China’s COVID-delayed Asian Games are set to be the largest ever, organizers said, as host city Hangzhou ramps up preparations ahead of the opening ceremony in September. The Games in Hangzhou were due to take place in September 2022 but were postponed by a year because of China’s strict “zero-COVID” rules. Over 12,500 athletes from 45 countries and regions have signed up, with organizing official Ding Jiong telling reporters that Hangzhou would host “the Asian Game

More Sports Sept. 1, 2023

Global household wealth fell last year for the first time since the financial crisis in 2008, as inflation and the appreciation of the US dollar wiped some $11.3 trillion off assets. Total net private wealth across the world decreased by 2.4 percent to a total of $454.4 trillion, according to Credit Suisse’s annual global wealth report. The bulk of the decline was felt in North American and European households, which lost a combined $10.9 trillion. Not all regions suffered a hit to wealth.

World News Aug. 31, 2023

Samsung Electronics retained its top spot in the global memory chip market in the first quarter despite lackluster earnings amid the chip glut, a report showed. SK hynix, on the other hand, was pushed back to third place from No. 2 compared to a year earlier, due largely to the output cut that came before Samsung, according to the market tracker Omdia. Samsung Electronics kept the largest share of 42.8 percent in the DRAM market, unchanged from the previous quarter. Samsung’s DRAM revenu

Technology Aug. 30, 2023

　India made history as it became the first country in the world to land its spacecraft near the moon’s south pole, an uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold vital reserves of frozen water. 　India is the fourth country to achieve a moon landing.

World News Aug. 29, 2023

South Korea’s exports of farm and fisheries products fell 3.8 percent on-year in the first half of the year, data showed. Outbound shipments of agricultural and fisheries goods came to $5.95 billion in the January-June period, down from $6.19 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. Last year’s tally marked an all-time high for the first half of any year, and it was the first time that the figure surpassed the $6 billion mark. This

Market Aug. 28, 2023

　India’s wild tiger population is estimated to now exceed 3,600, according to new government figures, in a vindication of conservation efforts for the endangered species. 　Tigers once roamed throughout central, eastern and southern Asia, but have lost nearly 95 percent of their historical range in the past century. India is currently home to 75 percent of the world’s tigers, and the country declared its population of the big cats had risen to 3,167 in April after a camera-based sur

World News Aug. 25, 2023

Sales of cigarettes in South Korea moved down 0.6 percent on-year in the January-June period, data showed. South Korean smokers purchased 1.77 billion 20-cigarette packs in the first half, falling from 17.8 billion packs posted a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Heat-not-burn tobacco products took up 16.5 percent of the market, advancing from 14.8 percent posted for all of 2022. Meanwhile, the government collected 5.7 trillion won ($4.4 billion) in taxes from cigar

Social Affairs Aug. 24, 2023

Close to half of American adults support a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey that also asked questions about national security concerns and China. TikTok, owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance and used by tens of millions of Americans, has faced calls from US lawmakers for a nationwide ban over concerns about possible Chinese government influence. Some 47 percent of respondents to the two-day poll, which concluded on Aug. 15, said they at l

World News Aug. 23, 2023

The combined US market share of Hyundai Motor and its smaller affiliate Kia inched up in the first half of the year from a year earlier, managing to stay above the 10 percent range amid the recovery in demand and output, data showed. Their combined share came to 10.6 percent in the January-June period, up 0.3 percentage point from the previous year, according to the data by the US-based Automotive News outlet. Hyundai and Kia saw their combined market share rise to double digits for the first ti

World Business Aug. 22, 2023

South Korea’s exports of ice cream reached a record high in the first half of 2023, data showed, on the back of the growing popularity of Korean entertainment content across the globe. Outbound shipments of ice cream and similar products reached $59 million in the January-June period, up 19.8 percent from a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service. The figure almost doubled South Korea’s ice cream imports, which came to $30 million, up 7.5 percent ove

Market Aug. 18, 2023

North Korea’s dependency on China for foreign trade hit its highest level in 2022 since leader Kim Jong-un took the helm of the reclusive country 10 years earlier, a report showed. Pyongyang’s trade with Beijing came to $1.53 billion last year, up about 125 percent from the previous year, according to the report from the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. The amount took up 96.7 percent of North Korea’s overall trade, up from 95.6 percent a year earlier. Exports stood at

North Korea Aug. 17, 2023

The number of apparent heat-related deaths hit the highest this summer since 2018, the disease control agency said. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, a total of 28 people were presumed to have died of heat-related illness as of Aug. 11 since late May. The tally marks the largest since 2018, when the comparable figure was 48. The number of people hospitalized for heat-related illnesses, including those who have died, came to 2,123 during same period, also the largest s

Social Affairs Aug. 16, 2023

About 7 in 10 US adults say they believe in angels, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “People are yearning for something greater than themselves — beyond their own understanding,” said Jack Grogger, chaplain for the Los Angeles Angels and a longtime Southern California fire captain who has aided many people in their gravest moments. People turn to angels for comfort, he said. They are familiar, regularly showing up in pop c

World News Aug. 15, 2023

Around 60 percent of South Korean seniors were economically active as of May, data showed, reflecting the state of the country’s rapidly aging population. The poll by Statistics Korea showed that 60.2 percent of the country's 15.48 million people aged 55 to 79 were economically active, up 0.8 percentage point from the previous year. The data encompasses both individuals currently employed and those actively in search of job opportunities. The number of employed people in the age group

Social Affairs Aug. 10, 2023

Global smartphone shipments fell 11 percent on-year in the second quarter, a report showed, as the market continued to face headwinds of slower consumer demand amid macroeconomic uncertainties. Market research firm Canalys said the continued market slump impacted market leaders, like Samsung Electronics and Apple, which had to reduce their sell-in, or shipments to retailers. Samsung led the market with a 21 percent market share, followed by Apple at 17 percent, Xiaomi at 13 percent and Oppo at 1

World Business Aug. 8, 2023