NAZA

The Times of Israel's military correspondent reviews the film NAZA.

By now you may have heard of the documentary film NAZA. It's made by two Israeli journalists who were sponsored by The Guardian (UK), and it purports to show that the Israeli army used AI to help evaluate the number of civilian deaths that might be caused by certain air strikes in Gaza targeting terrorists. It showed at the Venice film festival where it got a 25 minute standing ovation.

It should be mentioned that none of the claims made in the movie have been substantiated, and none of the soldiers making claims is identified. Also, the movie was released just before elections in Israel, probably in order to influence them.

All modern armed forces use AI. As for calculating and limiting civilian deaths through this use of AI - it's a good thing, not a bad thing. In fact, our own miliatry has, under Trump and Hegseth, actually shut down the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR) office and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence (Top Commanders Told Hegseth Not to Cut Civilian Protection Program, Poll Showed. He Did It Anyway.). So, if nothing else, Israel's military is more concerned about limiting civilian deaths than our own military now is.

I think this film is another example of the almost rabid hatred of Israel that seems to now grip Europe and the US. The recent concert debacle with Macklemore and Ed Sheeran is an example of this. My own political party seems happy to take advantage of this hate in order to win more votes.

Plunder

Trump Brought Venezuelan Gold to the U.S., but Refiners Won't Touch It

In early March, as President Trump basked in the success of a military intervention in Venezuela, he joined Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the West Wing for a private celebration. A businessman also attended, and brought along a pile of gold.

The president looked approvingly at the 10 Venezuelan gold bars stacked in the Roosevelt Room, across from the Oval Office, White House officials recalled. Aides took photos and joked about keeping the gold ...

U.S. brought back $100 million of gold from Venezuela, Interior Secretary Burgum says

[...] Beyond petroleum, however, the U.S. also sees a major opportunity to develop Venezuela’s mineral and precious metal resources, Burgum said. The country also has vast coal resources that contain critical minerals, he said ...

"To the victor belong the spoils" ...



This is who we are now. In case it's not clear: we're now the bad guys.

Bill Gates

Bill Gates interview with Kristen Welker of Meet the Press.

Gates believes we need government intervention to create safety systems for AI and he wants to talk to Trump about this, but given the fact that Trump and his family are financially invested in AI growth, I think Gates' advice will just be ignored.

Trump and sons invest heavily in AI economy as he resists calls for slowdown

Trump reveals millions of dollars' worth of share deals in big tech and AI

As White House shields the AI gold rush, Trump family and other allies strike it rich – with few guardrails

Pope Leo in France

Interesting that so many have shown up to see him. The Catholic church in France is both relatively small and very conservative, and there is that French SSPX group that rejects Vatican II, so kind of suprising to see how popular Pope Leo is. Good for him :)

Abdul El-Sayed

Ezra interviews Abdul El-Sayed. I'm glad I listened to it because it really gave me a good idea of the kind of person he is.

The red carpet

Trump rolls out the red carpet for Xi, as he did for Putin in Alaska on August 15, 2025 ...

Ask Haviv anything

I saw this tonight, one of Haviv Rettig Gur's videos in the series "Ask Haviv Anything".

What struck me was the other person in the video, the one asking the question - Ayman Mohyeldin. I've seen him many times on MSNBC/MSNOW where he has a show. He always seemed like a reasonable person but this question he asks Haviv is so contrived and hostile that I doubt he honestly wants an answer.

He's back!

Dependin' On You

The Doobie Brothers performing Dependin' on You, co-written by Michael McDonald and Patrick Simmons, released in 1978.

Ominous

Trump says his D.C. arch will serve as 'military complex' with snipers and drones

So the ballroom is really a bunker and the arch is really a kill zone. Just who exactly are all these snipers and drones going to be targeting? Alien invasion? Zombie apocalypse? The American people?

It's Oktoberfest!

Nope, I'm not of German extraction (me Scotch-Irish/French), and I don't drink alcohol, but I have liked Oktoberfest ever since college, when I and my sister and my boyfriend all took German as our foreign language.

There's just something so cheerful about it. I love the mish-mash vibes of a European past ... fairy tales, forests and alpine peaks, castles, and polka music ... yes polka music :) ...

Senator Mark Kelly

The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich interviews former astronaut and current senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly ...



Of all the Democrats who might run for president next, I would vote for Mark Kelly for sure (also for Jon Ossoff and Pete Buttigeig too).

New cat

Just wondering how long it will be before Don Jr and brother hunt this poor thing down, kill it, and eat it.

The Trump brothers’ grotesque hunting spree

It just gets worse

Breaking News: The Trump administration is quietly moving to strip a core protection for endangered species, according to an internal memo. https://t.co/3RhG7lGEe9

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 16, 2026

Trump administration reduces protections for endangered species again

Essentially, the Trump adninistration is now saying "feel free to kill any endangered species".

Tristan Harris

I saw Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist, on Meet the Press Now yesterday speaking about the possible threat of AI ...



Here is a TED talk he gave in 2025 on AI ...

Coming home

:)

Bernie

Bernie Sanders speaks on AI at the Pro-Human Assembly, where, strange as it seems, Steve Bannon is also set to speak.

Jon Ossoff on AI

Trump says AI doesn’t need guardrails, only a ‘high IQ’ president

We are so doomed.

Here is Jon Ossoff's whole speech ...

Gigantic data centers

EPA eliminates rule that limits planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants

The Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it is repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas and announced it is taking a separate but related step to prevent future administrations from regulating climate pollution from power plants ...

They do understand that the P in EPA stands for "protection" not "pollution" right?

I believe this is in service to the huge new power plants the government is building to service AI data centers in places like this one in Ohio ...



What Are the Biggest Data Centers in the U.S.? Depends How You Measure

Bats

Been kind of a depressing day - need to see something that will make me smile ...

Pete Buttigieg on Meet the Press

Dario Amodei

Interview with Dario Amodei of Anthropic ...



The leaders of AI tech companies say there should be a slowdown for safety reasons and some kind of government oversight.

But don't count on Trump or his administration to help with that - Trump brushes off calls for AI slowdown from tech CEOs .... Johnson on AI regulation: ‘We don’t need everybody to panic right now’