National Museum of Korea to exceed 5 million annual visitors for the first time

▲ Visitors spend time viewing exhibits at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul on Aug. 1, 2025. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The National Museum of Korea is on track to set a new attendance record this year, with projections indicating it could surpass 5 million annual visitors for the first time since its founding in 1945.

According to museum data released on Tuesday, 4,189,822 people visited the institution between January 1 and August 25. The figure already exceeds the total attendance of 3,788,785 recorded for all of 2024, and also breaks the all-time high of 4,180,285 from 2023—the first year the museum crossed the 4 million mark.

At the current pace, the museum is expected to reach the 5 million milestone by year-end, a first in its 80-year history. A museum official said the figure reflects preliminary tallies for the permanent exhibition halls, adding that numbers could increase further if theater shows, educational programs and other activities are included.

Monthly visitor numbers have shown steady growth this year, topping 500,000 in both January and February, and soaring to 747,679 in July. That translates to an average of about 24,000 people per day as of last month. Attendance in August has already surpassed 700,000.

▲ Visitors spend time viewing exhibits at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul on Aug. 1, 2025. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Observers attribute the surge to rising global interest in Korean culture, recently fueled by the worldwide success of the Netflix animated film "K-Pop Demon Hunters," which prominently features traditional motifs such as the Korean hat gat and tigers. The museum has said the phenomenon reflects the expansion of the Korean Wave beyond K-pop and K-food to "K-tradition."

The growing attendance spans generations, particularly people in their 20s and 30s. Combined annual visitors to the National Museum of Korea and its 13 affiliated museums have topped 10 million for two consecutive years in 2023-2024, with foreign visitors also hitting an all-time high in 2024. Sales of "muse" — museum-themed merchandise — reached 11.5 billion won (US$8.4 million) in the first half of this year alone.

▲ This photo, provided by Netflix, shows a scene from "K-pop Demon Hunters." (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

With monthly attendance averaging nearly 490,000 between January and July, the annual total could potentially reach as high as 6 million by December. The upcoming Chuseok holiday in October is also expected to further increase the numbers.

The rapid increase has raised concerns about safety and infrastructure capacity. When the museum opened at its Yongsan site in 2005, its exhibition halls were designed to accommodate a maximum of about 18,000 visitors per day. But recent surges, especially during the summer vacation season, have strained facilities, raising red flags over artifact safety, exhibition conditions and visitor convenience.

The museum has urged visitors to use public transportation, warning that parking lots may require over an hour of waiting due to congestion. Additional guides and security staff have been deployed at the entrances. Plans are also under way to build a new children's museum on the grounds, three times the current size, with family-friendly rest areas. The expansion is scheduled for completion by 2029.

A museum official said, 'Visitor numbers have grown significantly, but our budget and facilities have remained the same since the Yongsan relocation in 2005,' stressing the need for increased resources and staffing.

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Gen Xers mourn the drowning death of actor Malcolm-Jamal Warner, known as Theo on 'The Cosby Show'

DETROIT (AP) — For Black youth and teens growing up in the mid-1980s, "The Cosby Show" offered something rarely seen on television up until that time: a sitcom that placed characters who looked like them in a positive light.

And Malcolm-Jamal Warner's Theo Huxtable was the character most related to Generation X. Fans quickly took to social media on Monday as news of Warner's accidental drowning in Costa Rica spread.

It's like losing one of us," said Harriet Cammock, a 58-year-old Detroit author and speaker. "This is the thing with television. When you're watching people every week on television, you think you know them and you're related to them.

Warner was swimming on Sunday afternoon at Playa Cocles in the Limon province of Costa Rica when a current pulled him deeper into the Caribbean, according to the country's Judicial Investigation Department.

First responders found him without vital signs.

Cori Murray, executive vice president of content at Ebony Magazine, was saddened upon hearing about Warner's death. She said his Theo character mirrored the everyday Black teenager, which was rare to see on TV at the time.

While so many portrayals of young Black teenagers were negative, "The Cosby Show," especially Theo, showed warmth, joy and relatability.

He wasn't just a character. We saw ourselves in him," Murray said. "You know how Kendrick Lamar has the song 'Not Like Us'? Well, Theo was one of us. He was like us.

Murray, who met Warner a few times, recalled that his character off-screen matched the warmth he exuded on television. She called him respectful and pleasant and said he had a "megawatt smile" that lit up the room.

His energy stayed with you," Murray said. "You don't have a bad memory when it comes to Theo or Malcolm-Jamal Warner. As much as we loved the character, we also watched Malcolm grow up in real life. No scandals. No mess. Just a talented young man who matured into an upstanding, handsome adult.

"The Cosby Show" was groundbreaking and a ratings giant, drawing in viewers across racial, cultural and economic backgrounds. The show ran for 197 episodes from 1984 to 1992. In 1986, Warner earned an Emmy nomination for supporting actor in a comedy.

The show starring Bill Cosby as Cliff Huxtable and Phylicia Rashad as his wife, Claire, "made the wider society aware that there are Black people who live like white people do," said Cammock, who is Black. "The perception that we don't live like they do was hurtful."

Gil Robertson, co-founder and president of the African American Film Critics Association, reflected on Warner's rare path in the entertainment industry.

There was never any scandal, no controversy," said Robertson. "He transitioned from a teen star to a respected adult without the baggage we often see from others in his generation. That's no small feat.

Robertson added: "The legacy of Theo Huxtable — and Malcolm's performance — will live on. It left an imprint that will continue to resonate in our culture for generations."

Lynn Reasonover, 62, of Oak Lawn, Illinois, began receiving messages on Monday afternoon about Warner's death. Her initial thoughts were "Nope, didn't happen."

Then, I kept seeing the news flashes and friends started sending texts," Reasonover said. "So, it's sinking in. It makes you realize how much some celebrities help shape our memories. His work had such a huge impact. I'm feeling a personal loss because we grew up with him. It's like losing a part of our childhood.

Reasonover saw much of her family in the Huxtables, where both parents were professionals who valued education and handled family issues with understanding and love.

They had similar problems to what we experienced growing up," she said. "We could relate and that's why we laughed.

Rasheda Williams, 46, from Detroit was about the same age as Rudy, the youngest character on "The Cosby Show" and Theo's little sister. Williams said she and others are mourning Warner's passing because of what they saw in the character he played.

He's like the ideal cousin you wish you had," Williams said. "Hearing the news has really affected some of us. It was unexpected. He wasn't sick. That makes it even more tragic.

He wasn't just an actor," she said. "He was also an activist, a positive role model, not just for young Black men, but also for young Black women.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Meet the people who gave the Spirit of Norfolk new life underwater, after the fire

The Spirit of Norfolk, taken out of service in the summer of 2022 after a fire broke out on board, will now have a second life. And people can now catch a glimpse of the ship, more than 100 feet underwater.

The Spirit of Norfolk saw decades full of cruising, creating memories for those who climbed aboard. After the fire, it sat vacant, until Tim Mullane of Coleen Marine Inc. purchased it and It was transformed into an artificial reef off the coast of Florida.

Coleen Marine Inc., a company that tows, salvages, and works to create artificial reefs from old ships, sought to give the Spirit of Norfolk new life.

"The number one artificial reef maker that no one's heard of," said Mullane.

Mullane calls his work the equivalent of a funeral home director.

The Spirit of Norfolk was declared a $5 million total loss following the fire, adding that the cleaning process was "no joke" to prepare it for sinking.

"The Spirit of Norfolk was a mess, it was bad. It had installations hanging out of the overhead, hanging out the walls. It was a post-fire mess, from top to bottom," said Mullane.

Once the ship was presented through a sale involving the U.S. military, it fell into the hands of Destin-Fort Walton Beach in Florida. Their Natural Resources Chief, Alex Fogg, said it was sunk in late June to create an artificial reef.

It joins a fleet of roughly 15 large vessels on the floor of the Gulf. The material is perfect, Fogg said, to create a thriving ecosystem.

"It allows organisms to attach to it, so your sponges, your barnacles, and other organisms. That provides additional habitat for smaller critters, then bigger critters, then bigger and bigger, so you end up with a fully functioning ecosystem after a couple of years," said Fogg.

The Spirit of Norfolk serves a dual purpose: a brand new habitat to form ecosystems, but it is also an underwater museum.

Fogg said each ship chosen has a story worth visiting.

Some divers, including Chris Howard, who had taken a dive to the Spirit of Norfolk with the help of the Shark Quest Dive Shop, said it was neat to see the ship underwater.

"Also, it attracts a lot of people to the destination to go diving. So it became a tourist attraction as well. Kind of win-win for everything involved, from the environment to the people," said Fogg.

For Mullane," he said, "The Spirit of Norfolk was important to the millions who cruised on it, and he's proud to give it a new home, underwater.

"The paintings and everything that's historical are a little more important. Instead of just chopping it up into little pieces, it can go into a second life like this," said Mullane.

Fogg said anyone visiting who wants to see the Spirit of Norfolk can do so. There are several dive companies in Florida that will take you there.

He said they are close to acquiring SS United States as well, which also has ties to Newport News.

Fogg said each ship they sank could support an ecosystem for more than 200 years.

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Jewel Thais-Williams, founder of the beloved Black queer nightclub Jewel's Catch One, dies at 86

Jewel Thais-Williams, founder of the pioneering Black lesbian and queer nightclub Jewel's Catch One in Los Angeles, has died. She was 86.

The death of Thais-Williams was confirmed by KTLA and by several friends and employees of the club. No cause of death was immediately available.

For decades, the Mid-City nightclub — known to regulars as The Catch — was L.A.'s hallowed sanctuary for Black queer women, and a welcoming dance floor for trans, gay and musically adventurous revelers. Artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Madonna and Whitney Houston sashayed down Catch One's winding halls, while the indomitable Thais-Williams fended off police harassment and led care programs during the height of the AIDS crisis.

The Catch was singularly important to the development of Black and queer nightlife in L.A., and belongs beside New York's Paradise Garage and Chicago's Warehouse in any account of the most important nightclubs in America.

It was a community, it was family," Thais-Williams told The Times in a 2018 interview. "To be honest myself, I was pretty much a loner too. I always had the fears of coming out, or my family finding out. I found myself there.

Thais-Williams, born in Indiana in 1939, opened Jewel's Catch One in 1973. She didn't have ambitions to open a generationally important nightclub, just a more resilient business than her previous dress shop. However, her experience of being shunned as a Black woman by other local gay clubs strengthened her determination to make the Catch welcoming for those excluded from the scene in L.A.

I didn't come into this business with the idea of it becoming a community center," she said in 1992. "It started before AIDS and the riots and all that. I got the first sense of the business being more than just a bar and having an obligation to the community years ago when Black gays were carded - requiring several pieces of ID - to get into white clubs. I went to bat for them, though I would love to have them come to my place every night.

The idea is to have the freedom to go where you want to without being harassed. The predominantly male, white gay community has its set of prejudices. It's better now, but it still exists.

Jewel's Catch One became a kind of West Coast Studio 54, with disco-era visionaries like Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Sylvester, Rick James and Evelyn "Champagne" King performing to packed rooms. Celebrities like Sharon Stone and Whoopi Goldberg attended the parties, glad for wild nights out away from the paparazzi in Hollywood.

Thais-Williams "opened the door for so many people," said Nigl "14k," the Catch's manager, doorperson and limo driver for 27 years until its sale in 2015. "A lot of people who felt unwanted in West Hollywood had nowhere to go. But people found out who she was and spread the word. She was a great friend and a shrewd businessperson who allowed people to just be themselves."

The club's many rooms allowed for a range of nightlife — strip shows, card games and jazz piano sets alongside DJ and live band performances [along with Alcoholics Anonymous meetings]. The boisterous, accepting atmosphere for Black queer partiers contrasted with the constant surveillance, regulation and harassment outside of it.

There was a restriction on same-sex dancing, women couldn't tend bar unless they owned it," Thais-Williams said in 2018. "The police were arresting people for anything remotely homosexual. We had them coming in with guns pretending to be looking for someone in a white T-shirt just so they could walk around.

A fire in 1985 claimed much of the venue's top floor, closing it for two years. Thais-Williams suspected that gentrifiers had their eye on her building.

It's very important not to give up our institutions — places of business that have been around for years," she said. "Having a business that people can see can offer them some incentive to do it for themselves. I'm determined to win, and if I do fail or move on, I want my business to go to Black people who have the same interest that I have to maintain an economic presence in this community.

Thais-Williams' AIDS activism was crucial during the bleakest eras of the disease, which ravaged queer communities of color. She co-founded the Minority AIDS Project and served on the board of the AIDS Project Los Angeles, which provided HIV/AIDS care, prevention programs and public policy initiatives.

With her partner, Rue, she co-founded Rue’s House, one of the first dedicated housing facilities in the U.S. for women living with HIV. The facility later became a sober-living home. In 2001, Thais-Williams founded the Village Health Foundation, a healthcare and education organization focused on chronic diseases affecting the Black community.

Jewel is a true symbol of leadership within our community," said Marquita Thomas, a board member of Christopher Street West, who selected Thais-Williams to lead the city's Pride parade in 2018. "Her tireless efforts have positively affected the lives of countless LGBTQ minorities, [and her] dedication to bettering our community is truly inspiring.

After decades in nightlife, facing dwindling crowds and high overhead for a large venue, in 2015 Thais-Williams sold the venue to nightlife entrepreneur Mitch Edelson, who continues to host rock and dance nights in the club, now known as Catch One. (Edelson said the club is planning a memorial for Thais-Williams.)

People in general don't have appreciation anymore for their own institutions," Thais-Williams told The Times in 2015. "All we want is something that's shiny because our attention span is only going to last for one season and then you want to go somewhere else. The younger kids went to school and associated with both the straight people and non-Blacks, so they feel free to go to those spots. The whole gay scene as it relates to nightclubs has changed — a lot.

After the sale, the importance of the club came into sharper focus. A 2018 Netflix documentary, produced by Ava DuVernay’s company Array, highlighted The Catch's impact on Los Angeles nightlife, and the broader music scene of the era. When Thais-Williams sold it, the Catch was the last Black-owned queer nightclub in the city.

In 2019, the square outside of Jewel's Catch One was officially named after Thais-Williams.

With Jewel's Catch One, she built a home for young, black queer people who were often isolated and shut out at their own homes, and in doing so, changed the lives of so many said then-City Council President Herb Wesson at the ceremony. "Jewel is more than deserving to be the first Black lesbian woman with a dedicated square in the city of Los Angeles for this and so many other reasons."

L.A.'s queer nightlife scene is still reeling from the impact of the pandemic, broader economic forces, and changing tastes among young queer audiences. Still, Thais-Williams' vision and perseverance to create and sustain a home for her community will resonate for generations to come.

Multiple generations of Black queer joy, safety, and community exist today because of Jewel Thais-Williams," said Jasmyne Cannick, organizer of South L.A. Pride. "She didn't just open doors — she held them open long enough for all of us to walk through, including this Gen-X Black lesbian. There's a whole generation of younger Black queer folks out here in L.A. living their best life, not even realizing they're walking through doors Jewel built from the ground up.

"Long before Pride had corporate sponsors and hashtags, Jewel was out here creating space for us to gather, dance, organize, heal, and simply exist," Cannick continued. "We owe her more than we could ever repay."

Thais-Williams is survived by her wife and partner for 40 years, Rue.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times .

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Ancient Himalayan village relocates as climate shifts reshape daily life

SAMJUNG, Nepal (AP) — The Himalayan village of Samjung did not die in a day.

Perched in a wind-carved valley in Nepal's Upper Mustang, more than 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) above sea level, the Buddhist village lived by slow, deliberate rhythms — herding yaks and sheep and harvesting barley under sheer ochre cliffs honeycombed with "sky caves" — 2,000-year-old chambers used for ancestral burials, meditation and shelter.

Then the water dried up. Snow-capped mountains turned brown and barren as, year after year, snowfall declined. Springs and canals vanished and when it did rain, the water came all at once, flooding fields and melting away the mud homes. Families left one by one, leaving the skeletal remains of a community transformed by climate change: crumbling mud homes, cracked terraces and unkempt shrines.

A changing climate

The Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain regions — stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar — hold more ice than anywhere else outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Their glaciers feed major rivers that support 240 million people in the mountains — and 1.65 billion more downstream.

Such high-altitude areas are warming faster than lowlands. Glaciers are retreating and permafrost areas are thawing as snowfall becomes scarcer and more erratic, according to the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development or ICIMOD.

Kunga Gurung is among many in the high Himalayas already experiencing the irreversible effects of climate change.

"We moved because there was no water. We need water to drink and to farm. But there is none there. Three streams, and all three dried up," said Gurung, 54.

Climate change is quietly reshaping where people can live and work by disrupting farming, water access, and weather patterns, said Neil Adger, a professor of human geography at the University of Exeter. In places like Mustang, that's making life harder, even if people don’t always say climate change is why they moved. “On a day-to-day basis, the changing weather patterns ... it's actually affecting the ability of people to live in particular places,” Adger said.

Forced displacement of communities

Around the globe, extreme weather caused by climate change is forcing communities to relocate, whether due to powerful tropical storms in The Philippines and Honduras , drought in Somalia or California의 산불 .

In the world's highest mountains, Samjung isn't the only community to have to start over," said Amina Maharjan, a migration specialist at ICMOD. "Some villages move only short distances, but inevitably the key driver is lack of water.

"The water scarcity is becoming chronic," she said.

Retreating glaciers — rivers of ice shrinking back as the world warms — are the most tangible and direct evidence of climate change. Up to 80% of the glacier volume in the Hindu Kush and Himalayas could vanish in this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren't drastically cut, a 2023 report warned.

It hasn't snowed in Upper Mustang for nearly three years, a dire blow for those living and farming in high-altitude villages. Snowfall traditionally sets the seasonal calendar, determining when crops of barley, buckwheat, and potatoes are planted and affecting the health of grazing livestock.

"It is critically important," Maharjan said.

For Samjung, the drought and increasing losses began around the turn of the century. Traditional mud houses built for a dry, cold mountain climate crumbled as monsoon rains became more intense—a change scientists attribute to climate change. The region's steep slopes and narrow valleys channel water into flash floods that destroyed homes and farmland, setting off a wave of migration that started a decade ago.

Finding a place for a new village

Moving a village—even one with fewer than 100 residents like Samjung—was no simple endeavor. They needed reliable access to water and nearby communities for support during disasters. Relocating closer to winding mountain roads would allow villagers to market their crops and benefit from growing tourism. Eventually, the king of Mustang, who still owns large tracts of land in the area nearly two decades after Nepal abolished its monarchy, provided suitable land for a new village.

Pemba Gurung, 18, and her sister Toshi Lama Gurung, 22, don't remember much about the move from their old village. But they remember how hard it was to start over. Families spent years gathering materials to build new mud homes with bright tin roofs on the banks of the glacial Kali Gandaki River, nearly 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. They constructed shelters for livestock and canals to bring water to their homes. Only then could they move.

Some villagers still herd sheep and yak, but life is a bit different in New Samjung, which is close to Lo Manthang, a medieval walled city that was cut off from the world until 1992, when foreigners were first allowed to visit. It's a hub for pilgrims and tourists who want to trek in the high mountains and explore its ancient Buddhist culture, so some villagers work in tourism.

The sisters Pemba and Toshi are grateful not to have to spend hours fetching water every day. But they miss their old home.

"It is the place of our origin. We wish to go back. But I don't think it will ever be possible," said Toshi.

___

The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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Giant pre-Columbian spheres found on artificial island in Amazonian lake

Fishermen from the community of Arumanduba, located in the Médio Solimões region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, made a discovery. After a 15-meter Paricarana tree fell, they noticed seven giant pre-Columbian funerary urns made of ceramic hidden under its roots. This unexpected find led to an archaeological investigation by researchers from the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development.

An archaeological team from the Mamirauá Institute, in partnership with residents of the São Lázaro do Arumandubinha community, excavated the site and uncovered ancient pottery beneath the fallen tree. Inside the urns, researchers discovered human bones, as well as remains of fish, turtles, and frogs, indicating that the burials were associated with food practices and rituals. "These artificial islands are a form of indigenous engineering conceived to stabilize the land and adapt it to the seasonal conditions of the region," explained Márcio Amaral, an archaeologist at the Mamirauá Institute. According to IFLScience These structures, called landfills and excavations, were created by local indigenous peoples to protect communities from river floods.

The burial site is rare and features urns with characteristics previously unknown in the region, such as their large size and absence of lids. Preliminary analyses revealed that the urns were made using different ceramic techniques and a little-studied composition, including a mixture of clay and non-plastic additives composed mainly of a freshwater sponge called cauxi and caraipé—the ash of tree bark. "We also found fragments with applied layers of clay on the exterior and painted red bands, though it is not yet possible to link these to any known ceramic styles," said archaeologist Geórgea Layla Holanda, who co-led the excavation. Live Science .

The largest urn measures 90 centimeters wide and 55 centimeters high, and with its interior filled with sediments, it is estimated to weigh around 340 kilos. To extract the urns, the community actively participated in the excavation process, building an elevated structure of wood and vines to access them due to challenging terrain conditions. The transfer of the urns to the Mamirauá Institute involved extensive navigation in canoes over a distance of 190 kilometers, taking between 10 and 12 hours depending on the river's flow. To protect the urns during transport, layers of plastic film, plaster bandages, bubble wrap, and wooden supports were used, ensuring they arrived in good condition.

At the Mamirauá Institute's laboratory in Tefé, the urns are undergoing further analysis to learn more about the ancient cultures that once inhabited this corner of the Amazon. Preliminary analyses showed that the urns were made with greenish clay, which is uncommon in the region, and they feature slip and red decorative bands. "These characteristics do not match any known Amazonian ceramic tradition, such as the widely studied Amazonian Polychrome Tradition, which suggests a possible undocumented cultural lineage in the upper Solimões River basin," the researchers clarified.

The age of the urns is currently unknown; however, the team estimates they could be between 200 and 3,000 years old. "Now that the excavation is done, the researchers plan to date the urns, with narrowing the time range being one of their main challenges for the future," reported Live Science. The discovery suggests the existence of a previously unknown multicultural society, contributing to the understanding of pre-Hispanic ceramic traditions in the region.

The area where the urns were found is part of a series of artificial islands constructed by native communities centuries or perhaps millennia ago. These islands were built as protection against seasonal floods, demonstrating indigenous engineering techniques and land management by ancient populations. "These people chose to live permanently in the floodplain and they succeeded: they developed technologies and construction engineering to achieve it," Amaral told El Nacional.

Collaboration with the local population was crucial for the success of the excavation. Community members provided valuable knowledge about the environment and assisted in the challenging excavation process. "This research is more than archaeology: it is about building knowledge through respectful collaboration with traditional communities," Amaral stated. Holanda added, "These are the silenced stories, the hidden truths. It gives indigenous peoples the prominence they deserve: those who truly built the Amazon and who were already here in Brazil long before the invasion," according to El Nacional.

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