General Motors Co said Thursday it was setting a goal to sell all its new cars, SUVS and light pickup trucks with zero tailpipe emissions by 2035, a dramatic shift by the largest U.S. automaker away from gasoline and diesel engines. GM, which also said it plans to become carbon neutral by 2040, made its announcement just over a week after President Joe Biden took office pledging to tackle greenhouse gas emissions and dramatically boost the sales of electric vehicles. GM sold 2.55 million vehicles in the United States last …

A vaccine war has erupted between Britain and the European Union with Brussels demanding that tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses earmarked for Britain, and made by a British pharmaceutical company, be diverted to Europe to make up for a shortfall in promised deliveries.     The demand marks a sharp political turn in a dispute between the EU and drug company AstraZeneca, as well as underscoring the mounting risks of vaccine nationalism. It was triggered after the pharmaceutical giant announced it would have to cut vaccine doses scheduled …

Australia is failing to keep up with the growing threat of extreme weather as global warming increases the risk in areas once thought to be safe, according to a new report.Australia is a land well used to nature’s extremes. It is the world’s driest inhabited continent, where droughts can last for years. The Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 were the most intense on record. Heatwaves are by far its deadliest natural hazard.A new report by the Climate Council, an independent non-profit organization, says the cost of extreme weather in Australia …

World Health Organization investigators exited a two-week quarantine Thursday in Wuhan, China, to begin their work in search of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.The international team boarded a bus after exiting their hotel in the afternoon.China, which for months rejected calls for an international probe, has pledged adequate access for the researchers. The team is expected to spend several weeks interviewing people from research institutes, hospitals and a market linked to many of the first cases.The WHO has said the purpose of the mission is not to assign blame …

Human Guinea worm cases in six African countries dropped to 27 in 2020, about 50% less than what was recorded the year before, despite COVID-19 challenges, the Carter Center announced Tuesday.Animal cases fell by 20% over the same period.“The numbers we are seeing are very encouraging,” said Jason Carter, chair of the center’s board of trustees.In Chad, cases dropped to 36 from the 48 recorded in 2019 — the most significant decline for a single nation.The central African country’s significant decline in cases was attributed to “recommitted country and community …