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Fans Greet K-Pop Stars Jimin and Jung Kook of BTS Discharged from Military Service 

BTS members Jung Kook (L) and Jimin salute their fans at a public stadium in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, 11 June 2025, after completing their 18 months of mandatory military service. (EPA)
BTS members Jung Kook (L) and Jimin salute their fans at a public stadium in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, 11 June 2025, after completing their 18 months of mandatory military service. (EPA)
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Fans Greet K-Pop Stars Jimin and Jung Kook of BTS Discharged from Military Service 

BTS members Jung Kook (L) and Jimin salute their fans at a public stadium in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, 11 June 2025, after completing their 18 months of mandatory military service. (EPA)
BTS members Jung Kook (L) and Jimin salute their fans at a public stadium in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi-do Province, South Korea, 11 June 2025, after completing their 18 months of mandatory military service. (EPA)

Hundreds of fans gathered in the early morning hours to catch a glimpse of K-pop superstars Jimin and Jung Kook, the latest and final members of BTS to be discharged from South Korea's mandatory military service.

The pair wore their military uniforms Wednesday, saluted and addressed fans who had assembled to see the pair after their discharge.

Jung Kook thanked the journalists and fans who traveled to see him and Jimin after their discharge and acknowledged how different it was to be back in the spotlight. "Actually, it's been so long since I've been in front of cameras, and I didn't even put on makeup, so I'm a bit embarrassed," he said. "I don't know what to say."

The pair enlisted in December 2023, one day after RM and V did the same. The latter were discharged on Tuesday.

Supporters traveled from around the world to the public sports ground where the meet-and-greet took place. It was moved from the military base's gate for safety reasons. Color-wrapped buses bearing BTS members' faces lined the streets while red and yellow balloons floated above and a decorated food truck provided free coffee and water, adding to the festive atmosphere.

Many supporters wore masks, conscious of potential backlash after the band's label discouraged attendance, citing safety concerns. Despite the challenges, fans like Anaesi from Portugal said the 20-hour journey to Yeoncheon, a town near the tense border with North Korea, was worth it.

"Portugal is a small country, but inside of Portugal, BTS is a king," she said. Anaesi, who discovered BTS on YouTube, said the group "saved" her from depression. "So for me BTS is my angel," she said.

She displayed a colorful upper arm tattoo featuring a golden shield emblazoned with "ARMY" and an eagle above it, complemented by Korean text listing BTS members' names and those of her friends.

V thanked fans Tuesday for their patience in waiting for him and RM's return and teased the band's reunion. "If you can just wait a little bit longer, we will return with a really amazing performance."

The seven singers of the popular K-pop band plan to reunite as a group sometime in 2025 after they finish their service.

Six of the group's seven members served in the army, while Suga is fulfilling his duty as a social service agent, an alternative form of military service. He will be discharged later this month.

Jin, the oldest BTS member, was discharged in June 2024. J-Hope was discharged in October.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men aged 18 to 28 are required by law to perform 18-21 months of military service under a conscription system meant to deter aggression from rival North Korea.

The law gives special exemptions to athletes, classical and traditional musicians, and ballet and other dancers if they have obtained top prizes in certain competitions and are assessed to have enhanced national prestige. K-pop stars and other entertainers aren't subject to such privileges.

However, in 2020, BTS postponed their service until age 30 after South Korea's National Assembly revised its Military Service Act, allowing K-pop stars to delay their enlistment until age 30.

There was heated public debate in 2022 over whether to offer special exemptions of mandatory military service for BTS members, until the group's management agency announced in October 2022 that all seven members would fulfill their duties.

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Entertainment

Netflix Walks Away from Warner Bros Deal, Clearing the Path for Paramount 

The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
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Netflix Walks Away from Warner Bros Deal, Clearing the Path for Paramount 

The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)

Netflix is walking away from its offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business, in a stunning move that effectively puts Paramount in a position to take over its storied Hollywood rival.

On Thursday, Warner’s board announced that Skydance-owned Paramount’s latest offer to buy the entire company for $31 per share was superior to the agreement it had previously struck with Netflix.

Warner gave Netflix four business days to come up with a counteroffer — but Netflix instead responded less than two hours later, declining to raise its proposal. It said the new price it would have to pay made the deal "no longer financially attractive."

"We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.′ iconic brands," Netflix's co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters said in a joint statement. "But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price."

A Paramount buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery would reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape. And unlike Netflix — which was only eyeing Warner’s studio and streaming business — Paramount wants the entire company. That means HBO Max, cult-favorite titles like "Harry Potter" and even CNN could soon find themselves under the same roof as Paramount's CBS, "Top Gun" and the Paramount+ streaming service.

The prospect of such a combination, which will still need the green light from both Warner shareholders and regulators, poses both antitrust concerns and questions of political influence.

Netflix's decision to walk away on Thursday marks the latest development in a monthslong, messy corporate battle over Warner's future. Sarandos and Peters thanked Warner's leadership despite the final outcome.

Warner had repeatedly backed the deal it struck with Netflix since December right up until Thursday evening, when its board continued to recommend Netflix even while calling Paramount's bid valued at about $111 billion including debt "superior." Netflix had previously put a $27.75 per share offer on the table for Warner’s studio and streaming business, totaling nearly $83 billion including debt.

In a statement Thursday night, CEO David Zaslav said Netflix executives had been "extraordinary partners" and that he wished them "well in the future."

After months of a heated back and forth amid Paramount's hostile campaign to take over Warner without the board's blessing, Warner also changed its tune about the remaining prospective buyer.

Warner's board hasn't officially adopted Paramount's merger agreement yet, but once it does, Zaslav said it "will create tremendous value." He added that the company was "excited about the potential of a combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery."

Paramount did not immediately respond to requests for further comment. But CEO David Ellison earlier applauded Warner's board affirming "the superior value of our offer."

A Paramount-Warner combo would combine two of Hollywood’s five legacy studios that remain today, in addition to their theatrical channels. Beyond "Harry Potter," Warner movies like "Superman,Barbie," and "One Battle After Another" — as well as hit TV series like "The White Lotus" and "Succession" — would join Paramount’s content library.

Paramount’s lineup of titles include "Top Gun,Titanic" and "The Godfather." And beyond CBS, it owns networks like MTV and Nickelodeon, as well as the Paramount+ streaming service.

Entertainment

30 Years After Pokémon’s Release, Fans Are Still Trying to Catch ‘Em All 

A Japanese girl and her brother play with dolls of a popular cartoon character, "Pokémon," at a toy shop in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, Dec. 18, 1997. (AP)
A Japanese girl and her brother play with dolls of a popular cartoon character, "Pokémon," at a toy shop in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, Dec. 18, 1997. (AP)
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30 Years After Pokémon’s Release, Fans Are Still Trying to Catch ‘Em All 

A Japanese girl and her brother play with dolls of a popular cartoon character, "Pokémon," at a toy shop in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, Dec. 18, 1997. (AP)
A Japanese girl and her brother play with dolls of a popular cartoon character, "Pokémon," at a toy shop in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, Dec. 18, 1997. (AP)

Benson Lu's life revolves around Pokémon.

The 26-year-old has played the mobile game Pokémon Go every day for a decade, watches the animated show every week, goes to the local card shop in his Los Angeles suburb to play the brand's trading card game every week, and has a whopping collection of cards worth more than $70,000.

“I don’t remember when was the last day I did not think about Pokémon at all,” he said.

In the 30 years since Pokémon debuted in Japan with the 1996 release of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green for Nintendo Game Boy, the franchise has taken over the globe with its animated shows, mobile games and highly coveted trading cards. Its popularity continues with fans young and old.

Pokémon offers a masterclass in character design, which has helped make it so enduring, said Heather Cole, teaching assistant professor of game design and interactive media at West Virginia University.

“I think the longevity of it has to do with the characters and world-building it does with the characters,” she said.

It's not just cuteness that has people clamoring for merchandise, particularly trading cards. Today, some are so coveted that social media star Logan Paul sold one for a record $16.5 million.

In Southern California, the fervor around Pokémon cards has led to strings of break-ins in recent months at trading card stores that have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses and even some collectors robbed at gunpoint.

Adam Corn, owner of card business Overdose Gaming Inc, said he was able to buy a house last year from his Pokémon cards.

“Pokémon almost always appreciates in value over time,” Corn said. “So it’s just a really good place to put your money in my opinion, better than a lot of other assets.”

Companies like Beckett Grading Services and Professional Sports Authenticator authenticate and grade the quality of Pokémon cards on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being pristine mint condition and fetching the highest prices. Paul bought the PSA Grade 10 Pikachu Illustrator card a few months prior for $5.3 million and wore the card on a chain around his neck in videos. It features a Pikachu holding a pen and feather sweeper.

Last Tuesday, thieves stole more than $80,000 of Pokémon cards from Do-We Collectibles in Anaheim — the second time the store has been targeted. Other stores around Los Angeles and in New York have been hit by Pokémon thieves too.

Duy Pham, owner of the Anaheim store, said the financial incentive of trading cards for robbers and scalpers means “the hobby will never be the same.”

“It’s rougher for collectors and players,” Pham said. “It’s hard for us to get anything."

Collectors can either pay retail price for a standard pack of randomized Pokémon cards, around $5 for 10 cards, or buy the specific card they want secondhand for higher prices. But opening packs doesn’t always pan out to profit — Aiden Zeng spent $1,000 on packs of cards that were only valued at $60 on the resale market, he said.

Zeng, 17, said his fandom began in elementary school, when he obsessed over character guidebooks. He eventually began trying to collect every single type of card available for his favorite, Black Kyurem.

“I memorized every single Pokémon’s specific move set, what region they come from, some of the lore behind it,” Zeng said.

Even beyond dedicated collectors, Zeng said he has seen a resurgence of popularity for Pokémon at his high school in Toronto, where some students decorate their phone cases with cards featuring special artwork or a holographic sheen.

Pokémon creator Satoshi Tajiri has said he enjoyed catching insects and other small critters in the fields and forests outside the Tokyo suburb where he lived as a child. Those creatures inspired him to make the colorful, fantastical Pokémon of which there are thousands of species today.

While his hobby is lucrative, Lu said the draw for him is still nostalgia for the characters he grew up with and the community he has formed around Pokémon. He prefers not to sell his single cards because he worries he will never be able to find them again.

Lu recently spent an entire Saturday walking around the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, looking for Pokémon on his augmented reality phone game at an event attended by thousands.

“I’ve liked Pokémon ever since I was a kid,” he said. “And I still like it the same amount.”

Entertainment

S.Korea's Park Chan-wook to Head Cannes Festival Jury

FILE PHOTO: Park Chan-wook attends the 2026 BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles, California, US, January 10, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Park Chan-wook attends the 2026 BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles, California, US, January 10, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
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S.Korea's Park Chan-wook to Head Cannes Festival Jury

FILE PHOTO: Park Chan-wook attends the 2026 BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles, California, US, January 10, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Park Chan-wook attends the 2026 BAFTA Tea Party in Los Angeles, California, US, January 10, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo

South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, the first from his country to head the Cannes film festival jury, will preside over the 79th edition in May, organizers announced Thursday.

A statement named the director behind "Oldboy" (2003) as president of the body that will award the 2026 Palme d'Or.

Last year the award went to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident."

The appointment, which organizers called "a first for Korean cinema", came as South Korean culture enjoys global recognition, with Park's films hailed alongside Bong Joon-ho's 2019 Palme d'Or and Oscar best picture winning film "Parasite", the hugely popular television series "Squid Game" and "KPop Demon Hunters" as well as K-pop groups BTS and Blackpink.

"In this age of hatred and division, I believe that the simple act of coming together in a movie theatre to watch a film at the same time... makes it possible to create a moving, universal sense of solidarity," the statement quoted Park, 62, as saying.

According to AFP, the festival praised his genre-blending cinema as "narrative, stylistic (and) moral".

Park has long been credited for inspiring a generation of filmmakers behind the "Korean noir" genre -- movies about bloody crimes, brutal revenge or the criminal underworld, presented with sumptuous cinematography, including Bong.

The director with a strong appetite for vengeance and redemption -- whose violent or erotic films are not afraid to shock -- won a best director award at Cannes four years ago for "Decision to Leave", a romantic thriller.

Park achieved international stature with "Oldboy", which won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004.

Based on a cult manga, the second instalment of a dark trilogy about revenge tackled social inequalities -- a hallmark of Korean cinema.

His latest work, "No Other Choice" (2025), is adapted from Donald Westlake's 1997 novel "The Ax" and follows an unemployed man who decides to kill his potential competitors to land a job.

It starred South Korea's top actors -- "Squid Game" star Lee Byung-hun and "Crash Landing on You" actress Son Ye-jin -- in the lead.

The film touched on contemporary anxieties over artificial intelligence, Park has said, reflecting its broader theme of the job market, including the cinema industry.

"Films can be seen as something that do not necessarily provide any great practical help in life -- they might be just two hours of entertainment," Park said at the Busan International Film Festival last year.

"And yet... I pour everything I have into this work, staking my entire life on it."

Having studied philosophy at Sogang University in Seoul, the soft-spoken filmmaker is also known as a great lover of literature, especially Emile Zola and Philip Roth.

His 2009 vampire film "Thirst" was an adaptation of Zola's "Therese Raquin," and his lesbian romance "The Handmaiden" (2016) is based on the novel "Fingersmith" by the British author Sarah Waters.

Park has also worked extensively in television, notably the English-language mini-series "The Little Drummer Girl", adapted from John Le Carre's novel, and last year's HBO series "The Sympathizer" about a North Vietnamese spy.