Climate and environment updates: Could the UK be a model for clean electricity?
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(NEW YORK) — The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it’s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future.
That’s why the ABC News Climate and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating what you need to know to keep the people and places you care about safe. We are dedicated to providing clarity amid the chaos, giving you the facts and insights necessary to navigate the climate realities of today — and tomorrow.
Could the UK be a model for clean electricity production?
When it comes to curbing climate change, scientists have been clear. The world needs to stop burning fossil fuels. However, much of the world still depends on significant amounts of oil, gas and coal for its energy needs.
England kicked off the coal power revolution in 1882 and, for the next 142 years, burned the greenhouse gas-emitting energy source. But last year, the U.K. became the first G7 country to phase out coal power plants. When the Ratcliffe-on-Soar plant in Nottinghamshire closed in September, it marked the end of an era for the most-polluting fossil fuel in that region.
A new analysis by Carbon Brief, a U.K.-based climate publication, found that by eliminating coal and adopting more clean energy sources, the U.K. has significantly cleaned up its electricity generation, meaning it’s generating the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions in its history.
According to the analysis, in 2024, renewable energy sources reached a record-high 45% in the country, while fossil fuels made up 29%. Nuclear energy accounted for another 13%. Over the last decade, renewable energy sources have more than doubled. As a result, carbon emissions have plunged by two-thirds over that time.
While gas-fired power plants are still the U.K.’s single-largest source of electricity, wind power has almost caught up. However, the analysis found that when new wind projects come online in the coming months, the U.K. will likely generate more power from wind than gas in 2025.
While the incoming Trump administration calls for more drilling and fossil fuel use, including coal, in the United States, the U.K. just had its cleanest year ever for electricity generation. The combination of sunsetting coal power plants and increasing the amount of renewable energy is moving the country in the direction scientists say is crucial for stopping the worst impacts of human-amplified climate change.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser
New York will make polluters pay for climate change damage
New York State is establishing a “Climate Superfund” that will make companies that release large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions financially responsible for some of the damage that climate change caused to the state’s infrastructure, communities and ecosystems.
On Thursday, Gov. Kathy Hochul, signed a bill into law requiring large fossil fuel companies to “pay for critical projects that protect New Yorkers.” Citing the hundreds of billions of dollars the state will have to spend on climate adaptation through 2050, the law requires that the companies responsible for most carbon emissions, more than a billion metric tons, between 2000-2018 pay nearly $3 billion annually for the next 25 years.
“With nearly every record rainfall, heatwave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment,” Hochul said in a press statement.
The new law calls climate change “an immediate, grave threat to the state’s communities, environment, and economy.” According to NASA, 97% of climate scientists believe human activity, specifically burning fossil fuels, is the primary driver of climate change and global warming. And those changes to the climate have resulted in more intense and more frequent extreme weather events.
The New York legislature said the “Climate Superfund” was now possible because scientific research enables them “to determine with great accuracy the share of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by specific fossil fuel companies over the last 70 years or more, making it possible to assign liability to and require compensation from companies commensurate with their emissions during a given time period.”
“The governor’s approval of the Climate Change Superfund Act is a welcome holiday gift for New York taxpayers,” said Blair Horner, executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group, in a statement. “Until her approval, New York taxpayers were 100% on the financial hook for climate costs. Now Big Oil will pay for much of the damages that they helped cause.”
The state anticipates collecting up to $75 billion over 25 years, and the law requires that at least 35% of the funds go to disadvantaged communities.
New York State Senator Liz Krueger said the new legislation was modeled after the federal Superfund law that requires polluters to pay for toxic waste cleanups.
But not everyone is cheering the new legislation. In a letter to Gov. Hochul, urging her to veto the bill, the Business Council of New York State, which represents more than 3,000 companies, chambers of commerce and associations, wrote, “The bill discriminates by targeting only the largest fossil fuel extraction and processing firms, including petroleum, natural gas, and coal.”
The Council added, “This legislation ignores the near universal use and benefits associated with fossil fuel.” They argued that the new law would do nothing to address what they said is the primary cause of carbon emissions: “consumption.”
There are still a lot of specifics that have yet to be determined, and the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for figuring out the program’s details over the next few years. With legal challenges all but certain, it will be some time before the companies actually have to pay up.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser
Could climate change bring more earthquakes?
Earthquakes are usually triggered by seismic activity deep beneath the Earth’s surface and far beyond the influence of atmospheric conditions. However, according to new research, there may be instances where climate change can impact seismic activity.
A recent Colorado State University study suggests that melting glaciers could impact earthquake activity in some areas. Researchers analyzed southern Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains during the last ice age. They found the active fault responsible for triggering earthquakes was held in place by the weight of glaciers sitting on top of it.
Thousands of years ago, as the last ice age ended and the planet began to naturally warm, glaciers in this region began to melt. The study found that as the ice melted, there was less pressure on the quake-prone fault, which triggered an increase in earthquake activity. Basically, the glacier was holding the fault in place — less ice, less weight.
There is limited scientific evidence linking changes in Earth’s climate to earthquake activity. Still, this study demonstrates that, in some cases, climate-related events, like melting glaciers, could influence seismic events.
Sean Gallen, Geosciences associate professor and senior author of the study, highlights that this research helps us better understand the factors that can drive earthquakes.
Even though the study focused on investigating links between Earth’s natural climate variability (an ice age) and seismic activity, this research shows how other glacier-adjacent faults worldwide could respond as greenhouse gas emissions accelerate global warming.
As human-amplified climate change continues to drive global glacier melt, earthquake activity along these faults could increase as glaciers recede.
“We see this in the rapid mountain glacial retreats in Alaska, the Himalayas and the Alps,” said Cece Hurtado, an author of the study. “In many of these regions, there are also active tectonics, and this work demonstrates that as climate change alters ice and water loads, tectonically active areas might see more frequent fault movements and earthquakes due to rapidly changing stress conditions.”
(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut. The strikes form the backdrop for a fresh diplomatic push by the White House ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January.
Tensions also remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.
US vetos Gaza UN Security Council cease-fire resolution
The U.S. vetoed another United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it did not include a hostage release.
This is the 12th time the Security Council voted on a draft resolution since the war in Gaza started 13 months ago.
At least 43,972 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
In June, the Security Council passed a U.S.-drafted cease-fire deal that President Joe Biden approved. At the time, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “we voted for peace.”
US sanctions Hamas leaders as officials say group’s political wing has rebased in Turkey
The U.S. is rolling out sanctions against six senior Hamas leaders accused of facilitating the transfer of weapons and funds into Gaza to support the group’s terror activities as well as smuggling in construction materials to build the underground tunnels critical to its operations, according to the Biden administration.
“There is no distinction between Hamas’ so-called military wing and its political leadership,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement announcing the tranche of sanctions.
Three of the targeted individuals are based in Turkey, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Despite the denials coming from Hamas and the Turkish government, two U.S. officials say that the bulk of Hamas’ political wing has now relocated to Turkey following the group’s ouster from Qatar.
The U.S. has turned a blind eye to Hamas’ relationship with NATO ally Turkey for years, which allows the U.S. designated terror group to openly recruit, fundraise and interface with its government officials.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he hopes to strengthen ties with the U.S. when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. However, Trump’s cabinet is expected to feature many staunchly pro-Israel voices who will object to Turkey’s tolerance of Hamas — potentially complicating Erdogan’s plans.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hospitals in northern Gaza running out of medical supplies, requesting patient transfers as attacks continue
Kamal Adwan Hospital is running out of medical supplies, and more people with cases of malnutrition are arriving at the hospital because of the lack of food and water allowed into northern Gaza, the hospital director said in comments Tuesday.
“There are a number of cases of malnutrition that have begun to arrive, including children and the elderly,” Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital said.
“The health system is working under extremely harsh conditions to the point that we have started losing numbers of infected people due to the lack of medical supplies,” Abu Safia added.
At least 50 people were killed, and 110 people were injured in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Palestine Red Crescent Society transferred 15 patients from Al Awda Hospital in north Gaza to Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City Sunday, the ICRC said in a statement Tuesday. The patient transfers were requested by the hospitals, the ICRC said.
The organizations also delivered medical supplies to three hospitals in Gaza City Monday, the ICRC said in a post on X.
“The delivery and medical transfer came in the wake of another large-scale attack in the Beit Lahia area of the Northern Governorate, in which dozens of people were killed and many more injured,” the ICRC said.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Sami Zyara
UN peacekeepers, buildings targeted in 3 incidents in south Lebanon
United Nations peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and facilities were targeted in “three separate incidents in south Lebanon,” Tuesday, UNIFIL said in a post on X.
Four Ghanian peacekeepers on duty “sustained injures as a rocket … hit their base,” UNIFIL said in a post on X. Three of the injured peacekeepers were transferred to a hospital in Tyre, Lebanon for treatment, UNIFIL said.
In a different attack, a UNIFIL building was “impacted by five rockets,” UNIFIL said.
“In another incident, UNIFIL Sector West Headquarters in Shama was impacted by five rockets, which struck the maintenance workshop,” UNIFIL said. “Although it caused heavy damage to the workshop, no peacekeeper was injured. This was the second time this UNIFIL base was impacted by the ongoing clashes in the area in less than a week.”
In a third incident, a UNIFIL patrol was “passing through” a village, and “an armed person directly fired at the patrol,” UNIFIL said. No injuries were reported from this incident.
UNIFIL is investigating the incidents and has informed the Lebanese armed forces about them, UNIFIL said.
“UNIFIL once again reminds all actors involved in the ongoing hostilities to respect the inviolability of United Nations peacekeepers and premises,” UNIFIL said in a post on X.
5 killed, 31 injured after Israeli strike on central Beirut
At least five people were killed, 31 were injured and at least two people remain missing after an Israeli airstrike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
The Israeli Defense Forces did not issue a warning before conducting this airstrike on central Beirut Monday.
At least 28 people were killed and 107 were wounded across Lebanon from Israeli attacks Monday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.
Overall, 3,544 people have been killed, and 15,036 have been injured since Israel’s increased attacks on the country began in mid-September, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said in a post on X.
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein met with Lebanese House Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut Tuesday, according to Lebanese state media.
After meeting with Hochstein for two hours, Berri said the cease-fire negotiations were “good in principle,” but warned Israel could change its minds about the proposal as it has done before.
Berri said the U.S. is managing guarantees about Israel’s position on the proposal, according to Lebanese state media.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Israel kills 5 in central Beirut strike, officials say
At least five people were killed and 31 wounded by an Israeli strike in the Zuqaq al-Blat neighborhood of central Beirut on Monday, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Two other people are missing.
The Israel Defense Forces did not appear to issue any public evacuation order prior to the strike. ABC News has reached out to the IDF for comment on the target of the strike.
The attack made Monday the second consecutive day of Israeli strikes within central Beirut. To date, the vast majority of airstrikes on the capital have hit the southern Dahiya suburb, known as a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israel has intensified its bombardment in and around Beirut over the past week, while Hezbollah has continued missile fire into Israel. Fresh discussions are ongoing as to a potential cease-fire to end the fighting.
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor, Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Israel demands ‘immediate’ action against pro-Iran militias in Iraq
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday published a letter sent to the president of the United Nations Security Council in which he called for “immediate action regarding the activity of the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, whose territory is being used to attack Israel.”
“The Iraqi government is responsible for everything that happens on its territory,” Saar wrote, noting Israel’s right to self-defense.
“I called on the Security Council to act urgently to make sure that the Iraqi government meets its obligations under international law and to make these attacks on Israel stop,” Saar said.
Iran-backed Iraqi militias have been launching drone attacks into Israel from the east in support of Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon, with whom Israeli forces have been engaged since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack into southern Israel.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nearly 100 aid trucks looted: UNRWA
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said Monday their aid convoy was “violently” looted over the weekend, one of the largest such cases of looting since the war began.
The 109-truck U.N. convoy was carrying food supplies to people in Gaza when it was looted on Saturday, UNRWA said.
“The vast majority of the trucks, 97 in total, were lost and drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid,” UNRWA said in a statement.
UNRWA said the Israel Defense Forces made the convoy leave a day earlier than planned.
The IDF has not yet commented on this incident.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Israel’s October attack damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program: Netanyahu
Israel damaged some of Iran’s nuclear program in its October attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.
Iran’s air defense, ballistic missile production and ability to produce “solid fuel” were impacted, Netanyahu said during remarks to Israel’s parliament.
“There is a certain element of their nuclear program that was damaged in this attack,” he said, though added that its ability to operate “has not yet been thwarted.”
Netanyahu said Iran’s nuclear threat must be dealt with.
“If we don’t deal with the nuclear program, then all the other problems will come back and resurface, both in the axis, and in armaments, and in other things,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also said Israel is “currently talking about possible negotiations for a settlement” to be reached between Israel and Lebanon, but added, “Even if there is a cease-fire, no one says it will last.”
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US envoy en route to Lebanon for cease-fire talks, official says
U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein is on his way to Lebanon for talks on a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, an official familiar with the plans confirmed to ABC News.
Hochstein left from the U.S. for Lebanon on Monday, the official said.
Israel is getting close to being ready to agree to the U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, which is very similar to the proposal that was floated by the U.S. at the end of September. The U.S. needs to see how Hezbollah feels about this proposal, which is what Hochstein aims to do during his trip, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
4 killed in Israeli attack in Beirut: Health ministry
Four people were killed and at least 18 injured in an Israeli attack in Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Monday.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
1 killed, 10 injured in strike on residential building in Israel: Officials
A woman was killed and 10 people injured after a Hezbollah rocket directly hit a residential building in northern Israel, Israeli emergency services said Monday.
Dozens of projectiles were fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel Monday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces said. Not all of the projectiles were intercepted, the IDF said.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
US sanctions entity, 3 individuals tied to West Bank violence
The State Department said Monday it is sanctioning three individuals and one entity for allegedly undermining “peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.”
The department accuses the entity, Eyal Hari Yehuda Company LTD, of having supported Yinon Levi, an Israeli settler who was sanctioned by the Biden administration over accusations of attacks and harassment against Palestinians earlier this year.
The three impacted individuals are Itamar Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky and Zohar Sabah, the State Department said. Itamar Levi, the brother of Yinon Levi, is being designated for his role as the owner of the aforementioned company, while Koshlevsky is accused of holding a leadership position at Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that provides material support to U.S.-designated outposts in the West Bank and was sanctioned in August of this year.
Sabah is accused of engaging “in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes” as well as “a pattern of destructiveness targeting the livestock, grazing lands and homes of local Palestinians to disrupt their means of support,” the State Department said in a press release.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston
Hamas denies that leaders relocated from Qatar to Turkey
Hamas denied reports in Israeli media that its leadership has relocated from Qatar to Turkey amid a breakdown in Doha-supported cease-fire talks earlier this month.
Hamas dismissed the news reports as “rumors” spread by Israeli authorities in a statement posted to its official website.
Qatar told Israel and Hamas earlier this month it could not continue to mediate cease-fire and hostage release talks “as long as there is a refusal to negotiate a deal in good faith.”
Doha is under U.S. pressure to expel Hamas leaders. A senior administration official told ABC News earlier this month that the group’s “continued presence in Doha is no longer viable or acceptable.”
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz, Shannon K. Kingston and Somayeh Malekian
Gaza death toll nears 44,000, health officials say
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that 43,922 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023, with nearly 104,000 more injured.
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 96 people and wounded at least 60 in Gaza through the weekend, officials said. The dead included 72 people in north Gaza and more than 20 from other areas of the strip.
Most of those killed were displaced women and children sheltering in residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.
Beit Lahiya is at the heart of the Israel Defense Forces’ recent northern offensive, which has been accompanied with sweeping evacuation orders and spiking civilian casualties.
-ABC News’ Samy Zyara and Joe Simonetti
Hezbollah positive on US cease-fire proposal, reports say
Hezbollah responded positively to the U.S.-proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Lebanon, Israeli and Lebanese media reported Monday.
U.S. special envoy for Lebanon Amos Hochstein is expected to arrive in Beirut on Tuesday to discuss the proposal before heading to Israel to speak with leaders there.
The proposal is reportedly based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 1701 that sought to end the last major cross-border conflict in 2006.
That deal ordered Hezbollah to withdraw all military units and weapons north of the Litani River, which is around 18 miles north of the Israeli border. The resolution also prohibited Israeli ground and air forces from crossing into Lebanese territory.
Israeli leaders have demanded open-ended freedom to act against threats in Lebanon, a stipulation reportedly opposed by Hezbollah and Lebanese leaders.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Joe Simonetti
Khamenei meets with ambassador injured in pager attacks
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with the country’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, as the latter continues his recovery from injuries sustained during Israel’s detonation of Hezbollah communication devices in September.
Khamenei’s official X account posted a short video of their interaction on Monday, in which Amani told the Iranian leader he lost around half of the vision in his right eye in the attack.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Hezbollah media relations chief killed in Israeli strike
Mohammed Afif, Hezbollah’s media relations chief, was killed in an Israeli strike Sunday, Hezbollah confirmed.
The strike on central Beirut partially collapsed a building and injured three others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
The Israel Defense Forces also confirmed Afif’s death. In a statement, the IDF said he joined Hezbollah in the 1980s and went on to become a “central and veteran figure in the organization who greatly influenced Hezbollah’s military activity.”
Citing one particular incident, the statement claimed that he had played a key role in the drone attack on Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home in Caesarea in October.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Pope calls for investigation to determine whether Israeli attacks on Gaza are ‘genocide’
Pope Francis, in an upcoming book to be released ahead of his 2025 jubilee, called for an investigation to determine whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute genocide, according to the Vatican.
“In the Middle East, where the open doors of nations like Jordan or Lebanon continue to be a salvation for millions of people fleeing conflicts in the region: I am thinking above all of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has struck their Palestinian brothers and sisters given the difficulty of getting food and aid into their territory,” he wrote in a passage released by the Vatican.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope wrote. “It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”
(LONDON) — The ancient streets of Georgia’s capital city were again choked with smoke on Sunday night, as a fourth consecutive night of anti-government protests descended into running street battles between pro-Western demonstrators and security forces.
Protesters in Tbilisi gathered behind makeshift barricades and launched fireworks toward lines of armored police, who sought to disperse the demonstrations with water cannons, tear gas and baton-wielding charges.
More than 200 people have been arrested during four nights of protests, the Georgian Interior Ministry said. Tbilisi has been the core of the unrest, but protests have also been reported in the Black Sea city of Batumi and elsewhere in the south Caucasus nation, which is bordered by Russia to the north and Turkey to the southwest.
The protests erupted after Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze — of the Georgian Dream party founded by elusive billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, who made his fortune in Russia — announced last week that Tbilisi would suspend European Union membership talks for four years.
Kobakhidze accused the bloc of “blackmail and manipulation” over its criticism of Georgia’s recent parliamentary election. Georgian Dream claimed victory in the October contest, which was beset by allegations of electoral fraud and voter suppression.
EU membership ambitions were central to Georgian Dream’s election manifesto. The party framed a vote for the pro-Western opposition as a vote for renewed war with Russia, which in the 2008 Russo-Georgian war cemented its control of around 20% of Georgian territory in collaboration with local separatist allies.
Mass protests failed to materialize in the aftermath of the vote, despite the efforts of opposition leaders including President Salome Zourabichvili. But the government’s turn away from EU talks prompted significant anger among Georgians, a majority of whom support the goal of EU accession. The ambition to join the bloc is also enshrined in Georgia’s constitution.
Sunday night saw deepening violence, with security forces filmed beating protesters and detainees. More than 40 people have been hospitalized, according to Georgian authorities, with protesters and police among the injured.
Zourabichvili wrote on X on Monday that the “majority of the arrested protesters have injuries to their heads and faces, broken face bones, eye sockets, open wounds.”
Those detained “have been subjected to systematic beatings between arrest and transport to already overcrowded detention facilities,” the president added, citing information from lawyers representing the arrested.
Kobakhidze, meanwhile, said at a Sunday briefing that “any violation of the law will be met with the full rigor of the law.”
“Neither will those politicians who hide in their offices and sacrifice members of their violent groups to severe punishment escape responsibility,” Kobakhidze said.
The opposition has vowed to continue its protest campaign. Zourabichvili said she would not step down from the presidency when her term ends in December unless a new “legitimate” parliament is empowered to choose her successor.
Alexandre Crevaux-Asatiani, a spokesperson for the United National Movement opposition party, told ABC News during the weekend clashes that Ivanishvili — as the power behind the Georgian Dream party — “has been playing chess against the Georgian people for a long time.”
“It was just a question of time before he’d make a wrong move,” Crevaux-Asatiani said of Georgia’s richest man. “Looking at it as a self-inflicted wound would be assuming that his goal is to somehow maintain peace and stability in Georgia, which is not what he wants.”
Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News that Georgia is at “a tipping point.”
The Georgian Dream government, Eyal said, could “crumble” if the demonstrators remain on the streets, “especially if their numbers grow, as they appear to have done over the weekend and if the president remains stuck in her position,” he added.
“The question, of course, is what happens then?” Eyal continued. “It’s more than just a fake election,” he said of the Georgian Dream’s retention of power. “It’s a state capture.”
“A lot will need to happen for the oligarchs to run away to Moscow,” Eyal said. “It’s really 50-50 at the moment.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists at a Monday briefing that government authorities “are taking measures to stabilize, return the situation to calm.”
Russia, he said, “has not interfered and does not intend to interfere” in events in Georgia.
Peskov described the protests as “an internal matter,” though added that the demonstrations are an “attempt to stir up the situation” reminiscent of the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine that unseated pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych.
Dmitry Medvedev — formerly Russia’s president and prime minister, now serving as the deputy chair of Russia’s Security Council — wrote on Telegram that Georgia was “moving rapidly along the Ukrainian path, into the dark abyss.”
Medvedev framed the protests as an attempted “revolution,” which he predicted would end “very badly.”
Western leaders, meanwhile, have underscored concerns over the disputed October election results and the recent conduct of security forces.
The U.S. State Department condemned “the excessive use of force by police against Georgians” and announced it would suspend the U.S.-Georgia Strategic Partnership due to “anti-democratic actions” by Georgian Dream.
“We reiterate our call to the Georgian government to return to its Euro-Atlantic path, transparently investigate all parliamentary election irregularities, and repeal anti-democratic laws that limit freedoms of assembly and expression,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
The EU’s new foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the bloc stands “with the Georgian people and their choice for a European future.”
“We condemn the violence against protesters and regret signals from ruling party not to pursue Georgia’s path to EU and democratic backsliding of the country,” Kallas wrote in a post to X. “This will have direct consequences from EU side.”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(SEOUL) — Thousands of South Korean citizens were gathering on Sunday near impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s residence a day before an arrest warrant for him expires.
Protesters from both sides — one calling the warrant invalid or illegal and the other shouting for arrest — have occupied the wide four-lane road in a normally quiet neighborhood, blocking all traffic, in freezing temperatures and snow.
The effort to detain Yoon came after a South Korean court issued an arrest and search warrant on Dec. 31 over his short-lived imposition of martial law, ABC News confirmed. Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14.
The warrant is valid until Jan. 6, Yonhap reported, meaning investigators hoping to serve it would have to attempt to detain the president again by Monday.
Yoon declared martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3. The president said the measure was necessary due to the actions of the country’s liberal opposition, the Democratic Party, which he accused of controlling parliament, sympathizing with North Korea and paralyzing the government.
Animosity has been sky-high between the two sides, after over 100 investigators from the CIO anti-corruption agency and the police retreated from the residence after a tense standoff with the presidential security service.
Yoon’s die-hard supporters have been camping on the street vowing to protect him from “pro-North Korean forces about to steal away the presidency.” Anti-Yoon protesters who are backing of the opposition party claim that Yoon must be jailed for insurrection.
Arrest warrant questioned
Many law experts question the validity of the warrant, which specified that certain key provisions of South Korea’s Criminal Procedure Act should be excluded, which meant the police could search the military and government-classified presidential residence.
This court order is widely seen as a first-ever and as being highly irregular, along with being criticized by some as being outside the limits of the judiciary’s authority, violating the principles of separation of powers.
Typical search warrants include clear parameters of space, time and items to retrieve but excluding the application of legal provisions entirely is unprecedented, experts say.
Yoon’s declaration of martial law had sparked protests, and hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order. A majority of parliament — all 190 members who were present, out of the 300-person body — voted to lift the decree — requiring that it then be lifted, under the South Korean constitution.
Following the National Assembly’s vote, Yoon said he withdrew the troops that had been deployed to carry out martial law and “will lift martial law as soon as we have a quorum in the cabinet.” The State Council then convened to vote to officially lift it.
The country’s Democratic Party called on Yoon to resign following what it called the “fundamentally invalid” declaration of martial law. Without Yoon resigning, the opposition party worked to enact impeachment proceedings against the president.
Yoon has been suspended from his position since Dec. 14, when the National Assembly voted for his impeachment in a 204-85 vote.
Presidential security service facing charges
While politicians and lawyers argue heatedly over the validity of the warrant in higher courts, the Presidential Security Service has found itself in the limelight.
The CIO has been leading a joint investigation with police and prosecutors, but say detaining Mr. Yoon would be “virtually impossible” as long as he is protected by the security team.
CIO and the opposition party are seeking charges against the head of the president’s security team for obstruction of justice after the police were blocked from entering the residence on Friday.
The security team formed a barricade comprising about 10 buses and vehicles, at one point forming a human chain of about 200 officers to block access, according to CIO.
The opposition has criticized the president’s security team as being over-excessive and summoned the chiefs and deputy chiefs. The Presidential Security Service defied the order, citing that this is not the time to leave their positions.
“Some media and political circles are saying that the Presidential Security Service is a private soldier (to President Yoon),” Park Chong-Jun, Head of Presidential Security Service, said in a video press release. “I can’t help but feel terrible and sad as the presidential security officer”.
He added that fake news reports of him ordering to fire with live ammunition are “absurd claims,” there was no violence on Saturday, and that they should not be forced to be associated with political ideology.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
