AP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:35 p.m. ESTProtesters wearing masks depicting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, outgoing Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, People Power Party's leader Han Dong-hoon and Choo Kyung-ho at a rally. SEOUL – South Korea’s government was paralysed on Dec 8, mired in a new constitutional crisis after President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea clung to his office, but his own party’s leader suggested that he had been ousted from power. Mr Yoon has barely been seen in public since his ill-fated decision last week to declare martial law. Meanwhile, Mr Han Dong-hoon, chair of Mr Yoon’s People Power Party, or PPP, has presented himself as the government’s decision maker and said the president is no longer running the country. The trouble is that South Korea’s constitution doesn’t allow for anyone to replace the president unless he resigns or is impeached. Mr Yoon’s office did not comment on Mr Han’s statement. But Mr Yoon “has not and by law, cannot, cede power to anyone” except through resignation, impeachment or election, said a senior government source familiar with the discussions inside Mr Yoon’s office. Mr Yoon exercised his role as president on Dec 8 by accepting the resignation of his home minister, Mr Lee Sang-min. Opposition groups immediately complained that Mr Han was overreaching: trying to use the power vacuum created by Mr Yoon’s ill-fated imposition of martial law and the ensuing turmoil to establish himself as the top leader in the governing camp. “We have a situation where the president cannot make decisions, he cannot give guidelines, he cannot give orders,” said Mr Kang Won-taek, a professor of political science at Seoul National University. “Although we have a president, we are in a state of anarchy.” The result was deepening political uncertainty on Dec 8, as South Koreans wondered who was in charge of their government, including its military, at a time when South Korea faces multiple foreign policy challenges. Those include North Korea’s growing nuclear threat and the delicate diplomacy needed in its alliance with the United States as the inauguration of Donald Trump looms. At home, thousands of young doctors have been on strike for nearly a year to protest Mr Yoon’s planned changes to health care policy. Militant labour unions have vowed to escalate strikes until Mr Yoon is impeached. The country also faces a slowing economy, mounting household debt, low birthrates, unaffordable housing prices and a host of other intractable problems. The martial law order lasted only six hours from late Dec 3 until the National Assembly voted against it early Dec 4, forcing Mr Yoon to back down. But it prompted waves of protests and calls for his resignation or impeachment. In a last-ditch attempt to survive an attempt by opposition lawmakers on Dec 7 to impeach him, Mr Yoon apologised to the nation for his misjudgment. But he didn’t offer to resign, and he left it to his party to decide how long he should remain in office and how the government should be run. In return, his party boycotted the parliamentary vote, saving him from impeachment. The ensuing manoeuvring by Mr Yoon, Mr Han and the rival political parties has created what analysts called a state of chaos: a politically incapacitated president who the opposition says has never intended to step down; an ambitious party leader jockeying to consolidate his power; and an opposition determined to force Mr Yoon out of office as fast as possible so as to hold a new national election. In an announcement in the morning of Dec 8, Mr Han said that Mr Yoon must resign because he could no longer function as a normal head of state for the remainder of his five-year term, which ends in May 2027. But he didn’t say when Mr Yoon should step down, only that the country needed time to arrange for him to make an “orderly exit”. “Even before he resigns, the president will no longer be involved in state affairs, including diplomacy,” Mr Han said, without clarifying whether he had the authority to make such a statement. He said Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, a political appointee of Mr Yoon’s, would run the government in close consultation with the PPP. That appeared to be a nod to South Korea’s constitutional requirement that only the prime minister can step in as an interim leader until South Korea selects a new president through a national election. But no law defines the president’s “exclusion” from state affairs: His office can be legally vacated only through resignation or impeachment. The opposition quickly accused Mr Han of trying to grab power illegally through “a second insurrection,” adding to the confusion created by Mr Yoon’s short-lived attempt to place his country under martial rule for the first time in 45 years. “He should stop acting as if he were the president,” Mr Yoon Jong-kun, a spokesperson for the principal opposition Democratic Party, said on Dec 8. “No one – not the people, not the laws of the nation – gave him the power to exclude the president from office.” The opposition parties have vowed to seek Mr Yoon’s impeachment again, as early as Dec 14. Mr Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of Mr Lee’s main opposition Democratic Party, said the Assembly would try to vote on his impeachment “every Saturday”. Adding to the turmoil, opposition parties called for Mr Yoon’s arrest, asserting that the president and his followers in the government and military committed insurrection and other crimes when they sent soldiers and police officers into the National Assembly to try to seize the legislature shortly after Mr Yoon declared martial law. A team of more than 60 prosecutors and investigators has been put together to investigate the accusations, Mr Park Se-hyun, chief of the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office, said Sunday. Earlier on Dec 8, prosecutors detained Mr Yoon’s former defence minister, Mr Kim Yong-hyun, for questioning. The current uncertainty raised the crucial question of who would give orders to South Korea’s armed forces in case they needed to respond to North Korea, said Mr Lee Byong-chul, a North Korea expert at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. “By law, Yoon is still commander in chief,” he said. “If North Korea launches a provocation to test South Korea’s political situation, will he reassert his power as commander in chief? Will that lead to a fight over power?” NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel now

Knicks check in among Eastern Conference’s elite in post-Christmas stock reportYoga is a great way to improve your overall health. It's good exercise, it makes you more flexible, and it's good for easing stress – yoga even has a long-term impact on clinical depression . But getting into yoga can be a bit of a rough transition. It involves a lot of stretching and movements you might not be accustomed to, and if you're not quite sure what you're doing, there's a chance you could accidentally hurt yourself. The best way to ensure an ideal yoga experience is to take a class with a professional instructor, but if that's off the table, there are ways to bring a solo yoga session in line with one offered in a class. You could keep a visual list of pose diagrams handy, open up a yoga video on your computer or a yoga app on your phone , or, perhaps, employ a smarter mat. As smart tech proliferates through anything and everything, even the peaceful realm of yoga has seen technological upgrades in the form of smart yoga mats. While these flexible devices won't magically make you perfectly pretzel-like, their combination of intelligent sensors might just make your yoga journey a teensy bit easier. A smart yoga mat is kind of like the yoga equivalent of a stationary bicycle or treadmill like the Peloton Tread . Rather than the usual flat strip of foamy material, a smart yoga mat incorporates a variety of subtle sensors, scanners, and even AI algorithms to track your progress through a long-term yoga program. These sensors are used to check your positioning while performing yoga poses, ensuring you're distributing your weight properly, moving the correct limbs, and not overextending yourself in dangerous ways. Technically speaking, the concept of smart yoga mats have been around since the mid-2010s, with experimental design teams like Fluid and crowdfunded campaigns like Smart Mat researching the possibility of such a product. However, to date, the only smart yoga mat that's managed to make it to commercial availability as far as we can discern is YogiFi, which launched in 2021. No matter what the others promised, YogiFi's the only one to release a product, so it gets to be the benchmark for smart mats going forward. The YogiFi smart yoga mat has a large main device attached to a seemingly normal yoga mat. You power the device on, pair it with a compatible device via the YogiFi app, and select one of the app's programs or classes. An instructional video will play on your connected device, which you're supposed to follow along with on the mat. You can play this lesson on most Bluetooth-compatible displays, including smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and smart TVs. The big difference between this and a normal yoga instructional tape is that the YogiFi mat is actively monitoring you as you go. The mat's sensors keep track of your weight and balance, monitoring your poses for safety and accuracy. If the mat detects a problem, such as incorrect balance shifting or performing the wrong pose, the paired device will send you an audio and visual warning to fix your positioning. YogiFi also uses an AI-powered virtual yoga trainer to guide you through the steps of your program, offering advice on improving your poses and generally encouraging you to keep going. This is in addition to the prerecorded professional trainer who's conducting the lesson videos.

Mesa, AZ, Dec. 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Directors of RVR, Inc., the leading worldwide owner and operator of motor homes, today announced the appointment of Michael A. Bloom, Esquire, The Honorable Ursula Ungaro, and The Honorable Patrick Riley, effective December 9, 2024, as Independent Directors of the Company. They will serve as members of a newly created Special Committee responsible for conducting an independent analysis of legal and other matters related to the Company's Employee Stock Ownership Plan and the pending litigation with the U.S. Department of Labor. These appointments increase the size of the Corporation's Board from seven to ten members. "We are pleased to welcome Michael Bloom, The Honorable Ursula Ungaro, and The Honorable Patrick Riley to our Board of Directors,” said Randall Smalley, Chairman of the Board. "Their combined experience as highly respected and accomplished legal leaders and trusted business advisors will be invaluable to our Board.” About Michael A. Bloom, Esquire Michael A. Bloom served as the long-time General Counsel of the law firm Morgan Lewis, partner in its Bankruptcy and Financial Restructuring Practice, and chair its Standing Committees on Conflicts and Professional Responsibility. He co-founded and is a past chair of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Conference and has taught the corporate bankruptcy seminar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. A principal draftsperson of Pennsylvania's Rules of Professional Conduct, he is the six-term former chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Committee on Legal Ethics. Mr. Bloom served as chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Commission. He is a recipient of many awards for teaching and legal ethics and received the Equal Justice Award presented by Community Legal Services, Inc. Within the community, he serves currently as Emeritus Trustee of Dickinson College and the Advisory Boards of the Homeless Advocacy Project and the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project. Mr. Bloom also is an active speaker on the topic of conflicts, professional responsibility, and risk management. About The Honorable Ursula Ungaro Hon. Ursula Ungaro is a Partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner and served as a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Florida for 29 years. Her judicial experience also includes five years as a Florida state trial judge. Before becoming a judge, she was a litigator in Miami and a partner in two prestigious law firms, specializing in complex commercial litigation. While a federal judge, Judge Ungaro presided over a significant caseload, including high-profile matters, and served on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as a visiting judge. She was a member of the Judicial Resources Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which is responsible for making compensation and other human resource-related recommendations to the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. She also served as Chair of the Southern District of Florida's Clerks Committee and the Magistrate Judges Committee, as a trial judge on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, and on the Florida Supreme Court Race and Bias Commission. Judge Ungaro currently serves on the Family Learning Partnership board and participates in CARE Court, a court-assisted reentry program for moderate- and high-risk offenders recently released from prison. She also serves as a director on the board of a public company, Longeveron. About The Honorable Judge Patrick J. Riley Hon. Patrick J. Riley began his career serving as an Assistant District Attorney in the Essex County Superior Courts of Massachusetts, later entering private practice and establishing Riley, Burke & Donahue, LLP, focusing on civil and criminal trials. In 2002, he was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Superior Court for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with jurisdiction of Civil, Criminal, and Equity matters. Post-retirement, Judge Riley has served as an Independent Trustee/Director, currently serving as Chairman of the Board and Independent Trustee of The SSGA Combined Mutual Fund Board, providing oversight and governance to several '40 Act registered product lines. He previously served in Dublin, Ireland as the Independent Chairman of the Board and Director of the SSGA SPDR ETFs Europe 1, plc, and SSGA SPDR ETFs Europe II, plc, Dublin, Ireland-a complex of more than 100 ETFs distributed throughout EMEA and the world except the USA; an Independent Director, The State Street Global Advisors Liquidity, plc, Dublin, Ireland; an Independent Director, The State Street Global Advisors Windwise Funds, plc, Dublin, Ireland. The State Street engagements encompassed being an independent director/trustee chairman of boards with oversight, governance, and compliance review for more than 75 Mutual Funds, UCITS, and ETFs in multi-jurisdictional and regulatory environments with more than $500 billion dollars of AUM. ### CONTACT: Randall Smalley Cruise America, Inc. 602-725-0883 [email protected]

AP Trending SummaryBrief at 3:40 p.m. EST

46 Cleaning Products That’ll Have Your Home Shining As Bright As Rudolf’s NoseThe large mysterious drones reported flying over parts of New Jersey in recent weeks appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio, according to a state lawmaker briefed Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security. In a post on the social media platform X, Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia described the drones as up to 6 feet in diameter and sometimes traveling with their lights switched off. The Morris County Republican was among several state and local lawmakers who met with state police and Homeland Security officials to discuss the spate of sightings that range from the New York City area through New Jersey and westward into parts of Pennsylvania, including over Philadelphia. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.None