In the hope that Americans will not repeat the same failure as Koreans stupidly did

(NPR) 

Tens of thousands demonstrated in cities across South Korea on Saturday, demanding the first female President Park step down from office. Her approval rating has hit an unprecedented low of 9 percent and Park's ordered all 10 of her senior aides to resign, following revelations an unelected, unappointed confidant was receiving advance copies and altering dozens of confidential policy speeches. They have led to charges that the friend is a secret "puppet master" and the real power behind "the throne."

President Park apologized to the country in a rare nationally-televised address this week. She said she sought her old friend's opinion only in the early part of her presidency, before her staff was in place.

It goes beyond tinkering with speeches, however. This scandal involves not only tens of millions of dollars and charges of influence-peddling, but of spiritual guides from a "Shamanistic prophet," voices from the dead and — wait for it — dressage, the competitive form of horse-dancing.

Obama warns fate of world at stake  (BBC / 3 November, 2016) 

President Barack Obama has urged Democrats of all ethnic backgrounds to get out and vote for Hillary Clinton, warning that the fate of the US republic - and the world - is at stake.

He said her Republican opponent Donald Trump was a threat to hard-earned civil rights.

"The fate of the republic rests on your shoulders," President Obama told supporters in the key battleground state of North Carolina.

"The fate of the world is teetering and you, North Carolina, are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction.

"I am not on the ballot, but I tell you what - fairness is on the ballot; decency is on the ballot; justice is on the ballot; progress is on the ballot; our democracy is on the ballot."

The FBI is now investigating new emails that may be linked to its probe into Mrs Clinton's private email server.

The agency's director, James Comey, has faced a fierce backlash for announcing the move just 11 days before the presidential election.

Earlier, Mr Obama implicitly criticised him over the new inquiry into Mrs Clinton's email use.

In an interview with website NowThisNews, published on Wednesday, Mr Obama said US investigations should not operate on the basis of "innuendo" or "incomplete information".

Mr Obama's remarks were his first public comments since Mr Comey's announcement on Friday that the FBI had discovered a new batch of emails that might or might not be relevant to an earlier, closed investigation into Mrs Clinton's handling of classified information.

"I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations we don't operate on innuendo, we don't operate on incomplete information, we don't operate on leaks. We operate based on concrete decisions that are made," said Mr Obama.

"When this was investigated thoroughly the last time, the conclusion of the FBI, the conclusion of the justice department, the conclusion of repeated congressional investigations was that she had made some mistakes but that there wasn't anything there that was prosecutable."