Consumer

This week, Tesla launched its first  robotaxi service with 24 cars and safety drivers  in Austin. On Tuesday,Waymo, which already operated in Austin, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix without safety drivers, added Atlanta. In China, Apollo Go owned by Baidu has 1,000 robotaxis on the road in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan and several more Chinese cities. A handful ...

Four in ten people say that they avoid the news at least sometimes, according to the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2025, published on Tuesday. This is according to a survey of nearly 100,000 people across 48 countries. Of these, 39% said that they purposefully turned away from news because it has a negative effect on their mood, while 31% ...

Lighting up a fag was once considered cool – but no longer – according to the Federal Trade Commission, 173.5 billion cigarettes were sold in the US in 2022, which is by far the lowest number since the FTC started tracking cigarette sales in 1963. Ciggie sales have declined more or less continuously over the past 40 years, dropping by ...

While smoking among men is often associated with masculinity or social status in Asia/Pac, it is frowned-upon for women to smoke. The WHO projects a global prevalence of 32.9% among males and of 6.7% among females for 2025 – but nowhere is the difference as pronounced as it is in Asia and the Pacific. Indonesia and China are the countries ...

I hate buying new clothes and don’t much like being given them. The pleasure of an old coat or a well-worn shirt is that they bring back memories of happy occasions when they’ve been worn before. Familiarity breeds content. There are those who worry about being seen in the same piece of clothing twice. To me this is aberrational albeit ...

European Champions PSG have been transformed from a mid-table club to a serial league winner since the takeover by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011. Defeated 2025 finalists Inter have won the Champions League (or the European Cup as it was previously called) three times. Real Madrid is in a league of its own with 15 Champions League titles, leading AC ...

After Tottenham beat Man U  1:0 to win the UEFA Europa League, Chelsea defeated Real Betis 4:1 to lift the UEFA Conference League trophy last week and Saturday’s riotous UEFA Champions League final between Inter and Paris Saint-Germain we’ve come to the end of the European football season. The Champions League final got the Saturday prime time treatment, while the ...

To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first international football tournament with representation of all regions, which took place on May 25, 1924, the UN General Assembly has declared May 25 World Football Day. The resolution, passed on May 7, 2024, acknowledges “the global reach of football and its impact in various spheres, including commerce, peace and diplomacy and recognizing ...

44% of the respondents in Sweden surveyed by Statista Consumer Insights between April 2024 and March 2025 reported  mental health problems such as depression, stress or anxiety. Australia, the US and the UK came in at No.s 2, 3 and 4 on the scale. The share was  lower in India, France, Italy and China. According to the UN, one in ...

Sitting at a beach bar in South Carolina last week, the guy in the next seat opened a conversation about life, events and drink in that companionable way Americans have. It turned out he was not only drinking a Margarita but actually lived in a place called Margaritaville. Research revealed that there are 20 resort towns in the USA called ...