Wednesday's roundup covers diplomacy at the United Nations, a landmark AI safety briefing, Xbox layoffs, new Latter-day Saint temple milestones, a fresh bank scam warning, a startling discovery near the Milky Way's black hole, and jittery markets.
1. Current Affairs: Trump Envoys Meet Iranian Foreign Minister on Sidelines of UN Assembly
President Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met for roughly three hours with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in New York, with Qatar's prime minister participating for much of the session. The talks, held on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, focused on conditions for resuming negotiations, chiefly the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has proposed a regionwide ceasefire of up to sixty days paired with a phased reopening of the strait and an end to the US blockade. President Trump described the meeting as "very productive" and said another session is planned soon. Mediators from Qatar, Pakistan and Egypt helped arrange the talks. No agreement was announced, and both sides characterized the diplomatic channel as active but unresolved. Source: The National.
2. AI: UN Security Council Hosts First Joint Safety Briefing With US and Chinese AI Developers
The United Nations Security Council convened Wednesday for its first session bringing together executives from rival American and Chinese artificial intelligence developers to brief members on AI risks. OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei (joining remotely), AI safety researcher Yoshua Bengio and Hugging Face's Clement Delangue addressed the fifteen-member council, alongside representatives from China's DeepSeek and Moonshot AI. France, which holds the Council's rotating September presidency, organized the meeting amid growing concern over AI's military and economic implications. The briefing follows Amodei's recent call to slow AI development while maintaining chip export restrictions on China, a position that drew rare support from rivals including Altman. The session arrived two days ahead of a scheduled summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Source: CNBC.
3. Gaming: Xbox Cuts 268 More Jobs, Hands Next Halo Game to Activision
Microsoft eliminated 268 positions across Halo Studios and other first-party Xbox teams this week as part of what executives called an ongoing "reset" of the Xbox division. Xbox executive vice president Matt Booty said the cuts bring the company roughly three-quarters of the way through a restructuring plan that began with 1,600 immediate layoffs and is expected to grow to about 3,200 job losses over twelve months. In a significant shift, Activision will take over development of the next mainline Halo title through a newly formed team kept separate from Call of Duty production, while Activision-owned studios World's Edge and Rare will also report through the new structure. A smaller team will remain at Halo Studios to support the franchise's live titles and community. Source: Variety.
4. Faith: Latter-day Saints Announce Temple Milestones Across Four Countries
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints this week detailed a cluster of temple milestones spanning the United States and South America. The Knoxville Tennessee Temple will hold a public open house from January 27 through February 13, 2027, ahead of a March 7 dedication by Elder David A. Bednar, making it the third dedicated temple in Tennessee. The Smithfield Utah Temple will host its open house from February 25 through March 27, 2027, with Elder Quentin L. Cook presiding at an April 18 dedication. Groundbreaking services are also scheduled for two new temples: the La Paz Bolivia Temple on November 21, and the Cincinnati Ohio Temple on November 7. The announcements continue a period of rapid temple expansion for the global faith. Source: Church Newsroom.
5. Scam Alert: Fake Bank Fraud Text Messages Trick Victims Into Wiring Money Back
Consumer protection officials are warning of a scam in which fraudsters send text messages claiming a large withdrawal or transfer has been requested from the recipient's bank account. The texts often spoof a real bank's name to appear legitimate. Victims who reply receive a follow-up phone call from someone posing as a bank fraud representative, who falsely claims the transfer already went through and instructs the victim to "reverse" it by sending money through a peer-to-peer app such as Zelle. In reality, no transfer occurred, and any money sent goes directly to the scammer with little chance of recovery. Officials note the scam succeeds by manufacturing urgency and exploiting trust in real-time payment apps, which offer few protections once funds are sent. Source: UIC Today.
6. Tech Tip: Verify Any Bank Call by Hanging Up and Dialing the Number on Your Card
Following the latest wave of bank impersonation scams, security officials recommend a simple standing rule: never trust caller ID or a text message claiming to be from a financial institution. If a call or text raises concern about a supposed fraudulent transaction, hang up or set the message aside, then contact the bank directly using the phone number printed on the back of a debit or credit card, or the number listed on the bank's official website or app. Legitimate banks will never ask a customer to "reverse" a transaction by sending money through Zelle, Venmo or a similar app, and they will never pressure a customer to act within minutes. Taking sixty seconds to call back through a verified channel defeats nearly every version of this scam. Source: Federal Trade Commission.
7. Science: Large Swedish Study Links Rare Prenatal Infections to Autism Risk
Researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet analyzed health records for 3.7 million people born between 1987 and 2021 and found that congenital TORCH infections, transmitted from a pregnant woman to the fetus, were associated with roughly three times the risk of autism and seven times the risk of severe intellectual disability. TORCH infections include cytomegalovirus, rubella, toxoplasmosis and herpesvirus. Among the 975 children in the study diagnosed with a TORCH infection at birth, about one in five later developed autism. Despite the elevated individual risk, researchers cautioned that these infections remain rare and account for only a small share of autism cases overall, an estimated 0.034 percent across the full study population. The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics. Source: Karolinska Institutet.
8. Space: James Webb Telescope Finds Water Surviving Near the Milky Way's Black Hole
An international team of astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope has detected water and dust surviving in unexpectedly close proximity to Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The team trained Webb's Mid-Infrared Instrument on IRS 3, an aging, highly evolved star located just 0.55 light-years from the black hole, and found that the star continues to enrich its surroundings with newly formed water and dust despite intense radiation in the region. Scientists had expected such harsh conditions near a black hole with roughly four million times the mass of the sun to destroy delicate molecules like water before they could form or persist. The discovery, the first detection of water this close to Sagittarius A*, suggests chemically rich environments can take hold in far more extreme settings than previously assumed. Source: Space.com.
9. Business and Finance: Oil Surge Above $101 Sends Bond Yields to Near Two-Decade High
Global stocks and bonds retreated Wednesday as Brent crude climbed above $101 a barrel, stoking fresh inflation concerns just as data showed US business activity expanding at its fastest pace since 2021. The combination pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to its highest level since 2007, pressuring equities and hitting chipmakers particularly hard after a rally had put the S&P 500 near record territory. Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said further interest rate tightening is likely needed to bring inflation back to target, reinforcing investor bets that the central bank is not finished raising rates. The moves came against a backdrop of intense diplomatic activity, with Iran's president addressing the United Nations and President Trump set to meet Xi Jinping. Source: Yahoo Finance.
10. Consumer Tech: Qualcomm Unveils Miniature Chip for Lossless Wireless Earbud Audio
Qualcomm introduced its Sound Elite Gen 2 chip this week, a miniature audio processor designed to bring lossless, low-latency sound to wireless earbuds without requiring a phone to stay within a few feet. The chip integrates micro-power Wi-Fi 6E connectivity directly into earbuds, allowing them to stream high-fidelity audio over a home or office network rather than relying solely on a Bluetooth link to a nearby device. Qualcomm says the design preserves battery life while extending range and reducing the compression artifacts common with standard Bluetooth audio, a persistent complaint among audiophiles. The chip is aimed at premium earbud makers looking to differentiate their next generation of products on sound quality. Source: Gizmodo.
Written by Lonnon Jensen. Read more about the author.