It was around 23:00 on a Tuesday night when – out of nowhere – South Korea’s president Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in the Asian democracy for the first time in nearly 50 years.
Explaining his decision, he mentioned “anti-state forces” and the threat from North Korea. But it soon became clear that it had not been spurred by external threats but by his own desperate political troubles.
The law was voted down just hours later – but it set in motion a string of events that have led to a state of political chaos in South Korea.

Grass fires aren’t out of the ordinary here in the high desert foothills, so Allison Bequette wasn’t terribly surprised when one forced her and other drivers on a detour.

What was striking to her, however, was the sheer intensity and size of the flames. “As tall as a house,” she recalled.

But on this second to last day of 2021, which was yet another in a long line of unseasonably dry ones in the region, hurricane-force winds shot down the mountain and whipped up those flames into a “suburban firestorm,” a deadly, raging inferno that ultimately would consume more than 1,000 houses, a hotel and several other businesses in communities southeast of Boulder.

Bequette’s home of nearly 30 years was among them.

The Marshall Fire caused more than $2 billion in damages, making it the costliest wildfire in Colorado, a state whose purple mountain majesties have long combatted untamed and devastating blazes.

While wildland-urban interface fires account for a small share of fires overall (although are becoming increasingly common), the aftershocks of the Marshall Fire were all too similar to what’s ensued from other disasters and extreme weather events: It not only laid bare existing inequities — it exacerbated them.

More than 150 million Americans cast ballots for president in November, but it’s 538 electors who actually elect the president when they meet in state capitols every four years.

That archaic process, known as the Electoral College, has endured multiple repeal efforts and one very serious attempt to undermine it in 2020.

But the Electoral College survives.

When electors meet on Tuesday, it’s likely to be a much less dramatic affair in 2024 than it was in 2020, simply because President-elect Donald Trump won the election and is not contesting the results. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, is also respecting the will of voters this year.