DL Open Thread: Monday, August 11, 2025

They Kill Journalists, Don’t They?  By ‘they’, I mean the genocidal government of Israel and, yes, the journalists were targeted:

A prominent Al Jazeera journalist who had previously been threatened by Israel has been killed along with four colleagues in an Israeli airstrike.

Anas al-Sharif, who was one of Al Jazeera’s most recognisable faces in Gaza, was killed while inside a tent for journalists outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday night. His funeral was held on Monday morning.

Seven people in total were killed in the attack, including al-Sharif, Al Jazeera correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh and camera operators Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, according to the Qatar-based broadcaster.

The Israel Defense Force admitted the strike, claiming the reporter had “served as the head of a terrorist cell in the Hamas terrorist organisation and was responsible for advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF forces”.

It claimed it had intelligence and documents found in Gaza as proof but rights advocates said he had been targeted for his frontline reporting on the Gaza war and that Israel’s claim lacked evidence.

Calling al-Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists,” Al Jazeera said the attack was “a desperate attempt to silence voices in anticipation of the occupation of Gaza.”

Last month Israeli IDF spokesperson Avichai Adraee shared a video of al-Sharif on X and accused him of being a member of Hamas’ military wing. At the time the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, Irene Khan, called it “an unsubstantiated claim” and a “blatant assault on journalists”.

Israel, which does not allow foreign journalists into Gaza and which has targeted local reporters, has killed 237 journalists since the war started on 7 October 2023, according to Gaza’s government media office. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at least 186 journalists have been killed in the Gaza conflict. Israel denies deliberately targeting journalists.

I know, I know, ‘B-b-but Hamas.’  Israel has become a well-deserved pariah.  There is no going back.  You’ll notice that there is nobody defending them here any more.  My decision.  Some things are simply not debatable.  Genocide being one of them.

Don’t They Have Other Stuff To Do?  I mean, besides chasing Texas legislators, and now, this?:

The Trump administration plans to temporarily reassign 120 F.B.I. agents in Washington to nighttime patrol duties as part of President Trump’s crackdown on the city’s street crime, according to people familiar with the matter.

Most of the agents will be pulled from their regular duties at the F.B.I.’s Washington field office, but it was not immediately clear if agency leaders would need to pull additional personnel from nearby cities, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe details of an effort that were not meant to be public.

In a statement, an F.B.I. spokeswoman said agents were “participating in the increased federal law enforcement presence in Washington,” and referred additional questions to the White House.

Hey, if they kill some Black folks and some reporters along the way, more’s the better.  I mean:

Total violent crime for 2024 in the District Of Columbia is down 35% from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in 30 years, according to data collected by the Metropolitan Police Department and announced by United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves. 

B-but, they beat up ‘Big Balls’.

Pleasepleaseplease:  AI Industry Faces Massive Copyright Lawsuit:

AI industry groups are urging an appeals court to block what they say is the largest copyright class action ever certified. They’ve warned that a single lawsuit raised by three authors over Anthropic’s AI training now threatens to “financially ruin” the entire AI industry if up to 7 million claimants end up joining the litigation and forcing a settlement.

Last week, Anthropic petitioned to appeal the class certification, urging the court to weigh questions that the district court judge, William Alsup, seemingly did not. Alsup allegedly failed to conduct a “rigorous analysis” of the potential class and instead based his judgment on his “50 years” of experience, Anthropic said.

If the appeals court denies the petition, Anthropic argued, the emerging company may be doomed. As Anthropic argued, it now “faces hundreds of billions of dollars in potential damages liability at trial in four months” based on a class certification rushed at “warp speed” that involves “up to seven million potential claimants, whose works span a century of publishing history,” each possibly triggering a $150,000 fine.

Confronted with such extreme potential damages, Anthropic may lose its rights to raise valid defenses of its AI training, deciding it would be more prudent to settle, the company argued. And that could set an alarming precedent, considering all the other lawsuits generative AI (GenAI) companies face over training on copyrighted materials, Anthropic argued.

Perhaps it’s just me, but ‘We stole intellectual property from up to 7 million people for the greater good’ is not the most persuasive argument.  Seriously, though, does anybody expect justice to prevail in Trump’s Amerika?

‘Oops, Perhaps We Should Reconsider Firing All Those Weather Folks’.  You know, with hurricane season due any day now:

The Trump administration is planning to undo most of the cuts to the National Weather Service put in place earlier this year by the Department of Government Efficiency.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has received permission to fill 450 positions at the National Weather Service, roles that will include meteorologists, hydrologists and radar technicians, according to Reps. Eric Sorensen, D-Ill., and Mike Flood, R-Neb.

The move to rehire for those positions, which was first reported by CNN, comes after a summer of deadly, extreme weather that put cuts to NWS under particular scrutiny, with many politicians in both parties pushing to undo the cuts.

Don’t think the rehirings will happen quickly enough to provide the information that people will need…

One of today’s ‘Top Headlines’ on Delaware Online: ‘When is the first day of fall? What you need to know.’  I can’t even…

Speaker Mimi’s Truncated Proposals For Special Session.  Could be a fiery session as Karl Baker explains:

As Tuesday’s special legislative session drew nearer, factions of lawmakers brought forth competing bills over the past week, each in response to widespread and politically perilous public outrage that followed recent sharp increases in property tax bills that fund Delaware schools and local services.

Now, it appears that only three of the 13 pieces of legislation that had been introduced for the session will be considered during Tuesday’s proceedings.

An agenda posted late on Friday for the Delaware House of Representatives includes none of the legislation that is primarily sponsored by Republicans or by progressive Democrats supported by the Delaware Working Families Party.

Instead, the agenda shows three bills that appear relatively popular across the political spectrum, and that House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown last week said would be her focus for the special session. In all, it is a truncated list that highlights the strict control of the legislative process that has been a hallmark of Democratic leadership for years. 

Here’s why it could be a fiery session:

Asked at the time if she expected House leadership to consider their legislation, Wilson-Anton indicated that she and her allies may have more leverage during the special session than is typical during a regular session.

She noted that any piece of legislation – including those favored by leadership – must get buy-in from a majority of the chamber just to be considered during the proceedings because special sessions bypass mandatory committee hearings. (Motion To Suspend Rules.)

“For us to consider any legislation … we would have to suspend rules in the House. And so anything is possible,” Wilson-Anton said.

This doesn’t include whatever legislation might be forthcoming from the Senate.  Speaker Mimi could compromise, but that hasn’t been her style so far.  Stay tuned.

What do you want to talk about?