Police arrested Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, after a six-hour stand-off at his residence. Investigators will question Mr Yoon on charges of insurrection, following his attempt to impose martial law in December. He was (separately) impeached afterwards, but did not appear for the first day of his impeachment trial on Tuesday. Authorities previously tried to arrest Mr Yoon on January 3rd, but were stopped by his security staff.
American senators grilled Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick to be secretary of defence, at a confirmation hearing. Mr Hegseth has been accused of frequent drunkenness and sexually assaulting a woman, claims which he denies. He said he had faced “a co-ordinated smear campaign orchestrated in the media”. If confirmed, Mr Hegseth would be perhaps the most inexperienced man ever to run the Pentagon.
America’s Securities and Exchange Commission sued Elon Musk over his alleged tardiness in disclosing his purchase of Twitter shares in 2022. The regulator says that by keeping his “beneficial ownership” under wraps, Mr Musk saved himself $150m by buying shares on the cheap. The billionaire took control of Twitter in October 2022 and renamed it X. His lawyer maintained Mr Musk’s innocence.
A ceasefire deal in Gaza is “closer than ever before”, according to Antony Blinken, America’s secretary of state, after eight hours of negotiations in Qatar on Tuesday. Mr Blinken said the agreement, which would reportedly involve the release of hostages, was awaiting “final word from Hamas”. A Hamas official told Reuters that it wanted more details from Israel on the area covered by a ceasefire.
Britain’s annual inflation rate was 2.5% in December, down from 2.6% in November. The unexpected drop increases the likelihood that the Bank of England will cut interest rates at its next meeting in February. The news provided a boon for Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, who has faced criticism this month after British bond yields jumped sharply.
Germany’s economy contracted for a second consecutive year in 2024, according to the Federal Statistics Office. Europe’s largest economy shrank by 0.2% last year; it is grappling with weak global demand, a struggling automotive sector, high energy costs and an ageing population. The country’s central bank expects growth of just 0.2% in 2025.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, plans to cut around 5% of its global workforce—roughly 3,600 employees. In a memo to staff Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive, said that “low performers” would be let go “faster”. The social-media giant, which shed more than 21,000 jobs in 2022 and 2023, is reallocating resources to its artificial-intelligence initiatives.
Figure of the day: 26%, the amount by which homelessness in England has risen in the past five years. Read the full story.
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