US faces criticism over changes to right whale protection rule

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale.

Thailand uses birth control vaccine to curb its elephant population

BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand has begun using a birth control vaccine on elephants in the wild to try and curb a growing problem where human and animal populations encroach on each other – an issue in areas where farms spread into forests and elephants are squeezed out of their natural habitat.

A look at European rocket Ariane 64's maiden launch

PARIS (AP) – Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket is scheduled to make a powerful debut with a new equipment configuration Thursday, flying with four boosters to carry Amazon’s internet satellites. The launch will take place at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

RFK Jr. pledged more transparency. Here's what the public doesn't know

NEW YORK (AP) – A year ago, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he wanted to rebuild trust in federal health agencies, and vowed to employ “radical transparency” to do it. But many types of health information that steadily flowed from the government for years or decades has been delayed, deleted and in some cases stopped all together.

What if just 1 in 10 people changed how they eat, drive, heat or shop?

Climate change is often viewed as an issue that’s too big for individual action to matter. But calculations show that when personal choices add up, the impact can be significant. The Associated Press looked at four everyday behaviors in the U.S. ranging from food and transportation to home energy and clothing.

Musk vows to put data centers in space and run them on solar power

NEW YORK (AP) – Elon Musk vowed this week to upend another industry just as he did with cars and rockets – and once again he’s taking on long odds. The world’s richest man said he wants to put as many as a million satellites into orbit to form vast, solar-powered data centers in space – a move to allow expanded use of artificial intelligence and chatbots.

Seed guardians of the Amazon: A family's fight to save endangered plants

ALTO ILA, Ecuador (AP) – On a recent journey into the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, Ramón Pucha realized he was being trailed. Fresh puma tracks now lined the path alongside his own footprints. Unfazed, he continued his trek, focused entirely on the precious cargo he carried – seeds from some of the world’s most endangered plant species.

4 people have died from eating death cap mushrooms in California

SAN DIEGO (AP) – Four people have died and three others have required liver transplants after eating the aptly named death cap mushroom that is proliferating in California following a rainy winter.

A river in Bosnia chokes in tons of waste year after year

VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) – Dejan Furtula sighed with despair while looking at construction machines working around the clock to remove tons of trash clogging the Drina River near his hometown of Visegrad, in eastern Bosnia.