The number of airport bus passengers in Seoul increased by 2.6 times during the past six months, the city government said, as the demand for air travel has spiked after the lifting of almost all COVID-19 social distancing restrictions in April. The number of rides performed by foreign tourist taxis has also rebounded and exceeded 5,000 in only three months after they resumed operations in Apri...

Tesla founder Elon Musk joined the ranks of celebrities who have more than 100 million Twitter followers, in early July, according to a US media tracker. Musk had 100.6 million followers on July 8, placing 6th after former US President Barack Obama, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Rihanna and Cristiano Ronaldo, according to Social Blade. The business magnate’s topping of 100 million came 13 years a...

The Austrian capital Vienna has made a comeback as the world’s most livable city, according to an annual report from the Economist. Vienna snatched the top spot from Auckland, New Zealand, which tumbled down to 34th place due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, according to the report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. Europe boasted six out of the top 10 cities. The Austrian capital was ...

The number of adolescents treated for gambling addiction spiked last year as they spent more time at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. Rep. Kim Do-eup of the ruling People Power Party released the statistics from the state-run Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service that showed 7,063 adolescents received treatment for gambling addiction between 2017 and 2021. The numb...

Seoul National University ranked 29th overall in the 2023 QS World University Rankings 2023, scoring its highest placement so far. SNU received particularly good reviews in academic reputation (98.6 points) and graduate reputation (97.8 points). Massachusetts Institute of Technology remained at the top place for the 11th consecutive year, followed by the University of Cambridge, Stanford Uni...

Seven out of 10 South Koreans believe the government should only provide nonmilitary aid to Ukraine, a survey showed. In the survey of 1,000 people aged 18 or above conducted by Gallup Korea from June 21-23, 72 percent said the government of President Yoon Suk-yeol should only send medical, food and other nonlethal aid. Only 15 percent said the government should also provide weapons. Eight...

Fifty-three migrants died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer in the sweltering Texas heat on June 27, one of the worst tragedies to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the US. The deaths were the latest in what has become a global series of mass deaths occurring during human trafficking attempts.

A CBS News poll suggested that a majority of Americans disapprove of the US Supreme Court’s decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, which is inflaming a partisan divide on display in comments by senior lawmakers. The poll, conducted June 25-26, found 59 percent disapproved of the ruling, including 67 percent of women. While 78 percent of Republicans were in favor of the d...

South Korea’s global competitiveness ranking fell four notches this year from the previous year, amid the economic slowdown and a continued rise in the national debt, a report showed. South Korea ranked No. 27 in terms of global competitiveness among 63 countries surveyed, according to the 2022 report by the International Institute for Management Development. The IMD, a Switzerland-based int...

Apple reclaimed its title as the world’s most valuable brand, according to a survey from Kantar BrandZ, knocking rival Amazon off the top spot for the first time in three years. The iPhone maker’s brand value reached $947 billion this year, while Amazon slipped to third, according to Kantar’s survey published June 15. Apple was last ranked the most valuable brand in 2015. Louis Vuitton becam...

More than half of soccer players playing at the European Championship and African Cup of Nations suffered online abuse, a study published by FIFA revealed. Much of the abuse came from fans of the players’ home nations. “Homophobic (40 percent) and racist (38 percent) comments provided the majority of the abuse,” said the independent report published to coincide with the United Nations Intern...

About 6 in 10 Americans believe Trump should be charged for the Jan. 6, 2021 riot in the US Capitol, a poll published by ABC News and Ipsos revealed. Opinions differed greatly based on the political party respondents supported. Nevertheless, 58 percent of the total respondents replied that they believe Trump should be legally charged for the riots. Sixty percent of the total respondents repl...

South Korea had the highest household debt-to-gross domestic product ratio among 36 major economies in the first quarter, a global finance report said. The country’s household debt-to-GDP ratio came to 104.3 percent in the January-March period, followed by Lebanon with 97.8 percent, Hong Kong with 95.3 percent, Thailand with 89.7 percent and Britain with 83.9 percent, according to data from th...

Samsung Electronics, South Korea’s leading tech firm, was the world‘s 22nd-largest company in terms of market capitalization, down seven notches from a year earlier, data showed. According to the list of the global top 100 companies released by London-based accounting company PwC, the tech giant was the only South Korean company on the list with the market value of $342 billion as of March. ...

The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the Cold War while the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments think-tank said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, the Stockholm International Peace Research I...