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South Korea: police refuse to arrest impeached President
00:25:39
The warrant for Yoon Suk-yeol runs out on Monday
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Oliver Berkman
This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the uk. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking, looking. It's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Epidemics of Modern Life available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 14 hours GMT on Monday 6th January. No end in sight to the political standoff in South Korea as police reject demands to arrest the impeached president. Forecasters predict the heaviest snowfall for a decade in parts of the US and Russia says it's captured a key town in eastern Ukraine. Also in the podcast I celebrate this as a marker of the love that is driving me and being reminded that I do belong. Thank you so much. Demi Moore wins her first major acting award as we record this podcast. South Korea's impeached president, Yoon Sung Yol looks set to evade arrest once again. Prosecutors have been unable to execute a warrant which is due to expire shortly. It was issued over the President's short lived attempt to impose martial law last month. Mr. Yoon has been suspended but has remained defiant and his security guards have been blocking attempts to detain him, even forming a human chain. Police have been asked to get involved, but they have declined. The latest twist in the political standoff coincides with a North Korean missile test, as well as a visit by the outgoing US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken to Seoul. He has expressed confidence in South Korea's democratic system. Korea's democracy has been tested in recent weeks, just as American democracy has faced challenges throughout our history. But you are responding by demonstrating your democratic resilience. The United States has full confidence in South Korea's institutions and we reaffirm our unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions. Earlier, I got an update about events in South Korea from our Asia Pacific Regional Editor, Celia Hatton. Well, we're seeing quite dramatic scenes outside the President's residential compound where three thousands of people, those in favor of the arrest going through and those against those who are supporting the impeached president are basically camped outside the residence in freezing temperatures, holding signs that say things like, we will fight and no impeachment. That's a reference to the fact that the Constitutional Court is deciding whether to uphold the impeachment that the parliament had passed just a few days ago. But really, this is a power struggle that's going on between Mr. Yun and the security service that is sworn to protect him. Some are saying it's almost functioning like Mr. Yoon's private army at the moment. And on the other side, the Corruption Investigation Office, which is actually headed by somebody who was appointed by Mr. Yoon in Rosier days, who are trying to execute this arrest warrant. But those caught in between say, well, maybe the Corruption Investigation Office actually doesn't have the power to even request this arrest warrant. Apparently, they don't have, according to some, the ability to investigate charges of insurrection. And that's what Mr. Yoon has been accused of. And so that's where we are. It's an unprecedented moment, Oliver, because we've never seen in South Korea a president has never faced an arrest warrant before. And so the execution of it is really getting messy. While different groups of the police, the corruption investigators, Mr. Yoon and his security service all try to figure out who actually has the upper hand here. Yeah, it all comes as the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken visits the country. What is the overall impact of this on South Korea? Well, this is really remarkable. I mean, we heard that North Korea, on the other side of the border, is carrying out another missile test. So it's kind of taking advantage of this situation, this political crisis that's unfolding in South Korea. We have to remember that South Korea has an incredibly advanced economy. It's home to some of the world's most successful corporations, car companies, tech companies. But on the other hand, it's undergoing a really serious political crisis where the survival of democracy in South Korea is really under pressure under this really highly polarized. So many countries around the world are sort of questioning the future of South Korea and questioning future business and political ties with South Korea and wondering where it's going to go. Our Asia Pacific editor, Celia Hatton. In some parts of America, it could bring the heaviest snowfall and coldest temperatures for a decade. Winter storm Blair is affecting more than 60 million people. With the state of emergency declared in seven states, roads are disrupted and 1,300 flights have been cancelled. Kansas has been one of the worst hit areas. Aaron Chopper is a teacher there. This is probably the most snow we've gotten in our area. In five or six years, it's easily 12 or 13 inches. Right now. We actually got a blast on our phone saying, stay off the roads. Do not go out. Now they close all schools in our district. Our medical clinic and hospitals are shut down except for emergency services. So pretty much, if it's not essential, they're shutting it down. Forecasters say storm blare is caused by a polar vortex, an area of cold air that circulates around the Arctic. CBS correspondent Ian Lee is in St. Louis, Missouri. He described the scene there. Where I'm standing right now, we have about 6 to 8 inches of snow. Other parts of the state have over a foot. They have canceled schools today. Flights have also been canceled. We've seen cars try to brave these treacherous conditions, some of them getting stuck in these snow berms. The director of operation who does St. Louis County's snowplows operates them, says they have 3,200 lane miles of roads to clear. That's equivalent if you were to drive from Seattle to Miami or if you're in Europe, you're driving from London. Of course, you got to take the ferry and then go to Baghdad. So that just kind of shows you just how much roads they got to clear. Today. They're telling folks to stay off the roads. They don't think they'll have this situated for the next couple of days. It's going to be cold here. But if you move further south to where we're at in southern Missouri, southern Illinois, they're dealing with an ice storm. Ice is caked on power lines, on trees. They have power outages that they're working with right now. So this storm, even though it's moving on further east, they're still dealing with the aftermath. CBS correspondent ian Lee in St. Louis, Missouri. Through history, bubonic plague has killed around 200 million people. And while it's rare these days, a team of scientists at Oxford University is developing a vaccine in case a superbug strain of the Black Death emerges. It is the same group that created the Oxford COVID vaccine. And Professor Andrew Pollard spoke to Amalrajan. We've been working for several years on this. But plague is so important. It's a bacterial infection which has shaped humanity. It's changed the genetics of humans. It's had big social and economic change. The second pandemic in the 14th century killed half of the European population. And the third pandemic only finished in 1960. And we still today have cases all over the world, in China and Russia and the US and much larger outbreaks in recent years in Madagascar and in Congo. And what have your early trials yielded in terms of results? Well, we've got early trials both run here and in Africa, which have shown very good immune responses and safety. There's still quite a lot of work to do, and we have several different candidates here at Oxford University that we're working on. But we hope that we'll reach a point during this decade where we'll have vaccines that will be effective and safe in humans for plague, and that will then be a blueprint either for a future plague pandemic if something awful like that happened, but certainly if other diseases spread that are similar to plague. Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group. Hollywood's award season got underway last night with the Golden Globes in Los Angeles. Demi Moore won best actress, her first major award, at the age of 62, while Adrian Brody was best actor for the Brutalist. Our correspondent Emma Vardy has this report from Los Angeles. Known as Hollywood's biggest party, there was no shortage of a Listers out to dazzle on the red carpet as awards season got underway. Baby Reindeer, the British drama about stalking and sexual abuse, picked up two awards in the television category. Its creator, Richard Gad, called for more of life's darker tales to make it onto screen. Any story, when done right, is universal. And all the weird, idiosyncratic struggles we go through on a daily basis are just as worthy of being committed to screen as any shogun. But it was the Japanese drama Shogun that won the most TV awards of the night. One of the big winners of the film categories was the unusual musical about a Mexican drug lord in transition. Are you English? No, I'm not English. Why? No, because you, you are pretty. Amelia Perez. Winning four prizes, the film's transgender star, Carla Sofia Gascoigne, accepted the award for best musical or comedy. You can maybe put us in jail, you can beat us up, but you never can take away our soul, our resistance, our identity. You come with me? Of course not you. You. Audiences have been flocking to Wicked after its popularity as a stage show, but it only won one of its nominated categories for box office achievement. Something has changed within me. The Brutalist won the top drama prize, as well as best director and the best actor award for Adrien Brody. You know, I owe so much to my mother and my grandparents for their sacrifice. And although I do not know fully how to express all of the challenges that you have faced and experienced and the many people who have struggled immigrating to this country, I hope that this work stands to lift you up a bit and to give you a voice. And I'm so grateful. I will cherish this moment forever. Thank you. And one of the biggest cheers of the night was for Demi Moore. Demi Moore, who after 45 years in the industry, won her first ever major award with best actress in a musical or comedy for her role in the Substance, a satirical horror about aging and Hollywood's beauty standards. Today, I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and being reminded that I do belong. Thank you so much. Hollywood's big hitters, including Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, and Kate Winslet, were vying for best actress in a musical comedy. But the top prize went to Brazilian star Fernanda Torres for the film I'm Still Here. This is a film that help us to think how to survive in tough times like this. A night of some surprises provided plenty to celebrate and debate at the after parties. Thank you. Good night. That report from Los Angeles by Emma Vardy. And still to come on the global news podcast, the Wild Cat that's come back from the brink of extinction. In the past few months, Korakhova in eastern Ukraine has been a key target for Russian forces as they try to seize the whole of Donetsk. Now, the Russian Defense Ministry says it has taken the town, which it called an important logistics hub. I asked our correspondent Will Vernon in Kiev just how significant it is. Really. Kurakhova is not a big city. It had a pre war population of about 22,000. It's largely in ruins now, of course, like all the towns and cities that Russia is fighting over. We were expecting this about two weeks ago, Kyiv said it had withdrawn some units from the area to prevent them from being encircled. Much more important and potentially much more of a loss to Ukraine would be if Russia takes the strategic city of Pokrovsk, that's an important transport hub not far from Kurakhova. So, you know, this is a blow to Ukraine, but things are bad overall for the country. You know, Russia's taken a large number of settlements in eastern Ukraine in recent days and weeks. Yeah, I mean, how bad is it overall in eastern Ukraine? How far are the Russians from reaching their goal of taking the whole of that eastern Donbas region? Well, last year, Russia took a large amount of territory, at least 2,000 square kilometers, perhaps more, according to some estimates. Now, that's still a tiny fraction, less than 1% of Ukraine's overall territory. But it is the Fastest pace since the early days of the war. So, you know, things in the east of Ukraine are not good for Ukrainian forces and it doesn't look like it's getting any better now. We saw Ukraine try to go on the offensive in the Russian region of Kursk last year and they've renewed that over the weekend. How are things going there? Yeah, it's difficult to know what exactly is going on in the Kursk region. What we do know is that yesterday, yesterday, Ukraine launched a fresh offensive in the area that was confirmed by the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukrainian officials and pro Kremlin military bloggers. Some of those bloggers said that Russian forces had come under intense pressure by the offensive, but there hasn't been any sign yet that the Ukrainians are making significant advances, usually by this time, you know, 24 hours plus after the beginning of operation. If it were successful, we'd expect some update about forces moving forward, perhaps seizing some settlements in the area. There's been no indication of that so far. So something is definitely happening in the Kursk area, but it is, it's difficult to establish what the exact state of play is. I mean, are both sides now literally just waiting for the arrival of Donald Trump as US President? Well, that may well have played into it, into the decision to launch an offensive, although, again, we don't know how successful it's been so far or will be in the coming days. I'm sure that both sides, Russia and Ukraine, are keen to take as much territory as possible before Donald Trump takes his seat in the Oval Office. The Ukrainians also will be keen to show the President elect that they are capable of mounting offensive operations, of going on the attack, and that they are capable of securing victories, even relatively small ones. Will Vernon in Kiev now. He arguably helped sway the US election. Now Elon Musk has turned his attention to Europe, getting behind the radical right and earning rebukes from politicians in France and Germany. But the South African born tech boss seems to be most obsessed by events here in the uk. He has been extremely critical of the British government and friendly with the insurgent opposition party Reform. Though he's now gone on the attack against its leader, Nigel Farage. I heard more about their bromance and falling out from our political correspondent, Rob Watson. First thing to say, Oliver, is that the whole thing is an extraordinary tale and just the idea of the world's richest man interfering in British and European politics. But anyway, let's get to the specifics. So essentially, I think Elon Musk and Nigel Farage saw themselves as being anti woke, anti establishment figures, you know, who think that basically a liberal elite has betrayed the majority of ordinary people with the pushing of multiculturalism and high levels of immigration. Where they've fallen out is over a man called Tommy Robinson. He's a far right English activist. He's sort of anti Islam, certainly anti Islam, radical Islam. He's currently in prison for a contempt of courts. Now, Elon Musk has described him as a political prisoner, whereas Nigel Farah just thought, you know, he's bit beyond the pale Tommy Robinson. And so that's what they've fallen out over. He wouldn't call him a political prisoner. Now, Elon Musk has got his hands full in the us. You'd have thought, as head of this Department of Government Efficiency. Why is he so fixated with UK politics and European politics? Four quick theories, right, Oliver. First one, because he can, right, he's fantastically powerful. The second, he has English heritage. The third that I've seen from a friend of his is that he thinks of Britain particularly, but Europe in general as the birthplace of liberal democracy. He thinks that it's gone wrong in Britain, it's gone wrong in Europe. And so now that he's sort of anti woke, he's keen for that reason. And the fourth theory I've heard is that he's worried about countries like Britain regulating tech companies like his. Now, just looking at Elon Musk's Twitter feed, he has called the British Prime Minister utterly despicable, Keir Starmer. He's also asked whether America should liberate the people of Britain from their, quote, tyrannical government. I mean, it's very difficult for conventional politicians to know how to react. It certainly is, Oliver. As I said at the start, you know, I mean, I've been covering politics here and elsewhere around the world for four decades. I've never seen anything like this sort of the world's richest man, a tech billionaire, you know, having such a direct effect on politics. And absolutely, British politicians, politicians around Europe are struggling as to know what to do. I mean, their position has been complicated by the fact that Elon Musk is very close to Donald Trump. So maybe if they weren't, they would just say, Look, Mr. Musk, shut up. But of course, they don't want to upset Donald Trump. So this is absolutely brand new territory. And let's be frank about it. The politicians here and elsewhere in Europe, they're struggling as to what to do. Our political correspondent, Rob Watson, the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial Again, this time accused of receiving millions of euros in illegal election campaign funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Prosecution claims that Mr. Sarkozy, president from 2007 until 2012, agreed to help mend the dictator's reputation. Mr. Sarkozy denies wrongdoing. I heard more from our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard. This is a really big scandal. Of all the cases that have faced Nicolas Sarkozy over the years, this is the most important one. It could see him put away for 10 years if he's convicted. There are 12 other suspects, all quite significant players, some former government ministers, a sitting MP among them. They also, like Mr. Sarkozy, deny any wrongdoing. But the case centers around allegations that millions of euros were paid by Muammar Gaddafi. And his men had reports of suitcases full of cash being delivered to French ministries ahead of the 2007 presidential campaign. According to prosecutors, it was struck while Nicolas Sarkozy was interior minister. He says no such transfers were ever made. He also has cast doubt on some of the people who've made the allegations. So of former Libyan dignitaries, he says they're people who you couldn't rely on anyway. And he's accused the Libyans of actually fabricating these things as a form of vengeance. Because Nicolas Sarkozy, although he got very close to Muammar Gaddafi, a former Libyan dictator, a sponsor of state terrorism, he also in 2011, was part of the international campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi and sent French fighter planes to enforce a no fly zone over Libya. Now, the former French president has faced a string of cases, even been convicted. How has all this damaged his reputation? He's been wading through legal cases largely since he left office in 2012. So he's already been convicted twice. He's been convicted and lost a final appeal last month in one case of corruption and influence peddling, when he was found to have offered a job to a judge in return for secret information about a separate case. He's got to wear an electronic bracelet in that, although he wants to take that further to the European Court of Human Rights. He's also been convicted in a separate case about alleged illegal funding on the 2012 re election campaign, where his PR firm hid extra spending on that campaign. So he's facing other cases too. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhardt. In 2003, the number of Iberian links left in the wild dropped to just 94. But in the two decades since, it has made a comeback, with more than 2,000 recorded across across Spain and Portugal, its conservation status has been lowered from endangered to vulnerable. Antonio Fernandez sent this report from southern Portugal. Navarro, a male lynx, calls a female during mating season. His chances of success are now not that bad. The Iberian lynx was varied very close to extinction. We're talking about just 25 females in reproductive age across two populations that didn't interact. We only had four animals in captivity back then. The only feline species that was threatened at this level was the saber toothed tiger thousands of years ago. That's Rudy Gucera, who coordinates the program for reproduction in captivity across the peninsula. He explained the 1950s saw changes in the use of land for agriculture and brought with it efforts to protect cattle from predators. People were even paid to hunt them, he says. As more roads were built, runovers spiked. Then from the 1980s, two pandemics led to a fall of 95% in the numbers of wild rabbits, which are key in the species food chain. The Portuguese center down in the Algarve is fairly remote, and as the animals hide away in their pens, it feels incredibly quiet. We are whispering because even though we are some 200 meters away, our presence is stressing the animals, Rodriguez says. Sometimes that's exactly what they need. When we notice a litter is becoming a bit more confident, getting closer to the keeper when he's in the central corridor, we go in and chase them and make noise so they are scared again and climb the fences. We're training them not to get close to people in the wild. That's why there's a complete absence of human contact. Alcoutin, on the border with Spain, is one of the places where lynxes are released. Pedro Sarmiento, who has studied them for 30 years, waits by a main road, the kind that kills lynxes often. Unlike most felines, the lynx has a short tail, has brushes in the ears and a long beard. As a biologist, there are two things that strike me when I'm handling a lynx. It's an animal with a fairly small head for its body and extraordinarily wide paws that gives them an impulsion and ability to jump, which are rare. These sounds of a man calling her cubs have been captured by the camera traps set to track lynxes and their behavior. Looking through the footage, we can see somewhere here just this morning, the team says there's three main reasons why the conservation program has worked. International collaboration, improvement of numbers of prey, and raising awareness with the population biologist Pedro Sarmentu. Again, I saw the species disappearing. It's surreal that we're in a place where we can see links through camera trapping almost daily. We won't relax, but it looks clear that the reintroduction will reach all goals and the species will be saved. Pedro Somento ending that report by Antonio Fernandez and that's all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Rebecca Miller and produced by Alfie Habershan. Our Editor's Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time. Goodbye. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity, busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity, and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. Activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever. Somewhere when we weren't looking. It's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Epidemics of Modern Life available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks. Discover how to lead a better life in our age of confusion. Enjoy this BBC audiobook collection written and presented by best selling author Oliver Berkman, containing four useful guides to tackling some central ills of modernity, busyness, anger, the insistence on positivity, and the decline of nuance. Our lives today can feel like miniature versions of this relentless churn of activity. We find we're rushing around more crazily than ever somewhere when we weren't looking. It's like busyness became a way of life. Start listening to Oliver Epidemics of Modern Life available to purchase wherever you get your audiobooks.