WIRED: You Probably Won’t Get Rich Off the SpaceX IPO
As part of SpaceX’s IPO the company set aside an unusually large share of stock for retail investors, but experts warn the big gains stay with existing shareholders — employees, institutional funds and Elon Musk. Even if you manage to buy a few shares at $135, the average investor gets “a few crumbs.”
The New York Times: Google Says Chinese Cybercrime Group Used Its A.I. in Scams
Google has sued a Chinese cybercrime network, “Outsider Enterprise,” accusing it of using Google’s Gemini AI to create hundreds of fake websites mimicking companies and government agencies to scam Americans. For the first time the company is coordinating with the FBI and wireless carriers on such a case.
POLITICO: The alternative World Cup rankings
POLITICO ranked all 48 World Cup participants by GDP, political stability, corruption, life expectancy and happiness — instead of football. By those measures Sweden, France, Qatar, Uruguay and others “win,” while the Democratic Republic of the Congo often comes last.
Al Jazeera: Mountain of war: The India-Pakistan conflict’s deadliest battle
A longform piece on the Siachen glacier in the Karakoram — the world’s highest battlefield, where India and Pakistan have fought since 1984. Over 2,000 have died, but fewer than 3% in combat — the rest claimed by the mountain: −50°C cold, avalanches and a lack of oxygen. Even after the 2025 war’s ceasefire, both armies remain dug in.
Meduza: Первое большое интервью Андрея Звягинцева после Гран-при в Каннах
Anton Dolin interviews director Andrei Zvyagintsev — his first big conversation after winning the Cannes Grand Prix for “Minotaur,” his first film in nearly a decade, about Russia during the “special military operation.” At the Cannes ceremony Zvyagintsev urged Putin from the stage to “end this slaughter.”
Financial Times: KPMG report contained AI hallucinations on benefits of . . . AI
A KPMG report on corporate AI adoption exaggerated its uptake with fabricated case studies that appear to stem from AI “hallucinations” — false claims about UBS, the UK’s NHS and Swiss railways. KPMG pulled the report from its sites; it follows EY’s similar retraction a month earlier.
Axios: How AI is making health care even less affordable
Contrary to the promises, AI is making health care more expensive: PwC estimates medical costs will rise about 9% next year, partly because AI tools and “scribes” document delivered care more thoroughly, letting providers bill for more.
The Kyiv Independent: ‘I didn’t recognize myself’ — For Ukrainian soldiers with facial wounds, US surgeons help restore dignity
A report on the “Face to Face” mission, where American plastic surgeons in western Ukraine perform complex facial reconstruction surgeries on soldiers wounded in the war — 40 patients treated so far. The goal is often not just appearance but restoring dignity and basic functions like eating and speaking.
NPR: Can smartphones help explain the drop in birth rates?
In a new paper, “Is the iPhone Birth Control?”, economist Caitlin Myers argues the spread of smartphones could explain a third to a half of the fall in birth rates since 2007 — the year the iPhone appeared. US births have dropped 22% since then; in areas where you could get an iPhone early the decline was steeper.
Sveriges Radio: New advice to parents in Sweden — no smartphones before children’s 13th birthday
Sweden’s Public Health Agency advises parents not to give children a smartphone before age 13. Currently 90% of all ten-year-olds in Sweden have one; the agency hopes to shift society’s norms.
Le Monde: Study reveals first global map of underground fungal networks vital for plant life
A study in Science maps the underground mycorrhizal fungal networks worldwide for the first time. Their total mass is 4–5 times that of all humanity, and each year they channel about 11% of human-caused CO₂ into the soil. Grasslands are the richest, but intensive agriculture depletes these networks.
This is a daily link digest — links to the articles I read the previous day.
Tip: a paywalled article can often be read by searching for its URL on archive.ph; an article in another language can be translated with hugo.lv.