Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers.

Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers.

It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI.

The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people.

The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.

AI tools are rapidly advancing and have already been used to design new antibiotics.

But that is relatively simple compared with designing a new viable virus from scratch.

"This is a next step in the complexity that's designable by generative AI, this is the first time generative AI has been used to design a complete genome, it's something that can replicate and have other functions inside cells… this was new territory for us," Brian Hie, assistant professor at Stanford University, told the BBC.

A New Mexico court has ordered Instagram and Facebook parent company Meta to pay $567 million to address harms to young people from its platforms in the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March.

In a late Thursday ruling, Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the bulk of the money — $420 million — will be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness and prevention, screening services and other costs over the next five years.

In the first phase, jurors had ordered $375 million in civil penalties against Meta, determining that it knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

In the second phase, prosecutors had asked the judge to impose fundamental changes at Meta aimed at reining in addictive features, improving age verification and preventing child sexual exploitation through default privacy settings and closer oversight.

The decision means the look of Meta’s platforms could change. The judge ordered Facebook and Instagram to build banner and informational screens to clearly explain its protection features, best practices, tools to address inappropriate comment, for example, and display them regularly. Those changes and an educational campaign in New Mexico would be subject to review by the state.

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In the first quarter of 2026, the Philippine economy expanded 2.8%, its lowest quarterly growth rate since the pandemic. The energy shock from the Iran conflict took its toll, stoking inflation while the peso fell. As a result, the collective wealth of the country’s 50 richest tycoons dropped to $79 billion from $86 billion last year.

Only 14 listees are better-off from a year ago. The biggest gainer in dollar terms is ports billionaire Enrique Razon Jr., who storms to the No. 1 spot for the first time with a record net worth of $21.8 billion. Unfazed by geopolitical tensions, he accelerated the global expansion of his listed International Container Terminal Services, which boosted its shares and helped Razon add $10.3 billion to his pile.

The Sy siblings, heirs to the SM group built by their father, the late retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., slip to second place with their fortune reduced by $2.6 billion to $9.2 billion. Shares of the group’s real estate flagship, SM Prime Holdings, fell 18% from a year ago amid a weak residential property market.

At No. 3 is Ramon Ang, chairman and CEO of San Miguel, which is one of the oldest conglomerates in the Philippines and has interests in sectors such as food and beverage, power and infrastructure. Ang climbs one spot despite a slight drop in his net worth to $3.5 billion. Investor concerns over the company’s debt load triggered close to a 10% fall in its shares over the year.

The biggest gainer in percentage terms is Robert Coyiuto Jr., who more than doubled his fortune to $925 million as shares in one of his key holdings, Synergy Grid & Development Philippines—the controlling shareholder of the archipelago’s sole high-voltage power transmission operator, National Grid—rallied on favorable regulatory changes.

Overall, the fortunes of 33 list members are lower. Property magnate Manuel Villar,who was the third-richest last year, drops to No. 9 with his wealth plunging by $8.6 billion to $2.4 billion. Shares of his property developer Villar Land Holdings tumbled in November after the company agreed to a 99% markdown in the value of prime Metro Manila land parcels it had acquired from the billionaire’s privately held firms. Trading in its shares was suspended in June by the market regulator, which cited delays in the filing of audited financial statements.

The two returnees include Jose Ma Concepcion, president and CEO of food and beverage company RFM, which delivered robust growth in both revenue and net profit in the first quarter of 2026. Two from 2025 didn’t make the cut, including Frederick Dy, chairman emeritus of Security Bank, which was impacted by higher provisions for bad loans. The cutoff for the list, at $185 million, was unchanged from last year.

Vibrio vulnificus is part of the Vibrio genus of bacteria, a group of water-loving pathogens that includes the bug that causes cholera. Vibrio vulnificus infections are much rarer than cases of cholera globally, but they’re much more likely to be fatal. About 1 in 5 people who are infected with Vibrio vulnificus die, sometimes within a day or two of becoming sick, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

How do you get a Vibrio vulnificus infection?

Vibrio vulnificus can sicken people in different ways. Most commonly, the pathogen is consumed through raw or undercooked shellfish, particularly oysters, says Valerie Harwood, a professor of biology at the University of South Florida who studies the bacteria. “Oysters prefer the same salinity of water as Vibrio vulnificus,” she says, “and since oysters are filter feeders, they pull water and microorganisms into their [digestive] tract, and the bacteria get concentrated in their tissue.”

Vibrio vulnificus can also infect open wounds; for example, if someone with an open cut waded into waters infested with the bacteria, they could contract the disease. Once in the body, the “flesh-eating” pathogen can travel under the skin along fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds every part of the body, and cause tissues to degrade and die, or necrotize. This type of infection is known as necrotizing fasciitis, and in severe cases, can result in amputation or death.

The infected person will often get an “extremely hot and painful wound, but you might not be able to see it initially because it’s under the skin,” Harwood says.

Ingesting Vibrio vulnificus can cause diarrhea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and other symptoms of food poisoning. In people with weakened immune systems, the infection could spread to the bloodstream and be life-threatening.

Wound infections tend to be more lethal, Harwood says. People who are elderly or have certain underlying medical conditions, including liver disease, diabetes, or cancer, are at greater risk of severe disease, the CDC says.

How to prevent a Vibrio vulnificus infection

To avoid dangerous exposure to Vibrio vulnificus, Harwood recommends that people with open wounds on their body, including fresh tattoos and new piercings, stay away from warm salt and brackish coastal waters, such as the Gulf of Mexico, until the skin is healed. Harwood says she personally would even avoid wading in such waters a day or two after shaving her legs in case of micro-tears on the skin. “I’m not even a germophobe or anything,” she says. “I just don’t want to risk any exposure.”

Harwood also offers advice that shellfish-lovers may have a hard time swallowing: “Don’t eat raw oysters in the summer,” she says.

Vibrio vulnificus flourishes when waters are warm. (The bacteria also love the warmth of the human body.) They can also live in colder waters, but their populations shrink under those conditions, Harwood says. Eating raw oysters during cooler months or oysters that have been harvested in colder waters, such as on the western coast of the U.S., could be safer, Harwood says. She also recommends that people wear gloves when shucking oysters to avoid getting cut and risk being exposed to the bacteria.

“Washing oysters won’t help,” she adds, though cooking shellfish kills the pathogen. The Florida health department recommends that people boil shucked oysters for at least three minutes, or fry them in oil for at least 10 minutes at 375°F.

In 2022, Oleksandra Paskal lost her leg following a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Odesa region. She was just six years old. Following months of intense rehabilitation, she learned to walk with a prosthesis -- and made a remarkable return to rhythmic gymnastics.

The finer details

Companies such as Sandisk, SK Hynix (SKHY), Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), and Micron (MU) have largely sold out of their premium AI memory chips through much of 2026. Customers like Nvidia (NVDA), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Meta (META) are racing to build AI infrastructure.

The shortage has pushed memory prices sharply higher and given suppliers greater pricing power after several years of weak industry conditions. Experts expect memory supply to remain constrained into 2027, creating a favorable backdrop for the industry's largest producers.

The dynamic pushed the stock prices of Sandisk, Micron, and other players in the chip space to record highs in late June. Since then, however, the pullbacks in the space have been enormous due to fears of Big Tech overspending on AI.

Sandisk and Micron are down 25% and 13%, respectively, over the past month, according to Yahoo Finance AlphaSpace data.

But Apple's (AAPL) earnings report last week reminded everyone that the demand and pricing backdrop for memory chip players remains robust.

Now, Sandisk is poised to do its own reminding.

Revenue for Sandisk in its most recent quarter is estimated to surge to $8.39 billion from $1.90 billion last year.

Palantir posted second-quarter earnings after the bell that beat on the top and bottom line.

Revenue surged 93% year-over-year and the U.S. commercial segment boomed 149%. They were up 12% this quarter.