Wired: The ‘Parasite of Parasites’ Has Been Discovered in the Tropical Forests of Borneo

In the rainforests of Borneo, Malaysian scientists have identified a new fungal species, Pleurocordyceps cornusynnemata — a parasite that feeds on another parasite. Its victim is the so-called zombie fungus (Ophiocordyceps), which infects ants, hijacks their nervous system and drives them to spread its spores; the newly found fungus doesn’t touch the ant itself but grows inside the zombie fungus and consumes it. Researchers hope such fungi could help develop new antimicrobial drugs and serve as a natural means of controlling agricultural pests.

Axios: Tech stock slump could be a reality-check moment

Investors appear to be hitting pause on the AI run-up, and chip-maker stocks are falling hardest: on Tuesday the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 lost 3.3% and Micron dropped 13.2%. It could be a reality-check moment for how much AI actually costs — a KPMG survey found only 26% of executives have full visibility into their AI operating costs. Yet demand for compute still outstrips supply several times over, so some analysts don’t believe anything fundamental has changed.

The New York Times: Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit Claiming Cisco Systems Helped China Target Falun Gong

The US Supreme Court ruled that followers of the Falun Gong movement cannot sue technology company Cisco for allegedly helping the Chinese government track and torture them. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett declined to expand a 237-year-old law that lets foreigners sue in US courts over violations of international law; the ruling could also shield other companies from liability for complicity in human-rights abuses abroad.

SBS News: An asteroid hit deep in the Australian outback. What it left may have broken a record

In Western Australia’s Pilbara region, Curtin University researchers say they have found traces of the oldest known asteroid impact on Earth — dating back about three billion years, far earlier than the previously oldest-known Yarrabubba impact (2.2 billion years). The age was determined from tiny zircon crystals that act as a “mineral clock”; the discovery could help explain how life arose on Earth.

The New York Times: The War Forgotten by the World Is an Apocalypse Now

A civil war has been raging in Myanmar for a fifth year now, all but forgotten by the world. Since the 2021 military coup, the army has turned the country into a dictatorship and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe; the rebels are outnumbered and outgunned, while the civilians who support them are relentlessly hunted by army raids and constant airstrikes. The nation of about 50 million people has quietly collapsed while the world’s attention is fixed on Iran, Ukraine and other conflicts.

NPR: Inside the gold-mining town where the Ebola outbreak likely started

An Ebola outbreak is raging in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, believed to have started in the gold-mining town of Mongbwalu in Ituri province. The government only declared it Ebola in May — with a delay, because initial tests missed the rarer Bundibugyo strain; by 20 June more than a thousand cases had been confirmed, and the virus has spread to Uganda. Gold mining fuels the rapid spread: the mines draw a highly mobile workforce, while many residents avoid doctors out of suspicion and fear.

Meduza: Лукашенко между двух стульев. Украина и Россия давят на него из-за войны

The Wall Street Journal reports that Russia has stepped up pressure on Belarus this year to drag it further into the war against Ukraine, using as leverage the financial support Minsk depends on. Meanwhile Kyiv is demanding that Lukashenko remove the relay stations on Belarusian territory used to correct Russian strikes on Ukraine; Zelensky has warned that if he doesn’t do so within a week, Ukraine will do it itself. Lukashenko promises to stay out of the war but has so far not commented on Zelensky’s words.

Wired: I Met With China’s Top AI Experts. They’re Freaking Out, Too

After attending an AI conference in Beijing, a Wired journalist concludes that the US and China should set aside their fierce rivalry in artificial intelligence. Researchers on both sides worry that ever more powerful and agentic AI models could cause havoc — both as a cyber-attack weapon and by failing catastrophically — and warn that the industry “doesn’t need a Chernobyl moment”. Just as the US and the USSR were once forced to cooperate on nuclear dangers, these two AI superpowers should jointly reduce the risks.