Malinin builds big lead at figure skating Grand Prix Final and Hase and Volodin win pairs

GRENOBLE, France (AP) — World champion Ilia Malinin took a big stride toward retaining his figure skating Grand Prix Final title after building an imposing 12-point lead in the short program on Friday.

The 20-year-old American skater landed a quadruple flip, triple axel and quad lutz-triple toeloop combination in a near-flawless program to score 105.43 points for the lead, narrowly missing his personal best.

Olympic silver medalist Yuma Kagiyama of Japan was a distant second on 93.49 ahead of Saturday’s free skate after falling on his opening quad lutz, skating to “The Sound of Silence.”

Kazakhstan's Mikhail Shaidorov was in the competition only because France's Adam Siao Him Fa withdrew with an ankle injury. He made the most of it, landing two quads on his way to 91.26 for third to the “Dune” soundtrack.

Skating in his hometown, France's Kevin Aymoz had a nightmarish start with falls on his first two jumps and placed last at 68.82.

Also, Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin retained their Grand Prix Final title in the pairs event. The Germans had an early setback when Hase put her hand down on landing a jump combination but recovered to finish clear of the field on a 218.10 total.

Japan's Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara held on for second on 206.71 against a strong challenge from Georgia's Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, who were third with 205.78.

“This time was for sure much harder than last year,” Hase said. "Last year we didn’t come with any expectation, and this year as defending champion it’s for sure more pressure, so we just are so happy that we made it."

They're the first pair to repeat as Grand Prix Final champion since 2012 by fellow Germans Aliona Savchenko and Robin Szolkowy.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States took the lead in the ice dance with a score of 87.73 in the rhythm dance, ahead of Italians Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri on 83.12 and Britain's Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson on 82.31. The ice dance concludes on Saturday.

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Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, of Great Britain, compete in the ice dance's rhythm dance segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Charlene Guignard and Marco Fabbri, of Italy, compete in the ice dance's rhythm dance segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Madison Chock and Evan Bates, of the United States, compete in the ice dance's rhythm dance segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Anastasiia Metelkina and Luka Berulava, of Georgia, compete in the pairs's free skating segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara, of Japan, compete in the pairs's free skating segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin, of Germany, compete in the pairs's free skating segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Mikhail Shaidorov, of Kazakhstan, competes in the men's short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Yuma Kagiyama, of Japan, competes in the men's short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

Ilia Malinin, of the United States, competes in the men's short program segment at the ISU Grand Prix Finals of Figure Skating, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Grenoble, France. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo despite vehement protests by governing party lawmakers, further deepening the country’s political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.

Han’s impeachment means he will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him. The court is already reviewing whether to uphold Yoon's earlier impeachment. The impeachments of the country’s top two officials worsen its political turmoil, deepen its economic uncertainty and hurt its international image.

The single-chamber National Assembly passed Han’s impeachment motion with a 192-0 vote. Lawmakers with the governing People Power Party boycotted the vote and gathered around the podium where assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik was seated and shouted that the vote was “invalid” and demanded Woo's resignation. No violence or injuries were reported.

The PPP lawmakers protested after Woo called for a vote on Han’s impeachment motion after announcing its passage required a simple majority in the 300-memer assembly, not a two-thirds majority as claimed by the PPP. Most South Korean officials can be impeached by the National Assembly with a simple majority vote, but a president’s impeachment needs the support of two-thirds. There are no specific laws on the impeachment of an acting president.

Han’s powers will be officially suspended when copies of his impeachment document are delivered to him and the Constitutional Court. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, will take over.

Han, who was appointed prime minister by Yoon, became acting president after Yoon, a conservative, was impeached by the National Assembly about two weeks ago over his short-lived Dec. 3 imposition of martial law. Han quickly clashed with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party as he pushed back against opposition-led efforts to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, establish an independent investigation into Yoon’s martial law decree and legislate pro-farmer bills.

At the heart of the fighting is the Democratic Party’s demand that Han approve the assembly's nominations of three new Constitutional Court justices to restore its full nine-member bench ahead of its ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. That’s a politically sensitive issue because a court decision to dismiss Yoon as president needs support from at least six justices, and adding more justices will likely increase the prospects for Yoon’s ouster. Yoon’s political allies in the governing People Power Party oppose the appointment of the three justices, saying Han shouldn’t exercise the presidential authority to make the appointments while Yoon has yet to be formally removed from office.

On Thursday, Han said he wouldn’t appoint the justices without bipartisan consent. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the assembly, submitted an impeachment motion against Han and passed bills calling for the appointment of three justices.

South Korean investigative agencies are probing whether Yoon committed rebellion and abuse of power with his marital law decree. His defense minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.

South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top, speaks as lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against the country's acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top left, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top center, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo speaks at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Choi Jae-koo/Yonhap via AP)