30 Heat Deaths Trigger National Disaster Declaration KOSPI Reclaims 7,000 · AI Model Price War

Google launched Gemini 3.7 Flash on August 13. FrontierCode 1.1 Main scores rose from 34.4% to 43.6% and DeepSWE v1.1 from 49% to 65.3%. Priced at $0.75 per million input tokens — half the previous Flash model — and supporting a 1-million-token context window, it accelerated competitive price cutting across the AI model market.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek released DeepSeek-V4-Pro on August 13 and simultaneously announced API price increases of 50–1,100% depending on model, token type, and time of day for V4-Pro and V4-Flash. A peak / off-peak dual-rate structure was introduced, with new pricing effective August 17.

Z.ai shipped GLM-5.3 without retraining the base model, pushing Terminal-Bench 3.0 coding performance from 4.6 to 28.3 and achieving 84.5% on CyberGym cybersecurity tasks. Alibaba open-sourced Qwen3.8-27B (27.78B parameters, Apache 2.0) with multimodal support, a 262K context window, and single consumer GPU compatibility.

Anthropic formed Theseus Infrastructure with Macquarie Asset Management and Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC. The venture will build purpose-built AI data centers in the US, with Anthropic as anchor tenant and paying the full cost of power-grid upgrades.

TSMC reported July revenue of NT$467.5 billion (approx. US$14.5 billion) on August 10, up 44.7% year-over-year and 5.6% month-over-month. Year-to-date revenue reached approximately US$89 billion, and the company raised its full-year growth forecast to above 40%.

The household loan balance at Korea's five major banks stood at 778.8 trillion KRW at end-July, up 3.8 trillion KRW from end-June, extending a three-month streak of acceleration. Rising home-price expectations driving mortgage growth and increased unsecured credit were cited as the primary causes.

Despite additional US sanction pressure, Iran refused to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, leaving negotiations deadlocked. Brent crude broke $89 per barrel, and President Trump switched to a maximum-pressure strategy against Iran.

Democratic Party leadership candidates Kim Min-seok, Jeong Cheong-rae, and Song Yeong-gil contested razor-close regional primaries in Honam and the Seoul metro area ahead of the August 17 convention. Kim held the cumulative lead with 57.5% in Honam as Jeong sought to overtake him in the capital region; the final result was announced at the Daejeon Convention Center on August 17.

A Damascus court on August 11 handed Assad, his brother Maher, and seven other former officials in-absentia death sentences for crimes against humanity, killing children, torture, and arbitrary detention. The ruling marks the first conviction of Assad by a Syrian court.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency reported that a North Korean missile unit has deployed to Russia's 112th Missile Brigade with KN-23 and KN-24 short-range ballistic missiles and operating personnel. The final scale is to be determined at a North Korea–Russia senior-level meeting scheduled for September.

The US-Korea 'Ulchi Freedom Shield' joint exercise runs August 17–27, incorporating drone operations, GPS jamming countermeasures, and cyber-response scenarios, as well as lessons drawn from the North Korean troops deployed in Russia.

Record heat drove 100g of spinach from 784 to 1,978 KRW — a 152% jump — while cucumbers rose 55% and zucchini more than 46% in a month. Nongshim, Pulmuone, and CJ CheilJedang raised wholesale prices 5–9% from August, with analysts warning that August CPI could rebound to the 3% range.

Forecasts called for more than 200mm of rainfall near the South Sea coast and Jirisan during the Liberation Day holiday, even as 2,121 hectares of farmland in South Gyeongsang Province suffered drought damage and Unmun Dam in North Gyeongsang dropped to a critical low. The Ministry of Interior established a new 'Drought Response Unit' and elevated the cross-government task force.

Greenpeace analysis found that the compound-disaster intensity index for 2021–2024 was three times higher than the 1991–2020 baseline, while frequency was 4.8 times higher. Extreme rain and extreme heat alternating in rapid succession is becoming markedly more common.

President Trump signed an executive order on August 10 recommending that the measles, mumps, and rubella combination vaccine be split into three individual doses. No such separate vaccines currently exist and clinical trials would be required. Public health experts stated there is no scientific basis for an autism link and opposed the order.

CDC data showed 2,566 confirmed measles cases in the US in 2026, the highest total in 35 years, with 169 hospitalizations. 93% of cases involved unvaccinated individuals. Experts cited declining vaccination rates as the primary cause.

A Stanford team confirmed that from middle age onward, blood-derived immune cells cross the blood-brain barrier and convert into microglia in the human brain. The finding, reported in Nature, appears to be specific to humans and was not observed in mice or non-human primates, opening new directions for brain aging research.

An MIT team used James Webb Space Telescope data to identify MoM-BH*-1, a new class of object consisting of a roughly 100,000-solar-mass black hole wrapped in a massive gas cloud dating to 660 million years after the Big Bang. The team stated the object radiates energy some 100 billion times greater than any ordinary star. The discovery was published in Nature.

Korea's Danuri lunar orbiter captured before-and-after images of a Falcon 9 upper stage (approx. 4.9 tonnes) impacting the moon near Einstein Crater at 2.43 km/s on August 5. Ground-based telescopes failed to capture evidence, making Danuri the sole observation asset for the event.

The 300-megapixel wide-field telescope — sharing the same 2.4m mirror diameter as Hubble but with a 100x wider field of view — is set to launch from Kennedy Space Center on August 30 for missions to map dark energy and search for exoplanets.

TWICE member Jeongyeon personally announced the end of her JYP Entertainment contract on August 10 via a handwritten letter and simultaneously signed with Varo Entertainment, the agency of her older sister Kong Seung-yeon. TWICE group activities will continue unchanged. Jeongyeon is the first TWICE member to leave JYP.

BTS completed two shows at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on August 10–11. The Maryland governor produced an official welcome video. Toronto is preparing a temporary 'BTS Boulevard' street name for the group's August 22–23 concerts.

An Pan-seok, the director behind dramas 'White Tower' (2007) and 'Misty' (2014), passed away on August 12. He was 65. An joined MBC as a PD in 1987 and worked for decades; his most recent work, 'Love Doctor,' became his final production.

Lee Kang-in entered as a substitute in the 64th minute of the Coupang Play Series match at Seoul World Cup Stadium on August 9, taking the field in Atletico Madrid's No. 7 jersey with his name in Korean characters before 50,000 fans for his club debut. Atletico lost 1-3 to Manchester City.

The NBA's LA Lakers were announced sold to Joshua Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger for $12 billion (approx. 17 trillion KRW) on August 12 — the highest price ever paid for a sports franchise.

At the 2026 European Athletics Championships (August 10–16, Birmingham), Britain's Romell Glave won the men's 100m in 10.09 seconds. Greece's Tentoglou claimed his fourth consecutive long-jump championship, and Hungary's Halász set a world lead of 84.25m in the hammer throw.

Point2Technology (192.4B KRW Series B led by Arm and LB Investment) and AI Games (141.6B KRW strategic investment by Webtoon Entertainment) accounted for two-thirds of weekly investment. AI girls' chatbot operator Bunker Kids also closed a 15B KRW Series A.

Incheon International Airport handled 38.39 million international passengers in H1 2026, surpassing London Heathrow (37.79 million) and Singapore Changi (34.53 million) to claim the world's top spot for the first time in its history. Analysts attributed the rise to aviation demand shifts caused by Middle East conflicts.

Following the 8·13 package, Gangnam Three Districts listings rose 3.9% in a week, with ask-price cuts of up to 1 billion KRW appearing. The Seoul apartment move-in outlook index fell 18.7 points from 118.7 to 100.0. Expanded regulation zones and tighter mortgage standards were cited as the main drivers.

The average monthly rent for a Seoul apartment reached 1.59 million KRW in June 2026 — the highest since records began in 2011. Incheon also crossed 1.02 million KRW, pushing the average above 1 million KRW across the greater Seoul area. Rising jeonse prices driving conversion to monthly rent was cited as the cause.

Anticipating higher comprehensive real-estate tax on homes valued above 4.6 billion KRW following tax reform, the Apgujeong 4 District association locked in a general construction contract with Samsung C&T on August 31 and set a target of completing relocation and demolition before June 1, 2028.

Romania's sole nuclear power plant, Cernavoda, shut its last operating reactor on August 13 as the Danube River fell to a record low, threatening cooling water supply. Cernavoda accounts for roughly 20% of Romania's electricity generation.

California's total battery storage capacity exceeded 21,112 MW according to the California Energy Commission. In H1 2026, solar generation use surpassed natural gas for the first time, with solar up 22% from 2024 and natural gas down 51%.

A Gyeonggi Education Research Institute report released August 15 warned that introducing essay-style questions to the CSAT could push essay tutoring spending from 912.3 billion KRW last year to as high as 4 trillion KRW. Average monthly high-school essay tutoring fees were surveyed at 338,000 KRW.

The Ministry of Science and ICT selected Busan National University, Seoul National University, Yonsei University, POSTECH, and four others for the '2026 Research Security Capacity Enhancement Support Project.' Each institution receives approximately 500 million KRW annually through end-2028 to build dedicated research security personnel and prevent leakage of advanced technology and research data.

Eco-friendly vehicles accounted for 60% of new domestic auto registrations in H1 2026 — a majority for the first time. EVs surged 113.6% year-over-year, and China (41.2%) displaced the US as the top origin of imported vehicles.

Google's Waymo imported more than 3,200 Zeekr electric vans from China, absorbing a 127.5% tariff. At more than $100,000 per unit after tariff, the vans are still cheaper than Jaguar-based robotaxis (approx. $200,000) and more than 100 are now operating in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Hyundai Motor's CEO visited the union directly on August 14 to request a resumption of talks. Cumulative production losses reached 42,000 vehicles and estimated revenue losses exceeded 1.8 trillion KRW. Management and union scheduled the 16th main bargaining session for August 18. Kia's union also passed a strike vote — the company's first in six years.

The CI/CD pipeline of open-source AI routing library LiteLLM was compromised, publicly exposing 153 GB of credentials — including cloud keys, SSH keys, and AI API keys — belonging to more than 2,500 organizations including AWS, Samsung, and Cisco.

Israeli cybersecurity firm Dream reported that China-linked hackers used an open-source AI agent system to autonomously scan and compromise 21 Taiwanese government systems, stealing 85 accounts and more than 2,500 personnel records.

Sogang University disclosed on August 15 that an attack from an unauthorized foreign IP had exposed approximately 180,000 personal records — student IDs, contact information, and encrypted passwords — of current students, alumni, and faculty, and said it had blocked the attacking IP and taken emergency measures.

Goldman Sachs announced on August 12 it would acquire options-based ETF specialist NEOS Investments for up to $2.25 billion. The deal includes three crypto-linked funds with more than $1.1 billion in AUM, including the Bitcoin High Income ETF (BTCI) and Ethereum High Income ETF (NEHI).

The SEC cancelled its August 14 'Regulation Crypto' open meeting the previous day, citing 'unforeseen scheduling issues.' The roughly 400-page proposed rule covered three exemption pathways for token offerings and an annual fundraising cap of $75 million.

Nongshim raised prices on 43 brands by an average 5.8%, CJ CheilJedang raised 27 items including Cooked Ham-style rice by an average 8%, Coca-Cola Korea raised 52 items by 7.2%, and Tous Les Jours raised 76 bakery and cake items by 8.2%. Paris Baguette is set to raise 127 items by an average 5% from August 25.

Samyang Foods posted Q2 overseas revenue of 645.8 billion KRW, the first time a quarter has exceeded 600 billion KRW. Operating profit rose 46.7% year-over-year to 176.2 billion KRW.

Hyundai Motor's union resumed partial strikes August 12–14, pushing cumulative production losses to 42,000 units and estimated revenue losses above 1.8 trillion KRW. Management's CEO personally visited the union on August 14 to request resumed talks; the 16th main bargaining session is scheduled for August 18.

The government passed a revision to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act Enforcement Decree at a cabinet meeting on August 11, enabling one to two weeks of short-term parental leave once per year from August 20. From September 18, spouses will also be allowed to begin prenatal leave up to 50 days before the expected delivery date.