World

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Dozens of children repeat after their instructor’s dance moves to K-pop group NCT Dream’s latest song “Hot Sauce,” as sweat drips from their foreheads.

These children, all around 8 years old, are intensely following their instructor’s every move as their parents’ watch and cheer on their sons in a K-pop dance class for elementary school kids at a dance studio located in the wealthy streets of the Gangnam district in Seoul, South Korea.

K-pop’s growing global presence — and subsequent success — in the music industry has led to a national recognition in South Korea of K-pop as a potential growth industry, alongside the likes of semiconductors and IT that South Korea has proven to be globally competitive.

When K-pop boy band BTS topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart last summer with their first all-English single “Dynamite,” South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism published an analysis report estimating that the economic ripple effect of the song “Dynamite” alone earned up to $1.5 billion for the country.

“The technical innovation of online concerts, and the growing K-pop fandom will have strong economic impact. When the K-pop industry grows, it inevitably leads to a need for more jobs in the industry,” Park Chanuk of the Cultural Industry Research Center at the Korea Culture & Tourism Institute, told ABC News.

With prospects brighter than ever, parents, and even schools, are now jumping onto the bandwagon for an opportunity of a potentially promising career for their children. Parents waiting for their children’s K-pop dance class to finish at the Shine Dance Academy in Gangnam say their boys and girls deserve a chance to discover their talents early on.

“I think if my son wanted to be a K-pop star, I’d like to see that,” Xing Mei, a Chinese mom who was a fan of the first generation K-pop group H.O.T., told ABC News as she was filming her son throughout the class. “But it’s up to him whether he’ll make it or not.”

Another parent told ABC News that he saw a lot of potential for the K-pop industry globally, and that he wanted to let his son have all possibilities open, including the possibility of becoming a K-pop celebrity like BTS, Blackpink and EXO.

“I think the perspective has changed a lot from less than 10 years ago,” Calvin Kang, father to a 9-year-old boy, told ABC News. “Many parents didn’t want their kids to be an entertainer in the past but now, after the success of K-pop, I think that a lot of parents introduce their kids to K-pop dancing and singing.”

The Shine Dance Academy, which claims it is the first and largest K-pop dance academy for kids in South Korea, explained that more children have shown interest in their program after the success of BTS in the global market.

“Parents are really serious about this,” dance instructor Joe Song told ABC News. “It’s not cheap to have kids take K-pop dance classes from an early age, and it takes that commitment for both kids and parents to actually do this.”

The accelerated popularity of K-pop has even pushed schools to create classes for their students.

Kwangchon High School, a small school of only 76 students in the rural town of Chungnam Province, was quick to adapt to this rising demand and, with permission from the Chungnam Province Office of Education, the school restructured its curriculum to specialize in “all things K-pop,” — even renaming the school to the High School of Korean Pop and Performing Arts.

Here, teenagers take classes such as musical instruments, live performance practice, second language and concert drills which are considered crucial to being on the path to become a star entertainer.

“The goal is not to nurture K-pop celebrities,” Principal Park Boyung Gyu of the K-pop high school told ABC News. “We aim to let students find their strengths so they can take part in the millions of job opportunities surrounding the globally expanding K-pop industry.”

The High School of Korean Pop and Performing Arts received over 10 million dollars’ worth of investments in its facilities from its local government and education offices.

The Chungnam province education office paid for the school’s K-pop changeover expense as well as for new instruments in the hopes that the school will become a landmark for K-pop in South Korea. All lessons, including professional K-pop dance and song writing classes using music editing software, are free of charge at the school and the 124 attending students only have to pay for their dormitory and commute.

“Considering the limitless potential of the K-pop industry, we are investing in the school hoping the city will become a mecca to train workforce for the growing K-pop industry,” Jeong Dae-hoe, vice commissioner from the Chungnam province education office, explained to ABC News.

More than a dozen colleges in South Korea that used to teach classical music and dance are beginning to adopt K-pop as part of its formal education curriculum as an increasing number of the younger generation aim to be part of the multi-billion-dollar industry in order to train young talent who could eventually take on jobs like producers, music writers, choreographers or production staff.

“There’s a greater added value to K-pop, not just from the music and contents itself, but K-pop’s impact on products and services provided by general companies,” K-pop columnist Kim Hern-sik told ABC News. “K-pop also has a positive effect on South Korea’s brand image, therefore resulting in an economic effect that cannot be calculated.”

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The mass-clearing of trees will be the doom of many forms of life on this planet.

Forests are critical to the Earth’s ecology. They capture and store carbon out of the atmosphere. They can alter the air quality and quantity of drinking water. And they provide the most habitat for the world’s terrestrial species.

And yet, alarming rates of deforestation are continuing all over the globe, despite warnings from scientists and urgent calls from environmental activists to cease the clearing as much as possible.

The planet is losing an estimated 137 species of plants, animals and insects every day due to deforestation, according to the World Animal Foundation.

Here are four important species at risk of extinction, each in a region heavily affected by deforestation:

Harpy eagle, the Amazon rainforest

Populations of the harpy eagle, one of the largest eagle species in the world, are dwindling as tree canopies in the Amazon rainforest disappear, and along with it the habitat for the eagles’ preferred prey, a new study published Wednesday in Nature Scientific Reports found.

The eagles rely on specific prey that live in the canopy forests: two-toed sloths, brown capuchin monkeys and grey woolly monkeys, but as the food supply decreased, the eagles did not switch to alternative prey, the researchers found.

The eagles would then deliver prey to their hatchlings less frequently, and when they did, the animals tended to have a smaller estimated weight in landscapes with 50% to 70% deforestation, according to the study.

The researchers observed multiple eaglet deaths from starvation and did not locate any nests in areas with more than 70% deforestation.

Brazil is home to 2.1 million square miles of rain forest — more than 65% of all the rain forest in the world, according to the World Animal Foundation.

But because of the Brazilian government’s dedication to meat and leather trade, about 15% of the world’s tropical forest cover was cleared between 1991 and 2004, according to the Foundation.

The harpy eagle is at risk of disappearing in a similar fashion as 10 mammal, 20 bird and eight amphibian species during three decades of deforestation, according to the foundation. The species is listed as near threatened, with a decreasing population, on the International Union of Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.

Apex predators are threatened around the world, and their extinctions are often driven by failure to acquire prey due to “severe prey scarcity,” according to researchers.

Sumatran orangutan, Southeast Asia

The palm oil industry, 85% of which is produced in Indonesia and Malaysia, has wiped out a critical amount of trees in Southeast Asia — and with it, many endangered species.

Less than 80,000 orangutans are left in the world, and all of them live in Indonesia and Malaysia. Their habitats are under “constant threat” of deforestation, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Up to 3,000 are killed every year, according to the Orangutan Conservancy.

The trees are cleared by illegal logging and for conversion from rain forests to palm oil plantations. About 80% of the orangutan’s habitat was cleared in the 1990s and early 2000s by degradation, fragmentation and clearing — and sometimes by intentionally set fires, the magazine Scientific American reported.

Orangutans are agile climbers and “supremely adapted to life in trees, and it’s rare for adult orangutans to ever touch the ground, according Scientific American.

The orangutans are then forced to new areas in search for food, often bringing them in contact with humans, which leads to them being killed as “pests,” according to the Orangutan Conservancy.

Poachers are also targeting orangutans for the bush meat trade, ironically often by loggers who are clearing the forest, since the logging companies do not provide food for the workers, according to the magazine.

The Sumatran orangutan is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN’s Red List.

Koala, Australia

Koalas have been on the decline due to deforestation even before the 2019 Australian bushfires wiped out an estimated 5,000 of the marsupials.

Between 2012 and 2016, at least 5,183 koalas were killed due to the bulldozing of trees, the World Wildlife Fund Australia found.

The koalas live in eucalyptus trees in forests and woodland, using them as both food and shelter. The habitats are left fragmented or completely destroyed as a result of the clearing, and they are forced to the ground to seek alternative shelter. They are often hit by cars, attacked by dogs or contract diseases, according to WWF Australia.

“If you lose your home and your food source then you are doomed,” Deborah Tabart, chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, told ABC News over email.

Protecting the habitat is the “only way” to save the species, Tabart said. The Australian Koala Foundation has proposed the Koala Protection Act, which would focus on protecting trees, including habitats that are empty. While current federal legislation focuses on protecting the koala species itself, its habitat “is almost impossible to protect,” according to the foundation.

The organization is also calling for a moratorium on logging of native forests, protection of all koala habitat and better management of plantation forests adjacent to koala habitats.

The species is listed as vulnerable with a decreasing population on the IUCN’s Red List. At the current rate, koalas could become extinct by 2050, according to WWF Australia.

Jaguar, North America

Populations of the largest species of cat in the Western Hemisphere are continuing to decrease due to loss of habitat.

While jaguars tend to live in habitat with dense tree canopy cover, such as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil or the Maya Forest in Central America, their range historically came as far north as New Mexico and Arizona, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The big cats require expansive areas of land for survival, but their current range is now just 51% of its historic range, according to the IUCN.

Accelerated deforestation continue to threaten the jaguar habitat, especially when it occurs in corridors that connect conservation areas, according to a 2016 study published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation. Without the corridors to travel through, the populations can become isolated and lose genetic diversity, which could then affect the short and long-term survival of the species.

In Gran Chaco, South America’s largest tropical dry forest located in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia, about a third of critical jaguar habitat has been lost since the mid-1980s due to deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, a study published in Biodiversity Research in 2019 found.

There is a possibility that jaguars could reestablish a population in the United States through Mexico, which is the current northern edge of the range, Dan Thornton, assistant professor in the Washington State University School of the Environment and one of the authors of the study, told Washington State Magazine.

Jaguars are listed as near threatened with a decreasing population on the IUCN’s Red List. They are so elusive, that it is difficult to estimate how many are left in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(HONG KONG) — As tension runs high in Hong Kong, Thursday marked 24 years of the former British colony’s return to China, and one year since Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in response to months of unrest and challenge to its authority.

In stark contrast to the mood in Hong Kong, Beijing has been in a celebratory mode, with patriotic shows, military flybys and cannon salutes to memorialize the founding of the Communist Party 100 years ago.

Chinese President Xi Jinping declared in front of tens of thousands gathered in Tiananmen Square that foreign powers attempting to bully his country will “get their heads bashed” and that they’ll be met with a “great wall of steel.”

In a defiant hourlong address, Xi said there was no room for so-called “sanctimonious preaching.”

China’s strongest leader since Mao Zedong also made an “unshakeable” commitment to unification with Taiwan, which China sees as a wayward province. “No one should underestimate the resolve, the will and ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Xi said.

Beijing’s emphasis on security and territorial integrity isn’t lost on the citizens of Hong Kong, who’ve witnessed authorities carry out an intensive crackdown in the city over the last year since the introduction of the security law. Peaceful mass protests against Beijing’s encroachment erupted in the Asian financial hub in mid-2019 garnering global attention. However as the protest began to grew increasingly violent over the course of months, Beijing became determined to paint them as a Western-backed revolution laying the groundwork for the security law.

It now appears that any hint of resistance in Hong Kong is met with a heavy hand. Police say they can’t allow people to gather because of COVID-19 restrictions, but non-political gatherings seem to have been tolerated in other situations. Hong Kong’s malls on July 1 were packed.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International said the national security law has created a “human rights emergency” and that Hong Kong is “on a rapid path to becoming a police state.”

Beijing has also promoted Hong Kong’s top security official John Lee to become the number two leader in the city, ostensibly rewarding him for enforcing the security law.

When it was first introduced, Beijing insisted the security law would only be used to target an “small minority,” but 12 months on, activists say the law is being weaponized into wiping out the opposition entirely, to stamp out dissent and to curb the city’s freedoms.

The law has sent a chill throughout Hong Kong, and radically transformed its political landscape. Hong Kong police have arrested more than 100 people and charged dozens under its provisions, including almost the entire pro-democracy camp of lawmakers and media tycoon Jimmy Lai. Last month Lai’s paper Apple Daily was forced to close after its editorial staff were arrested and assets frozen.

On the day Apple Daily closed, in response President Biden released a statement saying, “It is a sad day for media freedom in Hong Kong and around the world.”

“Through arrests, threats and forcing through a National Security Law that penalizes free speech, Beijing has insisted on wielding its power to suppress independent media and silence dissenting views,” the statement continued.

Most prominent figures who’ve come to define the Hong Kong democracy movement have fled the city or are in jail. One of them is Albert Ho, who spoke with ABC News just days before he was sent to prison in May. “It’s just a matter of time,” Ho said, “You know, when Hong Kong is now facing such a setback and so many of my friends are already behind bars.”

Albert Ho was sentenced to 18 months in prison for inciting people to participate in an unauthorized assembly back on China’s National Day on October 1, 2019 when an unauthorized protest march later turned violent.

The judge who sentenced Ho and nine of his fellow pro-democracy activists said the harsher than normal sentence was to serve as a “deterrent” and “was necessary in maintaining public order.”

For many, the only response has been to leave, with the United Kingdom and other countries offering an easier pathway to citizenship for some Hong Kongers.

Ronny Tong, a top adviser to Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam, said that Hong Kongers will have no problem living in the city, as long as they respect the fact that the territory is part of China. “If you do understand the one country, two systems, which involves Hong Kong being a place which is a little bit different from other places, that we are part of China, that is a fact that you can’t change. Not only is it a fact you can’t change, but it’s a fact you need to respect,” Tong said.

“The other thing I would like to say is that I have confidence in the judiciary,” Tong added.

But there are now also questions hanging over whether the integrity of Hong Kong’s judiciary, which is based on the English common law system, might become caught in the crosshairs.

China’s head of security Zheng Yanxiong recently said that the city’s courts should derive power from Beijing. “[Hong Kong’s] independent judiciary’s power is authorized by the National People’s Congress. It must highly manifest the national will and national interest, or else it will lose the legal premise of the authorization,” said Zheng.

Zheng’s comments come as Hong Kong courts start to hear the national security cases of the past year.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that it had turned over the sprawling Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan to the Afghan government and also announced that it now expects the total withdrawal of U.S. troops to be completed “at the end of August.”

The withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from the base marks a major milestone in the withdrawal process as it had been the main hub for U.S. military operations in Afghanistan for the last 20 years.

Handing over control of the base had been seen as a key indicator that the end of the withdrawal from Afghanistan would be completed in July — months earlier than the Sept. 11 deadline set by President Joe Biden.

But the Pentagon announced Friday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had approved a plan to transfer command authority for the U.S. Forces Afghanistan from Gen. Austin Scott Miller to Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Miller will remain in Afghanistan for “a number of weeks.”

“The idea is to have him remain there … to effect all this, the turnover responsibilities, and … make preparations for Gen. McKenzie to assume those responsibilities,” said Kirby.

U.S. Army soldiers from the elite 75th Ranger Regiment helped to close Bagram Airfield on Thursday, a military source confirmed to ABC News.

U.S. military operations at the base ended with the departure of the last military flights carrying out American military personnel and equipment. Earlier this week, U.S. Central Command had said that 896 C-17 cargo flights of material had already taken place.

Kirby also said that the total U.S. military drawdown “process” from Afghanistan would be completed by the “end of August.”

The spokesman also said that the current defensive airstrike authority that Miller has to target the Taliban in support of the military will be transferred to McKenzie.

That development eases concerns that the Afghan military would be even more vulnerable to Taliban forces without American combat air support after all U.S. troops had left.

Even after the completion of the U.S. withdrawal, a force of 650 American military personnel will remain in Kabul to help defend the U.S. Embassy and the civilian airport in Kabul, according to a U.S. official.

This force will be led by Rear Adm. Peter Vasely who will be based at the embassy in command of what will be known as U.S. Forces Afghanistan-Forward.

While Turkey had agreed to provide security at the airport, a move seen as vital in ensuring the safety and operations of the U.S. Embassy, the pace of the U.S. military withdrawal had moved so quickly that questions remained about whether Turkey would have its forces in place.

Also, many details remain to be finalized for plans to remove at least 9,000 Afghan interpreters and their families outside of Afghanistan.

In addition to the new command in Kabul, Army Brig. Gen. Curtis Buzzard will be based in Qatar to lead the defense security cooperation management office that will administer U.S. funding to the Afghan military.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — While it may not be a traditional crêpe, it’s as close to the real deal as a French astronaut can get in space.

Thomas Pesquet, the first French commander of the International Space Station, shared a video on Twitter of his spin on the sweet treat.

“Unfortunately for my teammates, my culinary skills do not match my nationality. At least Shane and Oleg with whom I have already lived were warned this time. Creation so French today: chocolate crepe, strawberries, (how’s that a tortilla?),” the translated tweet said.

The 43-year-old first shared the video Monday and as the floating disc of dough made its rounds on social media, comments varied with some hailing the snack as hilarious and original, to others calling it dismal and disappointing.

Although the recipe may not be Le Cordon Bleu-worthy, Pesquet gets serious points for creativity and credit for the first known crepe served in space.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.