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12%: Oil prices spiked 12% in early trading on Friday following Israel’s attacks on Iran, reflecting fears that a wider Middle East conflict could restrict access to crude exports. Later in the morning prices softened slightly, but were still up nearly 9%, to more than $75 per barrel.
4: Although school shootings are rare in Europe, four of the worst incidents this centuryhave occurred since 2023, raising concern about whether the phenomenon – until now largely a US problem – is spreading more rapidly.
3: Is the wait over? Millions of BTS fans hope so. The K-Pop supergroup has not performed together in three years due to its members’ mandatory South Korean military service. But now that they have been discharged (honorably!), rumors are flying that the group could take the stage again at a festival outside Seoul this weekend.
1.5%: Argentina’s monthly inflation fell to just 1.5% in May. That’s the lowest level in five years – and a stark fall from early 2024, when it exceeded 25%. President Javier Milei’s radical cost-cutting policies have helped put a lid on rising prices.
50%: China’s production of baijiu liquor, the country’s go-to tipple, has dropped more than 50% since 2016. Demand for alcohol overall in China is plummeting as a result of changing tastes, a slowing economy, and a new campaign to stamp out drinking among the Communist Party’s 100 million members.
South Korea's Foreign Minister Park Jin traveled to China this week for meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi – the first such high-level visit since Yoon Suk-yeol became South Korea’s new president earlier this year. They had plenty to discuss. China wants Yoon to keep his predecessor’s promises not to expand the use of a US missile defense system, not to join a US-led global missile shield, and not to create a trilateral military alliance that includes Japan. China also wants South Korea to stay out of a computer chip alliance involving Taiwan and Japan. South Korea, meanwhile, wants China to understand that it values Beijing as a top trade partner and wants to build stronger commercial ties. Yoon notably refused to meet US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her uber-controversial trip through Asia last week. But he’s also made clear that his predecessor’s commitments to Beijing are not binding on his government. The long-term economic and security stakes are high, but we will also be watching to see if South Korea has persuaded China to relax restrictions on the access of Chinese citizens to K-Pop, the South Korean pop music phenomenon. Seoul needs durable commercial relations with Beijing, and millions of Chinese music lovers need their South Korean boy bands.
Remain in Mexico no more!
The Biden administration has officially ended the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, a Trump-era measure that required migrants seeking asylum in the US to await their fate south of the border. Asylum processing can take years, and immigration advocates had long criticized the policy because of the high levels of crime and violence that asylum-seekers face while waiting in Mexico rather than in the US. President Joe Biden tried to stop the “Remain in Mexico” when he first took office, arguing it drained resources from broader border control operations, but he was blocked by a district judge. The US Supreme Court later overturned that judge’s ruling, opening the way for the discontinuation of the policy. Separately, courts continue to block the Biden Administration’s bid to scrap Title 42, a Trump-era pandemic rule that allows border officials, on public health grounds, to expel migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum at all. During the current fiscal year, US authorities have already encountered more than 1.7 million migrants at the southwest border, the highest number on record.
Will China eat Taiwanese porcupine?
As China continued its large-scale military drills around Taiwan as payback for Nancy Pelosi's visit, Taipei responded Tuesday by launching its own two-day exercise simulating a Chinese invasion. The maneuvers, which were planned months before, aim to show the Taiwanese military is ready to defend the island from an attack by China. Meanwhile, Beijing is extending its drills near Taiwan, and this is disrupting air travel and trade in the Taiwan Strait, one of the world's busiest waterways. China is signaling to Taiwan that it's ready to invade, while Taipei is letting China know it’ll be its porcupine – as in “you can hurt us, but we will also hurt you.” Taiwan is also warning other countries they could be next: Taipei says Beijing's next move will be to kick Japan out of the disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands to control the East China Sea and link it to the (also disputed) South China Sea via the Taiwan Strait.
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Veteran Korea correspondent and former AP Pyongyang bureau chief Jean Lee discusses the two Koreas with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World. From K-Pop supergroup BTS to Oscar-winner Parasite to Netflix global sensation Squid Game, South Korea seems to be churning out one massive cultural hit after another. And North Korea is taking notice.
On GZERO World, a tale of two very different Koreas. From K-Pop supergroup BTS to Oscar-winner Parasite to Netflix global sensation Squid Game, South Korea seems to be churning out one massive cultural hit after another. And North Korea is taking notice. As South Korea's cultural cachet continues to climb, so does Little Rocket Man's anger. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called the K-Pop invasion a "vicious cancer" and sees the South's soft power as a direct threat to his rule. Jean Lee, former AP Pyongyang bureau chief and veteran Korea correspondent, speaks with Ian Bremmer.
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Listen: From K-Pop supergroup BTS to Oscar-winner Parasite to Netflix global sensation Squid Game, South Korea seems to be churning out one massive cultural hit after another. And North Korea is taking notice. This week, a tale of two very different Koreas. Jean Lee, former AP Pyongyang bureau chief and veteran Korea correspondent, speaks with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Subscribe to the GZERO World Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your preferred podcast platform, to receive new episodes as soon as they're published.
SEOUL (AFP) - The ex-boyfriend of late K-pop star Goo Hara was jailed by an appeal court Thursday (July 2) for blackmailing her over sex videos that played a part in her apparent suicide.
SEOUL • South Korean rapper Psy admitted that Malaysian fugitive Low Taek Jho was his friend and that both men had attended a dinner arranged by Mr Yang Hyun-suk, founder and chief executive of K-pop powerhouse YG Entertainment.
SEOUL • Fugitive Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, has been implicated in a burgeoning scandal in South Korea where sexual services were allegedly arranged by YG Entertainment head Yang Hyun-suk for foreign investors during dinner parties, according to an investigative TV programme.