By HYUNG-JIN KIM

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — An independent counsel on Tuesday demanded the death sentence for former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on rebellion charges in connection with his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024.

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Yoon, who was removed from office last April and is in jail, faces eight trials over various criminal charges related to his martial law debacle and other scandals that flared during his time in office. Charges that he directed a rebellion are the most significant ones.

Independent counsel Cho Eun-suk’s team requested the Seoul Central District Court to sentence Yoon to death, according to the court, which is expected to deliver a verdict in February.

During Tuesday’s court session, Park Eok-su, a senior investigator on Cho’s team, described Yoon’s decree as “anti-state activities” and “a self-coup.” He alleged that Yoon’s action was designed to prolong his rule by neutralizing the constitutional structure of state governance systems.

Experts say the court will likely sentence Yoon to life in prison. South Korea hasn’t executed anyone since 1997, and local courts rarely issue the death penalty in recent years.

Yoon is the first South Korean president who has faced a potential death penalty after leaving office, since former military strongman Chun Doo-hwan in 1996 was sentenced to death for various crimes. Chun’s death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment, and he was eventually pardoned and released.

Yoon was scheduled to make remarks at Tuesday’s hearing. Yoon, a conservative, has maintained that his decree was a desperate yet peaceful attempt to raise public awareness about what he considered the danger of the liberal opposition Democratic Party, which used its legislative majority to obstruct his agenda. He called the opposition-controlled parliament “a den of criminals” and “anti-state forces.”

Spectacular downfall

Yoon’s decree, the first of its kind in more than 40 years, brought armed troops into Seoul streets to encircle the National Assembly and enter election offices. That evoked traumatic memories of dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed rulers used martial law and other emergency decrees to station soldiers and armored vehicles in public places to suppress pro-democracy protests.

On the night of Yoon’s martial law declaration, thousands of people gathered at the National Assembly to object to the decree and demand his resignation. Enough lawmakers, including members of Yoon’s ruling party, managed to enter an assembly hall to vote down the decree.

Observers described Yoon’s action as political suicide, marking a spectacular downfall for the former star prosecutor who won South Korea’s presidency in 2022, a year after entering politics. The National Assembly impeached him and sent the case to the Constitutional Court, which ruled to dismiss him as president.

Yoon’s decree and ensuing power vacuum plunged South Korea into political turmoil, halted the country’s high-level diplomacy and rattled its financial markets.

Lee Jae Myung, a former Democratic Party leader who led Yoon’s impeachment bid, became president in a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to delve into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.

The president’s office said Tuesday it expects the judiciary branch to rule on Yoon in line with the law, principle and public expectations.

There had been speculation that Yoon resorted to martial law to protect his wife, Kim Keon Hee, from potential corruption investigations. But in wrapping up a six-month investigation last month, independent counsel Cho’s team concluded that Yoon plotted for over a year to impose martial law to eliminate his political rivals and monopolize power.

Other criminal trials

Yoon’s rebellion charges carry either the death sentence or life imprisonment, if convicted. But judges have some leeway and can commute the sentence to as little as 10 years in prison if they choose.

Cho’s team last month requested a 10-year prison term for Yoon’s earlier defiance of authorities’ attempts to execute his detainment warrant and other charges like abuse of power and falsification of official documents. Yoon’s lawyers accused Cho’s team of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such an “excessive” sentence.

One of Yoon’s other trials deals with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Charges at other trials accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.

Yoon denies all the charges.

Potential prison sentences that Yoon could receive in these trials could matter in the event that he avoids the death penalty or life imprisonment over his rebellion charges, said Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law.

Both Yoon and the independent counsel could appeal the rebellion case to a higher court and then the Supreme Court. Park said a verdict by the Supreme Court, the country’s top court, would likely come this year.

Dozens of high-level officials and military commanders of the Yoon administration have been arrested, indicted or investigated over their roles in Yoon’s martial law imposition and other allegations. Cho’s team on Tuesday demanded a life sentence for Yoon’s defense minister, Kim Yong Hyun, and 10-30 years in prison for former senior military and police officers.

By MATT BROWN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will spend millions of dollars to cement control of voter registration efforts that have traditionally been entrusted to nonprofit advocacy groups and individual political campaigns, a shift that party leaders hope will increase their chances in this year’s midterm elections.

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The initiative, being announced on Tuesday, will begin in Arizona and Nevada with at least $2 million for training organizers. It’s the first step in what could become the DNC’s largest-ever push to sign up new voters, with a particular focus on young people, voters of color and people without college educations. All of those demographics drifted away from Democrats in the last presidential race, which returned Republican Donald Trump to the White House.

“It’s a crisis. And for our party to actually win elections, we have to actually create more Democrats,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Martin added that “we need all hands on deck, not just the outside groups,” as the party tries to win back control of Congress and break Republicans’ unified control in Washington.

Democrats have spent decades relying on advocacy organizations and civic groups to register voters, but those efforts are generally required by law to be nonpartisan. Party leaders want a more explicitly partisan approach like the one used by Republicans, who have relied less on outside groups to register and mobilize their voter base.

Martin said allied nonprofits are “really important partners” that have “done amazing work to actually get people engaging in their democracy.”

“But in this moment right now, given the significant disadvantage that we have and the advantage the Republicans have, we actually have to do more,” he said.

The DNC initiative aims to reach non-college-educated young voters by recruiting organizers from a wide array of backgrounds, like gig economy workers and young parents, who have often been overlooked in the party’s grassroots efforts. Democrats hope that organizers’ own perspectives and experiences will help party strategists learn how to connect with Americans in blue-collar roles who are disaffected with politics, whom the party fears it has lost touch with in recent elections.

“I think it’s incredible that Democrats are actually investing in reaching Democratic voters who have been left behind,” said Santiago Mayer, founder of Voters for Tomorrow, a progressive political youth group that is collaborating with the DNC. “We got killed on persuasion in 2024, and I think this is a really important step, fixing it and ensuring that we do not have a repeat of that in 2026.”

The program will kick off with dozens of videos from lawmakers, activists and party leaders across the country. Democrats hope to boost enthusiasm for the program through interstate party competitions throughout the year.

If successful, the investments will provide a foundation that Democrats can rely upon beyond the fall midterm elections.

“This is a critical piece of the infrastructure that we’re building to actually not only win the moment in ’26 but to win the future,” Martin said. “For us to put ourselves in a position to win in ’28 and ’30 and ’32, we actually have to keep doing this work and do it consistently.”

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a reversal from previous years’ pollution reductions, the United States spewed 2.4% more heat-trapping gases from the burning of fossil fuels in 2025 than in the year before, researchers calculated in a study released Tuesday.

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The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is attributable to a combination of a cool winter, the explosive growth of data centers and cryptocurrency mining and higher natural gas prices, according to the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. Environmental policy rollbacks by President Donald Trump’s administration were not significant factors in the increase because they were only put in place this year, the study authors said. Heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas are the major cause of worsening global warming, scientists say.

American emissions of carbon dioxide and methane had dropped 20% from 2005 to 2024, with a few one- or two-year increases in the overall downward trend. Traditionally, carbon pollution has risen alongside economic growth, but efforts to boost cleaner energy in recent years decoupled the two, so emissions would drop as gross domestic product rose.

But that changed last year with pollution actually growing faster than economic activity, said study co-author Ben King, a director in Rhodium’s energy group. He estimated the U.S. put 5.9 billion tons (5.35 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent in the air in 2025, which is 139 million tons (126 million metric tons) more than in 2024.

The cold 2025 winter meant more heating of buildings, which often comes from natural gas and fuel oil that are big greenhouse gas emitters, King said. A significant and noticeable jump in electricity demand from data centers and cryptocurrency mining meant more power plants producing energy. That included plants using coal, which creates more carbon pollution than other fuel sources.

A rise in natural gas prices helped create an 13% increase in coal power, which had shrunk by nearly two-thirds since its peak in 2007, King said.

“It’s not like this is a huge rebound,” King said. “We’re not sitting here claiming that coal is back and going to dominate the sector or anything like that. But we did see this increase and that was a large part of why emissions went up in the power sector.”

It will take time for data to reflect Trump policies

King said the list of more than two dozen proposed rollbacks of American environmental policies by the Trump administration hadn’t been in place long enough to have an effect in 2025, but may be more noticeable in future years.

“It’s one year of data so far,” King said. “So we need to see the extent to which this trend sustains.”

Solar power generation jumped 34%, pushing it past hydroelectric power, with zero-carbon emitting energy sources now supplying 42% of American power, Rhodium found. It will be interesting to see what happens as the Trump administration ends solar and wind subsidies and discourages their use, King said.

“The economic case for adding renewables is quite strong still,” King said. “This stuff is cost-competitive in a lot of places. Try as they might, this administration can’t alter the fundamental economics of this stuff.”

Before the Trump administration took office, the Rhodium team projected that in 2035 U.S. greenhouse gas emissions would have fallen between 38% and 56% compared to 2005 levels, King said. Now, the projected pollution drop is expected to be about one-third less, he calculated.

Experts say pollution increase is an ominous sign

Others who were not involved in the Rhodium report said last year’s increase in emissions is an ominous sign.

“Unfortunately, the 2025 U.S. emission increase is likely a harbinger of what’s to come as the U.S. federal leadership continues to make what amounts to a huge unforced economic error by favoring legacy fossil fuels when the rest of the world is going all in on mobility and power generation using low-carbon technology, primarily based on renewables and batteries,” said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck.

Overpeck said that favoring fossil fuels will harm both the U.S. economy and air quality.

Longtime climate change activist Bill McKibben said bluntly: “It’s so incredibly stupid that the U.S. is going backwards on this stuff.”

The Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement it wasn’t familiar with the Rhodium Group report and is “carrying out our core mission of protecting human health.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

The Gophers had 21 total players from the 2025 football team enter the transfer portal this winter — none more high profile than Koi Perich.

Perich, a rising junior from Esko, Minn., committed to  Oregon on Monday night. The two-time all-Big Ten safety, return man and part-time offensive player is staying in the Big Ten, but it’s a powerhouse Minnesota won’t have to play in 2026 nor ’27.

Minnesota Gophers defensive back Koi Perich (3) is photographed during the team’s NCAAA football media day in Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

At Minnesota, Perich had a great true freshman season, but experienced a dip during his sophomore campaign. He went from five interceptions to one and his Pro Football Focus grade dropped from 88.9 to 62.4 over the two years.

But Perich remains extremely talented. He can make splash plays and totaled over 1,200 defensive snaps at the U. He could continue to develop and cause Minnesota and its fanbase to lament his exit. There is precedent here.

Former Gophers running back Bucky Irving left the U for the Ducks in 2022 and went on to have two 1,000-yard seasons in Eugene, Ore., before featuring for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL.

Besides Perich, two other departing Gophers are staying in the conference. To-be redshirt sophomore running back Fame Ijeboi said last Friday he will move to Purdue, and redshirt junior receiver Malachi Coleman committed to Wisconsin on Monday.

Ijeboi was Minnesota’s second leading rusher a season ago, stepping in for injured starter Darius Taylor. Ijeboi with 441 yards and two touchdowns of 97 carries, adding 12 catches for 54 yards and one score.

Coleman has freakish traits at 6-foot-5 and 200 pounds, but the former Nebraska player and top 100 national recruit coming out high school in Lincoln, Neb., didn’t produce much in two years with the Cornhuskers and his one at Minnesota. He had five catches for 83 yards in eight games this fall.

Both Coleman and Ijeboi will have the chance at revenge games next season. The U play the Boilermakers next fall, and of course, the Gophers play the Badgers for Paul Bunyan’s Axe every November.

The rest of the Gophers outgoing players have committed to smaller schools or are still looking for their next spot.

Cornerback Za’Quan Bryan, who was a starter at the U until November, is headed to South Florida.

Cornerback Jaylen Bowden and defensive end Steven Curtis — two members of the 2025 portal class who didn’t work out at the U — are going down to the Group of Five conferences: Bowden to East Carolina and Curtis to North Texas.

Detroit Lakes safety Ethan Carrier is going to South Dakota; punter Caleb McGrath, of Eastview High School, is off to North Dakota State; running back Tre Berry has linked up with Tennessee State.

Twelve other players have not yet decided on their next school. The notables on that list are quarterback Jackson Kollock, receivers Kenric Lanier, Cristian Driver and Legend Lyons, offensive linemen Kahlee Tafai and Reese Tripp of Mantorville, Minn.

This is, in part, a cautionary tale. Heading into the portal doesn’t always result in the grass being greener on the other side.

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