1. A man in his 70s, identified as Mr. A, who was arrested on charges of setting fire to two buildings in Yeoksam-dong, Seoul, yesterday (October 20) and injuring nearly 20 people, has largely admitted to the arson charges during police questioning. Mr. A is accused of sprinkling flammable substances and setting fire to the two buildings yesterday afternoon, claiming that the patent corporations located in these buildings had defrauded him. Four years ago, Mr. A was also arrested and detained on charges of preparation for arson after attempting to set fire to the same patent corporations. The police, who conducted a joint forensic inspection of the fire scene, plan to apply for an arrest warrant for Mr. A.

2. The special counsel team investigating the National Election Commission (NEC) has conducted a search and seizure at the home of former NEC Chairman Roh Tae-ak, who faces allegations of making overseas junket trips during his tenure. The special counsel team stated that it searched former Chairman Roh's home this morning and secured items such as his mobile phone. The team explained that regarding the overseas trip allegations, they detected circumstances where an NEC official entered false information into an official document, the overseas trip result report, and initiated the search and seizure on charges of occupational embezzlement, as well as the creation and uttering of official documents. Prior to the special counsel investigation, the joint prosecution and police investigation headquarters, which investigated lax operations at the NEC, had already secured data and testimonies indicating that a dedicated staff member to accompany the spouse was assigned to former Chairman Roh's overseas junket trips.

3. Elon Musk, the CEO of the flying sports car space company SpaceX and the electric vehicle company Tesla—whose video became a massive topic of discussion a while ago—has officially formalized the review of a merger between the two companies. During a conference call held after announcing SpaceX's earnings on local time yesterday, Musk stated that, upon the request of shareholders, separate special committees have been formed by the boards of directors of both companies to review the merger. Mentioning fields such as software development, semiconductors like TeraFab, robotics, and Starlink, Musk emphasized that as they approach "superintelligence" (SI), there are significant advantages to merging the two companies and great synergies to be gained through cooperation. SpaceX recorded third-quarter revenue of 14.6 billion dollars and a net profit of 4.4 billion dollars, successfully turning a profit four months after listing on the U.S. Nasdaq stock exchange in June.

4. Authorities are conducting their third guidance operation this afternoon to return "Bukangi," a shark that has lingered for over a month in the artificial waterway of the waterfront park in Busan's North Port—one of the top stars these days—back to the open sea. Related agencies, including the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the city of Busan, are carrying out operations this afternoon to drive Bukangi out of the waterfront park waterway into the sea. The relevant authorities plan to drive Bukangi toward the sea once again by pulling a net from the inside of the waterway toward the exit. Experts will also be deployed at the scene to monitor the shark's health status in real time. Initially, authorities had decided to wait for Bukangi to leave for the sea on its own, but as it showed little sign of leaving and water temperatures dropped, raising the risk of mortality, they decided to launch the third guidance operation.