Policy & regulation, AI, Consumer, Technology
404 storiesSouth 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…
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…
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…
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…
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, covering 4…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
OpenAI publishes 722 AI-generated math manuscripts, sparking ethics debate
OpenAI has published 722 mathematics manuscripts, grouped into 372 result groups, produced by an unreleased internal frontier model, saying they solve or make substantive progress on hundreds of long-open problems. The release on GitHub inc…
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 …
Reflection AI unveils Beam, a 501B open-weight model for coding and agents
US startup Reflection AI announced Beam, an open-weight Mixture-of-Experts model with 501 billion total parameters and 23 billion active parameters, built for coding, reasoning and agent workloads. The model is still in final red-teaming an…
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…
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…
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…
Korea to factor Korean proficiency into student visas, tighten screening
South Korea’s Justice Ministry announced plans to weigh Korean-language ability across its foreign student visa system, exempting students with TOPIK level 4 or social integration programme stage 4 from proving financial capacity. Universit…
Asian Games exemption row widens: Ahn seeks abolition, ruling party open to overhaul
People Power Party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo said on 7 October that the military service exemption for Asian Games gold medalists should be abolished starting with this tournament, arguing it is set by presidential decree and President Lee Jae…
SpaceX in talks to raise $40bn to buy Nvidia chips, reports say
SpaceX is negotiating to raise about $40 billion in debt to buy Nvidia chips and expand its AI computing infrastructure, according to Financial Times and Bloomberg reports cited by Russian outlets. About $10 billion would come as bank loans…