South Korea Constitutional Court upholds Yoon’s impeachment
(Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
(SEOUL) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose short-lived declaration of martial law late last year plunged the country into political chaos, in a decision that removes the suspended leader from office.
The verdict was read in court shortly after 11 a.m. Friday local time (10 p.m. Thursday ET). Police across the country had been placed on the highest security alert level ahead of the verdict, with a security perimeter established around the court in Seoul, according to the Yonhap news agency.
With the court’s decision, Yoon is formally removed from office and South Korea will hold a snap presidential election within 60 days, according to the news agency.
Yoon was removed from office by the opposition-controlled National Assembly after declaring martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3, claiming the opposition party sympathized with North Korea and was paralyzing the government.
The move sparked fierce protests, and several hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order.
Separate from his removal from office, Yoon was indicted by South Korean prosecutors on insurrection charges over the brief imposition of martial law.
An arrest warrant against him led to a standoff between his security team and police earlier this year.
In a dramatic scene, thousands of police descended on his home and were met with crowds of the impeached president’s backers, including some who lay down in front of police vehicles in an attempt to block authorities from reaching the residence.
Yoon was eventually arrested several days later and held in custody until March 8.
This handout photograph taken and released by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine on April 6, 2025, shows a firefighter working on a fire following the Russian missile attack in Kyiv. Handout/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
(LONDON) — A Russian missile strike killed at least one person in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, as Moscow continued an intense period of long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Ukraine’s air force reported 23 missiles and 109 strike drones launched into the country overnight, of which 13 missiles and 40 drones were shot down, with another 53 drones lost in flight without causing damage.
Damage was reported in the Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy and Mykolaiv regions, the air force said.
In the capital, Klitschko said one person was killed and three people were injured, while fires broke out in “non-residential buildings.” One office building was also partly destroyed, he said.
Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, wrote on Telegram, “Russia is increasing the intensity of attacks and clearly does not want to cease fire, does not want peace. It wants to kill Ukrainians, our children.”
“The language of force is the only one that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin understands,” Yermak added. “All our partners must switch to this language.”
Zelenskyy said the strike proved that the “pressure on Russia is still not enough.”
“Such attacks are Putin’s response to all international diplomatic efforts,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to Telegram. “There can be no easing of pressure. It is worth directing all forces to ensure security and bring peace closer.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down 11 Ukrainian drones overnight over three Russian regions.
Both sides are continuing long-range attacks as U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations continue. Last month, both Kyiv and Moscow said they agreed to freeze strikes on energy infrastructure and end attacks in the Black Sea.
Both sides have since accused the other of repeatedly violating the agreement to pause attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has also accused Russia of intentionally targeting civilians in major strikes over the past week. On Friday, a Russian ballistic missile and drone attack on the city of Kryvyi Rih — Zelenskyy’s home town — killed 19 people, including nine children.
“Yes, the war must end,” Zelenskyy wrote in a Saturday morning statement. “But in order to end it, we must not be afraid to call a spade a spade. We must not be afraid to put pressure on the only one who continues this war and ignores all the world’s proposals to end it.”
“We must put pressure on Russia, which chooses to kill children instead of a ceasefire. We must introduce additional sanctions against those who cannot exist without ballistic strikes on neighboring people. We must do everything possible to save lives.”
(LONDON) — Ukrainian forces are struggling to prevent what could be a significant military setback, as their hold on the area of Russian territory they seized last year is becoming increasingly precarious.
A Russian offensive supported by North Korean troops in the past few days has made a serious advance in Russia’s Kursk region northeast of Ukraine, breaking through Ukrainian positions and forcing them to withdraw to new defense lines, according to Ukrainian and Russian military bloggers. Russia is attempting to cut Ukraine’s crucial supply road into Kursk, which is already under fire, meaning several thousand Ukrainian troops inside Russia are now at growing risk of encirclement.
Ukraine seized a foothold in the Kursk region with a surprise offensive in August, capturing hundreds of square miles of Russian territory, which it hoped to use as a bargaining chip in any peace negotiations. Russia for months has sought to dislodge the Ukrainians from the region, including with North Korean troops, but until recently had made slow progress while suffering heavy casualties.
Over the past week, Russian progress has dramatically increased, according to bloggers and Ukrainian troops on the ground, with Ukrainian troops clearly under severe pressure and forced to withdraw largely back toward the main town they control in the region, Sudzha. The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed Sunday that Russian forces are “collapsing” the northern part of the Ukrainian lines in Kursk.
Russian forces have also succeeded in a flanking attack back across the border into Ukraine, aiming to reach the main supply road to the Ukrainian forces in Sudzha, according to open-source analysts. While Ukraine has, for now, reportedly blunted the Russian push, Russian troops are close to both sides of the route, which has already been under artillery and drone fire.
Over the weekend, Russian forces reached the outskirts of Sudzha itself, entering its industrial zone after launching an attack through a gas pipeline, according to military bloggers. Ukrainian units withdrew from much of their western flank in Kursk after Russian forces crossed the Psel River, allowing Russia to recapture several villages there, according to Clément Molin, a military analyst based in Lyon, France, and co-director of the Atum Mundi think tank.
The commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, on Monday denied that Ukraine’s forces were at risk of encirclement, saying the situation was under control and they were inflicting heavy casualties on Russia.
Yurii Butusov, a prominent Ukrainian military journalist, confirmed Monday on his Telegram channel that the situation is “very difficult” but said there is currently no threat of Ukrainian troops being encircled, and that reinforcements continue to arrive into Sudzha.
Russia has intensified its efforts to drive Ukraine out of Kursk, as efforts at possible negotiations to end the three-year-old war have intensified under the Trump administration. The Kremlin has repeatedly signaled it will not start meaningful negotiations with Ukraine as long as it occupies parts of Kursk.
The ISW and other analysts have suggested the Trump administration’s sudden cutoff of U.S. intelligence sharing earlier this month is likely impacting Ukraine’s ability to defend in Kursk. The ISW noted that the Russian offensive appears to have intensified around the same time as President Donald Trump announced aid cutoff to Ukraine last week, suggesting Russia is trying to take advantage of it.
Ukrainian officials who spoke to ABC News last week said the curtailing of intelligence was intended to limit Ukraine’s strikes into Russia and warned it would hamper Ukraine’s ability to hit forces massing in Kursk.
“This will help Russians to concentrate their forces,” the source told ABC News on Thursday. “For example, now we know that North Korean soldiers are concentrating there again. We could have hit them preemptively, but now we can’t.”
The situation in Kursk, however, was already deteriorating before Trump halted intelligence sharing.
Ukraine’s deteriorating position in Kursk comes as it is finally seeing more positive developments on the eastern front in Donbas, where Russian forces’ advance appears to be stalling out and Ukraine is now mounting a number of counterattacks, according to independent military analysts.
For six months, Russia has crept forward toward the city of Pokrovsk, an important defensive hub, but there are signs its advance may now be close to exhausted there after suffering extremely high losses, according to Ukrainian military accounts and independent researchers.
Ukrainian troops in the past two weeks have managed to launch successful counterattacks on Russian positions around Pokrovsk, recapturing some ground. Ukraine has also managed to counterattack in another city, Toretsk, which, despite nine months of intense urban fighting, Russian forces have failed to capture.
(DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) — The recovery phase has ended after the roof of a Dominican Republic nightclub collapsed during a concert, killing at least 221 people, officials said Thursday.
Another 155 people were injured in the roof collapse early Tuesday at the Jet Set nightclub, located in the capital of Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic Emergency Operations Center said.
The agency said 189 people were rescued alive.
No one remains in the rubble following an extensive search, the sub-director of the Dominican Republic Emergency Operations Center said at the scene of the nightclub roof collapse Thursday afternoon.
Effort to identify victims
Forensic police specialists have been deployed to identify deceased victims using modern biometric identification systems, authorities said earlier Thursday.
The incident happened at 12:34 a.m. Tuesday, during a concert by the Dominican merengue singer Rubby Pérez, according to the police. The roof collapsed within seconds, police said.
“We deeply regret the tragedy that occurred at the Jet Set nightclub,” Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader said in a post on social media on Tuesday. “We have been following the incident minute by minute since it occurred. All relief agencies have provided the necessary assistance and are working tirelessly in the rescue efforts. Our prayers are with the affected families.”
Pérez, 69, a renowned singer in the country, was among those found dead in the collapsed club, according to the Dominican Republic’s National Police.
A tribute posted to his Instagram account said Pérez’s music and legacy “will live forever in our hearts.”
Former MLB players among those killed
The incident has impacted those with ties to MLB, with two former players among those killed and other athletes’ family members involved.
The deceased included former MLB player Octavio Dotel, 51, according to the Dominican Republic’s minister of interior and police, Faride Raful.
Dotel was pulled from the rubble by rescue crews but died in an ambulance while en route to a hospital, according to Col. Randolfo Rijo Gomez, head of the country’s 911 emergency services.
The Dominican pitcher played for 13 MLB teams, including the Mets, which held a moment of silence for Dotel before their game on Tuesday.
“We mourn the passing of Octavio Dotel,” the Mets said in a social media post. “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy in the Dominican Republic.”
Dotel was part of a combined no-hitter against the Yankees in June 2003, a team he would play for three years later.
Another former MLB player, 44-year-old Tony Blanco, was also killed in the roof collapse, according to the Dominican Republic Ministry of Sports and Recreation. The Dominican native played for the Washington Nationals as well as professionally in Japan and the Dominican Republic.
“His legacy will live on in the history of national baseball,” the ministry said in a statement on social media. “We share in their grief with their family, friends, and colleagues, and we offer our prayers for their eternal rest.”
Montecristi Gov. Nelsy Milagros Cruz Martinez was also among those killed, according to national police and Abinader’s office. She was the sister of former MLB star Nelson Cruz, who shared a statement from the Cruz Martinez family on social media that said her “legacy of service and love for others will live forever in our hearts.”
“Major League Baseball is deeply saddened by the passings of Octavio Dotel, Tony Blanco, Nelsy Cruz, and all the victims of last night’s tragedy in Santo Domingo,” MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. said in a statement on Tuesday. “We send our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of all those who have been affected and to our colleague Nelson and his entire family. The connection between baseball and the Dominican Republic runs deep, and we are thinking of all the Dominican players and fans across the game today.”
MLB Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez said Tuesday that he has family members missing in the rubble.
“We don’t know what happened to them, but we just want to be strong like we have always been,” the Dominican-born pitcher said in a video posted to Instagram. “We’re a country that prays a lot and remains united all the time. So I just hope that everybody has the same courage.”
Investigation underway
Fashion designer Martin Polanco died in the roof collapse, his family confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday. A fashion icon in the Dominican Republic, Polanco dressed artists including Daddy Yankee and Sergio Vargas as well as designed for Abinader.
At least nine U.S. citizens are among those killed, according to the State Department. U.S. lawful permanent residents also died in the collapse, according to the department, which did not specify how many.
“We are working with local authorities to determine if any additional U.S. citizens were affected and stand ready to provide consular assistance,” a department official said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X on Wednesday that the U.S. “stands ready to support our Dominican allies amid this difficult time.”
In the wake of the collapse, many families gathered at the site looking for their loved ones who were inside the club amid the search and rescue effort.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic are now moving into the expert assessment phase to determine what caused the nightclub to collapse, District Attorney of the National District Rosalba Ramos said from the site of the collapsed nightclub on Thursday. The expert assessment phase is the step done before a legal investigation can be opened.
The Dominican Republic government is creating a commission of experts to identify possible causes of the roof collapse, a government spokesperson said Thursday. This does not affect the district attorney’s role in investigating the incident, the spokesperson added.
There was a fire in 2023 that damaged part of the nightclub, authorities said.
ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
