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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's embattled President Yoon Suk Yeol avoided an opposition-led attempt to impeach him over his short-lived imposition of martial law , as most ruling party lawmakers boycotted a parliamentary vote Saturday to deny a two-thirds majority needed to suspend his presidential powers. The scrapping of the motion is expected to intensify public protests calling for Yoon’s ouster and deepen political chaos in South Korea, with a survey suggesting a majority of South Koreans support the president’s impeachment. Yoon’s martial law declaration drew criticism from his own ruling conservative People Power Party, but it is also determined to oppose Yoon’s impeachment apparently because it fears losing the presidency to liberals. After the motion fell through, members of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party rallied inside the National Assembly, chanting slogans calling for Yoon's impeachment or resignation. The party's floor leader, Park Chan-dae, said it will soon prepare for a new impeachment motion. “We'll surely impeach Yoon Suk Yeol, who is the greatest risk to Republic of Korea,” party leader Lee Jae-myung said. “We'll surely bring back this country to normal before Christmas Day or year's end.” Despite escaping the impeachment attempt, many experts worry Yoon won’t be able to serve out his remaining 2 1/2 years in office. They say some ruling party lawmakers could eventually join opposition parties’ efforts to impeach Yoon if public demands for it grow further. Protests against Yoon are swelling On Saturday, tens of thousands of people densely packed several blocks of roads leading up to the National Assembly, waving banners, shouting slogans and dancing. Protesters also gathered in front of PPP’s headquarters near the Assembly, angrily shouting for its lawmakers to vote to impeach Yoon. A smaller crowd of Yoon’s supporters, which still seemed to be in the thousands, rallied in separate streets in Seoul, decrying the impeachment attempt they saw as unconstitutional. Impeaching Yoon required support from two-thirds of the National Assembly, or 200 of its 300 members. The Democratic Party and five other small opposition parties, which filed the motion, have 192 seats combined. But only three lawmakers from PPP participated in the vote. The motion was scrapped without ballot counting because the number of votes didn’t reach 200. National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik called the result “very regrettable” and an embarrassing moment for the country’s democracy that has been closely watched by the world. “The failure to hold a qualified vote on this matter means we were not even able to exercise the democratic procedure of deciding on a critical national issue,” he said. Opposition parties could submit a new impeachment motion after a new parliamentary session opens next Wednesday. If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days. Yoon apologizes for turmoil Earlier Saturday, Yoon issued a public apology over the martial law decree, saying he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promising not to make another attempt to impose martial law. He said would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.” “The declaration of this martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said. Since taking office in 2022, Yoon has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement on Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.” The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners like the U.S. and Japan. Tuesday night saw special forces troops encircling the parliament building and army helicopters hovering over it, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift it before daybreak Wednesday. The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea. Eighteen lawmakers from the ruling party voted to reject Yoon’s martial law decree along with opposition lawmakers. PPP later decided to oppose Yoon's impeachment motion. Yoon’s speech fueled speculation that he and his party may push for a constitutional amendment to shorten his term, instead of accepting impeachment, as a way to ease public anger over the marital law and facilitate Yoon’s early exit from office. Lee told reporters that Yoon’s speech was “greatly disappointing” and that the only way forward is his immediate resignation or impeachment. His party called Yoon’s martial law “unconstitutional, illegal rebellion or coup.” Lawmakers on Saturday first voted on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate stock price manipulation allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife. Some lawmakers from Yoon’s party were seen leaving the hall after that vote, triggering angry shouts from opposition lawmakers. Yoon accused of ordering arrests of politicians On Friday, PPP chair Han Dong-hun, who criticized Yoon’s martial law declaration, said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.” Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing Friday that Yoon had ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians. The targeted politicians included Han, Lee and Woo, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting. The Defense Ministry said Friday it suspended three military commanders including the head of the defense counterintelligence unit over their involvement in enforcing martial law. Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho has told parliament that Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun ordered the deployment of troops to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law. Opposition parties accused Kim of recommending to Yoon to enforce martial law. Kim resigned Thursday, and prosecutors imposed an overseas travel ban on him. Kim Tong-hyung And Hyung-jin Kim, The Associated PressPanthers TE Ja'Tavion Sanders carted off field for neck injury
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A decade-long failure to address urgent repairs in hospitals across England has led to a dramatic rise in issues posing a “high risk” to patients and staff, ministers are being warned. The cost of dealing with this backlog has almost tripled since 2015 in real terms, to £2.7bn this year. High-risk repairs have been the fastest growing part of the lengthy maintenance list over that time. It includes issues that could lead to serious injury to both staff and patients, or to major disruption of services or “catastrophic failure”. The NHS lost more than 600 days – or 14,500 hours – of clinical time because of infrastructure failures in the last year, according to a new analysis seen by the Observer . The total maintenance backlog has now ballooned to £13.8bn in 2023-24, an 18% increase from last year. The figure is more than the NHS’s entire capital budget for the year. There were 22 incidents of lost clinical time a day on average, according to the analysis of official data by the House of Commons library. Close to 80% of the time lost was due to incidents deemed to have the most clinical impact, including faulty roofs, water leaks, and broken lifts or heating systems. There were 1,584 “critical incidents” recorded, the most severe kind. Helen Morgan – the Liberal Democrats’ health and care spokesperson who commissioned the House of Commons library to review data on the hospital repair backlog – blamed the “shocking figures” on years of neglect. “Patients are no longer confident that desperately needed treatment will go ahead without being interrupted by hospitals crumbling around them,” she said. “How can the government expect to get the NHS waiting times down when the buildings are in such a state of disrepair? It is a situation that the new government must grip urgently and bring to an end. “That should start by ministers bringing forward a 10-year plan to eradicate the repair backlog and ensure that our NHS is fit for purpose so that patients can finally get the care they deserve.” Essex Partnership University NHS trust recorded 300 critical incidents in 2023-24, the most of any trust in England. It said it was having to manage more than 200 sites in partnership with other providers. It is now focusing on a programme of refurbishment of inpatient wards, investing £20m since 2020. Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS trust recorded 229 critical incidents. Tom Burton, its director of finance, said the trust continued to face challenges as a result of an “ageing estate”, including electrical issues and older systems. The trust is prioritising maintenance that ensures compliance with health and safety standards and improves resilience of its infrastructure. The rise in severe maintenance problems is worrying NHS experts. “We’re seeing faster growth in the higher risk categories, where the consequences of not doing that maintenance would be more substantial,” said Katie Fozzard, an economist at the Health Foundation. “The highest risk category has almost tripled since 2015.” Rory Deighton, acute network director at the NHS Confederation, said the increasing amount of clinical time lost to disrepair across the NHS was “very concerning” and warned it was the result of long-term underfunding. “Healthcare leaders know first-hand the impact that crumbling buildings and outdated equipment is having on the care they and their staff can provide to patients,” he said. “This is a direct result of the dearth of capital invested into the NHS over the last 10 years or more. “Greater investment in NHS estate, buildings and kit is desperately needed given the maintenance bill for these buildings, and this infrastructure is now higher than the allocated capital budget as a whole. We need to simultaneously fix the broken and run down, but also build and modernise for the future, including in the technology and digital equipment required.” Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion He also called for an overhaul of the bureaucracy that often held up the plans of hospital bosses to deal with the essential repair and modernisation work. “The process of getting the funding that does exist out to the frontline needs urgently simplifying,” he said. Charles Tallack, director of research and analysis at the Health Foundation, warned that the poor condition of the NHS estate was hampering efforts to make the service more efficient. “NHS productivity has declined,” he said. “There’s been at least a 20% increase in hospital staff since before the pandemic, but we’ve seen nowhere near that increase in hospital activity. “Part of the reason is that we’ve not invested sufficiently in maintaining buildings, so the extra staff aren’t being used as well as they could be. There are some really stark examples of this. If you have theatres with leaking roofs or under water, then staff can’t get on with caring for patients.” The government is now investing £1bn to tackle the existing backlog of critical maintenance. While the Tories had pledged to build 40 new hospitals under the new hospitals programme, the scheme was widely criticised for failing to provide the necessary funds to deliver it. The Labour government is now reviewing the programme and is prioritising hospitals built using reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac), now deemed a serious risk. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Buildings and equipment across the NHS have been left to crumble following years of neglect, disrupting patient care and hindering staff. We are investing over £1bn to tackle the existing backlog of critical maintenance, repairs and upgrades. Repairing and rebuilding our NHS estate will be a vital part of our 10-year health plan.”
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