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☆ Israel is using artificial intelligence to help pick bombing targets in Gaza, report says
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Tara John | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The Israeli military has been using artificial intelligence to help identify bombing targets in Gaza, according to an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call, citing six Israeli intelligence officials involved in the alleged program – who also allege that human review of the suggested targets was cursory at best. When asked about +972 Magazine’s report, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not dispute the existence of the tool but denied AI was being used to identify suspected terrorists. Night attacksThe magazine also reported that the Israeli army “systematically attacked” targets in their homes, usually at night when entire families were present. The report, citing sources, said that when alleged junior militants were targeted, “the army preferred” to use so-called dumb bombs – unguided missiles which can cause large-scale damage. Palestinians inspect the damage to a residential building after an Israeli airstrike in the Maghazi refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Friday, March 29, 2024.

Persons: –, Israel, ”, Yuval Abraham, “, Ismael Abu Dayyah Organizations: CNN, Israel Defence Forces, Gaza Ministry of Health, United, AP CNN Locations: Gaza, United Nations, Israel

☆ The Insurrection Act Has to Go - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-03 | by ( David French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Some version of the Insurrection Act is probably necessary. The authority granted by the act, however, is remarkably broad, and oversight is virtually nonexistent. The Insurrection Act contains a number of provisions, and not all are equally bad. But the act gets worse, much worse. You might wonder why the Insurrection Act hasn’t presented much of a problem before now.

Persons: Trump, hasn’t, It’s, it’s, George H.W, Bush, Rodney King Organizations: National Guard Locations: United States, —, California, Los Angeles

☆ 85-Year-Old Held Hostage in Gaza Says She ‘Went Through Hell’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Aaron Boxerman | Nadav Gavrielov | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

“I went through hell,” Ms. Lifshitz told reporters the day after her release, sitting in a wheelchair at a hospital in Tel Aviv amid a thicket of microphones. “Many people stormed our homes, they beat people, some of them they abducted, like me,” Ms. Lifshitz said. Ms. Lifshitz said that she and others were relatively well taken care of, given medicine and the same food as their captors. Ms. Lifshitz is the first released hostage to speak publicly about her ordeal. Weeks before the assault, Palestinians had rioted and fired explosive balloons near the Gaza border fence, sparking fires in southern Israel, Ms. Lifshitz said.

Persons: Yocheved Lifshitz, Lifshitz, Ms, Nurit Cooper, Lifshitz’s, Kibbutz Nir Oz, Sharone, ” Ms, ”, Nir Oz, Judith, Natalie Raanan, Oded —, —, Weeks, “ Organizations: International Committee, Hamas, Palestinian, Shin Locations: Gaza, “, Tel Aviv, Cross, Egypt, Israel, Kibbutz

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — The United Nations said it will repatriate nine peacekeepers from a South African contingent in eastern Congo who were accused of sexual assault and other abuse. The U.N. decided to immediately repatriate the peacekeepers and a senior officer of the South African army “due to the seriousness of the allegations against them,” the organization said in a statement on Friday. Such accusations of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers are not new in various parts of the world, from Congo to Haiti where peacekeepers are deployed. The abuses are particularly rampant in Congo, which accounted for one-third of the nearly 2,000 sexual abuse and exploitation complaints made against the U.N. worldwide in 2017. Last year, Secretary-General António Guterres said the organization has "not succeeded in all respects, but neither have we stood still” in handling the sexual abuse crisis.

Persons: António Guterres Organizations: United Nations Locations: LAGOS, Nigeria, Congo, Haiti

Netanyahu’s vow to unleash the full force of the Israeli military on Hamas has raised fears for the safety of Israeli civilians spread in undisclosed locations across the densely populated Gaza Strip. “It will make things much more complicated.”Political Cartoons View All 1202 ImagesLocating Israeli hostages in Gaza — something Israeli intelligence agencies failed to do in the case of Shalit — poses further challenges. “So the army would have to bomb everything.”Hamas already has said it seeks the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails — some 4,500 detainees, according to Israeli rights group B’Tselem — in exchange for the Israeli captives. There is “absolutely no chance” that the current government would agree to the release of Palestinian prisoners, said Gayil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This included the Schalit deal in 2011, and Israel’s release of 1,150 jailed Palestinians in exchange for three Israeli prisoners in 1985.

Persons: Benjamin Netanyahu’s, Gilad Shalit, Israel, Netanyahu, ” Michael Milstein, Shalit, ”, Yaakov Amidror, “, Khalil Shikaki, —, Gayil Talshir, Yair Lapid, Netanyahu “, Bezalel Smotrich, ” “, Ehud Yaari, Tali Levy, Adva Adar Organizations: JERUSALEM, Gaza, Hamas, West Bank, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Center, Policy, Survey Research, Palestinian, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Saturday Locations: Jihad, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Israel, ”, Ashdod

☆ Ex-Army sergeant charged with trying to pass US secrets to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( Holmes Lybrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A former US Army sergeant who allegedly lived in China for several years was arrested Friday on charges of keeping national defense information and attempting to share it with the Chinese government. If convicted, the two charges Schmidt faces – attempting to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information – each carry up to 10 years in prison. While in China, Schmidt allegedly created other documents detailing US Army intelligence practices over training, intelligence collection, interrogations methods as well as a hand-drawn diagram of an Army computer network. The former Army sergeant allegedly contacted Chinese companies run by the government there to advertise his services and access to sensitive material. The arrest comes after several members of the US armed forces have been charged this year with retaining or sharing military information with others, including China.

Persons: CNN —, Joseph Daniel Schmidt, –, Schmidt, ”, “, hadn’t Organizations: CNN, US Army, Human Intelligence, Justice Department, ’, Government, Army, US, National Locations: China, California, Beijing, Turkey, San Francisco, Japan

☆ Serbian president says reports about troop build up on the Kosovo border ‘not fully accurate’
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-02 | by ( Sugam Pokharel Claire Calzonetti Duarte Mendonca Sana Noor Haq | Sugam Pokharel | Claire Calzonetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Soldiers with the NATO-led international peacekeeping force, the Kosovo Force, in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo, on September 28. A top Kosovo Serb politician, Milan Radoicic said this weekend that he took part in the gun battle, Reuters reported. The confrontation comes months after ethnic Serbs attacked dozens of NATO peacekeepers in the town of Zvecan, in northern Kosovo, in May. The violence has ratcheted tensions in the Balkan region as the EU and US mediators attempt to finalize yearslong talks to normalize ties between Serbia and Kosovo. Following his first-round victory against American Aleksandar Kovacevic, Djokovic wrote “Kosovo is the [heart] of Serbia.

Persons: Aleksandar Vučić, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Vučić, “, ” Vučić, Stringer, Vjosa Osmani, Milan Radoicic, Radoicic, “ I’m, yearslong, Novak Djokovic, Djokovic, American Aleksandar Kovacevic Organizations: CNN, Serbian, NSC, National Security Council, NATO, ”, Kosovo Force, Getty, Kosovar, Kosovo Serb, Reuters, European, EU, American, “ Locations: Serbian, Kosovo, United States, Mitrovica, AFP, Serbia, Banjska, Belgrade, European Union, Brussels, Pristina, Zvecan, “ Kosovo

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ben Phillips’ childhood memories include basketball games with friends, and neighbors gathering in the summer shade at their St. Louis housing complex. Phillips and Deanes, 75, are co-founders of PHACTS, which stands for Pruitt-Igoe Historical Accounting, Compensation, and Truth Seeking. Their attorney, Elkin Kistner, said it would be “appropriate and necessary” for Hawley's proposal to be widened to include former Pruitt-Igoe residents. And St. Louis wasn't alone in being subjected to secretive Cold War-era testing. The area of the testing in St. Louis was described in Army documents as “a densely populated slum district.” About three-quarters of the residents were Black.

Persons: — Ben Phillips, Louis, ” Phillips, “, Phillips, Chester Deanes, Pruitt, —, inactions, Sen, Josh Hawley, Joe Biden, Elkin Kistner, Louis wasn't, Lisa Martino, Taylor, ” Deanes, ” Pruitt, Igoe, Deanes, Army “, Deane, Cori Bush, ” Organizations: LOUIS, Army, Associated Press, AP, Missouri Independent, Act, Republican U.S, Democratic, PHACTS, Democratic U.S . Rep Locations: St, Louis, ”, Pruitt, Deanes, Igoe, California, America

☆ Facing China, the Philippines and U.S. Join in Biggest Military Drill Yet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sui-Lee Wee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

More weapons could come. After the foreign and defense ministers of both the United States and the Philippines held talks earlier this month, Washington said it would commit to adopt “a security sector assistance road map” in the Philippines, which “will guide shared defense modernization investments.” Mr. Marcos is set to meet President Joe Biden next week in Washington. Collin Koh, a research fellow and expert on maritime security in Southeast Asia, said that the Philippines could “help to complicate Chinese defense planning” in the South China Sea. “Even weaker actors can pull off certain victories,” he said, pointing to how Ukraine’s vastly outgunned military had shocked and stymied Russian forces over the past year. Now, they say they are more reassured, especially after several visits by high-level U.S. officials.

NBC News, in collaboration with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Washington Post, and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, interviewed more than 40 current and former employees of contractors at military bases. According to an NBC News analysis, at least 10 companies with substantiated trafficking violations since 2007 have received billions in new government contracts. ‘Mad scramble’Foreign workers are crucial for the more than 700 military bases with U.S. service members around the world. One company that continues to get work at Middle East bases despite past violations documented in an Army compliance agreement is Tamimi, Abdulla’s employer. Lusambu Karim, a 50-year-old Ugandan, told NBC News about trafficking violations he said he encountered working for Aegis in Afghanistan from 2018 to 2020.

☆ Fact Check-Newspaper headline about Russian army “rapist kits” is fake
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A headline about Russian army “rapist kits” attributed by social media users to a British daily newspaper is fake. The fabricated line, as seen in a screenshot of an alleged page in the Daily Mirror, reads: “The Russian army issues <<rapist kits>> to soldiers” (here and here). It is followed by a standfirst, also fake, reading: “According to correspondents from the front line, the Russian army issues special “rapist kits” for its soldiers with the aim of using them against Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Moreover, Reuters was unable to find any evidence of such a piece being published by the Daily Mirror. The Daily Mirror did not publish any such piece.

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