BTS fans urge K-pop sensation’s label to divest from Israel

Special Fans wait to visit a pop-up store of South Korean K-pop sensation BTS entitled “Monochrome” in Seoul on April 26, 2024. (File/AFP)
Fans wait to visit a pop-up store of South Korean K-pop sensation BTS entitled “Monochrome” in Seoul on April 26, 2024. (File/AFP)
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Updated 07 August 2024
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BTS fans urge K-pop sensation’s label to divest from Israel

Fans wait to visit a pop-up store of South Korean K-pop sensation BTS entitled “Monochrome” in Seoul on April 26, 2024. (AFP)
  • ARMY for Palestine is run by BTS fans from around the world, including India, Malaysia
  • BTS values include being socially aware, fans say, as they draw attention to genocide in Gaza

JAKARTA: Fans of the world’s biggest K-pop band, BTS, are demanding the group’s record label divest from entities linked to Israel, harnessing the fandom’s prowess for social justice activism to support Palestine.

BTS, also known as the Bangtan Sonyeondan, or “Bulletproof Boy Scouts,” is the seven-member K-pop group that has become one of the music industry’s most profitable franchises since its 2013 debut. The millions of BTS fans around the world are collectively known as ARMY.

The enormous fandom has gained its own popularity over the years, becoming known for its online activism and making global headlines as members raise millions of dollars for charity and organize viral social media campaigns.

Some of those fans are now part of a group called ARMY for Palestine and have been coordinating efforts directed at the band’s label, Hybe Corporation, urging the company to sever ties with Scooter Braun, the CEO of the label’s American subsidiary, for his support for Israel.

“We have our ongoing Hybe divestment campaign, where we demand that Hybe divest from Zionist companies and collaborators, including Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun,” Lila, a Palestinian member of the group, told Arab News.

On X, Lila and her friends have promoted the #HybeDivestFromZionism campaign, which not only calls for Braun’s dismissal, but also urges fans to stop buying albums and merchandise, and streaming music from artists signed to the label.

ARMY for Palestine took its campaign to the streets of Seoul in March, when members sent an electronic billboard truck outlining their demands to Hybe headquarters in the South Korean capital.

“As an ARMY it’s important because this is exactly what we have always claimed this fandom stands for … ARMY is known to be very involved in fandom activism,” Lila said.

“We were hoping to put that empathy, advocacy, loudness, progressivity and organizing skill that we have been known for over the past decade to good use … there are so many Palestinian ARMYs.

“We have lost so many members of this community to the brutal war crimes of the occupation. So many ARMYs are in Gaza, experiencing a genocide.”

Israel’s ground and air attacks over the past nine months have killed more than 39,000 Palestinian citizens in Gaza, according to official estimates, though a study published in the Lancet journal last month estimated that the actual death toll could exceed 186,000.

Some BTS fans began speaking up about Israel’s war on Gaza in November last year, when a clip showing photographs of the band members being pulled from rubble in the enclave went viral online. ARMY for Palestine was launched around the same time.

The group is run by Palestinian members of the BTS fandom — some of whom are based in the US and Europe — and people from other countries including India, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Deeja, another Palestinian member of the group, said that being an ARMY member means reflecting “the values of BTS in being socially aware” and caring about other people.

“It’s important to us that ARMY see our humanity as Palestinians, though, so we think that’s why being in this space as both Palestinian and ARMY is so important to us — to really be ourselves as an advocate for our people in this space,” she told Arab News.

“Honestly, we just want people to care — to care about Palestinians and to see Palestinians … start listening to Palestinians and our voices. The most essential tool to keep fighting oppression is community. Anything is possible if you have a community of like-minded people behind you.”

Though ARMY for Palestine is encouraged by the support it has received from the international community, its members have also suffered “backlash and harassment” from within the BTS fandom since last year.

“There is a division … it’s definitely something that’s been disheartening — and pretty terrifying to see people who were in community with us dehumanize us just because we are Palestinians asking for people to help us,” group member Zuzu told Arab News.

“Despite the pushback, we have still built a little, beautiful community with empathetic, caring ARMYs who are willing to organize, use their voice for oppressed people and push for change. Our movement keeps growing … we’ll continue being loud.”

For Casey, an Indonesian ARMY member based in Bogor, West Java, speaking up for Palestine is part of what it means to be a BTS fan, even though members of the K-pop group themselves have yet to speak up about the violence in Gaza.

“BTS is the biggest K-pop idol group and ARMY is the biggest fandom. The voices of idols and their fans can be influential,” Casey told Arab News.

“BTS and ARMY voices are very much needed to educate and raise awareness on the genocide that is happening in Palestine.”


Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center

Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center
Updated 53 min 18 sec ago
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Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center

Argentina to try 10 in absentia over 1994 bombing of Jewish center
  • Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group of carrying it out at Iran’s request
  • Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the “exceptional” nature of the decision to send the case to court, over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina will try in absentia ten Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, which killed 85 people, a ruling seen by AFP on Thursday said.

The attack, which caused devastation in Latin America’s biggest Jewish community, has never been claimed or solved, but Argentina and Israel have long suspected Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah group of carrying it out at Iran’s request.

Judge Daniel Rafecas acknowledged the “exceptional” nature of the decision to send the case to court, over three decades after the bombing and with the suspects all still at large.

Trying them in absentia, he said, allowed to “at least try to uncover the truth and reconstruct what happened.”

On July 18, 1994, a truck laden with explosives was driven into the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) and detonated.

The deadliest attack in Argentina’s history injured more than 300 people

No-one has ever been arrested over the attack.

The ten suspects facing trial are former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats for whom Argentina has issued international arrest warrants.

Since 2006 Argentina had sought the arrest of eight Iranians, including then-president Ali Akbar Hashemi Bahramaie Rafsanjani, who died in 2017.

Iran has always denied any involvement and refused to arrest and hand over suspects.

Thursday’s ruling on trying them in absentia is the first of its kind in the South American country.

Until March this year, the country’s laws did not allow for suspects to be tried unless they were physically present.

It comes amid a new push in recent years for justice to be served over the attack, backed by President Javier Milei, a staunch ally of Israel.

Rafecas said a trial in absentia was justified given the “material impossibility of securing the presence of the defendants and the nature of the crime against humanity under investigation.”

In April 2024, an Argentine court blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which it called a “crime against humanity.”

It found that the attack and another on the Israeli embassy in 1992 that killed 29 people were likely triggered by the Argentine government under then-president Carlos Menem canceling three contracts with Iran for the supply of nuclear equipment and technology.

The court did not however manage to produce evidence of Iran’s involvement.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San Jose, Costa Rica last year found the Argentine state responsible for not preventing, nor properly investigating, the attack.

It also blamed the state for efforts to “cover up and obstruct the investigation.”

Former president Cristina Kirchner has been ordered to stand trial over a memorandum she signed with Iran in 2013 to investigate the bombing.

The memorandum, which was later annulled, allowed for suspects to be interrogated in Iran rather than Argentina, leading Kirchner to be accused of conspiring with Tehran in a cover-up.

She has denied the allegations.


Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants

Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants
Updated 26 June 2025
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Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants

Germany scraps funding for sea rescues of migrants
  • “I don’t think it’s the foreign office’s job to finance this kind of sea rescue,” Wadephul said
  • “We need to be active where the need is greatest“

BERLIN: Germany is cutting financial support for charities that rescue migrants at risk of drowning in the Mediterranean, saying it will redirect resources to addressing conditions in source countries that spur people to leave.

For decades, migrants driven by war and poverty have made perilous crossings to reach Europe’s southern borders, with thousands estimated to die every year in their bid to reach a continent grown increasingly hostile to migration.

“Germany is committed to being humane and will help where people suffer but I don’t think it’s the foreign office’s job to finance this kind of sea rescue,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told a news conference.

“We need to be active where the need is greatest,” he added, mentioning the humanitarian emergency in war-shattered Sudan.

Under the previous left-leaning government, Germany began paying around 2 million euros ($2.34 million) annually to non-governmental organizations carrying out rescues of migrant-laden boats in trouble at sea.

For them, it has been a key source of funds: Germany’s Sea-Eye, which said rescue charities have saved 175,000 lives since 2015, received around 10 percent of its total income of around 3.2 million euros from the German government.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives won February’s national election after a campaign promising to curb irregular migration, which some voters in Europe’s largest economy see as being out of control.

Even though the overall numbers have been falling for several years, many Germans blame migration-related fears for the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), now the second largest party in parliament.

Many experts say that migration levels are mainly driven by economic and humanitarian emergencies in the source countries, with the official cold shoulder in destination countries having had little impact in deterring migrants.

Despite this, German officials suggest that sea rescues only incentivise people to risk the sometimes deadly crossings.

“The (government) support made possible extra missions and very concretely saved lives,” said Gorden Isler, Sea-Eye’s chairperson. “We might now have to stay in harbor despite emergencies.”

The opposition Greens, who controlled the foreign office when the subsidies were introduced, criticized the move.

“This will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and deepen human suffering,” said joint floor leader Britta Hasselmann.


Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured
Updated 26 June 2025
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Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured

Mass shooting in gang-plagued Mexican state leaves 12 dead and more injured
  • The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato said some 20 others were hospitalized
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the victims included children

MEXICO CITY: At least 12 people were killed, including a teenager, and more wounded in a Tuesday night shooting in the central Mexican city of Irapuato, authorities said on Wednesday.

The attorney general’s office in Guanajuato, the violence-plagued state where Irapuato is located, said some 20 others were hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said earlier on Wednesday that the victims included children, although the attorney general’s office later confirmed only one casualty was a minor, aged 17.

“It is very unfortunate what happened. An investigation is under way,” Sheinbaum said.

Local media reported the shooting happened during an evening party celebrating a Catholic holiday, the Nativity of John the Baptist.

A video circulating on social media showed people dancing in the patio of a housing complex while a band played in the background, before gunfire erupted. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the video.

Guanajuato has been for many years one of the most violent regions in the country.

On Tuesday, five other people were killed in other parts of the state, according to the attorney general’s office.


29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush
Updated 26 June 2025
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29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush

29 pupils taking high school exams killed in Central Africa crush
  • In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school
  • “I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” Touadera said

BANGUI: Twenty-nine students taking their high school exams in the Central African Republic died in a stampede sparked by an exploding power transformer, the health ministry told AFP Thursday.

Just over 5,300 students were sitting the second day of the baccalaureate exams at the time of the explosion early Wednesday afternoon in Bangui, the capital of the deeply poor nation.

In the ensuing panic, supervisors and students tried to flee, some jumping from the first floor of the school.

The injured were transported by ambulance, on the back of pickup trucks or by motorbike taxi, AFP journalists saw.

“I would like to express my solidarity and compassion to the parents of the deceased candidates, to the educational staff, to the students,” President Faustin Archange Touadera said in a video published on his party’s Facebook page.

Touadera, who is attending a summit of the Gavi vaccine alliance in Brussels, also announced three days of national mourning.

According to a document circulating on social media and authenticated by the health ministry, 29 deaths were registered by hospitals in the city.

“The hospital was overwhelmed by people to the point of obstructing caregivers and ambulances, a health ministry source stated.

UN peacekeepers, police and other security were seen around the Barthelemy Boganda high school and hospitals.

Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zingas said in a statement Wednesday that “measures will be taken quickly to shed light on the circumstances of this incident.”

The minister added that a further statement would follow regarding selection of a date for the students to resume their exams program.

The Republican Bloc for the Defense of the Constitution (BRDC), a coalition of opposition parties, condemned what it termed “the irresponsibility of the authorities in place, who have failed in their duty to ensure the safety of students and school infrastructure.”

The CAR is among the poorest countries in the world and, since independence from France in 1960, has endured a succession of coups, authoritarian rulers and civil wars.

The latest civil war started more than a decade ago. The government has secured the main cities and violence has subsided in recent years.

But fighting occasionally erupts in remote regions between rebels and the national army, which is backed by Wagner mercenaries and Rwandan troops.

Municipal, legislative, and presidential elections are scheduled for August and December of this year but UN experts are calling for urgent institutional reform of the electoral authority before the polls and for “transparent internal governance,” as tensions between the government and the opposition intensify.


Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks
Updated 26 June 2025
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Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks

Kremlin says no date yet for next round of Ukraine peace talks
  • Peskov said Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate
  • They have made no progress toward a ceasefire

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said on Thursday there was no progress yet toward setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported.

Another agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favor of continued US efforts to mediate.

Resuming negotiations after a gap of more than three years, Russia and Ukraine held face-to-face talks in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2 that led to a series of prisoner exchanges and the return of the bodies of dead soldiers.

But they have made no progress toward a ceasefire which Ukraine, with Western backing, has been pressing for.