Consumer, Games, Other, Policy & regulation
311 storiesTrump signs order allowing tax-free red-dyed diesel on highways
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday temporarily allowing off-road red-dyed diesel to be used for highway driving and deferring the federal excise tax on that fuel through the end of 2026 without interest or penalties.…
Defense minister: arts, sports military service exemption to be cut and abolished
South Korea's defense minister said on Oct 7 that the goal is to gradually reduce the arts and sports military service exemption and ultimately abolish it, after controversy over remarks by Asian Games football gold medallists about the exe…
Kazakhstan considers blocking social media accounts of children under 16
Kazakhstan's government has prepared amendments restricting online platforms for users under 16, and Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov said in a reply to a parliamentary inquiry that temporarily blocking social media accounts of children under…
Xbox says GTA 6 will not stream exclusively or to PC, after report of streaming deal
Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball said Grand Theft Auto VI will not be streaming exclusively on Xbox, nor to PC, pushing back on an earlier report that Xbox had secured exclusive cloud streaming rights to the game. The Verge had repo…
South Korea unveils 1,000 trillion won green transition plan to 2035
South Korea announced a “Korean-style Green Transition” (K-GX) strategy on Oct 7, pledging about 1,000 trillion won over ten years to 2035 — 200 trillion won in fiscal support and more than 790 trillion won in climate finance through five p…
Moscow court fines Zoom 65.9 million rubles for repeat violation of Russian law
A Moscow court fined Zoom about 65.9 million rubles (65,936,494 rubles) for a repeat violation of Russian legislation on foreign internet companies, Interfax, Vedomosti and Kommersant reported. The case was heard under part 3 of article 13.…
South Korea's Lee orders CPTPP talks restarted from the beginning amid farm concerns
President Lee Jae-myung instructed at a cabinet meeting on Oct 6 that the government should not fix a conclusion on joining the CPTPP and should “restart dialogue from the beginning,” saying the pact's strategic value is cited alongside ver…
Russia proposes letting businesses register at an email address
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko said a draft law has been prepared that would allow legal entities to register a business using an address in a state email system for official correspondence instead of a physical address. He said th…
Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days Begin With Discounts on Apple Macs, AirPods and iPads
Amazon's fall Prime Big Deal Days sale is live, with early discounts on Apple products including AirPods Pro 3 at $179.00, down from $249.00, AirPods Max 2 at $429.00, and about $200 off most M5 MacBook Air models. Outlets also reported all…
FT: EU weighs universal corporate levy to raise taxes on US tech giants
The European Commission is considering a new mechanism to raise more tax revenue from large US technology companies without singling them out as a separate category, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources. Under discussion is …
Finland's finance ministry proposes raising retirement age to 70
Finland's Ministry of Finance has proposed raising the minimum retirement age to 70, according to a report titled “Trust in the Future”. The plan would increase the threshold by six months for each successive age group and forms part of a b…
Amazon’s October Prime Day runs October 6-8 as retailers cut prices early
Amazon’s October Prime Day, also called Prime Big Deal Days, runs from October 6 at 3AM ET through 3AM ET on October 8, with discounts already live, according to The Verge, NBC News and Wired. Wired listed Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 at $190 ($…
S. Korea farm minister apologises over farmland survey preparation, disputes drone use
Agriculture minister Song Mi-ryung told a parliamentary audit on Oct 7 that the government's full farmland survey does not infringe farmers' private property and that most ordinary, customary violations would not be punished, while saying “…
Korea FTC moves to sanction SK Energy, Hyundai Oilbank over fuel price-fixing
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said on October 7 that it sent an examiner's report to SK Energy and Hyundai Oilbank, opening a deliberation over suspected collusion on gasoline, diesel and kerosene prices from February 2022 to March 20…
Korea's top individual tax delinquent Kwon Hyuk to pay 393.8 billion won
The National Tax Service said on Oct 7 that Kwon Hyuk, chairman of Sido Group and the country's largest individual tax delinquent, has submitted a plan to pay his personal back taxes of 393.8 billion won in full, 15 years after the tax was …
Japan farm ministry orders Fukui seafood firm over mislabeled Echizen crab gifts
Japan's agriculture ministry issued a measures order on Oct 6 against Fukumaru Foods, a seafood processor in Echizen Town, Fukui Prefecture, for labeling products as Echizen crab while using mizugani, a crab not counted as Echizen crab. The…
Google and Unity to launch AI game platform Unity Spark later this year
Google and Unity announced a strategic partnership to launch an AI game platform for next-generation interactive entertainment. Google's experimental Playground is already live, letting users create playable games from natural-language prom…
Land minister says Gangnam, Yongsan home prices have turned negative
Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Hong Ji-seon told a National Assembly audit on Oct 7 that home prices in Seoul's Gangnam three districts and Yongsan have turned negative, and said price growth should ease with the market stabili…
Lithuania extends Ukrainian protection to 2028, curbs military-eligible men
Lithuania has extended temporary protection for Ukrainians who arrived as refugees until March 2028, from a previous expiry of March 4, 2027. At the same time, military-eligible Ukrainian citizens who have not completed conscript service or…
South Korea weighs ending military service exemptions for athletes and artists
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said on October 6 that it is considering tightening or abolishing the military service exemption granted to athletes and artists, after some Asian Games gold medalists said exemption mattered more to them than…