South Korea, Guatemala, Iraq.

Today's three stories you should know.

South Korea

Opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol has been declared the winner of South Korea’s close-run presidential election. Yoon and the governing Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung were separated by less than one percent. The 61-year-old, who is a conservative, is more hawkish on North Korea than his predecessor, saying he would consider a pre-emptive strike and that he supports sanctions on Pyongyang.

More from AP here.

Guatemala

Guatemala’s congress has passed legislation that will ban same-sex marriage and the teaching of sexual diversity in schools. It will also raise prison sentences for women seeking abortion. President Alejandro Giammattei still needs to sign it into law and has veto power. The measures, though, are supported by many members of his party.

More from BBC here.

Iraq

Regular Proximities readers will remember that at the beginning of the war in Ukraine, I warned that its impact on wheat exports could lead to instability in Middle Eastern nations. Today, as predicted, protests erupted in southern Iraq over rising food prices. “The rise in prices is strangling us, whether it is bread or other food products,” retired teacher Hassan Kazem told the AFP news agency. “We can barely make ends meet.” The price of cooking oils and flour has rocketed in the last week.

More from Al Jazeera here.