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A new year brings a new tax filing season. With many cash-strapped Americans worried about their finances, many cant wait to file their returns. The sooner you file, the sooner your chances of getting your refund, after all. But just when can you begin submitting your tax return to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)? That depends. Heres what you need to know about the 2026 tax filing season. When does the 2026 tax filing season begin? There are actually two start dates to the 2026 tax filing season this year. The 2026 tax filing season refers to the period taxpayers have to file their tax returns for the 2025 calendar year. According to an IRS press release on Thursday, the official day of the 2026 tax filing season begins on Monday, January 26, 2026. From this day, anyone who is required to file a federal tax return can do so. But January 26 isnt the earliest date some people can begin submitting their tax returns to the IRS. As the IRS noted in its Thursday release, the agency will actually begin to accept tax returns from a select group of taxpayers starting today, Friday, January 9, 2026. Who can submit their tax returns beginning on January 9? Not every taxpayer can submit their returns beginning on January 9. According to the IRS, this submission start date is only open to qualified taxpayers. So, who is a qualified taxpayer? The IRS says a person meets that designation if they are in a select group of people who use the IRS Free File program to submit their taxes. Per the IRSs Thursday notice: The IRS Free File program will begin accepting individual tax returns starting Friday, Jan. 9 for qualified taxpayers. Taxpayers comfortable preparing their own taxes can use IRS Free File Fillable Forms starting Jan. 26, regardless of income. What this means is not everyone who uses the IRS Free File program can submit their tax returns starting todayonly select individuals. Those IRS Free File users who can begin submitting their tax returns today are limited to those individuals who need to report $89,000 in adjusted gross income (AGI) or less, according to the IRSs Free File information page. Taxpayers who use Free Files online forms and who make more than $89,000 in adjusted gross income will need to wait until January 26 to submit their tax returns, just like everyone else. Will eligible taxpayers who submit via Free File before January 26 get their tax refunds faster? Thats unknown, as every individuals tax situation is different. In the IRSs notice, it states that the agency will begin accepting tax returns from eligible individuals on January 9. It does not say it will begin “processing” the returns then. What this means is that even if you are eligible to submit your tax return before January 26, it cant be guaranteed that the IRS will actually begin processing your return before January 26. Still, its reasonable to assume that if you want to get your tax refund as soon as possible, you should file your tax return on the earliest date you can. The IRS says individuals have until Wednesday, April 15, 2026, to file their taxes for the 2025 tax year and pay any taxes owed.
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Two things can be true at once. K-pop is an inextricable force in global pop culture, and it has long been undercelebrated at institutions like the Grammys where K-pop artists have performed but have never taken home a trophy.That could change at next month’s 2026 Grammy Awards ceremony. Songs released by K-pop artists or K-pop-adjacent artists, more on that later have received nominations in the big four categories for the first time. Rosé, perhaps best known as one-fourth of the juggernaut girl group Blackpink, is the first K-pop artist to ever receive a nomination in the record of the year field for “APT.,” her megahit with Grammys’ favorite Bruno Mars.The song of the year category also features K-pop nominees for the first time. “APT.” will go head-to-head with the fictional girl group HUNTR/X’s “Golden,” performed by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami from the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack.And the girl group Katseye, the brain child of HYBE the entertainment company behind K-pop sensation BTS and countless other international acts fashioned in the image of the K-pop idol system, has been nominated for best new artist. Is this a historic moment for K-pop? It depends on who you ask.Areum Jeong, assistant professor of Korean Studies at Arizona State University and author of “K-pop Fandom: Performing Deokhu from the 1990s to Today” says the majority of these nominations strike her more as “a de-territorialized, hybrid idea of K-pop,” instead of a recognition of K-pop.While Rosé “was recruited and trained under the K-pop system, and while ‘APT.’ does contain some motifs from the Korean drinking game,” Jeong says, “the song does not feel like a localized K-pop production. Same with Katseye, who was trained and produced under HYBE but marketed more toward Western fans and listeners.”Jeong says that both “APT.” and Katseye’s “Gabriela” both of which will go head-to-head with “Golden” in the pop duo/group performance category “seem less K-pop than other K-pop songs that could have been nominated over the years.”She argues the same is true for the music of “Kpop Demon Hunters.” “It is very similar to ‘APT.’ in that it takes inspiration and motif from Korean culture,” where “K-pop serves as an idea, a jumping-off point, or a motif, creating alternatives or new possibilities.”Mathieu Berbiguier, a visiting assistant professor in Korean Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, points out that these nominations differ from past K-pop Grammy nominations because “Golden,” “APT.” and Katseye all feature “a mainstream popular music factor.”That’s the connection of a massive popular Netflix film (“Kpop Demon Hunters”), a collaboration with Bruno Mars (“APT.”), and Katseye’s international membership and Netflix series (“Pop Star Academy: Katseye”), respectively.“It tells you that K-pop is not considered as something niche anymore,” he says. “Now, when we think about pop music in general, we also think of K-pop as part of it.”Bernie Cho, industry expert and president of the South Korean agency, the DFSB Kollective, agrees that there is an international, mainstream appeal to the nominees.“All the nominees represent a sort of post-idol K-pop, in the sense that Rosé, the three ladies of HUNTR/X and Katseye represent the globalized version of K-pop, where the ‘K’ is very much there, but some people might argue it’s silent. The songs are not necessarily for Korea, by Korea, from Korea, just kind of beyond Korea,” he says. “It’s a celebration and testament to how diverse and dynamic K-pop has become.” Why are these acts being recognized now? “For years, the Recording Academy has snubbed K-pop acts that have set record-breaking standards, such as BTS,Seventeen and Stray Kids,” argues Jeong. “I think one of the main reasons is that the Western world is still so resistant to non-English lyrics.”“It does not surprise me that ‘APT.’ and Katseye’s music, which mainly contain English lyrics and seem less K-pop, were nominated,” she continues.Berbiguier adds that “is a reflection of K-pop nowadays, like, trends: the fact that there’s less and less Korean and more and more English.”There may be an additional factor at play. Tamar Herman, a music journalist and author of the “Notes on K-pop” newsletter, says many critics and industry voices found 2025 to be a lackluster year for new pop music in the U.S. a fact that was all but confirmed in Luminate’s 2025 Mid-Year Report, which found that streams of new music had slowed compared to the year prior, potentially due to a dearth of megahits dominating the charts.“Yes, it’s a big moment for K-pop, but it is so overdue, these recognitions are more of a sign of how poorly the music industry in the U.S. did this year that we’re looking externally,” she says.She argues that acknowledgment of Korean entertainment from U.S. entertainment industries is more symbolic of U.S. cultural dominance slipping than “K-pop being really good, because K-pop has been really good for a really long time,” she says. “This is all recognition of just global storytelling improvement, global taste-making improvement.”“I don’t want to diminish it,” she adds. “These are all universally friendly, accessible, good pop songs.”And if they weren’t, they wouldn’t connect.“It’s very obvious that they’re not just performers. They’re artists. They’re singers. They’re songwriters,” says Cho. Will a K-pop artist win a Grammy for the first time this year? The jury is still out.“I think it’s not even a matter of if or when. It’s going to be who and how many,” says Cho.Others are less committal. “It’s hard to predict,” says Berbiguier. “For me, it’s more possible that ‘Golden’ gets one.”“Yes and no,” offers Herman. For her, it depends on an evolving and fluid definition of K-pop. After all, HUNTR/X is a fictional girl group from an animated film that did not debut through the K-pop music industry system. Would a victory for their song “Golden” mean a victory of K-pop? That’s a matter of opinion. The 68th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 1 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards. Maria Sherman, AP Music Writer
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Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is preventing most users from generating or editing any images after a global backlash that erupted after it started spewing sexualized deepfakes of people.The chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has in the past few weeks been granting a wave of what researchers say are malicious user requests to modify images, including putting women in bikinis or in sexually explicit positions.Researchers have warned that in a few cases, some images appeared to depict children. Governments around the world have condemned the platform and opened investigations into the platform.On Friday, Grok was responding to image altering requests with the message: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers. You can subscribe to unlock these features.”While subscriber numbers for Grok aren’t publicly available, there was a noticeable decline in the number of explicit deepfakes that Grok is now generating compared with days earlier.The European Union has slammed Grok for “illegal” and “appalling” behavior, while officials in France, India, Malaysia and a Brazilian lawmaker have called for investigations.On Thursday, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer threatened unspecified action against X.“This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not to be tolerated,” Starmer said on Greatest Hits radio. “X has got to get a grip of this.”He said media regulator Ofcom “has our full support to take action” and that “all options” are on the table.“It’s disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”Ofcom and Britain’s privacy regulator both said this week they’ve contacted X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI for information on measures they’ve taken to comply with British regulations.Grok is free to use for X users, who can ask it questions on the social media platform. They can either tag it in posts they’ve directly created or in replies to posts from other users.Grok launched in 2023. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.The problem is amplified both because Musk pitches his chatbot as an edgier alternative to rivals with more safeguards, and because Grok’s images are publicly visible, and can therefore be easily spread. Kelvin Chan, AP Business Writer
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