Yoon had gathered outside the courthouse on Friday to watch the livestreamed proceedings projected on a large screen.

Some of them held red banners that read: “Yoon, again! Make Korea great again”. Several could be heard yelling at the judge as he delivered the guilty verdicts, while others looked solemn.

On Friday, Yoon was convicted of using presidential bodyguards to prevent his arrest; failing to consult his entire cabinet before declaring martial law; as well as drafting and then destroying a falsified document claiming the martial law bid had been endorsed by the prime minister and defence minister.

“The accused has the duty to safeguard the constitution and law but turned his back on them,” the judge said.

Prosecutors had sought a 10-year jail term for the charges in Friday’s ruling. Both sides have seven days to appeal.

Yoon supporters gathered outside the courthouse, many waving South Korea flags and holding red banners that read: "Yoon, again! Make Korea great again." Some wore red scarves and shawls.

About 100 supporters of Yoon had gathered outside the courthouse on Friday

Yoon denied the charges, arguing that the arrest warrant itself was invalid and that the letter of the law does not require him to consult every member of the cabinet before exercising emergency power.

He had claimed across his trials that investigators had no legal basis to probe and arrest him in the first place. Most of the accusations against him are invalid because there was no procedural lapse when he declared martial law, he argues.

South Korea’s courts often grant leniency when the accused accepts guilt or responsibility. But prosecutors argue that Yoon’s lack of remorse is grounds for an even more severe penalty.

Park Geun-hye, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for abuse of power and bribery in 2021, was the last former president to be jailed for a criminal charge. But she was pardoned and released from prison shortly after.

Six months after Yoon’s martial law attempt, voters elected opposition leader Lee Jae Myung in a decisive victory .

But Yoon’s trials bring the spotlight back to deep divisions in South Korea, where the former president retains strong supporters who see him as a martyr. According to a survey conducted last December, nearly 30% of South Koreans did not believe that Yoon’s martial law declaration amounted to an insurrection.

While his martial law attempt brought tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets, it also saw his supporters show up in counter protests, though in smaller numbers.

Additional reporting by Koh Ewe

Mitsubishi and Aethon join forces to pursue gas asset acquisitions

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Mitsubishi teams up with Aethon to pursue gas asset acquisitions

Machado Presents Trump with Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal

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Machado Presents Trump with Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal

new video loaded: Machado Offers Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal

transcript

transcript

Machado Offers Trump Her Nobel Peace Prize Medal

During a meeting in the White House on Thursday, Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, presented her medal to President Trump.

I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize.

During a meeting in the White House on Thursday, Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, presented her medal to President Trump.

By Jackeline Luna

January 15, 2026

Gretchen Whitmer warns of worsening future for U.S. automakers despite Trump’s claims of success

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Gretchen Whitmer warns of worsening future for U.S. automakers despite Trump’s claims of success

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer offered a contrasting view of manufacturing in Detroit Thursday, two days after President Donald Trump defended his tariff strategy in the Motor City.

Whitmer, a term-limited Democrat who is in her last year as governor, said in a speech at the Detroit Auto Show that the administration’s tariff strategy has hurt American auto manufacturing and is benefiting Chinese competitors. It’s a message she has repeated over the past year as economic uncertainty has rippled across the automobile sector.

“This will only get worse without a serious shift in national policy,” Whitmer said.

Her remarks followed Trump’s speech defending his economic policy Tuesday in Detroit, a major hub of automobile manufacturing. He also toured the factory floor of a Ford plant in Dearborn.

“All U.S. automakers are doing great,” Trump said.

Whitmer offered a differing picture of the impact, saying that American manufacturing has contracted for months leading to job loss and production cuts. She has remained firmly opposed to Trump’s tariff strategy since last year, especially as her state partners closely with Canadian business. Automobile parts often cross the U.S.-Canadian border several times in the assembly process.

“America stands more alone than she has in decades,” Whitmer said. “And perhaps no industry has seen more change and been more impacted than our auto industry.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whitmer’s speech.

Whitmer has kept a more cordial relationship with Trump in his second term compared to his first. The relationship included a few White House visits last year. Long considered a possible Democratic candidate for president, Whitmer’s strategy is notably different than other potential 2028 names who have take more public, combative approaches to Trump, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

In her address, her first of the year, Whitmer said every time she has met with Trump this past year, she has told him that hurting the U.S.-Canadian relationship only helps Chinese competition.

Trump changed his tune when it comes to automobiles in the last year. He originally announced a 25% tariff on automobiles and parts only to later relax the policy as domestic manufactures sought relief from the threat of rising production costs.

On his tour in the Detroit area, Trump suggested the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a major trade agreement he negotiated in his first term, was irrelevant, although he provided few other details The UMCA is up for review this year.

Whitmer defended the trade agreement in her speech.

“When we fight our neighbors, however, China wins,” she said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Emergency Meeting held by UN Security Council to discuss deadly protests in Iran | Updates on Protests

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Emergency Meeting held by UN Security Council to discuss deadly protests in Iran | Updates on Protests

Iranian and US officials traded barbs at UN Security Council meeting on deadly protests in Iran and amid threats of attack by Washington.

The United Nations Security Council has held an emergency meeting to discuss deadly protests in Iran amid threats by United States President Donald Trump to intervene militarily in the country.

Members of the influential 15-member UN body heard from Iran’s deputy UN representative, who warned at the meeting on Thursday that Iranians did not seek a confrontation but would respond to US aggression, and accused Washington of “direct involvement in steering unrest in Iran”.

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US representative Mike Waltz used his prepared remarks at the meeting to criticise the Iranian government’s response to the protests, noting that the ongoing internet blackout in Iran made it hard to verify the true extent of the crackdown by authorities there.

“The people of Iran are demanding their freedom like never before in the Islamic Republic’s brutal history,” Waltz said, adding that Iran’s claims that the protests were “a foreign plot to give a precursor to military action” were a sign that its government was “afraid of their own people”.

Waltz did not refer to the threats of military intervention in Iran that Trump has repeatedly made over the past week, before the president appeared to ease his escalating rhetoric over the past day.

Iran’s deputy UN envoy Gholamhossein Darzi told the council that his country “seeks neither escalation nor confrontation”.

“However, any act of aggression, direct or indirect, will be met with a decisive, proportionate, and lawful response under Article 51 of the UN Charter,” Darzi said.

“This is not a threat; it is a statement of legal reality. Responsibility for all consequences will rest solely with those who initiate such unlawful acts,” he said.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Martha Pobee briefed the council, saying that the “popular protests” in Iran “have rapidly evolved into nationwide upheaval, resulting in significant loss of life” since beginning close to three weeks ago.

“Demonstrations started on 28 December 2025, as a group of shopkeepers in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar gathered to protest the sharp collapse of the currency and soaring inflation, amid a wider economic downturn and worsening living conditions,” Pobee said.

She added that human rights monitors have reported “mass arrests” in Iran, “with estimates exceeding 18,000 detainees as of mid-January 2026”, but noted that the “UN cannot verify these figures”.

She called on Iran to treat detainees humanely and “to halt any executions linked to protest-related cases”.

“All deaths should be promptly, independently, and transparently investigated,” Pobee added.

“Those responsible for any violations must be held to account in line with international norms and standards.”

Iranian ‍Foreign ‍Minister Abbas Araghchi denied on Wednesday that Tehran had plans to execute antigovernment protesters.

In an interview with Fox News, Araghchi said “there is no plan for hanging at all” when asked whether there were plans to execute protesters.

“Hanging is ‌out of the ‌question,” he ⁠said.

The UNSC also heard from two representatives of Iranian civil society, including Iranian-American journalist and government critic Masih Alinejad, who told the council that “real and concrete action” is “needed now to bring justice to those who order massacres in Iran”.

Addressing Darzi and the Iranian government, Alinejad said: “You have tried to kill me three times … My crime? Simply echoing the voice of innocent people that you kill.”

Thursday’s meeting came as the US imposed further sanctions against the Iranian leadership, including Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), and several other officials, who it said were the “architects” of Tehran’s “brutal” response to the demonstrations.

Iran has already been under heavy sanctions for years, further worsening the economic crisis that has, in part, spurred the recent wave of public protests.

Iranian-American journalist and writer Masih Alinejad speaks during a UNSC session on the deadly Iran protests at UN headquarters in New York, on Thursday [Sarah Yenesel/EPA]

Music royalty rates for radio play in Australia to increase by 38% following tribunal decision

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Music royalty rates for radio play in Australia to increase by 38% following tribunal decision

Owners of sound recording copyrights will see an increase in royalties coming from Australia, following a Copyright Tribunal ruling that increased the royalty rates paid by broadcasters by 38%.

However, Australia’s recorded music industry says the increase is just a start, and it would like to see an end to the royalty cap that exists under the country’s copyright law.

The Tribunal’s ruling raises the royalties paid by broadcasters from 0.4% of the broadcast radio industry’s gross revenue to 0.55%. The new rate is retroactive to July 2023.

In 2023, the 0.4% cap yielded around AUD $4 million (USD $2.7 million) in revenue for recorded music rights holders. At the new 0.55% rate, it would have yielded AUD $5.5 million (USD $3.7 million).

Among the tribunal’s reasons for the rate increase was the argument that radio is no longer the driver of music sales that it once was.

“It is clear that promotional value and new music discovery have diminished with the advent of streaming and social media,” stated the tribunal’s ruling, which can be read in full here.

While in the past record companies were willing to accept a discounted rate because of radio’s promotional value, today “there is no longer a direct correlation between radio promotional effect and sales,” the ruling stated.

“Historically, the promotional effect of radio resulted in a direct physical sale; whereas today, whilst a listener may subsequently stream a song that they have heard on radio, this will only lead to an increase in total collective revenue for rights holders… in very limited circumstances.”

In assessing the rate, the Tribunal found that Australia’s rates were at the lower end compared to other countries. As countries where rates are lower, the Tribunal singled out Japan, as well as the US – where the royalty rate is effectively zero. In the US, terrestrial broadcasters pay publishers and songwriters for the use of songs, but not labels or artists for the use of recordings. (However, an effort currently before the US Congress aims to change that.)

In a response to the ruling issued on Wednesday (January 14), Australia’s recorded music industry group PPCA said the ruling reinforced its concerns about the 1% cap on radio royalty rates under Australian law. It said the Tribunal was unable to make sufficiently useful comparisons with royalty rates in other countries because those other countries don’t have a cap on what broadcasters may pay.

“The Tribunal’s reasoning makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the 1% cap was a decisive factor throughout the decision and has constricted Australian artists’ ability to receive sound recording broadcast royalties comparable to other markets,” PPCA Chief Executive Officer Annabelle Herd said.

“While the Tribunal accepted a number of PPCA’s arguments, including that commercial radio’s promotional value has materially declined and that the use of recorded music by the sector has expanded, the existence of the cap necessarily limited how far the rate could move.”

“The 1% cap was a decisive factor throughout the decision and has constricted Australian artists’ ability to receive sound recording broadcast royalties comparable to other markets.”

Annabelle Herd, PPCA

The ruling marks the first time in a quarter century that a new deal has been forged between Australia’s broadcasters and recording companies.

PPCA’s last agreement with Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA), the broadcaster industry group, was inked in 1999 and expired in 2003. In the following years, the royalty deal was extended on a month-to-month basis until 2022, when PPCA notified CRA that it would terminate the agreement as of June 2023.

In the tribunal talks, PPCA had proposed a sliding-scale royalty rate for radio stations based on what share of their content is music. The rate would max out at 1% of gross revenue for radio stations whose content is more than 45% music.

However, the Tribunal rejected that approach, opting instead to maintain the arrangement under which a percentage of the entire broadcast radio industry’s revenue would be paid in royalties to recording rights holders.

In its statement, PPCA said it would continue to push for a removal of the 1% cap.Music Business Worldwide

Tamara Elekes, Bronze Medalist at Hungarian Championships, Commits to Tulane for 2026

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Tamara Elekes, Bronze Medalist at Hungarian Championships, Commits to Tulane for 2026

Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwam’s College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.

Hungarian IM talent Tamara Elekes has committed to Tulane University for the fall of 2026.

I am so excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my athletic and academic careers at Tulane University. I want to thank my friends, family, coaches, and everyone who has supported me throughout my swimming career, and especially Coach Amanda to give me this opportunity. So grateful for everything, can’t wait to become a wave maker!! 💚

Elekes hails from Veresegyház in Hungary, where she represents Budapesti Vasutas Sport Club Zugló. In April, Elekes competed at the Hungarian Championships (LCM), where she finished 3rd in the 200 IM, clocking 2:22.39. She also finished 25th in the 200 free (2:09.02) and 32nd in the 50 free (28.05).

She has also represented her country on the international stage, competing at the 2023 LEN European Junior Championships (LCM). At those championships, Elekes swam best times in both the 200 IM and 400 IM. In the 200 IM, she clocked a best time of 2:17.55, just missing the championship final by one spot, finishing 9th. In the 400 IM, she qualified 4th for the final, later setting a new fastest-ever time of 4:50.81, placing 6th overall.

Elekes set a number of best short-course times at the Hungarian junior Short Course National Championships in 2024. There she swam to top times in the 100 IM (1:03.55), 200 IM (2:15.09), 400 IM (4:45.38), 50 free (25.99), and 100 free (56.30).

Best Times Converted to SCY:

Event Time SCY Conversion
200 IM (LCM) 2:17.55 2:01.03
400 IM (LCM) 4:50.81 4:16.22
50 Free (SCM) 25.99 23.41
100 Free (LCM) 57.79 50.62
200 Free (SCM) 2:02.02 1:49.92

The Tulane women finished 3rd at the 2025 American Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships last season.

Based on Elekes’ converted best times, she would have been projected to finish 4th in the 400 IM, 7th in the 200 IM and 100 free.

Elekes already boasts conversions that make her an immediate contender within the American Conference.

Those converted times would also be immediately contributory to the current Tulane roster; her 400 IM would rank atop the Green Wave roster this season, while her 200 IM would be 2nd behind current senior Andrea Zeebe, giving Elekes an immediate platform to step into the shoes that Zeebe will leave.

Her freestyle times are also very competitive; though primarily an IMer, her converted 100 free sits 2nd in the 100, and 3rd in the 200 free.

Elekes joins Franchesca Sanchez, Emma Barr, Kaylee Daniell, and Audrey Deras in Tulane’s 2026 recruiting class.

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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Design Inspired by Drones Breaks World Speed Record for RC Cars

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Design Inspired by Drones Breaks World Speed Record for RC Cars

A British hobbyist has applied multicopter drone thinking to radically simplify the steering and powertrain of his high-performance radio-control car – and absolutely demolished the world top speed record in the process.

The modern world offers an endless selection of rabbit holes, into which those of us with obsessive tendencies can pour virtually unlimited amounts of time, energy and love. I’ve never felt it’s much of a choice, personally; I’m either compulsively driven to chase a particular shiny thing – in which case I can’t not find the time to pursue it – or I’m not.

My obsessions are relatively fleeting, resulting in a series of torrid flings over the decades. For others, a single rabbit hole offers a lifetime’s worth of reward – and that’s when people start to get really, really good at things.

So here’s cheers to magnificent nerds like engineer Stephen Wallis – who lives in Rugby, not far from Coventry in England, and who has spent some 20 years scratching his way to hitherto-unburrowed depths in his rabbit hole of choice: High-performance R/C vehicle design.

I’m shuddering a little just looking at those three 6S battery packs

Stephen Wallis

Wallis named his record-breaking machine “The Beast.” The key innovation he brought to the field was … Simplicity. Where other R/C speed car builders typically run complex transmissions and steering systems, Wallis started out with the idea of taking a quadcopter drone, and sticking horizontal wheels instead of vertical props on the shafts of its high-powered motors.

So The Beast doesn’t need to run a transmission per se. It also doesn’t need a mechanical steering system; the car can be turned simply by varying the speeds of its four motors. And it turns out the drone’s flight control system, with its built-in accelerometers, gyroscopes and other sensors, does an extraordinarily good job of maintaining high-speed directional stability.

Turning a DRONE into a FAST R/C Speed Car???!

It makes sense; quadcopter drones stay rock-solid in a choppy breeze by making thousands of motor speed corrections per second. Wallis had an intuition that the flight controller could do the same to keep a car in line on the ground at high speed, and now he’s got a Guinness World Record to prove it certainly does.

After some impressive early runs, he set his sights on a world record at September’s Radio Operated Scale Speed Association (ROSSA) speed test event in Wales. For maximum power, he fitted The Beast with an eye-watering, custom 18S battery layout – three 6S packs running in series for a peak of 75.6 volts.

Wallis shows off the world's fastest R/C car with its aerodynamic fairing on
Wallis shows off the world’s fastest R/C car with its aerodynamic fairing on

Stephen Wallis

He also wisely shaved about a third of the meat off the tires, reducing wheel diameter from 99 to 94 mm (3.9 to 3.7 inches) as well as saving some weight to reduce the worst effects of the crazy centrifugal forces they experience at top speed.

“I wanted to go down on tire diameter to reduce the amount of foam trying to rip itself off the wheel,” says Wallis.

There were challenging conditions at Llanbedr Airfield for the ROSSA event – the British weather did as British weather does, and Wallis couldn’t even see the car properly through the rain in his eyes on his record attempt. But the design did what it said on the tin. The Beast clocked an official speed of 234.71 mph (377.8 km/h) down the tarmac, looking exceptionally stable in the roughly seven frames of video in which you can actually see the thing flashing past:

How I Smashed the World Record at ROSSA Round 3 2025!

World records tend to be incremental; eking out a single mile per hour improvement gets extremely hard at the pointy end, and prior to this run, only six R/C cars in history had ever broken the 200 mph (322 km/h) mark in an officially-sanctioned event. The Beast had no time for increments; it very nearly broke the previous 218.53 mph (351.69 km/h) record on its warm-up run, and put daylight between itself and second place.

Wallis wasn’t able to improve on the record on the second or third days of the event due to increasingly bad weather.

Now, record in hand, he’s got himself an even chunkier set of motors and has set his sights North of 250 mph (402 km/h) for his next attempt. Why? Because he’s a fella with a nice, deep rabbit hole to dig around in, and that’s all the reason he’ll be needing.

So yes, here’s cheers to Wallis and other birds of that feather – and to the obsessions that keep us all off the street at night. Lord knows what we’d be up to otherwise, but it probably wouldn’t be pretty.

Oh, and if this kind of thing appeals to you, wait ’til you see the maniacs that fly the world’s fastest R/C planes, and the crazy ‘dynamic soaring’ techniques they use to get damn close to airliner speeds – without any onboard motors or propulsion systems…

Source: Stephen Wallis and Guinness World Records

Gas leak leads to explosion and fire in Utrecht, Dutch officials confirm

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Gas leak leads to explosion and fire in Utrecht, Dutch officials confirm

JEROEN JUMELET/EPA/Shutterstock Firefighters work at the scene of a large fire at a house on Visscherssteeg, UtrechtJEROEN JUMELET/EPA/Shutterstock

The exact cause of the fire is not yet known

A fire that broke out following a large explosion at a house in the Dutch city of Utrecht was caused by a gas leak, officials say.

At least four people were injured in the incident, which happened near Visscherssteeg, an alley in the city centre, on Thursday afternoon. Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

The cause of the gas leak is unknown but it is not thought to have been caused deliberately.

The blaze has since been put out but it took firefighters several hours.

Large plumes of smoke were seen rising above the house, and the nearby streets were covered with rubble and glass.

One eyewitness told RTL News that they had heard a “deafening bang” and that ” everything in the alley was destroyed”.

Other people told the Volksrant newspaper that the walls and windows of several buildings were blown out, and many nearby shops were damaged.

Local residents were evacuated, while members of the public were advised to stay away from the area.

Challenge from the Client

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Challenge from the Client



Client Challenge



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