On World Press Freedom Day, Pope honours journalists killed in war zones
The pope urged the rememberance of journalists who lost their lives pursuing the truth, particularly in conflict areas. Published On 3 May 20263 May 2026 Pope Leo has marked World Press Freedom Day by condemning violations of media freedom around the world and paying tribute to journalists killed while reporting in conflict zones. At the end of his weekly Sunday prayer in a sunny Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican, the pontiff said the day highlighted both the importance of independent journalism and the growing threats faced by reporters. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “Today we celebrate World Press Freedom Day … unfortunately, this right is often violated, sometimes in blatant ways, sometimes in more hidden forms,” he said. World Press Freedom Day, sponsored by the UN cultural agency UNESCO is intended to show support for media organisations that come under pressure or censorship. It is also an opportunity to commemorate journalists who have been killed at work. The Roman Catholic leader urged the faithful to remember journalists and reporters who have lost their lives pursuing the truth, particularly in conflict areas. “We remember the many journalists and reporters who have been victims of war and violence,” the pope said. A report last month by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ Costs of War project found that Israel’s war on Gaza was the deadliest conflict for media workers ever recorded, with Israeli forces having killed 232 Palestinian journalists since October 2023. More journalists have been killed in Gaza than in both world wars, the Vietnam War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the United States war in Afghanistan combined, the report found. Advertisement In past speeches, the leader of the Catholic Church has described journalism as a pillar of society and democracy, and information as a public good that must be safeguarded and defended. The pontiff has often thanked reporters for sharing the truth, saying that doing their job could never be considered a crime, and frequently calling for the release of journalists who have been unfairly detained or prosecuted. Last week, the leading Paris-based press freedom NGO, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), or Reporters Without Borders, found that freedom of the press around the world has fallen to its lowest level in a quarter of a century. For the first time since RSF started producing the index in 2002, it said more than half of the world’s countries fall into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom – “a clear sign that journalism is increasingly criminalised worldwide”. Adblock test (Why?)
Who are the two Gaza flotilla activists abducted by Israel?
Two activists from a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla have been presented before an Israeli court days after they were abducted following their detention with 175 other campaigners by Israel in international waters near Greece. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila have been on a hunger strike during their detention although they have continued to drink water. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The Global Sumud Flotilla comprising more than 50 vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy on April 12 with the aim of breaking an Israeli blockade of Gaza and bringing supplies to the devastated Palestinian territory. Gaza has been under an Israeli sea, land and air blockade since 2005, and since October 7, 2023, Israel has tightened its control over what goes in and out of the enclave – home to 2.3 million people. The activists were intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off Greece on Thursday. All of them were released except Abu Keshek and Avila. So who are the two activists and why has Israel detained them? Here’s what we know: Who is Saif Abu Keshek? Abu Keshek is a Spanish-Swedish national of Palestinian origin who was abducted from the flotilla off Crete on Thursday. According to the website of the Global Sumud Flotilla, he is based in Barcelona and has been organising Palestinian solidarity movements across Europe for more than 20 years. He and his wife have three children, aged one, four and seven. Before joining this year’s flotilla, “Abukeshek was a lead organiser in the Global March to Gaza and currently chairs the Global Coalition Against the Occupation in Palestine and represents the Intersindical Alternativa de Catalunya (IAC),” the website noted. “He also serves on the General Secretariat of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad and sits on the board of the European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine”. Advertisement After Israel intercepted the flotilla on Thursday, Abu Keshek was abducted and transferred to Shikma Prison in Ashkelon. Shikma Prison (also known as Ashkelon Prison) in southern Israel has been frequently accused of harsh treatment and torture, particularly after Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza began in 2023. Abu Keshek was subjected to torture on Saturday on an Israeli military vessel, the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement that was based on accounts from released activists. The Israeli human rights organisation and legal centre Adalah visited the two men in Shikma Prison in Israel on Saturday and said: “The harrowing testimonies provided by both activists reveal physical violence and being held for prolonged periods in stress positions by Israeli military forces during the past two days they have spent at sea.” Abu Keshek “reported being kept hand-tied and blindfolded, and being forced to lie face-down on the floor from the moment of his seizure until this morning, resulting in bruising to his face and hands”, it said. “Avila reported being subjected to extreme brutality by the Israeli military during the seizure of the vessels,” it added, including being “dragged face-down across the floor and beaten so severely that he passed out twice”. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivered a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech on Friday, saying Spain would always protect its citizens and defend international law. “We demand the release of the Spanish citizen who has been unlawfully detained by Netanyahu’s government,” he said. Israel’s action has also prompted protests and condemnation from rights groups and governments. Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called it an “act of piracy”. Brazilian activist Thiago Avila and Spanish activist Saif Abu Keshek at a court in Ashkelon [Ilia Yefimovich/AFP] Who is Thiago Avila? Avila is a socio-environmentalist from Brazil. According to the Global Sumud Flotilla’s website, the 38-year-old has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter with his wife and has dedicated himself to solidarity with Palestine for more than 20 years. “He is a Steering Committee member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and was one of the coordinators onboard the Madleen mission that was intercepted and kidnapped by the Zionist entity in June 2025,” the website noted. Avila was put in solitary confinement in Israel’s Ayalon Prison on June 11, 2025, for several days after he was abducted during the Freedom Flotilla mission. According to the Brazilian embassy, after his recent detention in Israel in Shikma Prison, Avila reported being subjected to torture, beatings and mistreatment. Advertisement “During a monitored visit in which he was separated by glass and unable to communicate freely, embassy officials observed visible marks on his face. He reported significant pain, particularly in his shoulder,” the Global Sumud Flotilla said in a statement. What did the court say? On Sunday, the court in Ashkelon, Israel, approved a two-day extension to the detention of the activists who were brought to Israel for questioning. “The court extended their detention by two days,” said Miriam Azem, the international advocacy coordinator at Adalah, which represents the men, told the AFP news agency. Israeli authorities had earlier asked the court to extend their detention by four days. “The Global Sumud Flotilla reiterates that the forced transfer of civilians from international and European waters into custody, combined with credible allegations of torture and the absence of due process, constitutes a serious violation of international law and must be met with accountability,” the flotilla said in a statement. The organisation has also called on governments, human rights organisations, legal institutions, media outlets and civil society worldwide to demand their release. Adblock test (Why?)
Zelenskyy has no cards to play against Russia or the West
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s artistic skills have earned him the reputation of a public relations genius acknowledged by both friends and foes. United States President Donald Trump, who has openly attacked him in public, famously called the Ukrainian leader “the greatest salesman on Earth”. A much more sympathetic voice, New York Times columnist David French, has recently portrayed Zelenskyy as “the new leader of free world”. But Zelenskyy’s PR genius can do very little when it comes to changing the dynamics of the battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine war. In recent weeks, his administration and allies have tried hard to create the impression that the war might be approaching a turning point. But realities on the ground tell a different story. For example, there were official claims that in February, Ukraine made more territorial gains than Russia did. Some pro-Ukrainian war monitoring platforms have supported these claims while others have not. It is important to note these calculations can be tricky given that along the frontline there is an extensive grey zone in which control is unclear. The advances themselves are measured in 150-200 square kilometres per month. In other words, methodology can be manipulated in order to produce the desired conclusion: that Ukraine is gaining ground. In reality, there is nothing at all that suggests a significant change in the battlefield dynamics that have been in place for at least two years now. More importantly, Russian troops are currently besieging a number of industrial cities in the north of the Donetsk region. Their advances all along the northern border, in particular, are extending the active front line by hundreds of kilometres, which is making Ukraine’s personnel shortages even more acute. Advertisement Four years into the war, the Ukrainian army has had to resort to brutal campaigns to enforce mandatory conscription, pulling young men off the streets of towns and villages. Meanwhile, Russia is still able to lure volunteers by offering lavish compensation. Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Russia is losing more troops than it is able to recruit based on dubious casualty data. Zelenskyy, in particular, has stated the Russians suffered the highest number of monthly casualties in March this year – 35,000. But his statement contradicted his own Ministry of Defence, which claimed that the highest Russian monthly losses crossed 48,000 in January 2025, with an average monthly rate of roughly 35,000 throughout 2025. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, former military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, also contradicted this narrative that Russia is having major difficulty with deploying personnel. He acknowledged in a recent interview that the collapse of the Russian mobilisation effort was not forthcoming. It should be noted that Ukraine is waging a successful drone campaign to damage Russian oil facilities. But it is doubtful that it could change anything beyond providing dramatic footage of oil tanks on fire for TV networks to broadcast. In April, Russian oil revenues surged to $9bn, thanks to the US-Israel war on Iran. The windfall Russia got in a month is equivalent to 10 percent of the loan Ukraine is to receive from the European Union over the next two years to help fund its war effort. It cannot be denied that Russia has sustained major economic losses due to the war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has acknowledged as much. But the Russian economy displays much the same downturn as other European economies, also affected by wars in Ukraine and Iran. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita adjusted for purchasing power parity (an indicator reflecting living standards) currently exceeds that of less affluent EU countries, such as Romania and Greece, according to the IMF charts. The same indicator for Ukraine is on par with Mongolia and Egypt, while the country’s critical infrastructure lies in ruins and millions of Ukrainians have fled the country, most of them for good. With Ukraine’s prospects bleaker than ever, pro-Ukrainian audiences jump on every news from Russia, which they hope may signify “cracks in the regime”. Last month, an Instagram video by Russian influencer Victoria Bonya made Western headlines for its daring criticism of government policies. There may be frustration in Russia, but the regime is far from approaching a downfall. Advertisement This narrative, however, serves to distract Ukrainian and EU citizens from the painful truth that the war is heading towards a deadlock at best and Ukraine’s collapse at worst. Zelenskyy may have received a lifeline with the $90bn euro loan, but his and his allies’ lack of vision and winning strategy is staggering. The reality has already begun to kick in. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz recently suggested that Ukraine would have to concede some of its territory to Russia to end the war but get a faster track to EU membership in exchange. The EU’s defence chief, Andrius Kubilius, has gone further by claiming that NATO membership for Ukraine was out of the question and EU membership was going to be a “complicated process”. Instead, he proposed a military union of Ukraine and other European countries – an idea that Moscow will reject, interpreting it as NATO through the back door. What these contradictory statements manifest is that the main bargain over the contours of peace is currently going not so much between Zelenskyy and Putin, but between Zelenskyy and his Western, primarily European, allies. As Budanov recently claimed, the positions of Kyiv and Moscow can be moved closer to what is realistically attainable in peace talks. But Zelenskyy needs to show at least some kind of gain for Ukraine when a very unpalatable version of a peace treaty is finally signed. Ideally, that gain would be EU membership or real security guarantees, but as Merz and Kubilius’s statements suggest, the chances of attaining either are slim. The frustration among Ukrainians is already palpable. The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s fiscal committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said European officials should stop seeing Ukrainians as “a tool for solving someone’s geopolitical tasks” or as a “human shield”. They have no right to define Ukraine’s destiny, he
Timmy the humpback whale escapes to the North Sea
The whale calf’s repeated stranding off the coast of Germany sparked widespread concern and extensive media coverage. Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026 A humpback whale calf that earned huge media attention and the nickname Timmy after being repeatedly stranded in shallow waters near Germany has been released into the North Sea by rescue team. The operation to save the sea mammal, launched as its health deteriorated, transported Timmy in a water-filled barge and released him off Denmark on Saturday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Karin Walter-Mommert, one of the private financiers of the operation, said the whale appeared to be swimming freely and in the right direction upon his release, the APF news agency reports. He “should now swim up the Norwegian coast toward the Arctic”, she said. Timmy was first spotted near Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3. He repeatedly got stuck in shallow waters, despite efforts to encourage him back to the deeper sea. Far from his natural habitat of the Atlantic Ocean, the whale became distressed, and the public became invested in his plight as his health deteriorated and experts worried that he would not survive. The stranded whale blows water on a sand bank in Kirchdorf. Germany, April 9, 2026 [Michael Probst]/AP Photo] Several efforts to rescue him, including using inflatable cushions and a pontoon, were unsuccessful, leading German officials to suggest he was doomed. A private initiative to save the animal was then approved by Germany’s Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state, but that sparked debate as to whether it would be best to let him die in peace or push him to return home, an ordeal that could have proved too much for him. Advertisement Timmy developed a skin condition as a result of the Baltic Sea’s low salt content, and would barely move for days at a time, his breathing irregular. The International Whaling Commission said in April that with each stranding causing additional harm, “the chances of survival [had become] negligible”. However, the use of the special barge finally saw Timmy returned to his natural habitat. It is not clear why the whale swam into the Baltic Sea, far from the Atlantic Ocean. Some experts say the animal may have lost its way while swimming after a shoal of herring or during migration. A GPS transmitter was reportedly attached to the whale before his release, suggesting there could be more updates to come, with the case having been furiously followed by online media in particular. Adblock test (Why?)
Why are maritime laws failing to secure the seas?
Wars and territorial disputes are rewriting the rules of global shipping. Wars and territorial disputes are rewriting the rules of global shipping. From the Strait of Hormuz to the Panama Canal, and the Red Sea to the Black Sea, maritime traffic is under increasing threat. Is shipping becoming the new global battleground? And why are the decades-old laws governing the seas failing? Presenter: James Bays Guests: Rockford Weitz – director of the Fletcher Studies programme at Tufts University George Theocharidis – professor of maritime law and policy at the World Maritime University Stavros Karamperidis – associate professor in maritime economics at Plymouth University Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
The rise of political violence under Trump
Redi Tlhabi speaks to Professor Robert Pape on the rise of political violence in the US. After the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, has the US entered a new age of political violence? The third alleged attempted assassination of US President Donald Trump in recent years follows a series of politically motivated violent incidents last year, including the assassinations of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and Democratic state legislator Melissa Hortman. What is causing the increase in political violence in America? And how much is the Trump administration driving the politically divisive atmosphere with violent rhetoric and lethal foreign policy? This week on UpFront, Redi Tlhabi speaks with Robert Pape, professor of political science at the University of Chicago and author of the upcoming book “Our Own Worst Enemies: America in the Age of Violent Populism”. Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
The United States of Conspiracy
Another assassination attempt on Donald Trump reveals mistrust in the media and conspiracy theories fill the gap. An assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner underscored the spectacle, chaos and violence that have defined Donald Trump’s second presidency. As journalists rushed to report what had happened, a parallel narrative of conspiracy was already taking shape online. Conspiracy theories get far more currency than they merit – and they are a by-product of an information landscape that has been muddied by Trump. Contributors:John Nichols – Executive editor, The NationNiall Stanage – White House columnist, The HillAmber Duke – Editor-in-chief, Daily CallerSuzanne Kianpour – Cohost, Global Power Shifts podcast On our radar Russia’s effort to tighten internet restrictions and throttle Telegram has caused a furious public backlash. The uproar has forced President Vladimir Putin to admit the measures went too far. Ryan Kohls reports. Israel’s information war on Lebanon Throughout two years of war, Israeli forces have used drones, AI-powered targeting and the infiltration of Lebanese communications devices and the networks they rely on – to control the population, spread terror and kill people. And it has escalated its information war, using all kinds of propaganda to deepen fear and divisions within Lebanese society. We speak to Justin Salhani about the tactics Israel is using in Lebanon. Featuring:Justin Salhani – Senior producer, Al Jazeera Digital Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Arsenal vs Fulham – Premier League
blinking-dotLive MatchLive Match, Follow our live build-up, with full team news coverage, ahead of our text commentary stream. Published On 2 May 20262 May 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Israel’s ‘two-tier’ policing and the crime epidemic in Palestinian towns
Addressing the cameras following reports of spiralling youth violence, including the killing of the 21-year-old former Israeli soldier Yemanu Binyamin Zalka last week, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was clear. “This will be a total war,” he said, announcing a national operation to target a surge in youth violence. “We will restore security to the streets and calm to parents. Anyone who harms Israeli civilians will face the strong hand of the Israel Police and pay a heavy price.” Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list The response was sharp, aligned itself with the victim, and promised a solution. That, critics say, is a sharp contrast to Ben-Gvir’s response – or lack of one – to the ongoing epidemic of violence in Israeli towns and villages populated by Palestinians, which has so far led to the deaths of almost 100 people and, according to Israel’s own finance ministry, costs the country up to $6.7bn a year. Allegations of two-tier policing, to the detriment of what Israelis refer to as the “Arab sector”, have dogged Israel’s police for decades. But the situation has gotten worse under the current administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has been in power since the end of 2022, and Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who is in charge of the police. The statistics since Ben-Gvir came into office back up the narrative that the crime wave in Palestinian communities has gotten significantly worse. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the murder rate in Israel’s Palestinian communities increased from 4.9 per 100,000 in 2020, to 11 per 100,000, on par with the murder rate in Sudan and Iraq. Advertisement In contrast, the murder rate in Israel’s Jewish society stood at approximately 0.6 per 100,000. That increase can not totally be attributed to the current government – Netanyahu himself was prime minister in 2020, when the murder rate was lower. But critics argue that the introduction into government of figures like Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who they say are openly disdainful of Palestinians, has contributed to the sharp uptick in violence. Analysts and experts who spoke to Al Jazeera had little doubt over the Netanyahu government’s culpability in the increased murder rate. “They really don’t mind that Palestinians are killing each other, as they’ve been left to do for years,” lawmaker Aida Touma-Suleiman, a Palestinian member of the Hadash party and a longstanding critic of the lack of policing in Palestinian communities in Israel, said. Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir celebrates after Israel’s parliament passed a law making the death penalty a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks [Oren Ben Hakoon/Reuters] “It would never occur to the police that they should provide a service to Arab neighbourhoods,” she said of the lack of physical police presence within Palestinian communities. “It’s about enforcement. It’s hostile.” While police stations are standard in Israel’s Jewish-majority areas, there are only about 10 in Palestinian-majority areas. Among the decisions that have most angered Palestinian advocacy groups in Israel was the government’s December approval of a $68.5m cut to an economic development programme for Palestinian communities in Israel, in order to fund more policing in the communities. Critics agreed that more funding was needed for the police, but bemoaned that the money was coming from a fund designed to address the root causes of criminality by addressing housing and economic development, areas where Palestinian communities are notoriously underfunded in comparison to Jewish ones. Hardwired poverty Palestinian citizens of Israel make up around 21 percent of the country’s population. Disadvantaged economically, they are the descendants of Palestinians who did not flee after the 1948 establishment of Israel – an event they know as the Nakba, when an estimated 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and forced out. Often concentrated in separate towns and villages from Israeli Jews, Palestinians frequently describe a reality of chronic underinvestment, with the presence of the state either limited or non-existent. Advertisement Joblessness has long been woven into their daily lives, analysts say, but the unemployment rate has worsened since Israel choked off access to the occupied West Bank, where many worked, after the Hamas-led October 7 attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in 2023. The most recent official date, based on 2024 figures, shows that 37.6 percent of Palestinian households in Israel live below the poverty line. Palestinian Israelis protest in January against the wave of crime and killings within Arab communities [Fie: Ammar Awad/Reuters] Local criminal networks in Israel’s Palestinian towns and villages have grown in scale and influence in recent years, in some cases taking on the form of mafia-style organisations, untroubled, critics say, by the current government. “There is a wide network of criminal gangs who exert control across Arab neighbourhoods,” said Daniel Bar-Tal, professor of social-political psychology at Tel Aviv University, adding that criminality and even murder were allowed to continue with the state’s own complicity. “In part, the government just likes it. They get to say, ‘Look, this is Arab culture, this is Arab society. This is what they do.’ They also rely on the collaboration of the gangs to gather information on what’s going on in these communities,” he said, referring to numerous accounts of how friends who had reported criminal activity in their neighbourhoods were dismissed. “And lastly, it is because the police force is controlled by Ben-Gvir, a racist who actively enjoys dehumanising Arab society.” Ben-Gvir has previously rejected accusations of racism and says he is only against those who harm Jews. Policed by the enemy From leveraging his position in government to urge on the genocide in Gaza, to defending officers under his charge filmed raping a Palestinian prisoner, Ben-Gvir’s actions have dismayed many of Israel’s self-styled liberals, just as they have shocked observers around the world. However, following an uptick in crime in Israel, criticism of Ben-Gvir’s performance in his role as national security minister has begun to enter the domestic mainstream. As
K-pop’s BTS comeback tour rallies South Korea’s global ‘soft power’ drive
Seoul – Shekinah Yawra had no other option but to spend the night at a South Korean jjimjilbang, a 24-hour bathhouse, after every hotel near central Seoul sold out in late March. But sleep was secondary for the 32-year-old Filipino who had made her way to Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square at 7am to secure a spot in a crowd that city officials estimated would grow to hundreds of thousands. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list All this was for a glimpse at the seven-member K-pop supergroup BTS, who returned to the stage on March 21 after almost four years away from the limelight for their staggered, mandatory military service. Though she failed to secure one of 22,000 free tickets for BTS’s first return concert in the square, Yawra was still ecstatic to stand on the sidelines and watch the concert live on a big screen set up for the occasion. “We all came just for this,” she told Al Jazeera, recounting how friends had flown in from the Philippines for a single night to catch the concert. Worldwide, more than 18.4 million viewers tuned in for the Netflix livestream of the concert. Kpop group BTS perform during ‘BTS The Comeback Live Arirang’ concert in central Seoul, South Korea, March 21, 2026 [Kim Hong-ji/Pool/Reuters] With an estimated 30 million fans worldwide – who refer to themselves as the BTS ARMY – the K-pop group is the most visible symbol of “Hallyu”, or the “Korean Wave”, and the global surge of interest in South Korean popular culture and the financial revenues being generated as a result. In late March, BTS’s 10th studio album, Arirang, topped the charts in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, the world’s three largest music markets. The group’s upcoming world tour is expected to generate more than $1.4bn in revenue across more than 80 shows in 23 countries. Advertisement Domestically, inbound tourist numbers for the first 18 days of March rose 32.7 percent from the previous month, according to Ministry of Justice data, as the return concert approached and hotel prices surged across central Seoul amid the demand for rooms. In the week leading up to the concert, sales of BTS merchandise – from BTS glow sticks to blankets – surged 430 percent at the Shinsegae Duty Free retail outlet in central Seoul, the company said. Over the concert weekend, revenues also rose 30 percent at the city’s Lotte Department Store and 48 percent at Shinsegae overall, compared with the same March weekend a year earlier, in 2025. Fans cheer before the BTS The Comeback Live Arirang concert as they wait near the concert venue, in central Seoul, South Korea, on March 21, 2026 [Kim Hong-ji/Reuters] As far back as 2022, the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (KCTI) – a government-sponsored think tank and research organisation – estimated that a single BTS concert in Seoul could generate up to 1.2 trillion won ($798m) in overall economic impact. KCTI researcher Yang Ji-hoon told Al Jazeera that a sample study of the crowd at the BTS comeback event at Gwanghwamun Square highlighted the uniqueness of fandom-driven tourism. More than half of those at the concert were foreign visitors and many required long-haul travel to attend. “In Europe and the United States, travel tends to be concentrated within its own regions,” Yang said. “So, for people to overcome such travel barriers and come to South Korea, it usually requires more than just ordinary motivation or typical spending – it’s not something that happens easily,” he said. K-pop’s transition to the global mainstream The scale of BTS’s return to the entertainment world reflects a broader state-backed strategy. When music promoter Hybe requested Seoul city support for the Gwanghwamun square comeback concert, authorities approved it on public-interest grounds, treating the event as a showcase of national cultural influence. Almost befitting an official event, more than 10,000 state personnel were deployed for security, logistics and crowd control. According to data retrieved by South Korean publication Sisain, through a public information disclosure request to the Seoul government, close to 130 million won ($87,400) of city funds were spent as part of logistics for the comeback concert. South Korean government support for BTS has a precedent. As members of the boyband approached South Korea’s mandatory military service age, policymakers debated special exemptions for members of BTS, which was estimated to have generated $4.65bn annually to the country’s economy. After BTS’s forthcoming concerts in Mexico City sold out in just 37 minutes, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung to “bring the acclaimed K-pop artists more often”, noting nearly one million fans in Mexico had attempted to secure 150,000 tickets. Advertisement South Korea’s cultural influence is also extending beyond music. South Korea’s cosmetics exports surpassed $11bn last year, according to global accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), overtaking France in cosmetics shipments to the US, while South Korean food and agricultural exports reached a record $13.6bn, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. KCTI researcher Yang described the growing interest as a phase of “transition to the global mainstream”, where South Korean products are internationally recognised and content output is measured against worldwide benchmarks such as the Billboard charts and the Academy Awards. He also warned that structural reform is now essential to keep pace with the wave of interest in South Korea. “As the industries expand in scale, they must also evolve in its underlying systems, infrastructure, and workforce,” he said. “Rather than focusing solely on direct financial support, future governmental policies should move toward strengthening foundational conditions – such as improving labour environments, addressing unfair practices, building relevant infrastructure, and establishing more robust statistical and data systems,” he said. Politicians appear to be paying attention. During his election campaign last year, President Lee framed the next phase of cultural expansion as “Hallyu (Korean Wave) 4.0”, with promises to grow the sector into a 300 trillion won ($203bn) industry with 50 trillion won ($34bn) in exports.