International, AI, Policy & regulation
586 storiesTrump says a phone call with Putin is planned “very soon”
US President Donald Trump said a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin is planned and will take place “very soon”. Trump gave no date or agenda. Russian outlets carried the announcement without reporting any Kremlin comment o…
Lithuania's interior minister asks army to help guard border with Kaliningrad
Lithuania's Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas asked Defence Minister Robertas Kaunasus to send troops to help border guards patrol the border with Russia's Kaliningrad region. He called the move preventive and said the border situation i…
Senators urge Trump administration to move faster on Russian sanctions
Bipartisan Senate leaders are pressing the Trump administration to clamp down faster on financial flows fueling the war in Ukraine, nearly a month after a sweeping Russian sanctions law was signed. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Be…
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.…
Trump repeats Alaska LNG charge threat as Vance says Korea details unresolved
US President Donald Trump said on 2 October that if South Korea does not invest in the Alaska LNG project, Washington can charge it more, and Seoul should be told the amount will double if it does not agree soon. Korean outlets reported tha…
Iran says it handed response to US proposal through Qatari mediators
Iran conveyed a response to a US proposal, with Vedomosti reporting that the answer was passed through Qatari mediators in Doha and concerned the resumption of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Bagh…
AMD's Lisa Su visits Korea, agrees AI chip cooperation with local firms
AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su visited Korea on Oct. 7, about seven months after her March trip, meeting Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myeong of the Science and ICT Ministry and a roundtable of Korean AI semiconductor and infrastructure companies.…
Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing visits Malaysia as repatriation of nationals draws criticism
Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing travelled to Malaysia on Wednesday for a two-day visit expected to include talks with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar told parliament more than 10,000 people have been repatriated to Myanmar this year, and said…
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…
Abu Dhabi's AI Everything opens with 400 exhibitors alongside Global Food Week
AI Everything 2026 opened on 6 October at the ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi and runs to 7 October, with WAM reporting 400 exhibitors and 180 speakers, and Economy Middle East reporting more than 400 companies, 200-plus investors managing about $10…
SpaceX seeks $40 billion in borrowing to buy Nvidia chips, FT reports
SpaceX is in talks to borrow $40 billion to fund a purchase of Nvidia chips, according to a Financial Times report cited by Reuters and MarketWatch. Bloomberg said it understands the financing would be among the biggest-ever debt financings…
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…
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.…
US presses Russia to disclose details of suspected plague pathogen leak at Irkutsk lab
The Trump administration is urging Russia to release more information about a suspected plague pathogen leak at a research institute in Irkutsk, saying it cannot set its response level without the facts. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sa…
South Korea rejects Ukraine claim it supplied petroleum products to Russia
Ukraine's presidential office sanctions adviser Vladyslav Vlasiuk publicly criticised South Korea, citing a Guardian report that seven tankers made 14 shipments of more than 176,000 tonnes of petroleum products, mostly diesel, from Korean p…
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…
Dubai launches Create AI Agents Championship with prizes over Dh2.5m
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, launched the Create AI Agents Championship at an awards ceremony in Dubai on Wednesday, with total prize money exceeding Dh2.5 million. The competition accepts ideas, prototypes and minimum…
EU ambassadors agree 22nd Russia sanctions package, adding over 1,500 entities
EU ambassadors agreed a 22nd sanctions package against Russia that adds more than 1,500 individuals and legal entities to the bloc's lists, according to TASS, Kommersant, Interfax, RBC and Meduza. Interfax and Meduza reported the package co…
Nvidia-backed Reflection AI unveils Beam, open-weight model to rival Chinese models
Reflection AI unveiled Beam, a 501-billion-parameter open-weight AI model that the New York-based startup says matches leading Chinese open models like Z.ai’s GLM-5.2 at lower compute cost. The Nvidia-backed company says Beam is in final sa…