‘Degrading’: why did a US fighter pilot avoid British trial after strangling a woman in England?

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A US fighter pilot strangled a woman in England. Why did it end in a ‘degrading’ military trial?

Jacob Wulfson’s fellow airmen decided his fate after a court martial at RAF Lakenheath – a distressing week for Sarah Steele, the academic he assaulted * Explainer: how the US bypasses British courts to try its military over crimes in the UK When Sarah Steele woke up on the morning of 2 December 2023, she found herself in a pool of cold water in a bathtub. She was naked and in the apartment of an American fighter pilot she had met in person for the first time the night before. She was confused. Her head hurt, and so did her neck. This was the account Steele, a British academic, provided to prosecutors. They later accused the pilot, Capt Jacob Wulfson, of drugging and strangling Steele in his apartment in the east of England, and penetrating her vagina with his penis without her consent. Continue reading...

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

theguardian.com

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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

lrb.co.uk

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.

972mag.com

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

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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...

cpj.org

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.

reut.rs

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’

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‘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...

theguardian.com

The Guardian’s new whistleblower tool buries leaks to journalists within its own readers’ everyday traffic

Think "I am Spartacus!" — but for leakers.

niemanlab.org

CoverDrop: Blowing the Whistle Through A News App

coverdrop.org

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...

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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...

theguardian.com

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…

theguardian.com

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…

theguardian.com

Engineers of Calamity - Boston Review

Famine denial’s past—and its present.

bostonreview.net