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The author invoked the Wirecard scandal while alleging that criminals from Ukraine were allowed to live in villas in Austria and that police attacked a journalist investigating alleged corruption among officials in Vienna. They wrote that the incident was another reason Europe’s intelligence community did not trust Austria. #Austria #Corruption #Journalism #UA #AT

The author congratulated Justice Pillay on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, saying the committee had described accountability for war crimes and justice for victims of abuse as prerequisites for a peaceful world. The author added that they hoped justice would begin in Palestine. https://t.co/Vs5rpvly6J #NobelPrize #Justice #Peace #PS

Russia’s influence operation arrives ahead of the US midterms With weeks remaining before America's November midterm elections, a familiar type of content has begun appearing online. Videos resembling reports from CNN, the BBC and The New York Times accuse candidates of corruption, antisemitism and misconduct. Hollywood actors appear to denounce Democrats. Other clips claim that warnings about Russian interference are themselves a Democratic disinformation campaign. The reports are fabricated. Graphika, which tracks online influence operations, says it has identified a coordinated campaign targeting candidates in competitive US Senate races. It assesses with high confidence that the material was produced by Operation Overload, also known as Matryoshka – a long-running Russia-aligned influence operation previously active against elections and political debates in Europe and the United States. The activity coincides with a broader warning from American intelligence officials. Classified assessments reported by The New York Times conclude that the Kremlin has authorised another digital influence campaign ahead of the 2026 midterms, aimed primarily at exploiting existing divisions and undermining confidence in American democracy. There is an important distinction. US officials have not reported evidence that Russia is attempting to manipulate voting machines or alter the counting of votes. The operation is about influencing the information environment surrounding the election. Fake scandals for competitive Senate races Graphika traced a concentrated wave of activity between 10 and 14 September. Likely inauthentic or repurposed accounts distributed videos accusing Democratic politicians of corruption, antisemitism and other misconduct. The targets included Senator Jon Ossoff in Georgia, Representative Chris Pappas in New Hampshire and Texas state representative James Talarico, as well as Senate candidates Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Mary Peltola in Alaska, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, Joshua Turek in Iowa and Troy Jackson in Maine. The selection was not random. These were politicians involved in Senate contests where the result could matter to control of the chamber. The campaign did not rely on a single political narrative. Instead, it attached different accusations to different candidates – corruption, social issues, antisemitism or personal misconduct – while maintaining a consistent production and distribution model. That model is characteristic of Matryoshka: create apparently independent pieces of evidence, disguise them as journalism and distribute them through networks of disposable accounts. Hollywood celebrities who never said what the videos claimed One of the campaign's more distinctive techniques involved genuine footage of American actors. Videos featuring celebrities including Sarah Jessica Parker and Julia Roberts were altered with captions and other material to suggest they were promoting the slogan #AllDemocratsAreCriminals. The technique continued in subsequent material. Fact-checkers identified fabricated New York Times-branded videos using footage of Alyssa Milano, Sean Astin, Rachael Harris, Leonardo DiCaprio, Eric Braeden, Annie Potts and Patrick Fabian. Some of the original footage came from Cameo, where actors record personalised video messages. Their authentic images were retained while fabricated audio, captions or surrounding material changed the meaning entirely. Lead Stories compared several of the clips with the originals and found that the supposed political statements did not appear in the genuine recordings. Eric Braeden's representative separately confirmed that the claim he had joined the anti-Democratic campaign was false. The advantage of the technique is straightforward. Generative AI does not need to create a convincing celebrity from nothing. The operator can begin with authentic footage of a recognisable person and manipulate only the elements necessary to manufacture a political statement. Stealing the authority of real newsrooms Celebrity impersonation was only one layer. The operation repeatedly borrowed the visual identity of established media organisations. Graphika identified material impersonating or falsely citing the BBC, CNN and Politico, alongside references to France's VIGINUM foreign-interference agency and journalist Brandy Zadrozny. Other material reproduced New York Times-style branding. Some fabricated reports made an unusual claim: that Democrats themselves were organising disinformation or “false-flag operations” and then blaming Russia. This creates a defensive layer around the influence operation. Instead of merely distributing false political allegations, the campaign also attempts to discredit future reporting about the manipulation itself. If successful, evidence exposing foreign interference can be reframed as part of the conspiracy. Graphika says it assesses with high confidence that Operation Overload produced these videos. The technique is well established. Earlier investigations by CheckFirst and Reset Tech documented hundreds of falsified pieces of content produced by Operation Overload, often impersonating journalists, institutions and major media brands. AI-generated or manipulated material has increasingly become part of that production system. What US intelligence says Russia is trying to achieve The broader strategic picture comes from American intelligence assessments reported on 18 September. According to US officials familiar with classified findings, the Kremlin has authorised a covert digital influence campaign aimed at Americans during the 2026 election season. Its apparent objective is to seed or amplify domestic divisions and weaken confidence in the political process. Some officials described the principal aim as creating disorder rather than helping a single political party. The publicly identified Matryoshka material examined so far, however, has targeted Democratic candidates. Those two findings should not be treated as contradictory. An operation can exploit partisan divisions while serving the broader objective of making the electoral system appear corrupt, chaotic or illegitimate. US officials also reportedly assess the current Russian campaign as less extensive or coordinated than some previous election operations. Moscow is considered less focused on congressional elections than presidential contests and remains heavily occupied by its war against Ukraine. Russia has denied previous US accusations of election interference. An operation with limited reach – so far There is another reason for caution: producing large quantities of disinformation is not the same as successfully influencing voters. Matryoshka has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to manufacture content at industrial speed, but much of its material receives little genuine engagement. Researchers monitoring the network have previously warned against confusing automated distribution and platform view counts with authentic audience penetration. There are exceptions. A fabricated New York Times-style video featuring Jamie Lee Curtis had accumulated nearly 200,000 views on X by the end of 17 September, according to reporting by The New York Times. Other pieces attracted considerably less attention. There is currently no public evidence demonstrating that the campaign has changed voting intentions or will affect election results. What the September activity demonstrates is something narrower but important: a Russia-aligned influence infrastructure previously used against European elections has now turned significant attention towards the American midterms. The basic method has changed little – impersonate trusted media, manufacture scandals and use networks of inauthentic accounts to distribute them. What has changed is the production technology. Authentic celebrity footage, synthetic voices, manipulated video and rapidly generated fake journalism allow the same operation to produce more tailored material for more candidates at lower cost. The objective does not require Americans to believe every fabrication. Creating uncertainty over which videos, news reports and public statements are authentic can itself degrade trust in the information environment surrounding an election. Sources - Graphika — Russia-Aligned Influence Operation Targets US Midterm Candidates, German State Elections https://www.graphika.com/insights/russia-aligned-influence-operation-targets-us-midterm-candidates-german-state-elections - The New York Times — Russia Aims to Inject Chaos Into Elections, U.S. Intelligence Finds https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/us/politics/russia-election-disinformation-us-intelligence.html - Kathimerini / The New York Times — Russia Aims to Inject Chaos Into Elections https://www.ekathimerini.com/nytimes/1315792/russia-aims-to-inject-chaos-into-elections-us-intelligence-finds/ - CheckFirst — Operation Overload: An AI-fuelled escalation of the Kremlin-linked propaganda effort https://checkfirst.network/operation-overload-an-ai-fuelled-escalation-of-the-kremlin-linked-propaganda-effort/ - CheckFirst — Operation Overload targeting the US election https://checkfirst.network/operation-overload-a-growing-disinformation-threat-now-targeting-the-u-s-presidential-election/ - Lead Stories — Fake NYT videos: Alyssa Milano, Rachael Harris and Sean Astin https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2026/09/fact-check-fake-new-york-times-videos-of-alyssa-milano-rachael-harris-sean-astin-falsely-claim-they-support-all-democrats-are-criminals.html - Lead Stories — Fake NYT videos: Leonardo DiCaprio, Eric Braeden and other celebrities https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2026/09/fact-check-fake-new-york-times-videos-of-leonardo-dicaprio-eric-braeden-other-celebs-falsely-claim-they-support-all-democrats-are-criminals.html - Brennan Center for Justice — AI Is Changing Foreign Election Influence https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/ai-changing-foreign-election-influence - ODNI — previous US intelligence assessment of foreign election information operations https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/NICM-Declassified-Foreign-Threats-to-US-Elections-After-Voting-Ends-in-2024.pdf - FBI / ODNI / CISA — previous joint assessment of Russian election influence operations https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/joint-odni-fbi-and-cisa-statement-110424 #DISINFORMED #Episode9 #Russia #UnitedStates #USMidterms #Midterms2026 #USElections #ElectionInterference #ForeignInterference #RussianInfluence #RussianDisinformation #OperationOverload #Matryoshka #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #FIMI #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AIPropaganda #Deepfakes #SyntheticMedia #MediaImpersonation #FakeMedia #FakeNews #PoliticalDisinformation #CelebrityDeepfakes #SocialMediaManipulation #DigitalInfluence #ElectionSecurity #CognitiveWarfare #Graphika #OSINT #Democracy #WRLD

Serbia belongs in Europe. But authoritarianism, the glorification of war criminals and democratic backsliding have no place in the European Union. Thank you, Commissioner @MartaKosEU, for standing up for European values. https://t.co/O6OzGbDbm0 #Serbia #EuropeanValues #Democracy #RS #EU

Italy: please dont accept to become a vacation site for possible war criminals. #Toscana #Tuscany Israelis who stand against Apartheid should feel welcome everywhere. Those who took part in the genocide should be brought to justice everywhere. #WarCrimes #JusticeForAll #HumanRights #IT #IL

13 September 2026 BRICS SUPPORT FOR WAR CRIMINALS How are we supposed to stop a war criminal when the real-estate fraud dealer from MAGA America Jared Kushner believes that Putin should get something in return for having waged war since 2014 perhaps Trump thinks the war started in 2022 just like other uninformed people. When India’s Modi welcomes Putin with open arms like the others supporters of the world disorder in BRICS. Can you Brazil India China South Africa Ethiopia Argentina Egypt Iran Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates Indonesia tell me how we can get the wanted war criminal arrested and brought before an international court?

Amazing investigation. Until 2022, most of Russia's spies and saboteurs worked under the diplomatic cover. After the full-scale invasion started, many of them were extradited, which forced the Kremlin to recruit low-life criminals to do their bidding. #Russia #Spies #Kremlin #RU

I fully endorse Karlo Ressler’s call to suspend Serbia’s EU accession path while Serbian authorities and political actors continue to tolerate, relativise or glorify convicted war criminals and deny established crimes of the wars of the 1990s. Europe must stop pretending that https://t.co/qZ9UbqYfVa #Serbia #WarCrimes #EUnity #RS

I will do everything that the European Parliament will be very clear next week. No more talks and no money if the Vucic regime keeps on admiring war criminals - and continues to hunt students and freedom fighters in the streets and via wiretapping #EuropeanParliament #VucicRegime #HumanRights #EU #RS

EU/EEAS Spokesperson Statement on the death of Ratko Mladić: ”Any glorification of war criminals, genocide denial and revisionism contradict the most fundamental European values and have no place in the EU or in EU candidate countries. Reconciliation and good neighbourly #Mladić #WarCrimes #EuropeanValues #EU #BA #RS #ME #XK

Our government’s immigration policy will be simple: you do not enter France simply because you have decided to. We will restore control and protection at our borders. And we will send foreign criminals back to their countries ! @reformparty_uk https://t.co/fhPKLiGHV8 #ImmigrationPolicy #BorderControl #ReformParty #FR #UK

SREBRENICA GENOCIDE DENIAL MUST BE OUTLAWED ACROSS THE EU. More than 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were murdered in July 1995. International courts have established that Srebrenica was genocide. Europe cannot allow convicted war criminals to be glorified, victims to be mocked, or https://t.co/M2K39s5YJN #Srebrenica #Genocide #HumanRights #BA #EU

The Three Roads to Evil We live in an age of unlimited access to information. Most of it is a gift, but it also gives us an unbroken view into horror—images on screens, the Epstein files, and constant stories once confined to nightmares. Some shut it off; others stare until it stares back, leaving them cynical. But it has always been this way. Long before Epstein, there was Caligula—years of sadism and cruelty on Capri. In every era, there have been people whose evil makes rationality struggle to explain it. I see three roads to evil: worshipping the wrong things, succumbing to ideology, and becoming so bitter you resent life itself. First: worshipping wrong values. Some make wealth, lust, power, or status their highest good. They lie, cheat, and steal to obtain it, then declare morality and law for the weak. Everyone else becomes an instrument. Second: ideology. When someone abandons a religious worldview, they may fill the vacuum with an ideology that claims to explain everything and promise a perfect world. Communists reduce history to class struggle; Nazis to racial struggle. The ideologue believes society can be remade by controlling causes and effects—people become cogs, sacrificed for utopia. Third: resentment. Those who see themselves as helpless victims can come to hate life itself. They treat hardship as injustice and life as something done to them. Their values invert: strength becomes evil, weakness virtue; love is attacked while lust is celebrated; wealth is theft—and criminals become victims while their victims are the privileged. These roads always exist, and always will. You can’t stop others from walking them. But it’s your responsibility not to.

When Failure Becomes a Demand for More A worldview that persists despite its unending list of failures is not interested in truth but in power. Consider how its adherents respond to the breakdown of their policies. They do not believe that multiculturalism itself has failed; they believe it was not implemented forcefully enough, or that the host nation was not subjected to enough propaganda promoting compulsory compassion. It is not that gender dysphoria is a mental illness; they argue that society simply has not normalized it enough. It is not that safe supply has failed; it merely has not been expanded enough. Decriminalization is not a bad idea, they insist. We simply failed to provide criminals with enough free resources and support programs before implementing it. Friedrich Nietzsche expressed the idea of suicidal empathy in his own words nearly a century and a half before Saad. In *Beyond Good and Evil*, he described a society that had grown so “pathologically soft and tender that it sides even with those who harm it.” Once society reaches this stage, he observed, anything that raises a person above the herd or intimidates their neighbors is declared evil. Mediocrity becomes the highest achievement.

Iran is hiring criminals—Russian mobsters, Hells Angels bikers, Swedish teen-agers—to attack its detractors and intimidate Iranians in exile. The regime has grown dependent on disposable assassins, they’re cheaper than sending Iranian agents overseas https://t.co/SQaTdIVa74 #Iran #Assassins #Criminals #IR #RU #SE