Consumer, Health, Policy & regulation, Business
586 storiesRussian woman at plague research institute dies; cause disputed
A woman in her 20s who worked at a plague control research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region died on October 2. Russian health authorities said on October 4 the cause was “pneumonia of unknown origin,” while speculation of plague infecti…
Paramount closes Warner Bros. Discovery takeover, creating Skydance
Paramount Skydance closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, creating a company named Skydance led by CEO David Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz. The merged company brings CNN, CBS News, HBO Max and Paramount+ under one roof…
Russian anti-plague lab researcher dies; US and EU say they are monitoring
A 28-year-old female researcher at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute in Shelekhov, Russia, died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, the state agency Rospotrebnadzor said. About 200 people who may have had contact…
Trump 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.…
Russia quarantines hospital as lab worker’s death puts nearly 200 under observation
A female employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died last week of pneumonia of unknown cause, Russian authorities said, and a hospital in the town of Shelekhov was placed under quarantine. Officia…
JR East to start teppay code payment in Mobile Suica on Oct 20, raising limit to ¥300,000
JR East said teppay, a code payment service added to the Mobile Suica app, will start on Oct 20 from 11:00, allowing purchases above Suica e-money's ¥20,000 ceiling and transfers of balance between users. Identity verification with a My Num…
Paramount Skydance completes $110bn Warner Bros. Discovery takeover
Paramount Skydance said on October 6 that it has completed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at about $110 billion (roughly ¥17 trillion). The combined company will be named Skydance and will hold two Hollywood film…
Boston Dynamics names former Amazon Alexa executive Rohit Prasad as CEO
Boston Dynamics, the robot subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Group, said it has hired Rohit Prasad, a former Amazon executive who led work on the Alexa voice assistant, as its new chief executive. The company said the appointment is aimed at stre…
Defense ministry to pursue cut, abolition of alternative service for arts, sports
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said on Oct 6 that it plans to ultimately pursue a reduction and abolition of supplementary military service, including arts and sports personnel, and to reflect it in the defense reform basic plan. Spokespers…
Asian Games gold row widens as parties in South Korea seek exemption review
South Korea beat Japan 1-0 on October 3 to win a fourth consecutive Asian Games men's football gold, a result that exempts most of the squad from military service. A locker-room photo of Park Seung-su in a discharge hat, captain Lee Ki-hyuk…
Nippon Ham to cut Schauessen pack weight by 10g, keeping price unchanged
Nippon Ham said it will reduce the contents of its flagship “Schauessen” sausages from 117 grams to 107 grams per pack for deliveries from October 1, leaving the reference retail price of 702 yen including tax for two bundles unchanged — an…
Shinsegae invests $1bn in Warner Bros. deal as Paramount completes takeover
Shinsegae Group said its unit Shinsegae Property will invest $1bn (about 1.4 trillion won) in the takeover of Warner Bros. led by Paramount Skydance, alongside David Ellison and US investment firm RedBird. Paramount completed the acquisitio…
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…
LG Electronics signs 5GW AI data center cooling supply deal in North America
LG Electronics said its US subsidiary signed a long-term supply agreement with North American infrastructure platform company AIR Control Concept to provide chillers and other cooling solutions for a total of 5GW of AI data centers. The com…
President Lee vows to keep pledge to end “real estate speculation republic”
President Lee Jae-myung said on Oct. 5 in a post on X that his government will keep its promise to escape the “real estate speculation republic,” saying the country cannot be made to face a “lost 30 years” from real-estate bomb-passing even…
Trump says he has call scheduled with Putin over suspected plague death in Siberia
President Trump said Tuesday he has a call scheduled with Vladimir Putin about the suspected pneumonic plague case in Siberia, after saying Monday the US was willing to help Russia. The case follows the death of Darya Shipilova, 28, a worke…
Nvidia CEO's son-in-law Nico Caprez rises to vice president, reports say
Nico Caprez (35), the son-in-law of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, has become vice president for global AI infrastructure growth, according to a report by The Information on Oct. 5 that Yonhap and the Kyunghyang Shinmun relayed. He was promoted i…
WHO says risk low as US presses Russia for transparency on plague lab death
The U.S. State Department is monitoring reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has publicly called on Moscow to be more transparent about the death of a 28-year-ol…
Lotte Department Store foreigner sales top 1 trillion won, first in industry
Lotte Department Store said its cumulative foreigner sales this year passed 1 trillion won on the morning of Oct 6, the first time a Korean department store has reached that level in a year. The company said it had already surpassed last ye…
China health experts urge problem-driven push to turn disease research into treatments
Experts at a 2026 conference on disease prevention research and translation in China called for problem-driven collaboration between hospitals, universities and industry, with AI among the topics discussed. The director of a national key la…