iPhone Duo, UK AI Plan, Nasdaq Selloff: Top Stories Today
This is a busy weekend in tech. Apple started selling its first foldable phone, and buyers lined up around the world. The UK shared a large plan to use AI for safety and health. At the same time, investors sold tech stocks after fresh worries about AI spending. A serious PHP flaw also forced many websites offline, a Chinese AI firm cut back the hacking skills of its new model, and a bank breach raised fresh questions about customer data safety. Here are the stories that matter most today, in plain and simple words.
1. Apple Starts Selling Its First Foldable Phone, the iPhone Duo
Apple started selling the iPhone Duo on Friday, October 23. It is the first foldable iPhone from Apple. When closed, it has a 5.4 inch outer screen. When opened, it has a 7.6 inch inner screen, and Apple says it is its thinnest iPhone ever. The phone starts at $1,999 for the 256GB model, and goes up to $3,199 for 2TB.
The phone runs on the new A20 Pro chip, up to 20 percent faster for CPU work and up to 40 percent faster for graphics than the iPhone 17 Pro chip. It has two 48 megapixel rear cameras, plus a front camera on the outer screen and a camera under the inner screen. It supports split view, so users can open two apps side by side, and 4K120 Dolby Vision video recording.
Demand was very high. Delivery dates slipped to late January within minutes of pre-orders opening on October 16. On launch day, lines formed outside Apple stores in many cities, and Apple warned that walk-in stock would be limited.
Why it matters: Apple is late to foldable phones, but its entry can change the whole market. Samsung and Huawei have sold foldables for years, yet Apple brings a huge base of loyal buyers. If the Duo sells well, more app makers will build for foldable screens, and foldables may move from a niche product to a mainstream choice.
Source: MacRumors
2. UK Unveils a £600 Million Plan to Defend Against AI Health and Security Threats
The UK government set out around £600 million in funding on Saturday, October 24. The money is aimed at defending against health and security threats linked to artificial intelligence. Chancellor John Healey announced the plan, and the government said it supports a British approach to AI safety.
The largest share goes to a new biosecurity effort. It includes £100 million for a new AI Biosecurity Lab that will use AI to detect biological threats, and £65 million to develop countermeasures against pathogens. OpenAI and Anthropic will offer up to £200 million in model credits to support this work. Google DeepMind and London based startup Basecamp Research will offer other help.
The plan also gives £120 million extra to the existing AI Security Institute, and £130 million to new projects to improve cyber defences for critical infrastructure, under the National Cyber Shield and the National Exposure and Real-Time Vulnerability Centre. Other parts include £60 million for British firms using AI in robotics, £60 million for AI research, £18 million for a chip design academy, and £30 million for regional mayors.
Why it matters: This plan treats AI as national infrastructure, not just as a business tool. Governments are now funding AI safety in the same way they fund roads and power grids. For small businesses, the key point is simple: rules, standards, and security checks around AI are likely to grow, so building safe and trusted systems early is a smart move.
Source: Reuters
3. Nasdaq Falls 2.6 Percent as AI Spending Fears Hit Tech Stocks
US tech stocks fell on Thursday, October 22. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.6 percent to close at 26,008.86 points, its steepest daily fall since June. The S&P 500 fell 1.2 percent to 7,663.43 points. The Dow edged up to 52,867.98 points. The selloff was focused on tech stocks.
Meta was at the center of the fall. Its revenue beat expectations, but its shares fell about 7 percent. The firm reported its first cash outflow in more than a decade, driven by AI related costs. Its third quarter free cash flow was negative $2.12 billion, compared with positive $10.63 billion a year earlier. Meta raised its capital spending outlook to $135 billion to $145 billion, and announced plans to issue new non-voting shares to help fund AI investment.
Chip stocks fell hard. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index dropped 6.7 percent. Nvidia fell 4.4 percent, AMD fell more than 8 percent, and CoreWeave fell 10.1 percent. Tesla fell about 3 percent despite positive free cash flow. Investors moved into US government bonds, pushing the 10 year Treasury yield down to about 4.95 percent.
Why it matters: Investors are now asking a hard question: when will huge AI spending turn into real profit? For months, markets rewarded big AI bets. Now they want proof. This shift can slow funding for AI startups and push firms to show clear returns, not just big plans. For small businesses, it means AI tools may get cheaper and more practical as vendors compete on value, not hype.
Source: Reuters via Duke FM
4. PHP Flaws Force Websites Offline Around the World
A serious flaw in PHP, the language behind much of the web, forced governments and firms to take websites offline this week. PHP powers many popular platforms, including WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and Magento. Security researchers found flaws that could let an attacker take over a server with no login. A fix was released on October 21 for two flaws, CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, known as PHP2Shell.
The impact was global. In Finland, a highly digitized country, government websites were temporarily shut down. A hospital in Germany, taxpayers in France, an IT firm in Kenya, and government sites in Japan also faced disruption. Teams from Helsinki to New York scrambled to apply the fix. Many sites went offline as a safety step.
Then PHP warned about another remote code execution path tied to session upload progress, two days after the emergency patches. This path needs a rare setup, and no exploitation has been reported. The earlier PHP2Shell attacks drew millions of probes, and attackers tried to drop Mirai malware variants, but no confirmed successful attacks have been reported for the first flaws.
Why it matters: This story shows how one shared piece of software can affect the whole internet at once. Your own site code does not protect you if the language underneath it has a flaw. Site owners should ask their host or developer one simple question today: which PHP version are we on, and is the October 21 update installed? Sites that cannot be updated should be taken offline until they can be fixed.
Source: Cyber Recaps
5. Moonshot Cuts Hacking Skills From Its New Kimi K3.1 Pro Model
Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI has reduced the cyber-offensive skills of its model, Kimi K3.1 Pro. The Beijing based firm announced the change on Saturday, October 24, before releasing the model weights on November 4. Model weights are the files that let developers run and adapt a model on their own systems. Moonshot calls Kimi K3.1 Pro its most capable open-weight model in the 3 trillion parameter class.
Moonshot said it removed cyber related data from the model training material and reinforcement learning environments. It kept the general coding skills. The firm said it does not want its public model to extend the frontier of cyber capability, or make advanced hacking much easier for attackers.
On an internal test, the model scored 81.0 percent at finding and using software flaws. A similar version without the safety steps scored 90.5 percent. These numbers have not been checked by outside experts. Moonshot said the new model still beats its older model. The move comes as China proposed draft export controls on AI driven malware tools and AI assisted flaw discovery tools.
Why it matters: Open-weight models are powerful because anyone can inspect and adapt them. That same openness makes safety choices harder. Moonshot choice sets a test case: can a firm keep a model useful for coding while cutting its attack power? Other AI firms, regulators, and security teams will watch the November 4 release closely, because the answer will shape how open models are shared in future.
Source: Rappler
6. SBI Says Funds Safe After Breach Exposes 3,897 Customer Records
The State Bank of India, known as SBI, assured customers on Friday that their account balances and funds remain safe after a cyber incident. Reports said 3,897 customer records were exposed on the dark web. The bank said it notified affected customers one by one by email or WhatsApp after finding personal data in the exposed set.
The leaked data reportedly included names, mobile numbers, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and banking related identifiers. SBI said it has started its cyber incident response steps and hired an independent cybersecurity agency, empanelled with CERT-In, to investigate the breach. CERT-In is India cyber incident response agency. The bank urged customers never to share OTPs, PINs, or passwords, and to stay alert for suspicious calls, messages, and emails.
The incident adds to wider banking security concern in India this week. The Reserve Bank of India has also directed regulated financial firms to strengthen cybersecurity after unauthorised access or credential exposure. The steps include stronger login checks, tighter cloud access controls, and closer monitoring of APIs, which link different software systems.
Why it matters: Even a small breach can cause big harm when it exposes names, phone numbers, and dates of birth. Attackers use such details for phishing calls and fake messages that look real. Customers should treat any urgent bank message with care and never share a one-time password. For businesses, the lesson is clear: protect customer data with strong access controls, and have a fast plan to notify people when something goes wrong.
Source: News Network
