Former SK Hynix employee jailed for leaking information to a Chinese firm: Yonhap

  A former employee at SK Hynix has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for leaking information on semiconductor manufacturing technology to a Chinese firm, the Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday. 

The Seoul High Court made the ruling in an appeal case against the defendant, upholding the lower court’s sentence, for leaking classified information on so-called CMOS image sensors, a technology used for non-memory chips in smartphone cameras and laptops, to a Chinese company in 2022, Yonhap said. 

The court found that the employee, who formerly worked at SK Hynix’s office in China, printed out or took photos of documents containing trade secrets downloaded from the company’s internal server, a violation of its security rules, according to Yonhap. 

The defendant disclosed some of the information in a resume submitted to a Chinese firm, Yonhap said, without naming the Chinese company. 

The man admitted all of the charges and most of the information he took was retrieved by the company, the report said. 

The Seoul High Court did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment outside business hours. 

https://srnnews.com/former-sk-hynix-employee-jailed-for-leaking-information-to-a-chinese-firm-yonhap-reports/

Fire at Aramco facility in Jizan extinguished

 Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said a fire that erupted at a Saudi Aramco facility in the company's refinery in Jizan had been extinguished.

The blaze was contained by the company's industrial firefighting teams, the ministry said on X. "The competent authorities are completing the necessary procedures to deal with the incident," it noted, adding that there were no injuries.

Separately, an unconfirmed report said earlier that gas facilities in the country's Jubail region were targeted and that a fire broke out at the site.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Fire-at-Aramco-facility-in-Jizan-extinguished/66883129

Melatonin can mess with kids’ sleep, impact memory, learning, emotional development

 Almost half of American parents give their kids melatonin to help them sleep. Could it actually be doing the opposite?

A new study suggests that melatonin, the second-most popular supplement for kids after multivitamins, may reduce the time they spend in a critical phase of sleep that affects memory, learning, and emotional development.

Melatonin use has exploded over the last 20 years. While it’s thought of as a “natural” solution to get restless kids to bed, there’s growing concern about long-term use and side effects like nightmares.

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About half of American parents give their kids melatonin for sleep.Suzi Media – stock.adobe.com

Perhaps what’s most concerning is that because it’s a supplement and not tested for safety or efficacy by the FDA, the actual dose delivered to kids has been shown to be anywhere between only 74% to nearly 3.5 times the dose on the label.

“Melatonin is a hormone that our body naturally produces,” said Dr. Daniel Bigman, child adolescent psychiatry attending physician at Northwell’s Zucker Hillside Hospital and Cohen Children’s Medical Center. “So, whenever there is anything that we give to children that can alter hormones, that can cause a kind of a domino effect with things in our body.”

How melatonin might affect kids’ REM sleep

The new study looked at how 684 children slept with a polysomnogram, which looks at different stages of sleep.

“It looks at if our sleep is interrupted, how we breathe, and so forth,” Bigman said. “This study looked at the difference between children taking melatonin and those who do not.”

Researchers found that children who took melatonin had less rapid eye movement sleep, aka REM sleep, overall compared to kids who didn’t take the supplement.

“REM sleep is also thought of as the dream stage, or the dream sleep, because this is where most of us will experience dreams,” Bigman said.

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Melatonin pills or gummies are not assessed for safety or efficacy by the FDA before they hit the market.Mdv Edwards – stock.adobe.com

More importantly, there’s evidence that this stage of sleep is crucial for memory, learning, and emotional development. Research indicates drugs like antidepressants and ADHD medication that affect REM sleep could hurt young brains’ development for this reason.

“While it’s hard to understand exactly the reason why, or if the melatonin was even the primary cause, I think what’s more important is that that there potentially is a relationship.”

Using melatonin

Melatonin is sometimes recommended for kids struggling with sleep — but Bigman notes “there should be caution because we don’t know everything about its effects.”

With limited FDA involvement in regulation of supplements like melatonin, “it is hard for us to know to quantify what it is that’s happening … as well as its long-term effects, because there isn’t robust data to truly understand how melatonin affects children’s brains, specifically in sleep.”

There’s also the question of whether kids getting melatonin actually need the pill or gummy. Things like iron deficiency, enlarged tonsils, and even nightmares could be keeping the child from a good nights rest. And melatonin won’t necessarily fix the problem.

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Sleep hygiene, like putting away screens before bed, should be assessed before melatonin is used, experts say.SistersStock – stock.adobe.com

Bigman says he’ll only recommend melatonin in the event a child is diagnosed to have a circadian rhythm or sleep-wake cycle disorder. This is when they’re staying awake long into the night and sleeping during the day.

“When we do prescribe melatonin, the doses are very small or where the times given are very strategically done. For example, sometimes we dose melatonin four, five, or six hours before the time we want them to sleep at a very, very low dose,” he explains.

“Giving a large amount of melatonin may not be beneficial just because we want someone or a child to sleep.”

Instead, the first line of defense should be sleep hygiene. That’s a consistent bedtime with a good routine that signals the body it’s time to wind down — like a bath or relaxing without a device. Screens should be put away 30 minutes to an hour before bed.

And kids should also have a sleep-friendly space to get some shut eye: somewhere quiet and dark. Bigman also suggests looking at physical activity, sugar, and junk food intake.

“All these things could potentially contribute to difficulty with sleep,” he said. Parents should shoot for their kids to get eight to 10 hours of sleep a night.

https://nypost.com/2026/08/08/health/how-melatonin-can-mess-with-kids-sleep-and-impact-development/

Fire reported at gas site in Saudi Arabia's Jubail

 A fire broke out at the gas facilities in Saudi Arabia's Jubail Industrial City after the site was targeted, the Anadolu Agency reported, citing Arab sources.

Meanwhile, Iran's Mehr news agency, which also cited unnamed sources, said that a "loud explosion" was heard in the Jubail region.

The reports weren't immediately confirmed by any official statements.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Fire-reported-at-gas-site-in-Saudi-Arabia's-Jubail/66883106

South Korea volatility spike ebbs as leveraged trades are flushed out

 The most extreme phase of South Korea’s stock-market turmoil may be over after a historic selloff flushed out leveraged positions and regulatory curbs sent trading in some of the riskiest products plunging.

An index of volatility in South Korean shares fell to a two-month low last week, from a record high in June. The stabilisation followed forced liquidations that helped reduce outstanding margin debt, while tighter rules on leveraged exchange-traded funds also cut trading and assets in products tied to chip giants Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

The moves suggest that some of the leverage-driven excess that amplified the extraordinary swings in local equities has now been cleared, with Morgan Stanley estimating the deleveraging process is more than half over.

The Kospi Index saw a drawdown of almost 40 per cent from its June high, while global funds have sold more than US$100 billion (S$130 billion) of shares in 2026, leaving emerging-market funds underweight on the country. 

Still, overseas money managers aren’t rushing back in. Volatility remains elevated even after its decline, leaving investors to weigh historically cheap valuations and a strong earnings outlook against the risk of further sharp swings.

“We are getting constructive, but we’re still not fully comfortable because volatility still remains high,” said Isaac Thong, senior investment director and manager of the Aberdeen Asian Income Fund in Singapore.

“If that potential expected return is high enough to justify the volatility, then things get more constructive. So we are getting toward that level.”

Surging turbulence in the Kospi drove a volatility gauge to a record-high 96.9 in June, up from 28.9 at the end of 2025. The exchange’s 20-minute trading halt – triggered when the market falls by 8 per cent – was activated a record four times in July, while the Kospi rose or fell by at least 5 per cent on nearly half of the trading days. The largest one-day move was a record 18 per cent jump on July 31.

The authorities took a number of steps in response to the whipsaw trading, vowing further measures to curb demand for leveraged products. A higher cash deposit requirement for single-stock leveraged ETFs began July 31, leading to a drop in trading volumes and assets for funds tied to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

The stock slump and tighter regulations flushed out many retail investors, who had been lured in by the market’s rally. About 1 trillion won (S$900 million) of their accounts faced forced liquidation in June, and another 993 billion won in July, the two highest months in 2026, according to data from the Korea Financial Investment Association. The outstanding balance of margin loans used to finance stock purchases slid to 27.4 trillion won on Aug 4, the lowest level in 2026.

“This looks like the beginning of a hand-off from domestic retail investors to foreign institutions,” said Maxence Visseau, chief investment officer of Arkevium Capital in Dubai. Still, “a few calmer trading days will not be enough. Foreign portfolio managers need evidence that the market’s price-discovery mechanism is functioning normally again,” he said.

South Korean stocks look cheap by some measures after the selloff – with the Kospi trading at a record-low 5.1 times its 12-month forward earnings – but that still isn’t enticing money managers to rush back in.

“There’s a clear case that Samsung and Hynix are inexpensive right now – the earnings outlook is still strong – but I think the extreme volatility that you’ve seen is making people more cautious in the near term,” said Yiping Liao, a fund manager at Templeton Global Investments in Singapore. 

“Because of this huge volatility that you’ve seen, you’re not seeing this very aggressive add back – it’s more of a drip-drip type of action,” she said. 

Global funds have slowed their retreat from South Korean equities but they are still selling. After cashing out a record US$30 billion in June, overseas investors offloaded another US$6.2 billion in July and US$4.3 billion so far in August, according to stock exchange data. 

Still, at least some market participants are bullish.

Goldman Sachs Group this week reiterated its 12-month Kospi target of 12,000, representing an upside of about 90 per cent from the close on Aug 7.

If you just get the volatility to decline then “our view is the underlying fundamentals will reassert themselves, and we think they are very attractive,” the investment bank’s chief Asia Pacific equity strategist Timothy Moe said in an interview last week on Bloomberg Television.

Others are staying on the sidelines.

“Our view is fundamentals are very sound, the results recently show that but the leverage in the market and the positioning really got a bit too hot so we are taking a pause,” said Sean Taylor, chief investment officer and portfolio manager at Matthews International Capital Management. “Maybe we have another month of pause.”

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/south-korea-volatility-spike-ebbs-as-leveraged-trades-are-flushed-out

WNBA To Hold 'Listening Sessions' As 2nd Former NBA Star Says He's A Woman, Declares For Draft

 Update (1800ET): WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sent a memo to teams that addresses ongoing discussions around transgender athletes in women's basketball.

"I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women's basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention," Engelbert wrote in the memo, which was sent Friday afternoon and obtained by The Associated Press and ESPN.

"I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism."

The memo said the topic will be discussed further by a task force of team presidents and general managers at a previously scheduled meeting next week.

The league's collective bargaining agreement states that "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA," but it does not include any more specific language about gender identity or sex assigned at birth. 

"We recognize that this is a complex and nuanced topic, and we will continue to have important conversations with all of you and the Players Association in the weeks and months ahead," Engelbert said in the memo.

"We also plan to convene additional discussions and offer listening sessions for any team leaders who would like to participate. Your perspectives and feedback are invaluable, and I appreciate those who have already reached out to share their thoughts."

The Women's National Basketball Players Association released a statement on social media Friday that emphasized diversity and inclusion while saying the group "will not be used as political pawns."

"We embrace justice equity, diversity, and inclusion," the players' union said.

Inclusion?

Perhaps the WNBA will finally be the first group to actually define "what is a woman?"

*  *  *

As Robert Spencer reported earlier for PJMedia.com, every person who is tired of the left forcing its delusions and fantasies on the rest of us, and shaming, deplatforming, and silencing us if we refuse to go along, ought to be applauding Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom for standing up to the madness, and showing the world just how absurd it really is.

White and Freedom have declared that they’re women, at least for the purposes of professional basketball, and so they’re declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft. This is hilarious, but it’s no joke. It’s an unanswerable response to the left’s fashionable gender delusions, which have recently become a source of controversy within the WNBA, which ought to be called the WWNBA, the Woke Women’s National Basketball Association.

It all started when WNBA star Sophie Cunningham stated that she was not in favor of men pretending to be women playing women’s sports.

This sparked the usual spittle-flecked fury from the left. The WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, among others, came out in favor of delusional men competing against women. 

The WNBA players’ union issued a weaselly statement denouncing “Hate, abuse, and demonization of any person or group of people, including transgender people.”

Nobody had engaged in any of that, but that’s how leftists always characterize disagreement with the views they want everyone to hold.

Meanwhile, there has been talk of a WNBA team signing French basketball player Julie Tétart, who is a dude.

And so if Julie Tétart can do it, why can’t Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom? They are just as female as Tétart is. Fox News reported Friday that White said: "I'm transgender. I'm a woman. I identify as sometimes identifying as a woman for purpose of basketball, professional basketball, so I'll be declaring for the WNBA draft in 2027 as well," that is, in addition to Enes Kanter Freedom.

White added a correct assessment of how well a male professional would do in the WNBA: "I think I’d be unstoppable. But I’m a team-first guy. I’m a pass-first kind of player. I do the little things. I led my team in all five major stat categories at Iowa State University, so I do a little bit of everything. I’ll do whatever the coach needs me to do. I’ll do whatever the girls need me to do... I think it’s only fair."

White noted that the WNBA, for all its declarations of how much it rejects “hatred” of men who claim to be women, hasn’t said explicitly that men could play in the WNBA. Maybe WNBA top dogs hope that the whole thing will just go away, but it won’t.

"I think the WNBA could come out,” White said, “and make a definitive statement about guys with a pair of balls playing in the Women’s Association."

Asked if he would declare for the WNBA draft unless the league said that men could not play in the league, White responded: "Oh, no, I’m declaring. And I don’t want to be discriminated against. I want fair treatment. I’m a young, black, hopefully United States Senator that would like a fair chance to participate as a sometimes-identifying-as-a-transgender-woman athlete." White is on the ballot for the senate in Minnesota in the Republican primary; the election is coming up next Tuesday.

What if the WNBA calls White’s bluff and no team opts to sign him?

"I have to file a discrimination lawsuit, right?,” White said.

“I mean, that's, that's ridiculous. We're gonna have to have a huge legal battle about discrimination if I can't play." White says he would like to play for Cheryl Reeve: "It’s got to be the Minnesota Lynx, and I hear the coach loves a good transgender, so we’ll all be in perfect harmony.”

White expressed confidence that he would be drafted:

“How you gonna pass up on a 6-foot-8, 270-pound point forward? That’s ridiculous. I’m 260 pounds, 265 pounds, 6-foot-8, can palm a basketball — can palm a men’s basketball probably as easily as any player in history. I think I had the third-biggest hands in the modern NBA Draft Combine. So, yeah, I’m sure the women’s basketball is going to fare even easier to palm, which is a huge advantage. They’re going to have nightmares, and they should. I really feel like I’m going to be dominant."

He’s right.

If a WNBA team signs Julie Tétart or any other delusional man, the Minnesota Lynx or any other WNBA team would be foolish to pass on Royce White.

And then other teams will follow suit, until there are no women players left at all, and the WNBA is entirely filled with men and becomes a junior NBA. That will be true gender justice, won’t it, Ms. Reeve?

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/wnba-hold-listening-sessions-after-second-former-nba-star-says-hes-woman-declares-draft

Sunday talkies: Bhattacharya, Cassidy, Hassett, Hagerty, Banks, Blakeman, Blackburn

 NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters

CBS News’s “Face the Nation”: National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), 

CNN’s “State of the Union”: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett

Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday”: National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, Florida House candidate Oliver Larkin (D), Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.)

NBC News’s “Meet the Press”: Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman (R), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton 

ABC’s “This Week”: Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/6018823-sunday-preview-vance-iran-negotiations-progress/