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Climate promises are difficult to keep. Scotland is the most recent, perhaps the most surprising, example.Scotland, an early industrial powerhouse and coal giant, was also an early adopter of an ambitious, legally binding government target to slow climate change. It had promised to reduce emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases by 75% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.This week, Net Zero minister Mairi McAllan said the target was now “out of reach”. He said Scotland, which operates semi-autonomously from Britain, would scrap its annual emissions reduction targets and instead review them every five years.This is in stark contrast to the Scottish Government's optimism in 2021, when diplomats from around the world gathered in Glasgow for international UN climate talks. At the time...

Tesla has agreed to recall nearly 4,000 of its Cybertruck pickups to fix an accelerator pedal that can get stuck, increasing the risk of crashes, a federal safety agency said Friday.The defect could cause unintended acceleration of the vehicle, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a warning posted on its website. Tesla began selling the Cybertruck, its first pickup truck, in November after many delays.The recall represents yet another setback for Tesla, the largest electric vehicle maker in the United States. The company has been losing market share to emerging rivals and this month reported that its sales in the first three months of the year fell compared to the same period a year earlier – the first time this has happened since the start of pandemic.Tesla's r...

The relatively limited scope of Israel's overnight attacks on Iran, and a moderate response by Iranian officials, may have reduced the chances of an immediate escalation in clashes between the two countries, analysts said on Friday.There have been fears for days that a strong Israeli response to Iran's attack on southern Israel last weekend could provoke an even more aggressive response from Iran, potentially turning an "eye for an eye" confrontation into a broader war. Foreign leaders have advised Israel to view its successful defense against Iran's missile barrage as a victory that requires no retaliation, warning of a counterattack that could further destabilize the region.But when Friday finally arrived, the Israeli attack appeared less damaging than expected, allowing Ira...

“Have an abortion with me,” says a Brooklyn single mother named Sunni as she twirls around her kitchen to the sound of jazz piano, before walking TikTok viewers through the steps she took to end her pregnancy at home.With states expanding abortion restrictions and the issue likely to be at the forefront of presidential elections, women are creating videos on social media describing their abortions and sharing practical information on how to get one.Sunni explained to viewers that she wanted information as she was planning the abortion. “This is the video I was looking for,” she said.The reaction to his video, which has been viewed more than 400,000 times and sparked comments of both commiseration and condemnation, shows how deeply personal and controversial the issue remains in the run-up...

Israel strikes IranIsrael struck Iran early this morning, according to two Israeli defense officials, in what appeared to be the country's first military response to the Iranian attack last weekend.Three Iranian officials confirmed that an attack had hit a military air base near the central Iranian city of Isfahan early Friday morning, but they did not say which country it had attacked.The explosions came less than a week after Iran fired more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel, its first direct attack on the country, in response to an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria that killed seven officials Iranians on April 1.For days, Israeli leaders have threatened to respond to Iran's attacks, which have turned the years-long shadow war between the two countrie...

Apple said it pulled Meta-owned WhatsApp and Threads apps from its app store in China on Friday on government orders, potentially escalating the technology war between the United States and China.The House of Representatives was preparing to vote as early as this weekend on a bill that would force Chinese Internet company ByteDance to sell its popular video app TikTok or ban it in the United States. US lawmakers have said TikTok poses a security threat due to its ties to China.Apple said China's internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration, ordered the removal of WhatsApp and Threads from its app store due to national security concerns. Apple said it complied.“We are obligated to follow the laws of the countries in which we operate, even when we disagree,” an Apple spokesperson ...

The United States on Thursday blocked the U.N. Security Council from pursuing a Palestinian bid to be recognized as a full member state of the United Nations, quashing an attempt by Palestinian allies to persuade the world body to support the effort. The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, had described the bid for full member status as an effort "to take our rightful place in the community of nations."But Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, on Thursday denounced the resolution presented to the Security Council as a "prize for terror." He added: “Unfortunately the United Nations no longer deals with multilateralism. Now he is engaged in multi-terrorism."There were 12 votes in favor of the resolution, while the United States opposed it, with two...

Last spring, Tia Washington, 52, a mother of three in Dublin, California, received a stern warning from her doctor: If she didn't quickly get her high blood pressure back under control, she would likely end up in the emergency room. .He wrote her a prescription for blood pressure medication and urged her to also see a health coach. Mrs. Washington reluctantly agreed.“I didn't want to die,” he said.To his surprise, the health coach wanted to talk about more than just vital signs. Ms. Washington found herself admitting that she didn't like doctors (and medications). How she tended to address work or family needs before her own. How her job had created "tremendous stress".Together, they decided that Ms. Washington would attend two weekly exercise classes, consult regularly wi...

The mother of one of the suspects in the bloody attack at a concert hall near Moscow last month cried as she spoke about her son.How, he wondered, did he go from the bumpy dirt roads of their village in Tajikistan, Central Asia, to sitting, bruised and battered, in a Russian courtroom accused of terrorism? Although he spent five years in Tajik prisons as a teenager, he said he never showed signs of violent extremism.“We need to understand: who is recruiting young Tajiks, why do they want to highlight us as a nation of terrorists?” said her mother, Muyassar Zargarova.Many governments and terrorism experts ask the same question.Tajik adherents of the Islamic State – especially within its affiliate in Afghanistan known as the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), or ISIS-K – have taken in...

Consumers have become accustomed to the prospect of their personal data, such as email addresses, social contacts, browsing history and genetic ancestry, being collected and often resold by the apps and digital services they use.With the advent of consumer neurotechnology, the data collected is becoming increasingly intimate. A headband acts as a personal meditation coach by monitoring the user's brain activity. Another claims to help treat anxiety and symptoms of depression. Another reads and interprets brain signals as the user scrolls through dating apps, presumably to provide better matches. ("'Listen to your heart' isn't enough," the producer says on his website.)The companies behind such technologies have access to recordings of users' brain activity: the elec...