The swift growth of artificial intelligence technology could put the future of humanity at risk, according to most Americans surveyed in a Reuters/Ipsos poll. More than two-thirds of Americans are concerned about the negative effects of AI and 61 percent believe it could threaten civilization. Since OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot became the fastest growing application of all time, the widespread inte...

Debt among those in their 20s and 30s jumped more than 27 percent over the past three years since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, indicating they suffered financial difficulties due to rising home prices and an economic slowdown, central bank data showed. In the fourth quarter of 2022, overall loans extended to those in the age bracket soared 27.4 percent to 514.5 trillion won ($384 billion) from 404...

South Korea ranked 47th in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced, falling by four places from last year. The index, based on an evaluation of the journalism environment in 180 countries and territories, is divided into four categories; “good,” “satisfactory,” “very serious,” “difficult,” and “problematic.” Korea was remarked as “satisfactor...

South Korea’s crime rate fell to the lowest level in a decade in 2021, data showed, although offenses in the cyber domain shot up amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Asia’s No. 4 economy reported 1,774 cases of criminal violations per 100,000 people in 2021, down 12 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea. The number of murders reached 1.3 per 100,000 people in 2...

Global sugar prices have risen every month this year, the highest level in 11 1/2 years since October 2011. The global Sugar Price Index soared 27.9 percent from January, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. The index rose every month from 116.8 in January to 125.2 in February, 127 in March, and 149.4 last month due to concerns about reduced global sugar productio...

Almost half of US adults say they’re worried about the safety of their deposits in banks and other financial institutions — levels of concern that are as high or higher than they were during the 2008 financial crisis. A Gallup poll shows 48 percent of Americans are very or moderately worried about their money following the worst spate of bank failures in 15 years. Only 20 percent say they’re not...

Seven in 10 South Koreans support the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s efforts to shed light on North Korea’s dire human rights situation, a poll showed. In a survey on 1,000 adults conducted by the Peaceful Unification Advisory Council from March 24-26, 70.5 percent of the respondents said they support the government’s policy initiative to raise awareness on North Korean human rights. The PUAC, a pr...

The number of rail passengers in South Korea shot up 44 percent on-year in the first quarter as the country returned to pre-pandemic normalcy, government data showed. Around 39.2 million people traveled on railways in the January-March period, rising sharply from 27.2 million tallied a year earlier, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The figure excl...

South Korea’s whisky imports shot up nearly 80 percent in the first quarter of this year on the liquor’s surging popularity among young Koreans amid the coronavirus pandemic, data showed. The volume of imported whisky came to 8,443 metric tons in the January-March period, up 78.2 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Korea Customs Service. It marks the highest first-quarte...

A gunman shot and killed eight people and injured several others at a busy mall north of Dallas on Saturday. A Korean American couple and their 3-year-old son were among those killed in Texas mall massacre. Another 6-year-old boy was wounded and hospitalized. The massacre is among the latest in at least 202 mass shootings recorded in the United States this year, according to the nonprofit group...

President Joe Biden’s approval rating slid to a career low in the latest opinion poll for ABC News and the Washington Post that also showed the US leader lagging predecessor Donald Trump in early voter preferences for the 2024 election. The percentage of those approving of Biden’s performance fell to 36 percent, six points lower than in February and a point off his previous low in early 2022, ac...

South Korean carmakers’ global market share inched down in 2022 from a year earlier due largely to weaker sales in China and Russia, industry data showed. Local automakers accounted for 7.3 percent of vehicle sales in the world’s eight major markets last year, down from 7.7 percent in 2021, according to the data from the Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association. Their share was the fifth-larg...

The number of North Korean defectors coming to South Korea reached 34 in the first quarter, government data showed. After escaping the North, five men and 29 women reached the South in the January-March period, bringing the total number of the North’s defectors to 33,916, according to the data from Seoul’s Unification Ministry. The data compared with 11 people in the first quarter of last ye...

King Charles III’s coronation will take place Saturday at Westminster Abbey in London. More than 2,200 people will attend the coronation, including international representatives from 203 countries as well as community and charity workers. During the ceremony, the king will be crowned alongside Camilla, the queen consort.

Tottenham Hotspur’s South Korean star, Son Heung-min, reached double-digit goal figures for his seventh consecutive season in the Premier League when he scored his 10th goal of the 2022-2023 season in the 77th minute of Tottenham’s 4-3 loss to Liverpool on April 30. Since the 2016-2017 season, Son has kept his performance consistent, including his Golden Boot-winning 2021-2022 season with a care...