A 34-year-old foreign man was arrested after allegedly damaging gaming machines and assaulting an auxiliary police officer at a casino in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.

The incident occurred at around 5am on Oct. 27, 2026, at SkyCasino in Bentong, Pahang, according to Malaysia Gazette.

The man, who was believed to have been intoxicated, had allegedly behaved aggressively towards members of the public before entering the casino.

Allegedly damaged 3 gaming machines, 2 chairs

Acting Bentong district police chief Azmi Mahmod said preliminary investigations found that the man had repeatedly banged his head and two chairs against the screens of three gaming machines.

Total losses were estimated at RM85,000 ($$26,865).

According to Bernama, the suspect also sustained a forehead injury during the incident, Azmi said.

Auxiliary police officer suffers 2 broken teeth

A 32-year-old auxiliary police officer who was on duty at the casino attempted to control the situation and stop the suspect, according to Malaysia Gazette.

However, the man allegedly punched the officer in the mouth, breaking two of his teeth.

The officer subsequently received treatment at Bentong Hospital.

The suspect also received treatment for his injuries before being brought to the Bentong district police headquarters for further investigations.

No previous criminal record

Initial police checks found that the suspect had no previous criminal record and tested negative for drugs.

Azmi said police were gathering witness statements, reviewing closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage and seeking a remand order to assist with investigations.

A Chinese woman who had been battling bone cancer for five years died in Shanghai, China, on Oct. 27 at the age of 23, according to her close friend.

China Press reported that the woman from China's Hefei province was previously diagnosed with bone cancer at the age of 18.

She later shared her story online under the name "Xiaxia", drawing a lot of sympathy and encouragement from her viewers.

According to her friend, Xiaxia passed away in the hospital on Oct. 27.

Her mother, who had not seen her in years, visited her before she passed.

Her friend is currently helping out with the funeral arrangements.

Went through treatment alone

An earlier report mentioned that she underwent six major surgeries, including one that led to her leg being amputated when she was just 19.

Xiaxia did not have family to turn to for support and went through years of treatment and surgeries on her own.

In a video posted on Jan. 15, she said that she had been hospitalised again as her cancer cells had spread to her ribs and pleura, requiring another round of operations.

Abandoned by family

In 2021, Xiaxia first learnt of her illness after she suddenly fainted during her college entrance exams, she explained.

At the time, the doctor she saw told her that she had malignant bone cancer and recommended she go to Beijing for treatment.

However, her parents refused to take her there.

According to Xiaxia, her mother said she was a burden to the family, and her parents did not want to pursue treatment because of the high hospital and medical fees.

A year after she was diagnosed, her mother cut off contact with her, and her father had not visited her once, HK01 reported.

Positive mindset

Despite her circumstances, Xiaxia had continued to display independence and a positive mindset.

She signed off on her own surgical consent forms, saved up money to buy a prosthetic limb for herself, and travelled to different places seeking medical treatment.

When she talked about having to amputate a leg to survive, she said that it was very much worth it to trade a leg for a life.

She had also expressed optimism in entering her age on her Douyin page as "100", signalling that her goal was to live to 100 years old.

"Although doing this alone is truly very tough, I feel very lucky to receive support and encouragement from the media and everyone," she said.

A Singaporean husband and his Thai wife admitted to running an online prostitution network that sent Thai women to Singapore for sex work.

According to The Thaiger, the husband recruited the women while his wife built the prostitution network's online store and found the customers.

The couple are part of a group of five individuals who were arrested by Thai police in the eastern Thai city of Rayong and the northern Thai city of Phitsanulok.

Two Singaporean men are among the five arrested.

Admitted to sending Thai women to Singapore

Police only released the first names of the accused.

Leow, 46, told officers that he started procuring the women and sending them to Singapore in 2019 along with Aaron, 42, another Singaporean.

He said he reached customers through three messaging apps: Telegram, LINE and WhatsApp.

Leow's wife Apaporn, 37, added that besides running the network's online shopfront, she found clients and arranged accommodation for the women in Singapore.

35-year-old Pongsakorn said he held an administrative role, responding to customers and editing the women's photographs.

The last of the accused, 33-year-old Nanthanee, denied being part of the network and said she lent her bank account unaware of what it was used for.

All five face prostitution-related charges of procuring women, running and profiting from prostitution, advertising sexual services, money laundering, and taking part in a transnational criminal organisation, reported The Thaiger.

Thai police did not state how many women were sent to Singapore or if any of them remain in Singapore.

The case began in Singapore

The case began in Singapore, with officers from the specialised crime branch of Singapore's Criminal Investigation Department giving information about the online prostitution network that was moving women across countries to Thai investigators.

According to The Thaiger, Thai investigators traced the subjects, finding transfers and proceeds from prostitution linked to a network identified as Lover's Fortress.

Investigators said the network ran through two websites named 7th Heaven and 7th Heaven 2.

Thai police obtained arrest warrants, and searches were conducted at two addresses.

15 phones, three computers and laptops, 16 bank books and 10 ATM cards were found alongside 100,000 baht (S$3,794) in cash and jewellery.

The seized items were valued at more than 350,000 baht (S$13,280).

987fm DJ and celebrity host Germaine Leonora Tan spent four hours being transformed into the character of Emily from the 2005 movie "Corpse Bride" for a Halloween photoshoot with her fiancé, Zouk Group CEO Andrew Li.

There was just one detail: neither of them has actually watched the film.

“This is where we expose ourselves: neither of us has actually watched it!” Tan told Mothership.

“Andrew read out to me the entire synopsis and thought the ending was incredibly bittersweet.”

The couple recreated the looks of Emily and Victor ahead of their own wedding the following week, with Tan in blue make-up and Li sporting a longer-haired wig.

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Dressing is a Halloween baby tradition for Tan

Tan, who turns 31 on the 31st, said being a "Halloween baby" made dressing up an annual tradition for her. With her wedding approaching, the theme felt particularly fitting.

“Entirely mine - Andrew would want me to make that very clear!” she said of whose idea it was.

Tan called the shoot a "little bridal rehearsal, just with considerably more blue paint", and although she had shown Li a reference beforehand, she suspected he only fully grasped what he had agreed to once he was in the make-up chair.

“There was a moment when I think his life flashed before his eyes.”

While she has not watched the film, Tan said she could relate to what she knew of Emily.

“She’s a hopeless romantic and a little dramatic. That felt like fairly familiar territory.”

Transformation to blue took four hours

The transformation was the work of Celebrity and Fashion Makeup Artist Kenneth Chia and hairstylist Christian Maranion, who worked on Tan’s wig.

Chia, who has worked with Tan for about three and a half years, told Mothership that the timing made the idea an easy one to agree to.

“I love people who love to serve a look,” he said.

With Tan’s Halloween birthday and wedding approaching, Chia said, “There was no way I was going to say anything but yes”.

Tan had set her eyes on film’s poster as her goal for this recreation, so Chia kept a picture of the character in front of him as he worked freehand.

“We’ve built so much trust over the years working together, that I can jump right in with confidence,” he said.

Getting the blue right was particularly important.

“The correct shade of blue was also really important to me; otherwise it would’ve gone into Smurf or Avatar territory. Beauty is all about the nuance, even when you’re painting someone blue,” Chia said.

He began by mapping the contours of Tan’s body and pre-mixing the tones to keep the colours consistent throughout the application.

His background in editorial and beauty work helped, but achieving the right opacity, depth and softness on camera was still a challenge.

“It’s like highlighting and contouring but in a colour that doesn’t exist on your face. So any mistakes show up very clearly. There’s no hiding.”

He also had to adapt the animated character’s exaggerated features to Tan’s facial proportions.

Beyond the colour, Chia wanted to capture the “endearing humanness” he saw in Tim Burton’s characters.

The process involved what he called “cardio blending”, along with plenty of sweat. A time-lapse of the transformation was posted on Instagram.

After about four hours in hair and make-up, Tan spent another hour or so shooting with photographer Bryan Foong.

A 'significant act of love' from Tan's fiancé

Li’s hair and make-up took about an hour, although Tan joked that it might have felt much longer to him.

“He really hates having any makeup on his face, so this was a significant act of love,” she said. “Truly princess treatment - a man who’ll let himself be painted into a Tim Burton character for your birthday.”

Chia recalled Li entering the studio and seeing Tan in a bald cap, painted blue-grey from head to toe, with sad eyebrows. The make-up artist said this was probably when Li realised what he had signed up for.

Still, Li embraced the experience, Chia said, adding that sitting in a make-up chair could feel vulnerable.

“So brownie points to him for the trust,” he added.

As for Li’s assessment of Tan’s finished look, she recalled asking: “How do you like my look?”

His response: “It’s… very blue.”

“Four hours in hair and makeup, and that was my review,” Tan said.

She also struggled to stop laughing at Li’s wig. As he normally keeps his hair very short, she told him he resembled Andy Lau in his long-haired days.

S$170 on costumes and props

Tan said the costumes and props cost about S$170, and she is happy to lend them out to others.

“If anyone wants to borrow them for Halloween, drop me a DM - I’d love for them to have a second life,” she said.

There were additional production costs, but Tan declined to disclose those arrangements out of respect for the team involved.

As for Emily and Victor's sad ending in the film, Tan said: “We’re borrowing their outfits, not their ending!”

“If anything, seeing Andrew embrace something so far outside his comfort zone just to make me happy felt like a very good sign for our marriage."

"I might be the hopeless romantic, but he’s the one quietly doing the romantic things,” she added.

Looking forward to the upcoming wedding

With their wedding in Thailand approaching, Tan said they were both excited. She was also thinking a great deal about the food.

“I keep hearing that brides barely get to eat at their own weddings, and I’m really hoping that won’t be me.”

The couple, whom she described as huge foodies, have put considerable thought into their menus.

Their love of Thai cuisine means guests can expect dishes such as tom yum and khao soi, with the possibility of a little Thai market as well.

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A Singaporean dog obedience trainer and her border collie won fifth place at the FCI Agility World Championship (AWC) 2026 held in Turku, Finland, in September 2026.

Elsa Soo, who is also a dog agility judge, bested nearly 100 competitors alongside her nine-and-a-half-year-old dog partner Venus.

In a Facebook post, Soo said: "This has probably been the most emotional AWC of my agility journey."

"I think my biggest fear wasn’t that Venus would fail me. I was afraid I would fail Venus."

The 60-year-old told Mothership that she felt the pressure, even if this was their fifth AWC together.

"I am 60 years old, I have bad legs, and I cannot suddenly make myself run like a 25-year-old handler. So I had to find another way."

Soo said she knew "Venus was ready" and that "one wrong movement" could take away an opportunity they had worked so hard for.

Started with the Singapore Prison Service Dogs Unit

Soo had worked with dogs for a large part of her life, starting with the Singapore Prison Service Dog Unit.

She was the first woman to undergo narcotics dog training and was also seconded to the Police Dog Unit for a year, where she was trained in protection work.

Her first dog agility competition was in 2010 with a Schnauzer.

Following this was Soo's border collie Sirius, who started training in agility in 2015 and became Soo's first dog to compete overseas in 2016.

She trained another border collie, Aries, prior to her work with Venus.

Soo eventually applied for early retirement from the Singapore Prison Service to pursue her interest in dog training and agility, citing the limitations that came when applying for leave and travelling overseas.

"I wanted more freedom to compete internationally, learn more, train more and see how far I could go in the sport."

She started Starrelito K9 Training, a dog training academy in March 2019.

The underdog

The picture Soo painted of Venus was very different from the impression a reader would get from the confident canine on Soo's social media.

She said: "Venus arrived in Singapore from the UK as a very shy little puppy. She was tiny and quite worried about her new environment."

"She wasn't particularly playful, and honestly she wasn't a fast learner either. My cousin even labelled her 'stupid'."

The pup was also at the bottom of the pecking order, and Soo's older border collies "didn't really like this little newcomer and would correct her if she came too close".

However, Venus was patient and earned her place in due time, eventually sitting near the food preparation table, "a very privileged position in my house where previously only Sirius was allowed to stay."

"She might not have been a fast learner, but she had patience, she observed, and she had the brain to work things out in her own way."

Blood, sweat and tears

Soo had trained Venus since she was a puppy, stating that their partnership had been more than nine years in the making.

"There is no shortcut to that kind of relationship. Sometimes I joke that agility is built with sweat and blood — except in my case, there really has been some blood."

From a torn knee ligament to hairline cracks in her ribcage, Soo detailed the struggles she faced during training.

She added, with good humour, of course: “Anyone who trains high-drive dogs will probably understand those enthusiastic reward sessions when the dog aims for the toy and occasionally your arm becomes part of the deal.”

Significance of a Singaporean team succeeding on a global stage

It was hard for Soo to pinpoint the feelings she had regarding winning fifth place.

"Singapore is such a small country, and our agility community is even smaller, but I never believed that being small means we cannot be good", Soo said.

Citing her goal of raising the standard of Singapore dog agility, Soo said she centred a big part of her life around the goal.

She volunteered in the Singapore Kennel Club and worked alongside other enthusiasts to bring in training equipment, overseas judges and trainers.

"In the beginning, we got eliminated very often. Then slowly came some clean runs, then more clean runs, and eventually we started getting results overseas."

The duo finished ninth at the European open in 2025.

Cheeky outside of competition

When asked what Venus was like outside of the competition, Soo described her canine partner as "sweet and calm" for the most part but also a "cheeky, demanding and even a naughty mother".

"Venus is actually a mother of six beautiful puppies, and many of them have turned out to be just as crazy about agility as their mother."

But underneath it all, Soo said Venus was an "incredibly understanding dog".

A woman took a Grab ride after midnight in Singapore and was supposed to reach her destination in Yishun in about 26 minutes.

However, the driver allegedly drove her to Yio Chu Kang and Mandai in a journey that lasted about an hour, asked her to pay more, and even suggested she alight at a bus stop.

The incident was first recounted by the passenger, Rose, in a TikTok on Oct. 28, 2026

Took the ride at 12:50am

Rose wrote in the video that her friend had helped her to hail a ride on the Grab app on Saturday from Circuit Road to Yishun.

The driver arrived at 12:50am.

At the start of the ride, Rose, a preschool teacher, said the driver was friendly and offered to let her smoke in the car.

She told Mothership that he asked her if she smoked, and when she said she did not, he allegedly kept insisting she could and wound down the window.

They then engaged in conversation and Rose said she is from the Philippines.

"The uncle was friendly, cool, and very talkative," her in-video caption read.

Rose also said he revealed he was 75 years old.

He even shared that he had a Filipina girlfriend when he was 20.

She wrote in the in-video caption that she was filming because the stories he told "were so funny".

Roads closed

Rose said they were laughing and "everything seemed okay" until the driver said Lentor Avenue was closed.

The driver apparently claimed he tried to send a passenger using the route on another night but could not pass, so he decided to take another route.

Rose said "true enough" the "Yishun exit at Lentor" was closed and so he went towards Upper Thomson Road.

And to her surprise, the road was closed too.

Rose said the journey at this point lasted about 40 minutes and it was already 1:30am.

The night was hazy, cold, and eerily quiet, she added.

"We ended up near SBS Transit around Yio Chu Kang, and he told me there was no other way to get to Yishun," she wrote.

He then asked her if she had friends who lived nearby so she could sleep over with them instead.

Rose wrote: "Sleep over?! Uncle, I just want to go home!"

Friend noticed vehicle not travelling to destination

Her friend then noticed the vehicle that Rose was in was not moving towards its destination.

The app sent a prompt to the friend who booked the ride.

The friend called Rose.

Rose told the driver he needed to take her home, and he apparently agreed.

But she realised he was heading in the same direction as before and questioned him about it.

He then apparently headed towards Mandai.

The driver then said he was going to drop Rose off somewhere.

He allegedly suggested she alight at a "dark, quiet, empty bus stop".

She told him he cannot leave her there as she did not know how to get home.

But he kept saying there was no other way.

Rose wrote: "I was shaking."

"Everything was so creepy," she added.

Rose's friend stayed on the phone with her the whole time and said he would contact Grab's safety team.

At that point, the driver allegedly offered to take her to her destination, but said she had to pay extra.

Rose's friend overheard the conversation and contacted Grab's safety team.

Grab's safety team apparently tried to reach the driver over a call, but he did not pick up and appeared "tense", according to Rose.

"Lady, you don't talk to your friend. You listen to me because you're making the situation worse. It's very confusing," he allegedly told Rose.

Rose stayed on the phone with her friend.

All this while Grab apparently tried to reach the driver via calls, but he allegedly ignored them.

Finally reached Yishun

The driver then agreed to take Rose to her home.

She said she prayed the whole way back.

Rose was relieved when she saw Northpoint City.

When she reached her destination, she said she ran.

Rose's friend was still on the line and reported the matter to Grab's support team.

Grab reached out to passenger

Rose said she was sharing her experience as "passenger safety matters".

She told Mothership that she was travelling in the vehicle for as long as an hour.

She added that a personnel from Grab had reached out to her.

Rose said: "They apologised for what I had experienced, asked me to provide more details about the incident, and assured me that they would support me regarding this experience. I appreciate their response, and I hope they will investigate the incident seriously and take the necessary steps to ensure the safety of passengers."

Grab's response

A Grab spokesperson told Mothership: "We are committed to providing safe and reliable rides for all passengers, and we are currently looking into this matter."

Hong Kong's Secretary for Housing, Winnie Ho, has resigned to take political responsibility for a fire at the Wang Fuk Court residential estate in Tai Po that killed 168 people in November 2025.

Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee announced Ho's resignation on Oct. 29, during a press conference on the findings of an independent investigation into the Wang Fuk Court fire, according to HK01.

Lee and several other senior government officials also bowed in apology during the press conference.

The fire, which broke out on Nov. 26, 2025, killed 168 people, including a firefighter, and affected 1,984 families, according to Sing Tao Daily.

Lee expressed his sorrow over the deaths and apologised to the victims and Hong Kong residents on behalf of the government.

"As the Chief Executive and head of the government, I feel deeply saddened," Lee said, according to TVB News.

"On behalf of the Hong Kong government, I apologise to those affected by the disaster and the wider public.”

Housing secretary resigns to take political responsibility

Ho submitted her resignation to Lee during a meeting on Oct. 28, a day before the investigation report was made public.

Lee accepted her resignation, which took effect on Oct. 29.

Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong was appointed acting Secretary for Housing.

Lee explained that although Ho was not personally at fault for the fire, she should take political responsibility as the incident fell under the jurisdiction of the Independent Checking Unit (ICU) within the Housing Department.

In a statement, Ho expressed hope that those who died could rest in peace and that their families would eventually recover from their grief, according to TVB News.

Investigation finds lapses in four government departments

The independent committee's report identified lapses in the supervision of renovation works and fire safety measures at Wang Fuk Court.

According to TVB News, contributing factors included workers smoking, combustible materials surrounding the buildings, non-fire-resistant scaffolding netting and tarpaulins, and fire alarms that were not functioning.

The report also identified regulatory lapses involving four government departments or units: the Housing Department's Independent Checking Unit (ICU), Buildings Department, Fire Services Department and Labour Department.

The ICU bore the greatest responsibility for the oversight failures, including failing to follow up on concerns over the fire resistance of scaffolding netting, according to ST Headline.

Further investigations into government failures

The Hong Kong government has launched an investigation into possible administrative failures involving four government departments or units, with findings expected within three months.

Asked why Ho was the only minister to resign, Lee said he had considered the officials' respective responsibilities before making the decision, according to ST Headline.

Hong Kong government proposes building maintenance reforms

The Hong Kong government also announced plans to tighten oversight of building renovation works, including proposed legislation to criminalise bid-rigging in maintenance contracts.

According to Sing Tao Daily, the government plans to establish an interdepartmental task force to tackle bid-rigging in building maintenance projects, as well as a new Building Maintenance Support and Services Bureau to provide residents with reliable information and professional advice on building maintenance.

The Independent Checking Unit (ICU) will also be replaced by a new Public Housing Buildings Control Unit in November 2026.

The parents of a 31-year-old woman have filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging that ChatGPT caused their daughter's death by convincing her to gradually cut her epilepsy medication dosage.

The chatbot had "coached" her off the medication that had kept her alive for years, and "designed a day-by-day schedule tapering her stable 400-milligram dose to zero" within weeks, the lawsuit argued.

On Feb. 14, 2026, she was found dead alone in her apartment in Seattle, United States, with pills of her anti-seizure medication strewn across the floor.

The cause of death was later determined to be a sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.

Needed to keep her green card

Bowen Wan, who grew up in Jiangsu, China, was living in the United States on a green card before her death.

She started asking the chatbot for medical advice in Chinese after her epilepsy medication suddenly stopped working in 2021, The New York Times reported.

Her seizures grew so severe that it impacted her work, and she had to take disability leave from her software engineer job at Amazon.

When she lost her job in late 2025 as part of Amazon's mass layoffs, she reportedly needed a new job to keep her green card that was expiring in months.

But she was concerned that the side effects from her epilepsy medication had been hurting her language abilities.

In January 2026, she suggested to ChatGPT that cutting her dose from 400 to 300 milligrams a day might help her recover her language ability for job interviews.

The bot told her that doing so would make recovery not just possible but highly likely, as quoted in the lawsuit.

Three days later, it advised her that cutting the dose further to 150 milligrams would be "more advantageous" on her immigration medical examination.

A companion

Though Wan used to confide in her parents about many things in her life, she found a companion in ChatGPT.

She started to call her parents less and communicate with the chatbot more.

"Once she had ChatGPT, she didn’t talk to us as much," her father told The New York Times.

In 2025, she would send it more than 1,500 messages per week.

ChatGPT initially suggested that she consult her doctor about switching to a medication with fewer cognitive side effects instead.

Her doctor agreed, but told her that the low dose she had requested was unlikely to be helpful, The New York Times reported.

When Wan later asked the chatbot if she should cut the dose herself after getting the medication,  without informing the doctor, it told her she could, adding that such "self-initiated dosage adjustment" method was common and permitted by some doctors.

'I feel a little scared'

Wan did not take ChatGPT's advice to taper her dose completely without question.

According to The New York Times, she expressed concerns about doing so at least 158 times, especially after she had episodes akin to seizures days into the tapering.

"I feel a little scared," she wrote after one episode, and asked the chatbot if she should be concerned about cutting her dose.

But it allegedly assured her that she had "absolutely no need to worry".

At one point, she told the chatbot her brain felt exhausted, then asked if she should take the medicine again to "slow things down".

Still, ChatGPT instructed her to "maintain 0 mg tomorrow".

"Even if today feels tough, and your speech is slow, your sleep is poor, you must persevere."

On Feb. 14, 2026, Wan's parents called friends who were living in Seattle to check in on their daughter after not hearing from her for two days.

According to the lawsuit, they watched over a video call as Wan was found lying in bed in her pyjamas, with reddish-brown blood stains on her pillow and sheets.

Practised medicine without a licence

In the lawsuit, the lawyers representing Wan's parents argued that ChatGPT had given Wan false information that tapering her dose was safe and would give her back her mind.

"Had ChatGPT told her the truth, that stopping the drug could kill her, she would have stopped...

Had ChatGPT told her it was not qualified to provide medical advice, and that she should consult her doctors, she would still be alive."

The lawyers also pointed out that the chatbot "practised medicine without a licence".

This complaint by Wan's parents "asks where generative AI stops and medicine begins, and who answers when a product crosses that line", they added.

In a statement quoted by People, a spokesperson for OpenAI called Wan's death "an incredibly heartbreaking situation".

"Working closely with clinicians and other experts, we have continued to strengthen how ChatGPT responds in sensitive and acute situations, while also continually improving how our latest models engage with users more broadly.

While ChatGPT is not a substitute for medical care, we believe AI can play a role in helping people make sense of health information, navigate insurance and complex healthcare systems, and prepare for appointments with medical professionals."

Wan had been chatting with the GPT-4o model, which was removed from the app on Feb. 13, 2026.

The world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, suffered a hack on Oct. 30.

Approximately US$6.3 billion (S$8.05 billion) was impacted in what is possibly the biggest single financial hack in history.

The exact number is not yet known, with Binance still providing updates as the situation unfolds.

Binance has suspended user withdrawals and is in the midst of tracing the funds.

At 5:15am on Oct. 30, Binance founder and ex-CEO Zhao Changpeng, better known as CZ, claimed "It does look like a hack on Binance," in response to customer concerns raised online.

He said "User funds are safe!"

User funds are safe!

It does look like a hack on Binance. Appreciate the quick freeze from Tether (~$971m) and Circle (~$823m).

I don't manage Binance (.com) anymore, but as a shareholder, I expect all user funds will be fully covered.

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 29, 2026

The hack sent cryptocurrencies tumbling, with bitcoin falling about 5 per cent, Ethereum 6 per cent, and Binance's token BNB dropping 10 per cent.

What was lost

According to crypto news site Watcher.Guru, US$1.45 billion (S$1.85 billion) of bitcoin, US$875 million (S$1.11 billion) of Ethereum, and more than US$2 billion (S$2.55 billion) of stablecoins were affected, amongst other cryptocurrencies.

Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the U.S. dollar.

Tether and Circle, two companies behind the USDT and USDC stablecoins respectively, have frozen the affected stablecoins in response.

However, most other cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum do not have a centralised authority behind them, and cannot be frozen.

The hacker therefore cannot be prevented from transacting those other cryptocurrencies.

According to crypto security firm Blockaid, the hacker targeted a Binance hot wallet, an account that an exchange uses to store funds to pay out user withdrawals.

The hacker gained access to the funds through the wallet's private key, which resembles a password needed to authorise transactions.

It is not known how they got access to the private key.

An official statement from Binance says that the hack may have originated from a compromised DevOps (development operations) engineer's laptop, denying that any private key was leaked.

Binance's initial investigation suggests that the security incident may involve a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop, which allowed an attacker to gain access to a service container and submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions. We have found no evidence of any wallet private key leak. We will share a detailed technical post-mortem once the investigation is complete and the facts are fully verified.

The estimated total impact sits at around $6.3B. We have worked with blockchain partners to freeze affected assets, with ~$3 billion frozen on-chain so far.

Binance will cover all losses from the SAFU fund and the company’s funds. User funds are safe. We will also publish an updated Proof of Reserves once the remediation is complete.

As an immediate precaution, Binance has:

- temporarily suspended deposits and withdrawals while security checks are completed;

- revoked the affected address authorisation;

- engaged law enforcement and blockchain intelligence partners to trace and recover funds.

Our teams are working around the clock to resolve this issue safely and thoroughly. We are working closely with our law enforcement partners to confirm the identity of these criminals and bring them to justice.

Please rely only on official Binance channels for updates. Please feel free to contact Binance Customer Support if you have any further questions.

https://t.co/ywB2mKFy0p

— Binance (@binance) October 30, 2026

'Funds are safe': Binance leadership

Binance co-CEO Richard Teng said at 8:22am that the company was investigating a "potential security issue".

He stressed that user funds "remain safe", though he did not elaborate further.

One user claimed that his account had been compromised, with about US$3 million (S$3.83 million) being withdrawn without his authorisation.

Binance co-founder Yi He announced that it will cover all losses.

Zhao added: "It hurts, but we will survive."

A woman on an AirAsia flight in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia insisted on sitting beside her husband, even though she did not pay extra for seat selection.

When told to move, the group she was travelling with raised their voices and insisted on their right to choose seats.

The incident, which occurred on Oct. 25, resulted in all plane passengers having to disembark, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The flight could not take off on time as a result.

Empty seat next to husband

When the couple boarded the plane, the seat next to the husband was supposedly empty at the time, it was reported.

The wife then took the empty seat even though she was not assigned to it, China Press reported.

Cabin crew then asked the woman to return to her original assigned seat or pay the additional fees.

Caused ruckus

However, the couple apparently refused to cooperate and caused a ruckus in the plane.

According to a video posted on Sin Chew Daily, the woman argued that she only sat next to her husband as it was empty.

She also questioned if her actions were violating the rules.

The other people travelling with the couple then claimed it was normal for the six of them to sit together.

They questioned why they had to pay additional fees to sit together.

At one point, one person in the group said to the other passengers within earshot: "Are you even Chinese? Do you even know what happened?"

Security personnel

China Press reported that cabin crew then got security personnel to intervene.

The flight could not take off on time as all passengers eventually had to disembark after the situation escalated.

According to AirAsia's website, passengers have to pay a fee if they choose their seat when purchasing their ticket, during online check-in, or at the airport counter.

Passengers may pre-book their seats through the AirAsia MOVE app or website up to two hours before the scheduled departure time.

They may also visit the airport counter or Airport Sales Office where they must purchase their seats at least four hours before the scheduled departure time.