Nation and world news in brief for January 3
South Korean officials move on president’s home, with warrant
SEOUL, South Korea (NYT) — Officials in South Korea entered the compound of President Yoon Suk Yeol to try to take him in for questioning over insurrection charges Friday. But after clearing away crowds of supporters attempting to block their path, they appeared to be in a standoff inside the residence with the president’s personal security team as the high-stakes drama unfolded.
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It was the latest move by officials to hold Yoon accountable for his short-lived declaration of martial law last month that plunged the country into a political crisis.
Yoon, who was impeached by parliament last month, has ignored repeated summonses from the investigators to appear for questioning, saying it was within his powers as president to place his country under military rule for the first time in 45 years. Thousands of his supporters have camped near his residence in recent days, vowing to block officials from detaining him. Large numbers of police officers were deployed around the neighborhood to maintain order.
Eyeing potential bird flu outbreak, Biden administration ramps up preparedness
WASHINGTON (NYT) — The Biden administration, in a final push to shore up the nation’s pandemic preparedness before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, announced Thursday that it would nearly double the amount of money it was committing to ward off a potential outbreak of bird flu in humans.
Federal health officials have been keeping a close eye on H5N1, a strain of avian influenza that is highly contagious and lethal to chickens, and has spread to cattle. The virus has not yet demonstrated that it can spread efficiently among people.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the current risk to humans remains low and that pasteurized milk products remain safe to consume. But should human-to-human transmission become commonplace, experts fear a pandemic that could be far more deadly than COVID-19.
On Thursday, the administration said it was committing $306 million toward improving hospital preparedness, early stage research on therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines. About $103 million will help maintain state and local efforts to track and test people exposed to infected animals, and for outreach to livestock workers and others at high risk.
Israeli airstrikes kill Gaza head of police, 67 others
CAIRO (Reuters) — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 68 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday, including at a tent camp where the head of the enclave’s Hamas-controlled police force, his deputy and nine displaced people died, Gaza authorities said. Israel said the deputy was the head of Palestinian militant group Hamas’ security forces in southern Gaza. The attack occurred in the Al-Mawasi district, which was designated as a humanitarian zone for civilians earlier in the 14-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.
The director general of Gaza’s police department, Mahmoud Salah, and his aide, Hussam Shahwan, who were checking on residents of the camp, were killed in the strike, according to the Hamas-run Gaza interior ministry.
Israel has killed more than 45,500 Palestinians in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the tiny, heavily built-up coastal territory is in ruins.
