Bilig's Daily Brief: FBI arrests OpenAI engineer, Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer

The FBI arrested an OpenAI engineer accused of hiding a recording device in an executive conference room. The Vatican said Pope Leo XIV has lung cancer, and Russia launched a heavy missile attack on Ukraine's energy system despite a US-announced ceasefire. Yemen's Houthis hit Saudi Aramco's headquarters, and China reported a surge in exports.

FBI arrests OpenAI engineer over hidden recorder

An OpenAI engineer has been charged with planting a covert recording device in an executive conference room at the company's San Francisco office, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday. Abdulrahman Alfozan, a 35-year-old Saudi national arrested by the FBI on 9 October, faces up to five years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said the device was found hidden behind a television around 30 September. OpenAI said it had no indication he had accessed model weights. "For us it is a matter of national security," US Attorney Craig Missakian said.

Vatican says Pope Leo has lung cancer

Pope Leo XIV has lung adenocarcinoma, the Vatican said on Tuesday after surgeons at Rome's Gemelli hospital removed the lower lobe of his right lung. Tests during the operation confirmed the diagnosis, Vatican News reported. The 71-year-old pontiff woke normally and the surgery was successful with no complications, the Holy See said. He is expected to stay in hospital for about a week, with audiences cancelled up to 20 October, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Further tests on the removed tissue will follow.

Russian strike leaves 600,000 Ukrainians without power

Russia fired 39 ballistic missiles and more than 120 drones at Ukraine overnight into Wednesday, leaving at least 600,000 people without electricity, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. At least six people were killed in Kyiv and the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, Al Jazeera reported. Zelenskiy said the strike hit sites covered by the energy ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump. Separately, a presidential adviser said SpaceX had restricted some Starlink services without warning, disrupting military missions, Reuters reported.

Houthis hit Aramco headquarters after Sanaa strike

Yemen's Houthis struck an administrative building at Saudi Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran on Tuesday, causing a fire but no casualties, an energy ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency. The attack came hours after the Saudi-led coalition struck an oil facility in Houthi-held Sanaa that it said stored missiles and drones. Debris from intercepted missiles injured four people in Riyadh, civil defence said. The Houthis told civilians to leave Aramco sites and Riyadh's main airport, Al Jazeera reported.

Trump says Iran decision coming "very soon"

Trump said on Tuesday his administration would "make a decision on Iran very soon", calling Iran "a failed country". The White House denied an Axios report that he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had discussed resuming strikes before US midterm elections. Iran is finalising its reply to US comments on its de-escalation plan, Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said. A container ship and a tanker were hit by unknown projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said.

China's September exports jump 36.3%

China's exports rose 36.3% in September from a year earlier in dollar terms, customs data showed on Wednesday, far above the 25.5% forecast in a Reuters poll. Imports climbed 31%. The monthly trade surplus widened to $133.5 billion, and the surplus for the first nine months reached $938 billion, AP reported. The data come as trading partners, particularly the European Union, press Beijing to rebalance trade.

Wall Street flat as chip stocks slide

The S&P 500 closed little changed at 7,805.45 on Tuesday as chipmakers fell for a sixth session and investors weighed mixed bank earnings, Reuters reported. The Nasdaq edged lower and the Dow lost about 180 points. JPMorgan Chase posted a rare profit miss. Brent crude settled down 0.9% at $105.69 a barrel. New York Federal Reserve President John Williams said one more rate rise this year may be appropriate. US September inflation data are due on Wednesday.

ASML lifts outlook on AI chip demand

ASML, the Dutch maker of chipmaking machines, reported record third-quarter net sales of 11.7 billion euros and net income of 5.0 billion euros on Wednesday. It forecast fourth-quarter sales of 14.2 billion to 15.2 billion euros and full-year sales of 44 billion to 45 billion euros. ASML said planned supply in 2027 and 2028 would not fully meet customer demand, and some customers wanted to place orders for 2029 and 2030.

US fines Bank of America $1.2 billion

The US Treasury fined Bank of America more than $1.2 billion on Tuesday over anti-money laundering and sanctions failures, the third-largest penalty in the department's history, AP reported. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) imposed $750 million, its largest ever fine. The bank admitted wilfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act, Treasury said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said even the biggest institutions "are not above the law". The bank said it was "far along" in remediation.

Google releases Gemini 4 Argon model

Google released Gemini 4 Argon, its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) model, to developers and businesses worldwide on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The model is also available to paying subscribers in the Gemini app and in Search. Google priced access at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising to $4 and $20 after 30 November. The launch follows months of delays as Google competes with OpenAI and Anthropic.

Drones sink ship off Bulgaria's coast

Drones struck two ships in the Black Sea about 32 kilometres off Bulgaria's coast on Tuesday, sinking one, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said. All 15 crew of the Ukrainian-operated Chelsea 3 were evacuated, AP reported. Radev called the attacks "absolutely unacceptable" and said Bulgaria would seek help from NATO and the European Union. Ukraine's foreign minister blamed Russia. The Russian ambassador in Sofia said she had no information and did not rule out a provocation by a third party.