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Good evening, The season finale of the K-Drama surrounding its impeached President Yoon Seok Yeol just dropped. On Thursday, the country’s Constitutional Court unanimously voted to uphold Yoon’s impeachment by the Parliament and dismissed him from office. Under the country’s laws, Yoon cannot appeal the verdict, and South Korea must hold fresh elections within 60 days. In early December 2024, amid declining popularity, Yoon declared martial law, triggering a wave of protests across the country, with South Koreans braving the frigid weather to gather outside the National Assembly and demand his impeachment. Yoon’s declaration was short-lived (six hours to be precise), leading to its withdrawal soon after the parliament voted down the move. Yoon has since been suspended from office and was impeached a few days later on December 14. Yoon became the second South Korean president to be ousted via impeachment after Park Gyun-Hye in 2017, whom, interestingly, Yoon prosecuted. On that note, let’s dive into today’s edition 👇🏽
📝 The Debrief The aftershocks of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ have just begun By the time markets closed, the scoreboard didn’t look pretty. In fact, it resembled a bloodbath, seething in deep red, because that is what happened. The pre-Liberation Day nervous calm (or jitters, if you’d like) made way for a frosty chill, with US President Donald Trump’s tariff shockwaves ripping through Wall Street and wiping out a whopping $2.5 trillion in market value. On Friday, the sell-off continued in Asian markets, including India, as investors sought “safe havens”, such as government bonds. While everyone saw this coming, Trump’s tariffs have upended an international trade order that, as C Raja Mohan notes here, is “uncharted and tricky to navigate.” We’ll say it again. Brace yourselves because the aftershocks are just getting started. No looking back: Trump 2.0’s mantra thus far has been aptly characterised by some people as “uncertainty is policy.” That came to the fore on Thursday, with mixed messaging from Trump and his aides. While he left the door open for negotiations, “as long as they’re giving us something good”, he added that new tariffs on semiconductor and pharma sectors will take effect soon, without giving a timeline. However, his advisors, such as Peter Navarro, insisted that the sweeping tariffs were “not a negotiation” and termed it a “national emergency” in a comment to CNBC’s Closing Bell: Overtime. Reaction: Trump, however, has opened himself up to retaliation, even as countries race to get a deal before these tariffs take effect. French President Emmanuel Macron urged European companies not to invest in the United States, even as talk of the EU deploying asymmetrical countermeasures via taxing or fining American Big Tech services picked up. China vowed to retaliate almost immediately after Trump’s announcement, while Canada slapped a 25% retaliatory tariff on US-made autos. Gloomy outlook: The forecasts don’t look pretty good, either. The tariffs have seen economists at various banks and investment firms raise prospects of higher inflation, with ripple effects across the world. Economists at JP Morgan upped their recession forecast by almost 20%—from 40% prior to Wednesday’s announcement to 60% on Thursday. Goldman Sachs has raised similar warnings, with its executives sounding the alarm on the possibility of stagflation. Similarly, multilateral agencies such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have laid out that Trump’s escalation could hurt global goods trading volumes. The WTO stated that global merchandise trade (goods, not services) could drop 1% after Trump’s tariffs, while the IMF warned of sluggish global growth. Downward growth: Specific to its impact on India, Goldman Sachs expected India’s GDP growth to dip by 30 basis points. HDFC Bank Research economists echoed that view, stating that the “across-the-board imposed by the US are much more extreme than initially anticipated.”
✍️ From our newsroom A life lost: Deep in the forests of Chhattisgarh's Bijapur, a young girl, all of 19, lost her life in February. She was one of the 31 Maoists killed in the biggest such police operation in the region. Jyoti Hemla's story is by no means ordinary, but it is also not unique. Many children in the district have taken up the Maoist cause. Jyoti’s family says she was taken in by the Chaitya Natya Mandal (CNM), a cultural wing of the Maoists. Her friends and relatives had begged her to leave the organisation. But she chose to stay on. Why? Read my colleague Jayprakash Naidu's compelling ground report that explores the world Jyoti came from.
🔎 Need to know Handshake: Amid fraught bilateral ties and Dhaka's growing closeness to China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Bangladesh interim government’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. The PM underlined India's desire to forge a constructive relationship with Dhaka. Rest in peace: Veteran actor Manoj Kumar, one of Hindi cinema’s most enduring figures, has passed away at the age of 87. He was best known for his patriotic films like Shaheed (1965), Upkar (1967), and Purab Aur Paschim (1970). Under scanner: The Enforcement Directorate's Kerala wing carried out a multi-state search operation at the premises of producer Gokulam Gopalan, whose production house backed the controversial Malayalam film L2: Empuraan. ED insiders say the raids were linked to the agency's probe into alleged foreign exchange violations.
🎙️Expresso Playlist! In today’s Playlist, I have a movie recommendation for animation fanatics. (There are more of us, thanks to the viral Studio Ghibli image trend.) This weekend, do yourself a favour and watch Flow, where a cat teams up with an unlikely bunch to brave a devastating flood. It's gorgeous, refreshing, moving, and everything good. It's not yet available on OTT in India, but definitely worth the big screen experience.
✋🏽One last thing Imagine a billionaire tells you, “We weren’t born to do jobs”. Intrigued? I leave you with a transcript from our recent Adda where Microsoft founder Bill Gates gets all philosophical as he muses over a future where Artificial Intelligence takes over the world. That’s all from us today. Thank you so much for reading this edition. If you enjoy the Evening Expresso, tell your friends to subscribe to the newsletter. You can do so by signing up for the Morning Expresso. Also, you can contact us via email for tips, feedback, or just a hello! 😀 That’s all for this week. Have a great weekend! Venkat Ananth and Sonal Gupta |
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