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Several leading medical organizations on Monday filed a suit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., arguing that current policies on the COVID-19 vaccine pose an imminent threat to public health. The plaintiffs, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, American Public Health Association and Infectious Diseases Society of America, have asked the court to vacate Kennedy’s recent directive removing the COVID-19 vaccine from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s childhood and pregnantwomen immunization schedules. Representatives for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kennedy, a long-time vaccine skeptic whose department oversees the CDC, has been remaking the U.S. health system to align with President Donald Trump’s goal of dramatically shrinking the federal government. He signed a directive in May delisting the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women. The complainants alleged that such “baseless and uninformed policy” decisions place critical populations at “grave and immediate risk” of preventable illness, long-term harm, or death. Mrinalika Roy, Reuters
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Submerged in about 40 meters (44 yards) of water off Scotland’s coast, a turbine has been spinning for more than six years to harness the power of ocean tides for electricity a durability mark that demonstrates the technology’s commercial viability. Keeping a large, or grid-scale, turbine in place in the harsh sea environment that long is a record that helps pave the way for bigger tidal energy farms and makes it far more appealing to investors, according to the trade association Ocean Energy Europe. Tidal energy projects would be prohibitively expensive if the turbines had to be taken out of the water for maintenance every couple of years. Tidal energy technologies are still in the early days of their commercial development, but their potential for generating clean energy is big. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, marine energy, a term researchers use to refer to power generated from tides, currents, waves or temperature changes, is the worlds largest untapped renewable energy resource. The MeyGen tidal energy project off the coast of Scotland has four turbines producing 1.5 megawatts each, enough electricity collectively to power up to 7,000 homes annually. On Thursday, the Swedish company SKF announced that its bearings and seals on one of the turbines had passed the 6 1/2-year mark without needing unplanned or disruptive maintenance. It has been working closely with the industry for a decade on design and testing. Achieving six years in the water with constant operations is a very significant milestone that bodes well for the future of tidal energy, said Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe. Scotland and the United Kingdom are global leaders in tidal energy. The MeyGen site, operated by SAE Renewables, has been sending electricity to the grid for about eight years. There are very few tidal energy projects generating electricity continuously. Most have been tests and demonstrations, said Andrea Copping, an expert in marine renewable energy development. Copping said there are still large hurdles to overcome before tidal energy can be adopted more widely, such as dealing with regulatory issues, potential environmental effects and conflicts with other ocean users. Still, the Scotland project seems to have addressed the question of whether the turbines can last in seawater, added Copping, a distinguished faculty fellow in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington. I think they have checked the boxes, she said. Because skeptics, and that includes investors of course and governments, said, How on Earth are you going to operate these things especially for any length of time in this very tough environment? And thats what I think they proved. It’s very hard to take what is essentially a wind turbine normally found on land and put it under water, said Fraser Johnson, operations and maintenance manager at MeyGen. The record-setting turbine should keep going for at least another year before it needs to come out of the water for maintenance, he added. The four turbines are in the Inner Sound of the Pentland Firth, a narrow channel between the Scottish mainland and Stroma Island known for strong tidal currents. Tidal energy systems need strong currents to make electricity efficiently. MeyGen plans to add 20 turbines in 2030 to produce more electricity, after needed upgrades to the electricity grid are finished. The site could eventually hold as many as 130 turbines that are more powerful than those at the site today. The MeyGen site is in the open water, while another type of tidal project involves creating a dam-like structure called a barrage across tidal waters. With four turbines, MeyGen is considered the largest tidal energy project of its kind worldwide, said Johnson. It’s a title we wish we didn’t have. We want more, we want others, he said. Unfortunately others are having difficulty achieving what MeyGen has achieved. But working with SKF moving forward, we’ll push the industry forward. ___ The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. Jennifer McDermott, Associated Press
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Racist AI-generated videos are going viral on TikTok, according to a new report from Media Matters for America, a progressive watchdog group. The videos, which appear to be created with Googles AI video generation tool Veo 3, are filled with racist tropes targeting Black people, immigrants, Jews, and Asian people. Each video has gained hundreds, thousands, or even millions of views. The nonprofit media watchdog identified the Veo watermark in the corner of the clips, along with hashtags, captions, or usernames referencing Veo 3 or AI. Veo 3, launched by Google in May, allows users to generate AI video clips and audio using only a text prompt. Videos made with the tool are limited to eight seconds. Each clip flagged by Media Matters lasted eight seconds or was composed of multiple segments that were each eight seconds or less. Among the clips flagged by Media Matters, one labeled Average Waffle House in Atlanta depicted a restaurant filled with AI-generated monkeys holding buckets of fried chicken and watermelona scene steeped in racist imagery. That video, and others like it, amassed hundreds of thousands of views and were met with comments that echoed and amplified the stereotypes. Additional videos uncovered by Media Matters include antisemitic tropes, reenactments of concentration camps, and racist portrayals of immigrants and Asian people. Some feature AI-generated Bigfoot characters, a social media trend that began with a humorous intent but has since been co-opted to dehumanize minority groups. The Verge reported that some of the same videos highlighted by Media Matters were also found on YouTube, though they received significantly fewer views there. Wired found similar content on Instagram. TikTok’s policies state that it will not recommend content that contains negative stereotypes about a person or group with a protected attribute, and that it uses a combination of technology and human moderators to detect and remove accounts and content that break our rules. Google also states it will block harmful requests and results with its Veo 3 feature. Fast Company has reached out to Google and TikTok for comment. With tools like Veo 3, producing photorealistic AI videos has never been easier. The same is true for using AI-generated content to spread disinformation and target marginalized communities.
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