After six months of development, WebPromo, a Korean community and blogging platform has officially launched its English-language version. Under the slogan “A Korean-American portal covering all U.S. regions,” WebPromo has evolved into a fully bilingual platform, setting a new milestone that bridges Korean content with America’s mainstream readership.

The highlight of this launch is WebPromo’s adoption of ChatGPT-powered translation technology through a direct API integration, marking a major leap beyond conventional machine translation. Unlike plug-in translators or low-quality automated tools, WebPromo’s system connects directly with ChatGPT’s advanced language-processing capabilities to produce fluent, emotionally engaging English versions of Korean blog posts.

Antonio Shin, CEO of WebPromo, explained, “This technology doesn’t just translate words?it reads the rhythm and emotion of the sentence. The AI monitors grammar accuracy, tonal naturalness, emotional depth, and even predicts how American readers will respond.” He added, “With this system, blogs originally written in Korean now sound as if they were crafted by a native English writer.”

By integrating AI translation at such a high level, WebPromo goes beyond simple language conversion to become a bridge of cultural communication. Through the AI’s nuanced adaptation, Korean-language content is reborn in a tone and emotion that resonate naturally with American audiences. The platform thus connects first-generation immigrants, second-generation Korean-Americans, and even non-Korean readers, opening a new paradigm for Korean-language blogs entering the U.S. market.

Members can write under pen names and build their own branded blogs reflecting their unique stories and styles. The magazine-like layout provides a sleek, comfortable visual experience. Users across all 50 states can share local Korean-town stories and write about immigration life, entrepreneurship, workplace culture, travel, essays, love stories, psychology, philosophy, IT trends, and more. With no topic restrictions, WebPromo encourages free, creative expression?positioning itself not just as a blogging site, but as a core ecosystem for individual creators.

The platform is also enhancing its recommendation algorithms and local curation system using data accumulated from community activity. Drawing inspiration from Reddit’s structure, WebPromo is developing its own AI-driven recommendation engine to refine user engagement and topic discovery.

“WebPromo values authenticity over fleeting trends,” said Shin. “We believe sincere, lasting stories move people’s hearts. With our AI translation technology, these voices of the Korean community can now be heard naturally within the American mainstream. We will continue to evolve as a platform where technology, humanity, and storytelling coexist in harmony.”

More than a Korean blogging site, WebPromo is emerging as a next-generation content hub for the AI era?a space where artificial intelligence and human creativity blend to amplify the Korean-American voice across the United States and beyond.

Kimberly-Clark is buying Tylenol maker Kenvue in a cash and stock deal worth about $48.7 billion, creating a massive consumer health goods company.

Shareholders of Kimberly-Clark will own about 54% of the combined company. Kenvue shareholders will own about 46%.

The combined company will have a large stable of household brands under one roof, putting Kenvue’s Listerine mouthwash and Band-Aid side-by-side with Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle toilet paper, Huggies and Kleenex tissues. It will also generate about $32 billion in annual revenue.

Kenvue has spent a relatively brief period as an independent company, having been spun off by Johnson & Johnson two years ago. J&J first announced in late 2021 that it was splitting its consumer health division from the pharmaceutical and medical device divisions.

The deal announced Monday is among the largest corporate takeovers of the year.

Kenvue was thrust into the national spotlight last month when Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reasserted the unproven link between the pain reliever Tylenol and autism, and suggested people who opposed the theory were motivated by hatred for President Donald Trump.

During a meeting with Trump and the Cabinet, Kennedy reiterated the connection, even while noting there was no medical proof to substantiate the claim.

In July Kenvue, announced that CEO Thibaut Mongon was leaving in the midst of a strategic review with the company under mounting pressure from activist investors. Board member Kirk Perry is serving as interim CEO.

“We will serve billions of consumers across every stage of life,” Kimberly-Clark Chairman and CEO Mike Hsu said in a statement.

Hsu will be chairman and CEO of the combined company. Three members of the Kenvue’s board will join Kimberly-Clark’s board at closing. The combined company will keep Kimberly-Clark’s headquarters in Irving, Texas and continue to have a significant presence in Kenvue’s locations.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of next year. It still needs approval from shareholders of both both companies.

Kenvue shareholders will receive $3.50 per share in cash and 0.14625 Kimberly-Clark shares for each Kenvue share held at closing. That amounts to $21.01 per share, based on the closing price of Kimberly-Clark shares on Friday.

Kimberly-Clark and Kenvue said that they identified about $1.9 billion in cost savings that are expected in the first three years after the transaction’s closing.

Shares of Kimberly-Clark slipped more than 15% before the market open, while Kenvue’s stock jumped more than 20%.

Voters and leading contenders cast their ballots across the Netherlands on Wednesday in a close-run snap election called after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders brought down the last four-party coalition in a dispute over a crackdown on immigration.

The campaign echoed issues that resonate across Europe, focusing on how to rein in migration and tackle chronic shortages of affordable housing.

But in a country where coalition governments are the norm, it’s unclear if parties will work with Wilders again, even if his Party for Freedom repeats its stunning victory from two years ago.

Mainstream parties have already ruled that out, arguing that his decision to torpedo the outgoing four-party coalition in June in a dispute over migration underscored that he is an untrustworthy partner.

“It’s up to the voters today,” Wilders said after voting in the cavernous atrium of The Hague City Hall, surrounded by security guards. “It’s a close call … four or five different parties. I’m confident.”

Voters and leading contenders cast their ballots across the Netherlands on Wednesday in a close-run snap election called after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders brought down the last four-party coalition in a dispute over a crackdown on immigration.

The campaign echoed issues that resonate across Europe, focusing on how to rein in migration and tackle chronic shortages of affordable housing.

But in a country where coalition governments are the norm, it’s unclear if parties will work with Wilders again, even if his Party for Freedom repeats its stunning victory from two years ago.

Mainstream parties have already ruled that out, arguing that his decision to torpedo the outgoing four-party coalition in June in a dispute over migration underscored that he is an untrustworthy partner.

“It’s up to the voters today,” Wilders said after voting in the cavernous atrium of The Hague City Hall, surrounded by security guards. “It’s a close call … four or five different parties. I’m confident.”

Migration has divided the Netherlands

The vote comes against a backdrop of deep polarization in this nation of 18 million, violence at a recent anti-immigration rally in The Hague and protests against new asylum-seeker centers.

Voting was taking place at venues from city halls to schools, but also historic windmills, churches, a zoo, a former prison in Arnhem and the iconic Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam.

Olga van der Brandt, 32, said she thinks voters may turn their backs on parties that made up the last right-wing government led by Wilders.

Her hope is that “this time there will be a more progressive party who can take the lead.”

Christian Democrats leader Henri Bontenbal agreed that a fundamental shift in Dutch politics was at stake.

“What we have seen in the last two years is a political landscape with right-wing populism, and the question is, is it possible to beat populism by decent politics,” he said.

In-fighting between parties in the last coalition led to criticism that the Netherlands, long a prominent voice within the European Union, was sometimes seen as not fully engaging with the continent as it had done under longtime leader Mark Rutte, who is now NATO’s secretary-general.

The chief economist at the Center for European Reform think tank, Sander Tordoir, said that “Europe cannot afford another Dutch government that drifts and is absent in the European debate.”

Tordoir noted that the Netherlands is one of the biggest and better performing eurozone economies and that if it “remains missing in action, Europe’s single market, defense effort and economic security will suffer.”

Wilders’ party poised for a win

Polls suggest that Wilders’ party, which is calling for a total halt to asylum-seekers entering the Netherlands, remains on track to win the largest number of seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives. But other more moderate parties are closing the gap and pollsters caution that many people wait until the very last minute to decide who to vote for.

Among those first in line at the ornate former City Hall in the central city of Delft, wearing bathrobes and carrying mugs of coffee, was a group of students who live together and study at the local university.

“It’s a house tradition” to vote together, Lucas van Krimpen told The Associated Press.

Polls close at 9 p.m. followed by an initial exit poll.

The Dutch system of proportional representation all but guarantees that no single party can win a majority. Negotiations will likely begin Thursday into the makeup of the next governing coalition.

Rob Jetten, leader of the center-left D66 party that has risen in polls as the campaign wore on, said in a final televised debate that his party wants to rein in migration but also accommodate asylum-seekers fleeing war and violence.

And he told Wilders that voters can “choose again tomorrow to listen to your grumpy hatred for another 20 years, or choose, with positive energy, to simply get to work and tackle this problem and solve it.”

Wilders rejects arguments that he had failed to deliver on his 2023 campaign pledges despite being the largest party in parliament, blaming other parties for stymying his plans.

A 29-year-old man accused of sparking the deadly Palisades Fire, one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, pleaded not guilty Thursday to federal charges.

Jonathan Rinderknecht appeared in federal court Thursday afternoon after arriving in Los Angeles from Florida earlier in the day, his attorney Steve Haney said. A judge ordered that he remain in custody ahead of his trial.

Federal officials said Rinderknecht, who lived in the area, started a small fire on New Year’s Day that smoldered underground before reigniting nearly a week later and roaring through Pacific Palisades, home to many of Los Angeles’ rich and famous.

The fire, which left 12 dead in the hillside neighborhoods across Pacific Palisades and Malibu, was one of two blazes that broke out on Jan. 7, killing more than 30 people in all and destroying over 17,000 homes and buildings while burning for days in Los Angeles County.

Haney told the judge he took issue with the fact that Rinderknecht was facing charges for the Palisades Fire when he allegedly started the smaller fire beforehand known as the Lachman Fire.

“My client is being charged with a fire that started seven days after,” he said.

Rinderknecht was staying at his sister’s house in Orlando when he was arrested by federal officials on Oct. 7. He made his first court appearance the next day in Florida on a charge of malicious destruction by means of a fire.

A week later, a grand jury indicted him on additional charges including one count of arson affecting property used in interstate commerce, and one count of timber set afire. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in federal prison.

Rinderknecht’s trial is set for December 16.

On Thursday, he appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Rozella Oliver wearing a white jumpsuit. His attorney argued that he should be released on bail, based on the evaluation of court officials in Florida.

Rinderknecht has no documented history of mental health issues, drug use, or prior criminal activity, Haney said.

However, the judge in Florida who ordered Rinderknecht to be detained said he had concerns about the Rinderknecht’s mental health and his ability to get to California for future court hearings.

He appeared agitated when the judge in Los Anglees again ordered that he remain in jail, interjecting into the microphone, “Can I actually say something about detainment?”

Haney said they planned to return to the judge with additional evidence for why Rinderknecht should be released on bail.

“He’s a frustrated young man,” Haney said after the hearing. “He doesn’t know why he’s in jail right now.”

Haney said they plan to argue that even if Rinderknecht was the cause of the initial smaller fire on New Year’s Day, there were several “intervening factors” in the week between that day and when the Palisades Fire ignited, mainly the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Rinderknecht made several 911 calls to report the fire, according to a criminal complaint. Federal officials called the Palisades blaze a “holdover fire” from the Jan. 1 fire, which was not fully extinguished by firefighters, the complaint said.

The city’s interim fire chief said such fires linger in root systems and can reach depths of 15 to 20 feet (4.6 to over 6 meters), making them undetectable by thermal imaging cameras.

“They had a duty to put the fire out,” Haney said. “I do think he’s a scapegoat.”

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical-minerals deal at the White House on Monday as the U.S. eyes the continent’s rich rare-earth resources at a time when China is imposing tougher rules on exporting its own critical minerals abroad.

The two leaders described the agreement as an $8.5 billion deal between the allies. Trump said it had been negotiated over several months.

“In about a year from now we’ll have so much critical mineral and rare earth that you won’t know what to do with them,” said Trump, a Republican, boasting about the deal. “They’ll be worth $2.”

Albanese added that the agreement takes the U.S.-Australia relationship “to the next level.”

Earlier this month, Beijing announced that it will require foreign companies to get approval from the Chinese government to export magnets containing even trace amounts of rare-earth materials that originated from China or were produced with Chinese technology. The Trump administration says this gives China broad power over the global economy by controlling the tech supply chain.

“Australia is really, really going to be helpful in the effort to take the global economy and make it less risky, less exposed to the kind of rare earth extortion that we’re seeing from the Chinese,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told reporters Monday morning ahead of Trump’s meeting with Albanese.

Hassett noted that Australia has one of the best mining economies in the world, while praising its refiners and its abundance of rare earth resources. Among the Australian officials accompanying Albanese are ministers overseeing resources and industry and science, and Australia has dozens of critical minerals sought by the U.S. because they are needed in everything from fighter jets and electric vehicles to laptops and phones.

The agreement could have an immediate impact on rare earth supplies in the United States if American companies can secure some of what Australian mines are already producing, although it will take years — if not decades — to develop enough of a supply of rare earths outside of China to reduce its dominance.

Pini Althaus, who founded USA Rare Earth back in 2019 and is now working to develop new mines in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as CEO of Cove Capital, said it will be crucial that the contracts to buy materials from Australian mines include price floors, similar to what the U.S. government promised MP Materials this summer, to protect against China manipulating prices.

For decades, China has used the tactic of dumping excess critical minerals onto the market to drive prices down to force mining companies in the rest of the world out of business to eliminate any competition.

“I think taking away that arrow in the quiver of China to manipulate pricing is an absolute crucial first step in Australia and the West being able to develop critical minerals projects to meet our supply chain demands,” said Althaus, who has spent nearly a quarter-century in the mining business.

The agreement underscores how the U.S. is using its global allies to counter China, especially as it weaponizes its traditional dominance in rare earth materials. Top Trump officials have used the tactics from Beijing as a rallying cry for the U.S. and its allies to work together to try to minimize China’s influence.