Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper:

- A statement by the Southern Command of the Israeli Army indicates that half of the Qassam Brigades’ members, numbering about 30,000, were not eliminated.

- Out of 24 battalions, 21 battalions were dismantled. There are battalions in the central region that have not yet been dismantled, including the Nuseirat and Deir al-Balah battalions.

- It is possible that the Israeli army will conduct a ground maneuver against the remaining battalions.

[J]

Pentagon: Houthi attack on ship caused little leaking on tanker

😂

TechRadar:

Google and Microsoft each consumed 24 TWh each of electricity during 2023. Iceland, Ghana, the Dominican Republic and Tunisia each consumed 19 TWh, while Jordan consumed 20 TWh, highlighting the two tech firms’ immense scale. Libya (25 TWh) and Slovakia (26 TWh) consumed slightly more power.

Analysis by Michael Thomas, shared on X, claims both Google and Microsoft consumed the same amount of energy as Azerbaijan.

The comparison between entire countries and two single companies highlights the colossal energy requirements of Big Tech. The consumption also alludes to the environmental impacts of data centers, which are used to power cloud services including storage and compute, as well as a new generation of artificial intelligence.

BBC:

Google's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 were 48% higher than in 2019, according to its latest environmental report.

The tech giant puts it down to the increasing amounts of energy needed by its data centres, exacerbated by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence (AI).

AI-powered services involve considerably more computer power, prompting a series of warnings about the technology's environmental impact.

The increasing energy - and water - use of AI has prompted a series of warnings, especially as the sector is forecast to keep growing rapidly.

The boss of the UK's National Grid said that the combination of AI and quantum computing would lead to a six-fold surge in demand in the next 10 years.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace:

U.S. intelligence agencies are investing heavily in AI and advanced analytics, which officials say will “improve [the intelligence community’s] ability to provide timely and accurate insights into competitor intentions, capabilities, and actions.”

Securing, protecting, and processing AI data will take massive computing and networking resources, and the national security establishment is also investing in cluster computing, cloud environments, advanced networking, and quantum-resistant cryptography.

Data centers and data transmission networks together account for 2–3 percent of global electricity use and about 1 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). These percentages are climbing, with the IEA calling for “strong government and industry efforts on energy efficiency, renewables procurement and [research and development]” to curb emissions growth.

Training AI models is extremely resource intensive, and the demands on the nation’s power grid will only grow as these models become more sophisticated and their use expands.

Comment:
When Israel uses AI to kill Palestinians, they also kill the planet.

[RT]

International Centre of Justice for Palestinians:

Today at a press conference in Central London, former Foreign Minister Sir Alan Duncan reiterated his support for Palestinian people and announced that he has been cleared by the Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) of any wrongdoing following an internal investigation resulting from a baseless accusation of antisemitism.

The initial complaint came after Sir Alan, a defender of Palestinian people’s human rights for over 30 years, appeared on LBC with Nick Ferrari on 4th April 2024. During the initial interview, he defended international law, called for an arms embargo and highlighted the illegality of settlements.

He went on to say that politicians promoting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s extremist policies should be sacked from government or expelled from the House of Lords.

Despite his focus on Palestinian people’s human rights, he was subject to an attack that conflated antisemitism with defence of Palestinians’ human rights. He was then subject to an investigation by CCHQ that he referred to as “a political scandal which discredits the Conservative Party, and which amounts to a McCarthyite witch hunt which is nothing less than despicable.”

Despite facing significant personal financial cost and reputational damage from the baseless allegation, Sir Alan thanked the panel for their integrity and thoroughness, saying that the three members had behaved impeccably throughout. In his concluding remarks, Sir Alan said antisemitism must be ruthlessly called out where it genuinely exists. He also highlighted the problem of weaponising it, with a defiant tone as he said:

they have tried to threaten me, but I will not be bullied or silenced

[RT]

Israeli organizations and activists are currently spreading images of Israeli occupation soldiers detained by the resistance from a nearby military base north of Gaza on October 7, falsely claiming they are civilian teenagers.

These pictures were provided by the resistance to negotiating teams in the first weeks of the war, assuring they were safe and alive. After months of pressure from the families of these soldiers, the Israeli government has now released and published these images.

It is worth noting that the relentless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has killed dozens of Israeli detainees. Some of these soldiers may be among them, as thousands remain trapped under the rubble.

[A.k]