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Moldova's Russia-backed Transnistria region claims drone attacked military unit

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. State security services in Moldova's Russia-backed breakaway region of Transnistria said Friday that a drone attacked a military unit close to the border with Ukraine, causing minor damage to a radar station but no casualties. The incident occurred in the region of Rabnita, about 4 miles from the Ukraine border, the region's state security ministry said, adding that a criminal investigation has been opened. They did not say who they thought was behind the alleged attack.


Israel dismisses 2 officers over deadly drone strikes on aid workers in Gaza

FOX News

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli military said Friday that it dismissed two officers and reprimanded three others for their roles in drone strikes in Gaza that killed seven aid workers on a food-delivery mission, saying the officers had mishandled critical information and violated the army's rules of engagement. The findings of a retired general's investigation into the Monday killings marked an embarrassing admission by Israel, which faces growing accusations from key allies, including the United States, of not doing enough to protect Gaza's civilians from its war with the militant Hamas group. The findings are likely to bolster widespread skepticism over the Israeli military's decision-making.


Facebook and Instagram to label digitally altered content 'made with AI'

The Guardian

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, announced major changes to its policies on digitally created and altered media on Friday, before elections poised to test its ability to police deceptive content generated by artificial intelligence technologies. The social media giant will start applying "Made with AI" labels in May to AI-generated videos, images and audio posted on Facebook and Instagram, expanding a policy that previously addressed only a narrow slice of doctored videos, the vice-president of content policy, Monika Bickert, said in a blogpost. Bickert said Meta would also apply separate and more prominent labels to digitally altered media that poses a "particularly high risk of materially deceiving the public on a matter of importance", regardless of whether the content was created using AI or other tools. Meta will begin applying the more prominent "high-risk" labels immediately, a spokesperson said. The approach will shift the company's treatment of manipulated content, moving from a focus on removing a limited set of posts toward keeping the content up while providing viewers with information about how it was made.


Ukraine says three killed, 13 wounded in Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia

Al Jazeera

At least three people have been killed after Russia fired five missiles on Ukraine's southern city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said. "What marks today's strikes: first, there were two missile strikes, and then, about 40 minutes later, there were other strikes at the same place โ€“ just as rescuers, police started working," Governor Ivan Fedorov said on national television. Thirteen people were wounded, including a nine-year old boy, and four were hospitalised in grave condition. Two journalists were among the wounded. At least three apartment blocks, 10 private houses, shops and an unidentified industrial facility were also damaged, Fedorov said.


Denmark's top military chief dismissed after incident involving ship deployed to Red Sea

FOX News

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports on how autonomous weapons used in Ukraine have transformed the battlefield on'Special Report.' A series of scandals has blighted Denmark's Armed Forces at a time when the Scandinavian country and member of the NATO alliance is building up its defenses, chiefly as a response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The events have so far led to the dismissal this week of Denmark's top military chief, Gen. Flemming Lentfer, who failed to inform the defense minister about an incident on the frigate HDMS Iver Huitfeldt last month while deployed to the Red Sea, where it was part of a U.S.-led operation to defend commercial shipping against Houthi militants. On Thursday, a technical error onboard its sister ship, the frigate HDMS Niels Juel that was docked in a Danish harbor, led to the air space and maritime route being briefly closed due to fears a navy missile might launch unintentionally -- but not explode -- and send fragments falling into the busy shipping lane between the islands of Zeeland, where Copenhagen sits, and Funen. The Iver Huitfeldt, which returned from its Red Sea mission on Thursday, ahead of schedule, reportedly experienced a half-hour long malfunction of its missile and radar systems during a drone attack on March 9, according to the specialist defense news website Olfi.


Israel has brought 'relentless death and destruction' to Gaza: UN chief

Al Jazeera

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has brought "relentless death and destruction" to Palestinians in the strip, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said. In a speech marking six months since Israel's war on Gaza began, the UN chief said that "nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people." Respect for international humanitarian law is in tatters," he added. "During my visit to the Rafah crossing 10 days ago, I met veteran humanitarians who told me categorically that the crisis and suffering in Gaza is unlike any they have ever seen," Guterres said, adding that long lines of trucks with aid continued to face "obstacle after obstacle". "When the gates to aid are closed, the doors to starvation are opened," he said. "More than half the population โ€“ over a million people โ€“ are facing catastrophic hunger.


White House investigating reports Israel used AI to identify bombing targets in Gaza and create a 'kill list' of 37,000 Palestinians suspected of being militants

Daily Mail - Science & tech

The White House revealed it is looking into reports the Israeli army has been using an AI system to populate its'kill list' of alleged Hamas terrorists, hours after President Joe Biden's call with Benjamin Netanyahu. The report cited six Israeli intelligence officers, who admitted to using an AI called'Lavender' to classify as many as 37,000 Palestinians as suspected militants -- marking these people and their homes as acceptable targets for air strikes. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told CNN on Thursday that the reports had not been verified, but they were investigating. Israel has vehemently denied the AI's role with an army spokesperson describing the system as'auxiliary tools that assist officers in the process of incrimination.' However, during the call Biden reportedly threatened that he would condition the US' support for the attack in Gaza if the Israeli government didn't protect civilians and aid workers from offensive assaults.


China Is Using AI to Sow Disinformation and Stoke Discord Across Asia and the U.S., Microsoft Reports

TIME - Tech

Faking a political endorsement in Taiwan ahead of its crucial January election, sharing memes to amplify outrage over Japan's disposal of nuclear wastewater, and spreading conspiracy theories that claim the U.S. government was behind Hawaii's wildfire and Kentucky's train derailment last year. These are just some of the ways that China's influence operations have ramped up their use of artificial intelligence to sow disinformation and stoke discord worldwide over the last seven months, according to a new report released Friday by Microsoft Threat Intelligence. Microsoft has observed notable trends from state-backed actors, the report said, "that demonstrate not only doubling down on familiar targets, but also attempts to use more sophisticated influence techniques to achieve their goals." In particular, Chinese influence actors "experimented with new media" and "continued to refine AI-generated or AI-enhanced content." Among the operations highlighted in the report was a "a notable uptick in content featuring Taiwanese political figures ahead of the January 13 presidential and legislative elections."


Israeli military sacks two officers over strikes on WCK aid convoy

Al Jazeera

The Israeli military says it has dismissed two officers for their roles in an attack in central Gaza that killed seven aid workers, saying they had mishandled critical information and violated the army's rules of engagement. The military said in a report on Friday that an internal investigation "found that the forces identified a gunman on one of the aid trucks" which led to the discovery of another. The United States-based charity, World Central Kitchen (WCK), whose convoy was hit said Israel's "apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort". WCK CEO Erin Gore also said "Israel needs to take concrete steps to assure the safety of humanitarian aid workers. The Israeli military said that after the vehicles left the warehouse where the aid had been unloaded "one of the commanders mistakenly assumed that the gunmen were located inside the accompanying vehicles and that these were Hamas terrorists". It called the strike on the aid vehicles "a grave mistake stemming from a serious failure due to a mistaken identification, errors in decision-making, and an attack contrary to the Standard Operating Procedures". Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Rory Challands pointed out that the report by the Israeli military makes no mention of any potential legal prosecutions against the dismissed officers. "That might come in the future, but it's certainly not contained in the report," he said. "What we're getting is dismissals and military reprimands.