International
The head of the largest unit of the Israeli Army resigns due to the failure of October 7
Commander Yossi Sariel, in charge of the intelligence unit 8200 of the Israeli Army, the largest of the armed forces, submitted his resignation this Thursday for his responsibility in the attacks of October 7, in which thousands of Palestinian militiamen led by Hamas attacked the country from Gaza and killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251.
“On October 7 at 6:29 I did not fulfill the task that was expected of me, as my subordinates and commanders expected and as the citizens of the country I love so much expected of me,” begins a letter sent by Sariel to the members of unit 8200, collected by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Take responsibility
In the letter, the commander assumes responsibility for the failure of the unit that day, assuring that he failed in the understanding that the border with Gaza “demands as a system a different risk management, based on having the minimum margin of error that exists.”
Less than a month after the anniversary of the Hamas attack, Sariel submitted his resignation in agreement “with the state of the war, with the processes of consolidation of service and building resilience in the unit, as well as after the completion of the processes of the preliminary investigation into what happened.”
Leave unit 8200
Unit 8200 is the largest information collection unit of the Military Intelligence Directorate, responsible for both creating and using tools to collect, analyze, process and share information, which makes it a spearhead in the field of cyber warfare of the Israeli armed forces.
According to a report collected by the news channel 12, the most popular Israeli network, the 8200 was in charge of designing the alert system to warn of a possible invasion of the Gaza militiamen in 2014.
Fourth senior who leaves his position
Sariel became this Thursday the fourth high-ranking official to resign from his position as a way of accounting for October 7.
Aharon Haliva, the then head of military intelligence, was the first figure of the authorities in a position of responsibility who resigned, as well as one of the few, along with the head for the southern district of Israel for the internal intelligence service -Shin Bet- and the head of the Gaza Division of the Army, General Avi Rosenfield.
Discontent among society due to the lack of performance
The lack of accountability in Israel has been a focus of discontent among society, which charges especially against the high levels of the military sector and the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has not assumed any kind of responsibility publicly after what happened.
In October, the head of Shin Bet, Ron Bar, apologized for what happened on October 7 and assumed his responsibility, but for the moment he is still in office.
Although the Army is conducting an internal investigation into the failures that allowed the Hamas attack, there is no national commission of inquiry, which could target the Netanyahu government.
International
Three Killed, Four Injured in Shooting Near Seattle’s Space Needle
Three people were killed and at least four others, including a young child, were injured in a shooting near Seattle’s iconic Space Needle on Sunday, authorities said.
The shooting occurred during the annual Bite of Seattle food festival, held in one of the city’s busiest tourist areas. Police have arrested one suspect and are searching for a second individual believed to be involved.
Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis said officers responded to reports of gunfire at about 6:00 p.m. local time (0100 GMT Monday).
“Two individuals were shooting at each other,” Davis said, adding that investigators recovered two firearms at the scene.
Authorities confirmed that three people died as a result of the shooting. The identities of the victims have not yet been released.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said members of the State Patrol’s SWAT team had been deployed to assist Seattle police with the investigation.
Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson described the incident as a “horrific act of violence.”
“Our focus is on those who lost their lives, those fighting to recover, and the families standing beside them,” Wilson said in a statement.
Susan Gregg, a spokesperson for Harborview Medical Center, said the hospital admitted four victims: a young child, a 23-year-old man, a 39-year-old woman and another woman whose age was not immediately known and who required emergency surgery.
According to police, the hospitalized victims are in stable condition.
Witnesses told local television station KIRO that they heard multiple gunshots before crowds fled the festival area.
“At first I thought it was fireworks, and then everyone started running,” witness Nick Bate told the station.
Another witness told AFP that panic spread immediately after the shooting.
“We just started running. I didn’t even look to see where the shooter was. I just kept hearing the gunfire,” the witness said.
International
China Accuses U.S. AI Firms of Using Chinese Models to Train Artificial Intelligence
China on Monday accused U.S. artificial intelligence companies of using Chinese AI models to train their own systems, escalating tensions in the technological rivalry between the world’s two largest economies.
In a statement, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it has evidence that “many U.S. artificial intelligence companies have distilled Chinese models during their research, development and training processes.”
Model distillation is a machine learning technique that transfers knowledge from a larger, more advanced model to a smaller and faster one, allowing it to perform efficiently while requiring fewer computing resources. The approach is widely used across the AI industry.
U.S. officials have previously argued that Chinese firms employ distillation on a large scale to unlawfully replicate proprietary American AI systems. Beijing dismissed those allegations, calling them unfounded.
According to the Chinese ministry, Washington’s accusations “lack both factual and legal basis, apply double standards in practice, and represent a typical act of AI hegemony.”
“China will take all necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” the ministry added.
The statement comes days after a senior White House official accused Chinese startup Moonshot AI of secretly copying Anthropic’s most advanced AI model to develop its Kimi K3 system.
Moonshot’s latest model drew significant attention across the U.S. technology sector following its release, reigniting debate over China’s growing competitiveness in artificial intelligence.
Last week, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that Washington could impose sanctions on China as the administration considers restricting or banning foreign-developed open-source AI models, many of which are built using model distillation techniques.
International
Costa Rica Seeks to Expand Extradition Law to Target Organized Crime
Costa Rican President Laura Fernández announced that her administration will submit a constitutional reform bill to Congress on August 3 aimed at expanding the legal grounds for extraditing Costa Rican nationals accused of serious crimes.
Under current legislation, Costa Rican citizens can only be extradited to face prosecution abroad for international drug trafficking and terrorism. The proposed reform would broaden that list to include a wider range of organized crime offenses.
Speaking before the Legislative Assembly while presenting a broader package of public security initiatives, Fernández said the proposal seeks to strengthen the country’s fight against transnational criminal organizations.
“We are going to expand the grounds for extradition to include serious crimes,” the president said.
The initiative would allow the extradition of Costa Rican nationals accused of financing drug trafficking or terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, arms and organ trafficking, contract killings, organized crime-related homicides, cybercrime and cyberterrorism.
“We will not stop in our national crusade against organized crime or in our relentless war against drug trafficking,” Fernández said.
A political ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, Fernández took office in May after campaigning on a promise to adopt a tougher stance against organized crime, which she has linked to the recent rise in violence in Costa Rica, a country long regarded as one of the safest in Latin America.
Costa Rica currently permits the extradition of its own citizens only for international drug trafficking and terrorism, following a 2025 constitutional amendment promoted by former President Rodrigo Chaves, who now serves as the country’s Minister of the Presidency and Finance.
Three Killed, Four Injured in Shooting Near Seattle’s Space Needle
China Accuses U.S. AI Firms of Using Chinese Models to Train Artificial Intelligence
Costa Rica Seeks to Expand Extradition Law to Target Organized Crime
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