Politics
Abu Ghraib Torture Trial Against Virginia-Based Defense Contractor Begins Again
A federal case brought against a military contractor by three Iraqi men detained at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 went to trial for the second time this week. The plaintiffs accuse Virginia-based CACI, which was hired by the U.S. government to provide interrogation services, of contributing to the torture of detainees at the Iraqi prison.…
Read MoreU.S. Military Makes First Confirmed Purchase of OpenAI by War-fighting Forces
Less than a year after OpenAI quietly signaled it wanted to do business with the Pentagon, a procurement document obtained by The Intercept shows U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, believes access to OpenAI’s technology is “essential” for its mission. The September 30 document lays out AFRICOM’s rationale for buying cloud computing services directly from Microsoft…
Read MoreNetflix Wiped Most of Its “Palestinian Stories” Collection — and Erased the Whole Thing in Israel
In 2021, Netflix moved to create a new movie collection for its viewers. “Netflix will launch the Palestinian Stories collection, showcasing films from some of the Arab world’s finest filmmakers,” said an announcement of the new grouping. “[T]he collection is a tribute to the creativity and passion of the Arab film industry as Netflix continues…
Read MoreCops in Riot Gear Storm Penn Students’ House in Month-Old Vandalism Case
Last Friday, 13 police officers gathered in the early morning hours outside an off-campus residential building in West Philadelphia. It was the home of several University of Pennsylvania students. Donning their full tactical gear, including riot helmets, and armed with assault rifles and handguns, the police threatened to break down the door with a battering…
Read MorePro-Palestine Students Face Expulsion for Using a Bullhorn
Demonstrators occupy a makeshift protest camp on Parish Beach at Swarthmore College on April 24, 2024, in Swarthmore, Pa. Photo: Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, 11 students stand accused by the administration of assaulting college staff during Palestine solidarity protests in the last year. Yet there wasn’t any pushing, grabbing, nor any…
Read MoreIsraeli Military Joins In on Settlers’ War to Displace Palestinian Bedouins
AL-MUARAJAT, WEST BANK — It was early on a mid-September day when a group of Israeli settlers arrived at a small Palestinian Bedouin school in the occupied West Bank. In short order, they stormed the building. Armed and emboldened, the settlers threw rocks, broke windows, and injured several students and teachers. Children scrambled for safety…
Read MoreThe FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Has a New Target: Animal Rights Activists
On a chilly, early morning in January 2019, a group of animal rights activists descended upon a poultry farm in central Texas. Donning plastic gloves, medical masks, hazmat suits, and T-shirts emblazoned with “Meat the Victims,” they slipped through the unlocked door of a massive, windowless barn. Inside, they found 27,000 chicks densely packed across…
Read MoreTexas Lawmakers’ Unprecedented Actions Halt Robert Roberson’s Execution — For Now
The Texas Supreme Court halted Robert Roberson’s scheduled execution late Thursday night, following an extraordinary series of legal twists and turns spurred by a bipartisan group of state lawmakers. The legislators, including influential members of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, deployed a sequence of jiu-jitsu-like moves to give Roberson a chance to prove his innocence.…
Read MoreFour Days in Gaza: Five Journalists Killed or Wounded
Over four days this week, the Israeli military killed two journalists and severely injured at least three others. The attacks are part of the harrowing toll taken on Gaza’s press corp since the military began its all-out assault on the Palestinian territory just over a year ago. On Wednesday, as Israel intensified its attacks on…
Read MoreInternet Archive Was Exposing User Email Addresses for Years Before Recent Breach
The Internet Archive recently was the target of a data breach that exposed information related to 31 million users, including their usernames and email addresses, among other materials. The group SN_Blackmeta has claimed responsibility for a concurrent DDoS attack that took the site offline. The party responsible for the data breach has not yet been identified. Related New York Times Doesn’t…
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