Technology keeps promising to do more. A growing number of consumers want it to do less. Even as artificial intelligence becomes more powerful and pervasive, Google search data show a 5,000% increase year over year in queries for “analog hobbies” — like knitting, water coloring or playing an instrument — and an 850% increase in searches ...Read more

Sea-level rise is one of the most visible signs of climate change, one that is threatening low-lying coastal communities around the world. Today, about 1 billion people live in coastal areas; about 100 million live within 1 meter (3.3 feet) of sea level, highly exposed to coastal flooding.

Over the long term, when it comes to future ...Read more

Federal prosecutors recently described an interstate criminal enterprise with all the trappings of organized crime: clandestine warehouses, money laundering and stolen goods transported across state lines. The mid-September 2026 announcement stated that 19 defendants faced charges; two had just pleaded guilty, while the remainder are slated ...Read more

As a powerful nor’easter hit the U.S. Atlantic Coast in late September 2026, the ocean poured into coastal neighborhoods from North Carolina to New York. Water from the storm surge and heavy rain filled streets and surrounded homes as near-hurricane-force winds knocked out power. It may have even uncovered a shipwreck more than a century ...Read more

My wife is taking an online art class that involves watching videos. Some of the students in the class were mentioning that the videos don’t have closed captioning, and the teacher said captioning was forthcoming, but they were not ready yet.

As my wife was explaining this to me, I said out loud, “They can likely see captions from their ...Read more

Stihl, a company with a strong reputation for durable, professional-grade outdoor power equipment widely used by professional landscapers, also has a powerful line of battery-powered lawn equipment. While Stihl hasn’t moved away from traditional gas-powered equipment, it continues to expand battery-powered products designed for homeowners ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed legislation to strengthen California’s protections against offshore drilling amid escalating efforts by the Trump administration to open up the coast to new oil and gas operations.

The new state law, Assembly Bill 1448 from Assembly member Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara), will make it illegal ...Read more

President Donald Trump shot down the idea of new federal regulations on artificial intelligence after meeting at the White House with top industry executives amid growing global concerns over threats posed by the technology.

In lieu of new rules, Trump and the executives agreed on a framework where they would partner with outside auditors to ...Read more

Artificial intelligence industry leaders including Anthropic PBC Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei and Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang are descending on Washington for meetings with President Donald Trump to discuss growing global concerns over threats posed by the technology.

Trump was set to welcome the executives for a lunch Tuesday at the ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — After adding more than a million acres in the last year, California is on track to meet its goal of conserving 30% of its land by 2030, officials announced Tuesday.

However, the state lags in its efforts to conserve 30% of its coastal waters in the same time frame. Since Gov. Gavin Newsom established the “30x30” initiative ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — With a strong El Niño increasing the odds of big storms this fall and winter, California is on alert for possible flooding. But if it delivers a wet punch, it will also bring an upside: a bonanza of water.

How prepared is the state to capitalize on El Niño? And what more can it do to take advantage of an extremely wet year?

...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- With California’s coast getting pounded by strong waves amid a strengthening El Niño, residents and government leaders are turning to big rocks and seawalls to protect homes and keep a railroad from falling into the sea.

But there is growing concern this defensive strategy will end up harming California’s famed sandy ...Read more

In parts of a Zeekr factory in northeastern China, luxury electric vehicles are pieced together by hundreds of robots in the dark: If there's no need for human workers, there's no need to keep the lights on.

Experts say no fully "lights-out" mass-vehicle plants exist yet, but that could change soon, exerting enormous pressure on legacy ...Read more

New iPhone day is a recognized holiday at my house. I like to take the day off (or at least work from home) and wait for the delivery.

Apple made some big news with the iPhones it introduced at its event in early September.

Everyone knew the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max would be announced, but Apple also introduced the iPhone Duo, which is their ...Read more

From the air, Wainwright, Alaska, looks like a perfectly stable band of homes and roads between the Chukchi Sea and a vast, flat tundra. But just below the surface, the frozen ground that this town was built on contains large bodies of ice. Along the eroding coastal bluffs, that hidden ice is becoming exposed and literally melting away.

...Read more

In 2023, the International Energy Agency predicted that by 2028 the world’s oil companies would produce more oil than people wanted to buy. Prices responded to that and similar projections of slowing oil demand, dropping too low to attract investment for new wells and refineries.

No forecast anticipated that the Strait of Hormuz, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Somehow, a Gaboon viper — whose home is the tropics of central and western Africa — was on the loose Monday in a Southern California neighborhood, police say.

The sighting of the extremely venomous viper, which has the longest fangs of any snake in the world, spurred the Santa Ana Police Department to issue a public advisory...Read more

OpenAI on Tuesday apologized for its AI models breaching Australian government websites and promised to set up a new task force as part of reforms after the incident.

The San Francisco-based company said it will fund cyber defenses in Australia and help manage the risk of increasingly capable artificial intelligence, as it navigates the fallout...Read more

The global AI industry needs to earn $6 trillion in annual revenue by 2031 to justify the capital being deployed to build data centers around the world, Bain & Co. said.

Existing consumer and enterprise AI services may generate as much as $1.8 trillion of that sum, leaving $4.2 trillion in new revenue that needs to be created, the consulting ...Read more