How Christian Groups Are Responding to Trump’s Foreign-Aid Freeze

On the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 31, World Relief, an evangelical charity that helps resettle refugees around the world, but especially in the U.S., got an order from the U.S. Department of State to stop all work under its contract with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. This was confusing, since that evening a group of Afghans who had served alongside Americans in the long-running conflict there were arriving into Sacramento airport, and the nonprofit group was contracted by State to take care of them.

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“It said, stop all work,” says Matthew Soerens, the vice president of advocacy and policy for World Relief. “But we were not going to not show up at the airport. We were not going to not make sure that they had a place to sleep that night and a warm meal.” It’s not a heavy lift to meet people at an airport and buy them a meal. What worries the folks at World Relief more is who was going to pay their rent for the next 90 days? Usually that time period is covered by federal money distributed through various partners so that refugees have time to get on their feet and find a job, but now the State Department has ordered World Relief and other charities to immediately cease doing that. And who was going to pay rent for the thousands of other families World Relief was supporting, both in the U.S. and overseas?

Since the inauguration, the incoming Administration has imposed spending freezes and stop-work orders on a wide swath of American foreign-aid enterprises. Funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—which, at roughly $40 billion, accounts for less than 1% of the federal budget—was paused for 90 days on all but a very narrow set of programs, mostly involving life-threatening hunger or medical emergencies. Many USAID contractors and staff were fired or put on administrative leave, the USAID website was closed down, and similar cuts were made to the developmental and humanitarian programs of the State Department.

On Feb. 4, a few days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he would run USAID for the time being, the rest of the staff—all except those “responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs”—were also put on leave and those working in overseas missions were told that arrangements would be made for them to return to the U.S. within 30 days.

Read More: Inside the Chaos, Confusion, and Heartbreak of Trump’s Foreign-Aid Freeze

Evangelical and other Christian charities have not been spared these cuts. Among the organizations that lost funding are such Christian behemoths as World Vision, International Justice Mission, Samaritan’s Purse, and Catholic Relief Services, which at $476 billion, was the largest USAID recipient in 2024. Because of the vagueness of the language around which programs would still be funded, some groups pulled back their spending, just in case. “World Vision is responding to the executive order that pauses U.S. foreign assistance funding—with the exception of emergency food assistance—for the next 90 days, while programs are reviewed for alignment with the current administration’s foreign policy,” said the international relief organization in a statement to TIME.

But others decided to go ahead anyway. “Although we received suspension orders, we have not halted our work in Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia,” says a spokeswoman for Medical Teams International in an email. “We have chosen this course for the time being because as a Christian organization, we center our decisions on the worth and dignity of ALL people—the people we serve and our staff.” So far only one portion of a program in Uganda has received a waiver to keep operating and the organization recognizes it might not be reimbursed for other programs.

“It is our understanding that life-sustaining essential emergency supplies are exempt from the stop order,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, in a statement to TIME. “However the details of the waiver process are not yet clear.” He added that his organization, which receives less than 5% of its international aid budget from USAID, would continue to fund the projects, which are in Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.

Read More: Can He Do That? What Legal Experts Say About Trump’s Most Radical Moves

Some of the organizations have supporters inside the Trump Administration or the State Department and are trying to use back channels to find some clarity on the future of USAID and the projects it funds. And there are others who are calling on the President to reverse course. “If President Trump understood that evangelical Christians wanted secure borders, he’s absolutely right,” says Soerens. “If he understood that evangelical Christians wanted refugees shut out who had been thoroughly vetted, who in many cases are persecuted Christians, then he got that wrong.”

While 80% of white evangelicals voted for Trump, Soerens points to a new survey by LifeWay Research, the Southern Baptist Convention’s polling firm, found that 70% of evangelicals in the U.S. say they believe the U.S. has a moral responsibility to receive refugees. This may be why, in the two weeks since the government funds were paused, World Relief has raised $3 million, most of it from small donors. It’s not going to be enough, however, to pay the three months of rent that the government had promised. “There’s about 4,000 people, who the government invited to come to United States, and arranged plane travel for,” he says. “It’s very different from some of the other immigration debates.” The group estimates there will be an $8 million funding hole in their budget if the U.S. government decides to not pay rent for legal refugees.

For Christians who worked with USAID, the stop-work orders, the suspension of funding, and the steady stream of denigration of the agency’s work from Elon Musk, who tweeted that it is “evil,” and Trump adviser Stephen Miller are a profound betrayal of what they consider a sacred vocation. “I’m here to do what I can, to be the hands and feet of God in this world,” says Anne Linn, who has spent most of her career working on alleviating malaria, both on the ground in different parts of Africa and in Washington, D.C. “Like, what can I do to alleviate the suffering of others, of my neighbors?” She was laid off on Friday when her contract with the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative, like World Relief’s, was canceled.

Linn acknowledges that many Americans would like the malaria-stricken countries to pay for their own health care and not rely so heavily on the U.S. “Those countries want that too,” she says. “But so much of their GDP goes to servicing debt. We have to give them a runway. It can’t just happen overnight.” In the meantime, in some of the countries with which she has worked, the rainy season is about to start; the mosquitos will arrive and the bed nets won’t, because they’re stuck in a warehouse and the people contracted to deliver them also have a stop-work order. She fears for the pregnant mothers and the children under 5, whom malaria can kill. “Who can read the words of Jesus Christ and think this is OK?” she asks. “That is baffling to me. If we say that we are pro-life, we cannot be OK with this.”

source https://time.com/7212791/usaid-christian-foreign-aid-freeze-evangelical/

How to Relax and Unwind Without Drinking Alcohol

Alcohol has long been synonymous with relaxation. If you want to unwind after a rough day at work—or kick back on the couch, at a baseball game, or in the pool—there’s historically been a good chance you’ll have a drink in hand.

Now, the tides are turning. In early January, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a report warning that even small amounts of alcohol can cause cancer. Drinking just one alcoholic beverage a day increases the risk of liver cirrhosis, esophageal cancer, oral cancer, and various injuries, a federal analysis suggests. According to a recent survey, nearly half of Americans are trying to cut back on their alcohol consumption in 2025—a 44% increase since 2023. The message is especially getting through to young Americans, who increasingly view less as more, leading the charge among age groups going dry.

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As the science around alcohol’s health risks crystallizes, a new question is brewing: What are you supposed to do to relax and unwind and escape your mental headspace if you ditch booze? Is there a healthier way to turn off your brain temporarily or shift into a happier place—and if so, how do you achieve it?

“It’s a major dilemma,” says Dr. Anna Lembke, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic and author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. She works with people struggling with alcohol use disorder, who have to give up drinking altogether. They often wrestle with “what to do to relax to deal with their negative emotions, and to have fun, because alcohol is what they’ve relied on to achieve those goals,” she says. “It’s a real challenge, because many of the alternatives are also addictive, like scrolling online. The risk of cross-addiction is huge.”

We asked experts why it’s so hard to figure out what to replace alcohol with—and to share their favorite ideas on how to relax booze-free.

How does alcohol affect the brain, anyway?

Alcohol affects many different organs, but one of its primary targets is the brain. That’s “one of the reasons why we like it,” Lembke says. It acts as a central nervous system depressant, which means it slows brain activity, causing your muscles to relax and making you feel calm. It can elevate mood, curb anxiety, relieve pain, and make social situations more fun and enjoyable.

Yet over time, “alcohol really impacts how our brain and body perceive and experience relief and reward, particularly as drinking becomes more of a habit,” says Marilyn Piccirillo, a psychologist with the Rutgers Addiction Research Center. “People find they’ve gotten into the habit of drinking for stress relief, or to make situations even better, and then without alcohol, those situations become less rewarding.” If you drink often, you’ll start to need even more alcohol to achieve the same pleasurable feeling, and you’ll begin to experience a muted response to all the things you once enjoyed, because they won’t compare to the “reward” of drinking. That can lead to addiction and compulsive drinking, Piccirillo adds.

Read More: Why, Exactly, Is Alcohol So Bad for You?

It’s no surprise, then, that even if it feels good in the moment, most experts don’t consider drinking a healthy way to escape real life. It’s a “maladaptive coping strategy,” says Lara Ray, a psychologist who runs the UCLA Addictions Laboratory. “A lot of people end up using alcohol excessively because they’re trying to cope with stressors—be it family or romantic relationships, or financial stressors.” But that’s not going to benefit you over the long run, which is why instead, it’s smart to look for an alternative. “It should be healthier than alcohol, and you should have multiple outlets,” Ray says. “We’re substituting this ineffective coping strategy—‘I’m so stressed, so I drink’—with an effective coping strategy, which is ‘I’m stressed, so maybe I talk to my partner, I talk to my friends, I call my therapist.’”

Why it’s so hard to find a satisfying escape

You’ve seen the memes about parents who grab a glass of wine—their “mommy juice”—as a way to cope with another chaotic day. That image speaks to one reason why alcohol is such a convenient escape: You can do it alongside whatever else you’re doing, says Hayley Treloar Padovano, an associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. Other coping strategies—like hiking a gorgeous trail—might be more difficult to integrate into your daily routine. “If I’m going to go do yoga, my kids can’t be climbing all over me,” she says. “But they could be climbing all over me as I’m sipping on a glass of wine.” 

That’s why Treloar Padovano suggests brainstorming activities or habits you can easily build into your day, like texting or calling a friend, playing a game, or turning on an upbeat playlist when you get home. Keeping busy is essential, she says; time that was spent drinking needs to be filled with something else, so make a list of ideas. “The bottom line is that if we’re going to remove something, we need to put something else in its place,” she says. You’ll need to put effort into planning ahead, Treloar Padovano adds, especially for situations in which you would typically drink.

Read More: Do You Really Store Stress in Your Body?

As you reflect on possible alcohol alternatives, try not to gravitate toward harmful replacements. Some people, for instance, trade alcohol for marijuana. “I’m not trying to be a teetotaler on either one of these things,” Treloar Padovano says. “It might work for you, but it really is a slippery slope into that becoming the thing that then causes problems for you.”

It’s also a good idea to keep expectations in check, since new types of relaxation probably aren’t going to have an instant effect. Throughout the adjustment period, remind yourself why you decided to cut back. “If I’m used to feeling immediate relief by pouring a glass of wine, even before I have a drink of it, I may not feel that same immediate relief when I pour a glass of seltzer and put lime in it,” Treloar Padovano says. Instead of giving up on your sparkling drink, focus on what you’re getting out of it. “Maybe the benefit in the moment isn’t going to be as strong,” she says. “But if I play the tape through my head to the end, I know I’m not going to feel hungover tomorrow. I’m not going to yell at my kids later. There’s a trade-off, and it may not be to the level that you had it, but it’ll be enough to get you by.”

5 ways to relax without alcohol

Figuring out how to unwind without alcohol is individual, experts stress—not every idea will work for every person.

Lembke has worked with many people who find it hard to believe they’ll get to a point where they will be able to enjoy supposedly relaxing alternatives to alcohol. But with time, many are pleasantly surprised. “There’s an enormous sense of freedom that they no longer have to rely on this substance in order to function and feel—or not feel, as the case may be,” she says. It doesn’t happen overnight, but if you stick with it, “there’s a real self-actualization or improvement in psycho-spiritual well-being.”

Here are a few activities to consider.

Seek out (temporary, safe) pain

Small doses of painful stimuli—like taking an ice or steam bath, fasting from food, or weightlifting—can be beneficial, according to the scientific field of hormesis. These are “difficult, painful, or challenging in the moment, but make us feel better afterwards,” Lembke says. When you subject yourself to a healthy form of pain, your body senses injury, and in response to that, increases production of neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, she explains. “We make all of these feel-good chemicals within our own brain,” she says. “We don’t actually need to go outside to look for them—we can find ways to activate them in our own minds.”

Find your own way into the mind-body world

When Lembke encourages people to think about healthy and adaptive ways to de-stress, she often points them to mind-body activities like prayer, meditation, Tai chai, guided imagery, progressive muscle relaxation, and breathwork. These types of practices help you connect with your physical sensations, emotions, and thoughts—which means instead of using alcohol to distract yourself from your inner world, you’ll learn to tolerate even the most uncomfortable moments. Research suggests mindfulness can spark positive changes in the brain, including lowered stress, anxiety, depression, and other negative emotions. “We are embodied creatures—we have bodies,” she says. “Often, drugs provide an embodied experience, but not necessarily a healthy one. So as an alternative, we can look for other embodied experiences that are generally not addictive and healthy—and there are lots of them.”

Read More: How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone

Reconnect with old interests and passions

When you’re trying to figure out what to do instead of drink, think broadly about what will satisfy your needs, Ray encourages. She’s found that many people have luck rediscovering long-forgotten hobbies, like running, cooking, or crafting. Plus, research suggests that people who regularly engage in hobbies have fewer symptoms of depression and better health, happiness, and life satisfaction than those who don’t. “We want folks to draw upon their life experiences and see, what do they find rewarding?’” Ray says. “It could be volunteering; it could be playing volleyball.”

Treat yourself 

Keep track of the money you would have spent buying alcohol, and buy yourself something nice instead, Treloar Padovano suggests. Put whatever you save into a relaxation fund, and use it to splurge on a spa day, massage, super comfortable weighted blanket—you name it. “Maybe you’ve always wanted to be someone who was able to get their nails done every week, but you just decided you didn’t have the money,” she says. “Well, now you’re not drinking, and with the money you’re saving, you can get your nails done every week.”

Socialize more than you normally would

If you’re used to drinking in social situations, think through whether there are people in your network who are booze-free—or situations where you’re less likely to crack open a beer. Maybe you have friends who don’t drink, Piccirillo says, and you can start to prioritize plans with them. You might find you enjoy outings like walking in the park or going to the movies.

In general, leaning into your friendships is one of the best ways to relax without alcohol. Meaningful human connections “release dopamine and opioids in our brain,” Lembke says. “We are social creatures—we’re wired to connect—so replacing alcohol with deep and intimate human connections is a good and healthy substitute for drinking.”

source https://time.com/7212972/how-to-relax-without-alcohol/

Thousands Protest Trump Administration Policies in Cities Across the U.S.

A movement to protest the early actions of President Donald Trump’s administration took off Wednesday, as thousands of demonstrators gathered outside a federal courthouse in Philadelphia and at state capitols in Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Protesters waved signs decrying Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society.

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“Democracy is not a spectator sport! Do something,” said a sign held aloft by one demonstrator in Philadelphia.

The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”

Outside the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, a crowd of about 500 people gathered in freezing temperatures. They denounced everything from Trump’s plans for Gaza to the rollback of rights for transgender neighbors and recent efforts to deport people who are in the U.S. illegally.

Catie Miglietti, from the Ann Arbor area, said Musk’s access to the Treasury Department data was especially concerning to her. She painted a sign depicting Musk puppeteering Trump from his outraised arm — evoking Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a January speech that some have interpreted as a Nazi salute.

“If we don’t stop it and get Congress to do something, it’s an attack on democracy,” she said.

Kelsey Brianne, a key organizer of the Michigan rally, learned about the protest movement Sunday night and has been coordinating speakers and safety protocols.

“I want to look back at this time and say that I did something and I didn’t just sit back,” Brianne said on the eve of the protests.

Trump has signed a series of executive orders in the first couple of weeks of his new term on everything from trade and immigration to climate change. As Democrats begin to raise their voice in opposition to Trump’s agenda, protests have also begun.

On Sunday, thousands of people marched against Trump’s plan for large-scale deportations in Southern California, including in downtown Los Angeles, where protests shut down a major freeway for hours. ___

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Gabriel Sandoval in Phoenix contributed to this report. Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

source https://time.com/7213087/trump-administration-policies-protests/

Argentina Says It Will Withdraw From the World Health Organization

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s president has ordered the country’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization due to “profound differences” with the U.N. agency, a presidential spokesperson said Wednesday.

President Javier Milei’s decision echoes that of his ally, U.S. President Donald Trump, who began the process of pulling the United States out of WHO with an executive order on his first day back in office on Jan. 21.

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The loss of another member country will further fracture cooperation in global health, though Argentina was expected to provide only about $8 million to WHO for the agency’s estimated $6.9 billion 2024-2025 budget.

Argentina’s decision is based on “profound differences in health management, especially during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” spokesperson Manuel Adorni told a news conference in Buenos Aires. He said WHO guidelines at the time led to the largest shutdown “in the history of mankind.”

Argentina will not allow an international organization to intervene in its sovereignty “and much less in our health,” he added.

WHO has no authority to compel countries to take specific health actions, and the organization’s guidelines and recommendations, including in health crises like COVID-19, are often disregarded.

WHO said it was looking into Argentina’s announcement.

Adorni did not say when Milei’s decision would be implemented. He also asserted that WHO lacks independence because of the political influence of some countries, without naming any.

WHO is the only organization mandated to coordinate global responses to acute health crises, particularly outbreaks of new diseases and persistent threats including Ebola, AIDS and mpox.

Milei was a sharp critic of the lockdown imposed by former President Alberto Fernandez during the pandemic, asserting that it hurt the economy and that the government used it as a mechanism of “repression.”

“LONG LIVE FREEDOM,” Milei said Wednesday in a post on X criticizing the U.N. agency.

Argentina does not receive WHO funding for health management, and the president’s decision doesn’t affect the quality of health services, Adorni said.

“On the contrary, it gives greater flexibility to implement policies adopted to the context of interests that Argentina requires,” he added.

Last year, Milei’s government refused to sign an agreement to manage pandemics within the WHO framework, on the grounds that doing so could affect national sovereignty.

The announcement on the WHO comes ahead of Milei’s trip to the U.S. later this month that will coincide with the Conservative Political Action Conference summit of right-wing leaders in Washington. The spokesperson has not confirmed that Milei will attend or that he might meet Trump.

___

Associated Press writer Maria Cheng in London contributed.

source https://time.com/7213076/argentina-withdraw-world-health-organization/

Scientists Are Starting to Track Bird Flu in Farm Wastewater

Now that bird flu has been detected in animals in all 50 states, and nearly 70 cases have been confirmed in people, health officials are racing to find better and more reliable ways to track the virus.

One promising method is sampling wastewater. The technique continues to prove useful for monitoring COVID-19; since most people now self-test and formal data collection has diminished, wastewater is the most reliable way of tracking upticks and changes in infections since it doesn’t require people to report results.

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Scientists are now figuring out how to apply the same principle to test wastewater on farms for H5N1, the avian influenza virus. On Feb. 4, the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) announced a grant to Barnwell Bio, Inc. to fund the development of a farm-based system for testing wastewater for pathogens. The nonprofit research group FFAR was created by Congress in 2014 via the Farm Bill to use both government and private funding to support important agricultural research, and Barnwell Bio focuses on agricultural applications of wastewater testing.

“The system is pretty patchwork” when it comes to understanding what makes animals sick, says Michael Rhys, CEO of Barnwell Bio. “There isn’t a gold standard for understanding animal health of different species.”

Read More: We Are Not Safe from Bird Flu Until We Protect Farmworkers

Part of the problem has to do with the many species of animals that reside on farms, from pigs to chickens and cows. And not all farms have a central wastewater system, like towns and cities do, where all waste is processed. Developing a way to detect H5N1 in these conditions required specific strategies for each species, says Rhys.

To evaluate pathogens that affect chickens, which relieve themselves everywhere in the barn, the farmers wear booties that end up getting covered in the animals’ waste. Vets or health officials take samples from those booties, places them in test tubes, and analyzes them for the presence of H5N1.

As for cows, most dairy farms generally focus on milk-producing cows, so effluent can be sampled after workers hose down milking areas, since that’s where cows urinate.

The grant, which totals around $150,000, will help Rhys’ team to develop a test that farmers can use on site to detect H5N1 early. “Can we detect H5N1 early such that on a big chicken farm, it’s not spreading barn to barn?” says Rhys. “We’re also looking at different variants of H5N1 which can be helpful in understanding where it came from, whether it was a wild bird or it was an animal-to-animal infection.”

The company is currently working with two poultry farms to test the feasibility of their wastewater surveillance system.

source https://time.com/7212477/wastewater-testing-farms-bird-flu/

The Minor Events That May Have Sparked a Major Aviation Tragedy

As I ate breakfast last week, I scrolled through my newsfeed and read with dismay about the tragedy at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington D.C. in which an American Airlines jet collided with an Army helicopter. With more than 60 believed to be dead, the accident had a particularly painful sting.

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For 25 years, I worked in civilian aerospace at Rolls Royce and Airbus. Then, I taught college students to dispassionately analyze the probability of a fatal failure. For the last 10 years, I have been developing unmanned rotorcraft, regularly sharing airspace with military helicopters.

The full details of what happened may not be known for months. Yet it seems likely to have involved a tragic convergence of minor events. The airport was at or above capacity, requiring the Air Traffic Control (“ATC”)—itself already overstretched—to redirect the passenger jet to a different runway at short notice. The ATC was aware that a military helicopter in the area presented a complication and advised the pilot to avoid it, who then attempted to “eyeball” the plane away from the risk. In the dark, without confusion but with complication, the pilots’ luck ran out.

Aircraft design, automation, enhanced ATC, and global safety initiatives have actually drastically reduced accident rates over the years. A 2024 study from MIT found that from 1968 to 1977, the chance of a fatal accident on a commercial flight was about one in 350,000. But now, that chance has dropped to one in 13.7 million. More shockingly, if we had modern traffic levels but 1970s safety rates, we would see a fatal accident every few days.  However, all of these reassuring statistics do nothing to calm the jolt of anxiety I experience every time my flight hits turbulence. And they will certainly do nothing to console the families of the victims of the tragedy in DC. So instead, we attempt to understand what exactly went wrong. 

As the emerging details of the accident seem to illustrate, air traffic controllers tried to warn the Army helicopter about the nearby Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ). But in my experience, the military helicopter world can be less ordered and its traffic control processes can be less mechanized. The result is that military helicopter pilots are then expected to react skilfully to the more ad hoc world in which they operate. It is possible that when the two quite different aviation worlds of conventional civil aircraft and military helicopters mixed, the structured collaboration that facilitates safety broke down. 

For instance, after the CRJ was redirected, the helicopter pilot acknowledged seeing the commercial plane and accepted the task of steering clearly. Perhaps with more automated tracking and communication, we can ensure that this kind of incident never happens again.

Around the world, thousands of aircraft communicate successfully under the watchful eye of security, control, and regulation organizations. This regulated communication may seem at odds with the Western world’s instinct for deregulation. Trump has unfortunately already turned the crash into a political battle, saying that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hires in ATC were to blame. These comments came days after he gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee.

Perhaps Trump should leave the air safety and communication to the professionals. Everyday, commercial aircrafts provide safe transport for travelers around the world by effectively communicating. The horrible D.C. crash should remind us that we must clearly communicate so that we can all co-exist. 

source https://time.com/7212758/events-sparked-aviation-tragedy/

The Netflix Korean Dramas to Look Out For in 2025

Nine years after launching in South Korea, Netflix has proven that Korean content overcame what Parasite director Bong Joon-ho once called the subtitle “barrier.” 

One just needs to look at the sophomore season of fan-favorite Squid Game, released over the winter holidays in 2024: In just weeks, it became the second most watched non-English season of all time, with audiences watching for over 1.24 billion hours, falling behind only to its own first season, which had been viewed for 2.2 billion hours. (For reference, the streaming giant has about 301 million paid subscribers.)

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The popularity of Korean dramas has also risen among Netflix’s competitors like Disney+, Apple TV+, and Hulu. But with its billion-dollar investment in Korean productions, Netflix is likely to continue its domination in 2025 with a highly anticipated conclusion to Squid Game in the mid-year, alongside a bevy of other titles featuring some of the Hallyu wave’s most bankable stars.

Here are the K-dramas to look forward to on Netflix in 2025:

Melo Movie

Parasite’s Choi Woo-shik and Daily Dose of Sunshine’s Park Bo-young join forces in a Valentines’ Day romance for cineastes. Choi plays Ko Gyeom, a movie buff turned critic, who crosses paths with Park’s Kim Mu-bee, a director who enters the film industry out of a love-hate relationship with her father, after years apart. Helming the production is director Oh Choong-hwan, who has brought shows like Hotel de Luna (2019) and Start-Up (2020). Melo Movie will stream on Netflix on Feb. 14.

When Life Gives You Tangerines

South Korea’s “little sister” IU (Hotel de Luna) and Park Bo-gum (Reply 1988, Record of Youth) team up in this slice-of-life series. IU plays the younger version of Ae-sun, a bold “remarkable rebel,” while Park plays Gwan-sik, nicknamed “unyielding iron”—in a show that chronicles their relationship over the course of four seasons in 1950s Jeju Island, a paradise known for its sprawling tangerine farms. When Life Gives You Tangerines airs on March 7.

Weak Hero: Class 2

This brutal, action-packed series returns with a second season, focused once again on one of the pressing social woes in South Korea: bullying. Based on the Naver webtoon of the same name by Seopass, Weak Hero Class 2 picks up where the first season left off in 2022—Yeon Si-eun (Park Ji-hoon, returning from Season 1) has been transferred to a new school after exacting violence on his enemies in the previous one. Among the new faces are Ryeo-un (Twinkling Watermelon), Choi Min-yeong (XO, Kitty) and Lee Min-jae (Uprising). Weak Hero Class 2 is set for a second quarter release.

Squid Game 3

The epic finale of globally-celebrated survival series Squid Game will arrive mid-year. The second season ended with (spoiler alert) Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) in despair following a failed rebellion against the game and its architect, a failed attempt to locate the games, and the death of his friend. A post-credits scene in the second season promises even higher stakes in the follow-up—teasing a second giant doll, Cheol-su, joining the characteristic Young-hee doll in the deadly Red Light, Green Light game. Creator and director Hwang Dong-hyuk told Deadline that the final season will be a “crazy, crazy, crazy” one. Squid Game 3 will be released June 27.  

Aema

Chungmuro, an avenue in Seoul, was the historic “cradle” of the South Korean film industry from the 1960s until the 1990s, and this fictional comedy explores the struggles of those trying to make it big at the height of the Hollywood-like neighborhood’s glory. The series goes behind the scenes of the making of the 1982 erotic box-office hit Madame Aema. Lee Ha-nee (The Fiery Priest, Phantom) plays Chungmuro A-lister Jeong Hee-ran, who loses the lead role in the film after a squabble with the creator, and is eventually replaced by aspiring Shin Ju-ae, played by up-and-coming actor Bang Hyo-rin. Aema is set for a third quarter release.

Genie, Make a Wish

Kim Eun-sook, the writer behind the 2022 revenge drama The Glory, is no stranger to romance, having penned local hit shows like Lovers in Paris and Descendants of the Sun. This year, she is the screenwriter behind a light-hearted fantasy rom-com that brings together Kim Woo-bin (Black Knight, The Heirs) and Suzy (Doona!) years after their last project, Uncontrollably Fond, in 2016. Kim plays the Genie, while Suzy plays Ka-young, his new master, and the two characters go through the familiar three wishes rule. Genie, Make a Wish is expected to be out in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Can This Love Be Translated?

Actor Kim Seon-ho, whose popularity skyrocketed after a supporting role in 2020 tvN drama Start-Up, is back after his last project with Netflix, Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha. Kim plays a polyglot who eventually works—and forms a romance—with a global celebrity, played by Go Youn-jung (Alchemy of Souls Part 2, Moving). Can This Love Be Translated? is slated for a release in the last quarter of the year.

source https://time.com/7212723/korean-dramas-2025-netflix/