PERUVIAN lawmakers on Wednesday elected Jose Balcazar as the country’s new interim president ahead of general elections in April, making him the country’s eighth president in as many years.

Mr. Balcazar will also assume the role of head of Congress.

Peru’s Congress on Tuesday voted to oust President Jose Jeri after just four months in office due to a scandal over undisclosed meetings with a Chinese businessman.

Mr. Balcazar was immediately sworn in as Peru’s head of congress on Wednesday, following political upheaval that led to the removal of his predecessor.

In a session lasting several hours after none of the four candidates secured a simple majority, Peruvian lawmakers voted to elect Mr. Balcazar over Maria del Carmen Alva.

Mr. Balcazar’s interim mandate comes less than two months before Peruvians head to the polls on April 12 to elect a new president, with a run-off vote expected in June. Mr. Balcazar will remain in the post until the end of the current presidential term on July 28, when the elected president is due to take office.

The Andean nation’s Congress a day earlier voted to oust President Jose Jeri after just four months in office, a dramatic turn that deepened the leadership crisis gripping the country and raised urgent questions about what comes next.

Since 2018, Peru has cycled through a rapid succession of presidents, exposing a deep rupture between the executive branch and Congress and a fragmented party system unable to form lasting governing coalitions.

Mr. Jeri became the third Peruvian president in a row to be ousted, his brief tenure cut short by a string of political scandals, including one over undisclosed meetings he held with a Chinese businessman.

Peru’s is the world’s third-biggest copper producer, and its heavily mining-reliant economy has thus far shown resilience to political shocks, posting solid growth and relatively low inflation last year compared with many regional peers.

Still, Mr. Balcazar now faces a narrow and high-stakes mandate of steadying markets, preserving public order, and overseeing credible elections.

“It is difficult to believe that Jeri’s substitute would fail to last until July; yet another change of president over the next five months would mark a new nadir in Peruvian politics,” said Nicolas Watson, managing director of consultancy Teneo. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — Indonesian and US companies on Wednesday signed deals valued at more than $7 billion a day ahead of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s meeting with US President Donald Trump to sign a final trade pact, the US-ASEAN Business Council said.

The agreements, signed at a dinner for Mr. Prabowo hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, include purchases by Indonesian firms of 1 million metric tons of US soybeans, 1.6 million tons of corn, and 93,000 tons of cotton over unspecified periods, according to a US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC) fact sheet.

It added that Indonesia will buy 1 million tons of wheat this year and up to 5 million tons by 2030.

The deals include a memorandum of understanding between US mining group Freeport-McMoRan and the Indonesian Ministry of Investment for critical minerals cooperation and an agreement between state oil producer Pertamina and Halliburton Co. to cooperate on oilfield recovery, USABC said.

Freeport and the investment ministry signed an initial deal to extend its mining permit beyond 2041, Freeport-McMoRan Chairman Richard Adkerson said at the dinner.

“It is a life of resource extension, and we cannot wait to undertake delineation drilling of what that ore body will be for many decades to come in the future,” he said.

The deals also include two semiconductor joint venture agreements, including one valued at $4.89 billion between Essence Global Group and an Indonesian partner and another unvalued venture involving Tynergy Technology Group.

USABC valued Indonesia’s purchases of soybeans at $685 million, wheat at $1.25 billion, cotton at $122 million and an additional purchase of US shredded worn clothing for recycling at $200 million.

In the decade from 2015 to 2024, Indonesia averaged annual imports of 2.3 million metric tons of US soybeans, nearly 800,000 tons of wheat, about 180,000 tons of cotton, and less than 100,000 tons of corn, according to US Census Bureau trade data.

The Southeast Asian country has imported around $3 billion worth of US agricultural products annually in recent years, making it the 11th largest market for all US farm goods.

Not all of the deals were given price tags, and these included Indonesian purchases of US lumber and furniture products.

Indonesia announced in July a string of business deals with the US worth $34 billion as part of its tariff negotiations, including wheat and soybean import deals similar to those signed on Wednesday.

Mr. Prabowo said at the dinner that the deals were among the implementing agreements to the US-Indonesian trade deal that he is due to sign on Thursday with Mr. Trump. He said these would help reduce Indonesia’s trade surplus with the US, adding: “I’m very optimistic about the future of our relationship.”

The Indonesian leader arrived in Washington this week for Mr. Trump’s Board of Peace meeting, with hopes Jakarta can secure a slight tariff reduction to 18% from 19% agreed last year. That would match the rate Mr. Trump granted to India earlier in February.

In remarks at the dinner, Deputy US Trade Representative Rick Switzer did not mention the final tariff rate for Indonesia but said the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade between the two democracies “will mean more trade — bilateral trade. It will mean more investment. It’ll mean deeper, more comprehensive economic, investment and trade ties.” — Reuters

SEOUL — Ousted South Korean leader Yoon Suk Yeol, a former prosecutor who took gambles to win power, finally fell victim to his own recklessness, people who knew him said, through a belief that he could crush political enemies by declaring martial law.

Yoon, 65, was sentenced on Thursday to life in prison by the Seoul Central District Court, for masterminding insurrection, capping a spectacular fall from grace that saw him stripped of office and landed behind bars.

There were some early signs, colleagues say in hindsight of Yoon, who used his career as a prosecutor as a springboard to become president in his first run for elected office, just a year after entering politics.

“If I had gone to the military academy, I would have staged a coup,” former judge Han Dong-soo quotes Yoon, then a powerful prosecutor, as saying in 2020, at a dinner the future president hosted with free-flowing drinks.

On Thursday, the court found Yoon guilty of declaring martial law in a subversion of constitutional order, by deploying troops to storm parliament and drag his opponents to jail.

Yoon, wearing a dark suit and noticeably slimmer since his arrest a year ago, stood ashen-faced listening to the verdict. His lawyer protested against it and said the defence team would discuss with the former president whether to appeal.

Yoon has previously denied wrongdoing, saying his action was meant to send a warning that democracy and freedom were under threat from “anti-state” forces trying to take over South Korea.

RAPID RISE TO POWER
As a prosecutor who investigated two incumbent presidents, Yoon became a household name.

“Yoon Suk Yeol was the most powerful prosecutor-general ever,” said Han, who headed internal inspection at the prosecutors’ office under Yoon.

“He used the office to carry out his plan to become president and in doing so, his actions were daring.”

By 2022, after leading a graft investigation of the justice minister, he had become a darling of conservatives frustrated with the liberal policies of then-President Moon Jae-in, setting him up to become their candidate for president.

But once in office, he became increasingly embittered by unrelenting battles with opponents that a former prosecution rival, Lee Sung-yoon, said drew out a recklessness that had been Yoon’s defining trait.

By the time he imposed martial law in December 2024, Yoon was badly bruised politically, overshadowed by scandals centering on his wife, Kim Keon Hee, accused of inappropriately accepting gifts, though she faced no charges at the time.

An inquiry by a special prosecutor after Yoon’s ouster resulted in her conviction for bribery in January, however, and she is now serving a 20-month jail term.

Opposition clashes marred the year before Yoon’s martial law declaration, ensuring his policies and legislative agenda were stymied.

But the struggles at home contrasted with Yoon’s relative success on the world stage.

His drive to resolve a decades-long diplomatic row with Japan and join it in three-way security cooperation with mutual ally the United States are widely seen as one of his few policy achievements.

On full display at a White House event in 2023 was Yoon’s winning trait of bonding on a personal level, when he took the stage and belted out the 1970s pop hit “American Pie” for an astonished then-President Joe Biden and a delighted crowd.

SHAMAN, ‘YES MEN’
Born in a well-to-do family, Yoon excelled at school and entered the elite Seoul National University law school. But his penchant for partying led him to repeatedly fail the bar exam before he passed on the ninth try at age 30.

As a prosecutor, he was known for an easy-going style, but acquaintances said he became more ambitious after marrying Kim, a successful art curator.

His presidency got off to a rocky start when he moved the presidential office from the traditional Blue House compound, sparking questions about whether it was motivated by a feng shui belief that the site was cursed.

Yoon denied that the first couple had any involvement with a shaman.

When he refused to fire top officials after a Halloween crowd crush killed 159 people, Yoon was accused of protecting his “yes men”.

One was Safety Minister Lee Sang-min, a graduate of Yoon’s high school, who was later tried and jailed for seven years for his role in Yoon’s martial law declaration.

Another high school alumnus was Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun, a former chief of presidential security, who is on trial for insurrection, accused of being the main figure advising Yoon to declare martial law. He has denied wrongdoing.

Yoon’s downfall came about through listening to the wrong people, said Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University, adding that he probably “still thinks he did the right thing” in declaring martial law. — Reuters

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday he would seek “strategic partnerships” with China during a trip next week, as he looks to discuss future cooperation between Europe and the world’s second-biggest economy while the United States leans on tariffs.

“We have a strategic interest in finding partners in the world who think the way we do, who act the way we do, and who above all are prepared to shape the future together so that we remain a country with prosperity and a high level of social security,” Mr. Merz said at his party’s Ash Wednesday event in Passau, Bavaria.

He said foreign policy and economic policy could no longer be separated.

“If the Americans believe that, with their tariff policy, they should exert influence around the world — if they believe that tariffs are more important than taxes at home — then that is something Americans can, of course, decide for themselves. But it is not our policy,” Mr. Merz said.

US President Donald Trump’s tariff push is testing relations between the allies, threatening their two-way trade and raising the risk of further damage to Germany’s already struggling economy.

“You can do it, but we will not go along with it,” Mr. Merz said on tariffs. “And if you overdo it, then we Europeans are certainly able to defend ourselves against it.”

Mr. Merz said Europeans had shown they could act together during a recent flare-up linked to Greenland and warned the European Union would respond if Washington raised tariffs again.

“That is our double strategy: an outstretched hand and, at any time, a renewed partnership — but also enough cohesion and unity within the European Union so that we can defend ourselves sufficiently against things we do not want,” he said. — Reuters

TORONTO — Canada introduced new immigration priority categories on Wednesday to bring in skilled workers in fields ranging from research and health care to aviation, and to include certain military recruits.

The new categories align with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s goals of broadly reducing the number of new permanent residents in Canada while recruiting skilled workers and scholars and boosting defense capabilities to lessen dependence on the United States.

The government said the shift was aimed at restoring immigration to sustainable levels while finding workers for key industries. Canada’s government in recent years has sought to reduce the number of immigrants to ease strains on housing and social services.

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said the 2026 changes to the Express Entry system will help to attract talent that can “contribute from day one” as Canada faces labor shortages in critical sectors.

The new categories include researchers, senior managers, transport‑sector workers such as pilots and aircraft mechanics, and foreign medical doctors with Canadian experience. They will also include highly skilled foreign military applicants recruited by the Canadian Armed Forces, including military doctors, nurses, and pilots.

“Canada’s future depends on a workforce ready for a changing economy,” Ms. Diab said in a statement.

Mr. Carney, seeking to reduce reliance on the United States, announced a new defense strategy on Tuesday that aims over the next decade to lift government investment in defense-related research and development by 85%, boost defense industry revenues by more than 240%, increase defense exports by 50% and create up to 125,000 quality new jobs.

Like other NATO members, Canada has pledged to raise defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035.

Invitation rounds in existing Express Entry categories — including French-language candidates, health-care workers and skilled trades — will continue alongside the new targeted streams. — Reuters