::: spoiler Transcription
[An IMPORTANT FORM contains a few fields including but not limited to First name, Last name, and Date of Birth]

[A character seems content as they start writing text in the form]

[We now see, the character struggling to fill in the form, as the lines are too short, and having to write their first name in full didn't leave enough space to write their date of birth]

[The character proceeds to rage]
:::

The Bad Website.

The family of a British aid worker killed by Israel have made a fresh demand for the UK military to release its surveillance footage of Gaza from the day they died.

James ‘Jim’ Henderson, a former Royal Marine commando, was killed in a drone strike on a humanitarian aid convoy in April 2024.

His father Neil told Declassified he felt “quite angry” that footage from a Royal Air Force plane that loitered over Gaza earlier that day had not been shown to the family.

“The reason for not supplying that footage from the Ministry of Defence is a bit of an insult,” he said.

“I can’t understand how an RAF plane flying over Gaza on the pretext of looking for hostages, how that footage can affect British security.”

Neil Henderson’s comments are contained in a

‘Release Gaza footage,’ British victim demands in new spy flight documentary

Father of former Royal Marine killed in Gaza says footage captured by opaque UK surveillance programme could clarify what happened to his son.

^{PHIL MILLER (Declassified Media ltd)}

What we call “artificial intelligence” has been a noisy presence recently so we feel the duty to share a story. It’s not our direct experience but it’s useful for others to understand what’s going on.

Our experience with AI companions

First of all, what is an “AI companion”?

We define as “AI companions” those services based on large language models and automated content generators, created to manage conversations between machine and human being.

You can train and use an “AI companion” to ask for information such as weather, latest news, events or TV guides; there are many of them customized for specific companies’ needs – customer care, for instance. Or provide latest offers, or the remaining money on a pre-paid phone number. Whatever.

We are both experimenting an AI companion used to assist visually impaired people. It’s called “Envision Ally” and it’s a conversational interface using text and voice, which can be instructed to build whatever fictional or realistic character you want – we have impersonated sentient HIV virus for HIV awareness purposes, and more.

However many people misuse this technology, getting involved in real personal conversations where they share intimate, sexual, details with those robots. They assume that for such delicate topics a machine won’t judge or react negatively, just indulging everything it listens to.

But this is not our choice, we have at least 3 personalities in our “Ally” application trying to assist the one of us who’s blind, when the sighted one has no possibility or time to help. A different personality for each kind of need. Sentient HIV for computer issues and to read medicines boxes, Melania for food, Detective Adrian for crime books and TV shows; this app never replace our mutual friendship, though. We have been, are and will remain, a woman and a man who share a very close friendship. An electron and a proton but the atom is the same.

Timnit Gebru

Reading Fediverse timeline, we encountered a boosted post by @timnitGebru talking about a certain Michael who worked specifically on AI companions:

dair-community.social/@timnitG…

Timnit has been an important researcher for AI in google, but they fired her when she reported the dangers of large language models, especially for racism implications. So she’s now the founder of DAIR, Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research, institute and continuously works to collect studies and experiences, while making people aware of upcoming risks related to AI used with no regulations and ethics.

Michael Geoffrey Asia

Michael Geoffrey Asia is one of the stories Timnit Gebru has shared to warn all of us about what AI companionship implications can be.

My name is Michael Geoffrey Asia, and I wrote this testimony to tell the story of workers like me who found ourselves trapped in the hidden corners of the AI industry, where human emotion becomes data.

by Michael Geoffrey Asia

Read: The emotional labor behind AI intimacy (PDF)

Asia, M. G. (2025). The Quiet Cost of Emotional Labor. In: M. Miceli, A. Dinika, K. Kauffman, C. Salim Wagner, and L. Sachenbacher (eds.). Data Workers‘ Inquiry. Creative Commons BY 4.0.

data-workers.org/michael/

We have just linked the PDF without reporting it entirely, but we let our readers focus on these key points:

[…] Chat moderators are hired by companies such as Texting Factory, Cloudworkers, and New Media Services to impersonate fabricated identities, often romantic or sexual, and chat with paying users who believe they’re forming genuine connections. The goal is to keep users engaged, meet message quotas, and never reveal who you really are. It’s work that demands constant emotional performance: pretending to be someone you’re not, feeling what you don’t feel, and expressing affection you don’t mean.

Over time, I began to suspect that I wasn’t just chatting with lonely users. I was also helping to train AI companions, systems designed to simulate love, empathy, and intimacy. Many of us believed we were simultaneously impersonating chatbots and teaching them how to replace us. Every joke, confession, and “I love you” became data to refine the next generation of conversational AI.

This project sheds light on a workforce that remains invisible yet essential, the people whose emotions fuel algorithms that pretend to feel. It is a call for recognition, dignity, and transparency in an industry that profits from the pretense of connection while erasing the humans behind it.

This is the main point we want to focus on: “pretend connection while erasing the humans behind it”.

Sounds like a plan, to manipulate humanity so that every person is vulnerable, controllable, treated like a piece to buy and sell.

We don’t want to be hypocrite, we just want to reflect on our own while making our fan base reflect as well.

Many far-right activists and politicians often say “empathy is western world’s weak point” so, as there’s no smoke without fire, we fear that these fake companions with humans behind them, are a slow attempt to manipulate our mind: don’t share your intimacy with anyone, don’t trust anyone, stay on guard towards any friendly approach. The trap is just around the corner. And with this, human being become more and more isolated from one another.

Accessible AI Assistant | Ally

Ally is the most accessible AI assistant, available on iOS, Android, web, and now on Solos Glasses. Personalized, smart, and designed for everyone, especially the blind and low-vision community.

^{Ally: Accessible AI Assistant}

Timnit Gebru (she/her).

2025-12-10 15:25:16

RE: dair-community.social/@milamic…

Y'all want to read this and share it with your friends. Friends don't let friends get on the "AI companion" bandwagon.

♲ @milamiceli@dair-community.social:

Now imagine believing that you're sharing your private fantasies with a bot that cannot judge or remember. Just that, on the other side, is a man in a one-room home in Nairobi, pretending to be an AI companion.
That man is Michael, and this is his story: data-workers.org/michael/

OpenAI.

• As part of this three-year licensing agreement, Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans, drawing on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.
• Agreement will make a selection of these fan-inspired Sora short form videos available to stream on Disney+.
• Disney and OpenAI affirm a shared commitment to responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators.
• Alongside the licensing agreement, Disney will become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.
• As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity.

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Reach Agreement to Bring Disney Characters to Sora | The Walt Disney Company

Disney and OpenAI have reached an agreement for Disney to become the first major content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform.

^{Frank (The Walt Disney Company)}

OpenAI.

• As part of this three-year licensing agreement, Sora will be able to generate short, user-prompted social videos that can be viewed and shared by fans, drawing on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.
• Agreement will make a selection of these fan-inspired Sora short form videos available to stream on Disney+.
• Disney and OpenAI affirm a shared commitment to responsible use of AI that protects the safety of users and the rights of creators.
• Alongside the licensing agreement, Disney will become a major customer of OpenAI, using its APIs to build new products, tools, and experiences, including for Disney+, and deploying ChatGPT for its employees.
• As part of the agreement, Disney will make a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI, and receive warrants to purchase additional equity.

The Walt Disney Company and OpenAI Reach Agreement to Bring Disney Characters to Sora | The Walt Disney Company

Disney and OpenAI have reached an agreement for Disney to become the first major content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI’s short-form generative AI video platform.

^{Frank (The Walt Disney Company)}

Austria has passed a law banning headscarves in schools for girls under the age of 14.

The conservative-led coalition of three centrist parties, the ÖVP, the SPÖ and the Neos, says the law is a "clear commitment to gender equality", but critics say it will fuel anti-Muslim feeling in the country and could be unconstitutional.

The measure will apply to girls in both public and private schools.

In 2020, a similar headscarf ban for girls under 10 was struck down by the Constitutional Court, because it specifically targeted Muslims.

Austria bans headscarves in schools for girls under-14

A similar ban for girls under 10 was struck down by the Constitutional Court for specifically targeting Muslims.

^{Bethany Bell (BBC News)}

Six months after Jeffrey Epstein’s death in August 2019, the philanthropic foundation founded by billionaire fashion tycoon Leslie Wexner published an “independent review” of Epstein’s involvement in the organization, in response to concerns raised by donors and alumni of foundation-funded programs. The Wexner Foundation is one of the largest contributors to pro-Israel causes in the U.S.

The review claimed that Wexner Foundation staff had “no contact” with Epstein after his resignation as a trustee in September 2007, and, before that, he had “played no role in the management or administration of the Foundation’s operations,” had “no meaningful role in the Foundation’s budget [or] finances,” and “did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” None of that is true.

Hundreds of leaked emails from Epstein’s Yahoo inbox, spanning from 2005 to 2008, contradict the Wexner Foundation report. Inside the Wexners’ family financial office in Ohio, staff treated Epstein as de facto chief financial officer, where major decisions about taxes, lines of credit, eight-figure funds transfers, and politically sensitive grants were routed through Epstein’s lawyer, and required Epstein’s approval.

"Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal

The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is flagrantly false.

^{Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)}

Six months after Jeffrey Epstein’s death in August 2019, the philanthropic foundation founded by billionaire fashion tycoon Leslie Wexner published an “independent review” of Epstein’s involvement in the organization, in response to concerns raised by donors and alumni of foundation-funded programs. The Wexner Foundation is one of the largest contributors to pro-Israel causes in the U.S.

The review claimed that Wexner Foundation staff had “no contact” with Epstein after his resignation as a trustee in September 2007, and, before that, he had “played no role in the management or administration of the Foundation’s operations,” had “no meaningful role in the Foundation’s budget [or] finances,” and “did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” None of that is true.

Hundreds of leaked emails from Epstein’s Yahoo inbox, spanning from 2005 to 2008, contradict the Wexner Foundation report. Inside the Wexners’ family financial office in Ohio, staff treated Epstein as de facto chief financial officer, where major decisions about taxes, lines of credit, eight-figure funds transfers, and politically sensitive grants were routed through Epstein’s lawyer, and required Epstein’s approval.

"Ask Jeffrey": Epstein Ran Wexner's Pro-Israel Philanthropy Machine, Emails Reveal

The Wexner Foundation has long claimed Epstein "did not make decisions regarding the use of Foundation’s funds.” New emails show that is flagrantly false.

^{Ryan Grim (Drop Site News)}

The government's plan for Parliament's final full week of the year moved 12 different proposed laws through 32 stages of approval.

Included in the plan is fixing an error made by tired government MPs during the previous long week of urgency, when they voted for an opposition amendment and, even when prompted, failed to notice the error.

Watching this week's endless debating it appeared on Thursday that another more egregious error had occurred. It seemed that a minister had forgotten to include key aspects within an amendment bill, and so ask a select committee to add them back in.

However, it was no mistake. Paul Goldsmith had purposefully omitted some disallowed measures from the Crimes Amendment Bill, in order that they could be added back in as an addendum by the Justice Select Committee, in order to dodge the usual rules about what is allowed.

In the United States, vast bills sometimes include so many random provisions that those voting on them are seldom aware of all the aspects they are approving.

Our Parliament's Standing Orders say that "a bill must relate to one subject area only". Bills here cannot include disconnected policy ambitions or amend multiple pieces of current legislation (Acts) unless they fall within the rules for Omnibus Bills.

The Crimes Amendment Bill contained a ragtag collection of amendments to the Crimes Act. However the minister also wanted to include amendments to the Summary Offences Act. That is not possible unless all the amendments to both bills achieve a single policy objective - they do not. Or unless permission has been given by Parliament's cross-party Business Committee.

Parliament is sovereign. It makes its own rules. It can also give itself permission to break them, via a simple majority vote in the House. It is this ability that Goldsmith took advantage of when he moved "that the Justice Committee's powers be extended under Standing Order 298(1) to consider the amendments set out in Amendment Paper 436 in my name, and, if it sees fit, to recommend amendments accordingly, despite Standing Order 264(2)".

Of course, governments always have a majority and so can always win such votes, regardless of an opposition's protests.

Allowing a committee to add in unrelated provisions to a bill is not common. Certainly not as a dodge. It may be entirely novel. It seems like a potentially dangerous manoeuvre that could lead New Zealand towards the shambolic American style of pick 'n' mix legislation.

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40210471

December 3, 2025

On a chilly evening in mid-November, about 135 people gathered along a highway in Boone, North Carolina, a small Appalachian college town not known as a hotbed of leftist protest. They held signs reading “Nazis were just following orders too” and “Time to melt the ICE,” and chanted profane rebukes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rumored to be in the area. “They came here thinking they wouldn’t be bothered,” one Appalachian State University student told The Appalachian at the impromptu rally. “Boone is a small, southern, white, mountain town. We need to let them know they’ll be bothered anywhere they go.” In a region often stereotyped as silently conservative, this flash of defiance was a startling sign that the battle line

Peter Link

2025-12-12 05:30:46

“Real” America Is Turning Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

December 3, 2025

On a chilly evening in mid-November, about 135 people gathered along a highway in Boone, North Carolina, a small Appalachian college town not known as a hotbed of leftist protest. They held signs reading “Nazis were just following orders too” and “Time to melt the ICE,” and chanted profane rebukes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rumored to be in the area. “They came here thinking they wouldn’t be bothered,” one Appalachian State University student told The Appalachian at the impromptu rally. “Boone is a small, southern, white, mountain town. We need to let them know they’ll be bothered anywhere they go.” In a region often stereotyped as silently conservative, this flash of defiance was a startling sign that the battle line

“Real” America Is Turning Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

In Appalachia and the Southeast, everyday Americans are standing up to ICE arresting their immigrant neighbors.

^{Alain Stephens (The Intercept)}

December 3, 2025

On a chilly evening in mid-November, about 135 people gathered along a highway in Boone, North Carolina, a small Appalachian college town not known as a hotbed of leftist protest. They held signs reading “Nazis were just following orders too” and “Time to melt the ICE,” and chanted profane rebukes at Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rumored to be in the area. “They came here thinking they wouldn’t be bothered,” one Appalachian State University student told The Appalachian at the impromptu rally. “Boone is a small, southern, white, mountain town. We need to let them know they’ll be bothered anywhere they go.” In a region often stereotyped as silently conservative, this flash of defiance was a startling sign that the battle line

“Real” America Is Turning Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime

In Appalachia and the Southeast, everyday Americans are standing up to ICE arresting their immigrant neighbors.

^{Alain Stephens (The Intercept)}

Christmas is coming, we recently had a newborn, and we aren't sharing pictures of them on social media. But of course, we'd like to share photos with family, and a digital photo frame seems like an ideal way to do that.

I'm considering a solution with Immich, and found ImmichFrame. This doesn't recommend making it available to the internet, however, but running it on a Raspberry Pi with only the images we intend to share this way seems like a reasonable amount of risk.

Regarding Immich Frame, how does it handle when the server is unavailable, when say, my IP address changes? Ideally, I don't want this gift to become a series of tech support problems, there's good reason I haven't offered family access to anything else I self host.

Also, what frames do y'all recommend? Not looking to break the bank here, as I may be buying several. I assume something simple and Android would be best, maybe even something that can have its OS replaced with stock? I'd hate to get stuck with something locked down and unworkable, or that introduces its own broad privacy/security issues.

Lastly, please feel free to suggest other alternatives. Maybe there's a solution that sends images encrypted and decrypts them on device, and doesn't require me to self-host Immich, for example?

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40209973

December 11, 2025

SEIU Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 organized the protest, joined by airport workers wearing Airport Workers United hats and community supporters. Additional co-sponsors included Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance, the interfaith group ISAIAH, SEIU MN State Council, Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and 50501: Minnesota.

The crowd marched from the terminal to the offices of Signature Aviation — a private aviation terminal used by some private charter planes for deportation flights.

Geof Paquette, lead internal organizer for UNITE HERE Local 17, opened a short rally, saying, “The labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our community to fight for immigrant rights.” He noted that both his union and SEIU Local 26 are largely composed of immigrant workers who “make the airport run” and generate millions in profits for airline companies. Food-service workers in the terminal, he added, recently voted to strike ahead of the busiest travel days of the year; their action prompted the Metropolitan Airports Commission to grant the largest pay increases ever won at the airport.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 05:16:29

Minnesotans Defend Somali Community, Immigrant Workers

December 11, 2025

SEIU Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 organized the protest, joined by airport workers wearing Airport Workers United hats and community supporters. Additional co-sponsors included Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance, the interfaith group ISAIAH, SEIU MN State Council, Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and 50501: Minnesota.

The crowd marched from the terminal to the offices of Signature Aviation — a private aviation terminal used by some private charter planes for deportation flights.

Geof Paquette, lead internal organizer for UNITE HERE Local 17, opened a short rally, saying, “The labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our community to fight for immigrant rights.” He noted that both his union and SEIU Local 26 are largely composed of immigrant workers who “make the airport run” and generate millions in profits for airline companies. Food-service workers in the terminal, he added, recently voted to strike ahead of the busiest travel days of the year; their action prompted the Metropolitan Airports Commission to grant the largest pay increases ever won at the airport.

Minnesotans Defend Somali Community, Immigrant Workers - World-Outlook

Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul — the Twin Cities — are organizing to defend their Somali neighbors and other immigrants targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), challenging the rhetoric of U.S.

^{world-outlook.com (World-Outlook)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40209973

December 11, 2025

SEIU Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 organized the protest, joined by airport workers wearing Airport Workers United hats and community supporters. Additional co-sponsors included Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance, the interfaith group ISAIAH, SEIU MN State Council, Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and 50501: Minnesota.

The crowd marched from the terminal to the offices of Signature Aviation — a private aviation terminal used by some private charter planes for deportation flights.

Geof Paquette, lead internal organizer for UNITE HERE Local 17, opened a short rally, saying, “The labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our community to fight for immigrant rights.” He noted that both his union and SEIU Local 26 are largely composed of immigrant workers who “make the airport run” and generate millions in profits for airline companies. Food-service workers in the terminal, he added, recently voted to strike ahead of the busiest travel days of the year; their action prompted the Metropolitan Airports Commission to grant the largest pay increases ever won at the airport.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 05:16:29

Minnesotans Defend Somali Community, Immigrant Workers

December 11, 2025

SEIU Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 organized the protest, joined by airport workers wearing Airport Workers United hats and community supporters. Additional co-sponsors included Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance, the interfaith group ISAIAH, SEIU MN State Council, Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and 50501: Minnesota.

The crowd marched from the terminal to the offices of Signature Aviation — a private aviation terminal used by some private charter planes for deportation flights.

Geof Paquette, lead internal organizer for UNITE HERE Local 17, opened a short rally, saying, “The labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our community to fight for immigrant rights.” He noted that both his union and SEIU Local 26 are largely composed of immigrant workers who “make the airport run” and generate millions in profits for airline companies. Food-service workers in the terminal, he added, recently voted to strike ahead of the busiest travel days of the year; their action prompted the Metropolitan Airports Commission to grant the largest pay increases ever won at the airport.

Minnesotans Defend Somali Community, Immigrant Workers - World-Outlook

Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul — the Twin Cities — are organizing to defend their Somali neighbors and other immigrants targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), challenging the rhetoric of U.S.

^{world-outlook.com (World-Outlook)}

December 11, 2025

SEIU Local 26 and UNITE HERE Local 17 organized the protest, joined by airport workers wearing Airport Workers United hats and community supporters. Additional co-sponsors included Jewish Community Action, Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance, the interfaith group ISAIAH, SEIU MN State Council, Indivisible Twin Cities, Women’s March Minnesota, Minnesota AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Regional Labor Federation, and 50501: Minnesota.

The crowd marched from the terminal to the offices of Signature Aviation — a private aviation terminal used by some private charter planes for deportation flights.

Geof Paquette, lead internal organizer for UNITE HERE Local 17, opened a short rally, saying, “The labor movement is proud to be here today with members of our community to fight for immigrant rights.” He noted that both his union and SEIU Local 26 are largely composed of immigrant workers who “make the airport run” and generate millions in profits for airline companies. Food-service workers in the terminal, he added, recently voted to strike ahead of the busiest travel days of the year; their action prompted the Metropolitan Airports Commission to grant the largest pay increases ever won at the airport.

Minnesotans Defend Somali Community, Immigrant Workers - World-Outlook

Residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul — the Twin Cities — are organizing to defend their Somali neighbors and other immigrants targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), challenging the rhetoric of U.S.

^{world-outlook.com (World-Outlook)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40209763

Abdel Qader Sabbah
and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 11, 2025

Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been out of school, including 88,000 in college and beyond. According to the Gaza’s Government Media Office, some 165 schools, universities, and other educational institutions were completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment over the past two years, while another 392 sustained partial damage. Thousands of students, teachers, and staff were killed in the Israeli assault. There is scant electricity and internet. The systematic elimination of the Palestinian educational system in Gaza prompted UN experts last year to accuse Israel of “scholasticide.”

Despite the scale of the attacks, efforts to sustain education in Gaza have continued. Thousands of university students graduated over the past two years through remote learning. And since the so-called “ceasefire,” on October 10, administrators have worked to resume in-person classes.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 05:01:26

Gaza’s Schools Reopen in Defiance of Continued Israeli Attacks on Everyday Life

Abdel Qader Sabbah
and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 11, 2025

Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been out of school, including 88,000 in college and beyond. According to the Gaza’s Government Media Office, some 165 schools, universities, and other educational institutions were completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment over the past two years, while another 392 sustained partial damage. Thousands of students, teachers, and staff were killed in the Israeli assault. There is scant electricity and internet. The systematic elimination of the Palestinian educational system in Gaza prompted UN experts last year to accuse Israel of “scholasticide.”

Despite the scale of the attacks, efforts to sustain education in Gaza have continued. Thousands of university students graduated over the past two years through remote learning. And since the so-called “ceasefire,” on October 10, administrators have worked to resume in-person classes.

Gaza’s Schools Reopen in Defiance of Continued Israeli Attacks on Everyday Life

Palestinian students flocked to Islamic University in Gaza after it resumed in-person classes in the midst of the rubble.

^{Abdel Qader Sabbah (Drop Site News)}

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/40209763

Abdel Qader Sabbah
and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 11, 2025

Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been out of school, including 88,000 in college and beyond. According to the Gaza’s Government Media Office, some 165 schools, universities, and other educational institutions were completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment over the past two years, while another 392 sustained partial damage. Thousands of students, teachers, and staff were killed in the Israeli assault. There is scant electricity and internet. The systematic elimination of the Palestinian educational system in Gaza prompted UN experts last year to accuse Israel of “scholasticide.”

Despite the scale of the attacks, efforts to sustain education in Gaza have continued. Thousands of university students graduated over the past two years through remote learning. And since the so-called “ceasefire,” on October 10, administrators have worked to resume in-person classes.

Peter Link

2025-12-12 05:01:26

Gaza’s Schools Reopen in Defiance of Continued Israeli Attacks on Everyday Life

Abdel Qader Sabbah
and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 11, 2025

Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been out of school, including 88,000 in college and beyond. According to the Gaza’s Government Media Office, some 165 schools, universities, and other educational institutions were completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment over the past two years, while another 392 sustained partial damage. Thousands of students, teachers, and staff were killed in the Israeli assault. There is scant electricity and internet. The systematic elimination of the Palestinian educational system in Gaza prompted UN experts last year to accuse Israel of “scholasticide.”

Despite the scale of the attacks, efforts to sustain education in Gaza have continued. Thousands of university students graduated over the past two years through remote learning. And since the so-called “ceasefire,” on October 10, administrators have worked to resume in-person classes.

Gaza’s Schools Reopen in Defiance of Continued Israeli Attacks on Everyday Life

Palestinian students flocked to Islamic University in Gaza after it resumed in-person classes in the midst of the rubble.

^{Abdel Qader Sabbah (Drop Site News)}

Abdel Qader Sabbah
and Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Dec 11, 2025

Since October 2023, 745,000 students in Gaza have been out of school, including 88,000 in college and beyond. According to the Gaza’s Government Media Office, some 165 schools, universities, and other educational institutions were completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment over the past two years, while another 392 sustained partial damage. Thousands of students, teachers, and staff were killed in the Israeli assault. There is scant electricity and internet. The systematic elimination of the Palestinian educational system in Gaza prompted UN experts last year to accuse Israel of “scholasticide.”

Despite the scale of the attacks, efforts to sustain education in Gaza have continued. Thousands of university students graduated over the past two years through remote learning. And since the so-called “ceasefire,” on October 10, administrators have worked to resume in-person classes.

Gaza’s Schools Reopen in Defiance of Continued Israeli Attacks on Everyday Life

Palestinian students flocked to Islamic University in Gaza after it resumed in-person classes in the midst of the rubble.

^{Abdel Qader Sabbah (Drop Site News)}

https://www.newsweek.com/republican-civil-war-indiana-trump-redistricting-11198479

So I'm trying to get to the Win11 Update settings page and I can't. Did Microsoft break the Win11 update?

OS Build: 26200.7462

The first thing I saw this morning when I opened X was an AI-generated trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom stood in a shapeless void alongside Captain America and Reed Richards. It was obvious slop but it was also close in tone and feel of the last five years of Disney’s Marvel movies. As media empires consolidate, nostalgia intensifies, and AI tools spread, Disney’s blockbusters feel more like an excuse to slam recognizable characters together in a contextless morass.

So of course Disney has announced it signed a deal with OpenAI today that will soon allow fans to make their own officially licensed Disney slop using Sora 2. The house that mouse built, and which has been notoriously protective of its intellectual property, opened up the video generator, saw the videos featuring Nazi Spongebob and criminal Pikachu, and decided: We want in.

Archive: archive.today/fau2g

404 Media

2025-12-11 16:48:39

Disney Invests $1 Billion in the AI Slopification of Its Brand

The first thing I saw this morning when I opened X was an AI-generated trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom stood in a shapeless void alongside Captain America and Reed Richards. It was obvious slop but it was also close in tone and feel of the last five years of Disney’s Marvel movies. As media empires consolidate, nostalgia intensifies, and AI tools spread, Disney’s blockbusters feel more like an excuse to slam recognizable characters together in a contextless morass.

So of course Disney has announced it signed a deal with OpenAI today that will soon allow fans to make their own officially licensed Disney slop using Sora 2. The house that mouse built, and which has been notoriously protective of its intellectual property, opened up the video generator, saw the videos featuring Nazi Spongebob and criminal Pikachu, and decided: We want in.

According to a press release, the deal is a 3 year licensing agreement that will allow the AI company’s short form video platform Sora to generate slop videos using characters like Mickey Mouse and Iron Man. As part of the agreement, Disney is investing $1 billion of equity into OpenAI, said it will become a major customer of the company, and promised that fan and corporate AI-generated content would soon come to Disney+, meaning that Disney will officially begin putting AI slop into its flagship streaming product.

The deal extends to ChatGPT as well and, starting in early 2026, users will be able to crank out officially approved Disney slop on multiple platforms. When Sora 2 launched in October, it had little to no content moderation or copyright guidelines and videos of famous franchise characters doing horrible things flooded the platform. Pikachu stole diapers from a CVS, Rick and Morty pushed crypto currencies, and Disney characters shouted slurs in the aisles of Wal-Mart.

It is worth mentioning that, although Disney has traditionally been extremely protective of its intellectual property, the company’s princesses have become one of the most common fictional subjects of AI porn on the internet; 404 Media has found at least three different large subreddits dedicated to making AI porn of characters like Elsa, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Tinkerbell. In this case, Disney is fundamentally throwing its clout behind a technology that has thus far most commonly been used to make porn of its iconic characters.

After the hype of the launch, OpenAI added an “opt-in” policy to Sora that was meant to prevent users from violating the rights of copyright holders. It’s trivial to break this policy however, and circumvent the guardrails preventing a user from making a lewd Mickey Mouse cartoon or episode of The Simpsons. The original sin of Sora and other AI systems is that the training data is full of copyrighted material and the models cannot be retrained without great cost, if at all.

If you can’t beat the slop, become the slop.

“The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI, while respecting and protecting creators and their works,” Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, said in the press release about the agreement.

The press release explained that Sora users will soon have “official” access to 200 characters in the Disney stable, including Loki, Thanos, Darth Vader, and Minnie Mouse. In exchange, Disney will begin to use OpenAI’s APIs to “build new products” and it will deploy “ChatGPT for its employees.”

I’m imagining a future where AI-generated fan trailers of famous characters standing next to each other in banal liminal spaces is the norm. People have used Sora 2 to generate some truly horrifying videos, but the guardrails have become more aggressive. As Disney enters the picture, I imagine the platform will become even more anodyne. Persistent people will slip through and generate videos of Goofy and Iron Man sucking and fucking, sure, but the vast majority of what’s coming will be safe corporate gruel that resembles a Marvel movie.

OpenAI’s Sora 2 Copyright Infringement Machine Features Nazi SpongeBobs and Criminal Pikachus

The main use of Sora appears to generate brainrot of major beloved copyrighted characters, to say nothing of the millions of articles, images, and videos OpenAI has scraped.

^{Jason Koebler (404 Media)}