Monday’s eclipse makes me wish we had eclipses more often — if only so we get off our dang computers every now and then.
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Photo: Ahn Young-joon / AP
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1. South Korea’s election results highlight ‘generational changeover’ among voters
South Korea’s liberal opposition parties likely won a majority of seats in the country’s parliamentary elections on Wednesday, which saw the highest voter turnout in 32 years at 67%.
The main opposition party, the left-leaning Democratic Party, is projected to win 178 to 197 seats of the 300 seats in the National Assembly, while the ruling conservative People Power Party is projected to win 85 to 105 seats.
Many saw this election as a popularity gauge for President Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party. Throughout his presidency, Yeol has struggled with low approval ratings, corruption allegations, and a cost-of-living crisis. The head of the Democratic Party is also facing corruption charges.
“The opposition is really no better than the ruling party in the views of many,” Karl Friedhoff, a fellow for Asia studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, told Blue Marble. “So this is a case of a rejection of one rather than an endorsement of the other.”
The election results point to two things in South Korean politics, says Friedhoff: a serious leadership problem within the People Power Party and a “generational changeover.”
In general, voters over 60 and young men favor the People Power Party, while young women typically vote for the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party’s overwhelming victory on Wednesday underscores the younger voting bloc’s power — despite being outnumbered by voters over 60 — and just how unpopular the People Power Party is, even among those who typically support its candidates.
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2. Gender care for young people in the UK isn’t up to par, says new study
There is “remarkably weak” evidence surrounding medical intervention in young people questioning their gender, a landmark U.K. study published Wednesday found.
In the report, commissioned by the National Health Service, pediatrician Hilary Cass determined that gender care in the U.K. for people younger than 18 does not match the standards of other care within the NHS.
Cass also found that evidence both for and against gender-affirming care is often overstated or misrepresented, and recommended that hormone treatment for adolescents aged 16 or 17 years should be undertaken with “extreme caution.”
In a statement, the transgender advocacy group Mermaids said on Wednesday that, while it welcomes Cass saying young people and their families need to be “treated with compassion and respect,” it found other aspects of her study worrying.
“[W]e are concerned that some of the language in the report is open to misinterpretation and could be used to justify additional barriers to accessing care for some trans young people in the same way the interim report has been.”
Acting on interim results from Cass’s study, last month the NHS announced it would stop prescribing puberty blockers for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria outside of a clinical trial. According to Cass, there isn’t good evidence to indicate they’re safe.
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3. Humanity has 2 years to ‘save the world,’ says UN climate chief
“Who exactly has two years to save the world? The answer is every person on this planet,” said U.N. executive climate secretary Simon Stiell at a London think tank on Wednesday.
During his speech, Stiel urged dramatic changes in government budgets and regulations on climate-change-inducing emissions to address climate change. While he conceded that his warning may sound melodramatic, action over the next two years is “essential.”
Stiell’s warning comes one day after a European court’s landmark ruling that the Swiss government had violated its citizens’ rights by not doing enough to stop climate change. The case had been brought to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, by a group of women aged 64 and older saying that their health was at risk due to global warming.
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In other news
- After eight years of fighting, the European Parliament passed a revamped migration policy on Wednesday. The new system seeks to decrease “unwanted immigration” from the Middle East and Africa and shorten wait times for asylum seekers. [Reuters]
- Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza a “mistake” in an interview that aired Tuesday night on Univision. [POLITICO]
- Like dipping one’s toes in a pool before jumping in, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong hinted this week at the country recognizing Palestinian statehood. Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez took the plunge, saying his government is working toward recognition. [BBC]
- On Tuesday, a hospital in Nairobi laid off 100 doctors taking part in a month-long strike. The doctors’ union says the government isn’t honoring salary increases guaranteed in their 2017 contract, while the government says it doesn’t have enough money to pay them. [Associated Press]
- Good news for people who are very good at throwing the discus: Gold medalists in the Olympics’ track and field events this summer will take home $50,000, making the sport the first to offer prize money at the Games. [Sky News]
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Say that again
“He was carrying tools, that’s why he went totally unnoticed … You can’t really have a person like that guarding the high-security wing,” said a spokesperson for the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, where an employee was fired for hanging one of his own paintings among the museum’s modern art collection. Hey, beats paying for art school. [The New York Times]
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This week’s case isn’t the first time people have sued their government over climate change
Blue Marble’s Hope O’Dell takes us through the 2015 Dutch case that compelled U.S. teenagers upset over climate change to get litigious.
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What we’re listening to
God bless my friends and their 2004 Toyota Camry: On the five-plus-hours drive from Chicago to southern Illinois for the eclipse this weekend, we had to bring CDs for any music we wanted to listen to in the car.
I contributed a few mixes from exes (which would, incidentally, be a great name for a mix), one of which included 1980’s “Savoir Faire,” a diamond in the weirdo rough by U.K post-punk act Family Fodder. Organ? Yelping? Nonsense French lyrics? Glad I held onto this one.
—Laura Adamczyk, staff writer
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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Hope O'Dell contributed writing and reporting to today's newsletter. Questions, comments, or corrections? Email us at theoverview@globalaffairs.org.
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