Ted Sarandos, a co-chief executive of Netflix, said the Argentinian science fiction series El Eternauta (The Eternaut) was the first it had made that involved using generative AI footage.

He said the series, which follows survivors of a rapid and devastating toxic snowfall, involved Netflix and visual effects (VFX) artists using AI to show a building collapsing in Buenos Aires.

“Using AI-powered tools, they were able to achieve an amazing result with remarkable speed and, in fact, that VFX sequence was completed 10 times faster than it could have been completed with traditional VFX tools and workflows,” he said.

He said the use of AI tools allowed Netflix to fund the show at a much lower cost than is typical for a big-budget production.

“The cost of [the special effects without AI] just wouldn’t have been feasible for a show in that budget,” Sarandos said.

When Franco José Caraballo Tiapa arrived at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in early February for a routine check-in, he thought he had little reason to worry.

Caraballo, 26, had arrived in the U.S. in 2023 after fleeing persecution in Venezuela, lived with his wife in Dallas, and had no criminal record, his immigration attorney Martin Rosenow told The Intercept. He’d checked in with ICE regularly while waiting on his asylum claim. But when an agent took special interest in his tattoos, they detained him and put him on a bus to the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas — and eventually on a plane to CECOT.

For Caraballo and at least half a dozen other men, U.S. officials’ assumptions about their body art played a significant role in classifying them as gang members and disappearing them to the notorious prison in El Salvador. The Intercept found that a very different standard applies for the federal agents tasked with keeping migrants out of the country and rounding up those targeted by President Donald Trump’s deportation obsession.

On a public “grooming standards” webpage aimed at prospective Customs and Border Protection agents, the agency advises that any tattoos and brandings must be concealed if they are “obscene or gang-related.” In other words, agents are allowed to have the very markings for which Caraballo and others were disappeared into a Salvadoran gulag — as long as they keep them out of sight.

In his first video message since March 6, the spokesperson of Hamas’s military wing Qassam Brigades has said the Palestinian group repeatedly offered to release all captives at once to conclude a comprehensive ceasefire deal, but Israel rejected the proposal.

Abu Obeida said the group would not agree to an interim truce in the future if a ceasefire agreement was not reached and accused Israel of intransigence.

Abu Obeida also said Hamas fighters are “ready to continue a long battle of attrition”.

On the evening of June 30, an Israeli warplane dropped a 500-pound, U.S.-made MK-82 bomb on the seaside Al-Baqa Cafe in Gaza City. The explosion killed more than 30 people and injured dozens more.

The weapon’s wide blast radius in the dense neighborhood caused indiscriminate damage, affecting unprotected civilians including men, women, children, and the elderly. Legal experts have said the attack likely violated international law under the Geneva Conventions and may constitute a war crime.

As the war grinds on, cafes like Al-Baqa aren’t just social spaces; for many, they are the only places to access electricity and the internet, which are often unavailable in people’s homes due to the ongoing blockade and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure. For the dead, the ceasefire will never come. Here are some of their stories.

The fossil fuel industry pumped an extra 389m tonnes of carbon pollution into the atmosphere last year by needlessly flaring gas, a World Bank report has found, in an “enormous waste” of fuel that heats the planet by about as much as the country of France.

Flaring is a way to get rid of gases such as methane that arise when pumping oil out of the ground. While it can sometimes keep workers safe by relieving buildups of pressure, the practice is routine in many countries because it is often cheaper to burn gas than to capture, transport, process and sell it.

Global gas flaring rose for a second year in a row to reach its highest level since 2007, the report found, despite growing concerns about energy security and climate breakdown.

One Kneecap member, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, has been charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly holding a Hezbollah flag at a London gig last November. The 27-year-old denies the charge and is to appear in court in August.

Kneecap said on Friday they had received a “private email” to say no further action would be taken over last month’s performance. “We played a historic set at Glastonbury. Whole area closed an hour before due to crowds,” the group said on X. “A celebration of love and solidarity. A sea of good people at the world’s most famous festival.”

They added: “Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close … yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation. This is political. This is targetted. This is state intimidation”

One Kneecap member, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, known as Mo Chara, has been charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly holding a Hezbollah flag at a London gig last November. The 27-year-old denies the charge and is to appear in court in August.

Kneecap said on Friday they had received a “private email” to say no further action would be taken over last month’s performance. “We played a historic set at Glastonbury. Whole area closed an hour before due to crowds,” the group said on X. “A celebration of love and solidarity. A sea of good people at the world’s most famous festival.”

They added: “Every single person who saw our set knew no law was broken, not even close … yet the police saw fit to publicly announce they were opening an investigation. This is political. This is targetted. This is state intimidation”

The president said on Truth Social he had authorized the justice department to seek the public release of the materials, which are under seal, citing “the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein”.

Bondi, who has weathered days of accusations by Trump’s far-right supporters that she had mismanaged and failed to deliver on promises to release previously secret documents about the Epstein case, responded to Trump’s post with a post of her own that vowed to comply with the directive.

The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released a new video message on Thursday directed at 'Israeli' soldiers operating in Gaza, urging them to surrender rather than face death in combat.

Published via the group's military media channel on Telegram, the video delivers a direct warning: "To the Israeli Nazi soldiers in Gaza, our fighters will inevitably reach you. If you choose not to fight and wish to save your life, do this: drop your weapon, raise your hands, and follow field instructions."

The message continues, emphasizing that captivity is a better alternative than death, assuring: "We promise to keep you alive and protect you until the nearest deal."

The southern Israeli port of Eilat is set to shut down completely in the coming days, due to massive debts and paralysis caused by Yemen’s pro-Palestine naval blockade on Israel.

The Israeli Ports and Shipping Authority said on 16 July that Eilat Port will suspend all its operations starting on 20 July.

Hebrew media reports described the situation as a “dramatic step” that could undermine Israeli maritime logistics in the Red Sea, and referred to the port as “debt ridden.”

Article link. Translation:

Potsdam (dpa/bb) - The commitment to Israel's right to exist is a condition for naturalisation in Brandenburg. In addition to the commitment to the liberal-democratic basic order, “the recognition of the right to existence of the State of Israel has been a condition for naturalisation since the beginning of June this year,” said Interior Minister René Wilke in the . This is done in consultation with Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD).

The Minister of the Interior made it clear that it is not about the acceptance of all decisions by the Israeli government: “It is a commitment to the right of the State of Israel to exist, which is being made,” said Wilke. “It is not a commitment that everything any head of government in Israel will ever do and will also be solidarity and agreement.”

The United States is losing strategic ground to China due to US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the global stage and transactional approach to foreign policy, a Democrat-authored report has warned.

Surveying Trump’s first six months in office, the report warns that his tenure has “significantly undermined” Washington’s ability to compete with China.

The report highlights staff reductions at the US Department of State and the “chaotic gutting” of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the US Agency for Global Media – which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Asia – as moves that have weakened US power and influence.