The post Environmental Defense Center Announces New Board Leadership as It Approaches 50th Anniversary appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

Por Lisa Eadicicco, CNN

Google quiere convertirse en tu entrenador físico y asesor de bienestar de referencia… incluso si tienes un Apple Watch.

El gigante tecnológico anunció este jueves una serie de actualizaciones en el ámbito de la salud que sitúan a su entrenador basado en IA en el centro de la escena; esto forma parte de una estrategia más amplia para competir con OpenAI, Microsoft y una oleada de otras empresas tecnológicas que compiten por dominar la forma en que las personas se informan sobre su salud.

Para Google, expandirse más allá de su base de clientes actual —compuesta por propietarios de dispositivos Fitbit y Pixel Watch— resulta fundamental. La compañía apuesta a que el asistente de salud con IA integrado en su nueva aplicación Google Health —anunciada también este jueves— atraerá a usuarios del Apple Watch, del anillo Oura y de los relojes Garmin, así como a aquellas personas que no poseen ningún dispositivo de seguimiento de la salud.

Google se sitúa por detrás de Apple, Samsung y los gigantes tecnológicos chinos Xiaomi y Huawei en el mercado global de tecnología vestible (“wearables”), según datos de la firma de investigación de mercado International Data Corporation. Sin embargo, las últimas actualizaciones sugieren que Google está más enfocado en competir con OpenAI y Microsoft en el sector salud que en dominar el mercado de los relojes inteligentes. En la carrera de la IA, los consumidores recurren cada vez con mayor frecuencia a ChatGPT para resolver sus dudas sobre salud.

“Hoy en día, un atleta cuenta con todo un equipo a su disposición para estas tareas… Tienen un nutricionista, un asesor del sueño y un entrenador físico”, comentó Rishi Chandra, director general de Google Health. “¿Por qué no podríamos tener todos nosotros un equivalente a eso? Y de eso trata, precisamente, este entrenador de salud”.

Algunas instituciones sanitarias, como la Mayo Clinic y la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Duke, advierten que la IA puede resultar imprecisa. Argumentan que las herramientas de IA pueden fallar a la hora de proporcionar el contexto necesario y carecen de la capacidad de razonar y realizar pruebas diagnósticas tal como lo haría un profesional médico.

Google, OpenAI y Microsoft han declarado que sus productos no están diseñados para fines médicos ni para sustituir a los médicos.

Google actualizará la aplicación Fitbit para transformarla en la nueva aplicación Google Health a partir del 19 de mayo. Esta aplicación —que incorpora el entrenador de salud con IA de Google, impulsado por los modelos Gemini de la compañía— ofrecerá resúmenes de los registros médicos que los usuarios decidan compartir, planes de entrenamiento físico semanales y personalizados, y un “chatbot” capaz de responder preguntas relacionadas con los datos médicos y de actividad física del usuario. La compañía también lanzará una nueva pulsera de actividad física llamada Fitbit Air, que carece de pantalla y está diseñada para utilizarse de forma complementaria a la nueva aplicación.

El entrenador de IA también detectará tendencias en el sueño y los entrenamientos de una persona, y las resumirá en la aplicación. Por ejemplo, podría señalar que la carrera de 6,4 kilómetros (4 millas) de un usuario contribuyó a su objetivo semanal de 32 kilómetros (20 millas), o que los datos biométricos de su dispositivo portátil (wearable) Fitbit o Google Pixel indicaron que estaba más descansado tras haber dormido unas horas extra.

Muchas funciones requieren una suscripción a Google Health Premium, que es independiente de los otros planes de IA pagas de Google. Desde octubre pasado, ya

By Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — A federal appeals court appeared ready Thursday to reject Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s effort to punish Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly over his call to US service members to refuse illegal orders.

A majority of judges on a three-member panel at the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals spent more than an hour and a half throwing cold water on arguments pushed by the Justice Department to revive Hegseth’s plans, which were shut down earlier this year by a federal judge who said they were unconstitutionally retaliatory.

“That is something that is taught at Annapolis to every cadet,” Judge Nina Pillard, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said of Kelly’s comments last year.

“These are people who served their country – many put their lives on the line,” said Judge Florence Pan, an appointee of former President Joe Biden. “And you’re saying that they have to give up their retired status in order to say something that is a textbook example – taught at West Point and the Naval Academy – that you can disobey illegal orders.”

The third member of the panel – Judge Karen Henderson, an appointee of former President George H. W. Bush – seemed at least somewhat sympathetic to the administration’s arguments.

Kelly, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut who represents Arizona, sued Hegseth in January after the secretary announced the Pentagon would pursue administrative action against the senator, including reducing his last military rank, which would lower the pay he receives as a retired Navy captain, and issuing a letter of censure.

Both Hegseth and President Donald Trump have attacked Kelly over a video posted in November by the Arizona lawmaker and five other Democrats with a history of military or intelligence service that urged service members not to obey unlawful orders that could be issued by the Trump administration.

In the video, the lawmakers don’t specify which orders service members have received, or might receive, that could be illegal. But it was released as US military officials, including the commander of US Southern Command, and US allies, including the UK, questioned the legality of a series of military strikes targeting suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific and as the Trump administration faced multiple court challenges to Trump’s decision last year to send scores of federalized state National Guard members to Democratic-led cities.

Federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, also attempted to indict the lawmakers over the video, but were rebuffed by a grand jury in a remarkable push back that is rarely seen.

Outside the courthouse after the hearing, Kelly issued a warning about the purpose of the censure effort: “If you say something that the president and this administration does not like, they’re going to come after you.”

The administration, he said, argued in court that “any time a retired veteran says something the secretary of Defense doesn’t like, they can be punished.”

“The people who have given the most in service to this country wouldn’t be free to say what they believe,” Kelly added.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Appeals court appears poised to reject Hegseth’s bid to punish Mark K

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has classified left-wing networks like Antifa among “three major types of terror groups” the US faces, according to a counter-terrorism plan released Thursday.

“In addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups,” the plan says, “our national (counter terrorism) activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”

In recent months, as Trump administration officials have ramped up the rhetoric around investigating and prosecuting people who it says are part of groups like Antifa, they have struggled to answer basic questions about the organizations.

During a congressional hearing late last year, Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, could not answer questions about Antifa’s group size, location or other details.

“Investigations are active,” Glasheen said after declaring Antifa as the “primary concern” of the FBI. The FBI official said the situation was “very fluid.”

The White House counterterrorism plan says the federal government will “use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa.”

The US has faced several violent attacks from individuals opposing the administration and its allies, including the recent attempted attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk and several violent attacks on immigration facilities.

Organized terrorism from left-wing groups, however, is far more rare.

In July, a group of nearly a dozen people set off fireworks and spray-painted vehicles and buildings at a Department of Homeland Security facility in Texas before some from the group opened fire on a police officer and employees at the building.

The case was the first federal terrorism case in the Trump administration’s promised fight against left-wing groups.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

The post Trump administration now classifies Antifa and left-wing networks among ‘major’ terror groups appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Eleni Giokos, Tim Lister, CNN

(CNN) — Iran is trying to force shippers to comply with a new protocol for transiting the Strait of Hormuz – or risk attack.

Tehran has laid out a set of new rules for vessels seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz, according to a document seen by CNN, pressing ahead with efforts to formalize control over the waterway in defiance of US warnings.

Entitled “Vessel Information Declaration,” the document is an application form issued by Iran’s newly created Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) and must be completed by all transiting vessels to ensure safe passage. It was shared with CNN by Lloyds List and another shipping industry source who wished to remain anonymous.

Before the US and Israeli campaign against Iran began at the end of February, the strait was free for any vessel of any origin to navigate. But since the conflict began, Iran has threatened to strike any ship passing through Hormuz without permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy. A number of vessels have come under attack, but the vast majority of ship owners and operators have opted not to take the risk of sending their vessels through in defiance of Iran.

The move to set up an authority for the strait underscores Iran’s determination to cement control over what it sees as a spoil of war, despite repeated US and regional warnings. Dominance of the waterway – through which one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows – would hand the Islamic Republic immense leverage over its neighbors and the global economy.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz unleashed the biggest oil supply shock in history, sending energy prices sharply higher. On Wednesday, US gas prices rose above $4.5 per gallon for the first time in four years.

‘A new regional and global order’

On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei’s account on the social media app Telegram posted a message laying out his vision for the Persian Gulf.

The leader called for a “new regional and global order under the strategy of a strong Iran” where there would be no place for foreigners “and their mischief.” He specifically pointed to “using the leverage of closing the strait” as one way to achieve that vision.

At the end of April, a statement attributed to Khamenei indicated Iran would create the mechanism to supervising traffic at the waterway.

Iran would implement “new legal frameworks and management of the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement said, which would benefit its neighbors and prove economically fruitful.

“Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away, acting maliciously out of greed, have no place there, except at the bottom of its waters,” it added.

The PGSA document now made available to shippers comprises more than 40 questions, requiring vessels to declare their name and identification number, any “previous name,” country of origin and destination.

It also asks for the nationalities of the registered owners and operators and of the crew on board, plus details of the cargo.

According to the PGSA, the information must be emailed to the authority before a vessel can transit the strait.

An email from PGSA shared with CNN includes a warning that “complete and accurate information is essential” to processing the vessel’s request to transit, and that “further instruct