jobs

Dec. 19 (Asia Today) — A South Korean civic group said most retired National Assembly officials subject to post-employment screening were cleared to take private-sector jobs, calling the results evidence of a serious revolving-door problem involving major companies, supervised agencies and law firms.

The Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice said at a news conference Thursday that it analyzed employment screening decisions involving retired National Assembly officials from 2020 to 2025. The group said the review covered lawmakers, aides and National Assembly Secretariat staff.

South Korea’s post-employment screening system is designed to determine whether a retired public official’s new job is closely related to their former duties and whether it should be approved. The purpose is to prevent improper collusion between public officials and private institutions.

CCEJ said 427 of 438 National Assembly cases, or 97.5%, received decisions allowing employment, either as “employment possible” or “employment approved.” The group said “employment possible” applies when the new position is deemed unrelated to the official’s previous duties, while “employment approved” applies when there is a connection but authorities find grounds for a special approval.

CCEJ said more than half of those cleared, 239 people, joined private companies. By major corporate groups, the group said Coupang hired the most, with 16 people, including 15 aides and one policy research fellow. LG followed with 11, SK with 10, Samsung with nine and KT with eight.

CCEJ said the National Assembly holds significant powers, including legislation, budgeting and state audits. It argued that when former officials move directly into jobs at audited agencies, major corporations or law firms tied to their prior duties, it can lead to collusion between politics and business and preferential treatment for former officials.

The group called for stronger requirements for approving post-retirement employment tied to the National Assembly, tighter reviews of job relevance and disclosure of specific reasons when screening results are announced.

– Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

ANNE-MARIE has vowed to shake things up for her upcoming fourth album – her first since 2023’s Unhealthy.

The Ciao Adios singer told The Sun that she’s determined not to return with a record that’s a copy-and-paste job of her first three albums.

Speaking backstage at Capital Jingle Bell Ball with Barclaycard, after she put on an intimate gig in Barclaycard’s Out Of The Blue area for lucky fans, Anne-Marie said: “Next year there will be new music.

“I think I need to switch it up a bit… Will I be rapping? Who knows.

“I am definitely switching it up.

“I need to make it exciting again, you know.

BACK FOR MORE

Pop star lined up for ‘amazing’ return to Brit Awards as career skyrockets

FIVE:30 AM

Inside Five’s wild tour finale as they party until 5.30am & tease big 2026 plans

“I can’t just come back as the same Anne Marie I have been for ten years.

“I am going to do a little spice.”

Since the release of her last record, the singer has welcomed two children, a daughter and a son, with her musician hubby Slowthai.

She says she’s turned to longtime friend Ed Sheeran – who co-wrote her 2018 hit 2002 – for advice on juggling being a popstar and a parent.

Anne Marie explained: “Be a parent, it’s hard.

“It’s like everyone says.

“It’s the best thing ever and the hardest thing at the same time.

“I think working is definitely hard.

“I find it harder than I thought I would, but they are beautiful little aliens.

“It does make you want more even though you are in hell.”

She continued: “I go to Ed for a lot of advice really.

“About kids but also about everything really.

“Now that we have kids he is like the perfect person to speak to.”

In September Anne-Marie released a teaser of what’s to come with her new track Depressed.

Admitting Christmas time isn’t always easy for people, Anne-Marie said: “I am very aware that people feel alone at this time of the year which makes me sad.

“But I think as long as you get through it and think of the next year and all of your dreams and plans that you want to achieve next year, you will be okay.

“Also just snuggle up on the sofa and watch a movie with some chocolate.

“Just take care of yourself and give yourself some love.

“Next year we start afresh.

“My go-to film at any time of year is Liar Liar with Jim Carey.

“Anything Jim Carey is my go-to.”

Young resident doctors have gone on strike in the UK, demanding better pay and more training positions that will allow them to continue in their field. Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego explains this is the 14th such strike in recent years.

WASHINGTON — Twelve former FBI agents fired after kneeling during a 2020 racial justice protest in Washington sued Monday to get their jobs back, saying their action had been intended to de-escalate a volatile situation and was not meant as a political gesture.

The agents say in their lawsuit that they were fired in September by Director Kash Patel because they were perceived as not being politically affiliated with President Trump. But they say their decision to take a knee on June 4, 2020, days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, has been misinterpreted as political expression.

The lawsuit says the agents were assigned to patrol the nation’s capital during a period of civil unrest prompted by Floyd’s death. Lacking protective gear or extensive training in crowd control, the agents became outnumbered by hostile crowds they encountered and decided to kneel to the ground in hopes of defusing the tension, the lawsuit said. The tactic worked, the lawsuit asserts — the crowds dispersed, no shots were fired and the agents “saved American lives” that day.

“Plaintiffs were performing their duties as FBI Special Agents, employing reasonable de-escalation to prevent a potentially deadly confrontation with American citizens: a Washington Massacre that could have rivaled the Boston Massacre in 1770,” the lawsuit says.

The FBI declined to comment Monday.

The lawsuit in federal court in Washington represents the latest court challenge to a personnel purge that has roiled the FBI, targeting both top-ranking supervisors and line agents, as Patel has worked to reshape the nation’s premier law enforcement agency. Besides the kneeling agents, other employees pushed out in recent months have worked on investigations involving Trump or his allies and in one case displayed an LGBTQ+ flag in his workspace.

After photographs emerged of the agents taking a knee, the FBI conducted an internal review, with the then-deputy director determining that the agents had no political motive and should not be punished. The Justice Department inspector general reached a similar conclusion and faulted the department for having put the agents in a precarious situation that day, the lawsuit says.

It was only after Patel took over the bureau in February that the FBI took a different posture.

Multiple kneeling agents were removed from supervisory positions last spring and a fresh disciplinary inquiry was launched that resulted in the agents being interviewed about their actions. That internal process was still pending when the agents in September received terse letters telling them they were being terminated because of “unprofessional conduct and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of government.”

“Defendants dismissed Plaintiffs in a partisan effort to retaliate against FBI employees that they perceived to be sympathetic to President Trump’s political opponents,” the lawsuit states. “And Defendants acted summarily to avoid creating any further administrative record that would reveal their actions as vindictive and unjustified.”

The plaintiffs are among 22 agents from different squads across Washington who were deployed to downtown D.C. on June 4, 2020, to demonstrate a visible law enforcement process during a time of protests in the nation’s capital and across the country.

The lawsuit asserts that the agents were thrust into a chaotic scene, saying that a crowd recognized them as being from the FBI and “intentionally” pushed toward them, becoming “increasingly agitated” and shouting and gesturing toward them. Some in the crowd began chanting “take a knee,” a gesture that at that point was widely recognized as a sign of solidarity with Floyd, who was pinned to the pavement by police with a knee on his neck.

The agents closest to the crowd were the first to kneel. After the crowd’s attention turned to the other agents who remained standing, the other FBI employees followed suit, taking a knee in recognition that it was the “most tactically sound means to prevent violence and to maintain order.” The crowd moved on.

“Plaintiffs demonstrated tactical intelligence in choosing between deadly force — the only force available to them as a practical matter, given their lack of adequate crowd control equipment — and a less-than-lethal response that would save lives and keep order,” the lawsuit says. “The Special Agents selected the option that prevented casualties while maintaining their law enforcement mission. Each Plaintiff kneeled for apolitical tactical reasons to defuse a volatile situation, not as an expressive political act.”

In addition to seeking reinstatement, the lawsuit also asks for a court judgment declaring the firings as unconstitutional, backpay and other monetary damages and an expungement of personnel files related to the terminations.

Tucker writes for the Associated Press.

SCARLETT Moffatt has revealed that her fiancé Scott Dobinson has quit his job as a policeman to be a stay-at-home dad.

The Gogglebox star, 35, got engaged to Scott, 37, in 2023, five months after they became parents to baby son Jude. 

Scarlett has revealed that Scott has taken a two-year career hiatus to be with their son Jude, two, so she can continue her TV career.

The reality star has a host of projects she’s working on, including Strictly Come Dancing‘s Christmas Special and a Christmas pantomime. 

She told The Daily Mail: “I feel really lucky because for the first two years that Jude was born, I decided to take two years off.

“So I was just in full-time mum mode, it was the best.

NOT FAIR

Strictly fix row as Xmas special star Scarlett Moffat has already been trained

shoe down

Scarlett Moffat forced to hit back again after being mum-shamed over son’s outfit

“And then when Jude turned two, I was like “okay, I need to go back into work now” so I can chat to adults, cause I missed that. 

“And also, you know, this industry’s so difficult, I knew that if I took any longer people might be like, “oh, there’s that girl that used to sometimes be on the telly”.

“So then Scott, my partner, he’s wonderful, he’s now took a two-year career break from the police.

“So he’s now in full-time dad mode, which is lovely. We’re somehow managing because of that, and we’ve got great grandparents too.”

The I’m A Celeb star also explained that she has never employed a nanny to help out with her family.

She said: “I’ve never had a nanny and he’s never been to nursery, but it’s not because I think that those things are bad or anything.

“I think we’ve just been so lucky that I’ve either been at home or he’s with my mum and dad, or Scott’s mum and dad or Scott.

“People aren’t always in that privileged position where they live like 10 minutes away from all of the family.

“I think it’s a very northern thing that we all sort of still live in the same village and stuff, but I can understand why people have ties and things.”

In an interview with The Sun earlier this year Scarlett spoke about when she and Scott are planning to tie the knot.

Scarlett said: “I’d hoping to do it next year but maybe that’s too adventurous? It takes a lot to plan a wedding, but I’ve got this in the bag.”

Just a few years ago, Scarlett admitted that she initially had dreams of a huge Willy Wonka themed wedding, but has now decided to scale back her plans.

However, in an interview before getting engaged, she once said: “I’ve always, always wanted a massive wedding, now I keep saying: ‘Let’s go to Vegas.’”

But, not everyone is happy about Scarlett’s return to TV, as a new Strictly fix has ignited due to her taking part in this year’s Christmas special.

The popular TV star was the first celeb to be announced for this year’s festive special after years of being linked to the BBC show.

However, show insiders are angry at her for taking part because she was trained by Anton Du Beke as a child.

And it is alleged she is now the favourite to win the festive glitterball due to her vast dancing history.

A Strictly insider said: “Scarlett is a trained dancer, she is so good at it and spent much of her childhood doing ballroom and Latin dancing.

“Anton even helped her and now he will be judging her against others. It all feels very unfair.”

But, despite being an early favourite, Scarlett insists she hasn’t picked up where she left off all those years ago.