Experts warned N Korea could launch provocative missile tests before or during the upcoming APEC summit in South Korea.
Published On 22 Oct 202522 Oct 2025
Share
North Korea has fired multiple, short-range ballistic missiles towards waters off its eastern coast, South Korea’s military said, marking its first missile launch in months.
The launch of missiles on Wednesday morning comes a week before South Korea hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which will see Chinese President Xi Jinping, United States President Donald Trump, and other world leaders gather in the South Korean city of Gyeongju for talks.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
South Korea’s military said that it “detected several projectiles, believed to be short-range ballistic missiles” fired towards the East Sea, which is also known as the Sea of Japan, the official South Korean Yonhap news agency reports.
“Our military has stepped up monitoring in preparation for (the possibility of) additional launches and is maintaining a steadfast readiness posture while sharing relevant information with the US and Japan,” South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, according to Yonhap.
North Korea last fired short-range ballistic and cruise missiles towards the East Sea on May 8 and May 22 , meaning the latest launch is the first under South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June, Yonhap said.
Experts had warned that North Korea could launch provocative missile tests before or during the APEC summit to underscore its commitment to being recognised as a nuclear-armed state, the Associated Press news agency reports.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un earlier this month displayed a new long-range Hwasong-20 Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), described as the country’s “most powerful”, during a huge military parade in Pyongyang, with top Chinese, Russian and other leaders in attendance.
The parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, highlighted Kim’s strengthening diplomatic presence on a regional and global level and his consistent drive to build sophisticated weapons capable of delivering nuclear payloads.
Pyongyang has long rejected international bans on its weapons development, which it says is necessary to protect North Korea from potential attack by its enemies, the US and South Korea.
Trump met the North Korean leader during his first term in office, and said recently that he hopes to meet Kim again, possibly this year.
Pyongyang has said that Kim is open to future talks with Trump, but with the caveat that North Korea will never agree to relinquish its nuclear arsenal.
US President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, in Panmunjom, South Korea, on June 30, 2019 [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]
Watch: “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting”, says Trump on talks with Putin
Donald Trump has said he did not want a “wasted meeting” after a plan to have face-to-face talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine were put on hold.
The US president indicated that a key sticking point remained Moscow’s refusal to cease fighting along the current front line, in remarks at the White House on Tuesday.
Earlier, aWhite House official had said there were “no plans” for a Trump-Putin meeting “in the immediate future”, after Trump said on Thursday that the two would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks.
Key differences between US and Russian proposals for peace became increasingly clear this week, appearing to have dashed chances of a summit.
Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August, during a hastily organised summit which yielded no concrete results.
The White House decision to shelve plans for a second Trump-Putin meeting may be seen as an attempt to avoid another similar scenario.
“I guess the Russians wanted too much and it became evident for the Americans that there will be no deal for Trump in Budapest,” a senior European diplomat told Reuters.
A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week – but the White House said the two had had a “productive” call and that a meeting was no longer “necessary”.
On Monday, Trump embraced a ceasefire proposal backed by Kyiv and European leaders to freeze the conflict on the current front line.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” he said. “I said: cut and stop at the battle line. Go home. Stop fighting, stop killing people.”
Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the idea had been put to the Russians repeatedly but that “the consistency of Russia’s position doesn’t change” – referring to Moscow’s insistence on the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the embattled eastern regions.
Moscow was only interested in “long-term, sustainable peace”, Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.
The “root causes of the conflict” needed to be addressed, Lavrov said, using Kremlin shorthand for a series of maximalist demands that include the recognition of full Russian sovereignty over the Donbas as well as the demilitarisation of Ukraine – a non-starter for Kyiv and its European partners.
European leaders released a statement with Zelensky earlier on Tuesday saying that any talks on ending the war in Ukraine should start with freezing the current front line and accused Russia of not being “serious” about peace.
Zelensky said discussions about the front line were the “beginning of diplomacy”, which Russia was doing everything to avoid.
The only topic that could make Moscow “pay attention” was the supply of long-range weapons to Ukraine, he added.
Trump had discussed a summit in the Hungarian capital over the phone with Putin, a day before meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
Some reports suggested those talks had been a “shouting match”, with sources suggesting Trump had pushed Zelensky to give up large areas of territory in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, known collectively as the Donbas, as part of a deal with Russia.
However, Zelensky has always said Ukraine cannot relinquish the parts of the Donbas it still holds, on the grounds that Russia could later use the area as a springboard for further attacks.
Putin’s unscheduled call with Trump last Thursday came following speculation that the US was preparing to send long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv that could potentially strike deep into Russia.
Zelensky said it was the Tomahawks issue that had forced Russia to engage in discussion.
Despite coming away from the White House empty-handed, he added that the talk about the missiles had turned out to be a “strong investment in diplomacy”.
A 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card, signed years after its release, has sold privately for $2.7 million through Goldin Auctions. The sale marks a new record for an aftermarket-signed card, a card autographed outside official card production.
“Signed rookie cards of greatest-of-all-time athletes, like Michael Jordan, represent the pinnacle of sports collectibles,” said Ken Goldin, founder and CEO of Goldin Auctions. “This record-breaking sale is a testament not only to Jordan’s enduring legacy but also to the recognition of aftermarket-signed cards.”
Why Aftermarket Cards Stand Out
Aftermarket signatures differ from factory-issued ones. They’re added later, often in private signings, and authenticated by trusted graders. That distinction makes them both controversial and coveted.
Because of Jordan’s long-standing exclusive deal with Upper Deck, signed Jordan rookie cards were nearly impossible to find for years. Outside of the 23 cards autographed for Upper Deck’s 2006 20th Anniversary Buyback Promotion, collectors had few legitimate options.
That changed recently. Jordan began hosting private signings, allowing a limited number of his 1986 Fleer rookie cards to be signed and certified. Each one instantly became a centerpiece for high-end collectors.
Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls. Mandatory Credit: Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY.
The Details Behind the Record
Goldin confirmed that this card was one of nine signed by Jordan in 2024 “in private with witnesses.” The card received a PSA Mint 9 grade and a 10 autograph rating, a combination that makes it exceptionally rare.
Another PSA 9 from the same signing sold earlier this year for $2.5 million through Pharrell Williams’ Joopiter auction house, though Goldin confirmed this $2.7 million card was a separate sale.
Jordan’s iconic rookie card continues to set standards for the sports memorabilia market. Nearly four decades after his NBA debut, his influence reaches beyond basketball, proving that his signature remains as valuable as his legend.
Who’d want a Ducati Diavel when you can get the Benda LFC700, an equally stunning, low, and chunky supersport-like inline-four cruiser? And don’t just take it as a cheap imitation of the Italian legend; rather, a worthy alternative that is now available Stateside!
Much of its mean exterior can be attributed to that fat rear tire – the fattest on any production motorcycle, yet. The 310/35-18 section tire is wider than what you’d typically find on the likes of the aforementioned Diavel and even the manic Triumph Rocket 3.
But it’s not the only thing that impressed me on the LFC700. For starters, it’s powered by an inline four instead of a parallel twin you’d find on cruisers this size. That’s a 676cc inline-four mill that produces around 85 hp and 44 lb-ft (60 Nm) of peak torque. Keep in mind that the exact figures vary between 79 hp and 92 hp, depending on the market in which the bike will be sold.
The LFC 700 is powered by a 676cc inline-four mill that produces around 85 hp and 44 lb-ft (60 Nm) of peak torque
Benda
That motor is mounted in a cast-aluminum chassis on a big 67.7-inch wheelbase. Now I haven’t ridden the actual thing, but from what I’ve been told, the power delivery is docile enough to get used to. Especially considering there are no ride modes to choose from, all you have to focus on is the throttle.
Braking is made up of two 320-mm floating front discs gripped by Brembo radial-mounted four-piston calipers and a 260-mm disc with a two-piston caliper at the rear. KYB 41-mm USD forks with compression adjustment up front, and an adjustable monoshock at the rear take care of suspension duties.
Now we all know Chinese manufacturers are famed for offering solid electronics at a bargain. For the LFC 700, that’s not the case, sadly. Despite that, you still get basics like a USB charger, 12V socket, dual-channel Bosch ABS, LED lighting, backlit switchgear, and a five-inch TFT dash with Bluetooth connectivity.
The likes of traction control, cruise control, and ride modes are all off the table. You do, however, get a substantial 4.5-gallon (17-liter) fuel tank, which ought to offer a range of around 150 miles (241 km) if not revved too hard. The seat height is at 27.4 inches (696 mm), which is as accessible as bikes can get.
The circular nose on the LFC 700 looks like a headlamp, but interestingly, it’s actually an air intake that feeds air to the engine’s airbox
Benda
The circular nose that looks like a headlamp is eerily similar to the Electric EyeLight Triumph Rocket concept that broke out a year back. But interestingly, it’s actually an intake that feeds air to the engine’s airbox. I’m pretty sure Benda purposefully designed it to resemble a jet engine’s duct.
In case you were wondering, the actual lights are made up of two larger, blade-shaped lamps positioned at the leading edges of the side cowls, and a small LED panel located above that intake. The bar-end mirrors are a nice touch, too.
Now I suspect it would be a hassle to ride around at low speeds. Especially when you factor in the 310-section rear tire and a curb weight of 632.7 lb (287 kg). But then again, that’s a trait of most heavyweight cruisers.
The problem for the LFC 700 is that it’s essentially a middleweight. And when you look like a Diavel relative, people are bound to draw up comparisons – most of which would be outright embarrassing if you were to do so.
The LFC 700 features KYB 41 mm USD forks with compression adjustment up front, and an adjustable monoshock at the rear
Benda
But that’s not to say there’s no place for a bike like this. In fact, it sort of reminds me of the Harley-Davidson Breakout. Radical for what it was, but still a fun motorcycle to ride (and flaunt) around. That’s exactly what the LFC 700 could be.
There’s also an LFC700 Pro, an upgraded trim of the stock cruiser with a few additions like a single, dual-chamber air shock at the rear that allows the seat height to be adjusted from 25.6 inches (650 mm) at its lowest setting to 28.7 inches (729 mm) at its highest. It also sports a slightly smaller rear (and more practical) 300/35-18 tire alongside subtle cosmetic changes, such as odd pop-up auxiliary lamps on either side of the tank.
Benda has priced the LFC 700 at £9199 (US$12,300) in the UK. Now, when it does come to the States, I expect a starting MSRP of under 12 grand. How probable is a US launch anyway? I’d say very, thanks to paperwork filed with the EPA for both the standard LFC700 and the LFC700 Pro for the 2026 model year.
The LFC 700 is priced at £9199 (US$12,300) in the UK. A US launch doesn not seem to far away.
Benda
Now I acknowledge it might not be the most practical bike out there for a price like that, especially when you consider the kind of cruisers on sale under $12,000. The Honda Rebel 1100, Indian Scout Sixty, Kawasaki Vulcan S, and the incredibly value-for-money Yamaha Bolt are all more powerful and loaded motorcycles in that price range.
But then again, I don’t think you’d get the Benda for outright practicality. It’s probably one of those motorcycles you may never buy, but you’d always appreciate its existence.
Young jobseekers, challenged by a rapidly changing labor market, are having a tough time.
The U.S. unemployment rate for 22- to 27-year-old degree holders is the highest in a dozen years outside of the pandemic. Companies are reluctant to add staff amid so much economic uncertainty. The hiring slump is especially hitting professions such as information technology that employ more college graduates, creating nightmarish job hunts for the increasingly smaller number who do complete college. Not to mention fears that artificial intelligence will replace entry-level roles.
So, Citi Foundation identified youth employability as the theme for its $25 million Global Innovation Challenge this year. The banking group’s philanthropic arm is donating a half million dollars to each of 50 groups worldwide that provide digital literacy skills, technical training and career guidance for low-income youth.
“What we want to do is make sure young people are as prepared as possible to find employment in a world that’s moving really quickly,” said Ed Skyler, Citi Head of Enterprise Services and Public Affairs.
Employer feedback suggested to Citi Foundation that early career applicants lacked the technical skills necessary for roles many had long prepared to fill, highlighting the need for continued vocational training and the importance of soft skills.
Skyler pointed to the World Economic Forum’s recent survey of more than 1,000 companies that together employ millions of people. Skills gaps were considered the biggest barrier to business transformation over the next five years. Two-thirds of respondents reported planning to hire people with specific AI skills and 40% of them anticipated eliminating jobs AI could complete.
Some grantees are responding by teaching people how to prompt AI chatbots to do work that can be automated. But Skyler emphasized it was equally important they fund efforts to impart qualities AI lacks such as teamwork, empathy, judgment and communication.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all effort where we think every young person needs to be able to code or interface with AI,” Skyler said. “What is consistent throughout the programs is we want to develop the soft skills.”
Among the recipients is NPower, a national nonprofit that seeks to improve economic opportunity in underinvested communities by making digital careers more accessible. Most of their students are young adults between the ages of 18 and 26.
NPower Chief Innovation Officer Robert Vaughn said Citi Foundation’s grant will at least double the spaces available in a program for “green students” with no tech background and oftentimes no college degree.
Considering the tech industry’s ever-changing requirements for skills and certifications, he said, applicants need to demonstrate wide-ranging capabilities both in cloud computing and artificial intelligence as well as project management and emotional intelligence.
As some entry-level roles get automated and outsourced, Vaughn said companies aren’t necessarily looking for college degrees and specialized skillsets, but AI comfortability and general competency.
“It is more now about being able to be more than just an isolated, siloed technical person,” he said. “You have to actually be a customer service person.”
Per Scholas, a no-cost technology training nonprofit, is another one of the grantees announced Tuesday. Caitlyn Brazill, its president, said the funds will help develop careers for about 600 young adults across Los Angeles, New York, Orlando, Chicago and the greater Washington, D.C area.
To keep their classes relevant, she spends a lot of time strategizing with small businesses and huge enterprises alike. Citi Foundation’s focus on youth employability is especially important, she said, because she hears often that AI’s productivity gains have forced companies to rethink entry-level roles.
Dwindling early career opportunities have forced workforce development nonprofits like hers to provide enough hands-on training to secure jobs that previously would have required much more experience.
“But if there’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it’s really hard to leap up, right?” Brazill said.
She warned that failing to develop new career pathways could hurt the economy in the long run by blocking young people from high growth careers.
Brookings Institution senior fellow Martha Ross said the fund was certainly right to focus on technology’s disruption of the labor market. But she said the scale of that disruption requires a response that is “too big for philanthropy” alone.
“We did not handle previous displacements due to automation very well,” Ross said. “We left a lot of people behind. And we now have to decide if we’re going to replicate that or not.”
___
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
new video loaded: JD Vance Is Optimistic About the Cease-Fire in Gaza
transcript
transcript
JD Vance Is Optimistic About the Cease-Fire in Gaza
Vice President JD Vance remained optimistic that the cease-fire deal in Gaza would hold during his trip to Israel on Tuesday, but gave few details of how the Trump administration plans to move toward a lasting peace.
We are one week into President Trump’s historic peace plan in the Middle East, and things are going, frankly, better than I expected that they were. You have Israelis and Americans working hand in hand to try to begin the plan to rebuild Gaza, to implement a long-term peace and to actually ensure that you have security forces on the ground in Gaza — not composed of Americans — who can keep the peace over the long term. So we’ve got a lot of work left to do. This is going to take a very, very long time. Our warning to Hamas is very straightforward: It’s that Hamas has to disarm. It’s that Hamas has to actually behave itself. I don’t think it’s actually advisable for us to say this has to be done in a week because a lot of this work is very hard. It’s never been done before. And in order for us to give it a chance to succeed, we’ve got to be a little bit flexible.
Vice President JD Vance remained optimistic that the cease-fire deal in Gaza would hold during his trip to Israel on Tuesday, but gave few details of how the Trump administration plans to move toward a lasting peace.
Spotify holds a patent for technology that could generate personalized song mashups.
The filing, unearthed by MBW, describes a system that can analyze songs to determine which tracks are musically compatible, then automatically combine them into new mashup versions for individual users.
According to the document, which you can read in full here, the technology would work by first separating tracks into their component parts – vocals and instrumentals – then “adding the vocal component” of “at least one music track to at least a select segment of the base music track.”
In other words, Spotify’s algorithm could automatically layer the singing from one song over the backing track of a completely different song, though users would still control the creative choices.
The filing explains: “Some commercially available websites enable users to listen to playlists suited to the users’ tastes, based on state-of-the-art machine learning techniques. However, the art of personalizing musical tracks themselves to users’ tastes has not been perfected.”
One of the big questions following that announcement was what exactly those products might be.
A Spotify spokesperson told us on Tuesday (October 21) that the company’s song mashup patent is “unrelated to last week’s announcement”.
The patent describes a system that would evaluate musical characteristics to ensure compatibility, including what the filing calls “acoustic feature vector distances,” tempo matching, and harmonic progression. It would analyze whether two songs are in compatible keys, have similar tempos, and whether their beats align properly.
“A mashup is a fusion or mixture of disparate elements,” the patent filing states, noting that creating successful combinations requires careful musical alignment.
The technology would perform sophisticated audio processing, from pitch shifting to time-stretching, and what the patent calls ‘transition refinement’ to ensure smooth musical transitions.
A deep dive into the US patent archives reveals the invention detailed in the filing from June 5, pictured above, isn’t entirely new.
The most recent filing is a continuation of a patent application originally filed in the US in December 2019 and granted in October 2022.
Spotify also filed an application for the patent in Europe in 2020. It was granted by the European Patent Office on June 18 of this year.
In response to a request for comment about the song mashup patent, a Spotify spokesperson said: “We don’t have any news to share about this patent that was first filed in 2019 and made public in 2021.”
“As we have made clear, we respect copyright and any future innovations will be enabled with upfront agreements, artists’ and rightsholders’ choice, and fair compensation.”
Spotify spokesperson
They added: “It is unrelated to last week’s announcement. Spotify has filed patent protections for hundreds of inventions, and we file new patent applications every month. Some of these patents may become part of a future offering, while others may provide valuable insights.”
“As we have made clear, we respect copyright and any future innovations will be enabled with upfront agreements, artists’ and rightsholders’ choice, and fair compensation.”
The patent describes tailoring mashup creation to individual users’ listening habits.
According to the filing, Spotify could identify “music tracks for which a plurality of users have an affinity” and then determine which of those popular tracks a specific user actually likes, using at least one of those tracks as the base for personalized mashups.
The filing also references generating custom titles for these mashup creations by combining words from the original song titles, and even creating “personalized album art” by blending images associated with the combined tracks.
User control and interface
The patent also describes user interface elements that would give listeners control over the mashup creation process. Users would select a “query track” to serve as the base, and the system would then suggest compatible candidate tracks that could be mixed with it.
A volume control interface would allow users to adjust the balance between vocal and instrumental components, controlling how prominently each element appears in the final mix. According to the patent diagrams, users could manipulate a slider to control the balance between vocal and instrumental components in the mashup.
This suggests the technology would be interactive rather than fully automated, with users making creative decisions about which tracks to combine and how to balance them.
The patent reveals considerable technical sophistication in how the system would create transitions. Beyond basic tempo and key matching, it would evaluate factors including “beat stability,” “loudness compatibility,” “vocal activity detection,” and “harmonic change balance.”
The technology would perform what the patent calls “boundary and transition position refinement” – analyzing vocal content to avoid cutting off lyrics mid-phrase and aligning segment boundaries with downbeats. It would apply fade-ins, fade-outs, and filtering to smooth transitions between combined segments.
For each potential mashup, the system would calculate multiple compatibility scores – including tempo, harmony, loudness, vocal activity, and beat stability – then combine these into an overall “vertical mashability” score and “horizontal mashability” score to determine which segments work best together.
Spotify has been a prolific generator of patents in recent years.
Some of these have been quite ambitious – such as, for example, its A&R technology for predicting breaking artists. It also secured a patent to identify music tastes by tracking the personality traits of its users.
In 2023, we revealed that it had filed a patent for a system to create digital mixtapes that enable users to integrate their own audio with a selected list of songs.Music Business Worldwide
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
