Latest news with #Gehring
New Straits Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New Straits Times
ICJ advisory gives legal firepower to climate activists
THE world's top court may not be able to compel polluting states to halt planet-warming emissions, but experts say its momentous climate decision gives potent legal and political firepower to countries and campaigners on the frontlines. An advisory opinion like the one issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week is not binding and so is not directly enforceable, but that does not mean it has no weight. By saying that all countries are firmly bound to a swathe of legal obligations under existing laws and treaties, experts say the ruling will influence courts, climate negotiations and policy decisions across the world. The ICJ "couldn't have been clearer" on the binding nature of a range of climate duties, said Cesar Rodriguez-Garavito, professor of law and director of the Climate Law Accelerator at New York University. He said the ruling, which was responding to questions on countries' climate responsibilities from the UN General Assembly, was "as strong as we could have imagined". "The consensus among the judges is fully behind the conclusion that international law establishes clear and binding obligations for states not to cause massive harm to the environment in general and not to harm the climate system in particular," he said. These included ensuring national climate plans reflect the highest possible ambition to stay within the Paris agreement's safer global warming cap of 1.5°C above pre-industrial times — a level that the world could reach this decade. If those obligations are not met, the court said states may be obliged to repair damaged infrastructure or ecosystems — and if that is not possible, they could face compensation claims. This will ripple into future litigation, said Markus Gehring, professor of European and international law at the University of Cambridge. "We are a far cry from a contentious case between two countries, where someone is demanding liability for past and present climate change damage, but in theory, the court lays out an avenue towards such claims," he said. Major petrostates like the United States may take little heed of the court's warning that expanding production of oil, gas and coal could constitute an "internationally wrongful act". But Gehring said countries could choose to ignore ICJ advisory opinions "at their peril". He cited the court's 2019 advice that the United Kingdom should end its occupation of the Chagos islands. After Britain initially rejected the ruling, a UN General Assembly resolution demanded it cede the islands to Mauritius, which it eventually did last year. Gehring said that while the court's climate decision is not directly binding on individual states, it would be indirectly binding through subsequent domestic or international court action and through UN institutions. The move by US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the Paris deal also would be unlikely to absolve the country from its duties, Gehring added, because the obligation to address climate change is now "crystal clear in international law". "So, even leaving the Paris Agreement and the climate treaty regime does not eliminate those obligations," he said. ICJ judge Sarah Cleveland said countries' "significant responsibilities" to protect the climate system may also affect interpretation of international investment law. The ruling was "a decisive legal vindication" for Vanuatu — which spearheaded the push for an ICJ opinion — the country said in a legal analysis of the decision. The Pacific island nation, which is at risk from rising seas, said the court's conclusions would strengthen its hand in global climate negotiations, helping it demand greater climate ambition and attract financial support for countries suffering climate loss and damage. It could also open the way for legal action against countries and possibly companies that have by their actions and omissions caused climate harm, the statement said. "For Vanuatu, the opinion is both shield and sword: a shield affirming its right to survival and a sword compelling the world's major emitters to act in line with science and justice," it added. Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, former president of the UN COP20 climate conference in Peru and now WWF Global Climate and Energy lead, said he expects the ICJ ruling to "move the needle strongly". "The timing is so fantastic because we are in difficult times in the climate debate, so to have that opinion in the current time, it is showing that we should never lose our hope," he said.
Los Angeles Times
22-07-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Google seeks licensing talks with news groups, following AI rivals
Google is seeking to recruit news organizations for a new licensing project related to artificial intelligence, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign the company wants to strengthen strained ties with the industry. The company plans to launch a pilot project initially with about 20 national news outlets, according to one of the people, who works at a media outlet that was contacted and asked not to be identified discussing private talks. 'We've said that we're exploring and experimenting with new types of partnerships and product experiences, but we aren't sharing details about specific plans or conversations at this time,' a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Getting Alphabet Inc.'s Google to pay for content for AI projects could be a big win for struggling media companies, which have lost readers and advertisers to digital outlets for years and view artificial intelligence as a new, potentially existential threat. With the exception of a partnership with the Associated Press earlier this year and a 2024 pact with Reddit, Google has mostly sat on the sidelines while AI rivals strike deals with publishers. Startups Perplexity AI Inc. and OpenAI have both started paying publishers to use their content in their chatbots, giving the media companies a much-needed infusion of revenue. Google's licensing project is tailored to specific products, according to another person familiar with the plan. They didn't share additional details of the program, such as possible terms. Google cites articles and online outlets in its AI Overviews, which are short, AI-generated responses that top many search results. While publishers believe those summaries have cut traffic to their websites, they have been hesitant to shield their content from Google's AI tools for fear of hurting their visibility in the company's search results. Silicon Valley and the media industry have been at odds over tech companies' use of news content to build AI programs, with publishers worried it will further erode their relationship with readers. In late 2023, the New York Times sued OpenAI, alleging that the startup and its largest investor, Microsoft Corp., relied on copyrighted articles to train the popular ChatGPT chatbot and other artificial intelligence features. Yet as the media industry increasingly speaks out about the need for compensation, technology companies seem to be recognizing they must come to terms with news outlets, said David Gehring, chief executive officer of Distributed Media Lab, a company that works with publishers and advertisers. Gehring said he had no knowledge of Google's latest talks with publishers. 'Google and the other platforms realize that — if not by virtue of public policy then by virtue of technology — the platforms' access to unlimited web data is about to end,' said Gehring, who previously worked on news partnerships at Google and the UK newspaper the Guardian. 'And so they need to have licensing relationships in place, or there won't be any blood to put in the veins of the AI monster.' In July, Cloudflare Inc., a web infrastructure and security company, announced a 'pay per crawl' program that lets creators bill AI services for access to their content. 'Google still thinks they're special and that they don't have to play by the same rules that the rest of the industry does,' Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said in an interview. 'Eventually, Google will get in line with what the large AI companies have been saying for a long time, which is that ultimately content providers need to be paid for their content.' Google has long engaged in a delicate dance with news outlets. Many publishers depend on the search engine for traffic when news breaks. Yet industry leaders have cried foul about the tech giant's use of their content in products such as Google News, which displays headlines and short snippets of articles. In the past, Google has offered programs such as Google News Showcase to compensate publishers without undermining its core argument that the copyright doctrine of fair use permits use of their material. The company has also been more open to striking deals with wire services such as the AP, which are in the business of licensing content. Earlier this year, Google announced a partnership with the AP to provide news for its Gemini chatbot, its first deal of that nature. The tech giant has also explored an audio AI news product under its Gemini brand that leverages the content it's licensing from the AP, according to a person familiar with the matter. For the long-term health of the news business, Danielle Coffey, president of the News/Media Alliance trade group, said she is focused on ensuring the industry has 'a legally sustainable right to compensation and protections that will provide a fair market exchange for our valuable content across the board.' Love and Miller write for Bloomberg.
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Broome County Medical Director urges residents to get vaccinated
(WIVT/WBGH) – Broome County's medical director is cautioning the public that while on the whole, area residents are well-protected against vaccine-preventable diseases, there are still a number of troubling cases. Doctor Lazarus Gehring of the county health department says the success of vaccines against such diseases as measles, polio and chicken pox has led to a level of cultural amnesia about just how threatening those illnesses can be. Gehring says that over the six months since he became Medical Director, there have multiple outbreaks in Broome and surrounding counties. He says 45 children contracted chicken pox, or varicella, and none of them were vaccinated. One, a child under 6 months old, had to be hospitalized with meningitis. And while that infant was too young to be vaccinated, the lack of vaccinations among older children is what put that baby at risk. Gehring says a 3-year-old died of haemophilus influenza, another vaccine preventable infection. And Broome saw six times the normal rate of whooping cough last year. Gehring says all of the publicity about those who are vaccine skeptics may give people the wrong impression that vaccination rates are lower and therefore less significant. He says rates remain high, especially for childhood vaccines, which makes those instances when someone is seriously ill from a preventable disease all the more disturbing. 'In case people are thinking, 'Well, wow these vaccines don't work, a lot of people don't use them', that's actually wrong. Now, in New York, those are required for school, but outside of that, even those who are older are quite vaccinated against some of these things and that's why they don't get up off the ground,' said Gehring. Gehring says there are now more effective vaccines for older adults than ever before, including for shingles, RSV, pneumonia and, of course, flu and COVID. He says a case of meningitis at Binghamton University last fall led to a high exposure event in which 30 people were exposed. None of them contracted the illness, which Gehring attributes to vaccinations. Emily Mackay reminisces on her time as a U-E Tiger with students Take a behind the scenes look of Kilmer Mansion with Junior League Broome County Medical Director urges residents to get vaccinated Vestal Joann Fabric and Crafts set to close Binghamton and Broome hire outside law firms for Kweller case Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Broome County sees surge in flu cases this winter
BROOME COUNTY, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – While COVID and RSV cases are down in Broome County this winter, there's been a surge in flu cases. Dr. Lazarus Gehring, the Medical Director for the county health department, says our area is experiencing its worst flu season since right before the pandemic. Gehring says Broome saw a pair of spikes in cases around the holidays and again when Binghamton University students returned for the Spring semester. He says hospitalizations reached a peak in late December, causing Wilson Hospital in Johnson City to briefly go on diversion, meaning ambulances were being sent to other emergency departments. Gehring says the cause of the rise could be linked to the quality of this year's flu vaccine, which is tweaked each year to try to account for the latest strain of the virus that is circulating. He also says certain safety precautions that were common during the pandemic, such as masking, distancing and increased hand washing, have returned to pre-pandemic levels. 'It's very simple, we forget it, we have amnesia and then we panic when something happens. This is how it goes: we have vaccination, we have treatment and we have the things we can do socially to help. I'm not saying we're at a shutdown stage at all for influenza, but those kind of things have happened in the past. We've had a terrible human history with this influenza virus,' Dr. Gehring said. Gehring says influenza symptoms tend to be severe with fever and body aches that should easily distinguish it from the common cold. He says prescription Tamiflu can be helpful in relieving symptoms, but it must be taken within 48 hours of symptoms to be effective. Gehring says at-home tests can help diagnose the flu, assuming people follow the directions carefully. And he says it's not too late to get the flu shot. You can see the full interview with Dr. Gehring below: Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Columbus Meals on Wheels safe from federal funding freeze: CEO
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump's federal funding freeze just before it was set to go into effect Tuesday. The temporary pause comes after Trump issued a funding freeze for federal grants and loans overnight in a vaguely worded memo from the Office of Management and Budget. More than $3 trilllion in federal funding is at stake, but organizations across the country will have to wait until at least Monday to see if they will be impacted. The judge who placed a temporary pause on the funding freeze has called a hearing for 11 a.m. Monday. While no federal funding has been pulled yet, chaos has stormed through organizations around the country, including in central Ohio. How potential federal grant pause could impact central Ohio organizations 'I got the first notification from a group that sends us some news last night about 1 a.m.,' LifeCare Alliance President and CEO Chuck Gehring said. 'When I saw that, my stomach dropped. You know, it just scared me horribly.' LifeCare Alliance provides many programs for central Ohioans in need but is known mostly for Meals on Wheels. 'Our Meals on Wheels are up over 90% from pre-COVID numbers and we, through our partnerships with our counties, especially Franklin County, have continued to take everybody that qualifies,' Gehring said. 'You got to qualify. But, you know, we've been able to service people and we are probably, I can't tell you this for sure, but I'm pretty close that in the top 100 markets in the United States of America, we're probably the only ones without waiting lists for Meals on Wheels.' Meals on Wheels relies heavily on federal funding, which led to Gehring's concern. 'It's critical funding for our programming, especially the Meals on Wheels program,' he said. 'For this year, that'd be $3 million to us. What that does, it pays for literally hundreds of thousands of meals. We do about 1.8 million Meals on Wheels a year out of here. And it would, it would affect if that money went away for a year, it would easily affect a couple thousand consumers.' Since the initial memo was sent from the White House, further clarification was given this afternoon. An afternoon memo from the White House said, 'Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP, small business funds, farmer funding, Pell Grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused.' 'I was very concerned about it last night at 1 a.m. when I first saw the news, because I didn't know what it was going to do to us, but I'm less concerned now,' Gehring said. In the midst of all the uncertainty surrounding if they would have funding or not, Gehring said the one constant was the organization's dedication to serving thousands of people in central Ohio 'Whether the funding was frozen or not, we'll keeping going,' he said. 'We're going to keep serving and if anybody's watching me talk here, don't worry about your meals. They will continue to come tomorrow and every day. We would never abandon our people.' The White House gave reasoning for the funding freeze during a press briefing by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. 'It is the responsibility of this president and this administration to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,' Leavitt said. The target of the funding freeze are issues like gender ideology, foreign aid, and environmental agreements. This leads Gehring to believe his agency will be OK. He understands the importance of ensuring taxpayer money is going to good use, and his organization knows they are under a microscope. 'I've counted seven different audits we get a year here, so some of this money is highly protected by the federal government,' he said. Gehring also knows the value of the service they provide. Providing meals, transportation, deliveries, and other services for the elderly who cannot do those things on their own is vital. 'For each person we keep independent and in their own home, where they want to be one person for one year, we save Ohio taxpayers and federal taxpayers $90,000 on average,' he said. 'We probably saved the state and the feds at least $3 billion with a B versus Medicaid, paying for all our people to go to assisted living here and so there's a huge return on this investment.' The federal judge who paused the funding freeze will hear arguments next Monday and decide on a temporary restraining order at that time. Meanwhile, organizations across the country will be seeking clear guidance on if they are impacted by the funding freeze. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
