Astronauts Return to Earth After Extended ISS Stay Due to Boeing Starliner Issues

NASA astronauts Sunita “Suni” Williams and Barry “Butch” Wilmore have safely returned to Earth after an unexpectedly long nine-month stay on the International Space Station (ISS). Their mission, originally intended as a short-duration trip to test Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, was extended due to technical problems, including leaks and thruster malfunctions. The astronauts were finally brought back aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico at 5:57 p.m. ET on Tuesday after a 17-hour return journey. The extended mission highlighted Boeing’s ongoing struggles in the commercial spaceflight industry, which has lagged behind SpaceX in fulfilling NASA contracts.

Sources: TechCrunch

New JFK Assassination Files Released, But No Major Revelations

A fresh batch of government files related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was made public late Tuesday under an order from President Donald Trump. The release, consisting of 1,123 PDF documents, was expected to shed new light on one of the most scrutinized events in U.S. history. However, historians and scholars believe that the new documents do not fundamentally alter the established narrative that Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald acting alone on November 22, 1963. Some information in the files remained redacted, despite Trump's earlier claim that there would be no omissions. Experts claim that the secrecy surrounding these documents was to protect CIA intelligence-gathering methods rather than to conceal any major revelations about the assassination itself.

Sources: The New York Times

Trump and Putin Discuss Ceasefire as U.S. Pushes for Peace in Ukraine

President Trump held a high-profile call with Putin on Tuesday, aiming to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. The White House stated that Putin supported Trump's proposal for a halt on energy infrastructure attacks, but he did not explicitly agree to a broader 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine had already accepted last week. Following the call, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff emphasized that the talks had made progress and that formal negotiations would begin Sunday in Saudi Arabia, led by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. While Trump hailed the conversation as "productive," President Zelenskyy expressed skepticism, emphasizing that Ukraine must be included in any final agreement. The Kremlin's statement highlighted that Russia had "significant issues" with the ceasefire, demanding an end to Ukraine’s forced mobilization and foreign military assistance. Despite ongoing uncertainties, both leaders expressed optimism about future U.S.-Russia relations and a potential path to ending the war.

Sources: ABC News

Warren Buffett's Latest Stock Moves

Warren Buffett and his team at Berkshire Hathaway made significant shifts in their investment strategy in 2024, selling off over $143 billion in stocks, including large portions of Apple and Bank of America holdings. Most of the proceeds went toward taxes and accumulating cash reserves, but Buffett still found opportunities to invest $2.6 billion into six publicly traded U.S. stocks during the fourth quarter. These investments were focused on smaller market capitalization companies, suggesting a shift away from mega-cap stocks due to limited attractive opportunities. The largest buy was Constellation Brands ($1.3 billion), followed by Domino’s Pizza ($470 million) and Occidental Petroleum ($409 million). Buffett has emphasized that while Berkshire is currently holding significant cash, it still prefers ownership in strong, well-run businesses over cash equivalents. However, with over $600 billion in assets, finding large-scale investment opportunities remains a challenge.

Sources: The Motley Fool

Nvidia Unveils AI Supercomputers for Personal Use

At Nvidia’s GTX keynote, CEO Jensen Huang introduced two new AI-focused desktop supercomputers, the DGX Spark and DGX Station, both powered by the Grace Blackwell platform. These systems, first previewed as Project DIGITS in January, are designed for AI developers, researchers, and data scientists, allowing them to prototype and fine-tune large AI models locally before deploying them to the cloud. The DGX Spark, a smaller unit, features the GB10 Grace Blackwell Superchip with fifth-generation Tensor Cores, capable of up to 1,000 trillion operations per second. The DGX Station, a more powerful system, includes the GB300 Grace Blackwell Ultra Desktop Superchip, 784GB of memory, and ultra-high-speed 800Gb/s networking. Nvidia has partnered with major manufacturers, including Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, to produce and sell these AI-focused desktops, with reservations for DGX Spark opening today and DGX Station expected in 2025. While Nvidia did not reveal exact pricing, a DGX Spark-like configuration was previously estimated at $3,000.

Sources: ArsTechnica

Google Acquires Cybersecurity Firm Wiz for $32 Billion

Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced on Tuesday that it will acquire cybersecurity firm Wiz for $32 billion in cash, marking its largest acquisition ever. Wiz, a fast-growing cloud security company, will be integrated into Google Cloud but will continue offering its services across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and other platforms. The deal is seen as a strategic move to strengthen Google’s cloud business, which has been experiencing slowing revenue growth. While Wiz aims to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2025, some analysts question whether the high valuation of the deal is justified. Additionally, the acquisition is expected to face antitrust scrutiny from regulators, particularly under the new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Donald Trump. Analysts believe the FTC may attempt to block the deal, given Alphabet's ongoing antitrust battles, including a monopoly ruling in search services and a recent Department of Justice push to break up Google.

Sources: Barron’s