Important Takeaways:
- The company erased the 2018 pledge on Tuesday which stated the tech giant ‘would not use AI for weapons or surveillance’.
- The revised policy now shows that Google will only develop AI ‘responsibly’ and in line with ‘widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.’
- Google’s change has sparked internal backlash as employees called the move ‘deeply concerning’ and that the company should not be involved in ‘the business of war.’
- Matt Mahmoudi, Amnesty adviser on AI and human rights, shamed Google for the move, saying the tech giant set a ‘dangerous precedent.’
- ‘AI-powered technologies could fuel surveillance and lethal killing systems at a vast scale, potentially leading to mass violations and infringing on the fundamental right to privacy,’ he added.
- The move comes nearly seven years after Google was also involved in a military project with the US Department of Defense’s Project Maven that uses AI to help the military detect objects in images and identify potential targets.
- The updated AI principles now focus on three core tenets, the first being ‘Bold Innovation.’
- ‘We develop AI to assist, empower, and inspire people in almost every field of human endeavor, drive economic progress and improve lives, enable scientific breakthroughs, and help address humanity’s biggest challenges,’ the post reads.
- The second is ‘Responsible Development and Deployment.
- ‘Because we understand that AI, as a still-emerging transformative technology, poses new complexities and risks, we consider it imperative to pursue AI responsibly throughout the development and deployment lifecycle — from design to testing to deployment to iteration — learning as AI advances and uses evolve,’ shared the executives.
- And the third is ‘Collaborative Progress, Together.’
- ‘We learn from others, and build technology that empowers others to harness AI positively,’ the blog states.
- Michael Horowitz, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Post: Google’s [2025] announcement is more evidence that the relationship between the U.S. technology sector and [Defense Department] continues to get closer, including leading AI companies.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Joe Biden said Monday that the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine as his administration works quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
- The package includes $1.25 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to pull existing stock from its shelves and gets weapons to the battlefield faster. It also has $1.22 billion in longer-term weapons packages to be put on contract through the separate Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI.
- Biden said all longer-term USAI funds have now been spent and that he seeks to fully use all the remaining drawdown money before leaving office.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Biden administration might be in its final days but that doesn’t mean the flow of lethal U.S. weaponry to Ukraine shows any sign of slowing. Far from it.
- That was confirmed Monday when an additional $725 million in military assistance, including counter-drone systems and munitions for its High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), was announced by the White House.
- AP reports it is unclear whether the munitions for the HIMARS are the coveted ATACMS — the Army Tactical Missile System — but Ukraine has been pressing for more of the longer-range missiles to strike additional targets inside Russia.
- The package also includes more of the anti-personnel land mines Ukraine seeks to slow Russian and North Korean ground forces in Russia’s Kursk region and comes on the back of the billions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer funds already used to support Kiev in its fight against Russia.
- President Joe Biden has pledged to spend all of the military assistance funds Congress approved this year for Ukraine before the end of his administration on Jan. 20, which before Monday’s announcement included about $7.1 billion in weapons that would be drawn from the Pentagon’s stockpiles.
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Important Takeaways:
- Ruben Brekelmans, the defense minister of The Netherlands, just gave Zelensky the approval to use their weapons to wage war on Russia and even attack Moscow. Brekelmans claimed that international law “is not limited by distance.” He added, “The right to self-defense does not end 100 kilometers from the border.” He has now placed The Netherlands in the crosshairs, being the first to authorize Ukraine to start killing civilians in Russia.
- As I have said, my fear is that they know what they are doing, and Putin has shown tremendous restraint. They want him to be overthrown by Russian Neocons, and they will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons.
- Brekelmans declared: “We have not placed any operational restrictions on Ukraine regarding distance.”
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Important Takeaways:
- US reveals it quietly sent Ukraine missile systems that could hit Russia as Pentagon announces $1B aid package
- Minutes after signing a long-delayed $95 billion foreign assistance supplemental bill into law, President Biden promised that aid would begin rolling to Ukraine within “a few hours.”
- Moments later, the Pentagon released an announcement detailing the critical weapons and military equipment it was sending to the besieged country.
- While most of the equipment in the initial package fulfills basic military needs — and includes anti-aircraft missiles, small arms, artillery rounds, and night vision gear — national security adviser Jake Sullivan revealed that the US had quietly sent Ukraine Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) weeks ago, despite the White House saying there was no funding left for such assistance.
- GOP leaders had successfully advocated for ATACMS to be included in future packages if the supplemental passed, senior House Republican staff told The Post last week.
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Important Takeaways:
- UK Warns It Could Restrict Arms Sales To Israel If Rafah Offensive Proceeds
- Fresh headlines Wednesday say the United Kingdom is mulling restricting arms sales to Israel if it goes ahead with its planned major offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which is packed with over a million Palestinian refugees who’ve been forcibly relocated from other parts of the Strip.
- “Further escalation of Israel’s military action in Gaza without more effort to protect civilians could put it in breach of international humanitarian law, depending on how it conducts the operation, UK officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity about internal assessments,” Bloomberg reports.
- Not only has London’s High Court recently dealt with petitions from legal advocacy groups alleging British arms sent to Israel are being used to commit war crimes (petitions which thus far have been rejected), but the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has just issued a letter to Netanyahu’s office calling for Israel to “stop and think seriously about the repercussions of a military offensive” on Rafah.
- The Foreign Secretary’s office wrote that “we continue to urge Israel to ensure that it limits its operations to military targets and take all possible steps to avoid harming civilians and destroying homes.” Importantly that’s when the letter emphasized that in the case of a military assault on Rafah “it is difficult to see how this could be achieved.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia Has Used North Korean Ballistic Missiles in Ukraine and Is Seeking Iranian Missiles, US Says
- U.S. intelligence officials have determined that Russia has acquired ballistic missiles from North Korea and is seeking close-range ballistic missiles from Iran as Moscow struggles to replenish supplies for its war with Ukraine, the White House said Thursday.
- Recently declassified intelligence found that North Korea has provided Russia with ballistic missile launchers and several ballistic missiles, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. Russian forces fired at least one of those ballistic missiles into Ukraine on Dec. 30 and it landed in an open field in the Zaporizhzhia region, he said.
- Russia launched multiple North Korean ballistic missiles on Tuesday as part of an overnight attack, and the U.S. was assessing the impact, he said. The missiles have a range of about 550 miles (885 kilometers).
- S. intelligence officials believe that North Korea, in return for its arms support, wants Russia to provide it with aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment and other advanced technologies.
- The White House in October said that North Korea delivered more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions to Russia.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Russia and Ukraine just turned much of the Black Sea into a dangerous no man’s land
- On Thursday, Moscow’s defense ministry declared that “all vessels sailing in the waters of the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo,” a warning that has sent wheat prices rising.
- “Accordingly, the countries of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side Kyiv, the defense ministry said in a Wednesday statement. It added that several pockets of international water are “declared temporarily dangerous for navigation,” and vessels have been warned that there are no longer safety guarantees.
- The move from both sides comes shortly after Russia killed the crucial Black Sea grain deal, a United Nations-brokered agreement that allowed Ukraine to export food and fertilizer from several key ports to avoid a global food crisis. The Kremlin then went much further, warning it may attack any vessels it believes are bound for Ukraine, effectively turning the Black Sea into a no man’s land.
- [On the other side] Ukraine, however, went on to issue its own measures in response to Moscow’s initial escalation. Kyiv’s defense ministry said that beginning on Friday, any vessels heading to ports in mainland Russia and in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine — like in Crimea or along the Sea of Azov — may likewise be viewed as transporters of military cargo.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- The end of Ukraine aid is rapidly approaching. Reupping it won’t be easy
- The $48 billion Ukraine aid package that Congress approved in December has about $6 billion left, meaning U.S. funding for weapons and supplies could dry up by midsummer.
- The original $48 billion package approved in December included about $36 billion for the Pentagon to craft a wide range of military aid to Kyiv.
- The Biden administration has settled into a mostly regular pace of doling out several hundred million dollars every week to 10 days.
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Sy Hersh: West Knows Ukraine Weapons End Up on Black Market
- Western countries’ weapon supplies to Ukraine show no sign of abating, with Russia warning that such deliveries will only prolong the conflict.
- The West knows the weapons they deliver to Ukraine are being sold on the black market, something mainstream media has tried to hush up, US investigative journalist Seymour “Sy” Hersh has told Russian media.
- “In other words, commanders of various […] levels – often they were generals or colonels and others – were given with shipments of some weapons [and] personally [they] re-sold or retailed them back to the black or dark market,” the Pulitzer Prize-winner stressed.
- According to the journalist, the weapons included “hand missile guns” designed to down a warplane flying “at a considerable height.”
- “Where will weapons pop up? Who will bear responsibility when the materiel falls into the hands of some terrorist groups and criminal organizations?” Antonov said
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