South Korea

On December 3rd at 10:30 pm Korean Standard Time (KST), South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared emergency martial law in an unannounced nationally televised address. What is martial law? In South Korea, martial law gives the president full control, including the ability to use the military against civilians. Martial law can include powers like suspending civil rights, including freedom of the press, assembly, and limiting the powers of the courts and government agencies. Martial law is supposed to be temporary but can go on indefinitely. This caused mass protests nationwide as other times martial law has been imposed in Korea, dictators have come out of it. Martial law was lifted just a few hours later at 4:30 am KST after a unanimous 190-0 vote by the Korean parliament including all 18 members of Yeol’s own party. Yeol claims that he did this in order to stop anti-state forces that were planning a rebellion, but no official sources are saying who they were or what they were planning. Many people are calling for Yeol to be impeached and the Korean parliament will be able to vote on that in the coming week and if that fails or expires, a new motion can be submitted. In order to impeach him, there will need to be a vote of 200/300 members of the national assembly.

France

Major issues have arisen within the French government as their prime minister has just been voted out of office in a “vote of no confidence”, meaning their government has collapsed. Since France just had an election, legally they cannot have another for at least 6 months. Until a new prime minister can be elected, France has what is called a caretaker government, meaning that no new bills and laws can be created or passed. This is very worrying as France does look like it is heading towards a financial crisis where legislation would be necessary. Macron, the current president of France, is set to remain in office until 2027 when he almost certainly will not be reelected. That is, if he can even remain president until 2027, many French citizens and politicians are calling for Macron´s resignation or impeachment.

Georgia

People in the country of Georgia are violently protesting including shooting fireworks at the parliament building and police after their prime minister blocked their chances at joining the EU with his ultra-conservative policies. Their protests are not without push back and several reports have been attacked by police to the point of being admitted to the hospital

United States

1. There was also an assassination during broad daylight in Midtown Manhattan. On December 4th around 6 am Brian Thompson, C.E.O. of UnitedHealthcare, a large insurance company, was shot while walking to a meeting. Many experts believe this was a planned and possibly coordinated attack because the bullets were inscribed with the phrase “delay deny depose”, a play on a book titled “delay deny defend”, which details flaws in insurance company procedures.
2.  Joe Biden has officially pardoned his son in two cases. One involving drug use on a gun ownership form, and another about failure to file and pay taxes, tax evasion and filing a false return. Biden had previously said that he would not interfere with the justice system’s treatment despite it “selectively, and unfairly” prosecuting his son.
3. The Supreme Court is currently hearing the case of United States vs Skrmetti, a law from Tennessee on whether banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care is constitutional or not.
4. There was a 7.0 earthquake that hit off the coast near California causing a tsunami warning to be in place for a few hours.