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Malca Goldstein-Wolf criticized Schalke 04 for what she believes was a too general statement in memory of the massacre on October 7, 2023. She wrote that the day should be dedicated to the innocent victims of Islamist violence in Israel, including the babies killed by Hamas, the women who were raped, and the young people who wanted to celebrate. The memorial should not include dead Hamas members and their Palestinian supporters, nor all war victims worldwide. Goldstein-Wolf suggested that the football club may have been intimidated or worried about upsetting Muslim players and fans. As a result, the statement became diluted and lacked credibility, she wrote. She added that Jews need real and reliable friends now more than ever; good intentions are not enough. #Gedenken #Hamas #Opfer (translated)

The author criticized Gerhard Schröder for celebrating with Putin while he was letting rockets be fired at innocent people. Schröder is a disgrace to Germany and is heavily violating his duties as a former chancellor, he wrote. Moreover, he described it as intolerable that Schröder continues to receive benefits from tax funds. https://t.co/82UKYZZgAa #Schröder #Putin #Deutschland #DE #RU (translated)

Paul Ronzheimer labeled Vladimir Putin a war criminal and Gerhard Schröder as his most eager helper. He wrote that Defense Minister Boris Pistorius should have expressed his disgust in a coarse formulation the day before at Bebelplatz, but would not do so because the SPD continues to protect its former chancellor. Schröder has betrayed Germany in an astounding way, wrote Ronzheimer. Putin, whom he portrayed as Schröder's best friend, has had dozens of people killed in Ukraine, including children, elderly people, and innocents. Ronzheimer called this a historical disgrace. #Kriegsverbrecher #Schande #Ukraine (translated)

The author wrote that Russia killed 24 civilians in Ukraine that day, including five children, and injured another 110. He criticized Ulrich Siegmund by stating that he only thought of not supplying Ukraine with further defensive weapons. Regarding the affected people, he wrote that pure malice raged within them. https://t.co/0NejELLR9A #Ukraine #Kriegsverbrechen #Frieden #UA #RU (translated)

The author recalled that October 7 marks its third anniversary. According to him, three years ago on this day, about 1,200 innocent people were murdered in a completely random and brutal manner. He wrote that not only Hamas was responsible for this, but also people whom he described as "completely normal." #NieVergessen #Gedenken #Frieden #DE (translated)

U.M. OSINT explained that he is often criticized for speaking of "the Palestinians" instead of just Hamas. Highlighting Hamas conveys the impression in the West, in his view, that the Palestinians are largely innocent and the responsibility lies solely with a ruling class. In the Gaza Strip and, in a different composition, in the West Bank, the Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the PFLP, the DFLP, the Martyrs' Brigades, Fatah, and other groups are also active. According to U.M. OSINT, the motivation of these groups is distorted in the West. Their goal is the destruction of Israel; they internally view Israel's existence as an occupation of their land. This perspective is also adopted by Western left extremists. U.M. OSINT referred to the resistance against Israel's existence as Muqāwama and stated that civilian, peaceful resistance means Ṣumūd. Citing the recent survey by the Palestinian PCPSR (Poll No 97, 12.08.2026), he wrote that 50% of respondents opposed a two-state solution and 32% supported armed resistance. The latter figure is the lowest ever recorded; in December 2023, it was at 68%. According to an INSS survey (National Security Studies INSS, Special Survey: Palestinian Public Opinion in the West Bank, 17.09.2026), 43% support a Palestinian state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean. Of those, 26% wanted to allow no Jewish presence in such a state, which, according to U.M. OSINT, affects nearly 1.5 million Palestinians. To justify his terminology, he referred to historical comparisons: despite armed resistance in Italy, today, people talk about the Allies' fight against Italy and not just against the Partito Nazionale Fascista. The pro-imperial Taisei Yokusankai is hardly known in Europe; people simply talk about Japan. In World War II, more than 17 million Germans fought, and millions also contributed to the armaments industry and in organizations. It would be strange, he wrote, to attribute the war solely to members of the NSDAP. U.M. OSINT argued that a society bears collective responsibility when it is permeated by a system. Whether Palestinians internally struggle for an Islamist or secular society is of no consequence to Israel externally. In his view, the portrayal of the situation as an occupation of the West Bank is directed at uninformed people in the West. The so-called resistance began long before the founding of Israel and took on current structures while Israel had not yet occupied anything; at that time, the Palestinian autonomous areas were occupied and annexed by Jordan and Egypt. Additionally, from at least 1947, about 1,000 former members of the Waffen-SS fought on the Palestinian side in the so-called Arab Liberation Army (ALA). If he refers to a specific association or terrorist organization, he names it explicitly; otherwise, he speaks of the Palestinians. #Palästinenser #Hamas #Nahostkonflikt (translated)

The author wrote that there has been war in the Middle East for three years. Thousands of innocent people have lost their lives, and even more are suffering from need and displacement - in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, and the entire region. Therefore, he wishes for peace above all. #Frieden #Nahost #Krieg #IL #PS #LB (translated)

Lexa wrote that Cristela Georgescu, the wife of Călin Georgescu, spoke publicly about the case after a several-hour hearing at the special prosecutor's office DIICOT. She and her father were summoned as witnesses. According to Lexa, Cristela Georgescu reported that armed individuals had invaded the family's home and guarded her underage child and her 90-year-old father at the bed. Călin Georgescu was taken away in handcuffs in front of minors, even though there was no immediate danger. According to Lexa, Cristela Georgescu described the accusations as unfounded and the case as political persecution. She also criticized that confidential information had leaked to the media, the presumption of innocence was being undermined, and political pressure was being exerted on judges. Lexa summarized her warning by stating that the presumption of innocence is the foundation of a free society and that Georgescu deserves a fair trial as well as protection for his family from political reprisals. #Politik #Rechtsstaat #Freiheit (translated)

Brazil’s synthetic voters – when AI manufactures public opinion They look like ordinary street interviews. A reporter approaches a passer-by in a Brazilian square and asks a simple question: who will you vote for? A young voter explains why Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva deserves another term. An elderly woman says Brazil needs Flávio Bolsonaro because he represents political renewal and greater security. The locations look plausible, the microphones are visible and the answers sound much like the brief political opinions heard in television vox pops around the world. None of the people are real. Ahead of Brazil’s presidential election on 4 October, fact-checking organisation Aos Fatos identified at least 50 TikTok videos in which artificial intelligence was used to manufacture voters, reporters and apparently spontaneous political interviews. Together, the videos had accumulated around 7.4 million views by mid-August. Some promoted Lula, others Flávio Bolsonaro, while another group used synthetic characters to ridicule or stereotype supporters of one side. Aos Fatos found no apparent evidence linking the accounts producing the videos to either presidential campaign. The opinion poll that never took place The format is important. These were not conventional deepfakes in which a recognisable politician is made to say something he never said. Instead, the creators reproduced the visual language of the vox pop – the short street interview used by broadcasters and social-media creators to illustrate what ordinary people supposedly think. In pro-Lula videos, synthetic voters described themselves as beneficiaries of social programmes or credited the president with improving their lives. In videos supporting Flávio Bolsonaro, artificial interviewees associated him with political renewal, public security and fighting corruption. Other clips were openly hostile: AI-generated characters presented as poor or living in parts of Brazil’s north-east were shown in dirty clothes or run-down surroundings, declaring support for Lula because they supposedly preferred welfare payments to work. The deception is therefore subtler than fabricating a candidate’s statement. It manufactures something that political communication normally treats as evidence of public sentiment. A real vox pop may be unscientific, but the people interviewed at least exist. These videos created the appearance that identifiable social groups – young people, pensioners, welfare recipients or residents of particular regions – were spontaneously expressing political preferences when no such encounters had taken place. An electoral-law specialist interviewed by Aos Fatos described the technique as the fabrication of a “social fact that never occurred”. That captures the central innovation: AI is being used not merely to falsify political speech, but to manufacture the impression of grassroots opinion. Fifty videos, but not one proven network The available evidence does not support describing the 50 posts as a centrally controlled influence operation. Aos Fatos located them through TikTok searches and recommendations produced by the platform itself, then examined the accounts responsible for publication. Most had relatively small individual audiences, although their combined reach was substantial. The first examples identified by the investigation appeared as early as March 2026. Activity increased in June and was concentrated particularly in July and the first half of August as Brazil’s election calendar intensified. Some accounts specialised in AI-generated videos generally, including fabricated podcast-style material. Others were explicitly political or supportive of a candidate, but Aos Fatos found no apparent links between those profiles and the official Lula or Bolsonaro campaigns. That distinction is essential. The evidence demonstrates a common technique and a shared political environment, not a single command structure. Some creators may have been motivated by ideology, others by engagement or monetisation. Publicly available evidence does not establish who commissioned the individual videos or whether any coordination existed between the accounts. This decentralised model also creates a different enforcement problem from a traditional bot network. There may be no headquarters to expose and no infrastructure whose removal disables the entire operation. The format itself can be copied by anyone with access to inexpensive generative-video tools. When the algorithm mixes real and synthetic citizens Aos Fatos documented another important feature of the phenomenon: TikTok’s recommendation system placed AI-generated interviews alongside genuine street interviews. For a user scrolling quickly through the platform, the transition between an authentic citizen and an entirely fabricated one could therefore be almost invisible. In 18 per cent of the 50 videos analysed, there was no indication that the people shown had been generated using AI. After Aos Fatos provided TikTok with the videos, the company said it had removed all of them for violating its rules on edited and AI-generated media. TikTok said its policies require creators to identify synthetic content and prohibit manipulated media capable of misleading users about matters of public importance or impersonating genuine journalistic material. The issue extends beyond one platform. Factchequeado’s review of Brazil’s 2026 election campaign found that synthetic endorsements and other deepfakes had become one of the most visible forms of AI-assisted electoral misinformation, alongside fabricated candidate statements and invented scenes. Brazil already had rules for synthetic politics Brazil entered the campaign with unusually detailed electoral rules governing artificial intelligence. The Superior Electoral Court, the TSE, requires electoral propaganda using synthetic multimedia to disclose clearly that AI was used. More importantly for the fake-voter videos, its rules prohibit synthetic audio or video used to favour or harm a candidacy when it creates or alters the image or voice of a living, deceased or fictitious person. The difficulty is attribution and enforcement. When a synthetic video is published by an official campaign, responsibility can be relatively straightforward to investigate. When it comes from an apparently independent account with no demonstrated relationship to a candidate, lawyers interviewed by Aos Fatos said responsibility is more likely to fall on the individual creator, while imposing electoral sanctions on a campaign would require evidence of a connection. For the final 72 hours before the election and the 24 hours following it, the TSE has imposed additional restrictions on newly published or republished synthetic material involving candidates or public figures, reflecting the particular difficulty of correcting fabricated content immediately before voting. From deepfake politicians to synthetic electorates The Brazilian case illustrates a broader change in political manipulation. The first generation of electoral deepfakes concentrated on famous people: make a politician appear to say something damaging, or fabricate an endorsement from a celebrity. Synthetic vox pops reverse the perspective. The politician can remain completely authentic; it is the electorate around the politician that is fabricated. That changes the psychological proposition of the message. Instead of saying the candidate believes this, the video suggests people like you believe this. Age, clothing, accent, neighbourhood and social class can all be generated to construct an artificial constituency around almost any political claim. There is no evidence that the 50 Brazilian videos identified by Aos Fatos constitute a single centrally directed campaign, nor evidence that they changed voting intentions. What they demonstrate is a technique whose barrier to entry has become extremely low. AI no longer needs to forge the politician. #DISINFORMED #Episode14 #Brazil #BrazilElection2026 #Elections #ElectionDisinformation #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #SyntheticVoters #SyntheticMedia #AIAvatars #AIGeneratedVideo #VoxPop #FakeInterviews #Astroturfing #AIPropaganda #PoliticalDisinformation #InfluenceOperations #InformationWarfare #SocialMediaManipulation #TikTok #PublicOpinion #ManufacturedConsent #SyntheticPublicOpinion #DigitalInfluence #Deepfakes #ElectionIntegrity #TSE #AosFatos #FactChecking #OSINT #MediaManipulation #WRLD (translated)

"Both opened fire on each other. In the crossfire, a twelve-year-old girl was shot, who was probably watching football down there." "What we know is that there was some sort of argument between two cowards," said Richard Worley from the Baltimore police. #Baltimore #Waffengewalt #UnschuldigeOpfer (translated)

Steffan Nethe described the case of Mohamet E. as an example of the state's failure in internal security. According to him, he was a Sudanese repeat offender who had deceived authorities for years with more than 16 identities. His police record included 61 criminal offenses, including armed robbery, violent crimes, and drug trafficking. Moreover, he had been internally classified as a "ministry case" and was subject to deportation since 2018. Nethe wrote that Mohamet E. had nevertheless not been deported and had choked, kicked, and threatened citizens in public. As a reason for the lack of deportation, Nethe cited the absence of a passport replacement document that the Lower Saxony authorities had not obtained for years despite having clarified his identity. Referring to deportation leaks, he claimed that the system was structurally failing and that there were numerous comparable cases in Germany. Murderers, rapists, and terrorists could remain unbothered for years because deportations were delayed or prevented, he wrote. Nethe called for a government that acted more decisively and prioritized the safety of the population. #InnereSicherheit #Asylsystem #Rechtsstaat (translated)

"Mr. Castellucci, as the Federal Government's Human Rights Commissioner, must know that the demonization of Israel and the unempathetic double standards towards Jews and Israelis are a dangerous accelerant for anti-Semitism, reaching the middle of society. Those who demand empathy for the children in Gaza must not deny it to innocent Israelis." Federal Minister Prien in response to a BILD inquiry: "Mr. Castellucci, as the Federal Government's Human Rights Commissioner, must know that the demonization of Israel and the unempathetic double standards towards Jews and Israelis are a dangerous accelerant for anti-Semitism, reaching the middle of society. Those who demand empathy for the children in Gaza must not deny it to innocent Israelis." #Menschenrechte #Antisemitismus #Israel (translated)