My EFE story: Two arrested in Latvia for spying for Russian military intelligence https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/dos-detenidos-en-letonia-por-espiar-para-la-inteligencia-militar-rusa/92150243

My EFE story: Two arrested in Latvia for spying for Russian military intelligence https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/dos-detenidos-en-letonia-por-espiar-para-la-inteligencia-militar-rusa/92150243

Swiss scientists report rapid ice loss at the Rhône Glacier, as heatwaves and a dry winter drive Switzerland’s second-biggest melt on record. #ClimateChange #GlacierMelting #Switzerland

🔴 EMEA Masters 2026 Summer - Swiss Stage Round 4 (BO3) Un BO3 qualificatif face à une solide équipe : on va chercher les play-offs ! #KCORP 🆚 @HereticsLES 🕗 Prévu à 20h 📺 https://t.co/7MJDqGvmth https://t.co/Z6Cj7FfmVX #EMEAMasters #Esports #Gaming
My EFE story: Estonia blames Russia for arson at a defense company https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/estonia-atribuye-a-rusia-incendio-provocado-en-una-empresa-del-sector-de-la-defensa/92137179

The Swiss vote on sanctions is tomorrow. According to polls, a No is expected. A yes would have greatly reduced Switzerland's ability to sanction belligerent states, such as russia. #SwissVote #Sanctions #Russia #CH #RU
UAE / Sudan – when an influence operation tried to enter the United Nations A network of roughly 300 apparently independent social-media influencers. A human-rights organisation borrowing the identity of a real NGO. Personal dossiers on European politicians and journalists. And testimony prepared for delivery at the United Nations without revealing the state interest behind it. These were elements of an influence operation uncovered by Anthropic and disclosed in September 2026. The company says it linked the activity with high confidence to UAE government officials. Tracked as GTG-84002, the operation targeted several overlapping issues: the Muslim Brotherhood, perceptions of the war in Sudan and international mechanisms examining the United Arab Emirates' role in the conflict. What distinguishes the case is not simply its use of artificial intelligence. It is the attempt to make state-aligned messaging appear to originate from independent influencers, human-rights organisations and potentially witnesses addressing an international institution. An influence network built around 300 fake voices Anthropic identified a single actor using Claude to support a sustained influence campaign. At its centre was an AI persona called “Deadshot”, running on the operator's own platform. A master doctrine file repeatedly instructed the system to support what it described as a coordinated international effort to dismantle the Muslim Brotherhood. The operator simultaneously managed several components of the campaign, including approximately 300 inauthentic influencer accounts across social-media platforms. Internal material examined by Anthropic described the apparent independence of this network as its greatest strategic advantage. That phrase captures the central method. The objective was not simply to broadcast a political position but to conceal where that position originated. One visible example appeared on 4 June 2026, when accounts participated in a coordinated campaign using #SudanIslamists and near-identical graphics connecting Sudanese Islamists and the Muslim Brotherhood with regional instability. Anthropic says the amplification network was centrally funded and coordinated. Its investigation also found that the operator financing the social-media network was connected to the wider influence operation. A human-rights organisation that was not what it appeared to be Social media was only one layer. The operator also created a front NGO that copied the identity of a genuine Swiss organisation and used that borrowed legitimacy to publish human-rights material produced for the campaign. Anthropic's description elsewhere also refers to the identity of a real Sudanese human-rights organisation being used in connection with the preparation of testimony. The public report does not fully clarify whether these references describe the same front or separate elements of the operation, so they should not be treated as definitively identical. The underlying technique, however, is clear: political material was designed to appear as if it originated from independent civil society rather than from actors linked to a government. This is particularly significant in the human-rights environment, where the perceived independence of an organisation or witness can determine how seriously evidence is received by journalists, diplomats and international institutions. The attempt to reach the UN The most consequential part of the operation concerned the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. According to Anthropic, the operator used Claude to ghost-write complete testimony intended to be delivered by two individuals during the session. The texts were prepared under explicit constraints ensuring that neither statement would mention the UAE. This did not amount to a conventional government submission. The intention, according to Anthropic's reconstruction, was for material serving the interests of a party connected to the Sudan conflict to reach an international forum through apparently independent voices. But an important limitation remains: Anthropic could not confirm that the testimony was ultimately delivered. The company similarly could not establish whether other dossiers produced by the operation reached their intended recipients or influenced policy. It therefore assessed the campaign as Category Three on the Brookings Breakout Scale – activity distributed across several platforms, but without evidence of broad public impact sufficient for a higher classification. The distinction matters. The evidence demonstrates a sophisticated attempt to influence international debate; it does not demonstrate that the attempt succeeded. Politicians, journalists and UN investigators became targets The operation was not limited to generating public content. Anthropic found that the operator researched and compiled detailed profiles of 18 members of the European Parliament and prominent journalists. Some material was prepared for direct delivery to senior UAE officials. The network also assembled what Anthropic describes as “counter-accountability dossiers” on UN Special Rapporteurs who had criticised the UAE's conduct in relation to Sudan. This places the campaign in a broader context. Since Sudan's civil war began in April 2023, the role of external powers has become an increasingly important part of international scrutiny. Sudan has accused the UAE of supporting the Rapid Support Forces, allegations Abu Dhabi has repeatedly denied. In 2025, Sudan brought a case against the UAE before the International Court of Justice, accusing it of complicity in genocide against the Masalit through alleged support for the RSF. The UAE rejected the allegations. The ICJ subsequently removed the case from its list after finding that it lacked jurisdiction because of the UAE's reservation to the relevant provision of the Genocide Convention. The ruling therefore did not determine whether Sudan's substantive allegations were true or false. That contested international environment helps explain why narratives about Sudan, human rights and accountability were valuable targets for an influence operation. AI as an operating system for influence The role played by Claude is also important to understand accurately. Anthropic did not find that artificial intelligence independently conceived or directed the campaign. Human operators established the objectives, political doctrine and targets. AI instead helped operationalise them. Across hundreds of sessions, Claude was used to transform predetermined political objectives into social-media narratives, human-rights reports, testimony, intelligence-style briefs and detailed profiles of individuals. The same system could support narrative production, target research and preparation of material for different audiences. That represents a more significant development than simply using generative AI to produce propaganda faster. Traditional influence operations require different teams to research targets, write content, manage personas, adapt messages and prepare briefing material. Generative AI can compress several of those functions into a single operational workflow. The result is not necessarily more convincing propaganda. It is potentially cheaper, faster and more scalable influence infrastructure. From fake influencers to institutional influence Anthropic says it linked the operation to UAE government officials with high confidence. Its assessment was based partly on internal material naming senior Emirati officials as intended recipients of the work, alongside other evidence available to its investigators. That remains an attribution by Anthropic rather than a judicial finding or publicly released forensic attribution by a government agency. The distinction should be retained. The larger significance of GTG-84002 lies in the architecture of the campaign. A network of fake influencers could create the appearance of public opinion. A cloned human-rights organisation could provide institutional credibility. AI-generated reports could give political narratives the appearance of research. Profiles of journalists and politicians could support more precise targeting. And ghost-written testimony could potentially carry the same message into an international institution without revealing the political interest behind it. This is a different model from the familiar troll farm. The objective is no longer simply to make propaganda look popular. It is to make state-aligned messaging look independent – and, if possible, to move it from social media into the institutions where international policy and accountability are debated. SOURCES: Anthropic — Countering misuse of AI: September 2026 https://www.anthropic.com/threat-intelligence-report-september-2026 International Court of Justice — Sudan v. United Arab Emirates https://www.icj-cij.org/case/197 International Court of Justice — press releases and case documents https://www.icj-cij.org/case/197/press-releases United Nations Geneva — Sudan v UAE proceedings at the ICJ https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media/news/2025/04/105241/world-court-begins-hearing-sudans-complicity-genocide-case-against UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs — UAE response to Sudan's allegations https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/MediaHub/News/2025/4/10/10-4-2025-UAE-UAE UN Digital Library — Sudan's letter concerning alleged UAE support for the RSF https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4091008?ln=en UN Digital Library — UAE response concerning allegations of support for the RSF https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/4046224?ln=en Ultra Sudan — reporting on Anthropic's UAE-linked influence-operation findings https://ultrasudan.usawtiq.com/أنثروبيك-أحبطنا-عملية-تأثير-إماراتية-استخدمت-الذكاء-الاصطناعي-لاستهداف-السودان/عامر-صالح/أخبار KEYWORDS #DISINFORMED #Episode8 #UAE #Sudan #UnitedArabEmirates #UnitedNations #UNHumanRightsCouncil #HumanRights #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #ForeignInterference #FIMI #CoordinatedInauthenticBehaviour #CIB #FakeInfluencers #FakeNGO #NGOImpersonation #Astroturfing #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #AIPropaganda #AIGeneratedContent #SyntheticMedia #SocialMediaManipulation #DigitalInfluence #Propaganda #NarrativeManipulation #InstitutionalInfluence #SudanConflict #SudanWar #MuslimBrotherhood #InternationalRelations #Geopolitics #Anthropic #ClaudeAI #OSINT #WRLD

My second EFE story: Latvia says France is prepared to negotiate a nuclear shield agreement https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/primer-ministro-estonio-dice-que-est%C3%A1-abierto-a-hablar-sobre-el-paraguas-nuclear-franc%C3%A9s/91067320

My EFE story: Lithuania takes first step towards lifting the ban on nuclear weapons in the country https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/lituania-da-primer-paso-para-eliminar-prohibici%c3%b3n-de-presencia-de-armas-nucleares-en-pa%c3%ads/92099134

My second EFE story: Estonia appoints former military chief Martin Herem as defense minister https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/estonia-nombra-ministro-de-defensa-al-exjefe-de-las-fuerzas-armadas-martin-herem/92069673

My EFE story: Lithuania says the drone shot down by a NATO fighter jet was of Russian origin https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/lituania-dice-que-el-dron-derribado-por-un-caza-de-la-otan-era-de-origen-ruso/92069021

My EFE story: AirBaltic files for bankruptcy protection in the US and continues operations https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/airbaltic-se-acoge-a-la-ley-de-quiebras-de-eeuu-y-mantiene-sus-operaciones/92054079

My second EFE story: Air alerts in Lithuania for an unidentified flying object and a flock of geese https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/alertas-a%c3%a9reas-en-lituania-por-un-objeto-volador-desconocido-y-por-una-bandada-de-gansos/92050689

My EFE story, welfare minister title strangely transated Latvian Minister of Social Affairs loses his job after allegedly driving drunk https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/el-ministro-de-asuntos-sociales-let%c3%b3n-pierde-el-cargo-tras-conducir-presuntamente-borracho/92050234

It is difficult to imagine a more literal way of rewarding aggression: under a proposal advertised as “No war!”, becoming a belligerent state would actually protect an authoritarian state from Swiss sanctions. Refusing to impose costs on a state that starts a war of aggression — #NoWar #Aggression #Sanctions #CH
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce the “Safeguard Swiss neutrality” ballot initiative, which goes to a nationwide vote in Switzerland on 27 September. It’s best known for promising “no war” while actually encouraging wars by ending sanctions on belligerent states. 1/20 https://t.co/02RgYvM0Ln #SwissNeutrality #NoWar #BallotInitiative #CH
Neutrality is not a security guarantee. It is a political declaration, not a shield. During the Cold War, Western planners explicitly considered the possibility of Soviet forces violating neutral Swiss territory, while actual Warsaw Pact war plans envisaged massive offensives #Neutrality #Security #ColdWar #Nocountrycodesarepresentinthetweet.
Vor 25 Jahren sass ich nach einer durchgearbeiteten und schlaflosen Nacht meiner sogenannten "14-Tägigen Hausarbeit" in Basel vor meinem Laptop und war mit dem Schlusswort beschäftigt. Damals war es bei den Advokaturprüfungen in Basel üblich, eine solche umfangreiche Arbeit zu verfassen, für die man viel zu wenig Zeit hatte. Mein Thema war "Die verbesserte Rechtsstellung des Nachlassschuldner während der Nachlassstundung". Ich wohnte damals bereits nicht mehr in Basel, sondern in Zürich. Damit ich meine Hausarbeit bei der Kanzlei des Appellationsgerichts vor Schalterschluss abgeben konnte, hatte mir eine Freundin ihre Wohnung zur Verfügung gestellt. Ich hatte bereits die vorangegangene Nacht dort verbracht. Mein Mobiltelefon klingelte. Ich sah, dass es mein Bruder war. Etwas widerwillig nahm ich ab und teilte ihm mit, dass ich im Moment keine Zeit hätte. Ich musste meine Hausarbeit spätestens am 11. September 2001, um 17:00 Uhr, abgeben. Mein Bruder: "Hast du gesehen, dass es eine Explosion beim World Trade Center gegeben hat? Es soll ein Flugzeug gewesen sein." Ich antwortete: "Ich habe jetzt wirklich keine Zeit. Bist du sicher? Das müssen Archivaufnahmen des Terroranschlags von 1993 sein." Bevor ich fortfahren konnte, sagte mein Bruder völlig entsetzt: "Oh nein! Was ist denn das? Das gibt es nicht! Du, jetzt ist ein zweites Flugzeug in den zweiten Turm geflogen! Schalte mal den Fernseher ein!" Ich erwiderte: "Ich kann jetzt nicht, habe eine Frist und muss jetzt arbeiten. Wir sehen uns später." In der Folge versuchte ich mich auf meine Arbeit zu fokussieren und konnte meine Arbeit kurz vor 16:00 Uhr abgeben. Am Gerichtsschalter war eine weitere Prüfungskandidatin, die ich vom Studium kannte. Ich fragte sie, ob sie von den Ereignissen in New York wusste, was sie bejahte. Wir gaben unsere Arbeiten ungefähr gleichzeitig ab und unterhielten uns kurz vor dem Gerichtsgebäude an der Bäumleingasse. Wenig später nahm ich den Zug nach Zürich. Ich erinnere mich an die Gesichter der anderen Zugpassagiere, die schwiegen. Die bedrückte Stimmung war zu spüren. Zu Hause angekommen, schaltete ich den Fernseher ein und sah zum ersten Mal die schrecklichen Bilder des Tages. Da ich in der vorangegangenen Nacht nicht geschlafen hatte, ging ich nach ungefähr einer Stunde ins Bett und wachte am Folgetag erst am späteren Nachmittag auf. Der 11. September 2001 markierte den Beginn eines schrecklichen Herbstes. 16 Tage später fand in meiner Heimatstadt Zug im Kantonsparlament ein Amoklauf statt, bei welchem der Attentäter Friedrich Leibacher 14 Politiker erschoss und zahlreiche andere verletzte. Praktisch jeder Zuger kannte mindestens eine Person unter den Opfern, weil sowohl die Stadt als auch der Kanton Zug so klein sind. In meinem Fall waren es drei Personen. Ich kannte die Tochter eines Regierungsrates, die Tochter einer Kantonsrätin und den Sohn eines Kantonsrates, die mit mir die gleiche Klasse besucht hatten. Es war unfassbar. Dieser kleine idyllische Ort war plötzlich aufgrund der Tragödie weltberühmt geworden. Der Terror war plötzlich sehr nah. Viel später erfuhr ich, dass der Zuger Attentäter von 9/11 sehr beeindruckt gewesen sei. Ein Jugendfreund von ihm berichtete, Leibacher sei «richtig angeturnt» gewesen und hätte «zur Feier des Tages» Champagner geöffnet. In seinem Tagebuch schrieb er anerkennend über Osama bin Laden und die Attentäter: Sie hätten «es ihnen wirklich hart gegeben» und seien nicht feige gewesen, weil sie den eigenen Tod in Kauf genommen hätten. Das hatte auch Friedrich Leibacher. Nach seiner Bluttat hatte er sich selbst das Leben genommen. Der schreckliche Herbst fand seinen Abschluss am 2. Oktober 2001, am Tag des Swissair-Groundings. Die nationale Luftfahrtgesellschaft war nicht irgendein Unternehmen, sondern so etwas wie der Stolz der Schweiz, ähnlich wie die aufklappbaren Taschenmesser oder die Uhren. Was an diesem Tag geschah, tat den Schweizerinnen und Schweizern in der Seele weh und auch in diesem Fall konnten es viele nicht fassen, was geschehen war. Swissair ging zwar nicht wegen 9/11 unter, aber die Anschläge waren ursächlich dafür, dass der Vorgang sich beschleunigt hatte. Nach dem Grounding wurde die Swissair nicht etwa in einem Konkursverfahren liquidiert, sondern mit der schonenderen Nachlassstundung, die - wie oben beschrieben - das Thema meiner Hausarbeit bei meiner Anwaltsprüfung war. Damals war dieses Verfahren extrem selten und da ich mich intensiv damit beschäftigt hatte, wusste ich genau, wie dieses ablief. Rückblickend war 9/11 das Ende einer aus meiner Sicht schönen Zeit, die mit dem Fall der Berliner Mauer am 9. November 1989 begonnen hatte. Wenn ich heute nach 25 Jahren an diesen Tag zurückdenke, glaube ich, dass es dieser Tag war, an dem der Niedergang des Westens begann, der in den vergangenen Jahren durch die postkoloniale Ideologie beschleunigt wurde. Geradezu unfassbar ist für mich aus heutiger Sicht, dass ausgerechnet New York von einem Terror befürwortenden Postkolonialisten regiert wird, der in seiner politischen Umgebung Personen hat, welche sagen, dass die USA 9/11 verdient hätten und der in erster Linie die Muslime als Opfer dieses Terroranschlags sieht, die unter "Islamophobie" gelitten hätten und immer noch leiden würden. Meine Gedanken an diesem Tag sind daher bei den Angehörigen und Freunden der Terroropfer, die heute bei der Gedenkveranstaltung beim Ground Zero seine Präsenz aushalten müssen. #September11 #Erinnerung #Terrorismus