The Handover
Monday 2 November 2026
The day in 7 stories, as Asia signs off and New York wakes up.
AI
South Korea pledges nearly $16 billion for AI and semiconductors in record budget proposal
South Korea proposed nearly $16 billion for AI and semiconductors in its record 2027 budget. The allocation is nearly double this year's spending.
AI
India floats AI training plan where model travels to data, not data to model
India proposed an AI training framework that brings models to encrypted data stores rather than moving the data. The plan would keep data under its owners' control.
World
France opens attempted murder probe after petrol bomb attack on police
French prosecutors opened an attempted murder probe after a petrol bomb engulfed a police officer's lower body in flames during Paris protests. No suspects have been arrested.
Security
Malware appears designed for resale, uses AI to rank victims’ assets
Cisco Talos says Windows malware VOLTA-AUTODOXER steals data and uses an AI model to rank victims' assets by value. It may delete itself.
Programming
Torvalds says AI fixes may be moving into normal Linux development
Linus Torvalds released the first test version of Linux kernel 7.4, with almost 20,000 commits. He said AI-triggered fixes may be becoming part of normal development.
Science
MIT and USDA develop silk microneedles for safer fish vaccination
MIT and the US Department of Agriculture developed silk microneedles for vaccinating farmed fish underwater. They are designed to release vaccines in a controlled way, then decompose.
Crypto
Binance opens US dollar withdrawals as scammers target customers in wake of $6.3bn hack
Binance says it covered 95% of the $6.3 billion in tokens stolen in Friday's hack. The FBI says North Korean hacking group TraderTraitor likely carried it out.
The Handover is the day in a handful of stories, weekday evenings at 8pm your time, and a thread on X at 7am in New York and in London. Get it by email or push from your account, or subscribe by email.
Also posted as a thread on X: @zotpaper.