News Media Failure of Clear Professional Publication Standards

The New York Times building. (Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images)

 

"Together, these patterns support a narrative in which total casualty figures are treated as civilian losses."

"[The findings demonstrated dependence on aggregate numbers from Hamas limited citations of data on terrorist deaths and] disproportionate doubt directed at different sources." 

Tatiana Glezer, Fifty Global independent research group 

 

"Estimates indicating a high proportion of civilian deaths may contribute to reframing a conflict from war to genocide."

"In this sense, quantitative representations of harm are not neutral; they carry interpretive consequences that shape both public discourse and institutional judgment."

"[The Gaza health ministry] became the primary source of statistical information about the war casualties."

"Overall, this essential disclaimer about the composition of the casualties appeared in only about 15 percent of all analyzed publications."

"[Reporting absent a fuller picture where data comes from can lead to one side being viewed as victims and the other side as] criminal or genocidal [especially in online discourse]."

Selective Sources, Scrutiny, and the Absence of Standards in Military Conflict Coverage study  

Dash cam footage shows an armed Hamas terrorist at the Supernova music festival, near Kibbutz Reim in the Negev desert in southern Israel, on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo by ANONYMOUS/AFP

 

Published in the peer-reviewed journal Digital Hate Review on September 15, the study, Selective Sources, Scrutiny, and the Absence of Standards in Military conflict Coverage, pointed out that major media outlets which included The New York Times, The Guardian and Associated Press, when reporting on the Israel-Hamas war, placed their reliance on casualty figures provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health, an associate arm of the Hamas terrorist organization.

 

Study researchers concluded through this study that journalists cited numbers provided by the ministry in 100 percent of the publications reviewed in the study. Israeli-provided data was cited, in comparison, by only three percent of all articles under review. Triggered by an attack by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas when thousands crossed the border from Gaza into southern Israel on 7 October 2023, slaughtering 1,200 mostly civilians in Israel, taking 251 children, families, women, men, foreign farm workers and Israeli soldiers back into Gaza, Israel responded by its defense forces entering Gaza to rout out the terrorists.

 

Security footage at the Kibbutz Be’ri showing Hamas shooting point blank at passengers in a car. Handout

 

By 2025, as part of a U.S.-negotiated peace agreement, the Israeli Defense Forces began withdrawing troops, despite which violence and unrest continue in the region, as Hamas uses the break in the conflict to rearm, recruit and reassert its violent agency in the Gaza Strip, that part not policed by still-present Israeli troops. Hamas remains defiant to the orders given it by a 'peace committee', to surrender their arms. In the interim, any Palestinians in Gaza remaining under Hamas rule, who chafe at the continued domination and persecution, are summarily shot. Rival clan groups in Gaza have attempted to unseat Hamas, inconclusively.

 

It was the focus of the study to research their topic by investigating 1,378 articles that saw publication from March to June of 2024 in eight English-language news outlets, specifically, CNN, BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Reuters and Associated Press. This was a period when Israeli hostages were still being held in Gaza. These members of the legacy media under study were found not to have made distinctions between terrorists and civilian deaths in their reportage, just as the Gaza Ministry of Health did not.

 

During the war, the study suggests a more comprehensive understanding of deaths could have been achieved through the inclusion of both primary sources: the Israel Defense Forces, providing estimates of terrorist casualties and the Gaza Ministry of Health, which does not. In 2024, the IDF stated that terrorists are classified by them as individuals who were killed while in possession of weapons. Which of the news outlets made mention of the fact that the ministry's figures fail to distinguish between civilians and terrorists were also examined by the study. 

 

Fighters with the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas terrorist organization, rest on a sidewalk during a patrol in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 26, 2020. Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP

 

The BBC was found to be the outlet that most frequently made note of the ministry's affiliation with Hamas; some 95 percent of its articles. On the other hand, only 5 percent of CNN articles made mention of that fact, and articles appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post made that mention in merely 2 percent of their articles. As for which outlets made mention that the ministry's figures fail to distinguish between civilians and terrorists, The Associated Press and The Washington Post made that mention in roughly 40 percent of articles; the BBC and Reuters did in 1 to 2 percent of articles.

 

Academic Self-Validation of Jew-hate Through Expressions of Anti-Zionism

"Anti-Zionism is a hate movement. This would be akin to having different white supremacists of various persuasions with university degrees coming together to say, ‘Hey, we need to get our ducks in a row."

"It felt to me like it is an effort to legitimize and really crystallize the idea of anti-Zionism to make it a little more consistent and, of course, palatable to the masses."

"[The university is giving a platform to antisemites by allowing the working group to exist. The word genocide in the description is] one of the most destructive and deadly anti-Jewish libels in history."

"What’s happened in Gaza has been extremely destructive and the suffering there has been unimaginable, but there is a difference between counterterrorism and war and genocide."

"The situation in Gaza was not a war that Israel asked for."

Casey Babb, director, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Ottawa think tank

 

"It’s difficult to unpack exactly what he’s saying. I would have loved if the university had made a statement immediately. I would have loved even better if the university had never allowed [the working group page] to be put up."

"It’s important to know that people [Jewish students at the university] are not alone, and that this hasn’t gone without notice."

David Jacobs, member, University of Toronto’s governing council  

 

"We still haven’t seen the overall change that’s needed, and no single action is going to make that happen. Rather, we need to continue and develop our sustained holistic approach to the problem of antisemitism on campus."

"Actions directed at individual members of our community because they are Jewish or Israeli or identify as Zionist can be harassment, discrimination, and or violate law policy."

"Such actions directed at individuals do not cease to be problematic simply because the word Jewish or Israeli is replaced by the word Zionist."

University of Toronto president Melanie Woodin  

Webpage, The University of Toronto (UofT) Jackman Humanities Institute working group titled "Bridging Theories of Anti-Zionism.  (photo credit: screenshot)

 Leaders from within the Toronto Jewish community have called out the University of Toronto for its 'despicable' research group that has focused on theories surrounding anti-Zionism. The group, Bridging Theories of Anti-Zionism at U of T's Jackman Humanities Institute, is the work of grad students and university faculty having obviously much in common. The question, "What does it mean to critique Zionism as a political ideology, and how have the last three years of genocide in Palestine changed the scholarly engagement with this question?" 

 

That clearly antisemitic hate-charged question is answered with this explanation: "This working group seeks to map these varied streams of anti-Zionist thought and construct a critical genealogy that can inform contemporary scholarship across multiple fields". Scholarly language, in pretense of authenticity of scholarly research to resolve an issue entirely created to give a stamp of academic approval to the curse of antisemitism clothed in integuments of anti-Zionism. 

 

The Jackman Humanities Institute web page that caught the incredulous attention of Dr. David Jacobs, president of the Ontario Association of Radiologists, spurring him to post to social media that he felt dutybound not to overlook "...this latest working group", lest he be "remiss" in his duties, is no longer available; mysteriously removed from public view. Dr. Jacobs' position on the university's governing council makes it all the more imperative that he launch a demand for an enquiry.

 

Anti-Israel protesters outside a Winnipeg synagogue claimed guest speakers from the Israeli Defence Force are “war criminals”   photo credit: Supplied

As he put it, he had expectations that the university would not succumb to permitting any group within its hallowed confines to "indulge in this type of activity", in cognizance of the of the Canadian Heritage 2026 federal report's finding that 95.7 percent of Jewish post-secondary students in Canada revealed that they had experienced or witnessed rank antisemitism on campus throughout the year before. 

 

Director of the Jackman Institute, Professor Randy Boyagoda, issued a statement that it "affirms the academic freedom of the individual faculty members involved with all of its working groups and does not endorse particular perspectives associated with any of them". The Institute, in other words respects academic freedom of study, research and enquiry, leaving it to random faculty members to explore issues of importance to them, unshackled by any measure of moral consequences in reaching unproven rancid conclusions as verified facts. 

"The JHI receives proposals from faculty members seeking to convene working groups on various subjects. These proposals are assessed by fellow faculty members."

"As the new director, I have focused on the re-conceptualization and renewal of the JHI’s programming since taking up my appointment in July."

"This includes working groups, among other activities." 

Randy Boyagoda, director, Jackman Humanities Institute (JHI)  

A demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag inside an anti-Israel encampment at the University of Toronto campus on May 2, 2024. Photo by COLE BURSTON /AFP via Getty Images

  

Roiling Friction in the Middle East

"[The security of the holy site is] a red line, [the kingdom]will not hesitate to take the necessary and deterrent measures [against the Yemeni group]."

"This hostile attempt will also remain a black mark in the record of violations by the extremist terrorist Houthi militia, as a deliberate act intended to provoke the feelings of millions of Muslims."

Turki al-Maliki, spokesperson, Saudi-led Coalition Forces 

 

"[Our targets were Saudi oil facilities and military bases] far removed from the holy places."

"The fabrications and lies propagated by the criminal Saudi regime regarding targeting Mecca cannot deceive anyone."

"There is no threat whatsoever from Yemen to the holy sites."

 Yahya Saree, Houthi military spokesman

 

"Any aggression against Islamic holy sites [would be considered] a condemned act [but] a mere claim of intercepting a drone en route to Mecca cannot constitute grounds for accusing a specific party."

"[The Houthis] explicitly denied [the attempted drone attack]."

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei

 

"[The conflict is on the] brink of further escalation and] dialogue and diplomacy remain the only sustainable path to peace." 

"There are no words sufficient to express the depth of pain and sorrow we feel toward this unforgivable and shameful deed."

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif  

Aerial view of the Grand Mosque in Mecca during hajj, May 2026, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Press Agency/Reuters

 

"For the Houthis, as a religiously dominant organization, this would be catastrophic for them—to target Mecca. It’s a lose-lose for them."

"The Houthis are using drones and homemade missiles, so there is a real possibility that the Houthi drone basically misfired."

"[Saudi Arabia] is trying to say that the Houthis are not just waging a political and geo-economic war against them, they are trying to target the most sacred religious site in Islam, and that resonates deeply." 

"Both sides are now engaged not only in military hostilities, but also for the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims." 

Fawaz Gerges, professor in international relations, London School of Economics  

Yemen's Houthis were accused by the Saudi-led coalition of targeting the holy city of Mecca. The Muslim world exploded in outrage. Riyadh's statement that it had shot down a drone heading toward Mecca, was rejected as a 'lie' by the Houthis. Renewed violence between the Houthis and Yemen's internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia has pulled both Saudi Arabia and the Houthis back into a conflict situation, with the Houthis once again blockading maritime shipment in the Red Sea, specifically targeting Saudi ships. 

 

The entire Red Sea coast of Yemen was seized a week earlier by the Houthis, along with the vital shipping artery for Saudi oil, the narrow Bab al-Mandab Strait, which Saudi Arabia had turned to as an alternative to the IRGC-blocked Strait of Hormuz as its preferred shipping route. This is not the first time the Houthis were accused of launching attacks toward Mecca, in an earlier conflict. Vowing retaliation, the Saudi coalition warned then that the security of holy sites represented a 'red line', and it has now been reiterated.

 

A commercial vessel is anchored off Yemen's coast at Bab al-Mandab, where Houthi militants have seized new islands, further threatening the world’s oil supply. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

 

During this year's pilgrimage a video was released by the Saudi defence ministry of advanced air defence batteries positioned on Mecca's outskirts, now home to a large number of security forces responsible for crowd control and security. The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation condemned the "heinous attacks ... against the city of Mecca and the Madinah region", after Saudi Arabia issued brief alerts of potential attacks in Mecca and across parts of the south.

 

A wave of ballistic missile and drone attacks launched from Yemen, was the precursor of the alerts. The Houthis have controlled swaths of northern Yemen for years, and in July a large-scale offensive was launched against government forces. The Arabian Peninsula's poorest country has seen 82,000 Yemeni civilians flee their homes in the past month, according to the United Nations. The government, according to the UN Yemeni permanent representative, was fighting to restore "national institutions across every inch of their land", calling on the international community to take action against the Houthis.

 

Muslim pilgrims completing Hajj rituals at Islam's holiest site in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, on May 30, 2026.  Ali Atmaca—Anadolu via Getty Images

 

At the same time, Saudi Arabia and Egypt call for the Red Sea navigation freedom to be restored. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi have jointly called for a unified move "ensuring the freedom and security of maritime navigation" through Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab, linking the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

 

It was reported in the U.S. media that the Saudi Crown Prince had personally requested that U.S. President Donald Trump intervene with U.S. forces, a request that was rejected. According to the Houthis, no threat exists to navigation in Bab al-Mandab other than for Saudi vessels. Nonetheless the prospect of potential attacks in the waterway will suffice to ensure its transit appears unattractive to shippers.

 

Meanwhile, disruption in the strait, where the Red Sea represents a gateway to the Suez Canal, which Cairo depends upon for critical foreign revenue is critically threatened, while Saudi Arabia will see its oil revenues collapse with no way to ship its oil to markets abroad, resulting once again in the rise of oil prices globally.  

 

 

Humanity-Hostile Militarization of Space

"The U.S. has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action." 

"Space control encapsulates the mission area required to contest and control the space domain -- employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities."

"These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes." 

U.S. Space Force spokesperson

US Space Command has announced it has put weapons in space for the first time. (Reuters: US Space Command/Christopher DeWitt)

 

"[The] weaponization of outer space turning it into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there [must be avoided at all costs]."

"We urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space."

Guo Jiakun, Foreign Ministry, China 

 

"[Space must be kept] free of any weapons."

"We are counting on broad international consolidation to continue working toward the complete demilitarization of space."

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman, Kremlin, Russia

The US Space Force's deployment will likely provoke other countries to follow suit, experts warn. (Reuters: Mike Blake

 

American authorities unceasingly portray China and Russia as aggressors worldwide. And the truth is, they have proven themselves to be just that, in their focus on territorial expansion and their willingness to author conflicts to gain their goals. Russia for the time being, more obviously prepared to declare war by any other descriptions which ends up killing tens of thousands of civilians and military alike. China's forte has been on the commercial side, with loans to developing nations for vital infrastructure, making for indebtedness, just as it has succeeded in becoming the global colossus of manufacturing, stripping it from the West, providing cheaper alternatives to a welcoming marketplace. 

 

Taiwan awaits the inevitable from China in Beijing's long march toward 'unification' where war is not ruled out to achieve its intentions. Although the United States has been the leader in space exploration, China has been close behind, landing a rover on the far side of the moon and acquiring valuable samples to answer astronomical questions of Earth's evolution even as the U.S. looks further into the universe to decipher its origins and creation. Russia was first in space exploration with Sputnik, falling behind ever since.

 

China is among the countries with its own space ambitions. (Reuters: China Daily)

 

International cooperation with the long-shared Space Station that temporarily housed both Russian and U.S. astronauts and scientific experiments, worked well as long as it lasted, but a resurgence in American pride and status as the world's sole superpower urges it forward continually to distinguish itself from its competitors seeking similar status and recognition. And then there is India which has also convincingly demonstrated that the world's most populous country is also capable of great scientific engineering feats in outer space.  

"The only difference is that the U.S. used to keep it ambiguous, whereas now it has gone public, which shows that Washington is no longer trying to hide it."

"China will not stand by and do nothing."

"Whether China deploys weapons in space will depend entirely on whether the United States moves in that direction."

Song Zhongping, independent military commentator, Hong Kong 

U.S. Space Force Guardians assigned to Space Delta 5 monitor computer workstations at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, U.S., December 18, 2025. U.S. Space Forces/David Dozoretz/Handout via REUTERS

 

The sensitive issue of the militarization of space is a troubling one. The very thought of these national powers developing the methodology and structures involved in producing space weaponry to challenge each other's military aspirations beyond the confines of Earth is bedeviling beyond measure, representing a failure of human willingness to respect parameters beyond which none should seek to venture. The executive branch of national politics and their elite military counterparts see no reason to curtail their ambitions.

 

That life on Earth will become more fraught with existential challenges while the heavens above are wracked with powerfully destructive weapons of mass annihilation, particularly at a time when artificial intelligence is being worked to contribute to the functions of design, manufacture, scheduling and  schemes of alpha conquest and control, risking at the same time the eventual autonomous devolution of AI estimating that humankind has failed its own test of humanity, and that it is time for a higher intelligence that is not human to make its mark, adds substantially to 'what could conceivably go wrong'.

 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket launches a classified payload for the United States Space Force at Cape Canaveral in Florida in 2024. Photograph: Joe Marino/UPI/REX/Shutterstock

 

Neither the advance toward the militarization of space, nor that which continues to further develop artificial intelligence capabilities beyond the capacity of human ingenuity to control can be of any benefit to humanity, and indeed has the potential to end humanity. That the United States of America under the controlling mind and hand of a a megalomaniac for whom caution is a difficult-to-spell word and a concept he will not recognize, as his whims and arrogance disrupt human relations and nation-to-nation coherence is no shrugging matter.  

"There is a regulatory vacuum because Article 4 of the 1967 treaty only forbids weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in orbit."

"Moscow and Beijing have been wanting to work for about 20 years on a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in space [while] western states are trying instead to work on the notion of responsible behaviour."

"The U.S. announcement will likely give impetus to the restrictive approach that Moscow and Beijing are pushing for." 

Laetitia Cesari, space law expert  

The US military's unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, pictured at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, the US in 2025. — Reuters/

 

Study: How the New York Times Framed the War Between Israel and Hamas

"I was not surprised by the direction of the findings but rather the magnitude. For example, the fact that Israeli military casualties were mentioned so infrequently and were not regularly tracked as part of the basic context of the reporting was a bit shocking to me. Likewise, the fact that two out of every three days had an article that mentioned a personal story of a Palestinian or Lebanese civilian suffering was more than I had anticipated."

"[I was] struck by the difference in the perception of the war. [How the] human element of the Israeli experience was missing in the mainstream U.S. media."

"[The Times largely depicts Israel as being the] sole aggressor [following the October 7 attack]."

"Palestinians are portrayed as passive victims whose suffering grows daily as they are relentlessly attacked by the Israeli military."

"[Framing the war in this context] offers a distorted view of the conflict." 

Edieal Pinker, Yale School of Management professor 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar holds up a copy of The New York Times as he speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting at the United Nations headquarters on in New York City on August 5, 2025. (credit: MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES)

 

Making use of ProQuest as a research database to find articles, study author Edieal Pinker tagged and labelled them, and then organized them into categories. The eight-month research time-frame limited the study somewhat, with the criteria for identifying articles "almost certainly excluded some relevant" pieces, unlikely he felt, to have changed the reported statistics. The study, titled How the New York Times Framed the War Between Israel and Hamas, saw publication on September 7 in the journal Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. 

 

The study found fewer than four percent of the articles studied contained an "account of an Israeli's struggles post October 7", while there was a wealth of details surrounding accounts of Palestinians affected by the conflict. The study had no purpose to diminish the devastation wrought by the conflict in Gaza. It makes note of the tens of thousands of deaths along with "widespread destruction of housing and critical infrastructure and the internal displacement of large proportions of the Gaza population".

 

Professor Pinker contends that the media plays a highly influential role in the manner in which people view the Israel/Hamas war, alongside the news stories that shape public opinion. Understanding this, is to fully comprehend that the framing carries weight and is quite deliberately instructive in how the public ends up believing the matter should be solved.   

"[The imbalances in coverage] create sympathy for the Palestinian people while at the same time diminishing Hamas's responsibility for their situation and the continuation of the war."

"Only 52 articles overall [out of 1,559] make any reference to some dimension of Israeli suffering among the population that are not direct victims of October 7."

"[My goal is] not to prove or disprove the legitimacy of either of these framings [but to demonstrate and document that the] former framing fits [the Times' coverage]."

"This is important because, whether intentional or not, reinforcement of a specific framing of the war by prominent and respected news media can shape public opinion in a way that could interfere with conflict resolution."  

Study: How the New York Times Framed the War Between Israel and Hamas

The New York Times’ coverage of the first nine months of the war in Gaza showed bias against Israel, according to a new paper in the Studies in Conflict & Terrorism academic journal. REUTERS

 

 The framing of the war by the Times throughout the time frame analyzed patterned readers to view the solution to the war as simply having Israel stop or reduce its military operations in Gaza. Another narrative, points out the study, would be to consider that it is Hamas representing the problem. The terrorist organization has "the capability and intent to launch both large-scale rocket attacks on Israel's population centres and large-scale cross-border raids into Israeli towns on the Gaza border". Consequently in this case the remedy would be to support the Israeli mission to eradicate the Hamas threat. 

"I also want readers to be more aware of the Hamas agency in the conduct and prolonging of this horrible war."

Edieal Pinker, professor, Yale University  

The Times allegedly downplayed the deaths and destruction in Israel for months after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack. AFP via Getty Images

 

Unending Air Raid Alerts in Ukraine

"In many cities and communities, air raid alerts practically do not stop because of the threat of Russian jet-powered drone attacks."

"The Russians have found a new way to escalate, and they have no intention of slowing down."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

 

"Countermeasures against jet drones are ongoing."

"New drones have passed field tests The task is to scale production as quickly as possible."

Ukrainian Defence Minister Yevhenii Khmara

 

"There are no suburban trains, no metro."

"But it is much worse for patients, for whom medical care will become less accessible due to the inability to get to a doctor."

Kostyantyn Kuts, 39, neurologist, Boryspil  

Smoke rises in Kyiv, Ukraine, during a Russian drone strike on Aug. 31, 2026. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

 

The Kremlin's bombing strategy has been altered. Where at one time Moscow focused on night-time attacks, its decision to swarm  Kyiv with relentless barrages of drones throughout the day has resulted in no relief for residents of the capital at all. No longer are they able to go about normal daytime activities; school, work, shopping. The around-the-clock barrages has hampered 'normal' life for the three million people who reside in Kyiv.  

 

Public services have been interrupted, even as the risk of civilian casualties rises. Public morale is plummeting in anticipation of oncoming winter and the thought turns to Russia once again targeting the public energy grids making for an impossibly long winter of freezing interiors, dark rooms and crude cooking conditions. Moscow claims it is interested only in striking military facilities, and weapons depots while continuing to target apartment buildings and civil infrastructure.

 

Ukrainian authorities are fully expectant that Russia will increase the use of jet-powered drones. "We will certainly need to adapt. This will take time", admitted Pavlo Palisa, deputy chief of President Zelenskyy's office, acknowledging the fact that Ukraine has not yet reached the point of competence in countering those deadly drones. Entering its fifth year of conflict, Ukrainians can be forgiven for succumbing to war-mandated deprivation fatigue.

 

The situation has stagnated, with neither side making any progress on the battlefield, turning instead to striking deeper into the other's territory, for citizen demoralization and exacting a war toll of scarcity, in hopes of forcing the other side into negotiations. Businesses and warehouses on both sides have become targets in the latest air war tactics. The aim is to cripple the economy, fuel public discord and cause panic buying. 

 

While Ukraine has targeted Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries facilities and that of its competitor Ozon, following air strikes on oil refineries causing gasoline shortages, Russia has returned the compliment with attacks on the largest retailers in Ukraine where shortages of some products have resulted. Now, Russia has turned to jet-powered Shahed drones, faster than propeller-drive versions. 

 

The growing use of daytime drone waves has created a different kind of disruption for Kyiv residents, Times Union

 

The routine that had developed in Ukraine's cities during the times of nighttime attacks where the population emerged during the day to resume their lives has been completely upended. People are now forced to adapt to their new reality, living from one alert to the other, second-guessing walks and spending nights in subway stations deep underground, recalling the early days of the war. Even as regular attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure continue when water and electricity are cut off. 

 

Additional concerns have arisen over Russia's new tactic of hoarding ballistic missiles, switching over to jet-powered drones. That Moscow now stockpiles ballistic missiles to be unleashed in the winter months to destroy energy and heating infrastructure to make for fewer critical amenities available to residents once again this coming winter, is everyone's nightmare. Particularly in the face of Ukraine's interceptors shortage to stop ballistic missiles hitting their targets.

 

A man carries his bicycle as he past firefighters pushing out a fire following Russian missiles strikes in Kyiv early on September 8, 2026, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (AFP)

  

"Every day now resembles the movie 'Groundhog Day', due to the number of alarms, explosions and descents into the basement."

"I, my mother and sister are fourth- and fifth-generation Kyiv residents."

"We will be in our land until the end."

Lika Modebadze, 18, high school student, Kyiv 

The Race To Build Superintelligence

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we use that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong."

Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic

 

"Many of the people I know who work on safety research at AI companies want to do what is right for the world."

"But they feel their companies are trapped in a race to build superintelligence: either they stop and other, less conscientious people take their place; or, they continue, and risk participating in enormous harm themselves."

Joe Benton, former Anthropic employee

Dario Amodei, co-founder and CEO of Anthropic, is shown in San Francisco in November 2024. On Saturday, he warned that AI could be capable within six to 12 months of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet. (Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press)

 

Within six to 12 months, warns Anthropic's CEO, artificial intelligence could be capable of leading a swarm of agents that could conceivably empower itself to control the entire internet, in the absence of the AI industry slowing down its swift development agendas to enable safety features to catch up with that runaway development. Concerns over AI continue to be magnified both within and without the industry as reports emerge of increasingly powerful systems capable of solving problems beyond human capacity.

 

That these powerful systems will be capable of carrying out their own threateningly harmful schemes seems to have reached a general consensus both within and outside the industry. The level of concern is palpable; that the CEO of OpenAI, responsible for Chat GPT revealed in an interview that his company is prepared to wait a year before selling stock to investors on Wall Street, reflects its development constraint, due to its focus on safety. 

 

Anthropic, according to Dario Amodei, as a leading AI voice, posted a plan on his website to increase critical checks on the industry.  He believes that although Anthropic is engaged in undertaking checks itself, others would benefit from across the board coordination with the entire industry, along with global governments. The AI industry has been urged for years by watchdogs to exercise due caution by decelerating their advances in AI. 

"Go ahead."

"I don't see what you see in the lab. If the unreleased models are scary enough that you think you should slow down, I support your decision to be responsible."

"[But] stop pretending you need anyone else's permission [to make such moves]."

David Sacks, co-chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology  

Instagram

 

With the example of just how critical the situation is, that industry workers are resigning while accusing the companies they worked for, of acting irresponsibly by continuing to forge ahead despite safety concerns, the issue has gone well beyond mere cautious speculation of worst-case scenarios. The resignation last week by Jacob Coxon, expressing his frustration that both Anthropic and and Open AI "are racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives", saw the industry snap to attention.

 

Suspicious activities by untrustworthy sources were blocked by Anthropic earlier last week, in efforts to use its AI models for malicious activity, including cyberattacks, surveillance and research leading to biological weapons. Several months back, the industry was shocked when OpenAI revealed that its AI system had hacked into another company in an "unprecedented cyber incident" undertaken on its own initiative.  

"They've kind of realized, their employees have realized, everyone has realized that they're building Skynet."

"And in winning the race to Skynet, nobody wins. Really, nobody."

"It's pretty much become clear to the world and even the AI companies that they're not really prepared to control the AI systems they're racing to create."

Anthony Aguirre, president/CEO, Future of Life Institute 

Two AI experts are warning that AI is getting too smart, too quickly. One former employee accuses Anthropic and OpenAI of 'gambling with our lives.' A current Anthropic safety executive said he thinks there's a ten per cent chance AI kills all humans within a decade. CBCNews