Death toll in South Korea plane crash rises to 179

Good morning. Right now I’ll be overlaying:

• South Korea’s airplane crash

• The demise of former US president Jimmy Carter

• Detentions of Chinese language executives

• The preferred tales of the yr

100 and seventy-nine individuals have been killed yesterday morning as a South Korean passenger jet crashed and burst into flames on touchdown, in response to native authorities. The accident was one of many nation’s worst aviation disasters.

The Jeju Air flight was coming back from Bangkok with 181 individuals on board when it didn’t deploy its touchdown gear. It skid down the runway earlier than it struck a wall and was engulfed in fireplace at Muan worldwide airport within the nation’s south.

Two crew members have been rescued from the plane’s tail, in response to the nationwide fireplace company, however all the opposite individuals on the flight have been later confirmed to have been killed, officers instructed South Korea’s Yonhap information company.

South Korea’s appearing president Choi Sang-mok — who assumed workplace on Friday after his predecessor was impeached by parliament — vowed to “dig into the trigger [and] and take steps to stop any recurrence of comparable accidents”.

“It is a grave state of affairs. We’ll do our utmost to deal with the injury,” he stated. The crash was the worst commercial aviation disaster since 2018.

Right here’s what else I’m preserving tabs on at present:

• Day of mourning: South Korea will start its second of seven days of nationwide mourning for victims of the Jeju Air crash.

• ‘Black moon’ phenomenon: The night time sky will probably be primed for ultimate stargazing circumstances tonight amid the uncommon incidence of a second new moon in a single calendar month.

5 extra prime tales

1. Jimmy Carter, the thirty ninth US president who later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died, the Carter Middle stated on Sunday. Carter was the longest-living former president in US historical past, having celebrated his one centesimal birthday on October 1. Read more about his life and legacy.

2. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev known as on Russia to “admit its guilt” within the passenger airplane crash on Christmas Day, and demanded Moscow compensate the families of the 38 people killed. President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russian air defences have been working in the identical space that the Azerbaijan Airways Embraer 190 airplane was flying, however apologised just for the truth that the incident occurred “in Russian airspace”.

3. Asia-Pacific infrastructure ought to drive extra offers in 2025 regardless of financial challenges for the area, Macquarie stated after the Australian asset supervisor wrapped up a A$24bn (US$15bn) information centre sale earlier this month. The FT’s Nic Fildes studies on what the co-head of Macquarie’s infrastructure division in Asia-Pacific is expecting for 2025.

4. Syria’s de facto chief, Ahmed al-Sharaa, stated it may take as much as 4 years for the nation to carry its first elections after the autumn of former President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Here’s what we know about a possible timeline for key phases of the nation’s political transition.

5. An Israeli navy raid has put the final main well being facility in northern Gaza out of service, exacerbating a deepening humanitarian disaster within the enclave, in response to the UN’s well being company. The attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital got here as Israel stepped up an offensive within the space.

Information in-depth

Enterprise executives at greater than 80 China-listed firms have been detained by native authorities in 2024, in response to an FT evaluation. Among the detentions appeared to have little or no authorized foundation. Now, Beijing is making an attempt to curb the “shakedowns” that are fuelling anxiety amongst entrepreneurs and threat curbing financial progress.

We’re additionally studying…

Chart of the day

Final yr there have been dozens of dire warnings about generative synthetic intelligence’s influence on 2024’s bumper crop of world elections. Specialists now consider there’s little evidence that AI disinformation was as widespread or impactful as was feared.

The preferred tales of 2024

It’s time to focus on what readers clicked on most throughout FT.com this yr. The US presidential election result page landed within the prime spot. You may nonetheless use our map to discover which states flipped from blue to purple, and the way outcomes in comparison with 2020.

And out of doors the political realm, Claer Barrett’s piece on how to protect your financial data as phone theft surges was the preferred. Her sage recommendation is as helpful now because it was when the story first printed in Could.