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By Heejin Kim SEOUL, Nov 12 (Reuters) – South Korea’s presidential office said on Thursday it saw little prospect of US-North Korea contact around the upcoming APEC summit in China or of Pyongyang’s participation in APEC-related events. US President Donald Trump has sought to restart talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but US and South Korean officials see fading chances of a meeting this year. A senior South Korean presidential official, commenting on a recent spike in tensions along the inter-Korean border, also said no additional North Korean activity had been detected at the Demilitarized Zone beyond preparations for possible loudspeaker broadcasts. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, announced last month that her country was considering restarting propaganda broadcasts over loudspeakers near the inter-Korean border, ratcheting up tensions with Seoul. South Korea says North Korean mines planted as part of its fortification activity in the DMZ caused a ​blast in September that seriously wounded several ​of its soldiers. North Korea denies responsibility, ⁠calling the incident a South Korean fabrication. South Korea is also monitoring whether Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the APEC summit in Shenzhen next week, given Seoul had some diplomatic issues to discuss with Moscow, he said without elaborating. A possible trilateral summit involving the United States, China and Russia at the gathering could provide an opportunity for the countries to discuss North Korea, the official said. (Reporting by Heejin Kim and Kyu-seok ShimEditing by Ed Davies) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Kanishka Singh Nov 11 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s close ties with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang ​have come under renewed scrutiny after revelations about the billionaire executive’s affair with a Chinese businesswoman alleged to be a spy for Beijing. Trump said on Monday he was “amazed” after the revelations concerning one of his closest allies in Silicon Valley, who also faces an FBI probe as well as a board meeting to decide his future. Over the past two years, Huang has voiced support for the Trump administration’s AI agenda and met the Republican leader many times as Nvidia sought to sell advanced chips to the Chinese market and lobbied for looser restrictions on Chinese access to Nvidia’s sophisticated AI chips.  Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called to halt exports of advanced AI chips to China. Huang and the White House have argued that continuing US sales to China would keep Chinese customers reliant on US technology.  Here is a timeline on some publicly known interactions and meetings between the Nvidia CEO and Trump since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January 2025: JANUARY 2025: Trump met the Nvidia boss during the first month of his return to the White House, casting the interaction as a good meeting.  JULY 2025: The Nvidia CEO met Trump at the White House before Huang’s visit to China.  Later in the month, Trump gave a shout out to Huang as he spoke and signed executive orders at an AI summit.  “Jensen, will you stand up? What a job, what a job you’ve done,” Trump remarked. “He’s a great guy too.” AUGUST 2025: Huang met Trump at the White House as the Trump administration and Nvidia engaged in talks over allowing advanced AI chip sales to China. SEPTEMBER 2025: Huang joined Trump during a state visit to Britain. NOVEMBER 2025: The Nvidia CEO attended a US-Saudi Arabia investment forum in Washington during the first visit of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to the US capital since 2018. Huang talked about the future of AI at the event. DECEMBER 2025: Trump praised Huang when the Nvidia CEO visited Washington and met the Republican leader, who said the chip executive was aware of where he stood on export controls. Huang was in the US capital that day to meet lawmakers and told them that state-by-state US regulations would slow the progress of AI development. JANUARY 2026: The Trump administration began allowing some exports of Nvidia’s powerful H200 AI chips to China on a case-by-case basis but it did not lift the restrictions applying to organizations that Washington had put on a trade restriction list. MARCH 2026: In late March, the White House announced Huang as part of a 13-member council formally called the “President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology” to weigh in on AI policy and other issues. MAY 2026: Huang was among a delegation of tech CEOs who joined Trump during his visit to China to meet Xi as the Republican leader aimed to urge Beijing to “open up” to US business.  Trump, in a last minute addition to his May trip to China, asked Huang to join him. The Nvidia CEO was spotted boarding Air Force One during a re-fuelling stop in Alaska en route to Beijing. SEPTEMBER 2026: As the Trump administration and AI companies faced increasing scrutiny over risks posed by advanced AI, Trump said on September 29 that Huang was among a number of AI CEOs who signed a voluntary safety pact and backed data center expansion.  Huang met Trump at the White House that day along with a number of tech executives. Trump, who had argued previously that the US ​does ⁠not need new AI-specific regulations, said the pact was “morally binding,” prompting criticism that it did not lay out consequences for non-compliance. In the previous week, Huang attended a high-profile state dinner for Xi Jinping at the White House when the Chinese president met Trump. In mid-September, the Nvidia CEO addressed AI safety concerns during a summit in Los Angeles. He took a phone call from Trump during the event and put him on speaker for the audience. During the roughly five-minute call, Trump called AI safety fears a “hoax.”  OCTOBER 2026: In early October, Trump awarded the National Medal of Science, the United States’ highest honor for scientists and engineers, to the Nvidia CEO and some other tech industry leaders. The same day Trump gave the Nvidia CEO the award, the president disclosed buying up to $1.6 million and selling up to $1 million in Nvidia stock during the summer of 2026. The Washington Post reported in mid-October that Nvidia committed $25 million for Trump’s planned White House ballroom. NOVEMBER 2026: Trump said he spoke to the Nvidia boss after the affair between Jensen Huang and Alice Huang – an unrelated former executive of Singapore-based company Megaspeed, whom US authorities investigated and concluded was a Chinese intelligence asset – became public. Trump said on November 9 the Nvidia CEO told him he had no idea that the woman was a spy and that Trump believed the CEO. “I asked him that question ‘Did you have any idea that she was a spy?’ He said ‘I had no idea that she was a spy’ and I really believe him,” Trump told a White House briefing. “I know the FBI is looking into it,” Trump said. “I think that he’ll be in good shape.” (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; editing by Chris Sanders and Lincoln Feast.) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Gregor Stuart Hunter SINGAPORE, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Global stocks wobbled at the start of Asian trade on Thursday, while Nvidia shares plunged in after-hours trading on news that its board may oust longtime CEO Jensen Huang. Nvidia’s board is meeting late Wednesday to decide whether to oust Huang, a source familiar with the matter said, as the world’s dominant supplier of AI processors grapples with the fallout of allegations that he had an affair with a suspected spy for China. The New York Times has also reported that Huang had had an affair with a company executive who reported to him.  “It looks bad from every single angle,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer at Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I believe the board won’t oust him until they have an all-star, a known entity in the tech sector, to replace him,” he said. “At the end of the day, let’s not forget that the Nvidia chip is the centrepiece of the AI story.” Shares in Nvidia slid more than 8% after the bell, weighing on S&P 500 e-mini futures, which slipped 0.4%. Regional indexes fared better after a choppy start. South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.2%, Taiwanese shares gained 0.5%, Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.5% and MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.1% lower, weighed down by shares in Hong Kong. Stocks on Wall Street made gains on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 rising 1.3% and coming close to retracing all of the losses since last week’s US midterm elections. “Renewed optimism around AI drove US equities higher overnight, with positive developments around CoreWeave and Anthropic adding to enthusiasm around the sector and helping the S&P 500 and NASDAQ rally,” Westpac analysts wrote in a note. The dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a basket of six currencies, was steady in Asian trade at 102.87, its highest level since April 9 last year in the aftermath of Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement. The currency rose 0.6% on Wednesday as traders repriced the odds the Federal Reserve will lift interest rates next month. Fed funds futures are pricing an 87.3% chance of a 25-basis-point hike at the US central bank’s next two-day meeting on December 9, compared to a 12.7% chance of a larger 50-basis-points hike, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch tool. In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin slipped 0.9% to $73,617.58, while ether was 0.9% lower at $2,049.44. (Reporting by Gregor Stuart Hunter; Editing by Edwina Gibbs) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

By Yuka Obayashi TOKYO, Nov 12 (Reuters) – Oil prices dropped more than $1 on Thursday as hopes for progress in peace talks over the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine wars pressured the market. Brent futures lost $1.14, or 1.2%, to $91.62 a barrel by 0141 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell $1.04, or 1.2%, to $85.49. Brent rose about 1.4% and WTI 0.6% on Wednesday after hitting two-month lows the previous day. “Markets are falling on expectations that behind-the-scenes efforts are underway to secure a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine and that it is unlikely the Iran war will escalate ahead of the US-China summit next week,” said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, chief strategist of Nissan Securities Investment, a unit of Nissan Securities. “However, given the uncertainty surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, the markets are unlikely to suffer a significant collapse,” Kikukawa said. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed to a major prisoner exchange at two days of peace talks in Abu Dhabi that ended on Wednesday, although US mediators said differences remained on other major issues, including territory. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv hoped to achieve concrete results on resolving the war this year. Meanwhile, Iran will not allow even a single particle of enriched nuclear material to leave the country and there will be consequences if US launches new strikes, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei said in televised remarks. Washington has said nuclear issues must be part of any initial negotiations with Iran aimed at ending the eight-month-old war, while US officials downplayed the need for further military strikes. OPEC+ crude oil production jumped in October, led by a sharp increase in output from Saudi Arabia despite continued disruption to shipments through the Hormuz Strait. US crude stocks rose by 9 million barrels in the latest week, market sources said, citing data from the American Petroleum Institute. Official data from the US Energy Information Administration is due on Thursday, delayed a day due to a US national holiday on Wednesday. [EIA/S] [API/S] (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom Hogue) Brought to you by www.srnnews.com

The Baltimore Ravens are turning to veteran Riley Patterson to fill their vacancy at kicker after losing Jake Moody to the Atlanta Falcons. Baltimore is signing Patterson following a workout Wednesday, NFL Network reported. Patterson is expected to handle kicking duties when the Ravens host the Los Angeles Chargers on Monday night. Patterson would become Baltimore’s third kicker this season, a franchise first. Tyler Loop opened the year with the job but was placed on injured reserve last week because of a right groin injury. Moody was elevated from the practice squad for Baltimore’s loss to Jacksonville and made a 53-yard field goal and an extra point in his lone appearance. The Ravens reportedly hoped to retain Moody, but the Falcons signed him off Baltimore’s practice squad to replace Nick Folk. Patterson, 27, began the season with the Miami Dolphins before being released Oct. 20. He converted 7 of 9 field-goal attempts and 5 of 6 extra points in five games, with Miami’s concerns centered largely on his performance on kickoffs. He was considerably more efficient last season, making 27 of 29 attempts for a 93.1% success rate. Patterson has converted 97 of 112 field-goal attempts (86.6%) and 148 of 154 extra points during six NFL seasons. The former Memphis kicker entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2021 and has appeared with Detroit, Jacksonville, Cleveland, the New York Jets, Atlanta and Miami. Loop will miss at least three more games before he is eligible to return in Week 14, leaving Patterson with an opportunity to handle the job during a key stretch for the 4-5 Ravens. –Field Level Media Brought to you by www.srnnews.com