Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is back in custody over an independent investigation into his declaration of martial law last year.

According to the independent counsel leading the probe, the Seoul Central District Court approved a warrant for Yoon’s re-arrest early Thursday morning, because of concerns over the destruction of evidence.

Yoon’s shocking December declaration plunged South Korea into a constitutional crisis and was widely condemned as striking at the heart of the nation’s democracy. He reversed course within six hours, after lawmakers forced their way into parliament and voted unanimously to block it.

Yoon was detained in January on charges of leading an insurrection, becoming the first president in South Korean history to be arrested while in office. He was released in March after the Seoul court canceled his arrest warrant for technical reasons.

In April, the Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove Yoon from office, calling his actions a “grave betrayal of the people’s trust.”

He has since faced multiple criminal investigations. According to the independent counsel, Yoon is now facing charges including abuse of power and obstruction of official duties.

In a leaked warrant request, the counsel alleged that Yoon declared martial law in an attempt to overcome political gridlock caused by the opposition party’s majority in the National Assembly and its impeachment of several senior officials.

He is accused of deploying troops to block lawmakers from entering the national assembly building to overturn the decree and of giving orders to “break down the doors” of parliament and “drag people out, even if it takes firing guns.” Yoon’s lawyers deny he ordered the use of firearms.

The counsel also alleges that Yoon instructed his commander to prioritize the arrest of key political figures, including the then opposition leader Lee Jae-myung, who is now the country’s president. He is further accused of ordering the presidential security service to obscure communication records from secure phones used afte the martial law was lifted.

In addition, Yoon is accused of obstructing warrant executions by the Corruption Investigation Office (CIO) in December and January by mobilizing the presidential security detail and authorizing the use of force.

Yoon’s lawyers said the warrant request was “rushed and unjustified” and called the investigation “flawed and politically motivated.” They said the independent counsel’s questions during Yoon’s investigation were only at a basic level regarding the allegations, and that the warrant request did not include any treason charges.

They added that most individuals involved have already been detained and are standing trial, so all relevant evidence has been secured and there is no risk of evidence being destroyed.

Independent counsel teams were established to investigate Yoon following his removal from office, and the election of Lee in a snap presidential election in June.

Rescuers pulled six crew members alive from the Red Sea after Houthi militants attacked and sank a second ship this week, while the fate of another 15 was unknown after the Iran-aligned group said they held some of the seafarers.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the assault that maritime officials say killed four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C before the rest abandoned the cargo ship. Eternity C went down Wednesday morning after attacks on two previous days, sources at security companies involved in a rescue operation said.

The six rescued seafarers spent more than 24 hours in the water, those firms said.

The United States Mission in Yemen accused the Houthis of kidnapping many surviving crew members from Eternity C and called for their immediate and unconditional safe release.

“The Yemeni Navy responded to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care, and transport them to a safe location,” the group’s military spokesperson said in a televised address.

The Houthis released a video they said depicted their attack on Eternity C. It included sound of a Yemen naval forces’ call for the crew to evacuate for rescue and showed explosions on the ship before it sank. Reuters could not independently verify the audio or the location of the ship, which it verified was the Eternity C.

The Houthis also have claimed responsibility for a similar assault on Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.

The strikes on the two ships revive a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who had attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians. In May, the U.S. announced a surprise deal with the Houthis where it agreed to stop a bombing campaign against them in return for an end to shipping attacks, though the Houthis said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

Leading shipping industry associations, including the International Chamber of Shipping and BIMCO, denounced the deadly operation and called for robust maritime security in the region via a joint statement on Wednesday.

“These vessels have been attacked with callous disregard for the lives of innocent civilian seafarers,” they said.

“This tragedy illuminates the need for nations to maintain robust support in protecting shipping and vital sea lanes.”

Rescue search

The Eternity C and the Magic Seas both flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek firms. Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets had made calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis showed.

“We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light,” said an official at Greece-based maritime risk management firm Diaplous.

The EU’s Aspides naval mission, which protects Red Sea shipping, confirmed in a statement that six people had been pulled from the sea.

The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, has long been a critical waterway for the world’s oil and commodities but traffic has dropped sharply since the Houthi attacks began.

The number of daily sailings through the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, at the southern tip of the Red Sea and a gateway to the Gulf of Aden, numbered 30 vessels on July 8, from 34 ships on July 6 and 43 on July 1, according to data from maritime data group Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, maintaining their highest levels since June 23, also due to the recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Multiple attacks

Eternity C was first attacked on Monday afternoon with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats by suspected Houthi militants, maritime security sources said. Lifeboats were destroyed during the raid. By Tuesday morning the vessel was adrift and listing.

Two security sources told Reuters that the vessel was hit again with sea drones on Tuesday, forcing the crew and armed guards to abandon it. The Houthis stayed with the vessel until the early hours of Wednesday, one of the sources said.

Skiffs were in the area as rescue efforts were underway.

The crew comprised 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who was one of those rescued.

The vessel’s operator, Cosmoship Management, has not responded to requests for confirmation of casualties or injuries. If confirmed, the four reported deaths would be the first fatalities from attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since June 2024.

Greece has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, over the latest incident, according to sources.

Australian universities may lose funding if they’re not judged to be doing enough to address anti-Jewish hate crimes, according to new measures proposed by the country’s first antisemitism envoy.

Jillian Segal was appointed to the role a year ago in response to a surge in reports of attacks against Jewish sites and property in Australia, following Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and was tasked with combating antisemitism in the country.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Thursday, Segal released a report nine months in the making proposing strong measures, including the university funding threats and the screening of visa applicants for extremist views.

“The plan is not about special treatment for one community; it is about restoring equal treatment,” Segal said. “It’s about ensuring that every Australian, regardless of their background or belief, can live, work, learn and prosper in this country.”

Like in the United States, Australian campuses were once the hub of pro-Palestinian protests led by students who pitched tents demanding action to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The campus protests dwindled after restrictions were tightened and some protesters were threatened with expulsion, a move condemned by the activists as an infringement on free speech.

Segal’s report said antisemitism had become “ingrained and normalised” within academia and university courses, as well as on campuses, and recommended universities be made subject to annual report cards assessing their effectiveness in combating antisemitism.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said the organization had been working “constructively” with the special envoy and its members would “consider the recommendations.”

“Academic freedom and freedom of expression are core to the university mission, but they must be exercised with responsibility and never as a cover for hate or harassment,” he said in a statement.

Surge in antisemitism

Antisemitic attacks in Australia surged 300% in the year following Israel’s invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

In the past week alone, the door of a synagogue was set on fire in Melbourne, forcing 20 occupants to flee by a rear exit, as nearby protesters shouting “Death to the IDF” – using the initials of the Israeli military – stormed an Israeli-owned restaurant.

A man is facing arson charges over the synagogue attack, and three people were charged Tuesday with assault, affray, riotous behavior and criminal damage over the restaurant raid.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which Segal once led and is the umbrella organization for hundreds of Jewish community groups, said the report’s release “could not be more timely given the recent appalling events in Melbourne.”

However, the Jewish Council of Australia, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza, voiced concerns about Segal’s plan, saying it carried the overtones of US President Donald Trump’s attempts to use funding as a means of control over institutions.

In a statement, the council criticized the plan’s “emphasis on surveillance, censorship, and punitive control over the funding of cultural and educational institutions,” adding that they were “measures straight out of Trump’s authoritarian playbook.”

Max Kaiser, the group’s executive officer, said: “Any response that treats antisemitism as exceptional, while ignoring Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and other forms of hate, is doomed to fail.”

Education, immigration and the arts

The envoy’s 20-page plan includes sweeping recommendations covering schools, immigration, media, policing and public awareness campaigns.

Segal wants Holocaust and antisemitism education baked into the national curriculum “as a major case study of where unchecked antisemitism can lead,” according to the report.

Arts organizations could be subject to the same restrictions as universities, with threats to pull public funding if they’re found to have engaged in, or facilitated, antisemitism.

“While freedom of expression, particularly artistic expression, is vital to cultural richness and should be protected, funding provided by Australian taxpayers should not be used to promote division or spread false/ distorted narratives,” the report said.

Under the recommendations, tougher immigration screening would weed out people with antisemitic views, and the Migration Act would enable authorities to cancel visas for antisemitic conduct.

Media would be monitored to “encourage accurate, fair and responsible reporting” and to “avoid accepting false or distorted narratives,” the report added.

During Thursday’s press conference, Albanese pointed to an interview on the country’s national broadcaster with a protester, saying the interviewee tried to justify the Melbourne restaurant attack.

“There is no justification for that whatsoever,” he said. “The idea that somehow the cause of justice for Palestinians is advanced by behavior like that is not only delusional, it is destructive, and it is not consistent with how you are able to put forward your views respectfully in a democracy,” he said.

Asked if the country had become less tolerant of different views and had, perhaps, lost the ability to have a debate, Albanese pointed to social media.

“I think there is an impact of social media, where algorithms work to reinforce people’s views,” he said. “They reinforce views, and they push people towards extremes, whether it be extreme left, extreme right. Australians want a country that is in the center.”

His comments came as Grok, X’s AI chatbot, was called out for spreading antisemitic tropes that the company said it was “actively working to remove.”

Albanese said, regarding antisemitic views, “social media has a social responsibility, and they need to be held to account.”

Asked whether anti-Israel protests were fueling the antisemitic attacks, the prime minister said people should be able to express their views without resorting to hate.

“In Israel itself, as a democracy, there is protest against actions of the government, and in a democracy, you should be able to express your view here in Australia about events overseas,” he said. “Where the line has been crossed is in blaming and identifying people because they happen to be Jewish.”

For a fleeting moment, Ukraine’s conflict may have come full circle.

In the past 48 hours, US President Donald Trump has perhaps said his most forcefully direct words yet on arming Ukraine. And in the same period, the Kremlin have given their blankest indication to this White House that they are not interested in a realistic, negotiated settlement to the war.

Let us start with Trump’s comments on arming Ukraine, a reversion to a basic bedrock of US foreign policy for decades – opposing Russian aggression. “We’re going to send some more weapons,” the president said Monday of Ukraine. “We have to – they have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard.”

Behind him, his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nodded, despite this contradiction of the administration’s announcement days earlier of military shipments being stopped. What did Trump actually mean? He was short on detail.

A Pentagon spokesman later said that “at President Trump’s direction, the Department of Defense is sending additional defensive weapons to Ukraine to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.”

The about-face came days after Volodymyr Zelensky’s call with Trump on Friday, in which the Ukrainian leader said the two men spoke of joint weapons production, and air defense.

Zelensky urgently needs more Patriot interceptor missiles, which are the only way of taking down Russian ballistic missiles, and which only the US can authorize trade in. Trump spoke a day earlier with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has offered to buy Patriots from the US to supply to Ukraine. Enough is afoot to have led Zelensky to declare on Saturday his Trump call was “the best conversation we have had during this whole time, the most productive.”

Trump’s failure to provide details may be strategic, or a by-product of his occasional disdain for them. But while he may sound briefly a little more like his predecessor, Joe Biden, in terms of arming Ukraine, herein lies one stark difference. Biden publicly announced in agonizing detail every capability he gave Kyiv, perhaps hoping the transparency would avoid a sudden unexpected escalation with Moscow.

Instead, Biden ended up with an excruciating public debate with Kyiv about every new system, and arms shipment, during which every seemingly impossible demand – from HIMARS rockets, to tanks, to F-16 fighter jets, to strikes inside Russia by ATACMs – was eventually acceded to. The plain, open ladder of American escalation was laid bare to the Kremlin. Trump perhaps seeks to avoid that by saying less.

But after barely six months in office, Trump finds himself back where Biden always was, after trying almost everything else – cosying up to then criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin, falling out and making up with Zelensky, and spurning before eventually backing Europe. But the timing of his latest conversion, however enduring, reveals the desperation of this moment in the conflict.

The most recent, record Russian use of drones to attack Kyiv exposed possibly critical shortcomings in the capital’s air defenses. They would only have worsened without being resupplied, at a time when Ukraine has reported 160,000 Russian troops are massing to the north and east of the frontlines. The months ahead will be unpredictable and critical for Kyiv, even with renewed US military support.

Trump’s reversal may have stopped panic edging towards the risk of collapse. Why the shift?

Trump has always tried playing nice with Putin. Patient diplomacy, gentle words, and even last week’s brief pause in military aid – a Kremlin demand for a deal – still did nothing to change Putin’s position. The Kremlin does not want peace. And so Trump has learned slowly, rejecting the travails of recent history, that Russia is an opponent.

The end of the US’ longest war in Afghanistan, in which Biden withdrew fast in the wake of a hasty deal signed by Trump with the Taliban, led to scenes that haunted Trump’s predecessor and remain a potent stick with which Republicans beat Democrats. The repetition of a similar rout of American allies in Ukraine, or Eastern Europe, would be an indelible stain on the Republican or MAGA record. That is not imminent, or even that likely for now. But the seeds of it lie perhaps in any success for Putin’s planned aggression in the coming months.

Meanwhile, after six months of toying with the ideas of diplomacy, the Kremlin is back where it started too: willing to accept a peace only if it is surrender by another name. Its recent goal has been achieved: it has flattered the White House’s belief that it could talk out an end to the war, and taken enough time in talks that Russia’s summer offensive is now adequately manned, and the ground below these troops hard.

As recently as Monday, Putin’s top diplomat was repeating Russia’s most maximalist set of demands. Sergey Lavrov told a Hungarian newspaper that the “underlying causes” of the war must be eliminated, and gave a long, expansive list of impossibles, including the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, lifting sanctions on Russia, rescinding all lawsuits against Russia, and returning the illegally seized Western-based assets.”

He added to that a requirement that Ukraine pledge to never join NATO, and also that occupied Ukrainian territory be recognized as Russian, including parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that Moscow hasn’t even seized yet. It was a dizzying echo of Russia’s demands when it engaged in diplomacy for the first time in Istanbul, in the opening weeks of the war, as its soldiers shot civilians dead in the suburbs of Kyiv.

Putin’s rationale for rejecting real diplomacy is simple. He has sold this war (falsely) as an existential clash between Russia and its traditional values, and a liberal, expansionist and aggressive NATO. It is a binary moment in Russian history, his narrative insists. To entertain a short, albeit deceptive ceasefire on American terms would contradict the urgency of that false story, and risk undermining the skimpy morale of his troops, whose lives his commanders often fritter away in brutal, frontal assaults.

Putin can mollify Trump with talk of his desire for peace. But he cannot let slip the façade of the motherland being under assault. His retreat back to type has been shorter and easier than Trump’s. But still the Kremlin sees the enemy where it always has been, and where it always needs to be, for its war of choice to continue ending the lives of so many Russian men early.

And so, for a brief moment, Putin and Trump find themselves back where Russia and the US were in 2022. Moscow has tens of thousands more troops reportedly amassed to invade Ukraine yet again. Diplomacy seems pointless. Washington needs to help defend Ukraine or risk global embarrassment – the demise of its military hegemony. And Ukraine is still there, in the middle, watching both powers on either side vacillate and spin, yet holding on.