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“A lot of people who abstained are not necessarily indifferent to the country; they are tired, frustrated, and do not believe that politics can change their lives,” said Bianca Borges, president of the National Union of Students (UNE), to Lusa. #Eleições2026 #JovensNaPolítica #MobilizaçãoEstudantil (translated)

Tumble weed across legacy media about ITV's exposé of Reform. Can you imagine the hysteria if an SNP councillor advocated for concentration camps or a Muslim Labour candidate said he wants to shoot MPs he considers traitors? The Mail front pages, Telegraph thinkpieces, and somber Today interviews?

Press Briefs reported that 780 female and male students from 15 journalism schools had denounced, in a forum, the media coverage of high school mobilizations. The signatories believed that sensationalist editorial lines rendered the demands invisible and that some media omitted police violence in favor of the damage and incidents they attributed to people outside the movement. They also criticized some newsrooms for broadcasting images of minors without blurring their faces. The forum cited data from ACRIMED on the television news of France 2 between September 28 and October 1, 2026: 11 segments were dedicated to the mobilizations, of which 75% of the time focused on material damage, 8% on the demands, and 3% on police violence, which amounted to 47 seconds. The students said they observed a gap between what they saw on the ground and the media coverage, which they deemed contrary to journalistic ethics. They called on mainstream media to better contextualize the movement and take responsibility. The signatories came from the Journalism School of CY Cergy, Celsa – Paris, CFJ – Paris, ESJ – Lille, Journalism School of Grenoble, IFP – Paris, EJCAM – Marseille, IJBA – Bordeaux, IPJ – Paris, EDJ – Paris, CUEJ – Strasbourg, IUT of Lannion, EJC – Cannes, Master of Journalism of Metz, and EPJT – Tours. #journalisme #médiatique #désinformation (translated)

The author, who described themself as an Austrian economist and a candidate for Austria’s federal presidency in 2028, called for a common EU-wide ban on face coverings in public spaces and at demonstrations across all 27 member states. https://t.co/0klGQtAlzg #EUBan #FaceCovering #PublicSafety #AT #EU

Pedro Menin stated that the internal dispute in the PT was out of control. According to him, the old guard did not want to participate in the debate, while the janonist faction advocated for participation. Menin said that Lula ended up listening to the younger members and attended, a decision that, in his assessment, turned out to be costly. He mentioned that he had warned about this and speculated on the pressure that Lula might have faced afterward. https://t.co/xs6pJOmT2V #PT #Lula #debate (translated)

The post invited readers to join conversations across Latin America during #MILWeek2026 about how media and information literacy (#MIL) could help people navigate the digital world while protecting their well-being and mental health. It also pointed readers to the event programme. https://t.co/Y0DinxtukF https://t.co/K7PnWgGCAV #BienestarDigital #SaludMental #MIL #LAT #BR #AR #CL #MX #CO #PE

𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 — 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝗜, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 A newly exposed US political influence network appears to have been designed around a different target from most election propaganda. Its primary audience was not necessarily the voter reading a website, but the automated systems that search the web on behalf of AI chatbots. Threat-intelligence company VisionHeight initially identified 37 anonymous websites presenting themselves as state or local news organisations, opinion publications and national issue sites. By 15 October, the company's co-founder and chief technology officer, Nitsan Daniel, told CyberScoop that the investigation had expanded the observed footprint to 𝗮𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟰 𝗨𝗦 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟰𝟲𝟬 𝗽𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀. The states identified were Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. The infrastructure shows unusually strong signs of coordination. All 37 domains in the original dataset were registered during a single evening; 36 were registered within approximately eight minutes. On 30 September alone, the network published roughly 𝟭𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲-𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 using common templates and four recurring layouts. VisionHeight assesses that the scale and production pattern strongly suggest extensive automation, although that does not by itself prove which generative-AI system, if any, produced the text. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹. Candidate profiles can run to about 5,000 words, accompanied by similarly long voter guides containing 50 to 63 questions phrased in the style of queries someone might put to an AI assistant. Across the network, formulations such as a candidate being “the stronger choice” were repeated hundreds of times. One profile contained the phrase 34 times. In several voter guides examined by VisionHeight, the favoured candidate was named more than 110 times while an opponent appeared only six or seven times. The websites were also configured to make themselves unusually accessible to AI. Their crawler instructions explicitly welcomed 17 automated systems associated with companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, Meta, Amazon and Apple. Some pages were marked in machine-readable metadata as news articles, while apparently separate publications cited one another. The result is a manufactured ecosystem in which several apparently independent local sources can reinforce the same conclusion. That is the central technique. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗜 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴-𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. The more immediate objective appears to be manipulation of the retrieval and search layer: place highly optimised material online, make it easy for automated crawlers to index, create the appearance of corroboration, and increase the chance that an AI assistant retrieves those pages when answering a political question. There is evidence that the network crossed that boundary. VisionHeight says it confirmed that 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆 cited Tar Heel State Report as the first source in at least one response. Separately, one of the network's candidate pages reached third place in a Google search six days after publication, above Ballotpedia for the tested query. These findings demonstrate that the material can enter AI-relevant search and retrieval pipelines. They do 𝗻𝗼𝘁 demonstrate that the operation changed anyone's vote, nor establish how frequently major chatbots have used the network. The timing matters because AI has become part of the election-information environment. An AAPC Foundation survey of 1,568 likely US voters found that about one in five planned to use AI to investigate a race on their ballot, while 38 per cent reported having received election information through an AI-generated search summary. A separate NewsGuard audit found that leading chatbots frequently cited partisan websites disguised as local journalism without clearly identifying their political affiliations. The newly identified network appears to take that existing vulnerability one step further by constructing content specifically around the way machines search and summarise information. 𝗪𝗵𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝘁? 𝗔𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿. VisionHeight has not attributed the operation to any individual, campaign, company, political party or foreign government. No confirmed name of an operator has been publicly established. Nitsan Daniel is the researcher who helped expose the network, not a person connected to its operation. Some components have explicitly partisan branding. VisionHeight's indicators include domains such as Affordability Democrats, Democratic Women House, Public Safety Democrats and Republican Incumbent Watch, while the live Affordability Democrats site promotes Democratic candidates across 11 competitive House races. That provides evidence about the political direction of some of the published material, but it does 𝗻𝗼𝘁 establish who commissioned, financed or operated the infrastructure, and it would be unjustified to attribute it to the Democratic Party or any particular campaign. The network also appears broader than congressional politics. The live Tar Heel State Report has carried material on county commission and judicial contests, illustrating why the method may be particularly effective in down-ballot races where established local reporting is thin. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲. Propaganda no longer has to persuade a human being directly. It can instead attempt to shape the information environment from which an apparently neutral machine constructs its answer. 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗦: Active / newly exposed and expanding as of 15–16 October 2026. 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗖𝗘: High regarding coordinated infrastructure and AI-oriented design; moderate regarding the full current scale; attribution unknown. 𝗦𝗢𝗨𝗥𝗖𝗘𝗦 VisionHeight — primary investigation, “Someone Is Manipulating Your AI to Swing Your Vote” https://www.visionheight.com/resources/someone-is-manipulating-your-ai-to-swing-your-vote CyberScoop — Derek B. Johnson, 15 October 2026 https://cyberscoop.com/ai-chatbots-election-influence-hyperlocal-networks/ Tar Heel State Report — live network site used for OSINT verification https://tarheelstatereport.com/ Affordability Democrats — live network site https://affordabilitydemocrats.com/ AAPC Foundation — 2026 AI Voter Study https://theaapc.org/release-foundation-research/ NPR — reporting on voters using AI chatbots for the 2026 midterms https://www.wusf.org/2026-10-05/people-are-asking-chatgpt-to-help-them-decide-how-to-vote-in-the-midterms NewsGuard — “Pink Slime Is Infecting AI Chatbots Ahead of the Midterms” https://www.newsguardtech.com/press/pink-slime-is-infecting-ai-chatbots-ahead-of-the-midterms/ 𝗞𝗘𝗬𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗗𝗦 #Disinformed #Disinformation #Propaganda #InfluenceOperations #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIChatbots #ElectionSecurity #USMidterms #USElections #InformationWarfare #CognitiveWarfare #OSINT #ThreatIntelligence #CyberSecurity #DataPoisoning #RetrievalManipulation #SearchManipulation #GenerativeAI #LLM #AIManipulation #PoliticalInfluence #FakeNews #LocalNews #PinkSlime #Perplexity #ElectionIntegrity #InformationIntegrity #DigitalPropaganda #AIsecurity

"The law in Judea and Samaria applies to everyone, without distinction of identity or belonging," added the Israeli police chief, Daniel Levy, referring to the occupied West Bank using the designation of the Israeli right. #ConflitoIsraeloPalestiniano #Cisjordânia #Violência (translated)

Júlio Schneider wrote that faith and courage can weaken, but according to his message, this does not diminish God's love. He compared the relationship with God to that of a child who falls while learning to walk and finds arms that lift them up. Schneider also said that Jesus does not abandon those who are hurt or tired and shared a prayer asking for support in times of doubt and difficulty. In the end, he invited readers to share the message with someone dear and stated that he would later share a link to the prayer on YouTube. #Fé #AmorDeDeus #Esperança (translated)

"All of us felt anger and shame tonight." Nevertheless, Macron acknowledged on Friday "failures of anticipation and intelligence that led to the violence" and entrusted the Minister of the Interior with taking "all necessary measures," the presidency added in a statement. #França #EmmanuelMacron #Protestos (translated)

In an interview with Conversa Capital, Miguel Pinto Luz believes that the European competition authority is today more agile and permissive than last year. As for the new airport, Pinto Luz hopes that the construction will start before 2029, in order to be completed by 2034. #Política #Imóveis #SalarioMinimo (translated)

The Central Right evaluated that Flávio Bolsonaro started the debate better by greeting the participants and addressing public security, but Lula had a slight advantage in the first block by putting him on the defensive with questions. According to the author, Flávio avoided directly answering some of them and resorted to rhetorical questions to speak to the audience. In the evaluation of the Central Right, Flávio had a significant advantage in the second block and won the third by a small margin. The author highlighted the candidate's proposals on public security and family indebtedness and said that he also used the discussion to criticize Lula's statements about the people of Rio and his defense of early prison releases. In the final considerations, marked by interruptions, Flávio was said to have performed better, while Lula made mistakes and got flustered. The author stated that Lula dedicated a lot of time to attacks and presented few proposals. He said the president mentioned once the end of the 6x1 shift, but did not address the exemption of income tax for those earning up to R$ 5,000, the end of betting, the adjustment of Bolsa Família, or the free bus rides on weekends. The Central Right rated Flávio Bolsonaro 5.0 and Lula 4.0. Despite this, it stated that it did not expect the debate to significantly alter voting intentions. It also recommended that Flávio focus on the topics he masters and on presenting proposals. Regarding age, it said it preferred not to enter the merit but stated that the debate highlighted difficulties of one of the candidates related to that factor, which it considered concerning. #Debate2023 #SegurançaPública #EleiçõesBrasileiras (translated)