South Korea President declares martial law

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late-night address broadcast live on YTN television, claiming he would eradicate “shameless pro-North Korean anti-state forces”.

He did not cite any specific threat from the nuclear-armed North, however, instead focusing on his domestic political opponents.

The surprise move sent shockwaves through the country, which had a series of authoritarian leaders early in its history but has been considered democratic since the 1980s. The Korean won was down sharply against the US dollar.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis.

“I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free constitutional order,” Yoon said.

He did not say in the address what specific measures would be taken. Yonhap news agency reported that the entrance to the parliament building was blocked.

“Tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and soldiers with guns and knives will rule the country,” Lee Jae-myung, leader of the opposition Democratic Party, which has the majority in parliament, said in a livestream online.

“The economy of the Republic of Korea will collapse irretrievably. My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly.”

Yoon cited a motion by the country’s opposition Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, this week to impeach some of the country’s top prosecutors and its rejection of a government budget proposal.

South Korea’s ministers on Monday protested the move by opposition DP last week to slash more than 4 trillion won from the government’s budget proposal. Yoon said that action undermines the essential functioning of government administration.

Vietnam court upholds tycoon’s death sentence for $12bn bank fraud

A Vietnamese court has rejected a real estate tycoon’s appeal, upholding the death sentence handed down for the embezzlement of $12bn.

The court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled against Truong My Lan’s appeal in the case, which has raised concerns over the impact on the country’s economy due to the huge sums involved.

The High People’s Court determined there was no basis to reduce Lan’s death sentence, local media reported. However, it also said that the sentence could be commuted to life imprisonment should she repay three-quarters of the money.

“The consequences Lan caused are unprecedented in the history of litigation and the amount of money embezzled is unprecedentedly large and unrecoverable,” the prosecution said at the appeal hearing, according to state-run online newspaper VietnamNet.

“The defendant’s actions have affected many aspects of society, the financial market, the economy.”

Lan, the chairwoman of real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, was sentenced to death in April for her role in what was Vietnam’s biggest financial fraud case on record.

She is convicted of orchestrating financial fraud amounting to $12bn, equalling nearly 3 percent of the country’s 2022 gross domestic product (GDP), and for illegally controlling the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB).

Her arrest in 2022 prompted a run on SCB, one of the country’s largest private banks. About 36,000 people have been identified as victims of the fraud, which shocked the communist nation and prompted rare protests.

State media cited Lan’s lawyer as saying she had many mitigating circumstances, including “having admitted guilt, showing remorse and paying back part of the amount of money embezzled”, but prosecutors said that was insufficient.

Lan still has the right to request a review under Vietnam’s cassation or retrial procedures.

The 68-year-old is one of the most famous business executives and state officials jailed in the communist country’s lengthy anticorruption campaign known as “Blazing Furnace”, which has intensified since 2022, netting a number of business executives, government officials and members of the police and armed forces.

WhatsApp to introduce sleek new look for chat list management

WhatsApp is rolling out an exciting new, redesigned interface that will enable users to manage their chat lists within the app in a more organised way.

According to WABetaInfo, the new interface is set to be rolled out in a future update but it is currently available to some beta testers who may explore it in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android 2.24.25.8 update which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

The tweaked interface for managing their chat lists is more organised compared to the previous design, making it even more intuitive for users.

The image displayed at the top of the screen now prominently features the main filters, such as "Favorites", "Various Conversations", and the shortcut to create a new filter.

 

Below the main image, there is a redesigned button that allows users to create a new custom list with ease. Its design aligns seamlessly with other action buttons found in the app, making it more modern.

Additionally, similar buttons are now present next to deleted preset filters, allowing users to restore them effortlessly.

The entire interface for creating, managing, and deleting lists has been redesigned to match the style of other sections of the app, such as the "Security" and "Mail" settings.

It's worth noting that some users with stable versions could potentially already be able to experience the redesigned interface.

Nevertheless, the new update, featuring the revamped interface, is set to be rolled out to even more people over the coming days.

US President Biden pardons son Hunter despite pledge not to

United States President Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for his firearms and tax convictions despite previously pledging not to use his presidential authority to grant him clemency.

Biden said on Sunday that his son had been “singled out” and “selectively, and unfairly” prosecuted due to his family name.

“There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

“In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Explaining his decision, Biden said that throughout his career he had followed the principle of telling the public the truth out of a belief that Americans are fair-minded.

“Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said.

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”

Biden’s announcement comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to face sentencing for a string of felonies related to making a false statement about his drug use during a gun background check and failing to pay at least $1.4m in taxes.

The outgoing president’s decision is likely to stoke debate about the independence of the US justice system, which is already in the spotlight amid warnings by critics that President-elect Donald Trump intends to use law enforcement agencies stacked with loyalists to target his political rivals.

Trump, who faced a string of criminal cases before his re-election all but assured that he will not suffer serious legal consequences, blasted the pardon as an abuse of power.

“Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social, referring to people convicted of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

The younger Biden had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison in the tax case and 17 years in the firearms case, though he would have almost certainly received much less severe punishment under federal sentencing guidelines.

Special counsel David Weiss, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to probe allegations against Hunter Biden, brought the charges after an earlier plea deal collapsed under scrutiny from a judge.

In justifying the pardon, Biden said that people are “almost never” brought to trial for wrongly filling out a gun purchase form and that those who pay their taxes late usually receive “non-criminal resolutions”.

The president said that Republicans, who cited Hunter Biden’s overseas business activities in a since-abandoned impeachment effort, had used his son’s troubles to damage him and oppose his election.

“Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process,” Biden said.

“Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”

Biden’s pardon covers not only his son’s tax and firearms convictions but also any other offences he has “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024”.

In June, Biden had flatly ruled out the possibility of granting his son a pardon or commuting his sentence.

“I said I will abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him,” Biden had said.

The White House had reiterated Biden’s intention not to pardon his son as recently as November 8, when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Our answer stands, which is no.”

In a statement on Sunday, Hunter Biden said that mistakes he had made in the throes of addiction had been “exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport”.

“In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded,” he said.

“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.”

Under the US Constitution, presidents have almost unlimited power to grant clemency to people convicted of federal crimes.

US presidents have used pardons to benefit family members and political allies in the past.

Shortly before the end of his first term, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, after he did jail time for convictions for tax evasion, illegal campaign contributions and witness tampering.

In 2001, former US President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton Jr, who served more than a year in prison in the 1980s after trying to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer.

Australian police arrest 13 in largest cocaine bust in country’s history

Australian police have arrested 13 people in what authorities described as the largest-ever cocaine bust in the country’s history.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said on Monday that they had charged 11 men and two juveniles after tracking a fishing boat that allegedly travelled to meet a mother ship loaded with cocaine off the coast of Queensland.

After the boat broke down 18km (10 nautical miles) off the coast, police carried out multiple arrests and seized 2.3 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of 760 million Australian dollars ($494m), the AFP said.

The arrests followed a months-long investigation prompted by a tip-off that a motorcycle gang was planning to smuggle drugs into the country, AFP Commander Stephen Jay said.

“We know that criminals go to extreme lengths, and often risk their own lives, to smuggle drugs into Australia with no regard to the harm they cause to Australian communities,” Jay said.

“This alleged attempt to collect more than two tonnes of cocaine from the ocean shows that criminals will do anything for their own greed and profit. Anyone involved in these at-sea trafficking enterprises is not just risking their freedom – they’re also risking their life.”

The arrested individuals, each of whom was charged with conspiracy to import a commercial quantity of border-controlled drugs, were expected to appear before court on Monday.

They face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment if convicted.

In 2023-24, Australian police seized 31.3 tonnes of illicit drugs and assisted international authorities in seizing 41.8 tonnes of drugs, according to the AFP.

Russia, North Korea agree to boost military ties

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and agreed to boost military cooperation between the two isolated nations, Pyongyang state media said on Saturday.

The United States and South Korea have accused the nuclear-armed North of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine, with experts saying Kim is eager to gain advanced technology, and battle experience for his troops, in return.

Kim, who met Belousov on Friday, blasted the recent decision by Western powers to permit Kyiv to strike inside Russia with their weapons, saying it constituted a “direct military intervention in the conflict”, according to KCNA.

“It is an exercise of the right to self-defence for Russia to take resolute action to make the hostile forces pay the price,” Kim was quoted as saying.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signed a strategic partnership treaty in June that obligates both states to provide military assistance “without delay” in the case of an attack on the other and jointly oppose Western sanctions.

KCNA said on Saturday that Belousov’s visit “would greatly contribute to bolstering up the defence capabilities of the two countries and… promoting the friendly, mutual cooperation and development of the relations between the two armies.” Belousov, in a statement, expressed gratitude for the two countries’ deeping bonds and praised North Korea’s “absolutely independent foreign policy”.

PTA extends VPN registration deadline beyond Nov 30

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided not to block Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) as the deadline for registration of all non-registered VPNs lapsed on Saturday midnight (November 30).

The government has decided to grant an extension in the registration of VPNs. However, a new date has not been announced for the VPN suspension.

The Ministry of Interior had announced to begin the process of shutting down all unregistered VPNs by the middle of November, but later announced a two-week "grace period" allowing the unregistered VPNs to comply with mandatory registration requirements.

As the deadline ended last night, the PTA chose not to issue an official statement on the VPN matter, but its Chairman Maj Gen (Retd) Hafeez Ur Rehman, spoke to certain media outlets and confirmed that the authority would not block VPNs, as the government had decided to grant an extension to the stipulated deadline.

The PTA chairman informed the Senate Standing Committee on IT last week that all non-registered VPNs would cease to function in the country after the 30 November deadline.

VPNs are commonly used worldwide to bypass restricted content.

In Pakistan, the use of VPNs witnessed a spike after authorities banned social media site X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year over "national security" concerns.

Stakeholders, including the IT industry and freelancers, have been pushing for an extension of the deadline for registration.

The PTA, according to sources, has emphasised that VPN registration is crucial for enhancing cybersecurity and ensuring national security and data protection.

It has registered more than 27,000 VPNs so far.

'Streamlined' VPN registration process

In a statement earlier this month, the PTA said that it has streamlined the VPN registration process for organisations and freelancers.

The telecommunication regulator said entities such as software houses, call centres, banks, embassies, and freelancers can register their VPNs online through the PTA's official website.

The PTA said members of the Pakistan Software Export Board (PSEB) can also avail of this facility.

It added that the registration involves completing an online form and providing basic details, including a computerised national identity card (CNIC), company registration details and taxpayer status.

Freelancers must submit documentation, such as a letter or email, verifying their project or company association, said the statement by the PTA.

Additionally, applicants must provide the IP address for VPN connectivity. If a fixed IP address is required, it can be acquired from an Internet Service Provider, it added.