Disasters & accidents, Health, Science, IT & software, AI
515 storiesBoston Dynamics names former Amazon AI executive Rohit Prasad as CEO
Boston Dynamics, described by Korean outlets as Hyundai Motor Group's robot affiliate, said it has appointed Rohit Prasad, a former Amazon executive who led work on the Alexa voice assistant, as its new chief executive. The company said the…
Nuri rocket lifts off on fifth flight carrying record 15 satellites
South Korea's Nuri rocket launched at 12:25 p.m. on Oct. 7 from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, after the launch management committee confirmed the time that morning. The rocket carries 15 satellites — five NEOANSAT microsatellite cluster…
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…
UAE ranks first globally in citizen satisfaction with government digital services
The UAE ranked first globally in citizen satisfaction with government digital services, with 89% of respondents rating them highly, according to Boston Consulting Group’s 2026 Digital Government Citizen Survey Report. The survey, conducted …
Korea financial regulator orders full security review after bank data leaks
Financial Services Commission Chairman Lee Eok-won chaired an emergency meeting of the entire financial sector in Seoul on Oct. 4 after customer data leaks spread from major banks to non-bank lenders, saying the possibility of AI-enabled ha…
Trump announces “Super Intelligence Force” AI task force led by Jay Clayton
President Donald Trump announced Sunday the creation of a “Super Intelligence Force,” a federal task force he said will coordinate government efforts to keep the United States leading in artificial intelligence, which he has directed the fe…
Nuri rocket lifts off with 15 satellites in fifth launch
South Korea’s Nuri rocket lifted off at 12:25 p.m. local time on Oct 7 from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, carrying 15 satellites, the most in its history. The five main ultra-small cluster satellites were placed in their target orbit, m…
Korea police open formal probe into AI-linked hacking of financial firms
South Korean police have converted their investigation into a series of AI-linked hacking attacks on financial institutions into a formal probe, assigning a 28-member, four-team dedicated unit. Data leaks have been confirmed at seven financ…
Korea financial regulator orders AI-based defense after hacking wave
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission held an emergency meeting on 4 October after hacking and data leaks were confirmed at seven financial companies, including Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Hana and BNK Busan banks, savings banks Yegaram and …
France's Mistral releases largest open-weight AI model, Mistral Large 4
France's Mistral released Mistral Large 4, its largest open-weight AI model, nicknamed “Chonk”, on Oct 6 foreign local time, with general availability set for Oct 27. Users can download the parameters, or weights, and customize the model on…
Shinhan Bank data breach victims move toward class action in Seoul
A law firm in Seoul has begun recruiting plaintiffs for a damages class action against Shinhan Bank over a data breach that exposed about 25,000 customers’ personal information on Oct. 1. Shinhan’s chief executive has apologised and promise…
Francis Halzen wins 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics for IceCube neutrino work
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Francis Halzen for his decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos. Halzen, born in Bel…
LG Uplus to run mobile 'visiting stores' for island and mountain areas
LG Uplus said it will operate a converted Hyundai Solati vehicle as a "visiting store" to bring telecom consultations and digital education to island, mountain and other areas without fixed outlets. One vehicle each is to be placed in the Y…
Tanker catches fire in Black Sea near Sochi; Sirius beaches closed
A tanker caught fire in the Black Sea near Sochi, according to Russian state and business outlets. The head of the Sirius federal territory administration, Dmitry Plishkin, said its beaches would be temporarily closed and that water and air…
KFF poll finds Medicare for All support at 66% in US, highest since 2016
A KFF poll published Tuesday found 66 percent of U.S. adults support Medicare for All, the highest level since 2016, with 32 percent saying they strongly favor a single government health plan. Support was up about 13 points from 2020, but t…
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…
OpenAI safety lead resigns, says company's safety culture is broken
David Robinson, who wrote the safety reports accompanying OpenAI's major model releases, has resigned and published an essay in The Atlantic saying the company's culture is "broken" and its approach to safety is reactive. He cited a July 20…
Nobel medicine prize goes to three researchers for optogenetics
The Karolinska Institute announced on October 5 that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzbur…
Nobel physics prize goes to IceCube neutrino researcher Francis Halzen
Sweden's Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on 6 October that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery…
Nuri rocket deploys 15 satellites on fifth flight; final success verdict due
South Korea's Nuri rocket lifted off at 12:25 p.m. local time from the Naro Space Center in Goheung and completed its flight, separating all 15 satellites aboard — five NEONSAT cluster satellites and ten cube satellites, according to the Ko…