During the past week, news trickled out via competing scoops that Mark Thompson, the former C.E.O. of the Times and director-general of the BBC, would become CNN's C.E.O. and editor-in-chief. Sir MarkâThompson was knighted in June by King Charles IIIâwho will officially take over in early October, will find a network in crisis. CNN, like so many cable outfits, is in a period of steady decline. Fewer and fewer people subscribe to cable, and the television-ad market has dwindled. CNN's profit margins show it: in 2017, the network made a billion dollars; this year, that number is projected to be closer to eight hundred million. Thompson himself told a British audience, in 2021, that TV news in the U.S. "seems completely unchanged since the nineteen-eighties. I think it is in dead trouble."Some of CNN's problems, though, are particular to its place in American life. During the Trump years, the network positioned itself as the outspoken institution for journalistic truth. Its anchors' antagonistic questions at the White House made the rounds on liberal Twitter, and ratings were good. But the post-Trump years have found CNN floundering somewhat. In 2022, after a mammoth corporate merger, CNN became a subsidiary in Warner Bros. Discovery, whose C.E.O., David Zaslav, wanted a news network that would attract less ire from centrists and conservatives. He appointed Chris Licht, a co-creator of "Morning Joe" and the executive producer of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," but fired him thirteen months later after a tenure mired by low staff morale and ratings.

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Taupo: The super volcano under New Zealand's largest lake

Located in the centre of New Zealand's North Island, the town of Taupo sits sublimely in the shadow of the snow-capped peaks of Tongariro National Park. Fittingly, this 40,000-person lakeside town has recently become one of New Zealand's most popular tourist destinations, as hikers, trout fishers, water sports enthusiasts and adrenaline junkies have started descending upon it.The namesake of this tidy town is the Singapore-sized lake that kisses its western border. Stretching 623sq km wide and 160m deep with several magma chambers submerged at its base, Lake Taupo isn't only Australasia’s largest lake; it's also an incredibly active geothermal hotspot. Every summer, tourists flock to bathe in its bubbling hot springs and sail through its emerald-green waters. Yet, the lake is the crater of a giant super volcano, and within its depths lies the unsettling history of this picturesque marvel.

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The Australian town where people live underground

On the long road towards central Australia, as you travel 848km (527 miles) north from Adelaide's coastal plains, is a scattering of enigmatic sand-pyramids. Around them, the landscape is utterly desolate – an endless expanse of salmon-pink dust, with the occasional determined shrub.But as you venture further along the highway, more of these mystery constructions emerge – piles of pale earth, haphazardly scattered like long-forgotten monuments. Every now and then, there is a white pipe sticking up from the ground next to one.

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A Beautiful Newfound Fungus Mummifies Its Spider Prey

Deep in eastern Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a team of biologists spotted a fuzzy purple stalk protruding from the leaf litter on the ground. Following the spore-covered body down into the soil, they found a mummified spider swaddled in fungal filaments called hyphae.One of the mycologists, João Araújo, immediately recognized the purple protrusion as a new, undocumented species of predatory fungus belonging to the genus Purpureocillium. Spores from these fungi latch onto and kill their insect or arachnid prey—and then a fruiting body bursts from the corpse to spread more spores.

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The Pricey Leica Q3 Delivers Amazing Images

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDThe Leica Q3 is the latest version of the company’s fixed-lens, autofocusing rangefinder camera. It’s an incremental upgrade from the Q2 with enough new features to make it a worthy successor, including a new 60-megapixel sensor. But it still retains everything that made the Q2 great.

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2 Polish Men Arrested for Radio Hack That Disrupted Trains

A monthslong WIRED investigation published this week revealed the inner workings of the Trickbot ransomware gang, which has targeted hospitals, businesses, and government agencies around the world. The investigation stemmed from a mysterious leak publish on X (formerly Twitter) last year by an anonymous account called Trickleaks. The document trove contained dossiers on 35 alleged Trickbot members, including names, dates of birth, and much more. It also listed thousands of IP addresses, cryptocurrency wallets, email addresses, and Trickbot chat logs. Armed with this information, we enlisted the help of multiple cybersecurity and Russian cybercrime experts to paint a vivid picture of Trickbot’s organizational structure and corroborate the real-world identity of one of its key members.

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Which iPhone Should You Buy (or Avoid) Right Now?

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDApple currently sells eight iPhone models, from the $429 iPhone SE to the $1,099 iPhone 14 Pro Max. But soon, it will introduce the iPhone 15 range. Should you wait? We’re here to help you separate the marketing slogans from reality—we’ve tested all the latest models and outlined their strengths and weaknesses. Our iPhone buying guide can help you make a decision.

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7 Face Masks Your Kids May Actually Wear

If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more. Please also consider subscribing to WIREDFor three years, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued complicated—and occasionally contradictory—guidance on when you should wear a mask, depending on whether you're inside, outside, vaccinated, or not vaccinated. But no matter how cautious you are, if you're a parent, there is one significant way you're probably getting sick: Your kid is now in school.

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'Final Girls' Make the Best Horror Movie Heroes

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Large study demystifies female squirting during sex

The human male expels two fluids in response to sexual stimulation: semen (containing a variety of nutrients in addition to sperm cells) and pre-ejaculate (a colorless lubricant and an acid neutralizer that creates a favorable environment in the urethra for sperm).Females, on the other hand, expel four: vaginal lubrication (clear, slippery, and slightly acidic plasma), ejaculate (thick, whitish fluid from the Skene’s gland), coital incontinence (urine), and — the most mysterious — squirt. Occasionally, when a woman is highly aroused, a gush of ten or more milliliters of clear, watery fluid can erupt from her vagina.

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Starts With A Bang podcast #97 - Tiny Galaxies And Us

When we look at our nearby Universe, it’s easy to recognize our own galaxy and the other large, massive ones that are nearby: Andromeda, the major galaxies in nearby groups like Bode’s Galaxy, the group of galaxies in Leo, and the huge galaxies at the cores of the Virgo and Coma Clusters, among others. But these are not most of the galaxies in the Universe at all; the overwhelming majority of galaxies are small, low-mass dwarf galaxies, and if we want to understand how we formed and where we came from, it’s these objects that we need to be studying more intensely.So what is it that we already know about them? What has recent research revealed about these tiny galaxies in the nearby Universe, both inside and beyond our Local Group, and what else can we look forward to learning in the relatively near future?

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New obesity treatments could reshape the world

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Thursday morning by subscribing here.Based on the most common medical standard — body mass index (BMI) — nearly 1 billion people were obese in 2020, and if current trends continue, 1.9 billion people will be obese by 2035. That’s an estimated 24% of the world’s population, with another 27% in the overweight category.

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A massive, mysterious object washed up on an Australian beach

On Sunday, July 16, 2023, a hulking mystery object the size of a small car was dragged ashore by a curious couple in Western Australia. Greenhead, a town previously known for its wildflowers and pristine beaches, is now abuzz with an international mystery. Theories about the identity of the object have raged on the internet—from a piece of a passing ship, to a pressurized tank, to a part of Malaysia Airlines flight 370, which went missing over the Indian Ocean in 2014.The encrusted object is now being held in a secure storage facility for further investigation. The Australian Space Agency subsequently tweeted: “The object could be from a foreign space launch vehicle and we are liaising with global counterparts who may be able to provide more information.”

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BMW's Neue Klasse points to a radical reinvention for future sedans

Some car manufacturers are easing their way into electrification by taking existing products and swapping engines and fuel tanks for motors and batteries. Others are taking a more radical approach, rebooting and refreshing to take advantage of the new design flexibility afforded by electric drivetrains.

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Apple details reasons to abandon CSAM-scanning tool, more controversy ensues

In December, Apple said that it was killing an effort to design a privacy-preserving iCloud photo scanning tool for detecting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the platform. Originally announced in August 2021, the project had been controversial since its inception. Apple first paused it that September in response to concerns from digital rights groups and researchers that such a tool would inevitably be abused and exploited to compromise the privacy and security of all iCloud users. This week, a new child safety group known as Heat Initiative told Apple that it is organizing a campaign to demand that the company “detect, report, and remove” child sexual abuse material from iCloud and offer more tools for users to report CSAM to the company.

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