NewsBite

Political unrest

This Month

South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol.

South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon

Mr Yoon’s presidential powers and duties will be suspended after copies of a document on the impeachment are delivered to him and to the Constitutional Court.

  • Updated
  • Hyung-Jin Kim and Kim Tong-Hyung
Banners calling for the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol displayed outside the National Assembly in Seoul this week.

South Korean upheaval rattles US plan to counter China

There are questions over whether a new government in Seoul might complicate Washington’s efforts under Donald Trump to counter the rise of China as a military superpower.

  • Edward White, Christian Davies, Leo Lewis and Demetri Sevastopulo
South Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol.

South Korea’s Yoon seeks to fight on as inquiries mount

The president is battling to stay in his role after his brief declaration of martial law last week stunned the nation and its allies.

  • Sangmi Cha and Seyoon Kim
Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma (centre) with their children (from left) Zein, Hafez and Karim outside the Great Mosque of Aleppo in 2022.

How Assad’s family ran Syria like the mafia

Hafez and his son Bashar killed countless people over five decades and oversaw the country’s descent into kleptocracy.

  • Chloe Cornish
Bashar Assad appears to be largely on his own as he faces the end of his 24-year rule.

Alone against a renewed insurgency, Assad faces the end without allies

It seemed Syria’s president was almost out of the woods. But then a sudden rebel offensive caught everyone off guard.

  • Zeina Karam and Sarah El Deeb
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled the attack an act of terrorism, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan did not go as far.

Victoria urged to adopt NSW-style protest laws after synagogue attack

Premier Jacinta Allan on Sunday declined to call the pre-dawn attack terrorism, saying she did not want to risk compromising the police investigation.

  • Ronald Mizen
NA

A crazy six hours in Seoul and the fragility of democracy

A presidential brain snap in South Korea has revived dark memories of the country’s past, with potentially damaging geopolitical ripples across north-east Asia.

  • James Curran
Firefighters at the scene of the fire at dawn on Friday.

‘Doing our best’ to fight antisemitism? Far from it

In Victoria, Jews live in a climate of fear because next to nothing has been done to stop the attacks against them.

  • Updated
  • Phillip Coorey
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sparks chaos after declaring martial law.

How South Korea fought off a presidential power grab

Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration sparked shock and fear throughout the country. But the nation’s relatively new democratic institutions held firm.

  • Jessica Sier

October

A poll worker holds “I Voted” stickers during the first day of early voting at a polling station in Wilmington, North Carolina.

US polling places struggle to find workers after surge in threats

Intimidation of election officials surged in 2020 after then-president Donald Trump and his supporters attempted to subvert the result.

  • Taylor Nicole Rogers

September

Hezbollah fighters attend funerals for those killed in Israel’s airstrike in Beirut.

Why Hezbollah is everyone’s problem

The world is now in the opening stages of yet another contest between the free and unfree. It’s a conflict reaching far and wide, and will last for decades.

  • Updated
  • Bret Stephens

August

Protesters march against the far right outside the London offices of the Reform UK party.

White supremacists turn UK riots into online recruiting pitch

Hard-line organisations previously designated by the UK as domestic terrorists are calling for an overthrow of the British government.

  • Jeff Stone
Police clash with right-wing protesters in Manchester at the weekend.

UK police prepare for further clashes with far right

PM Keir Starmer said this week authorities had agreed to mobilise a “standing army” of officers to deal with the anti-migrant and anti-Muslim disorder.

  • Alex Wickham
Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus .

Bangladesh protesters back Nobel laureate for government role

Protesters have called for Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus to be named chief adviser of a new interim government after PM Sheikh Hasina fled the country.

  • John Reed, Benjamin Parkin and Lucy Fisher
Protesters at a rally in Jakarta, Indonesia in support of Palestinians last month.

Widespread boycotts in Muslim countries hammer Western brands

Consumers are shunning goods produced by companies such as Coca-Cola, KFC, Starbucks and Mondelez in protest against their perceived support for Israel in the war in Gaza.

  • FT Reporters
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In Dhaka, a man films a burning shopping centre on his phone as he runs past. Protesters are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government.

Bangladesh protesters to march on government after deadly clashes

At least 91 people were killed and hundreds injured on Sunday in a wave of violence in the country of 170 million, as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets.

  • Ruma Paul
Riot police officers push back anti-migration protesters outside the Holiday Inn Express Hotel, which is housing asylum seekers, in Rotherham, England.

Starmer calls emergency security meeting after weekend of riots

Violence erupted in towns and cities including Rotherham, Blackpool and Bristol over the weekend in the first major test for the new Labour government.

  • Andrew Atkinson, Alex Wickham and Lucca de Paoli

July

Clare O’Neil said some of the activity on social media stems from opposition to COVID lockdowns.

COVID-19 lockdown anger a turning point in political discourse

Dangerous and undemocratic social media activity started during Victoria’s pandemic lockdowns is persisting, the Home Affairs Minister has warned.

  • Tom McIlroy

May

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks after stepping off his plane in New Caledonia on Thursday.

Macron urges calm in high-stakes New Caledonia visit

The French president has met political and business leaders in an attempt to ease tensions following days of deadly unrest over electoral reforms.

  • Claire Rush and John Leicester
Smoke rises during protests in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Why a small Pacific island territory is upending nickel prices

New Caledonia possesses an estimated 25 per cent of the world’s nickel resources and accounts for 6 per cent of global production of the metal.

  • Rishi Lyengar

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/political-unrest-1n7t