AI & Consumer Tech: Samsung held a “Bespoke AI Cooking Show” in Seoul to demo AI kitchen features like ingredient management and menu help via its Family Hub and AI induction cooktop. Digital Rights & Safety: Korea’s communications regulator demanded Google remove exposed personal info of victims of digital sex crimes after it appeared on an outside site tied to Harvard Law School; it says 42 cases were affected. Education Systems: A system failure during early university admissions filing led to a one-hour deadline extension and sparked fairness disputes, with authorities reviewing remedies for affected applicants. Semiconductor Infrastructure: Korea is pushing to localize optical tech for AI data centers, starting a project to develop a space-division multiplexing optical interface using multi-core fiber, funded through 2031. Energy & Cities: Seoul’s Magok cogeneration project is moving ahead after restructuring and approvals, with a 285MW LNG plant planned to support district heating for tens of thousands of homes. Startups & Regional Growth: Busan was named the hub for a national 2026 startup program, aiming to select 10,000 participants with most slots going to outside the capital region. Healthcare Research: New lung cancer trial results in Korea-linked reporting show mixed outcomes for drug combinations and support brain MRI surveillance alone as standard care for small-cell lung cancer.