A superb day for South Korea’s Lee
President Lee Jae-myung is set to mark his one-year anniversary in office with an excellent showing in Wednesday’s local elections that were viewed as a referendum on his presidency. Exit polls suggest that his left-leaning Democratic Party is set to win 11 of 16 municipal leadership races, while the conservative People Power Party (PPP) will win just one. The remaining four are too close to call. It’s a remarkable turnaround from four years ago, when the PPP won the majority of those contests. It was in 2024 when the political ground started to shake, as then-President Yoon Suk Yeol of the PPP took the ill-fated step of imposing martial law. He was soon impeached, then sentenced to life in prison. Lee’s surging popularity has foreign policy ramifications: the president has sought to boost relations with China and North Korea while maintaining ties with Japan. With yesterday’s results, that approach will likely continue.
Bolivian crisis deepens as two ministers jump ship
Bolivia’s Defense Minister Marcelo Salinas and Education Minister Beatriz García resigned on Tuesday as nationwide protests over recent austerity measures and rising living costs continue to paralyze the country. The departures mark a significant setback for President Rodrigo Paz, who only took office in November as Bolivia’s first conservative leader in nearly two decades. Just last week, Congress voted to loosen restrictions on declaring a state of emergency and deploying the military, a step Paz has openly considered in recent days to quell the unrest. Paz had tried to appease protesters by engaging directly with the labor unions, cutting his own salary, and reshuffling his cabinet, but these additional resignations will likely still not placate the protesters, who are calling for Paz to step down. Some deputies in the Bolivian Congress have begun calling for a national referendum that would let voters decide whether Paz should remain in office.Trump tries tariffs again
The White House is readying fresh tariffs on 60 countries – including major economies like the European Union, Brazil, India, Japan, and China – on the grounds that they either use forced labor or import goods from countries that do so. China, the world’s largest exporter, employs forced labor at factories in Xinjiang province. This justification, rooted in US trade law, could enable US President Donald Trump to get around the recent Supreme Court ruling that outlawed his “Liberation Day” tariffs. The new levies, which start at 10%, could take effect in July. But nearly halfway through Trump’s term, the question remains: what’s his real tariff goal? Is it to resurrect modern American manufacturing, as some have advocated? Or are tariffs simply a bargaining chip to win concessions from countries in other areas (say, to boost defense spending, weaken the dollar, grant access to their critical minerals, or stop prosecuting ideological allies)?
