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Our intelligence services remain in contact with the Polish ones and continuously cooperate. If the Polish side requests support and assistance, we will certainly meet them halfway. Andrej Babiš said to the "Deník N" newspaper portal that the Czech intelligence services maintain contact with Polish institutions. #zamach #groźby #DonaldTusk (translated)

Rachel Garrat-Valcarcel estimated that gathering 10,000 people in Clermont six months before the first round was at least as remarkable as bringing together 25,000 in Saint-Denis, if not more. She added that we would need to see what the others would look like as April approaches, but that the campaign could be one of the largest electoral machines in recent decades. #Élections2024 #ClermontFerrand #Politique (translated)

Would you ever regret in your life that you believed someone? This is not how politics should work. I regret that Lumír Aschenbrenner will not be a senator. But I could not influence whether someone fulfills the agreement or not," said the head of the ODS, Martin Kupka, to the Aktuálně.cz newspaper. #Volby2026 #Kozolupy #MichaelaŘehková (translated)

Paola wrote that, in the case of Denis Dosio, the second word was not audible and only a religious curse could be heard, interrupted before the final part. She added that Dosio had been eliminated anyway and that, in her opinion, the precedents should be respected. https://t.co/dosAQE37w4 #DenisDosio #TVItaliano #RealityShow (translated)

Operation Dark Clark – Russia built a real organisation around a false identity Most influence operations create fake people, fake websites or fake news stories. Operation Dark Clark appears to have gone considerably further: Russian operators built what looked like a functioning research organisation in Latin America, employed real people to produce genuine research and concealed from those employees who was ultimately directing their work. OpenAI disclosed the operation on 8 October after banning a cluster of accounts originating in Russia. The actors used ChatGPT while targeting countries across Latin America, principally to damage Ukraine’s reputation, manipulate domestic political debates and manage a self-described research organisation called the Social Research Center, or SRC. OpenAI assessed Dark Clark as Category Five on the six-level Breakout Scale, the first operation it has disrupted since beginning its influence-operation reporting to reach that level. A front organisation with real employees The SRC presented itself as a research platform studying subjects including Latin America’s relationship with India and the Indian diaspora. OpenAI found more than 60 articles on its website, most of them apparently original rather than plagiarised. Internal reports produced by the Russian operators discussed hiring, dismissals, salary scales, staffing and unfinished research projects, strongly suggesting that the operators controlled the organisation rather than merely collaborating with it. At the centre of the structure was “Mia Clark”, a fictitious identity reportedly used to manage social-media activity and communicate with staff. According to OpenAI, the available evidence indicates that employees working for SRC in Latin America were probably unaware that the organisation was being directed by Russian actors. They interviewed experts, conducted research and wrote papers in what appears to have been good faith. The deception therefore existed primarily at the organisational level: much of the work was real, but the identity and strategic purpose of the institution commissioning it were not. OpenAI This is one reason Dark Clark differs from the familiar model of a troll farm. A reader encountering an SRC paper might be looking at research genuinely written by a Latin American employee based on genuine interviews. The manipulation lies further upstream, in who built the institution, selected its direction and controlled its infrastructure. From forged emails to real events The operation also appears to have attempted something more ambitious than online persuasion: inducing real people to produce events that could later be turned into propaganda. In May 2026, according to the operators’ internal reports, they created an email address impersonating Lima’s regional education authorities and instructed schools to organise activities about Ukraine for a cultural-diversity event. The instructions included references to Stepan Bandera, whose historical legacy remains particularly contentious in Poland and parts of Eastern Europe. The operators claimed that some schools complied, replied to the false address and sent photographs of the events. OpenAI could not independently verify every claim contained in the operators’ reports. It did, however, find Peruvian reporting matching the story, followed by publications in Poland and an English-language outlet in Hungary. Some coverage included comments from a Polish MEP calling for people displaying what he described as anti-Polish attitudes to be declared persona non grata. OpenAI therefore concluded that the fabricated starting point appears to have entered genuine political debate across national borders. The mechanism is unusually effective because the final photographs need not themselves be fabricated. If people can be tricked into staging a real event on the basis of a forged instruction, the operation creates authentic visual evidence of something that was artificially initiated. The same method in Ecuador and Bolivia Dark Clark’s internal reports describe similar efforts elsewhere. In Ecuador, the operators claimed they used a fake education email to encourage schools to stage ceremonies involving President Daniel Noboa and Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater. Ecuadorian media subsequently covered a matching controversy, and the country’s education minister issued a detailed denial. Other Ecuador-focused material included fabricated audio attributed to Ukraine’s consul and a false television report alleging that Noboa’s government was recruiting Ecuadorians to fight in Ukraine. Local fact-checker Lupa found that the supposed Teleamazonas report had never been broadcast, that images had been taken from Instagram, that the audio was AI-generated and that a company named in a supposed recruitment contract did not exist in Ecuador’s corporate registry. In Bolivia, an internal report described a fake audio recording supposedly made by an employee of state water company EPSAS during anti-government protests. It claimed that water supplies to La Paz would be cut and a state of emergency declared. The allegation produced a fact-check and an official denial. OpenAI says the operators explicitly described their objective as worsening the political crisis surrounding the demonstrations. Possible links to the post-Wagner influence machine Dark Clark did not emerge in a vacuum. The operators repeatedly asked ChatGPT about Politology and La Compania, names associated in previous investigations with the Russian influence apparatus that developed from structures once connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin. Forbidden Stories and its partners obtained 1,431 pages of internal documents describing a network known as “The Company”, which they reported had grown to almost 100 operatives and was conducting influence projects across roughly 30 Global South countries. Their investigation found that the organisation moved under the supervision of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, after Prigozhin’s death. Its documented budget for ten months of activity in 2024 was approximately €7.3 million. Two older Argentina campaigns claimed in Dark Clark’s internal reports — a false story about Javier Milei buying Cartier collars for his dogs and the staging of anti-Milei graffiti — had already been independently attributed by investigative journalists to Politology/La Compania. That is significant corroboration, but it is not enough to prove that every Dark Clark activity was run by the same organisational structure. AI was the back office, not the mastermind Perhaps the most important finding concerns artificial intelligence itself. In most documented cases, the Russians were not using ChatGPT to generate the propaganda seen by the public. Their principal use was administrative: drafting reports for an unknown superior, summarising operations, translating material and recording the supposed success of campaigns. Those reports also expose a weakness in the operators’ own measurement. OpenAI found instances in which they tried to claim credit for developments they had probably not caused, suggesting that they were not only attempting to manipulate Latin American audiences but also presenting an inflated picture of their effectiveness to whoever was supervising them. Dark Clark nevertheless broke further into the real world than any influence operation OpenAI had previously disrupted. Under the Brookings framework, Category Five means that an operation has escaped its original network and been amplified by high-profile individuals such as politicians. Dark Clark crossed that threshold because fabricated narratives appear to have provoked governmental denials, mainstream reporting and political comment in several countries. Its most important innovation was therefore not a particularly convincing deepfake. It was the construction of a partly genuine institution around a concealed foreign controller. The research could be real. The employees could be real. The interviews could be real. What was false was who they were ultimately working for. Sources OpenAI — Disrupting AI-enabled “false front” operations https://openai.com/index/disrupting-ai-enabled-false-front-operations/ Forbidden Stories — Propaganda Machine: Russia’s foreign influence strategy across three continents https://forbiddenstories.org/propaganda-machine-secret-documents-reveal-russias-foreign-influence-strategy-across-three-continents/ Forbidden Stories — Ghost Journalists, Cash and Kremlin Scripts: Argentina https://forbiddenstories.org/ghost-journalists-cash-and-kremlin-scripts-how-russian-operatives-tried-to-influence-argentinian-media/ openDemocracy — Russian influence operation in Bolivia https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/russia-bolivia-south-america-putin-evo-morales-wagner-prigozhin-covert-operations-propaganda-disinformation-foreign-interference/ Lupa Media — Fake Teleamazonas report about recruiting Ecuadorians for Ukraine https://lupa.com.ec/verificaciones/noboa-mercenarios-ucrania-ecuador/ Brookings Institution — The Breakout Scale https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-breakout-scale-measuring-the-impact-of-influence-operations/ Keywords: #DISINFORMED #Episode17 #OperationDarkClark #DarkClark #Russia #LatinAmerica #RussianInfluence #RussianDisinformation #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #ForeignInterference #FIMI #FalseFront #FrontOrganisation #FakeInstitution #SocialResearchCenter #SRC #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #OpenAI #NarrativeManipulation #SourceLaundering #InstitutionalManipulation #ForgedDocuments #FakeAudio #PoliticalInfluence #CovertInfluence #Peru #Ecuador #Bolivia #Argentina #Ukraine #Politology #LaCompania #TheCompany #SVR #WagnerLegacy #PropagandaMachine #GlobalSouth #BreakoutScale #OSINT #MediaManipulation #WRLD

AFRICA DAILY REPORT — 11 OCTOBER 2026 Key developments of past 24h 1. SUDAN — Drone strike on displaced civilians: reported death toll rises to 41 IMPORTANCE: 10/10 — CRITICAL Emergency Lawyers reported that a drone strike on displaced people in Abu Shandi, Blue Nile state, killed 41, including eight children. The group blamed the RSF, which had not commented. The toll is not independently verified. Source: https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-rsf-military-6cb2c34499234e9bcd33c3c9b49521da 2. ETHIOPIA–ERITREA — Eritrea appeals to UN Security Council Eritrea asked the Security Council to take deterrent measures against Ethiopia and denied Ethiopia's allegation of an Eritrean incursion. Ethiopian troops and allies entered Adigrat, according to residents and Reuters-verified footage. The alleged incursion has not been independently verified. Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ethiopian-forces-regain-control-border-city-after-reported-eritrean-incursion-2026-10-10/ 3. KENYA — Authorities expand Ebola awareness campaign IMPORTANCE: 9/10 — VERY HIGH Kenya's health ministry asked churches and faith organizations to raise awareness about Ebola symptoms and early reporting. The campaign follows a fatal imported case from DR Congo; authorities continue tracing contacts and strengthening screening. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/kenyan-health-ministry-urges-churches-to-raise-awareness-about-ebola/ 4. MALAWI — Fuel shortages disrupt transport and commerce IMPORTANCE: 9/10 — VERY HIGH Motorists in Lilongwe have queued for days for petrol, disrupting commuting, schooling and business. The latest reporting did not establish when supplies would normalize. Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/10/10/malawi-motorists-queue-for-days-as-fuel-shortage-bites 5. DR CONGO — President presses AU mediators for implementation of peace commitments President Felix Tshisekedi met AU mediators in Kinshasa after consultations in Goma and Kigali, calling for concrete implementation of Washington and Doha peace commitments. No new ceasefire agreement was announced. Source: https://presidence.cd/actualite-detail/actualite/le_chef_de_letat_a_recu_le_panel_des_facilitateurs_de_lunion_africaine 6. SOUTH AFRICA — Police reinforce security after anti-migrant violence IMPORTANCE: 9/10 — VERY HIGH Police increased their presence in Johannesburg and Durban after anti-migrant demonstrations, vehicle burnings and looting. The unrest was partly fuelled by misinformation about an asylum court ruling. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/heightened-security-at-anti-immigrant-hotspots-in-south-africa/ 7. MAURITANIA — Prime minister reappointed following resignation over electricity failures The prime minister was reappointed after resigning amid findings about fires at Nouakchott substations and prolonged power outages. Investigators cited deficiencies in maintenance, protection and emergency management. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/mauritanian-pm-reappointed-hours-after-resignation-over-power-outages/ 8. DR CONGO — Joseph Kabila criticizes government and security situation Former president Joseph Kabila accused the authorities of governance failures and criticized the handling of the eastern Congo conflict. These were his political allegations, not independently established findings. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/former-dr-congo-president-says-the-country-is-in-peril/ 9. MOROCCO — King calls for greater emphasis on youth opportunities King Mohammed VI urged greater focus on education, employment, skills and inclusion following youth-led demonstrations. He also called for revised cooperation with Spain on migration. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/moroccan-king-says-youth-issues-must-be-at-forefront-of-policy-agenda/ 10. KENYA — Erratic rainfall pressures farmers' finances and mental health IMPORTANCE: 7/10 — HIGH Farmers in Nyeri report losses from unpredictable rainfall and dry spells. Local specialists highlight growing stress and anxiety, while advocating climate-smart agriculture, irrigation and mental-health support. Source: https://www.africanews.com/2026/10/10/unreliable-weather-creating-mental-health-issues-for-kenyan-farmers/ #Africa #AfricaNews #AfricaDailyReport #TopNewsOfAfrica #AfricaToday #DRCongo #Rwanda #FelixTshisekedi #AfricanUnion #AUMediators #PeaceProcess #PeaceNegotiations #PeaceAgreements #EasternCongo #M23 #Goma #Kinshasa #Diplomacy #Morocco #KingMohammedVI #GenZ #YouthOpportunities #YouthEmployment #Education #YouthEmpowerment #YouthProtests #SocialDevelopment #MigrationPolicy #Sudan #SudanWar #BlueNile #DroneStrike #CivilianCasualties #DisplacedPeople #RSF #HumanitarianCrisis #WarCrimes #Ethiopia #Eritrea #Tigray #Adigrat #HornOfAfrica #UNSecurityCouncil #RegionalSecurity #Kenya #Ebola #PublicHealth #DiseasePrevention #HealthAwareness #Malawi #FuelShortages #EnergyCrisis #SouthAfrica #AntiMigrantProtests #Xenophobia #MigrationCrisis #Disinformation #Mauritania #PowerOutages #JosephKabila #ClimateChange #KenyanFarmers #FoodSecurity #AfricanPolitics #Geopolitics #AfricaSecurity #HumanRights #AfricanDevelopment #WRLDorg

Impact reported that Olivier Truchot opposed the presence of elected officials at demonstrations and questioned why Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis and not Paris, participated in a Parisian gathering. Truchot believed that elected officials should instead address problems, regardless of their political affiliation. After a speaker asked him if the elected officials who demonstrated against anti-Semitism were also wrong, Truchot responded that the situation was different. #Politique #Manifestation #République (translated)

Bally Bagayoko explained that his group abstained during the vote on a wish presented by the opposition elected officials from the Socialist, Environmentalists, and Citizens group at the municipal council. The text focused on the protection of girls and women against excision and female genital mutilation, as well as the adoption of a comprehensive law against sexist and sexual violence (SSV). He said that his group supported the fight against mutilations and reminded that nearly 500 patients received follow-up each year in the municipality. He also praised the work of the Women's House, Delafontaine Hospital, and various associations, and asked the State to strengthen the resources allocated for prevention and medical follow-up. According to Bally Bagayoko, the abstention concerned the request to quickly adopt the law on SSV. He indicated that the bill had been significantly amended in committee at the National Assembly the week of the municipal council, and its content remained uncertain. His group had asked to remove references to this law from the wish in order to be able to vote in favor of the text on the fight against excision, but the opposition had refused, he wrote. He believed that this refusal had hindered the pursuit of an agreement and denounced a political instrumentalization of the issue. The group ultimately abstained in order not to block the wish, which was adopted, while not supporting all of its content, he noted. #Excision #DroitsDesFemmes #LutteContreLesViolences (translated)

Bally Bagayoko presented the launch of the Hip-Hop and Urban Cultures Festival of the New Town of Saint-Denis–Pierrefitte-sur-Seine as an evening focused on creation, commitment, and hope. He said that the city aimed to maintain a strong cultural ambition despite a difficult political and social context, which weakened local communities and tested cultural policies. He described culture as a right and a means of emancipation, and hip-hop and urban cultures as spaces for expression, encounter, and solidarity. According to him, the evening also allowed for affirming support for the mobilization of high school students on October 17. Bagayoko advocated for a convergence of struggles and generations around social justice, equality, dignity, and access to culture. #HipHop #CulturesUrbaines #SaintDenis #PierrefitteSurSeine #CulturePourToutesEtTous #Jeunesse #ConvergenceDesLuttes #FaireRenaîtreLEspoir #HipHop #CulturesUrbaines #Culture (translated)

Press Briefs reported nearly 7,000 police custody cases, 86% of which involved minors, and indicated that the majority had not led to legal proceedings at this stage. The account described these arrests as a massive and unprecedented measure aimed at containing the mobilization of young people. Several cited observers viewed this as a form of intimidation, while Press Briefs believed this practice infringed on the right to protest and risked normalizing disproportionate police and judicial responses. The account added that the preventive use of police custody had already been documented during the Yellow Vests movement. Relying on independent press articles, Press Briefs relayed testimonies from high school students reporting violent detention conditions, symptoms of post-traumatic stress, forced undressings, and physical or psychological violence. A 15-year-old reportedly recounted being slammed against a concrete bed and hit on the head by police and then insulted. A complaint had been filed, according to the account, which also indicated that the police prefecture had not responded to Mediapart's questions about the reported statements. Mohammed, a 16-year-old high school student in Saint-Denis, reportedly stated that police had hit the bars of his cell during the night to wake up the detainees and had targeted him with a racist insult. The mother of Noham, also 16, claimed that her son had been hit in the liver and face after asking why he had been arrested. Adam's mother also denounced violence against young protesters. Press Briefs added that several teenage girls and boys reported sexist and racist remarks from police, and complaints had been filed. Anne Savinel-Barras, president of Amnesty International France, expressed her concern over the repression of the student movement, believing that the young people's demands for education and health were met with prohibitions on demonstrations and disproportionate police violence. The NGO stated that it would support people peacefully protesting and defend the right to demonstrate. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also expressed concern about the situation in France and notably called for a proportional use of force. #jeunesse #manifestation #répression (translated)

The Tallinn Circuit Court upheld the Harju County Court's decision on October 5, which denied the early release of Denis Metsaavase, who was convicted of treason, finding that his early release is not justified as he has not yet served enough of his sentence to prevent further crimes. #госизмена #суд #Таллинн (translated)

For a long time, I primarily observed, described, and perhaps commented a bit ironically on public affairs. "Today I have come to the conviction that it is time to take responsibility. I consider the Senate a place where it makes sense to defend the rules, institutions, and values on which a democratic state stands," said the publisher and writer Jiří Padevět earlier. #SenátníVolby #PodporaUkrajiny #Čižinský (translated)

Stock Market Information reported that in the ranking of the most popular names for boys in 2026, the following names appeared: Jan in Warsaw, Jakub in the Czech Republic, Dominik in Hungary, Luka in Croatia, Vasilije in Serbia, Minato in Japan, and Do-yun in South Korea. They also indicated Mohammed in Berlin and Oslo, Muhammad in London, Brussels, and Toronto, as well as Mohamed in Seine-Saint-Denis. #imiona #dzieci #2026 (translated)

ČT24 reported that the coalition party Motoristé, according to information from ČTK, did not allow the media outlets Deník N and Respekt to enter the election headquarters. The chairman of the party, Petr Macinka, cited limited capacity as the reason. #politika #volby #medialniobraz (translated)