🌏 BTS Goes On Break To Work On Solo Projects, Women In China Attacked For Standing Up Again Sexual Harassment And More

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• 👩 Women To Know
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After nine years together, the K-pop group and global phenomenon BTS has announced they will go on a break to work on solo projects.

The group announced their decision during their annual anniversary special, where they gathered at the first house the members lived together.

The K-pop group of 7 members —Jin, Suga, RM, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook— has broken new records every year and have taken Korean music to an international stage.

According to their label group HYBE, the group will continue working together, but their main priority are solo projects.

The leader of the group, RM, explained that the temporary break was a result of the group’s “lost direction” in an effort to keep with the demanding K-pop industry.

“Whenever I write lyrics and songs, it’s really important what kind of story and message I want to give out, but it was like that was gone now. I don’t know what kind of story I should tell now,” RM said during the special.

Members of the group said they hoped fans will not be too disappointed.

Various members already have plans lined up, with Suga, Jimin and Jungkook releasing music in the future.

Meanwhile, J-Hope will make history as the first solo South Korean artist to perform at the summer music festival, Lollapalooza, in Chicago’s Central Park.

“Later, when we gather again as a group, that synergy will be like no other,” V reassured the fans.

Also Happening Around The World

🇳🇬 At least 50 people were killed after armed men opened fire at a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday June 4.

🇯🇵 Japan has approved a new cyberbullying law that will make “online insults” punishable by up to a year in prison on Monday June 15.

🇲🇲 The Myanmar military has been setting fire to hundreds villages across the country to crush the resistance, according to local reports.

Four women stood up against sexual harassment from a man in a barbecue restaurant and were attacked in Tangshan, China, in an incident that has ignited conversations violence against women and gender inequality.

According to the surveillance footage from Friday June 10, a man approached the women’s table and placed his hand on one of the women’s backs.

The woman then pushed him away, but the man refused to leave the table and continued reaching out again for her face.

He then slapped the woman, and her friends retaliated by smashing a beer bottle on his head.

Immediately afterwards, the man pushed the woman and her friends to the ground, as his friends joined him in attacking them.

They then dragged the first women outside the restaurant by her hair, repeatedly beating and kicking her while she is lying on the ground.

Tangshan police said two women had been sent to the hospital after being attacked and were in stable condition, while another two women had minor injuries, CNN reported.

Video footage of the incident quickly went viral on Chinese social media, and shock and anger reverberated online.

Some state media reports initially downplayed the man’s act of sexual harassment as “trying to strike up a conversation” and “gang issues”, drawing backlash from women readers, and the attack rekindled debate about violence against women and gender inequality in China.

By Saturday afternoon, all nine suspects had been apprehended, including two who had fled the province.

Rights groups have noted that the assault was not an isolated case and called for China to incorporate more content about gender equality in education to eliminate systematic gender violence.

More Women You Should Know About

🇳🇪 A tribe in Niger holds an annual beauty pageant that tears down conventionally women-centered ceremonies and instead puts men in the spotlight.

Australia has appointed an Indigenous Warramunga man as its first Aboriginal supreme court justice for the first time in the country’s history.

Lincoln Crowley, who is of Warramunga descent, was sworn in at Banco Court in Brisbane in the state of Queensland on Monday June 13.

Raised by a single father, Crowley graduated from James Cook University and went on to work with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Legal Service, a non-profit organization providing legal services to Aboriginal people.

He has acted as prosecutor for many high-profile cases and made Queen’s Counsel in 2018.

“This is also a momentous and historic occasion for the First Nations people of this state and indeed this country,” Crowley said, ABC News reported. “Indigenous people must be represented and involved at the highest levels of decision-making, across all branches of government, including within the judiciary – justice and equality demands no less.”

Crowley hopes that it will be more common for Aboriginal people to be appointed into positions of power in the future.

In Australia, Aboriginals have complained about a lack of governmental policy that addresses their needs. They have also commented on facing racist attitude from non-Aboriginal Australians.

More Good News For Your Week

🇲🇾 Malaysia will abolish the death penalty as a mandatory form of punishment for certain crimes and replace it with other types of punishment at the court’s discretion, the government said on Friday June. 10.

🇹🇭 Thousands of people attended Thailand’s first Pride parade in more than 15 years in the country’s capital on Saturday June 5.

🇪🇬 Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered 250 well-preserved mummies and other priceless artifacts in their most recent excavations.

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