SoftBank to buy ABB's robotics arm in $5.4 billion deal SoftBank Group agreed to acquire ABB's industrial robots unit at an enterprise value of almost $5.4 billion, reflecting billionaire Masayoshi Son's growing bets on artificial intelligence and a global wave of data center construction. The Japanese investment firm agreed to take over a business with more than 7,000 employees, which supplies industrial arms and robots to manufacturers including BMW. Swiss conglomerate ABB -- which originally aimed to spin off the unit -- will instead focus on more profitable areas such as electrification, which is also surging as the likes of OpenAI and Meta Platforms spend trillions on data centers. ABB had said in April that it planned to create a separately listed entity for the robotics business in 2026. It was one of the first major strategic moves by Chief Executive Officer Morten Wierod, who took the helm in August last year.

Resonac President and CEO Hidehito Takahashi (front row, third from left) in Tokyo on Sept. 3 along with officials from companies participating in a joint framework to develop chipmaking equipment | JIJI NAGOYA - Faced with a long slump in their mainline petrochemical operations, major Japanese chemical makers are working with other companies over businesses related to semiconductor materials. While chemical makers are in the middle of a structural shift with hopes to turn the semiconductor-related businesses into their new pillars of growth, the rise of generative artificial intelligence has made it challenging for them to make semiconductors more functional on their own. Therefore, they are taking measures with others, such as setting up a joint framework, to speed up the development of related materials. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

The National Police Agency held its first expert panel meeting on Tuesday on countering illegal drone flights amid rising concerns over their potential use in terrorism and other threats. The National Police Agency on Tuesday held the first meeting of an expert panel on measures against illegal drone flights, in light of the growing threat of drones being used for terrorism and other purposes. The panel plans to compile a report by the end of the year on expanding the list of no-fly zones and penalties, with a view to revising the drone control law. The law was established in 2016 in the wake of an incident in which a drone fell on the roof of the Prime Minister's Office in Tokyo. It currently bans drone flights within about 300 meters of important facilities such as the National Diet Building, the Imperial Palace and nuclear power plants.

The Text With Jesus chatbot app displayed on an iPhone on Oct. 2. | AFP-JIJI New York - Artificial intelligence, the technology upending nearly every corner of society, is creeping into religion, serving up virtual Jesus and automated sermons -- a change drawing mixed reviews from the faithful. Religious chatbots and other faith-based digital tools are growing in number, offering counsel, comfort and spiritual guidance during an age of rapidly transforming socialization and engagement. One app, which is called Text with Jesus, has thousands of paying subscribers. It lets people ostensibly ask questions of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and nearly all 12 apostles. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

While task-specific demonstrations show early success in applying large language models (LLMs) to automate some astronomical research tasks, they only provide incomplete views of all necessary capabilities in solving astronomy problems, calling for more thorough understanding of LLMs' strengths and limitations. So far, existing benchmarks and evaluations focus on simple question-answering that primarily tests astronomical knowledge and fails to evaluate the complex reasoning required for real-world research in the discipline. Here, we address this gap by systematically benchmarking five state-of-the-art LLMs on the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) exams, which are designed to examine deep conceptual understanding, multi-step derivations, and multimodal analysis. With average scores of 85.6% and 84.2%, Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT-5 (the two top-performing models) not only achieve gold medal level performance but also rank in the top two among ~200-300 participants in all four IOAA theory exams evaluated (2022-2025). In comparison, results on the data analysis exams show more divergence. GPT-5 still excels in the exams with an 88.5% average score, ranking top 10 among the participants in the four most recent IOAAs, while other models' performances drop to 48-76%. Furthermore, our in-depth error analysis underscores conceptual reasoning, geometric reasoning, and spatial visualization (52-79% accuracy) as consistent weaknesses among all LLMs. Hence, although LLMs approach peak human performance in theory exams, critical gaps must be addressed before they can serve as autonomous research agents in astronomy.

Dolly Parton's sister asks for prayers for music icon, 79, amid mystery health battle Bloodcurdling videos shows girl aged 12 subway surfing days before she and friend, 13, died during 3.10am stunt Trump's mass deportation effort removed staggering amount of migrants from US in first year of term: 'Just the beginning' Mom-of-two hospitalized, her son left suicidal and their dog dead... after a simple mistake turns $500K home into a death trap Popular actress shocks fans with'unrecognizable' appearance after suffering heartbreaking tragedy Selena Gomez's'disgusting' habit on her wedding day exposed by eagle-eyed fans despite star's efforts to hide it Charlie Kirk leaked text confirms he was livid about'bullying' Jewish donors: 'I'm leaving pro-Israel cause' She's accused of'murder-for-hire' plot against her famous TV star husband. Now there's a shock twist in the case... and she's forced to stare her demons in the face Man is arrested on terror charges over disturbing Halloween display of fake body bags with town official's titles Space agency breaks silence on'foreign' interstellar object soaring past Mars: 'A rare visitor' 'Disneyland of grocery stores' reveals items most hit by tariffs and the fan favorite it STOPPED buying from China Space agency breaks silence on'foreign' interstellar object soaring past Mars: 'A rare visitor' READ MORE: Mysterious interstellar visitor spotted above Mars appears as'massive cylindrical craft' The European Space Agency (ESA) has finally shared new details about the mysterious interstellar visitor days after its closest approach to Mars . The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, came within 18.6 million miles of the Red Planet on October 3, and while NASA quickly uploaded images captured by its Perseverance rover on the Martian surface, ESA had remained quiet until now . The ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) captured images of the object, appearing as a tiny, blurry white dot in a series of images. The object's icy nucleus and its surrounding halo of gas and dust, called a coma, could not be distinguished separately, but the faint glow was clearly visible against the blackness of space.

Dolly Parton's sister asks for prayers for music icon, 79, amid mystery health battle Charlie Kirk leaked text confirms he was livid about'bullying' Jewish donors: 'I'm leaving pro-Israel cause' Mom-of-two hospitalized, her son left suicidal and their dog dead... after a simple mistake turns $500K home into a death trap Trump's mass deportation effort removed staggering amount of migrants from US in first year of term: 'Just the beginning' Man is arrested on terror charges over disturbing Halloween display of fake body bags with town official's titles Selena Gomez's'disgusting' habit on her wedding day exposed by eagle-eyed fans despite star's efforts to hide it Popular actress shocks fans with'unrecognizable' appearance after suffering heartbreaking tragedy She's accused of'murder-for-hire' plot against her famous TV star husband. Now there's a shock twist in the case... and she's forced to stare her demons in the face Bloodcurdling videos shows girl aged 12 subway surfing days before she and friend, 13, died during 3.10am stunt'Kissing Trump's a**': President mocks Canada's obsequious PM as he begs for tariff relief Keith Urban's guitarist Maggie once vowed to'never' date a tour mate... as she's accused of charming Nicole Kidman's ex Hollywood's favorite muscle car primed for return as America's No.1 automaker files secret paperwork Do you have one of these gathering dust in your attic? It was only a couple of decades ago that homes and offices were filled with answering machines and BlackBerry phones. And although they've been obsolete for years, they're now among the retro gadgets that could make you a fortune. Brits are sitting on a hidden goldmine of old forgotten tech devices that may be gathering dust in the attic, according to a new report from Gumtree.

Charlie Kirk leaked text confirms he was livid about'bullying' Jewish donors: 'I'm leaving pro-Israel cause' White House insider who says WAR with Venezuela is inevitable... as Trump's lethal options are laid out I've seen the real Victoria Beckham... her actions gave me PTSD, she shunned me and even banned me from glancing in her direction. Jimmy Kimmel's audience boom comes crashing down as he loses 71% of viewers in one week'Kissing Trump's a**': President mocks Canada's obsequious PM as he begs for tariff relief World's most invasive predator terrorizing East Coast is delicious and should be eaten to stop its spread, experts say I've had enough of the arrogant and entitled fat brigade. Bloodcurdling videos shows girl aged 12 subway surfing days before she and friend, 13, died during 3.10am stunt Another blow for Prince Harry as African country cuts ties with his'disrespectful' charity Friends fear for new CBS News boss Bari Weiss, claiming her wife thinks she sold out... and her new job will'consume her life' Keith Urban's guitarist Maggie once vowed to'never' date a tour mate... as she's accused of charming Nicole Kidman's ex Hollywood's favorite muscle car primed for return as America's No.1 automaker files secret paperwork AMANDA PLATELL: I never thought I'd feel sorry for Harry. There's one thing he'd do anything to defend... and now Meghan's trampled all over it Ben Affleck's VERY familiar whispers to Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet revealed... as their romantic new era sends fans into overdrive Jimmy Kimmel continues anti-Trump rants and says he's more popular with Americans than the president Brits have been left in awe after spotting what is believed to be a'meteor' glowing through the night sky. Lucky stargazers in Northfields and West Ealing, west London, have reported seeing a blue-ish green blob race through the city's sky tonight.

'Kissing Trump's a**': President mocks Canada's obsequious PM as he begs for tariff relief World's most invasive predator terrorizing East Coast is delicious and should be eaten to stop its spread, experts say Clash of the White House titans: Two of Trump's most powerful lieutenants go to WAR with each other - after vicious leak sent shockwaves AMANDA PLATELL: I never thought I'd feel sorry for Harry. There's one thing he'd do anything to defend... and now Meghan's trampled all over it White House insider who says WAR with Venezuela is inevitable... as Trump's lethal options are laid out Jimmy Kimmel's audience boom comes crashing down as he loses 71% of viewers in one week Lynn put her strange symptoms down to being a busy mum. AOC hit by shockingly crude sex insult by White House after she mocked'TINY' Stephen Miller Friends fear for new CBS News boss Bari Weiss, claiming her wife thinks she sold out... and her new job will'consume her life' Biden ordered CIA cover-up of his'corrupt' business ties to Ukraine, astonishing secret files show We've lost FOURTEEN stone on weight-loss jabs... and it's changed our lives in ways you'd NEVER expect. Jerry Jones slapped with fine by NFL for making rude gesture to fans... but Cowboys owner gives baffling excuse And a humiliating lifeline: Backroom secrets of Taylor Swift and Blake Lively... after hit new song Inside the rise of'kidfluencers' and the hidden toll of turning childhood into million-dollar content A US Air Force jet designed to collect intelligence on enemy radar systems was spotted making circles over Russia, following rising tensions with Moscow . Flight tracking data showed the RC-135U'Combat Sent' taking off from England early Tuesday, flying over the Baltic states and looping around Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, before returning to the UK.

AOC hit by shockingly crude sex insult by White House after she mocked'TINY' Stephen Miller Biden ordered CIA cover-up of his'corrupt' business ties to Ukraine, astonishing secret files show NYC girls aged 12 and 13 meet tragic end after going subway surfing across Williamsburg Bridge at 3.10am ERIC TRUMP: The darkest day in my dad's marriage to Melania... before the ugly truth was exposed More girls are starting their periods younger than ever before - scientists think they've finally found what's causing it Taylor Swift reveals truth behind raunchy song about Travis Kelce's manhood Meghan is accused of'giggling as model stumbles on the catwalk': More Paris Fashion Week disasters emerge, including awkward moment with Kristin Scott Thomas The TRUTH to the doting mother who slaughtered her children and husband told by those she'd been quietly tormenting for years The troubled background of delivery man stabbed by Mark Sanchez... as he launches million-dollar lawsuit and sparks civil war at Fox Revealed: Which slimming jab REALLY works best. The doctors' ultimate expert guide on which to pick, how to save money, beat every side effect... and what you need to know about the'golden dose' I haven't heard that name in so long' Ominous warning for humanity as birds suddenly adopt'unsettling' behavior And a humiliating lifeline: Backroom secrets of Taylor Swift and Blake Lively... after hit new song Bottled water contains dangerous levels of microplastics that lodge in vital organs and raise cancer risk', scientists warn Sea level rise could plunge 100 MILLION buildings underwater, warn scientists - so, is your home at risk? Rising sea levels could plunge more than 100 million buildings underwater by 2100, scientists have warned. The experts in Canada estimated how many buildings in Africa, Southeast Asia and Central and South America would be flooded by different sea level changes. Their assessment found that sea level rises of just 1.6 feet (0.5 metres) would flood three million buildings in the global south alone.