World Tour: South African diplomat leaves U.S.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Oduah.

SOUND: [Singing]

ONIZE ODUAH: South Africa diplomat returns home — We start today in South Africa where singing and cheers welcomed the country’s ambassador after his expulsion from the United States.

This month, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Ebrahim Rasool as unwelcome, calling him a race-baiting politician who hates the United States and President Donald Trump. The United States rescinded Rasool’s diplomatic privileges and ordered him to leave.

RASOOL: We still come here and say we must rebuild and we must reset the relationship with America because our relationship with America over 50 years has not always been with the White House, it has sometimes been with Congress and it has always been with the people of the United States of America.

Trump issued an executive order last month that cut funding to South Africa, accusing the government of supporting Hamas and Iran and implementing policies against white South Africans.

AUDIO: [KOREAN] The impeachment request in this case is dismissed.

South Korea impeachment — Over in South Korea, the Constitutional Court has dismissed an ongoing impeachment trial against Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

The court also reinstated him as acting president, an additional role he took on after the former president was suspended and later impeached for declaring martial law back in December.

Lawmakers also attempted to impeach Han over his alleged involvement in the martial law scandal and a disagreement over judicial appointments.

HAN: [KOREAN] For the remainder of my term, I will base all my decisions on the interests of Korean industry and future generations.

Han says here that he will work for the interest of all Koreans.

The Constitutional Court is yet to issue a ruling on the case of the impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol.

If the court upholds his impeachment, South Korea will hold fresh elections within 60 days of the verdict.

SOUND: [Sound of protests]

Turkey protests — And in Turkey, tens of thousands of protesters turned out on Sunday to continue showing support for the detained Istanbul mayor.

Authorities first detained Ekrem Imamoglu on corruption charges last Wednesday, days before his opposition CHP party held its primary to select its presidential candidate. On Monday, the party selected Imamoglu.

A day earlier, Turkish authorities stripped him of his mayoral title. The opposition has called the crackdown a political coup.

Imamoglu’s wife, Dilek, spoke with protesters.

DILEK: [TURKISH] We had a hard day today. For all of us. But what do we say? We will win by resisting.

She called it a hard day, but encouraged them, saying they will win by resisting.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that the demonstrations amount to street terror. Authorities detained more than 1,000 people and tried to block hundreds of accounts on the social media platform X.

Meanwhile, the European Union called on Turkey to respect the protesters.

European Commission spokesman Guillaume Mercier says the country must uphold democratic values.

MERCIER: These rights, the rights of elected officials, as well as the right of peaceful demonstrations, need to be fully respected.

Japan cherry blossoms — We end today in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo, where authorities have officially declared the start of cherry blossom season.

The announcement came after the Japan Meteorological Agency confirmed five blossoms on a tree at Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine.

French tourist Nathalie Labat witnessed the first blooms.

LABAT: I was happy to see the trees. It's beautiful, really beautiful. I love Tokyo.

Japan’s cherry blossoms usually open in late March to early April, a season that also coincides with the country’s start of a new school and work year.

The flowers usually last for about two weeks.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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