The Brief

Following President-elect Trump’s victory — which was fueled by male voters and to many looked like a referendum on reproductive rights — some young American women are talking about boycotting men.

The idea comes from the South Korean movement known as 4B, or the 4 No’s (bi means “not” in Korean). It calls for the refusal of dating men (biyeonae), sexual relationships with men (bisekseu), heterosexual marriage (bihon) and childbirth (bichulsan).

Interest in the 4B movement has surged in the days since the election, with Google searches spiking and the hashtag taking off on social media. Scores of young women are exploring and promoting the idea in posts on platforms like TikTok and X.

“I think it’s time for American women to participate in our own 4B movement,” one woman posted on TikTok. “If men won’t respect our bodies, they don’t get access to our bodies.”

“Ladies, we need to start considering the 4B movement like the women in South Korea and give America a severely sharp birth rate decline,” reads one tweet with over 470,000 likes. “We can’t let these men have the last laugh… we need to bite back.”

“It’s time to close off your wombs to males,” reads another viral post. “This election proves now more than ever that they hate us & hate us proudly. Do not reward them.”

Several recent tweets from far-right men with large social media followings would seem to illustrate their point.

Nicholas Fuentes, a white nationalist and Holocaust denier — whom Trump was criticized for hosting at a dinner at his Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022 — tweeted, “Your body, my choice. Forever,” as the results turned in Trump’s favor on Election Night. The tweet got 40,000 likes.

Social media users have since noticed a pattern of men commenting that phrase, or similar, on women’s TikTok posts.

Another, Jon Miller, who describes himself as a moderate and “fair & balanced political commentator,” tweeted on Wednesday, “women threatening sex strikes like LMAO as if you have a say.” The post has gotten over 50 million views, sparked considerable backlash and was appended with a community note clarifying that sex without consent is rape.

Ju Hui Judy Han, a gender studies professor at the University of California Los Angeles who also specializes in Korean studies, says the growing interest in 4B at this moment is understandable.

“Clearly, this is about American women trying to find sources of leverage, sources of empowerment that can, in the short-term, make them feel like they have some agency … in these dire times, with the election and Roe v. Wade behind us,” Han told NPR.

That said, she was surprised to see it take off so suddenly this week, in large part because the movement is so specific to South Korean society and what she describes as its “culture of compulsory marriage” and childbirth.

Where did 4B come from — and could it catch on somewhere else?

For context, gender inequality is deeply rooted in South Korea

Han describes 4B as a relatively small movement that began as an offshoot of the growing feminist movement in South Korea, driven by structural misogyny and gender discrimination.

South Korea ranked 99 out of 146 in the World Economic Forum’s 2024 Global Gender Gap Index, and for decades has had the largest pay gap among the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) — it was 31% in 2021, compared to about 16% in the U.S.

The Economist’s glass-ceiling index ranked it the worst OECD country for working women in 2022, in part because of strict maternity leave policies that force many women to choose between career and family. That’s one of the reasons South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world, down to 0.78% in 2023.

The low fertility rate has been a source of alarm among Korean policymakers, and criticism by anti-feminists who blame 4B and other similar movements, Han says. But she says it would be a stretch to blame 4B for causing the decline in childbirths, and in fact, sees it as a response.

“It’s about young women saying to policymakers: ‘You want us to get married and have children, you have to make this world a better place for us to live,’ ” she said.

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was elected in 2022, campaigned in part on abolishing the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which coordinated and implemented policies promoting women’s rights. That move was condemned by many women in South Korea and human rights groups internationally.

South Korean women carry flags reading "feminist" as they march during a rally to mark International Women's Day in downtown Seoul in March.

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High-profile incidents spurred feminist movements like 4B

A series of events over the past near-decade fueled the South Korean feminist movement and the rise of 4B.

One of them was the 2016 murder of a 23-year-old woman in a public bathroom in Seoul’s central Gangnam Station, which the perpetrator later said he did because “women have always ignored me.”

“A lot of feminists and a lot of women came together and posted sticky notes all over the station talking about their own stories,” says Shruti Sivakumar, an Indiana University senior who is writing her capstone on the 4B movement. “And that was just sort of a reboot, I guess, of feminist activism in Korea.”

Meanwhile, South Korea experienced a rise in what the country calls “digital sex crimes,” with hidden cameras recording women in public areas like bathrooms and changing rooms and uploading the footage to pornographic websites.

Those factors, combined with a presidential corruption scandal in 2016, saw millions of South Koreans protesting in the streets for various causes, Han says, and women’s rights was one of them. Those protests continued in the years that followed as the #MeToo movement took hold in the U.S. and around the world.

There was also a rise in online feminist activism around the same time, including the controversial social movement known as Megalia. Another, called Break the Corset, saw young South Korean women smashing their makeup palettes and cutting their hair short in defiance of beauty standards.

Enter 4B, somewhere around 2019. It doesn’t have an elected leader or membership structure. It spreads on social media and through word of mouth, and there’s no way to know exactly how many women have participated.

“It’s not a church, it’s not a cult. It’s more, I think, kind of a state of mind and a set of priorities,” Han said. “What I think is most important is that it’s about women recognizing that they’re in a collective struggle, and that there’s a collective sense of frustration.”

4B is a commitment not without consequences

Han says given the dire situation in South Korea — including a notably high suicide rate among women in their 20s — the 4B movement isn’t coming from a playful or flippant place.

Similarly, Sivakumar describes it as a “last resort” for women who are trying to disentangle their lives from the patriarchy in the name of lasting social and economic independence.

“It’s not meant to be a movement or a form of activism that you’re able to just pick up for one month and just drop as soon as you find someone that you really like and want to talk to,” she added. “It’s supposed to be sort of a form of sacrifice, that for the rest of your life you’re going to be independent from men.”

That commitment can come with consequences.

Feminists — including 4B participants — in South Korea have faced considerable backlash, especially from men, Han said. For example, the country’s president last year suggested that feminism is to blame for blocking “healthy relationships” between men and women.

Han thinks it likely that American women exploring 4B could see backlash from their immediate circle just for “exercising their right to do these obvious things.”

“Declaring yourself to be a feminist in an anti-feminist world can have consequences,” Han said. “I think any sort of refusal to participate in the status quo could obviously have some negative consequences.”

As some social media users have pointed out, 4B is as much about cutting ties with men as it is supporting other women. Sivakumar says the intended target is women's autonomy rather than necessarily seeking to punish men, calling it an "individual effort on behalf of women."

The support of a collective is what makes the movement so powerful, Han said, adding that she hopes it will lead to more hands-on organizing for social change.

“One individual refusing to have sex is just one individual refusing to have sex,” Han said. “But when they recognize other women doing the same thing or wanting to share their frustration and their pursuit of agency in doing something collectively, now that’s a start of something else.”

Could 4B catch on in the U.S.?

A protest sign is pictured on a wall in an Arizona building before the election. Abortion rights were one of the top issues at stake for many voters.

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Many in the U.S. see Trump’s victory as a referendum on women’s rights.

The former president has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women dating back decades and was found liable for sexual abuse by a jury. Despite saying he opposes a nationwide abortion ban, Trump has bragged about appointing the Supreme Court justices who led to the reversal of Roe. His running mate, Vice President-elect Vance, drew widespread ire for his comments about “childless cat ladies” over the summer.

And Vice President Harris had made protecting abortion rights a central feature of her ultimately unsuccessful campaign to become the first female president.

Trump made narrow gains among both women and men compared to 2020, according to the Associated Press — but won men in every single age group. Exit polls show 55% of American men voted for Trump.

“I completely see the appeal right now after the election, I’m just so angry with men as a whole,” said Keara Sullivan, a 25-year-old comedian based in Brooklyn who has been hearing a lot about 4B online in recent days.

Sullivan feels strongly that women “should stop dating and marrying and having sex with men who actively vote against their human rights.” But she has concerns about aspects of the 4B movement, including worrying that women abstaining from sex could be seen as playing right into ultra-conservatives’ wishes.

Even so, Sullivan thinks it’s a good thing that people are talking about a U.S. 4B movement. She’s already seeing women who are not usually outspoken about feminism joining the discourse for the first time — and, like Han, hopes it will lead to more direct action.

“I’m hoping that this newfound sense of solidarity women are finding on social media can propel us into more direct feminist organizing and disruption that makes specific demands of our government,” Sullivan said.

The FBI seized about 15 drones near SoFi Stadium and L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Friday and Saturday for violating temporary flight restrictions, Amir Ehsaei, special agent in charge of counterterrorism and crisis response at the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, told LAist. Multiple operators were cited.

Stadiums hosting World Cup games and official fan festival venues are designated as "No Drone Zones" by the Federal Aviation Administration on match days.

“We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drones violating the temporary flight restrictions," Ehsaei said.

One of the drones seized near SoFi Stadium on Friday.

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One of the drones seized Friday at SoFi Stadium.

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He said drone detection teams are deployed at all SoFi games. "We will be out at other places depending on the nature — the size, the scope — [and] different intelligence that we'll get based on  threat assessments."

Drones are prohibited at SoFi within a three-nautical-mile radius and up to 3,000 feet above ground level. They are also banned at the Coliseum for the official fan festival within a one-nautical-mile radius and up to 1,000 feet above ground level.

Violators could face fines of up to $100,000 and federal criminal charges.

Residents in East LA are weighing the promise of a new Metro E Line extension with concerns over construction disruptions, small-business impacts and whether more outreach is needed about the project.

The 4.7-mile extension of the Metro E Line would connect East Los Angeles to Montebello with four new stations. The project would relocate the existing Atlantic and Pomona station underground and include a mix of underground, aerial and street-level track transit.

The $7.9 billion project is expected to open for service between 2035 and 2037, according to Metro.

Construction will begin in 2029 and last approximately eight to 10 years, pending full funding approval. It’s part of a wider plan to connect the E Line to the city of Whittier, though officials say the work will be built in two phases due to funding constraints.

While officials say the project is intended to reduce traffic congestion and ease pressure on local roads, residents at a recent community meeting focused more on the immediate impact and communication.

Concerns over construction and local impact

“Thirty days for comment on a complex issue like this is ridiculous. … We need better outreach,” said East LA resident Clara Solis about a 30-day public comment period ending June 26.

Solis and others also raised concerns about how construction could affect traffic and disrupt local commerce, pointing to past transit projects.

“How is this going to impact the businesses? When the Gold Line went through, a lot of our businesses really suffered economically. We want to see a presentation on that. You should have a presentation just on how it’s going to impact the businesses,” Solis added.

A map shows the Eastside Transit Corridor Phase 2 project will extend the E Line nearly nine miles east from East Los Angeles to the City of Whittier. ()

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Calls for broader outreach

East LA resident Kristie Hernandez said community outreach for the project should also extend to people who do not necessarily live within the immediate 200-foot project radius.

“We need to understand that folks who don’t necessarily live within that close proximity also frequent that area when they drive,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez advocated for a 90-day public comment window and also called for presentations on underground infrastructure, especially in the wake of the East LA pipeline that was punctured during construction work in late May.

“We do not want that to happen again,” she said.

A promise for greater mobility

Lucia Martinez spoke favorably about the extension plans, considering that she relies on buses to get around East LA to do her shopping. She said she looks forward to using the Metro to travel to the Citadel as well as to the hospital in Pasadena.

“As an older woman who became aware of this project, I think it is amazing because I am someone who does not drive,” she said.

LA Documenter Rafael Cazzorla contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

For the first time in nearly three decades, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new chemical UV filter for use in sunscreens sold in the U.S. And that has many dermatologists cheering.

"This is a very big deal," says Dr. Heather Rogers, a dermatologist in Seattle and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology.

The new ingredient is called bemotrizinol, and it has several advantages over the chemical sunscreen ingredients previously available in the U.S., Rogers says.

"It hits like really every box for us that we have been waiting for as dermatologists and consumers," Rogers says.

Here's what you need to know about this new ingredient and how it could lead to better sunscreens sold stateside.

1. It blocks both UVA and UVB rays

Rogers says in general, you want to use sunscreens that are broad spectrum, meaning they protect against both UVA rays — the longer wavelengths that cause premature aging and wrinkles — and UVB rays, which lead to sunburns. Both types of UV rays can cause skin cancer.

She says the sunscreens currently sold in the U.S. do an excellent job of protecting against UVB rays, but the chemical UV filters available in sunscreens in the U.S. until now aren't as good at blocking out UVA rays.

In general, chemical sunscreens sold in the U.S. rely on an ingredient called avobenzone to block out UVA rays, says Kelly Dobos, a cosmetic chemist who teaches at the University of Cincinnati.

But avobenzone by itself isn't photo stable, meaning its protection can start to break down rapidly when exposed to sunlight. And as avobenzone breaks down, it can release molecules that lead to skin irritation, says Alexa Friedman, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, or EWG.

By contrast, bemotrizinol offers protection against both UVA and UVB rays all on its own, and it is photo stable, so it breaks down more slowly, offering better protection, Rogers says.

"So if you go a little longer than two hours to reapply your sunscreen, there will be more protection left," Rogers says. However, she says you should still reapply sunscreen every two hours.

2. It's long been used in other countries 

Bemotrizinol has been widely used in European and Asian sunscreens for decades. But it has taken 20 years for the FDA to approve its use in this country.

That's because in the U.S., sunscreens are regulated as over-the-counter drugs rather than cosmetics, as they're classified in Europe. That means ingredients need to undergo rigorous testing for safety and efficacy before they can be approved for use in the U.S.

"It's really expensive and time consuming," Dobos says. The European company DSM-Firmenich spent at least $18 million over more than two decades in its push to gain FDA approval for bemotrizinol.

3. It has a well-documented safety profile

However, all that testing means bemotrizinol has more safety data to back it up than any other chemical sunscreen ingredient currently approved in the U.S., says Friedman of EWG.

"This ingredient is exciting because we have that data to support its safety," Friedman says.

Friedman says animal testing showed bemotrizinol doesn't lead to concerns like reproductive harm, while clinical testing on humans found that it does not irritate the skin, even after repeated application over time, "which is hopefully how people are using sunscreens."

And because bemotrizinol's molecules are larger, it's not readily absorbed by the skin and into the bloodstream, she says.

That's important, because studies have shown that some of the other chemical sunscreen UV filters sold in the U.S. can be absorbed in the bloodstream, prompting calls for more safety data and leading to a backlash against sunscreen on social media fueled by misinformation. Rogers says that trend is concerning because skin cancer is the most common form of cancer.

"We just need to have sunscreen that people will use, that they'll trust," Rogers says. "And this ingredient is going to allow that to happen. And that is very exciting."

And bemotrizinol is also considered to be non-irritating, Friedman says. That should be welcome news to people who've been put off by chemical sunscreens in the past.

4. It could lead to sunscreens that look better on you

Until now, Rogers says, the only sunscreen ingredient available in the U.S. that offered the aforementioned advantages of bemotrizinol — photo stable, non-irritating, minimally absorbed into the skin and with good broad spectrum protection against both UVA and UVB rays — was zinc oxide.

Both zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are mineral UV filters. Both chemical sunscreens and mineral sunscreens work by absorbing UV rays from the sun. Mineral sunscreens also reflect some UV rays. The bigger difference is that mineral sunscreens sit on the surface of the skin, while chemical sunscreens get absorbed into the skin, Rogers says.

The downside of mineral sunscreens is that they can leave an unattractive white cast on the skin — think of lifeguards with white paste on their noses. "Particularly if you're a person of color, zinc is going to make you look pale, white or ashy, which really makes it hard to use on a regular basis," Rogers says.

Bemotrizinol, on the other hand, is transparent on the skin, and because it protects against both UVA and UVB rays on its own, it doesn't have to be mixed with as many other chemical filters and stabilizers to achieve broad spectrum protection, Dobos adds. She says that should lead to more aesthetically pleasing, less greasy sunscreen formulations in the near future.

"I think it's a real win for public health," Dobos says. "If we can make a sunscreen that consumers like to use and want to use and apply in the proper amounts, I think that's something that's really going to be a win for consumers."

DSM-Firmenich has exclusive rights to market bemotrizinol in the U.S. for 18 months. It will be sold under the brand name Parsol Shield. The company says the first sunscreen products containing the ingredient should start hitting American store shelves around September.

The Justice Department on Friday approved Paramount's proposed $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery.

After concluding its antitrust investigation into the pending merger, the department said in a statement that it found that the deal posed no threat to competition or consumers of film, broadcast television or streaming.

The decision clears the way for a merger of two rival Hollywood studio titans: Paramount, the owner of CBS, including CBS News, will swallow the much larger Warner, which includes HBO and CNN.

The DOJ''s Antitrust Division concluded that a union of two studio giants isn't anti-competitive because the streaming market has expanded the competition for conventional Hollywood studios, which includes Netflix, Apple and Amazon, as well as smaller streamers. The Justice Department's view is that, for the same reason, consumers won't lose out because there are plenty of other places to get entertainment.

Several states, including California, have raised antitrust concerns. The European Union is investigating as well.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has been investigating the deal for antitrust violations, said in a post on social media following the Justice Department's approval: "The merger of Warner Bros and Paramount is not a done deal and remains under investigation by my office."

In a statement following the decision, Paramount described the deal as "pro-competitive," and would result in "a stronger company better positioned to compete against dominant technology platforms in an industry increasingly defined by intense competition for audiences, talent, technology, and investment."

The company said it planned to complete the merger as soon as possible, "delivering its benefits to consumers, creators, and the entertainment industry as a whole."

The consolidation will put media mogul David Ellison — son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — at the helm of Warner Bros. studio as well as its cable and streaming properties, including CNN and HBO. The Ellison family took over Paramount and CBS last summer.

In the months leading up to the regulatory approval, critics in Hollywood feared the deal would consolidate an already concentrated media landscape and lead to fewer jobs and less creative content.

In April, thousands of directors, actors, writers and other industry talent — including Kristen Stewart, Pedro Pascal and Javier Bardem — signed an open letter opposing the merger.

The elder Ellison is also a financial backer and adviser to President Trump on artificial intelligence. Critics of recent changes at CBS under the Ellisons' control are concerned that, as they say has happened with CBS News, the acquisition would make CNN more friendly to Trump.

NPR's Carrie Johnson and Mandalit del Barco contributed to this story.
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