View time : 1 min 52
Level : Intermediate
Month: September 2023
In landmark court case, 6 young activists take on 32 European nations over climate action
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Intermediate
By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press
STRASBOURG, France (AP) — Six young people from Portugal will argue that governments across Europe aren’t doing enough to protect people from the harms of climate change at the European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday in the latest and largest instance of activists taking governments to court to force climate action.
The lawyers representing the young adults and children will argue that the 32 European governments they’re suing have failed to adequately address global warming and therefore violated some of their fundamental rights.
“This is truly a David and Goliath case,” said Gearóid Ó Cuinn, the director of the non-profit organization Global Legal Action Network that’s been crowdfunding to support the group.
“It is unprecedented in its scale and its consequences,” he said. “It also makes legal history. Never before have so many countries had to defend themselves in front of a court, anywhere in the world.” Continue reading
US breaking pros want to preserve Black roots, original style of hip-hop dance form at Olympics
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Advanced
By AARON MORRISON AP Race and Ethnicity News Editor
As ambassadors of the country where breakdancing originated 50 years ago, members of Team USA have something to prove — and potentially to lose — when the hip-hop dance form makes its official debut at the Paris Games in 2024.
That’s because for U.S. breakers like Carmarry Hall, Victor Montalvo and Jeffrey Mike Louis, it’s more than just nailing the right moves; it’s about preserving breaking’s soul.
“When I started breaking, it wasn’t about competition; it was about culture, it was about Black dance,” said Hall, an African American Team USA member. “The Olympic platform is not going to appreciate the understanding. It’s structured in a certain way, and in that structure, you lose a little bit of the heart.”
But it is precisely that structure that international competitors to the U.S. have zoned in on while battling for a shot at Olympic gold in head-to-head contests over the past year. And at the moment, Team USA’s squad of b-boys and b-girls, the term for male and female breakers, is trailing in rankings tabulated by the World DanceSport Federation, the International Olympic Committee-approved body that administers breaking battles. Continue reading
1,000th blue plaque honors women’s rights campaigner
View time: 2 min 24
Level : Advanced
John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and more authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement
Read time : 2 mins
Level : Intermediate
By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale.”
The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others. Continue reading
Starbucks wants to overhaul its iconic cup
View time : 3 min 09
Level : Intermediate
Indoor farms bloom despite challenges
View time: 2 min 32
Level : Advanced
Hundreds of flying taxis to be made in Ohio, home of the Wright brothers and astronaut legends
Read time : 4 mins
Level : Advanced
By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon be manufacturing cutting-edge electric planes that take off and land vertically, under an agreement announced Monday between the state and Joby Aviation Inc.
“When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.”
Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below. Continue reading
9/11 performing arts center to open after 22 years
View time : 2 min 32
Level : Intermediate
BP leader is the latest to resign over questions about personal conduct
Read time : 3 mins
Level : Intermediate
By DANICA KIRKA Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Global energy giant BP, one of Britain’s biggest and most recognizable companies, is scurrying to find a new chief executive after CEO Bernard Looney became the latest corporate leader to step down amid questions about his personal conduct.
Among the most crucial questions facing the company’s board is whether to recruit a leader who will maintain BP’s goal of eliminating net carbon emissions by 2050 as the oil industry struggles to meet climate commitments.
Looney, 53, resigned Tuesday after he accepted that he was not “fully transparent” in his disclosures about past relationships with colleagues. He will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer Murray Auchincloss on an interim basis.
BP conducted an internal review last year after receiving allegations about personal relationships between Looney and other company employees. Continue reading