News

South Korean President ousted after court upholds impeachment

Published

4 weeks ago

April 4, 2025

editor

South Korea’s constitutional court has unanimously voted to uphold the impeachment of president Yoon Suk Yeol.

Accordingly, Yeol, whose declaration of martial law in December involved special forces storming the National Assembly and National Election Commission, was officially removed from office Friday.

The court’s verdict, by a vote of 8 to 0, means South Korea will hold an election to choose a new president within 60 days. Separately, Yoon, 64, will also be tried on criminal insurrection charges.

Yoon, who was halfway into a single five-year term, is the second South Korean president to be impeached. Park Geun-hye, another conservative, was removed from office in 2017 after a corruption scandal.

The court’s decision marks the end of what has been a turbulent presidency.

Yoon was elected in 2022, beating his liberal opponent, Lee Jae-myung, by just 0.73 of a percentage point, or 247,077 votes, beginning his term on what many viewed as a weak public mandate.

Although Yoon was welcomed by the Biden administration for bringing South Korea into a three-way military pact with Japan, aligning it with the United States’ broader push to constrain China’s ambitions in the region, his track record of scandals, diplomatic gaffes and flashes of authoritarian governance made him deeply unpopular at home.

During his tenure, Yoon and his allies were criticized for trying to muzzle adversarial media outlets and journalists as well as a government-funded cartoon competition that awarded its top prize to a work lampooning Yoon.

As part of his martial law order, Yoon banned all political activity and placed the media under military control.

His wife, Kim Keon-hee, was trailed by myriad controversies of her own, including revelations that she plagiarized her master’s thesis.

Yoon remained defiant at his impeachment trial, claiming that he was being framed for insurrection by his political enemies — and that his declaration of martial law was intended as a plea for public attention.

Since December, he has attempted to justify his declaration of martial law with accusations that members of the liberal opposition party — which holds 192 of the legislature’s 300 seats — were North Korea sympathizers who used their “legislative tyranny” to paralyze his government. It was an echo of the anti-communist rhetoric that past military dictators and subsequent conservative leaders have frequently invoked against South Korean liberals, who have long been defined by their support for reconciliation with Pyongyang.

In defending his decision to deploy troops to the election commission, Yoon has cited a widely debunked conspiracy theory that last year’s general elections, which resulted in his conservative People Power Party suffering a crushing defeat by the liberals, were compromised by voter fraud.

“The declaration of emergency martial law on Dec. 3 was intended to announce that the country is currently facing an existential crisis, and to desperately appeal to the public so that they would become aware of this situation and give their support in overcoming it,” Yoon told the Constitutional Court in early March.

But in their testimonies to the court and prosecutors, many of the military and government officials once under Yoon’s command contradicted his version of events, recalling orders to arrest Yoon’s political opponents — and to prevent the National Assembly from exercising its constitutionally guaranteed right to lift martial law with a vote, as it did hours after the president’s declaration.

Source: Agency Reports

News

Major reforms planned for bus transport

Published

12 hours ago

April 28, 2025

editor

Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports, and Aviation, Bimal Rathnayake, recently held a special discussion with officials from the National Transport Commission (NTC), the Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB), and the Provincial Road Passenger Transport Authorities across nine provinces. The meeting led to several key decisions aimed at modernizing and improving the country’s road passenger transport sector.

Among the major initiatives discussed were:

Immediate implementation of an integrated bus timetable for the Puttalam route.
Launch of a pilot project on Route 138, where all buses operate under a single association with profit-sharing arrangements.
Installation of GPS and CCTV systems in buses for improved monitoring and safety.
Development of an online ticket booking system in collaboration with the Ministry of Digital Technology.
Introduction of random drug and alcohol testing for bus drivers.
Mandatory issuance of bus tickets through electronic ticketing machines (implementation phase in progress).
Formulation of specifications for buses used in passenger transport.
Mandatory seatbelt usage for bus drivers.
Identification of new roads/routes for the addition of new bus services.
Provision of WhatsApp numbers for passengers to report complaints about buses, with numbers prominently displayed inside buses.
Minister Rathnayake emphasized the need for swift action to implement these measures and instructed officials to continuously monitor and report on the progress of each initiative.

(dailynews.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by dailynews.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

News

Chongqing gears up for 25th Lijia International Intelligent Equipment expo

Published

13 hours ago

April 28, 2025

editor

The international internet celebrity city of Chongqing in China will host a grand equipment manufacturing industry event – the 25th Lijia International Intelligent Equipment Exhibition 2025 next month.

The Expo will be held at the Chongqing International Expo Center from May 13th to 16th, 2025, attracting exhibitors and professional visitors from all over the world to discuss and showcase the latest technologies and products in the equipment manufacturing industry.

This exhibition, spanning across 100,000 sq. meters will bring together 1,400 globally renowned enterprises which will showcase their intelligent manufacturing equipment and technology, particularly the latest achievements, cutting-edge technologies, and high-end products in the fields of machine tools, industrial automation and robots, tool holders and measuring tools, sheet metal, die-casting casting, molds, rubber and plastic.

The 2025 Lijia Exhibition will also create multiple themed exhibition islands showcasing manufacturing powerhouses of China, which will comprehensively showcase solutions to industry pain points through on-site demonstrations, technical explanations, and physical displays.

In addition, the exhibition will also hold over 100 industry conferences and events. The main forum, “FIM-Future Intelligent Manufacturing Conference,” focuses on future factories, with the theme of AI+manufacturing. Industry experts are expected to provide suggestions and recommendations for manufacturing transformation.

Organizers point out that for global manufacturing enterprises, the expo is not only an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest technologies and products in China’s equipment manufacturing industry, but also also an important platform for gaining a deeper understanding of the Chinese market and expanding international cooperation. It will also open up opportunities to engage in in-depth exchanges and cooperation with Chinese counterparts, and to jointly promote the development and prosperity of the global equipment manufacturing industry.

News

RW issues special statement after exiting CIABOC (Video)

Published

14 hours ago

April 28, 2025

editor

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe has left the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) after providing a statement today (April 28).

Soon afterwards, he had also made a special statement in this regard.

(Video : VoiceTube)

(Previous news 2025 April 28 – 9.20.a.m.)

Ex-President Ranil to appear before CIABOC today

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe is scheduled to appear before the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) today (April 28) at 9.30 a.m.

He has been summoned to record a statement over the statement he had made on MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake.

Former President Wickremesinghe, who was initially summoned to the CIABOC on April 17 but requested a postponement. He had requested a date after April 27th to appear before CIABOC, citing that his lawyer Ronald Perera is currently abroad.

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