A woman repeatedly raped as a child by a man who put photos and videos of the crimes online claims in a lawsuit that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI allowed imagery of her abuse onto its X social media platform, and that the company’s Grok chatbot generated additional child pornography from the images.

The woman, identified as ...Read more

The Trump administration is considering trading a parcel of Yosemite National Park to a private commercial developer, according to administration officials, members of Congress and documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

The proposed deal would allow the developer to build a road connecting adjacent property it already owns in the ...Read more

A section of Yosemite National Park could be cordoned off for private development at the request of the Trump administration, a national news outlet reported Friday.

NOTUS, a watchdog political news organization, reported Friday morning that Trump officials may be working with a private Nevada-based company to exchange roughly a quarter-mile ...Read more

After the Trump administration paid California offshore wind developers to abandon their leases and pursue oil and gas development instead, the state is fighting back.

In a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the California Northern District, state Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Energy Commission allege that one of ...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — Though SpaceX’s powerful Starship won’t be flying from Florida for some time, the company’s powerhouse Falcon Heavy is set for a rare launch early Sunday.

The Falcon Heavy – essentially three Falcon 9 rockets strapped together – is set to take flight with NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope from Kennedy Space ...Read more

If you recently left a job, it’s likely you lost access to your old inbox and the saved records of those tedious Zoom or Teams meetings. Leaving such digital detritus behind now is part of life. But we doubt you anticipated your employer being able to make money from what you had to say while gainfully employed.

Consider what just happened ...Read more

Last week, OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT for Teens, a new user experience crafted to help young people “learn, think critically, deepen understanding, and use AI with confidence.” Maybe most importantly, OpenAI vowed that it would place any users its system “estimates” to be under 18 into the system “automatically.”

For nearly a ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The California Legislature passed a bill Wednesday that would require the state to track the use of pesticides that contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS chemicals, which can be harmful to humans.

The bill, by Assembly member Nick Schultz, a Democrat, heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who can ...Read more

Vape pens and other disposable e-cigarettes could soon be illegal in California.

On Wednesday, the state assembly approved Assembly Bill 762, which if signed by the governor, will make the battery-powered disposable devices illegal to manufacture, distribute or sell in the state. The bill passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

“We are hopeful ...Read more

Temperatures have warmed dramatically across the equatorial Pacific Ocean in 2026, signaling the onset of a strong and potentially historic El Niño. These events can affect weather around the world, and the intensity of recent El Niño events is raising alarm that, as global temperatures rise, these natural events are becoming stronger and ...Read more

For much of the last year, Alphabet Inc. has been the Big Tech stock to beat as investors bet that it was the most-likely winner from the artificial intelligence boom.

Alphabet shares hit an all-time high on May 13 after soaring more than 150% in the previous 12 months, putting them among the 25 best performers in the S&P 500 Index over that ...Read more

When a wildfire threatens a community, most people don’t think to ask whether the firefighters coming to help slept enough the night before, recovered from the previous day’s shift or have enough energy left for another day on the fire line. They simply expect firefighters to show up.

But that workforce is increasingly being ...Read more

DENVER -- Between the Artemis II moon mission in April, the recent cosmic light shows from solar and lunar eclipses, and the Perseid meteor shower, excitement for real-life astronomy is soaring among kids.

All you have to do, really, is look up. Star-driven, Hollywood blockbusters such as Matt Damon’s “The Martian” and Ryan Gosling’s �...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In the last few years, multiple studies have shown that global warming is intensifying drought and worsening water scarcity in California and the western United States.

Now, scientists have found that a group of polluters is responsible for a large share of this drying.

In their study, published this week in the journal ...Read more

Over 368,000 miles of roads wind through U.S. national forests, eight times more than the entire interstate highway system. Many are heavily eroded and prone to landslides, and driving vehicles on them can spread invasive species. They need billions of dollars in repairs.

Yet the Trump administration wants to build more roads in ...Read more

Florida gets a lot of attention for its sinkholes, especially when they swallow cars and entire houses. But its sinkhole risk has nothing on Alaska’s.

Much of Alaska’s soil is permafrost – ground that remains below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) for at least two consecutive years. It is often rich with ice, but when ...Read more

Meta Platforms Inc. agreed to implement a raft of restrictions for teens on its Facebook and Instagram apps as part of a multibillion-dollar settlement with multiple U.S. states on Wednesday. The landmark agreement requires the company to put new guardrails on Facebook and Instagram, including limits on how much time youths can spend scrolling ...Read more

Bill Gates wants to tax robots.

Specifically, Gates is calling for a tax on artificial intelligence automated systems, like tokens and robots, that employers may use to slowly replace human workers as the technology evolves.

The idea might sound absurd on its face, which the Microsoft co-founder acknowledges in a memo released Wednesday on his...Read more

ORLANDO, Fla. — SpaceX drove the Space Coast’s record 109 launches last year with a frenetic pace of missions dedicated to its Starlink internet constellation.

That spigot has been turned off, the company’s vice president of launch said after a Starlink mission that launched early Tuesday from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

“This ...Read more