US-Iran Fighting Intensifies, Oil Nears $95 Nvidia Agrees to Acquire Hugging Face for $12.9B

The CSAT September mock exam supervised by KICE was administered nationwide on September 3. The college admissions industry assessed Korean and Math as moderately difficult — at the level of last year's CSAT — while English was significantly easier.

Grade 10–11 academic assessment score cutoffs were released on September 3. The Grade 11 Korean Grade 1 cutoff was a raw score of 89 (standard score 135, percentile 96). Final grade reports are scheduled for distribution on September 29.

With repeat-takers and gap-year students included in the September mock exam, EBSi projected Grade 12 Korean Grade 1 standard score cutoff at 131 and Math at 130. Official score notifications are scheduled for September 29.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor released a guideline on September 3 stating that demands for profit-based bonuses do not constitute legitimate strike grounds. The two major labor federations strongly demanded the guideline be withdrawn.

The Seoul City Bus Labor Union filed for labor dispute mediation with the Seoul Regional Labor Relations Commission on September 3. It declared a full strike starting with the first bus on September 16 if mediation fails; the key issue is the calculation standard for regular wages.

POSCO labor and management held a 7th round of wage talks on September 3 but failed to reach an agreement. The union demanded a 7.1% base salary increase while management offered 2%. A partial strike is set for September 9, potentially the first in POSCO's 58-year history.

The Goldenblue labor dispute has exceeded 900 days, with the union reporting that a lawsuit over 400 million won in unpaid wages is ongoing. The union alleges the company is using a partial lockout to pressure workers into leaving the union.

The KOSPI closed at 6,579.48 on September 3, up 0.26% from the prior session, recovering from the previous day's 4% plunge triggered by the US-Iran military clash and oil price spike, supported by bargain buying and a US market rebound.

Since August 20, cumulative net selling by foreigners and institutions has reached 13.9 trillion won, with the sell-Korea trend accelerating following the resumption of the US-Iran military conflict and the oil price surge.

Korea's 3-year treasury yield surged to 3.93% on September 3. With the US 10-year rate approaching 4.8%, upward pressure increased in tandem, and concerns about mortgage rates entering the 8% range intensified.

Vice Prime Minister-nominee Lee Hyung-il confirmed that inter-ministry discussions are underway on a system to bulk-purchase homes for public housing use if prices crash sharply. Seoul's January–August auction count reached 14,431 cases, a 45% year-on-year increase.

According to Korea Real Estate Board data, Gangnam-gu (-0.41%) and Seocho-gu (-0.23%) declined for 4 consecutive weeks, while Seongbuk, Nowon, and Jungnang-gu rose by around 0.5%, marking a widening divergence in Seoul apartment prices.

Seoul land transaction permit applications in August fell to 3,541, a year-low and a 33.9% drop from July. Amid uncertainty over tax reform plans, distressed properties are accumulating in Gangnam and Seocho while buyers remain on the sidelines.

US Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded $217 million in net inflows on September 3. BTC traded at $76,939 on the day, with BlackRock's IBIT leading the inflows.

Strategy (MSTR) resumed Bitcoin purchases after a 10-week pause, acquiring 4,603 BTC at an average price of $80,318. Total holdings are now 845,050 BTC with a cumulative acquisition cost of $63.73 billion.

The SEC released a 421-page proposal to overhaul transfer agent regulations for the first time in 40 years. The proposal covers blockchain-native agents, and the public comment period is 60 days.

The US Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis published 6 data feeds — including real GDP and PCE price index — to 10 public blockchains including Ethereum and Arbitrum via Chainlink oracles. It is the first such disclosure by a US federal agency.

Nvidia agreed on September 3 to acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.9 billion. Hugging Face initiated the proposal and the deal closed after a competitive bidding process, with up to $1 billion in employee retention bonuses.

Munich-based AI startup Zeit AI raised a €5 million seed round from YC, Sequoia, and others. Founders from Palantir are developing the ZeitMind agent, which automatically integrates enterprise ERP and CRM data.

New Zealand-based Outlier Space raised approximately $7.35 million in pre-seed funding from GD1, Airtree, and others. Founded by a Rocket Lab alumnus, the company aims to build in-orbit microgravity manufacturing infrastructure.

Medellín-based multicurrency fintech Plenti raised a $3 million seed round led by stablecoin issuer Tether. The company reports more than 150,000 active users and $3.1 billion in annual transaction volume.

Uber and UK AI startup Wayve launched the UK's first paid robotaxi service in London, deploying 15 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles each with a safety driver. The service operates across London at standard Uber fares.

France reversed its July refusal and began official road testing of Tesla FSD. Testing involves 2 vehicles, and results will be used in an EU-level vote on FSD approval.

The Chery-JLR joint venture Freelander 8 officially launched in Beijing, China. Priced at 329,900 yuan, it is a luxury EREV SUV featuring 610kW dual-motor AWD and Huawei Qiankun ADS 5.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced layoffs of 3,300 employees — 10% of the total workforce — to reduce management layers and consolidate smaller teams. The target is up to $2 billion in annual cost savings.

Performance improved across all 16 benchmarks, surpassing Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 on multi-step coding. Flash Cyber is a cybersecurity-specialized model achieving 86.2% on CyberGym.

HiddenLayer, which develops technology to protect AI models, agents, and automated workflows from attacks, vulnerabilities, and malicious code injection, raised $100 million.

A platform that orchestrates AI agent workflows across enterprises, Wonderful reached a $5 billion valuation. Insight Partners, Salesforce, and others participated in the round.

A breach of West Publishing's court case management platform C-Track exposed records — including SSNs, driver's license numbers, dates of birth, and medical information — from courts in 11 US states and Ontario, Canada.

With public PoC code available on GitHub, approximately 22,000 Exchange servers worldwide remain unpatched. The US has the most exposed servers at 6,200, followed by Germany at 5,100.

Attacks exploiting CVE-2026-81578 and CVE-2026-82078 authentication bypass and remote code execution vulnerabilities have spread across all versions of PaperCut NG and MF. Cases of database theft and remote access tool implants have been confirmed.

Cisco released a patch for zero-day vulnerability CVE-2026-20349 in its ASA firewall product. The vulnerability has been confirmed as actively exploited in denial-of-service attacks since August.

A missile strike on a wedding venue in southern Iran killed 4 civilians and wounded 68. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strike as a war crime and requested an ICC investigation. Iran also carried out retaliatory strikes on US bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, and UAE.

President Trump ordered large-scale and forceful airstrikes near the Strait of Hormuz citing Iran's mine-laying attempts. He warned of stronger action should Iran retaliate again.

President Xi held a summit with Egyptian President el-Sisi for the first time in 10 years. Xi called for opposition to foreign interference and the building of a new security order, amid the US-Iran conflict.

COVID-19 hospitalizations at hospital-level facilities reached 61 in Week 34 per KDCA sentinel surveillance, rising for 4 consecutive weeks. The virus detection rate also climbed to 11.3%, prompting calls to review testing and treatment criteria for high-risk groups.

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) applied deep-learning AI imaging analysis results to medical claims review for the first time, starting with knee osteoarthritis. The scope is planned to expand to spine and urinary stones; final decisions remain with human reviewers.

A study found that patients who develop mental health disorders following physical trauma have a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who do not.

A study found that cognitive decline following COVID-19 Omicron infection is largely reversible over time.

The ESA-JAXA BepiColombo spacecraft began its Mercury arrival phase on September 3. The two orbiters separated from the transfer module; Mercury orbital insertion is scheduled for November 21, with science operations set to begin in April 2027.

Analysis of archived gravity data from 3 NASA Mars spacecraft found that the southern hemisphere interior may be up to 400°C hotter than the northern hemisphere and potentially in a partially molten state.

The NASA Roman Space Telescope, launched on a Falcon Heavy on August 30, successfully activated its coronagraph instrument. It is traveling to the L2 point for dark energy and exoplanet research.

The WMO warned on September 3 that El Niño could develop into the strongest on record, exceeding 40 years of observational data. The probability of El Niño persisting through February 2027 is near 100%, with elevated risks of extreme weather.

An additional colony of daeheungnan (Endangered Wild Organism Class II) was confirmed on a hill in the Seongsan-eup area of Seogwipo, near the planned Jeju Second Airport construction site. The Hondi Jatgal survey team has begun a detailed habitat assessment.

Renewed US-Iran fighting on September 3 reduced Hormuz transit ships from 11 the prior day to 6. Brent crude stood at $95.25 per barrel, up 20% from the previous month.

According to the EIA weekly petroleum status report, US crude inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels from the prior week, the first decline since late July. Refinery utilization remained high at 98%.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright confirmed that Hormuz daily transit volume on September 1 reached 17 million barrels, the highest since the start of the conflict. The EIA stated that Middle East oil production normalization is unlikely before early 2027.

Kwon Eunbi released the digital single 'DEJAVU' at 6 PM on September 3. It is her first new release in 1 year and 4 months, following her move to RBW in April after her contract with Woollim Entertainment ended.

A pledge ceremony was held at the National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong on September 3. A total of 1,052 people — 792 athletes and 260 officials — will compete in 41 sports at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, opening September 19.

Following an investigation into salary cap circumvention involving Kawhi Leonard, the NBA fined the LA Clippers $30 million, stripped 5 first-round draft picks (2029–2033), and handed owner Steve Ballmer a one-year suspension.

Lotte starter Beesley pitched 7 innings with 9 strikeouts and 2 earned runs to defeat Samsung 3-2 at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on September 3. Samsung's 7-game winning streak ended and they dropped to 2nd place.

FMD antigen-positive animals were confirmed at 2 cattle farms in Yecheon County, North Gyeongsang. The alert level was raised to 'Serious' for Yecheon and from 'Attention' to 'Caution' nationally, with a temporary movement ban issued for 6 adjacent cities.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) announced a second-half export push strategy at the 3rd joint public-private K-Food+ Export Planning Group meeting on September 3, comprising 15 tasks across 5 areas including flagship product development and emerging market targeting.

The K-Food Fair+ held at Tokyo's Annex Tower on August 31–September 1 drew 78 export companies and recorded $64 million in export consultations and 15 MOU agreements worth $4.6 million.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, together with the Ministry of SMEs, MAFRA, and the Korea Consumer Agency, will inspect price labeling compliance for Chuseok ritual foods and processed goods at large marts, supermarkets, and convenience stores from September 3–23.