※ Global Morning Briefing is a summary of global news reported by Seoul Economic Daily.
With the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Donald Trump has launched a diplomatic push aimed at addressing Iran, Ukraine and U.S.-China relations all at once. A series of meetings with world leaders is scheduled at the assembly, which convenes in New York on the 22nd.
In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump said he has entered "decision mode" and signaled that major changes would come soon. On Iran, he cited three options — military pressure, economic strangulation and negotiations — while remaining open to the possibility of a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Iran is also pursuing a dual track of negotiation and pressure, with hardline remarks from its military accompanied by mediation efforts through Qatar.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he has confirmed a meeting with Trump in New York, adding that diplomatic momentum is building. Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council and the country's lead negotiator on ending the war, said the number of outstanding issues has been sharply reduced. But conditions on the ground remain unstable, including Ukrainian strikes on Moscow.
At a U.S.-Japan summit the same day, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to lead with expanded investment in the United States as a way to head off additional demands, such as increased defense cost-sharing. Ahead of a U.S.-China summit set for the 24th, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng held preparatory talks on trade and cooperation in artificial intelligence.
IBM, Intel Push Quantum Computing Toward Commercial Use
IBM, Intel and Microsoft are reshaping the competitive landscape in quantum computing, projecting commercial deployment within three years. The established tech giants are posting a string of advances in error correction and cryogenic control, the biggest hurdles to commercialization.
According to The Quantum Insider, IBM researchers unveiled a technique called spacetime probabilistic error cancellation that combines error detection with error mitigation, and verified its performance on IBM Aachen, a superconducting processor. Mitigation methods that reduce errors and detection-and-correction methods that filter them out have developed separately until now, but combining the two can screen out up to 65% of errors in advance, the company said.
Intel Chief Executive Lip-Bu Tan said in a keynote address at DOTCONF26 in Denver on the 15th that the company is focused on error correction, practical applications and cost burdens. Tan forecast the arrival of an era in which graphics processing units, central processing units and quantum chips run together and complement one another.
The race in cryogenic control technology is also continuing. Intel Labs has developed Tunnel Falls, a silicon spin qubit that operates at higher temperatures, and is conducting joint research with academia. It had earlier introduced a second-generation chip for controlling quantum computers in cryogenic environments. Last month, IBM announced a modular cryogenic architecture that moves away from cylindrical containers to connections at the chip level, a technology seen as central to the next-generation quantum computer it plans to release in 2029.
Merz Faces Political Crisis as German Far Right and Far Left Advance
Germany's political landscape has sharply polarized after the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the Left Party each finished first in state assembly elections. By contrast, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered an unprecedented rout, failing for the first time since the party was founded to win a single seat in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state assembly, leaving Merz in his deepest political crisis yet.
According to Reuters and other outlets, the AfD took 38.2% in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, overtaking the Social Democratic Party to finish first. It marked a second consecutive first-place finish in the former East Germany, following its victory in Saxony-Anhalt earlier this month. The party fell short of a majority, however, and the Social Democrats are expected to form a coalition with the Left Party and the Greens. The CDU's share in the state plunged to 4.9% from 13.3% five years earlier, below the 5% threshold for seat allocation.
In the Berlin state assembly election, the CDU also finished second with 18.8%, behind the Left Party's 25.7%. If the Left Party forms a coalition with the Social Democrats and others, the CDU will give up the Berlin mayoralty it reclaimed in 2023 after 22 years. Merz said he has no intention of resigning, but the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung noted that the elections could set off political dynamics that are difficult to control.
The results point to an analysis that a prolonged economic downturn and surging living costs are pushing voters toward the political extremes.
