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311 storiesDefense 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…
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.…
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…
Hoban Construction develops AI design tech to auto-apply per-unit buyer options
Hoban Construction said it developed AI-based design technology that automatically reflects apartment buyers’ option contract choices in each unit’s building information model (BIM). The technology was developed jointly with building and in…
Turkey's Aselsan announces Astralink network of 198 low-orbit satellites
Aselsan CEO Ahmet Akyol said at the International Astronautical Congress in Antalya that Turkey is building Astralink, a low-orbit satellite constellation of 198 spacecraft, with the first launch planned within two years. Akyol said work be…
Nuri rocket completes fifth launch, placing satellites in orbit
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, and placed the five main ultra-small cluster satellites in their target orbit. Ne…
Apple and LG Electronics jointly develop smart home devices under LG brand
Apple and LG Electronics are jointly developing smart home devices — a camera-equipped video doorbell, a smart door lock, a security camera and a smart temperature sensor and thermostat — to be sold under the LG brand, according to Bloomber…
Nuri declared a success on fifth flight; five cluster satellites make contact
South Korea's Nuri rocket lifted off at 12:25 p.m. from the Naro Space Center in Goheung and the Korea Aerospace Administration declared the fifth flight a success, saying all 15 satellites were placed in orbit. Officials said 14 of the 15 …
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…
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 …
Army study found ICE shock gloves cause pain, compliance and fear, AP reports
A previously unreleased Army study found that shock gloves now purchased by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement caused intense pain, immediate compliance and fear of further shocks during a 2024 military exercise. Records obtained by t…
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…
Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai win 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai won the 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry, announced Wednesday at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, for work on molecules that exist as mirror images of each other. Kagan showed in the 1980s that …
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…
S. Korea farm minister says minor farmland survey violations won't be punished
Agriculture minister Song Mi-ryung told a parliamentary audit on Oct 7 that most ordinary, customary violations found in the government's full farmland survey would not be punished, and that the government has no plan or reason to confiscat…
Nuri rocket lifts off at 12:25 with 15 satellites on fifth flight
South Korea's Nuri launch vehicle lifted off at 12:25 local time on Oct 7 from the second pad of the Naro Space Center in Goheung, carrying five ultra-small cluster satellites and 10 cubesats. Kerosene and liquid oxygen loading was complete…
Apple and LG co-develop smart home devices including doorbell, lock and thermostat
Bloomberg reports that Apple and LG have co-developed a line of smart home devices, including a video doorbell, thermostat, smart deadbolt lock, indoor and outdoor security cameras and a floodlight camera. The products are expected to carry…
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…
Nobel chemistry prize goes to Japan's Soai Kenso and France's Henri Kagan
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on 7 October that the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to Soai Kenso, 76, professor emeritus at Tokyo University of Science, and Henri Kagan of France, for the discovery of nonlinear effects and …
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 …