Globe at a glance: From Trump's Iran warning to revised Russia sanctions bill

US seismologist detained in China: The family of American seismologist Youlin Chen, detained in China on espionage charges since November 2024, has gone public after saying President Donald Trump's appeal to Xi Jinping failed. Washington has designated Chen as wrongfully detained and is urging his release.

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Revised US Russia sanctions bill: A revised bipartisan US sanctions bill backed by President Donald Trump lowers proposed tariffs on major buyers of Russian energy, including India and China, from 500 per cent to 100 per cent. The legislation also expands sanctions on Russia's energy, banking and shipping sectors.

ZTE among Chinese firms cleared to buy Nvidia's H200 AI chips: The US has approved ZTE, Maginfra and a Kingsoft subsidiary to purchase Nvidia H200 and select AMD AI chips, expanding a list of licensed Chinese firms. However, shipments remain limited amid ongoing US-China export controls and regulatory scrutiny.

The big number: IBM shares tumbled about 25 per cent after the company warned that customers are diverting spending from software to AI infrastructure such as servers and memory, hurting revenue. The disappointing outlook triggered a broader sell-off across software stocks.

Quote of the day: “I take the big aspirin. And when you take the big aspirin, they tell you that you bruise. The doctors said, ‘You don’t have to take that, sir. You’'re very healthy.’ I said, ‘I’m not taking any chances.’ That’s one of the side effectseffects. of taking aspirin.”

- US President Donald Trump

This day in history: On this day in 2006, social media platform Twitter (now X) was officially launched to the general public by co-founders Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams, fundamentally transforming real-time digital communication and news distribution worldwide.