(Photo=Gemini Generated Image) South Korean bank workers are set to get shorter customer service hours, higher wages and more flexible work rules under a tentative labor agreement that also headed off a planned nationwide strike. Beginning next April, bank branches would open at 9:30 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. while continuing to close at 4 p.m. The agreement between the

(Photo=MotionElements) South Korean retail investors sharply reduced their purchases of U.S. stocks in August, but the slowdown looks less like a retreat from Wall Street than a pause after a rush to buy American technology shares during the previous month’s selloff. Net purchases of U.S. stocks by South Korean investors fell 57.7% from July to $1.96 billion in August, according

Photo=BIGHIT MUSIC K-pop’s business model is increasingly built around the combination of streaming, global touring and fan-platform engagement, giving music companies multiple ways to monetize a major release. Tomorrow X Together is leaning into that model with a new album arriving immediately after a three-night Seoul concert run in November. Tomorrow X Together, also known as TXT, will release its

Photo=Xiaomi The premium smartphone market is becoming a contest over specialized hardware—from privacy displays and advanced camera systems to next-generation chips—as Chinese manufacturers seek to challenge established leaders. Xiaomi’s latest flagship, unveiled September 23, illustrates how the shift could affect U.S. technology companies and investors as competition increasingly moves beyond screen size and processing power to differentiated hardware features. Xiaomi

Photo=Samsung The growing use of software and artificial intelligence in household appliances is creating a new operational risk for appliance makers and investors: A software update can now disable a product that once depended largely on hardware. A failure involving Samsung Electronics’ connected refrigerators shows how the shift toward AI-powered homes could add quality-control, cybersecurity and customer-service risks even as