World

More than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today and at least 3,000 of them, or 40 percent, are endangered.

English is the most widely spoken language, with approximately 1.5 billion speakers in 186 countries. Two out of every 10 English speakers are native, while the remaining 80 percent speak English as their second, third or higher language, according to Ethnologue, a database which catalogues the world’s languages.

Mandarin Chinese is the second most spoken language with almost 1.2 billion speakers. However, when accounting for native speakers, it is the largest language in the world, owing to China’s large population.

Hindi comes in third at 609 million speakers, followed by Spanish (559 million), and Standard Arabic (335 million).

Scripts in the world’s most popular languages

There are 293 known scripts – sets of graphic characters used to write a language – according to The World’s Writing Systems, a reference book about global scripts.

More than 156 scripts are still in use today, while more than 137 historical scripts, including Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Aztec pictograms, are no longer in use.

The Latin script, which is used to write English, French, Spanish, German and more, is used in at least 305 of the world’s 7,139 known living human languages. More than 70 percent of the world’s population use it.

Which are the most endangered languages?

Of the 7,159 languages spoken worldwide, 3,193 (44 percent) are endangered, 3,479 (49 percent) are stable, and 487 (7 percent) are institutional, meaning they are used by governments, schools and the media.

A language becomes endangered when its users begin to pass on a more dominant language to the children in the community. Many are used as second languages.

According to Ethnologue, some 337 languages are said to be dormant while 454 are extinct.

Dormant languages are those that no longer have proficient speakers, but the language still has social uses and the language is part of the identity of an ethnic community. Extinct languages are those that have no speakers and no social uses or groups that claim it as part of their heritage or identity.

According to Ethnologue, 88.1 million people speak an endangered language as their mother tongue. There are:

• 1,431 languages with fewer than 1,000 first-language speakers
• 463 with fewer than 100 speakers
• 110 with fewer than 10 speakers

Just 25 countries are home to some 80 percent of the world’s endangered languages. Oceania has the most endangered languages, followed by Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Some endangered languages include:

Oceania 

In Australia, Yugambeh, an endangered Aboriginal language, is spoken by the Yugambeh people, primarily across the Gold Coast, Scenic Rim and Logan in eastern Australia.

In recent years, a strong community-led revitalisation programme and the use of learning apps have made the language more accessible to younger generations.

Asia 

Japan’s Ainu (Ainu Itak) is a critically endangered language. According to UNESCO, it can’t be linked with certainty to any family of languages. The exact number of Ainu speakers is unknown, however a 2006 survey showed that out of 23,782 Ainu, 304 know the language.

Africa

In Ethiopia, Ongota is a critically endangered language.

It was spoken by a community on the west bank of the Weito River in southwest Ethiopia. There are only about 400 members of the community left, with a handful of elders speaking the language.

Americas

In North and Central America, almost all Indigenous languages are endangered. Louisiana Creole, a French-based creole with African and Indigenous influences, is a seriously endangered language in the United States, with it mostly spoken by elders.

Leco is an endangered Indigenous language spoken in Bolivia and is considered an isolated language – one that has no genetic relationship to other languages. The language is only now spoken by elders with a Leco ethnic population of only about 13,500.

Europe

Cornish (Kernewek), spoken in southwest England, was marked as an extinct language by UNESCO, until it was revived and in 2010 changed to an endangered language. It is spoken as a first language by 563 people according to the 2021 England and Wales census.

Feb. 20 (UPI) — The Dominican Republic opened the year with 1.22 million tourists in January, a 5.5% increase compared with the same month last year. The increase was driven by growth in air arrivals and sustained demand from the United States.

Tourist arrivals to the island by air surpassed the 800,000-passenger mark for the first time in a single month, posting year-over-year growth of 8.7%, according to the Ministry of Tourism,. The figure exceeds pre-pandemic levels and is 61% higher than recorded in January 2019.

“Receiving 1,219,606 visitors for the first time in the history of Dominican tourism tells us how extraordinary this year will be for the sector,” Dominican Republic Tourism Minister David Collado said.

Collado held meetings in New York with representatives of JPMorgan, Bank of America, Standard & Poor’s and American Express, as well as other key players in the international financial system, as part of a strategic agenda to position tourism as the country’s leading productive sector.

According to information released Thursday by the presidency, Collado presented projections for Dominican tourism for this year, highlighting the sector’s sustained growth and predicting that if the current trend continues, 2026 could close with new record figures for the industry.

Dominican tourism continues to position itself as a reliable destination for investment, authorities said, backed by what they describe as “a vision of sustainable development that inspires confidence in international markets.”

According to information from the Ministry of Tourism, North America is the main source market for tourists to the island, accounting for 59% of air arrivals, led by the United States and Canada. Latin America also showed solid performance and expanded its share of total visitors.

Punta Cana accounted for the largest share of the country’s air traffic during the month. The cruise segment recorded a slight decline compared with the same period last year, while hotel occupancy averaged 82% nationwide during peak season.

Tourism is one of the main generators of foreign exchange and employment. In 2025, the country received more than 11.6 million visitors, consolidating its position as the Caribbean’s leading tourist destination.

As part of its international promotion strategy, the Ministry of Tourism signed a strategic alliance with Visa Inc., making the Dominican Republic the first country in the Caribbean to finalize an agreement of this kind with the global payments company.

The alliance includes joint campaigns, targeted promotions and exclusive benefits for international travelers, with emphasis on key markets such as the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.

The Dominican Republic is projected to be the fastest-growing economy in Latin America and the Caribbean in the coming years, according to the most recent forecasts by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Growth projections for 2026 place real GDP expansion between 4.0% and 4.5%, positioning the country as one of the economic leaders in the Caribbean region.

In that scenario, tourism is a strategic engine and the backbone of the Dominican economy. Its role is not only to generate revenue, but also to act as a catalyst for other key sectors, such as construction, commerce and transportation.

In 2025, the sector contributed approximately $21.1 billion, representing about 16% of the gross domestic product.

It was a long day at the office for Marco Penge, but the overtime hours were well worth it for the 27-year-old from Lancashire, England, who shot a bogey-free 64 Friday and is tied for the lead with Jacob Bridgeman after two rounds of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club.

Penge surged to the lead with birdies on five of the last seven holes, then watched as Bridgeman closed with three birdies to catch him at 12 under par.

“I was biding my time on the front nine — the targets are so small here — but I found my swing coming down the stretch and that allowed me to be more aggressive,” said Penge, who won three times on the DP World Tour last year to earn his first PGA Tour card. “It’s tough for a European to come over here and do the things Rory [McIlroy] and Tommy [Fleetwood] are doing but I managed the course well today.”

Penge was in the last group Thursday and was on the 10th hole when play was suspended due to darkness. He carded four birdies and two bogeys on the back nine early Friday morning to join McIlory, Bridgeman and countryman Aaron Rai at five under par. He had only 38 minutes between finishing his first round and starting the second, but showed no signs of fatigue.

Marco Penge reacts after putting on the 18th green during the second round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on Friday.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

“Not really, I wasn’t any more tired than usual,” he said. “When you see you’re near the top your adrenaline gets you through it.”

Although he did not get paid time and a half for playing 27 holes instead of the normal 18, a healthy check will come his way Sunday afternoon if Penge can hold his position.

Likewise for Bridgeman, who rode his momentum from the day before to also card a 64, opening his round with an eagle and posting eight birdies to more than offset bogeys at No. 7 and No. 12.

“I putted really well, hit my driver great and I’m excited to be in the hunt for the second straight week,” Bridgeman said after coolly sinking an eight-foot birdie putt on the last hole. “Yesterday was a learning experience. The 18th was playing a lot longer than I thought today. It’s shocking how soft and how fast these greens are. This is the most pure layout I’ve ever seen.”

Jacob Bridgeman hits from the 18th fairway during the second round of the Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on Friday.

(Caroline Brehman / Associated Press)

McIlroy, the world’s No. 2-ranked player, looms one shot back after a six-under 65 and two-time winner Adam Scott rocketed into contention with two eagles and six birdies — an eight-under-par 63 marred only by his bogey at 18. Scott has won twice at Riviera, in 2005 (a rain-shortened 36 holes) and 2020, and is tied for fourth with Xander Schauffele at -9.

Schauffele, ranked 13th in the world, also had a prolonged day. He was tied for 29th at even par through 11 holes when play was suspended Thursday and played the last seven holes of the first round in three-under-par. The 2016-17 Rookie of the Year notched the last of his 10 Tour victories at the Baycurrent Classic last October.

“I’m tired man… I’m looking forward to laying down sometime soon,” said the 32-year-old who lives in Jupiter, Florida but was born in San Diego and played his college golf at Long Beach State and San Diego State.

Asked about tournament host Tiger Woods’ suggestion to reschedule the event to the summertime, Schauffele said: “Wherever it is and whatever the conditions are — dry, damp, moist — I just enjoying playing here.”

Rai led by one stroke when play was suspended Thursday but bogeyed 18 early Friday to drop into a tie and shot a second-round 69, leaving him tied for 12th with South African Aldrich Potgeiter, Ryan Fox and 2021 Genesis champion Max Homa at the halfway point.

“My ball striking was better than yesterday and I got more looks at birdie,” Potgeiter said after shooting 68 for a second straight day. “The course is looking great… with the amount of rain we’ve had they did a good job.”

World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler was tied with Keegan Bradley for last place at five-over when he walked off the course Thursday evening and shot two under over his last eight holes early Friday morning to begin the second round tied for 65th at +3. He had three birdies and six pars on the back nine for a 68 in the second round to get to even par and was among 51 in the 72-player field to make the cut.

“It’s nice to be able to get another two cracks at the course,” a relieved Scheffler said after having to drain a four-foot birdie putt at the 17th to extend his consecutive cuts streak to 68—the longest active streak on Tour. “This place and I have a weird relationship. I feel like I can play well here, I just haven’t yet. I was very aware I had to get to at least even par to keep going. I had to battle because the closing stretch is tough here.”

Scheffler has not missed a cut since the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August of 2022.

The conditions were ideal and scores reflected that on the second day of the 100th edition of a tournament that is still up for grabs, with 22 players within nine shots of the lead. One of them is Max Greyserman, who is tied for sixth with Australian Min Woo Lee at -8.

“Starting off with an eagle is always nice,” said Greyserman, a 30-year-old who lives in Palm Beach and is seeking his first pro win. “I hit a lot of nice drives. If you miss the fairways around here things get tricky. The kikuyu grass is interesting. I didn’t grow up on it. I played Genesis last year at Torrey [Pines] and I’ve played here four times before this week. It’s a good test, a fair test, a fun test.”

Hello! I’m Mark Olsen. Welcome to another edition of your regular field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This week we lost two towering figures with the deaths of Robert Duvall and Frederick Wiseman.

Duvall, who died at 95 at his home in Virginia, was known as an actor for roles in films such as “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” “To Kill a Mockingbird” and countless more. As a director, his work included “The Apostle” and a handful of other projects.

Robert Duvall in the movie “Apocalypse Now.”

(CBS Photo Archive / Getty Images)

The movies team published a list of 10 of our favorite performances, including “Tender Mercies,” for which he won an Academy Award, as well as “Network,” “The Great Santini” and “Widows.”

Wiseman, who died at 96 in Cambridge, Mass., directed more than 45 documentary features beginning with 1967’s “Titicut Follies” on through 2023’s “Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troigros.” His work was known for its rigorous examinations of systems and institutions, giving viewers insights into why things functioned the way they did.

Frederick Wiseman, photographed at the Venice Film Festival in 2014.

(David Azia / Associated Press)

“The institution is also just an excuse to observe human behavior in somewhat defined conditions,” Wiseman told the Associated Press in 2020. “The films are as much about that as they are about institutions.”

Tribute screenings have already started to pop up in tribute to Duvall, with presumably more for both men on the way.

‘Sunshine’ in 35mm

Rose Byrne in the 2007 movie “Sunshine.”

(Alex Bailey / Twentieth Century Fox)

The collaboration between director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland has yielded an ongoing examination of societies in varying stages of collapse, lately in their recent revival of the “28 Years Later” series. Among their other works is 2007’s “Sunshine,” which, while seen as something of a disappointment on initial release, has only grown in esteem in the years since. The Academy Museum will screen the movie on 35mm Friday in the Ted Mann Theater.

In 2057, Earth is freezing as the sun has begun to die. An international crew of astronauts — including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong and Chris Evans — are dispatched with the improbable mission of reigniting the sun. When they encounter another ship along the way, things begin to go very wrong.

In his review, Kenneth Turan wrote, “Not reflected in a synopsis is the way screenwriter Garland has made ‘Sunshine’ a thoughtful genre film, one with philosophical concerns about God, man and morality. It’s not for nothing that Icarus’ talking computer echoes Hal of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ Garland and Boyle also have devoted time and effort to character psychology, to making the members of the Icarus’ crew into recognizable people and not Hollywood stick figures. … All these good things enable us to buy into ‘Sunshine’s’ story for a considerable span, creating a palpable tension that underlines that no one should feel safe in the far reaches of space.”

John Horn also wrote an extensive production story on the film. Referring to delays in the editing process, which caused a delay in the film’s release, Boyle said, “No director, unless they are contractually obligated, will ever go back and do a sequel set in space. When I finished it in January, I would have said no, it wasn’t worth it. Because I fell out with everybody. To make these movies, you have to be so uncompromising and scorch all of the ground in front of you.”

Slamdance Film Festival

Vondie Curtis-Hall in the movie “The Projectionist,” the opening night film of the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival.

(Slamdance Film Festival)

The Slamdance Film Festival has launched its second year in Los Angeles, running through Feb. 25 with screenings at the DGA, Landmark Sunset and 2220 Arts + Archives. The virtual edition of the festival will run from Feb. 24–March 6 on the Slamdance Channel.

The festival opened with the world premiere of Alexandre Rockwell’s “The Projectionist.” Starring Vondie Curtis-Hall along with Kasi Lemmons and Kevin Corrigan, the film tells the story of a lonely film projectionist confronting his past.

Rockwell, who, in 1992 won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance with “In the Soup,” lauded Slamdance as “a festival that embodies the vital spirit of independent film better than anywhere.”

Among other notable titles in this year’s program is “The Untitled Ruby Slippers Documentary” directed by Seth Gordon and Nikki Calabrese, the story of the theft and recovery of one of the most famous pieces of Hollywood movie memorabilia. Gordon’s “The King of Kong” premiered at Slamdance in 2007.

Points of interest

‘A Thousand and One’

Teyana Taylor in the movie “A Thousand and One.”

(Aaron Ricketts / Focus Features)

Teyana Taylor is an Oscar nominee for her performance in “One Battle After Another.” (She’s also a recent guest on “The Envelope” podcast.) She got that role after “One Battle” director Paul Thomas Anderson saw Taylor’s performance in “A Thousand and One,” written and directed by A.V. Rockwell. Vidiots will show the movie Saturday.

In the film Taylor plays Inez, recently released from jail in New York City and attempting to reconnect with her son who has been in the foster system. When an opportunity presents itself, she impulsively abducts him and tries to get them set up in a new life together.

In her review of the film, Katie Walsh noted that Taylor “brings to her astonishing performance the coiled physicality of a panther ready to pounce.” Walsh added, “The film is utterly absorbing, anchored by the unpredictable performance of Taylor, playing a hopelessly complicated, but deeply caring woman. When faced with dire circumstances, she survives, then dares to imagine a life for Terry beyond the cycle she’s experienced, forging a family unit she never had.”

Sonaiya Kelley spoke to both Rockwell and Taylor about the film. Taylor said of the part, “I was drawn to the role before I even read the whole script. … A lot of the emotions I put onto Inez were real emotions from real triggers.”

‘Dont Look Back’

Bob Dylan in the documentary “Dont Look Back.”

(Criterion Collection)

As part of an ongoing series, the Academy Museum will show D.A. Pennebaker’s 1967 “Dont Look Back” in the David Geffen Theater with doc director Joan Churchill in person to introduce the film.

A pioneering work of cinema verité, the film tags along on Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, capturing a period of heady creative evolution. As Dylan plays a series of shows, he is also seen in various hotel rooms, cutting down journalists and others with a self-regarding wit.

As Charles Champlin said in his 1967 review, “The technical shortcomings deliberately enhance the atmosphere of claustrophobic chaos surrounding a pop idol on tour. And this, after all, is what the film is about. … [Dylan’s] milieu and its hangers-on are by no means uniformaly attractive. But after this skillful and exhaustive piece of film reportage, no one need ask what it and they and he are really like. The camera has become an X-ray.”

Since 2019, Hodgkinson has trained with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.

Meadows, a former international runner, was in France to watch her protege take almost a second off the 800m indoor record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak almost 24 years ago.

“She actually said to me the day before: ‘obviously I know I’m going to get it’,” said Meadows.

“There had been so many benchmarks we measure in training, we had no doubt that she would do it.

“Her biggest fear was to set a world record, but be disappointed with the time. She said ‘what if I can’t smile? What if I’ve got the world record, and everyone’s so excited, and I think, oh that was rubbish. I could have gone faster’?”

The date – 19 February 2026 – had long been set in the diary by Meadows and Hodgkinson given the track in Lievin is notoriously fast.

“Lievin has had a lot of world records over the years, and we kind of thought ‘you know what, let’s go with the statistics’,” Meadows said.

“We’re only probably going to get one opportunity during this indoor season to go for it. So that’s the event that we picked, and that’s the date we’ve really had etched in our minds the last three months.”

“I’ve got to say, the time she did was the bare minimum of what she was happy with,” Meadows added.

“She definitely would have liked to run faster, and there was definitely half a second, maybe even up to one second in those legs.”

Feb. 20 (UPI) — Peru’s interim President Jose Maria Balcazar was summoned to continue his trial over alleged misappropriation of funds from the Lambayeque Bar Association just one day after assuming the presidency.

The case adds legal pressure to a temporary administration already shaped by political uncertainty.

Peru’s Public Ministry alleges that during his tenure as dean of the Lambayeque Bar Association from 2019 to 2022, Balcazar committed irregularities in managing the institution’s financial income and expenditures.

Prosecutors also allege he ordered profits to be deposited into his personal bank accounts, El Comercio newspaper reported.

Balcazar, a lawmaker from the leftist Peru Libre party, assumed the interim presidency Wednesday following the removal of his predecessor Jose Jeri. News of the court summons emerged only hours after his inauguration.

The first hearing is scheduled June 16, with additional sessions set for June 23 and June 30, either virtually or at the Lambayeque Superior Court in Chiclayo, according to judicial authorities.

A judge ordered the president’s mandatory attendance and warned that failure to appear could result in him being declared in contempt and subject to a nationwide arrest warrant.

On the day lawmakers elected Balcazar, the Lambayeque Bar Association issued a statement opposing his candidacy and warning of multiple allegations against him, RPP Noticias reported.

The association expelled Balcazar permanently Aug. 13, 2022, citing violations of its statutes and code of ethics. It said his conduct caused “serious harm to his own professional association and, consequently, to the dignity and distinguished image all Peruvian lawyers must preserve.”

Balcazar has consistently denied the accusations, saying they lack legal basis.

He also has faced other investigations and complaints over several years. During his time as a judge and later as a congressman, he was the target of allegations including suspected judicial misconduct, fraud, identity impersonation and bribery, along with other questions raised about his professional conduct.

In his first remarks as president, Balcazar sought to downplay the impact of his legal cases, saying “it is not difficult to govern a country” and adding his administration will focus on ensuring “unquestionable” elections scheduled for April.

Separately, former President Pedro Castillo, who is serving an 11-year, five-month sentence for rebellion after his failed 2022 attempt to dissolve Congress, has requested a presidential pardon from Balcazar.

Castillo’s former defense minister and attorney Walter Ayala formally delivered it to the presidential office.

During Castillo’s administration, Balcazar emerged as one of his most visible defenders. He supported Castillo’s government and questioned investigations that involved officials close to the executive branch, local outlet Peru21 reported.

BUENOS AIRES, Feb. 20 (UPI) — The announcement of the closure of FATE, the only tire manufacturer entirely owned by the Argentine capital and with more than 80 years of history, became the most visible symbol of the fracture facing industry under the government of Javier Milei.

FATE’s decision, announced on Wednesday, was made due to the company’s inability to compete with a wave of imported tires arriving from Asia at prices far below local costs.

FATE’s case was not isolated. According to the association Industriales Pymes Argentinos, or IPA, more than 22,000 companies have closed and more than 300,000 formal jobs have been lost over the past two years as a result of a trade liberalization policy that reduced tariffs with the promise of lowering consumer prices.

This strategy left local production facing competition that many business owners describe as unequal and difficult to sustain.

Daniel Rosato, the IPA president, told UPI that over the past two years, the country experienced an avalanche of imports, ranging from capital goods to food products.

He said Milei’s government reduced tariffs to boost competitiveness, but the outcome was different.

“Argentina has very high dollar-denominated costs and the domestic industry was unable to compete against cheaper imported products, many of these come from Asia,” Rosato said.

“It is very difficult to compete with China. This led the industry to begin producing less due to a lack of competitiveness. The recession is deepening. Factory closures affect not only small companies, but the entire industrial sector,” he said.

Economist Leonardo Park, a researcher at the think tank Fundar, said the government implemented a sweeping deregulation of foreign trade.

Some of these measures, he said, were necessary, such as eliminating bureaucratic systems that previously delayed or limited product imports and simplifying the permits companies needed to bring goods from abroad.

However, tariffs were also reduced, technical standards relaxed, customs controls loosened and the anti-dumping system was reformed.

“All of these reforms generated strong growth in imports since last year,” he said.

Park warned that a rapid increase in foreign purchases creates a risk for local production, as it competes directly with it.

“A drop in production can translate into a risk for the employment associated with that activity,” he said, adding that FATE’s case illustrates such an impact.

“More imported tires mean less domestic production,” Park said. “When production falls, companies downsize or close. The final effect is layoffs and job losses.”

The economist also pointed to two central concerns: the loss of industrial capabilities the country already developed and employment.

“Displaced workers often face difficulties finding jobs in other sectors, whether due to a lack of dynamism in the labor market, a shortage of new skills or because growing activities are concentrated in other regions,” Park said.

From a legal perspective, labor attorney Walter Mañko, partner at Deloitte Legal Argentina, said the company cited a loss of competitiveness that made the business unviable.

“It is true that tires coming from China have a much lower cost than those manufactured in Argentina and that generates a decline in domestic demand,” he said.

Mañko also underscored the social impact. The 920 jobs lost with FATE’s closure represent families that could be left without income. In economic terms, he added, the country loses its main tire manufacturer, a loss that he said cannot be overlooked.

After the closure announcement, Milei’s government intervened through the Labor Secretariat and ordered mandatory conciliation. It is a legal tool the state can activate without prior request from the company or the union to halt the conflict and restore the situation to the point before the crisis.

For 15 days, with the possibility of extending the period by five more, both sides must sit down to negotiate. The room for agreement is narrow. What happens in those talks will not only define FATE’s future, but also send a signal about Argentina’s industrial direction in this new economic phase.

SEOUL, Feb. 20 (UPI) — South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI index continues to set records, driven by strong corporate performances, including semiconductor giants Samsung Electronics and SK hynix.

The index more than doubled over the past year to surpass 5,800 points Friday. Also fueling the bullish rally are Mirae Asset Securities and SK Telecom, which have invested in promising U.S. firms expected to list in the near future.

The share price of Mirae Asset Securities, South Korea’s leading brokerage house, more than tripled this year, buoyed by strong earnings. It reported $1.1 billion in net profit for 2025, up 72% from a year earlier.

In addition, observers point out the company’s investment in SpaceX, which is expected to go public this summer with a market capitalization of around $1.25 trillion, has also underpinned its stock.

In 2022 and 2023, Mirae Asset Group reportedly channeled $278 million into SpaceX, and roughly half of that came from Mirae Asset Securities, although It does not confirm the detailed figures. A listing could deliver significant windfalls for the brokerage.

Yuanta Securities analyst Woo Do-hung said that Mirae Asset Securities is likely to remain strong through SpaceX’s IPO.

SpaceX is the world’s top private aerospace manufacturer, while xAI is an artificial intelligence startup founded by Elon Musk. Earlier this month, the former acquired the latter in an all-stock deal.

“Following its merger with xAI, SpaceX’s current valuation is estimated at around $1 trillion,” Woo said in a report, expecting the figure to rise to as much as $1.5 trillion after listing, further supporting Mirae Asset Securities on the Seoul bourse.

Reflecting confidence in its long-term upside potential, Mirae Asset Securities also plans to keep holding stakes in innovative companies like SpaceX before they go public.

“We are not yet considering an exit strategy, as our investments in innovative companies remain unlisted,” CFO Lee Kang-hyuk told a conference call earlier this month.

“We aim to pursue exits at the most optimal timing and then reinvest the recovered funds into high-growth assets or use them for M&A, thus establishing a stable virtuous cycle,” he added.

Another beneficiary in the Korean stock market is SK Telecom, the country’s largest mobile carrier, which made a strategic equity investment of $100 million in Anthropic in mid-2023 through its venture arm.

Known for its Claude family of artificial intelligence models, Anthropic is also projected to go public in the coming years.

With its valuation estimated at about $380 billion, the value of SK Telecom’s stake has jumped several-fold to more than $2 billion, or nearly 20% of the company’s market capitalization.

The successful investment has bolstered its share price, which surged over 50% this year.

“The value of SK Telecom’s stake in Anthropic is estimated at around $2.1 billion,” Korea Investment & Securities analyst Kim Jeong-chan said in a report. “It has lifted SK Telecom’s valuation.”

He expected that AI-related revenue, including AI data centers and AI transformation, could put the firm on track to approach $1.4 billion in 2026 operating profit from $740 million last year.

Against this backdrop, industry watchers note that an increasing number of Korean corporations are likely to pursue long-term investments in promising startups from the advanced markets.

“As predicting the future has become increasingly difficult, companies are more often building portfolios of smaller investments rather than making large bets on a handful of prominent firms,” economic commentator Kim Kyeong-joon, formerly vice chairman at Deloitte Consulting Korea, told UPI.

“In the past, they might have made major investments in around five companies, but now it’s common to spread smaller investments across 30 firms. Even if only a few succeed, that is considered a success,” he said.

Kim noted that such a trend would accelerate across the country’s corporations with the advent of the AI era, when the future becomes even more challenging.

South Korean stocks topped the 5,800-point mark for the first time Friday to end at a fresh record high amid expectations that upcoming investor-friendly measures will help lift market valuations. The local currency fell against the U.S. dollar.

The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) added 131.28 points, or 2.31 percent, to close at an all-time high of 5,803.53.

Trade volume was heavy at 1.73 billion shares worth 32.74 trillion won (US$22.64 billion), with winners outnumbering losers 543 to 340.

Institutions scooped up a net 1.61 trillion won worth of shares, while foreign and retail investors sold a net 745.06 billion won and 986.12 billion won worth of shares, respectively, for profit-taking.

After a three-day Lunar New Year holiday break, the index surged Thursday to top the 5,600 level, with experts saying pent-up demand accumulated during the holiday continued to flow into the stock market.

The KOSPI has been on a bull run recently, surpassing the 5,000 mark for the first time ever on Jan. 27 and the 5,500 level on Feb. 12.

“Geopolitical tensions have heightened after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled the possibility of military action against Iran following a 10-day negotiation deadline, and some analysts suggest the risk of a full-scale conflict is not negligible,” Kim Seok-hwan, an analyst at Mirae Asset Securities, said.

“But investors have maintained expectations for a series of measures by the government and companies to boost shareholder returns and overall market valuations,” he added.

U.S. shares lost ground Thursday (U.S. time) amid concerns about the U.S.-Iran situation and risks linked to massive investments in artificial intelligence (AI), as the U.S. private market and alternative assets manager Blue Owl Capital announced it is going to tighten investor liquidity.

Most large-cap shares finished higher, with chip and defense shares leading the market advance.

Market bellwether Samsung Electronics edged up 0.05 percent to 190,100 won, and chip giant SK hynix surged 6.15 percent to 949,000 won.

Carmakers traded mixed. Top automaker Hyundai Motor went down 0.78 percent to 509,000 won, while its sister affiliate Kia soared 1.06 percent to 171,800 won.

Leading battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 0.5 percent to 401,500 won, but AI investment firm SK Square advanced 2.47 percent to 580,000 won.

Nuclear power plant builder Doosan Enerbility surged 5.18 percent to 103,500 won, and defense giant Hanwha Aerospace spiked 8.09 percent to 1,242,000 won.

Leading shipbuilder HD Hyundai Heavy jumped 4.88 percent to 602,000 won, and its rival Hanwha Ocean shot up 6.61 percent to 149,900 won.

Pharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics went up 0.93 percent to 1,736,000 won, while Celltrion dipped 1.02 percent to 242,000 won.

Financials gathered ground. KB Financial added 1.38 percent to 168,800 won, and Shinhan Financial grew 1.69 percent to 102,000 won.

Samsung Life Insurance climbed 4.78 percent to 219,000 won, and Mirae Asset Securities rose 0.57 percent to 70,900 won.

The Korean won was quoted at 1,446.65 won against the U.S. dollar at 3:30 p.m., down 1.15 won from the previous session.

Bond prices, which move inversely to yields, closed higher. The yield on three-year Treasurys lost 3.5 basis points to 3.143 percent, and the return on the benchmark five-year government bonds also shed 3.5 basis points to 3.391 percent.

Copyright (c) Yonhap News Agency prohibits its content from being redistributed or reprinted without consent, and forbids the content from being learned and used by artificial intelligence systems.

Finalists and honorees for the 46th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced Wednesday.

Writer-curator Ekow Eshun is among the biography finalists for “The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them,” which parses Black masculinity as embodied by various civil rights activists, philosophers and other visionaries. Contenders in the fiction categories ranged from seasoned novelists like Michael Connelly to breakouts including Saou Ichikawa, whose debut novel, “Hunchback,” was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Many selected books evoke the greatest anxieties of our time, from government-sanctioned historical revisionism to the ongoing proliferation of AI.

“The Joy Luck Club” author Amy Tan will be honored with this year’s Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and novelist Adam Ross will receive the Innovator’s Award and Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, respectively.

Winners in the remaining categories will be revealed at the 46th L.A. Times Book Prizes on April 17 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. The ceremony is a prelude to the annual L.A. Times Festival of Books, which this year runs April 18-19.

The Oakland-born Tan will be given the marquee Robert Kirsch Award, which celebrates literature with regional and thematic connections to the Western United States, for her highly awarded body of work exploring multicultural identity and its complex effects on familial bonds.

“Throughout her extraordinary career, Amy Tan has transformed American literature by shining a light on the emotional complexities of family, identity and cultural inheritance,” said Times senior editor for Books Sophia Kercher. “Her work confronts the social and cultural legacies of the American West with rich details of the immigrant experience.”

Tan’s 1989 debut novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” which interweaves the stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters in San Francisco, is a staple of the modern literary canon and was previously a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. “The Joy Luck Club,” along with the essays, memoirs and novels Tan has since penned — most recently 2024’s “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” — have also led her to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and earned her a National Humanities Medal from President Biden.

We Need Diverse Books, a viral 2014 Twitter campaign turned nonprofit, is being honored with the Innovator’s Award for its efforts toward promoting diversity and inclusion in children’s and young adult publishing.

According to the WNDB website, upon the nonprofit’s launch more than a decade ago, only 8% of children’s books published in the U.S. were written by authors of color. In 2023, that figure rose to 47%, in no small part due to WNDB’s grants, library partnerships and other advocacy work, per the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We Need Diverse Books has played an important role in publishing by championing stories that reflect our world, and opening doors for writers and readers,” said Times Executive Editor Terry Tang. “We are thrilled to recognize them with this year’s Innovator’s Award, honoring their unwavering commitment to access and representation in literature.”

Ross rounds out the L.A. Times Book Prize honorees as the winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for “Playworld,” a semi-autobiographical novel about a teen growing up in 1980s New York that is described as “less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation.”

In addition to the achievement awards, the Book Prizes recognize titles in 13 categories: audiobooks, autobiographical prose (the Christopher Isherwood Prize), biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel/comics, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science fiction, science and technology and young adult literature. Each category’s finalists and winners are chosen by panels of writers specializing in that genre.

For more information about the Book Prizes, including the complete list of finalists, visit latimes.com/BookPrizes.

Robert Kirsch Award

Amy Tan

Innovator’s Award

We Need Diverse Books

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

Adam Ross, “Playworld: A Novel”

The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

Andy Anderegg, “Plum”

Krystelle Bamford, “Idle Grounds: A Novel”

Addie E. Citchens, “Dominion: A Novel”

Justin Haynes, “Ibis: A Novel”

Saou Ichikawa translated by Polly Barton, “Hunchback: A Novel”

Achievement in Audiobook Production, presented by Audible

Molly Jong-Fast (narrator), Matie Argiropoulos (producer); “How to Lose Your Mother”

Jason Mott, Ronald Peet, and JD Jackson (narrators), Diane McKiernan (producer); “People Like Us: A Novel”

James Aaron Oh (narrator), Linda Korn (producer); “The Emperor of Gladness: A Novel”

Imani Perry (narrator), Suzanne Mitchell (producer); “Black in Blues”

Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler, Steve West, and Jim Seybert (narrators), Kelly Gildea (producer); “The Correspondent: A Novel”

Biography

Joe Dunthorne, “Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance”

Ekow Eshun, “The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them”

Ruth Franklin, “The Many Lives of Anne Frank”

Beth Macy, “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”

Amanda Vaill, “Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution”

Current Interest

Jeanne Carstensen, “A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis”

Stefan Fatsis, “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary”

Brian Goldstone, “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”

Gardiner Harris, “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson”

Jordan Thomas, “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World”

Fiction

Tod Goldberg, “Only Way Out: A Novel”

Stephen Graham Jones, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

Mia McKenzie, “These Heathens: A Novel”

Andrés Felipe Solano translated by Will Vanderhyden, “Gloria: A Novel”

Bryan Washington, “Palaver: A Novel”

Graphic Novel/Comics

Eagle Valiant Brosi, “Black Cohosh”

Jaime Hernandez, “Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection”

Michael D. Kennedy, “Milk White Steed”

Lee Lai, “Cannon”

Carol Tyler, “The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief”

History

Char Adams, “Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore”

Bench Ansfield, “Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City”

Jennifer Clapp, “Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters”

Eli Erlick, “Before Gender: Lost Stories from Trans History, 1850-1950”

Aaron G. Fountain Jr., “High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America”

Mystery/Thriller

Megan Abbott, “El Dorado Drive”

Ace Atkins, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World: A Novel”

Lou Berney, “Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family”

Michael Connelly, “The Proving Ground: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel”

S.A. Cosby, “King of Ashes: A Novel”

Poetry

Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “The New Economy”

Chet’la Sebree, “Blue Opening: Poems”

Richard Siken, “I Do Know Some Things”

Devon Walker-Figueroa, “Lazarus Species: Poems”

Allison Benis White, “A Magnificent Loneliness”

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

Stephen Graham Jones, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

Jordan Kurella, “The Death of Mountains”

Nnedi Okorafor, “Death of the Author: A Novel”

Adam Oyebanji, “Esperance”

Silvia Park, “Luminous: A Novel”

Science & Technology

Mariah Blake, “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals”

Peter Brannen, “The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World”

Karen Hao, “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI”

Laura Poppick, “Strata: Stories from Deep Time”

Jordan Thomas, “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World”

Young Adult Literature

K. Ancrum, “The Corruption of Hollis Brown”

Idris Goodwin, “King of the Neuro Verse”

Jamie Jo Hoang, “My Mother, the Mermaid Chaser”

Trung Le Nguyen, “Angelica and the Bear Prince”

Hannah V. Sawyerr, “Truth Is: A Novel in Verse”

Feb. 19 (Asia Today) — Internal divisions resurfaced within the conservative People Power Party on Thursday after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison in a first-instance ruling on charges of leading an insurrection.

Younger lawmakers within the party called for an apology and a clear break from Yoon, while party leader Jang Dong-hyuk refrained from issuing an immediate statement.

The party said it plans to announce an official position as early as Friday after gathering views from within the leadership and rank-and-file members. Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon said a consolidated statement is likely to be released after further deliberation.

Some party members interpreted Jang’s silence as a strategic move aimed at broadening the party’s appeal to centrist voters. In a television interview the previous day, Jang said “transition is more important than severance,” a remark seen by some as signaling a shift toward focusing on economic and livelihood issues rather than internal factional conflict.

However, several figures urged the leadership to distance the party from what they described as “Yoon Again” supporters.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said he felt “devastated” by the court’s ruling as a member of the party that produced the former president and argued that cutting ties with Yoon is an unavoidable step for the conservative movement.

Lawmakers affiliated with the reform-minded group Alternative and Future also called for an official declaration of separation from pro-Yoon factions, warning that continued alignment with far-right elements could harm the party’s future.

The group urged the leadership to demonstrate “new leadership that unites rather than divides,” as the party weighs its response to the unprecedented life sentence handed to a former president.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260220010005937

Feb. 19 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s Unification Ministry said Thursday it is taking note of a swift statement by Kim Yo Jong, a senior North Korean ruling party official, after Seoul expressed regret over recent drone incidents and announced steps to prevent a recurrence.

A ministry official told reporters the government “takes note” that North Korea quickly responded to Seoul’s expression of regret and its preventive measures. The official said the steps announced by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young are intended to protect the safety and peace of both Koreas and that the government will “responsibly” implement them.

The remarks came after Kim said earlier Thursday that North Korea “highly appreciates” Chung’s comments acknowledging what Pyongyang called a South Korean drone provocation, expressing regret again and stating an intention to prevent further incidents.

On Wednesday, Chung said Seoul expressed “deep regret” to the North over drone infiltration incidents during the previous Yoon Suk Yeol administration and additional incidents carried out at the civilian level after President Lee Jae-myung took office. Chung also announced measures aimed at preventing a recurrence, including banning drone infiltration into North Korea and strengthening penalties.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260219010005700

After collecting forensic evidence they questioned two men in a nearby village and discovered three sacks of meat, 16 lion claws and four teeth. These body parts would later be tested against the database, with the DNA from all matching the profile of that missing lion.

Feb. 19 (UPI) — More than 1,000 Kenyans and other Africans have been deployed by Russia to fight in Ukraine after being recruited by “rogue” agencies that some accuse of human trafficking, a Kenyan intelligence report indicates.

Kenya’s National Intelligence Service on Wednesday reported the number of Kenyans deployed by the Russian military rose from more than 200 in November to more than 1,000 now.

The report indicates at least 89 of those deployed in Russia were serving on the front lines. At least one has died and others have returned to Kenya with injuries or mental trauma.

Kimani Ichung’wah, majority leader of the Kenyan Parliament, blamed a network of corrupt state officials whom he accused of cooperating with human traffickers to provide the Russian military with Kenyans to fight in Ukraine.

Staff at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi and the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow also helped Russia to recruit Kenyans, the Kenyan lawmaker said.

The Russian Embassy denied the allegation and said it never has issued visas to Kenyans to travel to Russia to participate in military operations.

Ichung’wah said many of those fighting for Russia are civilians and former police officers and military personnel ranging in age from their mid-20s to 50 and seeking overseas job opportunities, The Guardian reported.

Russia allegedly is paying them a monthly salary of about $2,700 plus housing and offering bonuses and Russian citizenship for their service.

Kenya is not the only African nation that has citizens allegedly fighting for Russia.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in November alleged more than 1,400 Africans from 36 countries were deployed by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine.

Many of those soldiers are being held as prisoners of war in Ukraine, Sybiha said.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and has resisted peace overtures despite participating in ongoing peace talks.

Feb. 19 (UPI) — A massive blackout left nearly five million people without electricity in Paraguay amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 108 degrees Fahrenheit across large parts of the country and as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas, according to local meteorological reports.

The outage affected 90% of customers of the National Electricity Administration, or ANDE, the state-run company that supplies nearly the entire population of 6.4 million people.

The interruption on Wednesday also disrupted drinking water services in urban areas due to reliance on electric pumping systems. Nearly 24 hours after the blackout, service had not been fully restored.

The lack of power also impacted health centers and hospitals in cities across the country’s interior. In those cases, emergency infrastructure and generators failed, and doctors and nurses were forced to perform surgical procedures, including a cesarean section, using the light from their cell phones.

Following the blackout, ANDE attributed the interruption to transmission lines going out of service within the system that connects to the Itaipú hydroelectric plant. The company later denied any malfunction at its facilities and said generation operated normally.

Paraguay is one of the world’s largest producers of hydroelectric power thanks to dams such as Itaipú and Yacyretá, which generate surpluses that are even exported to neighboring countries.

In January, Itaipú covered more than 80% of national electricity demand. However, the transmission and distribution system faces scrutiny over recurring failures and a lack of investment.

Specialists argue that the problem does not lie in energy generation but in the limitations of the transmission and distribution system.

“If we continue growing at the current pace, the system will not withstand it,” engineer Guillermo Krauch of the Paraguayan Institute of Electrical Sector Professionals told UPI.

The blackout comes as President Santiago Peña and Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano are scheduled to hold meetings in the United States with executives from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation to analyze potential investment projects related to data centers and artificial intelligence developments in Paraguay.

The government of President Santiago Peña approved special electricity tariffs for large consumers, including data centers, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and high-energy industrial projects.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce seeks to position Paraguay as a regional technology hub supported by its renewable energy, abundant water resources and comparative cost advantages.

However, technical organizations warn that the accelerated expansion of high-consumption industries could worsen service deterioration if transmission infrastructure is not strengthened.

Víctor Giménez, special projects adviser at the Yacyretá dam, said Paraguay lived for decades under a “false sense of energy security.”

“That time is over. Companies now arrive with the intention to invest, but they leave once they understand there is no guarantee of electricity supply for the next five years,” he said.

Peña is currently in Washington to participate in the Board of Peace and hold meetings with business leaders interested in installing data centers in Paraguay.

The heat wave has lasted several days, and Paraguay ranked among the locations with the highest temperatures recorded globally this week.

Zimbabwe finished top of Group B at the T20 World Cup after stunning England’s next opponents Sri Lanka in a six-wicket victory in Colombo.

Both sides were already guaranteed their place in the Super 8s but Zimbabwe, who did not qualify for the last T20 World Cup in 2024, progress unbeaten after completing a fine chase of 179 with three balls to spare.

Opener Brian Bennett, who is yet to be dismissed in the tournament, followed his score of 64 not out in the famous win over Australia last week with an unbeaten 63 to steer home the chase.

He shared an opening stand of 69 with Tadiwanashe Marumani and, after Marumani fell for 34 and Ryan Burl 23, played the anchor role as captain Sikander Raza struck 45 from just 26 balls.

Raza and Tashinga Musekiwa fell in the penultimate over but, with eight runs needed from the last, Tony Munyonga emerged and hit a six before Bennett drove the winning runs through the covers.

Co-hosts Sri Lanka, who play England in both sides’ Super 8s opener in Pallekele on Sunday, dropped catches and leaked boundaries with misfields.

They were without injured bowler Matheesha Pathirana and fellow seamer Dushmantha Chameera, who was resting.

Pathum Nissanka, who also scored a fine century in Sri Lanka’s win over Australia, continued his form with 62 from 44 balls in his side’s 178-7.

Zimbabwe progress into a Super 8s group with co-hosts India, South Africa and West Indies.

Their first match is on Monday in Mumbai against the Windies, who beat Italy earlier on Thursday to continue their unbeaten record.

SEOUL, Feb. 19 (UPI) — South Korea’s Samsung C&T said Thursday it would invest up to $6.5 billion during the next three years to nurture future growth engines.

Samsung C&T is a diversified Samsung affiliate that builds major infrastructure, trades global materials and energy, and operates fashion and resort businesses.

Through 2028, the Seoul-based company is scheduled to allocate between $4.5 billion and $5.2 billion to next-generation growth areas, including energy and bio. However, it did not disclose further details.

In addition, Samsung C&T plans to spend a maximum of $1.3 billion to beef up competitiveness in its existing operations by shifting toward a high-margin business model and expanding into overseas markets.

The firm also unveiled a three-year plan to raise its dividend per share by 25%.

“Over the next three years, we will focus on delivering results from growth businesses centered on energy and bio while strengthening our existing portfolio,” Samsung C&T said in a regulatory filing.

“On the back of a stable financial structure, we strive to pursue investments in future growth areas alongside shareholder returns,” it added.

The construction unit is one of the country’s leading contractors. It was lead builder of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa in the United Arab Emirates, the world’s tallest skyscraper.

The company saw its 2025 operating profit rise 10.4% to $2.27 billion, while annual sales edged down 3.2% to $28 billion year-on-year.

The share price of Samsung C&T climbed 0.47% on the Seoul bourse Thursday.

A FORMER Pussycat Doll has taken a scathing fresh swipe at Nicole Scherzinger, Ashley Roberts and Kimberly Wyatt after it was revealed the three of them are reuniting for a world tour.

The Sun confirmed last week that Nicole, 47, Ashley and Kimberly, both 44, will be hitting the road again – four years on from when their comeback plans fell apart.

But, one of the original members of the hit girl group, who isn’t returning for the tour, doesn’t seem to be taking the news well.

Taking to Instagram, Carmit Bachar, 51, appeared to take a harsh swipe at her former group.

Carmit reposted a clip of a woman singing along to the song I’m Letting Go Of The B******t by Nick Hustles.

In the video, the woman can be seen saying the lyrics, ” F*** anything that don’t help me grow, fake friends, shiesty h**s letting all that b******t go.”

Read more on Pussycat Dolls

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Former Pussycat Dolls star takes swipe at ex bandmates after reunion is revealed

The clip was captioned: “My 2026 anthem.”

Carmit is one of three stars not returning for the world tour.

Jessica Sutta and Melody Thornton are also not part of the exciting new plans.

The tour was originally set to kick off in 2020 but was pushed back a year due to the pandemic before later being shelved altogether over a disagreement between Nicole and the group’s founder Robin Antin which was eventually settled out of court.

But it’s full steam ahead now for Nicole, Ashley and Kimberley who were seen at dinner together in London’s Mayfair a few weeks ago.

They were said to be ironing out the final details of the tour deal as they enjoyed a lavish meal.

When the Pussycat Dolls tour was first announced, Carmit seemed to take a cryptic swipe at the trio on social media as she celebrated one of the group’s most iconic hits reaching 100 million streams on Spotify. 

She shared a clip from the Beep music video, seemingly making clear she will always be part of the Pussycat Dolls’ legacy.

Carmit wrote: “20 years of BEEP music video and here we are, still feeling the love. 

“100 millions streams on @spotify is a reminder that music really does live beyond the moment it’s created. Thank you to every @pussycatdolls fan who’s listened, danced, remembered and shared!”

Fans were quick to share the disappointment over the iconic singer not being part of the new plans for the group.

One wrote: “Sad you aren’t going on tour, but I totally get it.”

And another said: “If you’re not returning with the band I will not be there to support.”

Nicole, Ashley and Kimberly quietly signed to top touring agency CAA in December to help guide their huge comeback.

At the end of last year, Nicole hinted at plans for 2026 as she shared an old video of the group.

A source told The Sun: “Nicole and the girls have been talking about getting Pussycat Dolls back together for months now.

“Covid scuppered the original plan and then disagreements behind the scenes meant it all fell apart.

“But Nicole, Ashley and Kimberly are a solid unit and they’re raring to go.”

The Pussycat Dolls burst onto the music scene in April 2005 with their single Don’t Cha.

Feb. 18 (Asia Today) — An alleged financial link between a National Intelligence Service employee and a graduate student accused of sending a drone to North Korea has fueled questions about oversight and accountability within South Korea’s intelligence community, an Asia Today columnist wrote Tuesday.

The case surfaced last month when authorities disclosed that a man in his 30s had allegedly sent an unmanned aerial vehicle to North Korea. Initial investigations focused on possible involvement by the Army Intelligence Command.

However, political and intelligence sources cited in the column questioned why the National Intelligence Service, widely regarded as the control tower of South Korea’s intelligence apparatus, was not initially central to the probe.

The controversy deepened when investigators said an NIS Grade 8 employee had engaged in financial transactions with the graduate student. A joint military-police task force reportedly applied charges including general treason, a serious offense involving harm to national military interests or aiding an enemy state.

The NIS said the matter involved “a personal financial transaction by an administrative department employee” and denied any organizational link to North Korea-related operations. The agency argued that without proof of institutional involvement, the actions of an individual cannot be attributed to the entire organization.

The columnist wrote that regardless of whether the agency was formally involved, sustained contact and financial dealings between an intelligence officer and a suspect in a North Korea-related case raise concerns that go beyond individual misconduct.

The commentary also questioned whether internal control systems functioned properly and whether warning signs were missed. It noted that less than two years have passed since a separate intelligence leak involving a civilian employee at the military intelligence service.

The writer argued that the issue ultimately points to the broader condition of South Korea’s intelligence oversight system and called for a thorough investigation to address public doubts.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260218010005525

Feb. 18 (UPI) — As the Ukraine war nears its fifth year, more than a third of Ukrainian children remain displaced following Russia’s invasion of its neighboring nation.

Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, which has led to the displacement of 2.59 million Ukrainian children, UNICEF reported on Tuesday.

The number of displaced children includes 791,000 who are still inside Ukraine and nearly 1.8 million who are refugees living outside of the country’s borders. Russian forces also have taken many Ukrainian children and relocated them to Russia.

“Millions of children and families have fled their homes in search of safety, with one in three children remaining displaced four years into this relentless war,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia Regina De Dominicis.

“For children in Ukraine, safety is increasingly hard to come by as attacks on civilian areas continue across the country,” De Dominicis said. “In many ways, the war is following these children.”

Many children and their families have been forced to flee their homes several times during the war as Russian forces targeted civilian areas.

A recently published UNICEF survey showed that a third of teen respondents between age 15 and 19 said they moved at least two times due to safety reasons so far during the war.

Bombardments by Russian artillery, attack drones and ballistic missiles have killed or injured more than 3,200 children since the war started.

Each year, the number of dead and injured has increased among Ukraine’s children, according to UNICEF.

“Obligations under international humanitarian law must be upheld, and every possible measure to protect children and the civilian infrastructure they rely on must be taken,” De Dominicis said.

“Every child has the right to grow up in safety, and without exception that right must be respected.”

Many of the support services for the country’s children also have been damaged or destroyed, including more than 1,700 schools and other education facilities, which deprives a third of Ukrainian children from attending school on a full-time basis.

Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have deprived millions of Ukrainian children and their families of the power needed to heat their homes and water during the country’s extremely cold winters.

Babies and young children are especially vulnerable to harm due to a lack of electrical power, which could lead to hypothermia and respiratory illnesses.

More than 200 medical facilities also have been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine over the past year and many more before then.

The stress of the ongoing war is putting a severe mental strain on Ukraine’s children, who often experience a constant fear of attacks that force them to seek shelter in basements and remain isolated while at home.

About a fourth of Ukrainian youth between age 15 and 19 say they are losing hope for the country’s future.

UNICEF officials said they are working with local and national authorities to support Ukrainian children and provide them and their families with safe water, healthcare, food, educational support, mental health services and similar needs.

Feb. 18 (Asia Today) — South Korea faces mounting strategic pressure as rivalry between the United States and China intensifies across the Indo-Pacific, raising questions about how Seoul should balance its security alliance with Washington and its economic ties with Beijing.

Analysts say the regional balance of power is entering a new phase. U.S. carrier strike groups continue to patrol the Western Pacific and longstanding alliances remain intact. Yet some experts argue Washington’s long-term strategy integrating economic, diplomatic and industrial policy lacks consistency.

In the March-April issue of Foreign Affairs, U.S. Indo-Pacific strategist Jack Cooper wrote that while American military power remains strong, its broader strategic integration has weakened. In an article titled “Asia After America,” he argued that policy shifts between administrations and the U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership have left gaps in regional economic leadership.

Cooper said the issue is not U.S. withdrawal but uncertainty over long-term strategic continuity. For allies, he wrote, the question is who shapes the regional order beyond crisis intervention.

Meanwhile, China has continued expanding its footprint through militarization of artificial islands in the South China Sea and sustained military activity near Taiwan. Beijing is also deepening regional economic integration through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Belt and Road Initiative, often referred to as the New Silk Road.

South Korea sits at the center of these tensions. Its security rests on its alliance with the United States, while China remains its largest trading partner. Key sectors such as semiconductors, batteries and artificial intelligence are directly exposed to U.S.-China competition.

Jung Seong-jang, vice president of the Sejong Institute, said in an interview that a Taiwan contingency could directly affect South Korea by disrupting critical sea lanes of communication.

A 2023 report by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy found that 33.27% of South Korea’s maritime trade passes through or near the Taiwan Strait. The institute estimated that disruption of major shipping routes in the area could cause economic losses of about 445.2 billion won ($334 million) per day, based on current exchange rates.

Jung cautioned that direct South Korean military involvement in protecting sea lanes could heighten tensions with China, while North Korea might exploit regional instability to escalate provocations.

Joo Eun-sik, head of the Korea Institute for Strategic Studies, outlined several policy recommendations.

First, he called for deeper integration of the U.S.-South Korea alliance, including coordinated planning in maritime security, missile defense, space and cyber domains to strengthen deterrence against so-called gray-zone threats.

Second, he urged a combined economic and security strategy, strengthening supply chain cooperation and expanding investment in strategic technologies. He said South Korea’s defense industry should function not only as an export sector but as part of a broader strategic network.

Third, he emphasized maritime capabilities, describing sea routes from the Strait of Malacca through the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait as vital to South Korea’s economy. Expanding blue-water naval operations, submarine forces, maritime patrol and unmanned systems, he said, is essential.

Finally, he highlighted the need to build strategic autonomy within the alliance framework by investing in independent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, space monitoring systems and layered missile defense.

Analysts say the Indo-Pacific order remains unsettled. Whether South Korea becomes a passive bystander or an active architect of its own strategy may depend on how effectively it integrates security, industry and technology into a coherent national plan.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260218010005435

Feb. 18 (UPI) — An analysis by Climate Central found that the world’s five largest coffee-producing countries, which account for 75% of global supply, are experiencing an average of 57 additional days of extreme heat per year due to climate change.

Its researchers found that heat threatens coffee harvests and coincides with recent record highs in prices.

Climate Central, based in Princeton, N.J., is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about climate change and how it affects people’s lives.

The analysis, released Wednesday, examined daily temperatures between 2021 and 2025 in 25 countries that represent 97% of global production. The report concluded that all of them recorded more days of harmful heat as a result of environmental warming attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.

The two main varieties that supply the global market are arabica and robusta.

Arabica accounts for between 60% and 70% of global supply and is grown mainly in mountainous regions of Latin America and Africa, where moderate temperatures have historically prevailed.

Robusta, which is more heat-tolerant but has a stronger flavor, is produced largely in Southeast Asian countriesm such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

Coffee is cultivated in a tropical belt stretching across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, where it requires specific temperature ranges and consistent rainfall.

Temperatures above 86 degrees F are considered extremely harmful for arabica and suboptimal for robusta, as they reduce yields and can affect bean quality.

The analysis was published after a period in which the planet recorded the warmest years since modern measurements began, with episodes of extreme heat in Latin America.

According to Climate Central, this warming increased the frequency of days exceeding the critical 86-degree threshold in coffee-growing regions.

Brazil, the world’s largest producer and responsible for nearly 37% of global supply, experienced an average of 70 additional days per year with temperatures above 86 degrees. In Minas Gerais, its main coffee-producing state, 67 of these extra days were recorded.

Colombia, the world’s third-largest producer and one of the leading exporters of arabica coffee, recorded 48 additional days per year above the critical threshold. The increase threatens productivity and bean quality, the foundation of its international competitiveness.

Some of the sharpest increases were observed in Central America. El Salvador recorded 99 additional days of extreme heat per year and Nicaragua 77, according to the report.

“Nearly all major producing countries are now experiencing more days of extreme heat that can damage plants, reduce yields and affect quality,” said Kristina Dahl, vice president for science at Climate Central.

“Over time, these impacts can extend from farms to consumers, directly affecting the quality and cost of their daily coffee.”

According to the World Bank, its beverage price index rose 58% in 2024 and in December remained approximately 91% higher than a year earlier, driven by increases in coffee and cocoa amid supply concerns.

In December, the price of arabica coffee rose 13% compared with the previous month and more than 60% year over year, while robusta more than doubled compared with the same period the previous year.