Search

The author wrote that a 21-year-old woman had been killed in Kyiv the previous night in what they described as a large combined ballistic-missile and drone attack on the capital. They said air-raid sirens had sounded late the previous evening, followed by explosions, and noted that the woman had had her whole life ahead of her. https://t.co/2Jxu9GbBKi #Kyiv #Ukraine #Peace #RU #UA

De Deense pianist en componist Søren Bebe staat aan de voorhoede van de Europese jazz en wordt vaak vergeleken met Scandinavische grootheden zoals Tord Gustavsen en Esbjörn Svensson. Sinds de oprichting van zijn trio in 2007 heeft Bebe een sound ontwikkeld die lyrische schoonheid, Scandinavische stemmingen en muzikale verhalen aaneenweeft. https://hvdommelen.nl/jazz/BebeS.html

Gare du Nord is een Nederlandse urban-jazzband. Oprichters Ferdi Lancee en saxofonist Barend Fransen beginnen hun samenwerking in 2001 naar aanleiding van een soundtrack voor een eenmalige loungeavond in België, wat leidt tot de albums (In Search Of) Excellounge (2001) en Kind Of Cool (2002). In 2003 gaat Gare du Nord met een negen man sterke band op tournee door Nederland en Rusland. In de eigen Cell4-Studio wordt het derde album Club Gare du Nord (2005) opgenomen.  https://hvdommelen.nl/g/GareNord.html

The author said the global economy had proved resilient but warned that this resilience could not be taken for granted. They wrote that the IMFC had reaffirmed its commitment to sound policies and international cooperation to strengthen stability, rebuild buffers and support strong, broad-based growth.

The MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast, AKA Mother of All Bombs) is just a very big conventional explosive. There's nothing it can do to Iran that other conventional bombs can't, except more collateral damage. Yet again, the White House's idea is to say something they think sounds cool, to no effect.

At the High-Level RFA Dialogue, the author said artificial intelligence offered major opportunities but also carried significant risks. They stressed the importance of sound policies, a dynamic private sector and international cooperation to help countries manage the changes ahead.

The author said a discussion with John Lipsky at the Bretton Woods Committee had highlighted how sound policies, openness and cooperation had supported Asia’s rise as a global growth engine. They said those factors remained essential for sustained prosperity and thanked Lipsky for the conversation. https://t.co/84lsPdbAsX #BrettonWoods #GlobalEconomy #AsiaGrowth #AS #US

Why fight the Second World War in the first place? The soundbite that circulated the world was "why fight the Second World War in the first place?", and being directed at the man that Carlson had announced as the greatest warmonger in England was not an accident. #DebatePolítico #Conservadorismo #HistóriaBritânica (translated)

The author wrote that Saudi Arabia was facing intense attacks while the United States, which they said had triggered the war in the Middle East, looked elsewhere. They claimed a Houthi strike on Riyadh airport had killed 12 people and said a saying about those relying on America being left exposed had become especially relevant. #MiddleEast #SaudiArabia #Houthi #US #SA #YE

Fat Dog are an English band, currently consisting of Joe Love, Chris Hughes, Morgan Wallace, and Ellis D. The band formed in 2020 in South East London. Fat Dog's music has been described as containing elements of dance, punk and klezmer; frontman Joe Love has cited the music from Serious Sam as having influenced the band's sound. Fat Dog was formed during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Prior to releasing any singles, the band became known for their boisterous live performances, with Gary Ryan of NME describing them as "2023's wildest live band". https://hvdommelen.nl/f/FatDog.html

Joueur du Grenier indicated that he played Squadron 42, the single-player mode of Star Citizen, in advance and had a good time. He praised the immersion, the richness of the environments and life scenes, which he compared to his walks in Night City, in Cyberpunk. He also enjoyed the first-person combat, the visual effects, the sound design, and the music. According to him, the interface was polished and seemed simpler than that of Star Citizen, perhaps in anticipation of a release on consoles. However, he believed that the game would not be suitable for everyone: out of five hours, about three were devoted to cutscenes, with also long sequences where the player followed characters by walking. He described it as a story-driven game rather than a space simulation or gameplay. Joueur du Grenier also reported issues with finishing, lighting, and textures, but said he encountered neither crashes nor significant blocking bugs. He found the artificial intelligence uneven, with some enemies helping each other or throwing grenades, while others seemed unresponsive. He ultimately compared the game to a dream version of Wing Commander and was pleased to have seen Mark Hamill. #StarCitizen #Squadron42 #Gaming (translated)

Jonathan Krispijn wrote that Soundos had rejected the far-right in a rough manner. According to him, it ensured that people no longer listened when everyone who was critical of immigration was labeled as far-right. #soundos #immigratie #politiek #debat #nederland https://t.co/bo9V5O3qMU #immigratie #politiek #debat (translated)

Russia’s war propaganda gets a soundtrack – how AI-generated songs reached global streaming platforms Russian war propaganda is no longer confined to television broadcasts, Telegram channels or political videos. A study by the Ukrainian threat-intelligence organisation Terrecon has identified 981 songs combining signs of AI generation with pro-Russian military narratives, distributed through an ecosystem that reaches YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and SoundCloud. The songs range from sentimental ballads to rock and heavy metal. Their recurring themes are familiar from conventional Russian wartime propaganda: the heroisation of Russian soldiers, romanticisation of the war, mobilisation, the “Russian world”, commemoration of fallen troops and attacks on Ukraine and its armed forces. Some contain derogatory or dehumanising references to Ukrainians. What is new is not necessarily the message, but the production and distribution model: generative AI allows propagandistic music to be produced rapidly, cheaply and in quantities that would previously have required musicians, studios and producers. Nearly 1,000 tracks identified Terrecon examined 3,725 tracks collected from YouTube, YouTube Music, SoundCloud and the AI music platform Suno. After manual review, researchers classified 981 as showing both indications of AI generation and pro-Russian war propaganda. In 681 tracks they identified 728 propaganda-related keywords or phrases. The largest category was the glorification of the Russian military, followed by romanticised treatment of Moscow’s so-called “special military operation”, mobilisation appeals, narratives about the “Russian world”, and the cult of fallen soldiers and the state. The reach was not merely theoretical. Listening or viewing statistics were available for 608 of the identified tracks; together they had accumulated 86.8 million plays and views, according to Terrecon. A smaller group of 13 high-performing songs accounted for more than 53 million YouTube views and more than 67 million when YouTube Music was included. Among the better-known examples is “Power of Artillery”, a Russian-language rock song praising artillery weapons that passed two million views on YouTube. Most of the tracks for which publication dates could be established appeared after 2024, broadly coinciding with the rapid expansion of consumer AI music generators such as Suno and Udio. That correlation does not prove that AI alone caused the increase, but it illustrates how drastically the economics of production have changed. A propaganda song for as little as $11 Terrecon also tested how difficult it would be to commission such material. Researchers approached 25 creators producing AI-assisted militaristic music; 15 agreed to take commissions. Prices ranged from approximately $11 to $330, while delivery times ranged from two hours to three days. According to Terrecon, some were prepared to produce highly aggressive anti-Ukrainian material, including content intended for audiences involving children from occupied Ukrainian territories. Some creators used Russian intermediary services that provided access to Western AI tools such as Suno and Udio despite restrictions. The researchers then tested several AI generators themselves. Across 40 prompts submitted to Suno, Udio, Mureka, Google Flow Music and ElevenLabs, 25 resulted in successful generations, while safeguards were circumvented in 15 cases. Terrecon reported that four of the five services tested produced Russian-language material containing wartime narratives, although technical problems prevented comparable testing on some systems. In one Udio experiment, the researchers said the model itself introduced more explicit violent language than had appeared in the original promp These tests do not demonstrate that the commercial platforms knowingly support Russian propaganda. They show something narrower: existing safeguards can be inconsistent when political messaging is packaged as music. From generation to Spotify The distribution experiment may be the most revealing part of Terrecon’s research. The team deliberately uploaded test tracks containing explicit hostile language to YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify and Deezer. Terrecon says none was blocked during the experiment. On SoundCloud, researchers used an account identifying its location as Moscow, disclosed the use of AI and added markers including references to the Russian military and the war. The platform accepted the upload and subsequently offered paid promotional and distribution tools. This does not prove that streaming recommendation systems systematically promote pro-war music. There is currently insufficient public evidence to make that claim. It does demonstrate that material can enter the same commercial distribution infrastructure as ordinary music and, once there, potentially benefit from playlists, searches, sharing and recommendation mechanisms available to other releases. That distinction is important. Propaganda no longer has to announce itself as political communication. On a streaming platform it can look like another song. Culture as a delivery mechanism Music has always been used in wartime propaganda. What generative AI changes is scale. Instead of investing heavily in a limited number of patriotic performers or officially commissioned productions, creators can generate variations across styles, audiences and emotional registers at very low cost. Terrecon found material ranging from war rock to sentimental songs and content styled for younger audiences. Some creators also experimented with cloned celebrity voices and stylistic imitation of established musicians. The format also offers a different relationship with the audience. A political video asks a viewer to consume an argument. Music can accompany commuting, exercise or entertainment and may be encountered outside explicitly political spaces. This does not automatically make it more persuasive, and Terrecon’s research does not establish measurable effects on political attitudes. It does, however, place wartime narratives inside a cultural environment where users may not initially perceive themselves as consuming political messaging. An ecosystem, not a proven Kremlin command structure The strongest evidence supports describing this as a growing AI-assisted pro-Russian propaganda-music ecosystem, not a single operation controlled from Moscow. Terrecon did not establish that the Russian government created, financed or coordinated all 981 tracks. Reporting on the study likewise notes that the extent of direct state involvement remains unclear. There is broader evidence that the Russian state finances cultural projects and digital content supporting the war, including through state-backed funding bodies. That context matters, but it does not allow individual songs in Terrecon’s dataset to be attributed to the Kremlin without additional evidence. The significance of the case lies elsewhere. AI has reduced the cost of producing ideological content, intermediaries can help creators access generation tools, and global platforms can provide distribution. The result is a pipeline in which wartime propaganda no longer has to resemble propaganda at all. It can simply appear in a playlist. Sources Terrecon / Ukrainska Pravda — Daria Verbytska on the research https://www.pravda.com.ua/columns/2026/10/05/8056229/ Suspilne Culture — detailed breakdown of Terrecon findings https://suspilne.media/culture/1417933-rosijsku-voennu-propagandu-maskuut-pid-anime-karaoke-ta-rok-doslidzenna-si-pisen-vid-terrecon/ The Insider — AI-generated Russian war propaganda music https://theins.ru/news/297839 Institute of Mass Information — summary of New York Times reporting https://imi.org.ua/en/news/doslidzhennya-rf-masovo-stvoryu%D1%94-propagandistski-pisni-za-dopomogoyu-shi The Bridge Media — AI-generated songs and Russian military propaganda https://thebridgemedia.com.ua/en/ai-generated-songs-russian-military-propaganda/ Center for Strategic Communication — cost and production of AI propaganda music https://spravdi.org/propaganda-za-11-yak-rosiya-shtampuye-shi-pisni-z-miljonamy-prosluhovuvan/ Times of India — AI-generated Russian war songs https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/ai-sings-russias-war-story-inside-the-rise-of-generative-songs-about-ukraine-conflict/articleshow/134650594.cms EU Council / EUR-Lex — Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32026D1351 Human Rights Watch — Russian state funding of digital and patriotic content https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/07/30/disrupted-throttled-and-blocked/state-censorship-control-and-increasing-isolation #DISINFORMED #Episode16 #Russia #Ukraine #RussianPropaganda #WarPropaganda #MusicPropaganda #AIMusic #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #SyntheticMedia #AIPropaganda #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #CulturalPropaganda #DigitalInfluence #NarrativeManipulation #PropagandaMusic #StreamingPlatforms #Spotify #AppleMusic #YouTube #YouTubeMusic #Deezer #SoundCloud #Suno #Udio #RussianWorld #RusskiyMir #MilitaryPropaganda #WarNarratives #Mobilisation #AlgorithmicDistribution #RecommendationAlgorithms #MusicStreaming #PlatformManipulation #Terrecon #OSINT #MediaManipulation #WRLD