All posts tagged: unfolding

America’s first AI-fueled war is unfolding in Iran. Here’s how we got here : NPR

America’s first AI-fueled war is unfolding in Iran. Here’s how we got here : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

TONYA MOSLEY, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I’m Tonya Mosley. America’s first AI-fueled war is unfolding right now. Over the last three weeks, the U.S. and Israel have launched strikes against Iran, hitting a thousand targets in the first 24 hours alone – nearly double the scale of the 2003 shock-and-awe campaign in Iraq. The system helping to enable much of this is called the Maven Smart System, and running inside of it is Claude from the company Anthropic, an AI model that millions of people interact with every single day. On the very first day of the war, a U.S. Tomahawk missile struck a girls elementary school in southern Iran, killing more than 165 people, most of them schoolgirls. A preliminary military investigation found the strike likely resulted from outdated intelligence. And while the role of AI has not been confirmed, the Pentagon is still investigating whether Maven played any part. At the center of this story is a little-known Marine colonel named Drew Cukor, who spent decades fighting to bring AI to the …

‘Catastrophic’: Humanitarian emergency unfolding in Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes intensify

‘Catastrophic’: Humanitarian emergency unfolding in Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes intensify

Published by Sam Flores

Haxi Meyers-Belkin is pleased to welcome Kevin Charbel, Head of Première Urgence Internationale mission in Lebanon. From his vantage point, the current airstrikes in southern Lebanon are triggering a new humanitarian emergency exacerbating the prolonged national crisis. The new attacks are once again plunging Lebanon into a state of war: significant civilian casualties and the displacement of tens of thousands of people, many of whom had only recently returned to their homes following the November 2024 ceasefire. Keywords for this article Source link

ICE accused of overseeing “unfolding humanitarian crisis” at Texas detention center

ICE accused of overseeing “unfolding humanitarian crisis” at Texas detention center

Published by Sam Flores

Following the death of a detainee, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Texas is facing renewed criticism for reported human rights abuses. The American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 45 detainees at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss in El Paso, issuing a report in December that detailed than 80 human rights abuses, including “physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, and intimidation to self-deport.” One detainee identified as “Samuel” said an ICE officer broke his front tooth and “grabbed my testicles and firmly crushed them,” as another “forced his fingers deep into my ears.” Another, identified as “Eduardo,” said he was beaten unconscious by guards, then left in an “isolated punishment cell” for five days where he did not have access to his high blood pressure medication. “These accounts reveal an unfolding humanitarian crisis at the military base — one which may spread across the country as the Trump administration expands detention dangerously, recklessly and with unprecedented speed,” the statement said. Start your day with essential news from Salon.Sign up for our free morning newsletter, …

Laura Jedeed warns: ‘Nothing legal, ethical, or moral about what’s unfolding on America’s streets’

Laura Jedeed warns: ‘Nothing legal, ethical, or moral about what’s unfolding on America’s streets’

Published by Sam Flores

François Picard is pleased to welcome independent journalist Laura Jedeed sharing a piercing exposé of systemic dysfunction, ethical erosion, and authoritarianism blossoming in the US. In an era marked by institutional opacity and profound public distrust, Ms. Jedeed’s firsthand account on Slate of her ICE candidacy offers a rare glimpse into a federal system in utter disarray. Her story sheds a cruel light on the collapse of due process, the normalisation of extreme force, and the silent corrosion of democratic values under the weight of unchecked power. Keywords for this article Source link

A new type of microscope lets scientists observe life unfolding inside cells

A new type of microscope lets scientists observe life unfolding inside cells

Published by Jenni Sidey

A new kind of microscope is giving scientists a way to watch life inside cells with a clarity that feels almost unfair. Instead of choosing between seeing big structures or tiny particles, researchers can now track both at once, in living cells, without dyes or labels that might stress them. For anyone who cares about how drugs work, how cells die or how viruses move, that is a big deal. Why Old Microscopes Forced a Tough Choice Modern biology has leaned on two powerful, but limited, label free tools. Quantitative phase microscopy, or QPM, looks at light that passes through a cell. It excels at showing you whole cells and larger inner parts, down to a bit over 100 nanometers. You can see outlines, organelles and broad shape changes, but smaller structures fade into the background. Interferometric scattering microscopy, called iSCAT, works very differently. It watches light that scatters backward from tiny objects, small enough to include single proteins. With iSCAT you can track a single nanoparticle as it zips through a cell. The tradeoff …

The future of autonomous warfare is unfolding in Europe

The future of autonomous warfare is unfolding in Europe

Published by skeptic

Linking all these elements together is Altra, the company’s so-called “­recce-strike software platform,” which served as part of the collective brain in the ASGARD trials. It’s the key piece. “These kill webs are competitive in attack and defense,” says General Richard Barrons, a former commander of the United Kingdom’s Joint Forces Command, who recently coauthored a major Ministry of Defense modernization plan that champions the deterrent effect of autonomous targeting webs. Barrons invited me to imagine Russian leaders contemplating a possible incursion into Narva in eastern Estonia. “If they’ve done a reasonable job,” he said, referring to NATO, “Russia knows not to do that … that little incursion—it will never get there. It’ll be destroyed the minute it sets foot across the border.”  With a targeting web in place, a medley of missiles, drones, and artillery could coordinate across borders and domains to hit anything that moves. On its product page for Altra, Helsing notes that the system is capable of orchestrating “saturation attacks,” a military tactic for breaching an adversary’s defenses with a barrage …