
South Korea: New leader Lee Jae-myung pledges to 'unite' a divided country
Just hours after winning the South Korean presidency, Lee Jae-myung pledged to "unite the people" in his inauguration speech on Wednesday.Lee enters office at a time when the country is still grappling with deep divisions, which were further triggered after President Yoon Suk Yeol's shock martial law declaration last December."I will start with reviving the economy and healing the people," he told an audience a the National Assembly. "Regardless of who you supported in this election... I will be the president of all the people."Lee, a candidate of the liberal Democratic Party was elected with nearly 50% of the vote.
He blamed the country's political turmoil on "political factions with no desire to work for the lives of the people"."I will work to unite the people," he said.
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Belfast Telegraph
an hour ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Thousands of demonstrators march through Rome to call for end to war in Gaza
Protesters held a banner reading 'Stop the massacre, stop complicity!' at the start of the march, which moved peacefully through the centre of Rome amid a massive display of rainbow, Palestinian and political party flags. The protest attracted a diverse crowd from across the country, including many families with children. According to organisers, up to 300,000 people participated in the rally organised by the leftist opposition to ask the government for a clear position on the conflict in Gaza. 'This is an an enormous popular response to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians and the crimes of (Israeli leader Benjamin) Netanyahu's government,' the leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, told reporters at the march. 'There is another Italy that doesn't remain silent as the Meloni government does,' she said, referring to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Ms Meloni was recently pushed by the opposition to publicly condemn Mr Netanyahu's offensive in Gaza, but many observers considered her criticism too timid. '(The Italian government) is not reacting despite an abnormal massacre, despite an absolutely cruel and inappropriate reaction. The (Italian) government remains silent,' said Nadin Unali, a Tunisian demonstrator at the march. Earlier this week, the Italian premier urged Israel to immediately halt its military campaign in Gaza, saying its attacks had grown disproportionately and should be brought to an end to protect civilians. Israel faces mounting international criticism for its offensive and pressure to let aid into Gaza during a humanitarian crisis. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, with experts warning that many of its two million residents are at high risk of famine. The war broke out on October 7 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive. Since then, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in its military campaign, primarily women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.


Powys County Times
an hour ago
- Powys County Times
Thousands of demonstrators march through Rome to call for end to war in Gaza
Tens of thousands of people have marched through the streets of Rome in protest against the war in Gaza in a demonstration called by Italy's main opposition parties, who accuse the right-wing government of being too silent. Protesters held a banner reading 'Stop the massacre, stop complicity!' at the start of the march, which moved peacefully through the centre of Rome amid a massive display of rainbow, Palestinian and political party flags. The protest attracted a diverse crowd from across the country, including many families with children. According to organisers, up to 300,000 people participated in the rally organised by the leftist opposition to ask the government for a clear position on the conflict in Gaza. 'This is an an enormous popular response to say enough to the massacre of Palestinians and the crimes of (Israeli leader Benjamin) Netanyahu's government,' the leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, told reporters at the march. 'There is another Italy that doesn't remain silent as the Meloni government does,' she said, referring to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Ms Meloni was recently pushed by the opposition to publicly condemn Mr Netanyahu's offensive in Gaza, but many observers considered her criticism too timid. '(The Italian government) is not reacting despite an abnormal massacre, despite an absolutely cruel and inappropriate reaction. The (Italian) government remains silent,' said Nadin Unali, a Tunisian demonstrator at the march. Earlier this week, the Italian premier urged Israel to immediately halt its military campaign in Gaza, saying its attacks had grown disproportionately and should be brought to an end to protect civilians. Israel faces mounting international criticism for its offensive and pressure to let aid into Gaza during a humanitarian crisis. Gaza has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, with experts warning that many of its two million residents are at high risk of famine. The war broke out on October 7 2023, when Hamas-led militants launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 hostages. They are still holding 56 hostages, around a third of them believed to be alive. Since then, Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians in its military campaign, primarily women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures.


Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
HAMISH MCRAE: Flying Footsie defies the gloom
If the Government's finances are in such a mess and the economy is stagnant, why are share prices close to an all-time high? Could it simply be the UK is a pretty good place to invest – provided you are a foreigner and don't have to pay our taxes? This week sees Rachel Reeves' spending review, setting out what the Government proposes to do with our taxes for the next three or four years. It's the first shot a Labour government has had at this exercise since 2009, in the aftermath of the banking crash. Then Chancellor Alistair Darling savaged spending plans to such a scale that, in theory at least, there would be cuts of 490,000 public sector jobs. It was a total about-turn of the exercise by Gordon Brown when money taps were flowing. The so-called 'austerity' of the Coalition Government the following year was actually started by Labour. Reminding people of this is not to beat up Reeves' predecessors, or to get into the debate about spending headroom, or the commitment to the Office for Budget Responsibility's fiscal rules. It is just to point out that, for all the fine words of successive Chancellors, they are prisoners of the harsh mathematics of public finances. If the taxes come in strongly, that is fine. If not, they are in trouble. Right now, notwithstanding her increase in tax rates, revenues are weak. Why? Well, we don't yet know, but it looks like people with money are hunkering down – or bunking out. The top 1 per cent of earners pay 29 per cent of all income tax, and the top 10 per cent pay 60 per cent. It's early days, but there are bits of evidence of a shift in behaviour. The Capgemini World Wealth Report last week showed that the UK lost 14,000 millionaires last year. That's not as big a decline as in France or Germany, but a stunning contrast to the increase of 562,000 millionaires in the US. There is data from Henley & Partners that 26,000 non-doms left the UK last year, and there are suggestions that the changes brought in by Reeves will cut tax revenue rather than increase it. Job losses are certainly coming as a direct result of the increase in employers' National Insurance Contributions (NICs), but thanks to the unreliability of the Office for National Statistics' numbers it's too early to know how hard employment is being hit. What we do know is that revenues from income tax, NICs and capital gains tax in April, the first month of the financial year, were disappointing – disappointing, that is, from the perspective of the Treasury, if not from those of us handing over the money. This isn't a mass exodus of high-earners or of the already wealthy. It feels more like the 1970s when some people did leave the country, but most just cut their costs and waited for the change of government that eventually happened in 1979. The difference is that back in the 1970s, financial markets were all over the place, the pound was savaged before recovering, and inflation was heading upwards. Now UK shares are doing well, and the pound has made a decent recovery. The FTSE 100 index, at 8,838 is only 50 points off its all-time high in March, and the pound is back to $1.35. It is completely plausible that the Footsie could go through 9,000 in the next few days, and I expect sterling to reach $1.45 by year-end. All this is happening despite the chaos in world trade and expectation that Reeves will have to raise taxes again come the autumn. Why? Three explanations. One is that the UK equity market is the least ugly, or at least one of the less ugly, contenders in the global beauty parade. Where else do you put your money? You are buying into large, hitherto relatively unfashionable enterprises that earn decent profits and pay good dividends. At a time of huge uncertainty, you should not try to be clever, but just diversify your assets. Two, the fact that Britons are to be clobbered with yet higher taxes and the economy will stay stagnant is unimportant to foreign investors. Big UK firms earn on average three-quarters of their profits overseas. And finally, even if the global trade war does hot up, the UK is not in Donald Trump's firing line. What's not to like?