The burned area in the European Union due to wildfires reached 731,716 hectares by September 24, 2026, nearly double the average of the last 20 years, highlighting a severe fire season, especially in southern and western Europe. (translated)
🇺🇦 cannot catch a break. This morning, russia, a member of the #UNSC, struck a farm in Kharkiv region, killing 6 people and injuring at least 12: people who were simply sorting vegetables. At a farm. Farmers. Six lives. Now think of six people from your own workplace. Gone. https://t.co/9eBzdWRWAl #Ukraine #Kharkiv #Russia #UA #RU
URGENT! You from the rest of Brazil must be following that Rio Grande do Sul, once again, is being harshly punished by heavy storms and flooding. As we are so close to the elections, it is important everyone asks themselves the following question: what do the presidential candidates think about the climate crisis? Lula: The Lula government launches a plan to face the climate crisis and forecasts R$ 27 billion in 2026. The main objectives of the Plan are to ensure that by 2035, severe food and nutritional insecurity is eradicated, that protection works benefit 4 million Brazilians living with the risk of geohydrological disaster, that all infrastructure works supported by the federal government consider climate risks, and that livestock production systems become sustainable across 72.68 million hectares. Other objectives include expanding vegetative cover in urban areas by 180,000 hectares, reducing to 7.5% the number of municipalities with a minimum level of water security, and increasing the extent of Protected Marine Areas to 30%. Flávio Bolsonaro: The candidate avoids acknowledging the influence of human action on climate change, classifying extreme phenomena and events as "natural cyclical effects." When asked about proposals for the climate, Flávio stated that the best way to protect the environment is to provide basic sanitation. If you are from Rio Grande do Sul and have lost your home, it has been flooded, or you have been without light and water for nearly 24 hours, remember this when voting. (translated)
Je n’ai plus les mots pour qualifier ce qui se passe actuellement en France. Les prévisions météorologiques ne cessent de repousser l’échéance du retour des pluies. Désormais, presque aucune précipitation significative n’est attendue sur une grande partie du pays jusqu’au 6 octobre. L’indice hydrique des sols français pourrait ainsi battre son record absolu de sécheresse, jusqu’à présent réservé au cœur des étés les plus extrêmes. Sauf que nous serons alors fin septembre, voire début octobre. Du jamais vu ! Et pendant ce temps, aucun répit pour nos forêts, nos écosystèmes et notre agriculture. Les sols continuent de s’assécher, les végétaux accumulent les stress et les conséquences se prolongent désormais bien au-delà de l’été. Et cela dure depuis mai. La France traverse clairement une crise exceptionnelle. #Sécheresse #Météo #Climat
A vegetation fire broke out south of Perpignan, covering 35 hectares, mobilizing 180 firefighters, and resulting in the interruption of rail traffic and the closure of a road. (translated)
Recap #Sinner #Giorgi Camila Giorgi ha dato alla luce Magnus Vangelis. Bellissimo nome, sembra quello di un generale che nel 732 ha fermato gli Arabi a Poitiers. Un livello di epicità che merita più di un semplice benvenuto. Mi pare più adatto May the Force be with you. Morituri te salutant. Valar morghulis. Camila ha dichiarato che rientrerà nel tour allenata da suo marito. Quanto manca lo smarrimento che poteva generare solo lei, ripetendo lo stesso identico schema per tre ore. Senza voltarsi indietro. Senza titubare. Dritta fino all’alba del cinquantesimo gratuito o di una gloriosa vittoria. Torna presto: le variazioni le lasciamo ai tifosi senza fantasia. Intanto, sul fronte Sinner si è riaperto il dramma: salterà Pechino? Salterà l’Asia? Non si sa nulla. Potrebbe avere bisogno di più tempo, chissà se più nelle gambe o nella testa. “Nessuna notizia, buona notizia” - dicono i saggi. Dunque, fino a qui tutto bene. Fatto sta che su Jannik, ultimamente, per capirci qualcosa bisogna effettuare un’analisi forense sui metadati delle foto, dai quali ricavare: studio della tensione mandibolare. Latitudine e longitudine attraverso la vegetazione locale. In alternativa, bioluminescenza della segnaletica stradale riflessa sulle superfici metalliche. Confronto della curvatura delle labbra con l’archivio fisiognomico storico. Scansione a raggi x del buio oltre la siepe. E vabè. Parliamo di cose importanti. Nike ha fatto per Zheng un kit che si chiama “Fenice di fuoco scarlatto”. Le scarpe sono tutte tempestate di rosso, oro e vendicativa magniloquenza delle dinastie imperiali. Bellissime. Cattivissime. Le scarpe per Jannik, invece, avevano la volpina cicciottina e le improntine delle zampette. Abbiamo capito che alla Nike esiste il team Mordor e il team Paperopoli. Tranquillo Magnus: sulle tue ci sarà mamma. #tennis #tennis #Giorgi #Sinner
The article examines the issue of children's nutrition on vegetarian and vegan diets, emphasizes that proper provision of necessary nutrients is key, and warns of possible developmental risks associated with an amateur approach to these types of diets. (translated)
Mali – a war where some of the people fighting do not exist In Mali's war, an apparently simple question is becoming increasingly difficult to answer: who exactly is speaking to us? A real person? A rebel organisation? A Russian influence operation? A supporter of the military junta? Or somebody who has never existed at all? In September 2026, the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute published Des algorithmes en guerre, a report examining the use of generative artificial intelligence by actors involved in the Malian conflict. Its researchers describe the country as a potential laboratory for AI-assisted information warfare. Separatist networks are deploying synthetic fighters on TikTok. Jihadist propagandists are experimenting with AI-generated imagery. Pro-government accounts are producing large quantities of content celebrating the Malian armed forces. Russia, meanwhile, operates the most developed influence infrastructure of all: pseudo-media outlets, inauthentic accounts, AI-generated text, images and video, and systems designed to artificially amplify their visibility. Artificial intelligence did not create Mali's conflict. The war has been under way since 2012, and its participants have always fought with propaganda as well as weapons. What AI has changed is the economics of that struggle. A new “witness”, commentator, fighter, poster or video can now be produced in minutes. For audiences watching from a phone, distinguishing between genuine documentation, propaganda and material created entirely by an algorithm is becoming progressively harder. Azzghim – the fighter who cannot be killed or interrogated The most striking case documented by the Timbuktu Institute involves accounts associated with supporters of the Azawad Liberation Front, or FLA, a Tuareg separatist movement fighting the authorities in Bamako. A figure called “Azzghim” appeared on TikTok. He looks like a Tuareg fighter and regularly features in videos attacking Mali's government and Russia's Africa Corps, commenting on the conflict and promoting the cause of Azawad. There is one problem: Azzghim does not exist. Analysis of the videos identified anomalies characteristic of generative AI, including unnatural body movements, visual inconsistencies, irregular colouring and problems with audio synchronisation. According to the Timbuktu Institute, Azzghim is a synthetic character being used as the digital face of a political narrative. The propaganda advantages are considerable. An organisation no longer needs to expose a real spokesman. A synthetic personality can be designed to look exactly as its creators require, speak the appropriate language and appeal to a particular audience. Different characters could potentially be created for younger viewers, traditional communities or different ethnic and social groups. There is another advantage: a synthetic spokesman cannot be arrested, identified or interrogated. Researchers also identified accounts amplifying the material. At the time of the study, TikTok account @tawri.n.azawad had around 207,000 followers and was almost entirely devoted to publishing or repackaging content involving Azzghim. Another account, @asnan831, used a similar synthetic teenage character. An important distinction is necessary. Researchers describe these profiles as belonging to supporters or individuals associated with the FLA. The available evidence does not establish that every account is part of an operation centrally directed by the Front's leadership. The information effect, however, remains significant: a digital community can be constructed around the Azawad cause in which some of the apparent participants may not be real people at all. The jihadists are learning too The picture is different for Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM, the al-Qaeda-affiliated coalition that has become one of the most powerful armed groups in the Sahel. Its confirmed use of generative AI remains considerably less sophisticated. In June 2026, JNIM's Az-Zallaqa media apparatus published AI-generated posters promoting material about previous attacks. The images showed fighters in combat but contained familiar generative artefacts: buildings and vegetation merging unnaturally, blurred details and unnaturally smooth surfaces. More important than JNIM's current capabilities is what AI could add to an already sophisticated propaganda apparatus. The organisation already tailors communications to different audiences. UN reporting has documented its use of media channels for broader propaganda while other outlets increasingly distribute material in local languages, including Bambara. Generative AI could dramatically reduce the cost of this strategy, translating material into Fulfulde, Hausa, Zarma or Tamasheq, generating synthetic dubbing and producing multiple versions of the same message. The Timbuktu Institute also considers the future possibility of AI chatbots being used to personalise recruitment. That should not be presented as a capability JNIM has already demonstrated. At present, it is a risk scenario rather than a confirmed operation. Russia has the most sophisticated machine At the other end of the spectrum lies Russia's influence ecosystem. Here, AI is not an isolated experiment but another component of an infrastructure previously developed by Wagner-linked networks, Russian media operations and influence organisations operating across Africa. After Wagner's withdrawal from Mali in 2025, its military role was taken over by the Russian state-controlled Africa Corps. The information infrastructure evolved alongside it. Of particular importance is African Initiative, which presents itself as a news agency but has been identified by France's VIGINUM, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the European External Action Service as an important component of Russia's newer influence architecture in Africa. One of the most interesting elements of this ecosystem is a network researchers call AI-Freak. The operation uses generative AI to produce text, images and videos, places them on fake or apparently independent news websites and distributes them through inauthentic accounts. This is supplemented by so-called Black Hat SEO – techniques intended to artificially increase the visibility of content in search engines. Elements of this infrastructure have previously been identified by Meta and OpenAI. In 2024, OpenAI disrupted Russian accounts using ChatGPT to generate articles and comments in English, French and Russian. Some of the French-language content targeted audiences in West Africa. In a later iteration of the operation, AI models were also used to draft scripts for short videos praising the Russian Africa Corps, translate them into French and generate descriptions optimised for social media. This illustrates an important difference between the Russian approach and Azzghim. The separatist ecosystem uses AI primarily to manufacture convincing digital personalities. The Russian model increasingly resembles an industrial production line: text, image, video, pseudo-news website, distribution account, search optimisation and additional channels amplifying the narrative. The objective is not merely to convince someone of a single claim. It is to occupy as much of the information environment as possible with narratives advantageous to Moscow: Russia as an effective security partner, the West as a neo-colonial aggressor, France as a source of instability and Russian forces as defenders of African sovereignty. Yet VIGINUM also warns against equating technological sophistication with actual impact. Some Russian influence channels still attract relatively small audiences. A sophisticated operation is not automatically a successful one. The junta is building its own digital reality Mali's military authorities operate within the same contested information environment. Since breaking with France and moving closer to Moscow, Bamako has increasingly restricted independent media space while promoting a narrative built around restored sovereignty, military success and the benefits of its Russian partnership. The Timbuktu Institute highlights the TikTok account @6tm_officiel. At the time of the study, it had more than 436,000 followers and published substantial amounts of AI-generated material presenting Mali's armed forces, the FAMa, and the Africa Corps in a favourable light. One video concerning the battle for Kidal accumulated around 4.7 million views. Again, attribution requires care. Researchers describe the account as being operated by an individual based in Bamako; they do not provide evidence that it is officially managed by the Malian government. It is better understood as part of a wider pro-government information ecosystem in which the boundaries between state communications, supporters and co-ordinated propaganda can be difficult to establish. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies has previously identified the military regimes in Mali and Burkina Faso as important sources of disinformation campaigns in West Africa. Recurring narratives target France, the United Nations, ECOWAS, human-rights organisations and independent media, while presenting criticism of the authorities as part of a foreign conspiracy. Generative AI allows such narratives to be produced faster, more cheaply and in far more variations. Everyone is fighting over a different version of the same war What makes Mali particularly revealing is that multiple actors are using similar technology for very different objectives. FLA-linked networks need digital faces capable of humanising the Azawad cause and attacking Russia's presence. JNIM needs propaganda material and increasingly localised communications. The pro-government ecosystem seeks to portray Mali's armed forces as victorious and reinforce the junta's legitimacy. Russia possesses the broadest infrastructure, in which AI is merely one component of a larger system involving media outlets, websites, local partners, social-media profiles and technical amplification. The result is a war taking place simultaneously in two realities. In the first, soldiers and civilians are killed, towns change hands and the army, separatists and jihadists fight for territory. In the second, every side is trying to determine what the first reality will look like on a smartphone screen. Generative AI does not need to create a perfect deepfake to be effective. It merely needs to increase the number of competing versions of events until an ordinary viewer can no longer easily determine which one deserves to be trusted. That is why Mali matters. It is not showing us the future of information warfare. It is showing us its present. One TikTok video may feature a real soldier. Another may feature a propagandist. A third may feature a fighter who has never existed. And all three can tell completely different stories about the same war. Sources Timbuktu Institute – Des algorithmes en guerre: Comment l'IA générative rebat les cartes du conflit malien https://timbuktu-institute.org/index.php/toutes-l-actualites/item/1731-rapport-des-algorithmes-en-guerre-comment-l-ia-generative-rebat-les-cartes-du-conflit-malien AfricaNews/AFP – “Mali's information war is increasingly being shaped by AI” https://www.africanews.com/2026/09/09/malis-information-war-is-increasingly-being-shaped-by-ai/ OpenAI – research on Russia-origin influence activity and Operation Stop News https://openai.com/index/disrupting-malicious-uses-of-ai-stop-news-2024/ VIGINUM / FCDO / EEAS – technical report on African Initiative and the AI-Freak network https://www.sgdsn.gouv.fr/files/files/Publications/20250612_TLP-CLEAR_VIGINUM_FCDO_EEAS_Technical_Report_African_Initiative_EN.pdf Africa Center for Strategic Studies – Mapping a Surge of Disinformation in Africa https://africacenter.org/spotlight/mapping-a-surge-of-disinformation-in-africa/ Timbuktu Institute – analysis of AI use by JNIM https://timbuktu-institute.org/index.php/toutes-l-actualites/item/1735-artificial-intelligence-a-new-propaganda-lever-for-jnim-in-mali?print=1&tmpl=component #Disinformation #Mali #Sahel #Africa #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #AIPropaganda #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #Propaganda #Deepfakes #SyntheticMedia #Azawad #FLA #JNIM #AfricaCorps #Russia #RussianInfluence #TikTok #DigitalWarfare #MediaManipulation #WRLD
The article presents a weekly menu designed to care for the gut microbiota, emphasizing the importance of consuming more plant-based foods, fiber, legumes, and fewer ultra-processed foods, through simple and accessible recipes. (translated)
The ESA has successfully launched the satellites FLEX and Sentinel-3C into space to monitor global vegetation, climate, and environmental changes and to collect important data on the health of the Earth. (translated)
The European Space Agency has successfully launched the FLEX and Sentinel-3C satellites aboard the Vega-C rocket to advance the study of vegetation and the environment from space. (translated)
The Belgian satellite Flex, which will be launched from Kourou in French Guiana, is tasked with detecting plant stress before it becomes visible, by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence to provide vital information on the health of ecosystems and optimize agricultural forecasts. (translated)
The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the FLEX satellite, led by the Spaniard José Moreno, to study how plants respond to climate change by detecting chlorophyll fluorescence from space. (translated)
Original y conveniente la decisión del Gbno de restringir maquinaria amarilla contra minería ilegal. El proyecto de Formalización Minera de Ana Ligia Mora ayuda mucho a resolver el tema. Urge recuperar selva y cauces destruidos, por fortuna Colombia tiene condiciones para recuperar vegetación. Hay proyecto para frenar destrucción de selva #MineríaLegal #DefensaAmbiental #Colombia
A fire on the island of Brac in Croatia has ravaged 3,500 hectares of vegetation since September 10, leading to the evacuation of 230 people, while firefighters are battling the flames under difficult conditions. (translated)
Ben vegetariër. maak me grote zorgen om biodiversiteit, en zou onmiddellijk rechtsomkeert naar huis maken als ik PFLP-vlaggen en/of zo'n spandoek zag in een """klimaat"""mars. Wat de organisatie blijkbaar toelaat en de meelopers (pun intended) ook #biodiversiteit #klimaat #vegetarisch
After a particularly hot summer, Bordeaux is implementing a strategy to adapt to climate change to ensure its habitability in the coming decades, including policies for greening and shading in the city. (translated)
“Ik kies voor vrede” roepen terwijl je de Russische agressie grotendeels negeert, is ongeveer alsof je tegenover een beer gaat zitten en uitlegt dat je vegetariër bent. Veel succes met deze veiligheidspolitiek. #Vrede #Veiligheid #Oorlog
In the face of climate disruption, there are simple adaptations that should be priorities: installing shutters, protecting windows, replanting and greening! (translated)
In Turkey, hundreds of Romanians are caught between the violent wildfires in the Antalya region, where massive evacuations have taken place and injuries and one death have been reported. (translated)
