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The author said Romania had strongly condemned what it described as the Houthis’ latest deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of Riyadh’s international airport. The author also expressed sorrow over the loss of innocent lives and extended condolences and sympathy to the families of those who died. #Romania #Houthi #Condemnation #RO #SA

The author wrote that Romania had strongly condemned what they described as the Houthis’ deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of Riyadh’s international airport. They deplored the loss of innocent lives and expressed condolences to the families of those killed. #Romania #Houthi #Condolences #RO #SA

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)

Rospotrebnadzor said tests found no pathogen linked to the deceased lab worker's work at the Irkutsk anti-plague institute, but more than 60 colleagues remained isolated inside the building and several hospitals stayed closed without explanation. #PlagueOutbreak #RussiaHealth #SiberiaQuarantine

#URGENTE Edificios son marcados con el sistema de Marcaje de INSARAG utilizado por equipos de rescate urbano (USAR) de todo el mundo. La letra "D": Significa "Deceased Only" (Solo Fallecidos) y el rombo que ya el edificó fue evaluado. https://t.co/HsJtFVf11P #rescate #INSARAG #emergencia

In Bunia, DR Congo, where a recent Ebola outbreak has devastated families and communities, mourners are adapting to strict burial protocols that prevent the traditional rituals associated with their deceased loved ones, emphasizing the need for safe burial practices to control the spread of the virus. #EbolaOutbreak #GriefSupport #InfectionControl

Italian anti-mafia investigators have seized over €200 million in cash, properties, and luxury assets linked to the deceased mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who was arrested in 2023 after decades on the run, as part of a significant operation aimed at dismantling his criminal network and preventing the resurgence of the Cosa Nostra organization. #Mafia #DrugsTrade #Italy

Chinese authorities have executed Xu Yao, a former lawyer, for the 2020 murder of billionaire gaming tycoon Lin Qi, whom he poisoned after being sidelined in their business dealings, with the execution confirmed by Lin's company as a matter of justice for the deceased. #China #GamingIndustry #Justice

Three Red Cross volunteers in the Democratic Republic of Congo died from suspected Ebola, likely contracted while managing deceased bodies prior to the outbreak's recognition, amid a rising health crisis affecting the region, which has reported over 170 suspected deaths and 750 cases. #EbolaOutbreak #RedCross #DRCongo

Angry relatives of a deceased man in the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was suspected of dying from Ebola, set fire to part of an Ebola hospital after being denied permission to take his body for burial, reflecting widespread distrust of the Ebola virus in the community amid an ongoing outbreak that has claimed over 130 lives. #EbolaOutbreak #PublicHealth #DRCrisis

An angry crowd in the Democratic Republic of Congo set fire to hospital tents used for Ebola isolation after being prevented from taking the body of a deceased community member for burial, highlighting public disbelief in the virus's reality amidst rising cases and deaths. #EbolaOutbreak #DRCongo #PublicHealthEmergency

Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda's film "Sheep in the Box," featured at the Cannes Film Festival, explores the ethical implications of using AI to replicate deceased children for grieving parents, raising questions about the manipulation of the dead and the potential for these AI creations to develop their own identities beyond their intended purpose. #AIethics #griefsupport #FilmFestival #JP #CN

A Russian attack across Ukraine overnight resulted in one death and 23 injuries, as the Ukrainian Air Force reported shooting down 269 out of 294 drones launched, while the countries also engaged in prisoner exchanges, returning 528 deceased Ukrainian soldiers and exchanging 205 prisoners of war each amidst ongoing hostilities. #UkraineConflict #DroneWar #PrisonerExchange #UA #RU

A Russian attack on Ukraine overnight resulted in one death and 23 injuries, damaging critical infrastructure across several regions, including Kherson and Odesa, while the previous day saw the exchange of 205 prisoners of war between the two countries and the return of 528 deceased Ukrainian soldiers. #UkraineConflict #RussiaUkraineWar #HumanitarianCrisis #UA #RU

A Russian attack on Ukraine overnight resulted in one death and 23 injuries, damaging critical infrastructure across several regions, including Kherson and Odesa, while the previous day saw the exchange of 205 prisoners of war between the two countries and the return of 528 deceased Ukrainian soldiers. #UkraineConflict #RussiaUkraineWar #HumanitarianCrisis #UA #RU

A Russian overnight drone attack across Ukraine resulted in one death and 23 injuries, damaging numerous residential buildings and critical infrastructure, while Ukraine reported the return of 528 deceased soldiers and a prisoner exchange of 205 POWs with Russia, amidst ongoing hostilities. #Ukraine #RussiaConflict #WarNews #UA #RU