World
South Korea's Defence Ministry says it is weighing steps to force North Korea to apologise for a landmine blast inside the Demilitarized Zone that wounded three soldiers last month. A joint South Korean and UN Command investigation concluded the two mines were planted by North Korean forces about a year ago. Seoul wants Pyongyang to apologise and remove any remaining mines. North Korea rejected the finding, calling it a poor trick to shift blame. The dispute has stalled a fragile push for dialogue, including a South Korean proposal to jointly resurvey the Military Demarcation Line, where only about 200 of 1,292 boundary markers remain intact.
Al Jazeera
Politics
President Donald Trump drew criticism from California leaders after suggesting at a Nebraska midterm rally that Iran could take out Los Angeles or San Diego, and that the cost would be a small price to pay for the war. Governor Gavin Newsom called him deranged and dangerous, while San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said his city is not collateral damage and is never a small price to pay. The White House said the United States is fighting to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. The comment landed as early voting began in California, where fuel prices tied to the Iran war are already a liability for Republicans in close races.
ABC News
Business
Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating a company now called Skydance under chief executive David Ellison. The deal brings CBS News and CNN, HBO Max and Paramount+, and the Warner Bros. and Paramount Pictures studios under one roof. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan denied a last-minute attempt to halt the closing, and a California judge approved a settlement with California and 11 other states. The combined company must release at least 30 films in theatres each year and set up an editorial board overseeing CNN and CBS News. Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav exits with about $886.8 million.
NBC News
Technology
The tightest supply line in the chip industry is memory, not logic. High-bandwidth memory now takes roughly 23 percent of DRAM wafer capacity, and data centres are expected to use close to 70 percent of the memory chips made this year. Contract prices for automotive DRAM are forecast to rise 70 to 100 percent in 2026. TSMC will raise chipmaking prices by up to 10 percent from January 2027, and Nvidia and Broadcom have been turned down on extra capacity. Copper, helium and memory packaging are also tight, and Washington has threatened tariffs on overseas memory producers unless they expand output inside the United States.
Tom's Hardware
Science
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics to Francis Halzen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The citation praises his decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. IceCube uses thousands of light sensors sunk into a cubic kilometre of Antarctic ice and was completed in 2011. In 2013 the collaboration reported the first high-energy neutrinos from beyond the solar system, and later work traced some of them to a blazar. Halzen is the sole recipient of this year's prize.
NobelPrize.org
Sports
Novak Djokovic won a record seventh China Open title in Beijing after Alex de Minaur retired with an injury during the final. It was Djokovic's first title since Athens in 2025. He had reached the final when Daniil Medvedev was disqualified for striking a fan with a ball, and de Minaur advanced when Hubert Hurkacz retired in their semi-final. The week also brought news that Jannik Sinner will miss the rest of the 2026 season to treat a knee injury, leaving Alexander Zverev likely to finish the year at number one and the top of the men's rankings unsettled.
ATP Tour
Health
A three-paper series in The Lancet argues that governments should act now on health risks from digital media for children and young people. The papers, written by 13 experts in 10 countries, draw on research covering about 9 million people under 25. A related review of 2,790 studies found consistent links between problematic use, meaning addiction-like patterns rather than screen time alone, and depression, anxiety, sleep disruption and self-harm. The authors say responsibility should shift from families to technology companies and governments, and that simple screen-time caps or school phone bans are not enough on their own.
The Lancet
Environment
Indonesia's worst fire season in more than a decade is continuing into October, with peatland and agricultural fires blanketing Borneo and Sumatra in smoke. Satellite monitoring has recorded more than 23,000 fire hotspots this year, and the national weather agency BMKG says fire activity has already passed 2015 levels. More than 170,000 respiratory cases have been reported and about 12.5 million people have been exposed to polluted air, with haze reaching Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. Forecasters expect dry conditions to last into November, so the smoke could worsen before the monsoon arrives.
BBC