The manosphere influencer Andrew Tate and his brother, Tristan, moved to Romania a decade ago to build an online-pornography empire. They kept their recruits in a development north of Bucharest known as American Village. “I’ve done this with over 100 girls,” Andrew said, about compelling women into sex work. “I almost sound evil. But I’m not.” In 2022, their compound was raided by armed police, and a SWAT team was deployed to take the women in the villa into protective custody. Since then, the brothers have faced ongoing investigations into allegations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation, though they have yet to face trial.
The Tates agreed to meet with Heidi Blake for her investigation for The New Yorker. During her visit, the brothers strenuously denied that they had ever hurt a woman. “I’ve never done anything wrong in my life,” Andrew said. He insisted that none of the women he employed had accused him of crimes, adding, “They’re still my friends.” By the time police raided his properties, he said, “the webcam business—which, by the way, is not illegal—had been closed for ten years.” But that account is starkly contradicted by the accounts of more than a dozen women, who described being groomed, trafficked, or sexually assaulted by the Tates—as well as by thousands of leaked messages and the brothers’ own persistent boasts to their friends and followers. Read Blake’s report: https://t.co/MTA5oT5Vkp
Ab kommender Woche regiert erneut ein über 80-jähriger Präsident die USA. Trumps Wegdämmern bei öffentlichen Auftritten sorgt für Häme der Demokraten. Auch in der Bevölkerung wachsen Zweifel an seiner Amtsfähigkeit. https://t.co/MkyeMl0tKC
Here's the full chain of events that led to Trump storming out of his interview with Kristin Welker, beginning with her pressing him on the weaponization fund, continuing with her pointing out the baselessness of his "rigged election" lies, and concluding with him calling her "crooked or stupid" and leaving
6 years of Trump promising "mountains" of stolen election evidence
6 years of Trump throwing a tantrum & storming off when asked for evidence
6 years of Maga morons cheering on his tantrums instead of questioning why he hasn't provided them ANY evidence
A careless code blunder just blew the lid off Beijing’s multi-million dollar AI propaganda operation targeting the West. France's digital interference watchdog, Viginum, has officially exposed "Fawn Mianju," a covert network of 13 multilingual fake news sites running on advanced automation and generative AI. The sophisticated network was completely compromised after a computer engineer working as a Senior Project Manager at China's state-run CGTN Digital accidentally left his login credentials exposed in the code.
This operation, which expanded on findings first uncovered by U.S. cybersecurity firm Graphika in 2025, operated with deep financial backing. The domains were registered in Beijing, hosted on Alibaba Cloud, and utilized expensive infrastructure alongside paid plugins to artificially manipulate search engine rankings. Using digital keys linked directly to AI language models, the network automatically scraped CGTN articles, lightly rewrote them, and republished over 2,300 articles, often within less than an hour of the original state media broadcast.
Sites like the French-language "Actu Méridien" were weaponized to manipulate public opinion across 89 countries, heavily targeting Western audiences and Francophone African youth. The articles aggressively peddled pro-Beijing narratives, painting China as the undisputed leader of the Global South and green energy transition while explicitly telling Western readers that aligning with Chinese interests would bring them massive benefits.
Despite the cutting-edge tech and heavy state funding, the operation was an organic flop. The articles struggled to breach 15,000 views, with nearly 40 percent of its top social media engagement traced back to fake accounts in Burundi whose sole purpose was to artificially inflate the content. While the reach was limited, French authorities warn that the operation exposes Beijing’s rapidly escalating capability to launch fully automated, stealth disinformation campaigns designed to quietly erode Western democratic alignment.
#Disinformation #CyberSecurity #France #China #AIPropaganda #Geopolitics #Viginum #NationalSecurity
»Sektenartige Zustände«: Ein scheidender AfD-Landtagsabgeordneter warnt vor Chaos, sollte die Partei an die Macht kommen, er schreibt von »Goebbels-Methoden« und »Beutegemeinschaften« – was die Brandbriefe auslösen. https://t.co/0aW8QXLQXr
»Sektenartige Zustände«: Ein scheidender AfD-Landtagsabgeordneter warnt vor Chaos, sollte die Partei an die Macht kommen, er schreibt von »Goebbels-Methoden« und »Beutegemeinschaften« – was die Brandbriefe auslösen. https://t.co/0aW8QXLQXr