3+ day, 9+ hour ago (480+ words) The so-called ceasefire might seem like a good excuse to bury the hatchet and enjoy a quieter family dinner, but it's not. To be clear, if two years of livestreamed annihilation have failed to shift your loved ones' support away from the Israeli ethnostate, I doubt there is anything a dinner table argument could do to persuade them. There can be no reasoning with a worldview that forecloses seeing Palestinians as fully human. I navigate this with pro-Israel members of my own British Jewish family. It's painful, and I don't have any good advice. Whatever your approach with your family, there can be no pretense that the genocide in Gaza is over. I'll be thinking of another family this Thanksgiving: that of my student from Gaza. Families like mine, divided over Israel, are not the important ones here. For my…...

4+ day, 7+ hour ago (529+ words) The anti-woke Wikipedia alternative aims to create a parallel version of the truth for the right wing. LK Seilling, an AI researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute, describes Grokipedia as "cloaking misinformation." "Everyone knows Wikipedia. They're an epistemic authority, if you'd want to call them that. [Musk] wants to attach himself to exactly that epistemic authority to substantiate his political agenda," he says. It's worth paying attention to how Grok frames a few key issues. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution was established after World War II to ensure that no German leader tries to overturn the country's constitution again. But Grokipedia subtly casts doubt on the institution's legitimacy arguing that it is "downplaying" the AfD's achievements. According to Seiling, who is German, Grokipedia is attempting to undermine the authority of German institutions created to prevent another Hitler....

1+ week, 1+ day ago (484+ words) An FBI procurement document requests information about AI surveillance on drones, raising concerns about a crackdown on free speech. The FBI is looking for ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into drones, according to federal procurement documents. On Thursday, the FBI put out the call to potential vendors of AI and machine learning technology to be used in unmanned aerial systems in a so-called "request for information," where government agencies request companies submit initial information for a forthcoming contract opportunity. The FBI is in search of technology that could enable drones to conduct facial recognition, license plate recognition, and detection of weapons, among other uses, according to the document. The pitch from the FBI immediately raised concerns among civil libertarians, who warned that enabling FBI drones with artificial intelligence could exacerbate the chilling effect of surveillance of activities protected by the…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago (1827+ words) Years before the police killing of Breonna Taylor brought "no-knock" raids into the national spotlight, the NYPD mistakenly raided Alberta Spruill's home " and literally scared her to death. Despite repeated warnings that these reckless raids would end in tragedy, few listened. This episode of Collateral Damage, hosted by Radley Balko, explores how Spruill's death catalyzed the political rise of Eric Adams, a young Black NYPD officer who would later become mayor. It also examines how promises of reform quickly faded, and the NYPD returned to business as usual. Radley Balko: On an early spring morning in Harlem, 57-year-old Alberta Spruill was getting ready for work. She had worked for the City of New York for nearly three decades. And at the time, she worked in the personnel office of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. Joel Berger: Alberta Spruill was…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (1009+ words) The tech giant deleted the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups " a capitulation to Trump sanctions. A documentary featuring mothers surviving Israel's genocide in Gaza. A video investigation uncovering Israel's role in the killing of a Palestinian American journalist. Another video revealing Israel's destruction of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank. YouTube surreptitiously deleted all these videos in early October by wiping the accounts that posted them from its website, along with their channels' archives. The accounts belonged to three prominent Palestinian human rights groups: Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. The move came in response to a U.S. government campaign to stifle accountability for alleged Israeli war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinian groups' YouTube channels hosted hours of footage documenting and highlighting alleged…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago (460+ words) Officials acknowledged they don't know the identities of the people they're killing and can't meet the evidentiary burden to prosecute survivors. "We are not in an armed conflict with these cartels. And so this is just murder." Jacobs said the Pentagon officials who briefed her on Thursday admitted that the administration does not know the identities of all the individuals who were killed in the strikes. "They said that they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessels to do the strikes," Jacobs told The Intercept. "They just need to show a connection to a DTO or affiliate." Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson did not reply to questions about why the Department of War is unwilling to positively identify the people it is killing and cannot satisfy the evidentiary burden necessary to hold or prosecute suspects. Brian Finucane,…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago (602+ words) Progressive Rep. Danny Davis rejected AIPAC cash at the end of his career. Now the Israel lobby is coming for his seat. Pro-Israel donors have picked a candidate to replace Rep. Danny Davis in Chicago. Jason Friedman, one of 18 candidates vying to replace Davis in the March Democratic primary next year, has pulled ahead of the pack in fundraising. His campaign reported donations totaling over $1.5 million in its October filing with the Federal Election Commission. AIPAC has not said publicly whether it's backing a candidate in the race, but more than 35 of its donors have given money to Friedman's campaign. Among them, 17 have donated to the United Democracy Project, and eight have donated to both. Together, the Friedman donors have contributed just under $2 million to AIPAC and UDP since 2021. Reached by phone, the pro-Israel donor Larry Hochberg told The Intercept…...

1+ day, 7+ hour ago (255+ words) After J. Edgar Hoover cast the civil rights leader as a "liar," NYPD's spy unit heeded the call. Joshua Clark Davis is a historian at the University of Baltimore. On their face, the images are mundane. King emerges from a car, greeted by two men in suits. In another, King stands with family and confidants, including his wife, the activist Coretta Scott King; his mother, Alberta Williams King; and his friend and adviser Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on Washington. In a third shot, Coretta shakes hands with Wagner. These surveillance tactics are of more than just historical significance. Local police continue to deploy weapons of political espionage against movements for justice to this day. In Trump's first term, police in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Portland, and Chicago surveilled the same racial justice activists disparaged by the president. Words matter. Federal…...

3+ week, 4+ day ago (674+ words) Italy's Nova news agency confirmed it let reporter Gabriele Nunziati go for asking a European official about Israel at a press conference. An Italian journalist who asked a European Commission official why Israel shouldn't pay for the reconstruction of Gaza was let go by his news agency. Gabriele Nunziati, a Brussels-based reporter who covered the EU for Rome's Nova news agency, told The Intercept he received a notice that he would lose his job barely a month after he became a correspondent. The move, which was first reported by the Italian news website Fanpage, came after he asked Paula Pinho, the European Commission's chief spokesperson, about Gaza's reconstruction on October 13. "You've been repeating several times that Russia should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine," Nunziati, who is a contractor with Nova, said at a press conference. "Do you believe that…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago (929+ words) Veteran prosecutor Fern Smith convicted both Tremane Wood and Richard Glossip. She calls a judge in both cases a friend. No, Smith replied. "I don't have any of the documents that you requested." In fact, she didn't bother to look. "I don't have to," she told Brewster matter-of-factly. "I know I didn't have any." Read Our Complete Coverage Brewster pressed on. "Other than that trip to Spain, what other trips have you been on with her?" Suddenly, Smith was a lot more forthcoming. "We went to Las Vegas," she said. That was in October 1996, which she only remembered because her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died that same year, she explained. The trip included Stallings and "several other ladies from the DA's office." "OK," Brewster said. "Other than the Vegas trip and the trip to Spain with…...