Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 133

South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach president over martial law debacle

South Korea’s parliament voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday in an extraordinary rebuke that came about after his own ruling party turned on him following his refusal to resign over his short-lived martial law attempt.It is the second time in less than a decade that a South Korean leader has faced impeachment proceedings in office and means Yoon is suspended from exercising his

Xi’s RSVP is a snub to Trump, but the inauguration invite is still a big deal

Imagine the scene, at noon on January 20, on the west front of the US Capitol. As Donald Trump swears to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution on the same spot where his supporters rioted four years ago, an extraordinary VIP guest looks on, overshadowing ex-presidents, military brass and members of Congress.Bundled up to ward off the winter chill is Xi Jinping, the hardline leader of

Climate ‘flashpoint’ looms for Trump’s China-centric focus on Pacific: US analysts

Growing U.S. security and diplomatic ties with Pacific island nations are unlikely to slow even if American foreign policy undergoes a major shake-up during Donald Trump’s second term, say former White House advisers and analysts. Following decades of neglect, Washington has in recent years embarked on a Pacific charm offensive to counter the growing influence of China in the region.While Trump’s

REVEALED: Alleged Chinese spy tied to Prince Andrew is businessman Yang Tengbo

 A businessman with close ties to Prince Andrew who has been banned from entry into the U.K. is a longtime operative who did little to hide his ties to Beijing. RFA can identify the man who served as a business advisor to the Duke of York as Yang Tengbo, a director of the consultancy Hampton Group International, based on details revealed in the immigration judgment against him, as well as

Activists tell US Congress of China’s far-reaching cultural erasure

 A campaign by China’s government to rewrite the cultural identity and history of the country’s minority ethnic groups and political dissidents is increasingly being waged on American shores, activists told a U.S. congressional hearing on Thursday. The Tibetan, Uyghur, Mongolian and Chinese activists said that while the United States once stood as a bastion of free speech and a redoubt of

China demolishes prominent Xinjiang building owned by Uyghur activist in US

A symbolically important building in Xinjiang’s capital that was instrumental in the emergence of Uyghur entrepreneurs and businesspeople in the 1990s has been demolished, Radio Free Asia has learned. Authorities destroyed the Rebiya Kadeer Trade Center in Urumqi on Nov. 29, said Zumret Dawut, a Uyghur internment camp survivor now in the United States, citing sources from inside China’s

Here’s what could get significantly more expensive under Trump’s tariff plan

Import taxes are set to spike under the incoming Trump administration, forcing Americans to pay more for everything from foreign-made sneakers and toys to food, according to new research. The items that are most vulnerable to price spikes from President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs are ones that currently have low tariffs and those that mostly come from China, the Peterson Institute for

‘No winners’: China’s Xi warns US against a trade war

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has warned the United States against restarting a trade war, saying there would be “no winners” even as he vowed to defend the country’s economic interests. Xi made the remarks on Tuesday during a meeting with the heads of several global financial institutions, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, a day after Chinese regulators announced an antitrust

South Korea’s ex-defense minister is formally arrested over martial law imposition

A former South Korean defense minister was formally arrested Wednesday (local time) over his alleged collusion with President Yoon Suk Yeol and others in imposing martial law last week, as authorities investigate whether their acts amount to rebellion.Martial law, the first in more than 40 years, lasted only about six hours but has triggered a domestic firestorm and large street protests. Yoon

REPORT: China’s rampant dam-building spree could dislocate up to 1.2 million in Tibet

Tibet and data on a sample of 193 of them betray a formula for irreparable damage to the Tibetan civilization, the environment, downstream nations, and the climate, said Washington-based Tibet advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet (ICT, savetibet.org) in a new report Dec 5.Tibet’s glacial peaks are the headwaters of the region’s eight major rivers with transnational flows. The report’s