Medical workers on Wednesday dressed up as Santa Claus at a COVID-19 testing center in Gwangju.  To celebrate the upcoming Christmas, doctors and nurses at the testing center conducted COVID-19 tests in Santa Claus outfits. The number of COVID-19 cases rapidly increased this month, with some 7,000 cases reported each day. Amid the worsening COVID-19 situation, medical workers turned into Santa Claus to light up the atmosphere of the testing center.  The Santa Claus outfit that worke

Korean Air said Thursday that it has developed drones for airplane inspection. At an airship hangar located in Gangseo-gu, eastern Seoul, Korean Air demonstrated a group of drones inspecting a Boeing 737 aircraft in front of officials from the Ministry of Land and Transportation. The drone used in the demonstration weighs only 5.5 kilograms and is relatively small in size, with the width and length both coming in at 1 meter. Four drones move in groups when they inspect an airplane, sharing

　Olaf Scholz became the ninth Chancellor of Germany on Wednesday, ending the era of Angela Merkel. Among the 707 lawmakers of the German parliament Bundestag who participated in the voting, Scholz earned 395 votes, indicating the first political transition of Germany in 16 years. 　Although Merkel was a center-right wing politician from the Christian Democratic Union while Scholz is a center-left wing politician of the Social Democrat Party, they have shown profound mutual respect. Scholz prais

Lionel Messi, the legendary 34-year-old soccer player of Paris Saint-Germain, won his seventh Ballon d’Or on Monday. Presented by the news magazine France Football every year, the Ballon d’Or is given to the best soccer player of the year. Since the Ballon d’Or Awards did not take place last year due to the pandemic, Messi has won the trophy a second time consecutively. Messi won the Ballon d’Or for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2019 and now 2021, becoming the soccer pl

A Canadian virtual real estate company Metaverse Group, a subsidiary of investment firm Tokens.com, bought a virtual land in a metaverse platform called Decentraland for $2.4 million. Established in 2017, Decentraland is an online platform that deals with virtual assets in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, based on the Ethereum blockchain. Avatars in the Decentraland can earn money by embarking on speculative investment, hosting exhibitions, and conducting advertisement campai

On Black Friday, which refers to the day after Thanksgiving in the US, stores there typically offer goods at highly discounted prices. In recent years, retailers have tended to prolong the duration of the promotion, cutting prices before Thanksgiving even starts. Korean online shoppers have bought enormous amounts of products directly from foreign websites in the past few days. Due to the Black Friday shopping spree, packages containing a variety of goods shipped from the US were piling up at

Merchants at Yukgeori Market in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, gathered Thursday to make kimchi for people who are struggling financially. 　 Approximately 80 people, including Cheongju Mayor Han Beom-deok and North Chungcheong Province Gov. Lee Si-jong, participated in the kimchi-making event using 1,000 heads of cabbage. “As merchants of the landmark traditional market of this region, all of the members of our merchant association will contribute to our local community and spread

The first snow of the season fell Monday on Hallasan, South Korea’s tallest mountain, on Jeju Island. Last year, the first snow fell on Nov. 29 in the province. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the temperature hit minus 3.1 degrees Celsius at Utse Oreum, a volcanic crater of Hallasan.  The KMA forecasts 1-5 centimeters of snow to fall by this Wednesday and warned hikers of the slippery trek up the mountain.  Meanwhile, snowfall was also recorded at Gwanak

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given final approval to using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5-11 years old. CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday that approximately 28 million children are now eligible to receive the vaccine for free. Last week, the FDA authorized a 10-microgram dose of the Pfizer vaccine for children under 12, which is one-third of the adult dose. Health authorities forecast that the lower dose will help reduce the chances of si

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-3 mission is set to lift off this weekend, carrying an international crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station. According to NASA, it will send SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft Endurance to space from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sunday. The mission will be the third operational NASA commercial crew flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft. The team members consists of three astronauts from the US and one astronaut from Germany. The commander

Marking its 5th anniversary, the Daegu International Future Auto, or DIFA, Expo kicked off on Thursday at EXCO, a convention center in Daegu, where local and global automotive firms show off their technology for eco-friendly vehicles and electric car batteries. Hyundai Motor Group displayed its new electric vehicle IONIC5 along with a model of its E-pit station, which can charge 80 percent of the vehicle’s EV battery capacity within 18 minutes.  The photo above shows NEXO, Hyu

Recent data shows that 8 out of 10 communication fraud reports filed with the financial authorities this year concerned criminals impersonating government officials. A report published by Rep. Min Hyung-bae on Oct. 7 revealed that voice phishing cases in which criminals falsely offer to lend money to their victims are becoming less common, with the figure dropping every year. In contrast, impersonation of government officials has increased in recent years, accounting for 11,732 of the 14,065 c

The 2021 Green New Deal Expo was held Oct. 6-8 at Kintex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, where 53 firms and organizations presented alternative energy visions and technologies. This year’s theme was the future of hydrogen. Automotive giant Hyundai Motor Group caught visitors’ attention with its electric and hydrogen vehicles, and group affiliate Hyundai Mobis displayed a hydrogen fueling station. The company recently invested 1.3 trillion won ($1.1 billion) to build two hydrogen fuel

Amid the rising tension between the two Koreas due to NK’s hypersonic missile test earlier this week, the Defense Ministry held the 73rd Armed Forces Day Ceremony on Friday in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province. Pohang was the location where the United Nations forces made their first landing operation during the Korean War.  The photo above shows President Moon Jae-in on board the Marado, a high-tech landing platform helicopter ship. In his speech, President Moon emphasized the signif