AI got the blame for the Iran school bombing. The truth is far more worrying

LLMs-gone-rogue dominated coverage, but had nothing to do with the targeting. Instead, it was choices made by human beings, over many years, that gave us this atrocity

Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez assured US of cooperation before Maduro’s capture Exclusive: sources say powerful figures in the regime secretly pledged US and Qatari officials they would welcome Maduro’s departure Before the US military snatched Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, Delcy Rodríguez and her powerful brother pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration once the strongman was gone, four sources involved at high levels with the discussions told the Guardian. Rodríguez, who was sworn in on 5 January as acting president to replace Maduro, and her brother Jorge, the head of the national assembly, secretly assured US and Qatari officials through intermediaries ahead of time that they would welcome Maduro’s departure, according to the sources. Continue reading...

Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez assured US of cooperation before Maduro’s capture

Three journalists among 11 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza Reporters had been in car on way to new camp, says media group, as two 13-year-old boys killed in separate incidents Hospitals in Gaza say Israeli forces killed at least 11 Palestinians on Wednesday, including two 13-year-old boys and three journalists, in the latest violence to undermine a three-month-old ceasefire. Palestinian health officials said the Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian journalists who were travelling in a car to film a newly established displacement camp in the Netzarim area of central Gaza. Continue reading...

Three journalists among 11 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in Gaza

MI5 impeded inquiry into Stakeknife agent who murdered for IRA, says official report Nine-year investigation paints highly critical picture of MI5’s handling of double agent Britain’s security services allowed a top agent inside the IRA to commit murders and then impeded a police investigation into the affair, according to a damning official report. MI5 helped the double agent known as Stakeknife to evade justice from a perverse sense of loyalty that outlasted Northern Ireland’s Troubles, the police investigation known as Operation Kenova said on Tuesday. Continue reading...

MI5 impeded inquiry into Stakeknife agent who murdered for IRA, says official report

Revealed: Qatar-linked intelligence operation targeted ICC prosecutor’s alleged victim Exclusive: Woman who accused Karim Khan of misconduct was subject of covert operation involving two British private intelligence firms The woman who has accused the prosecutor of the international criminal court of sexual abuse has been targeted by private intelligence firms as part of a covert operation said to have taken place on behalf of Qatar. The Guardian can reveal details of the intrusive operation, which has obtained sensitive information about the woman, who works at the ICC, and her family members. Continue reading...

Revealed: Qatar-linked intelligence operation targeted ICC prosecutor’s alleged victim

Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders The tech giants agreed to extraordinary terms to clinch a lucrative contract with the Israeli government, documents show When Google and Amazon negotiated a major $1.2bn cloud-computing deal in 2021, their customer – the Israeli government – had an unusual demand: agree to use a secret code as part of an arrangement that would become known as the “winking mechanism”. The demand, which would require Google and Amazon to effectively sidestep legal obligations in countries around the world, was born out of Israel’s concerns that data it moves into the global corporations’ cloud platforms could end up in the hands of foreign law enforcement authorities. Continue reading...

Revealed: Israel demanded Google and Amazon use secret ‘wink’ to sidestep legal orders

UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told Exclusive: two dossiers of material seen by the security council raise questions over export of British arms to the UAE, which has been accused of supplying weapons to paramilitary RSF group British military equipment has been found on battlefields in Sudan, used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of genocide, according to documents seen by the UN security council. UK-manufactured small-arms target systems and British-made engines for armoured personnel carriers have been recovered from combat sites in a conflict that has now caused the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe. Continue reading...

UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told

Conor Gearty · Unwelcome Remnant: Erasing the Human Rights Act The Supreme Court is quietly editing the Human Rights Act out of existence. In cases where human rights cannot be...

‘None of this is being done in secret – the judgments are public – but the changes have barely registered. Judges, whether serving or retired, tend not to speak out. Barristers know on which side their bread is buttered.’

Conor Gearty on the Human Rights Act: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

How a Scottish maritime museum ended up in Israel’s 3D propaganda An analysis of dozens of Israeli army animations discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but commercial libraries and content creators.

An analysis of dozens of 3D animations published by the Israeli army discovered digital assets sourced not from classified intelligence but rather from commercial libraries and content creators as far afield as Scotland and Port Orchard.

www.972mag.com/israeli-army...

@mekomit.bsky.social

Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai The Irish novelist discovered the Hungarian writer two decades ago, and was excited by the verbal pyrotechnics of a rule-breaking storyteller

Colm Tóibín: Why I set up a press to publish Nobel winner László Krasznahorkai

In response to our reporting with @972mag.com, Microsoft has terminated Unit 8200’s access to cloud and AI technology used to operate an expansive surveillance system covering Gaza and the West Bank.

Israel’s killing of 31 Yemeni journalists marks deadliest global attack in 16 years - Committee to Protect Journalists Washington, D.C., September 19, 2025—Israel’s targeted strikes on two newspaper offices in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which killed 31 journalists and media support workers on September 10, signal that it...

Israel’s targeted strikes on two newspaper offices in Yemen’s capital is the second deadliest single attack on the press ever recorded by CPJ, following the 2009 Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines. Read more: cpj.org?p=522184

Launching today: James Butler’s (@piercepenniless.bsky.social) new podcast series ‘On Politics’ goes beyond the headlines and push notifications to get at the real forces transforming our politics here and abroad.

Listen and subscribe now.

Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/o...

OBITUARY Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire on Monday while operating a live video feed at Gaza's Nasser Hospital, reported on the war's civilian suffering while himself living in a tent and struggling to find food for his family.

OBITUARY Hussam al-Masri, the Reuters journalist killed by Israeli fire in Gaza reut.rs/4n5R3TV

Mariam Abu Dagga: Gaza journalist killed in Israeli strike ‘carried her camera into the heart of the field’ The 33-year-old photojournalist committed to conveying suffering of civilians with ‘rare honesty and courage’

Mariam Abu Dagga: Gaza journalist killed in Israeli strike ‘carried her camera into the heart of the field’

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians Revealed: The Israeli military undertook an ambitious project to store a giant trove of Palestinians’ phone calls on Microsoft’s servers in Europe One afternoon in late 2021, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, met with the commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200. On the spy chief’s agenda: moving vast amounts of top secret intelligence material into the US company’s cloud. Meeting at Microsoft’s headquarters near Seattle, a former chicken farm turned hi-tech campus, the spymaster, Yossi Sariel, won Nadella’s support for a plan that would grant Unit 8200 access to a customised and segregated area within Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform. Continue reading...

‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians

The Guardian’s new whistleblower tool buries leaks to journalists within its own readers’ everyday traffic Think "I am Spartacus!" — but for leakers.

The Guardian app’s own data flows make leaks indistinguishable from regular traffic — cutting off one of the easiest ways for a repressive government or a corporate boss to identify a leaker. www.niemanlab.org/2025/06/the-...

The Guardian's Secure Messaging tool is an implementation of the CoverDrop protocol, which was invented by researchers at www.cst.cam.ac.uk

We have published our code under an Apache 2.0 licence at github.com/guardian/cov...

There's a technical paper on how it works at www.coverdrop.org

Today we’re launching a new tool to share confidential information with us - built by a brilliant team of Guardian engineers led by @itsibitzi.dev in partnership with Cambridge university researchers.

Claims that UK spy agencies aided CIA torture after 9/11 to be heard in rare trial Cases filed by two Guantánamo Bay prisoners allege MI5 and MI6 were complicit in their mistreatment The UK government’s decades-long efforts to keep details of its intelligence agencies’ involvement in the CIA’s notorious post-9/11 torture programme hidden will face an “unprecedented” challenge this week as two cases are brought before a secretive court. The cases, filed by two prisoners held at the US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, will be heard across a rare four-day trial at the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT), which has been investigating claims the UK’s intelligence agencies were complicit in their mistreatment. Continue reading...

Claims that UK spy agencies aided CIA torture after 9/11 to be heard in rare trial

ICC judges order that arrest warrant requests in Palestine case be kept secret Exclusive: Prosecutor barred from public announcements as he prepares round of applications for Israeli suspects The prosecutor of the international criminal court has been restrained from publicising any new applications for arrest warrants in the court’s Palestine case after judges ordered they must be kept secret, the Guardian has learned. In an order issued behind closed doors this month, ICC judges are understood to have told the prosecutor, Karim Khan, he can no longer make public announcements referring to the existence of his applications for arrest warrants or his intention to seek them. Continue reading...

ICC judges order that arrest warrant requests in Palestine case be kept secret

Revealed: Israeli military creating ChatGPT-like tool using vast collection of Palestinian surveillance data The powerful new AI model is designed to analyze intercepted communications – but experts say such systems can exacerbate biases and are prone to making mistakes Israel’s military surveillance agency has used a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian…

Revealed: Israeli military creating ChatGPT-like tool using vast collection of Palestinian surveillance data

Revealed: Microsoft deepened ties with Israeli military to provide tech support during Gaza war Leaked documents shed light on how Israel integrated the US tech giant into its war effort to meet growing demand for cloud and AI tools The Israeli military’s reliance on Microsoft’s cloud technology and artificial intelligence systems surged during the…

Revealed: Microsoft deepened ties with Israeli military to provide tech support during Gaza war

Engineers of Calamity - Boston Review Famine denial’s past—and its present.

"The history of famine denialism begins with the invention of the concept of famine itself." Alex de Waal on mass starvation in Sudan, Tigray, and Gaza: