Retailers are buying robots in record numbers, and you’ve probably seen them in stores around San Diego.

San Diego robotics company Brain Corp has deployed more than 50,000 robots around the world with its AI software and reported record growth of 68% in sales this year. Now these robots are working overtime in stores from Walmart and Sam’s...Read more

Z.ai Co. is set to upgrade its flagship AI model, joining a series of Chinese open-weight offerings seeking to outcompete Anthropic PBC and OpenAI.

The next iteration from the Beijing-based company, GLM-5.3, will bring improved coding capabilities that will help it close the gap on AI leaderboard toppers like Anthropic’s Fable 5, the company ...Read more

The Trump administration is imposing tariffs of as much as 100% on imported drones and their components, escalating efforts to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign suppliers and potentially accelerating a decoupling of drone supply chains with China.

The top rate will apply to heavier drones — weighing more than 25 kilograms — or those that ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration has quietly let lapse a program for young leaders at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, The Times has learned. In its place, California will launch its own council for young people looking to get involved with environmental issues at the state level.

The California EPA’s Environmental Youth ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff’s request for $32 million in emergency funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to combat California’s growing glassy-winged sharpshooter problem has been rejected.

Glassy-winged sharpshooters were found on grapevines and ornamental plants sold at Costco stores in dozens ...Read more

Fifty-six million years ago, Earth’s forests reached a tipping point. They had grown dense, lush canopies at the start of one of Earth’s most intense episodes of greenhouse warming. But those canopies began to thin.

As global temperatures rose by as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius), heat and drought put stress on ...Read more

In a summer of wildfires severe enough to trigger Spain’s first-ever national emergency for a forest fire, a historic stone structure called the Nevera de Castro stands in a landscape burned bare in the Castellón region. Its walls are blackened by smoke and heat. A local news outlet noted that “a technical inspection will be necessary to...Read more

The federal government is injecting millions of dollars into efforts to combat feral hogs – and it’s considering spending even more in the coming years. The problem has grown for decades, but our research has found that a recently revived federal effort offers the potential for bringing the hogs under control.

Feral swine roam in ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Nevada’s Colorado River czar offered little concrete insight into the status of negotiations at a summit Wednesday as the state braces for the federal government to hand down a final operating plan its water managers aren’t happy with.

“There’s hope that things can change,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the ...Read more

NASA says it wants to build bases on the moon. Maryland's Eastern Shore could become a key part of that effort.

“We’re going to the moon, and we’re going to build a moon base, and we’re going to stay,” Wallops Director David Pierce said Wednesday.

Pierce was among the government, business and education leaders gathered at Salisbury ...Read more

It’s hard to remember a worse time than now to purchase a computer.

Computer hardware prices have spiked globally over the past year, and experts say they won’t get cheaper anytime soon. From companies purchasing desktop workstations and students buying back-to-school laptops or a new phone, consumers in Tampa Bay after a new machine may ...Read more

Mark Zuckerberg wants AI for all, not just a few.

In the last month, there has been heated debate in Silicon Valley and Washington over whether advanced artificial intelligence is too dangerous to be freely available as an open-source model for anyone to download and use, and whether its development should thus be locked down and tightly ...Read more

As summer temperatures soar across the United States and Europe, cities are being forced to confront the difficult reality that they’re getting dangerously hot.

Record-breaking heat waves strain power grids, send people to cooling shelters and can make the top floors of some apartment buildings unlivable.

One way to help ...Read more

The Fender x Teufel’s Rockstar Cross Bluetooth 5.0 speaker has it all: great sound at any volume and a rugged, good-looking design for portability.

Inside the rugged 5.1-by-15-by-6.3-inch, 5.3-pound speaker are two tweeters, a woofer and two passive radiators that deliver powerful, room-filling sound. It played much louder than I ever ...Read more

This week, a reader writes, “Please tell me how to block sexually explicit emails. I block them but that doesn’t stop them.”

Yikes.

Nobody needs uninvited sexually explicit emails in their inbox.

We have all dealt with spam email messages, and they’re certainly no fun.

This reader’s email account (sbcglobal.net) is from a legacy ...Read more

“Marvel Snap” has had an uneven year. It started strong with a season focused on dragons and a second volume of Guardians of the Galaxy. Second Dinner introduced powerful cards that overwhelmed players with power and needed tweaking.

The next two months, March and April, introduced a new quest-like mechanic called Objectives. The cards ...Read more

CHICAGO — Illinois is requiring polluters to begin reporting spills of industrial plastic pellets known as nurdles, a growing source of contamination in the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds.

Companies that manufacture, use or transport nurdles also must develop plans to limit them in storm runoff, making the state the first in ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — San Diego Coastkeeper and the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation have settled a yearslong Clean Water Act lawsuit against the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission and its contractor, Veolia Water West Operating Services, over alleged pollution violations at the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant.

...Read more