A shocking Halloween disaster in Seoul
More than 150 people in Seoul have died in one of South Korea’s worst peacetime catastrophes, as young Halloween revelers packed into an alleyway barely 11 feet wide. There were few police officers around, and from within the bottleneck of human traffic came calls to “push, push” and a big shove, according to witnesses.
The tragedy, along with questions about the authorities’ responsibility to manage the crowd, has marred the image of South Korea, a thriving technology and pop-culture powerhouse that is chronically prone to man-made disasters. It has also added to the political woes of the beleaguered president, Yoon Suk Yeol.
As the sun set last night, a mournful and subdued atmosphere suffused Itaewon, the popular nightlife district where the disaster occurred. The police closed some streets to traffic, and shuttered bars and restaurants put up signs of condolences. On the sidewalks, impromptu memorials of flowers and liquor formed makeshift shrines to the victims.
Grief: Bereaved families searched hospital morgues looking for their children, while the Seoul government received thousands of calls about missing persons. Many of those who died were young people celebrating their first restriction-free Halloween since the pandemic began.
Brazil elects Lula, a leftist former leader
Voters in Brazil yesterday ousted President Jair Bolsonaro after just one term and elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a leftist former president, in a rebuke to Bolsonaro’s far-right movement and his divisive four years in office. The election results complete a stunning political revival for da Silva, known as Lula, that had once seemed unthinkable.
During Bolsonaro’s turbulent time as the region’s most powerful leader, he endorsed policies that accelerated the destruction of the Amazon rainforest and exacerbated the pandemic. He also became a major international figure of the far right for his brash attacks on the left, the media and Brazil’s democratic institutions.
The results on Sunday made clear that tens of millions of Brazilians had grown tired of Bolsonaro’s polarizing style and the frequent turmoil of his administration. No other incumbent president has failed to win re-election in the 34 years of Brazil’s modern democracy. But da Silva won by the narrowest of margins — with 50.83 percent of the vote — in a sign of the depth of the political divide,
Lula: Da Silva, a former metalworker and union leader who left school with little formal education, led Brazil during its boom in the first decade of the century, but he was convicted on corruption charges after his presidency and spent 580 days in prison.
Turkey and the U.N. push to revive Russian grain deal
Officials from the U.N. and Turkey were pushing yesterday to bring Russia back into an agreement that allowed the export of grain from Ukrainian ports. Western leaders urged Moscow to reconsider its decision on Saturday to withdraw from the deal, a move that they warned would unleash dire consequences on a planet already facing hunger.
The U.N. secretary general, António Guterres, postponed his travel to an Arab League summit so he could instead “engage in intense contacts” over Russia’s move, his office said. The Turkish defense minister is in talks with his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts in an effort to “resume the activities of the grain initiative,” which the Turkish government helped broker.
The shipments offered a rare example of wartime coordination that has enabled more than 9.5 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs to be exported from Ukraine. Russia on Saturday said that its participation in the initiative was suspended but that it would continue a dialogue with the U.N. and Turkey “on pressing issues.”
Consequences: If shipments are not resumed, experts warned, global food prices could rise further, creating more economic pain for nations already struggling with rising inflation and energy prices.
In other news from the war:
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Since the 19th century, policies in Australia and New Zealand have sought to exclude migrants with disabilities. These days, migrants with conditions including autism, obesity, intellectual disability, lupus and multiple sclerosis face a huge struggle to move to or remain in these countries, on the grounds that their health needs represent too great a cost to the government.
“This is something which is not in our control,” said the father of one disabled child, Shaffan Mohammad Ghulam, 8, above. “This is something that is not anyone’s fault.”
SPORTS NEWS FROM THE ATHLETIC
Hamburg’s plans to crack the U.S.: The Bundesliga side with a rich history is embarking on its first tour of the U.S. in 22 years. With the evolving landscape of modern fandom, it is an opportunity for the club to promote the German league, engage with the local population and strengthen a relationship that stretches back to 1950.
The legend of Brazil’s Gabigol: It never quite worked for him in Europe, but Flamengo striker Gabriel Barbosa has solidified his status as an icon in his home nation. He scored the winner in the Copa Lipertados final, and not for the first time either. Yet one question looms large: Will he make the cut for Brazil’s World Cup squad?
The cost of Liverpool missing Champions League soccer: The club’s top-four status underpins everything they do. Missing out would have serious ramifications on the balance sheet. The club needs to correct the mistakes of the summer in January or face a far greater cost of losing its lucrative spot.
Debate about King Tut’s tomb
More than three millenniums after Tutankhamun was buried in southern Egypt, and a century after his tomb was discovered, Egyptologists are still squabbling over whom the chamber was built for and what, if anything, lies beyond its walls, Franz Lidz reports for The Times. The debate has become a global pastime.
At least one expert, Nicholas Reeves, contends that there are hidden rooms beyond Tutankhamun’s treasure-packed burial vault. However, Egypt’s antiquities minister said the tomb did not have blocked doorways or hidden rooms; he declined to provide results of a ground-penetrating radar scan.
Dr. Reeves will in January republish a revised edition of his 1990 book “The Complete Tutankhamun: 100 Years of Discovery.” In it, he draws on new data to support his belief that Tutankhamun received a hasty burial in the front hallway of the tomb of Nefertiti.
Rita Lucarelli, an Egyptology curator at the University of California, Berkeley, said she had been following Dr. Reeves’s claims with interest. “If he is right, it would be an amazing discovery,” she said. But the problem is finding a way to drill through the decorated north wall without destroying it. “This is also why other archaeologists do not sympathize with this theory,” she said.
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