Africa
(UN News) The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to encourage governments, schools and tech companies worldwide to stop using maps that make Africa look far smaller than it really is. By 164 votes to one, Member States on Friday endorsed a resolution promoting map projections that more accurately reflect the true size of continents – the culmination of an African-led campaign against the 16th-century Mercator projection, still the most widely used map in the world. The United States cast the sole vote against, dismissing the initiative as part of a “radical ideological project”. Six countries – Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia and Ukraine – abstained. The resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or impose a replacement. Instead, it encourages governments, schools, international organizations and technology companies to use the Equal Earth projection and other so-called equal-area maps when relative size matters, and to teach the limitations of any flat map in representing a spherical planet. Behind that seemingly technical debate lies a larger argument about history and power: whether a map designed for European sailors in the 16th century has, over generations, distorted not only geography but perceptions of a whole, vast and complex continent. “Maps shape our understanding of the world,” Robert Dussey, Togo’s foreign minister, said before the vote. “They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions”. – UN tells the world: Stop making Africa look small | UN News
Bolivia
(Reuters) At least two people were killed and dozens injured on Friday after an explosion at a military barracks in the Bolivian municipality of Viacha, about 30 km (20 miles) from La Paz, Defense Minister Ernesto Justiniano said. His ministry said in a statement that 14 people were missing. The blast occurred at around 2:30 p.m. (1830 GMT) in an area used to store pyrotechnic material, authorities said. – Explosion at Bolivia military base kills at least 2, 14 missing, ministry says
Europe – China
(DigWatch) In an Official Journal of the European Union (EU) notice dated 1 September 2026, the European Commission has formally initiated an interim review of its current antidumping duties on silicon metal imports from China. The review follows a request filed by Euroalliages on behalf of the EU silicon metal industry on 8 July 2026. The review will examine whether silicon metal imports from China have been sold into the EU at less than fair value, known as ‘dumping’, and whether such imports have caused material ‘injury’ to EU producers. In response, Marco Levi, Chief Executive Officer of Ferroglobe, said that the investigation ‘represents an important step towards restoring fair competition in Europe’s critical and strategic silicon metal market.’ The investigation follows ‘industry‑supported data submissions’ that document silicon metal shipments into the EU. – European Commission initiates an interim review of antidumping duties on Chinese silicon metal imports | Digital Watch Observatory
Israel – West Bank
(UN News) Israeli security forces forcibly displaced the entire population of three Palestine refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in January and February last year – and continue to prevent their return, in violation of international law, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR. The report said military, police and other forces deployed during Israel’s Operation Iron Wall offensive killed civilians, destroyed hundreds of homes, damaged roads and other infrastructure, cut off water and electricity, and blocked humanitarian access to the Jenin, Nur Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps. Israeli forces went door to door ordering residents to leave. Some displaced Palestinians told OHCHR that Israeli officers said there would be no more refugee camps and that they should “all go to Jordan”. – West Bank: UN rights report warns of forcible displacement from three refugee camps | UN News
Nepal
(UN News) The UN and its humanitarian partners launched a $49.6 million flash appeal on Friday to deliver emergency assistance to more than 84,000 people affected by last week’s catastrophic floods in Nepal. On 26 August, a glacier on the border between Nepal and the Tibet autonomous region of China collapsed, triggering floods that have now claimed more than 1,250 lives and left thousands missing, according to the UN’s office in Nepal. The UN’s local humanitarian team estimate that 84,270 Nepalis – or 19,284 households – were affected by the floods. – UN aims to raise nearly $50 million for Nepal flood response | UN News
Niger – France
(Reuters) Niger has blamed France for inciting an attack on a key military airbase by mutinous soldiers last week, according to a government statement read on TV on Friday. Mutinous soldiers in the West African country attacked the airport and the presidency in the capital, Niamey, on August 29, the latest threat to the rule of Abdourahamane Tiani, who seized power in a 2023 coup. Explosions and gunfire also rang out at a military airbase, but Niger’s army, backed by Russian paramilitary forces, regained control over it the next day. – Niger blames France for inciting soldiers’ mutiny
Russia – Ukraine
(Reuters) The US administration should take into account realities on the ground in any settlement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, where the situation is shifting against Kyiv, the TASS news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Saturday. “The key question is the extent to which the US administration is prepared to invest in finding a real solution to the current crisis, considering the realities on the ground,” Ryabkov told TASS, when asked to comment on a possible visit to Moscow by US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law. – Russia says US must heed battlefield realities in Ukraine peace push: Report
(UN News) A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Ukraine to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the UN agency said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage facility in the last three months. “Yesterday, overnight, between 3 and 4 September, an air attack in Kyiv oblast affected one of WHO’s main warehouses, storing humanitarian medical needs and supplies,” said WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier. Speaking to journalists in Geneva, he explained that “the access to the site remained restricted due to heavy smoke and safety concerns, while assessments of possible damage and stock losses are ongoing”. No WHO personnel were affected, he said. – Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine: WHO | UN News
Tech World, Cybersecurity, and Surveillance
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Manchester Airports Group, which operates Manchester, London Stansted and East Midlands airports, has confirmed a data breach involving customer information held in a third-party database. The company says airport operations, passenger safety and aviation security were not affected, but the incident has exposed data that can make fraud far more convincing. The data related to parking, lounge and Fast Track bookings, as well as airport Wi-Fi sign-ups. MAG said attackers took email addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration details and postcodes, while payment-card data was not accessed. The group disclosed the incident on 27 August and said it had contained the risk, engaged specialist advisers and notified relevant authorities. The extortion group FulcrumSec claimed responsibility for the intrusion and leaked the data after MAG had refused its ransom demand. – Crooks Behind Manchester Airports Group Hack Leaked Data of 8.8 Million People
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) Threat intelligence firm Hunt.io just documented a second, separate China-linked campaign wiring commercial AI models directly into live cyberespionage operations, this time hitting Taiwan’s Kuomintang Party archives, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, government and education systems in mainland China, and industrial hosts in Vietnam. The full report traces the operation through five exposed open directories the operators accidentally left publicly accessible, which is how researchers reconstructed the entire orchestration system from the inside. “Five open directories, one campaign. The exposed directories map to an AI orchestration host, a Java/CAS exploitation workspace, a fake MySQL deserialization service, a Shellshock and credential-testing node, and a payload-distribution store.” reads the report. “SecFlow split reconnaissance, exploitation, collection, and reporting among specialist workers. The runtime could switch between Claude, Qwen, and DeepSeek profiles without changing the task interface”. The framework behind the campaign, called SecFlow by the operators, could use different AI models, including Claude, Qwen, and DeepSeek. The operators could switch between them without changing how the system worked. Instead of using the models’ official APIs, SecFlow routed requests through private proxy servers linked to the niestools.com domain. – Chinese Hackers Use AI Agents in Multi-Country Cyber Campaign
(Pierluigi Paganini – Security Affairs) A dark web identity theft service called Nexus appeared on September 1, 2026, offering searchable access to more than 153 million scanned driver’s licenses belonging to people in the United States and Canada. The FBI’s New Orleans field office opened a formal investigation the same day. Brian Krebs at KrebsOnSecurity, who broke the story, traced the source to idscan.net, a New Orleans-based identity verification company whose clients include Hertz, Target, FedEx, Motorola Solutions, Caesars Entertainment, and the financial services firm Jack Henry. “On Monday, Aug. 31, a source alerted KrebsOnSecurity to a service advertised by a new user on the Russian cybercrime forum Exploit, offering access to digital scans of identity documents on more than 170 million people in North America. The source brought it to my attention because the proprietor of this identity theft service offered my Virginia drivers license as a free sample in their initial sales thread on Exploit.” wrote Krebs. “The service, dubbed Nexus, claims to have more than 153 million drivers licenses for people in the United States and Canada, as well as more than 10 million identification cards; more than three million travel documents and/or international IDs; and at least 579,000 medical cards”. – Dark Web Service Nexus Sells 153M+ Driver’s Licenses
(DigWatch) Growing demand for data centre infrastructure in South Africa is drawing greater attention to the sector’s electricity and water consumption. Equinix South Africa managing director Sandile Dube said public debate often focuses on what data centres consume while overlooking the services they enable, including banking, e-commerce, healthcare, government services, and digital businesses. A 2025 Development Bank of Southern Africa study identified rising demand for data and cloud services, utility infrastructure, and South Africa’s strategic location, including its subsea cable connections, as key drivers of further sector growth. – Equinix South Africa managing director highlights economic role of data centres amid resource concerns | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) The US Department of Justice has told a federal court that AI training on copyrighted works should be treated as fair use. The AI training fair use question arises in the consolidated copyright proceedings against OpenAI and Microsoft in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the US government filed a statement of interest on 1 September 2026 and The New York Times is among the plaintiffs. A statement of interest is filed under section 517 of title 28 of the US Code and carries no binding authority. The presiding judge, Sidney Stein, will decide the fair use question independently. The 20-page filing argues that training is ‘extraordinarily transformative’. Its reasoning is that copies made during training are used to teach a model statistical relationships between words rather than to reproduce the works themselves. US copyright law weighs four factors in a fair use analysis: the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the copyrighted work, the amount of material used, and the effect of the use on the market for the original. The filing rests mainly on the first and the fourth. – AI training fair use backed by US government in 20-page filing
(DigWatch) On 3 September 2026, France launched a new phase of its ‘Osez l’IA’ plan to accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) among businesses. Launched in July 2025 as part of France’s national AI strategy, the plan aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the French economy and stimulate innovation through wider AI adoption. The plan is built around three areas: raising awareness of AI adoption, training, and supporting businesses in identifying relevant AI solutions and putting them into practice. During its first year, more than 35,000 businesses were reached through a network of 615 AI Ambassadors across 20 regions and 13 sectors. The programme also referenced 88 AI solution providers for SMEs and mid-sized companies, 70 Diagnostics Data IA, and 54 AI use cases on the ‘Accélérez avec l’IA’ platform. – France expands ‘Osez l’IA’ plan to accelerate business AI adoption | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) have published the fifth edition of Greening Digital Companies: Monitoring Emissions and Climate Commitments 2026 report. The report, released in 2026, tracks the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, energy use, climate commitments and transition planning of 200 digital companies. Further, the assessment uses company data reported for 2024 and covers 75 telecommunication companies, 66 IT software and services companies, and 59 electronics companies across seven geographic regions. – ITU and WBA: Greening Digital Companies 2026 report
(DigWatch) Apple Inc. is the subject of a lawsuit filed at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal. The claim centres on Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework. The framework, introduced by Apple in 2021, requires apps to obtain user consent through a pop-up window before tracking their activity across other apps and websites. If they decline, the app loses access to information on that user, which enables targeted ads. The lawsuit is being led by Ann Pope, a former senior official at UK’s Competition and Markets Authority. Pope stated that Apple’s policy ‘resulted in very significant harm to businesses that depend on Apple as a gatekeeper’. Attorneys acting on behalf of the app developers claim that the company’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework imposes stricter requirements on third‑party app developers than on Apple’s own services, thereby giving Apple an unjust competitive advantage in the mobile advertising ecosystem. – UK app developers file lawsuit against Apple at the Competition Tribunal | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) Tenable Holdings, Inc. announced on 31 August 2026 that it has joined Project Watershed, a White House‑led initiative aimed at protecting US water and wastewater systems from cyber threats. Coordinated by the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) and is being piloted in Texas, the initiative brings together federal and state authorities, water-sector operators and private-sector cybersecurity expertise to address vulnerabilities affecting one of the country’s most critical and interconnected essential services. Project Watershed is intended to provide participating water utilities with access to cybersecurity capabilities, technical expertise and practical support to identify, assess, prioritise and remediate vulnerabilities across both information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) environments. This integrated approach is particularly important for water and wastewater infrastructure, where traditional enterprise IT systems increasingly interact with industrial control systems, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) environments and other operational technologies responsible for monitoring and controlling physical processes. A compromise affecting either environment can therefore have consequences extending beyond data confidentiality or service availability to the continuity and safety of essential public services. – Tenable joins White House‑led Project Watershed to improve US water systems cybersecurity | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) Vice President of the United States J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have announced the launch of the Foundry School, a training program aimed at rebuilding American manufacturing and which targets semiconductors, defence, and energy. Developed by Stanford University, the curriculum of the Foundry School will be taught by founders and CEOs from advanced manufacturing enterprises in the United States as well as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and India. Beginning in September 2026, the project will hold seven regional sessions across several American universities to cover the fundamentals of modern factory design, materials and supply chains, assembly-line engineering, plant economics, regulation and permitting, and workforce development at scale. The participating universities are Arizona State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Kansas, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis. – United States launch Foundry School with Stanford to strengthen semiconductor workforce | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) Thailand has begun developing a national regulatory framework for data centres as it seeks to manage the sector’s rapid expansion while supporting continued digital growth. At the first meeting of the National Data Centre Business Policy Committee, the government said clearer rules are needed to address gaps in existing regulation and provide a more systematic framework for data centre development. The proposed framework will address electricity, water and land use, environmental impacts, cybersecurity, and data protection, as well as planning and permitting requirements. The government also wants clearer legal definitions for data centres, tighter oversight of electricity capacity applications and stronger green data centre standards, including greater use of renewable energy. – Thailand begins developing a national data centre regulatory framework | Digital Watch Observatory
(DigWatch) The fifth edition of the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum will take place in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, from 8 to 10 September 2026, with its opening ceremony and inaugural telecom‑fraud alliance meeting scheduled for 9 September. Organised under the theme “unite to advance public security governance, bring stability to a turbulent world”, the forum will bring together senior law-enforcement officials, representatives of international organisations including the United Nations and Interpol, diplomats, former government and law-enforcement officials, and international experts. The event is intended to promote international dialogue and practical cooperation in response to increasingly interconnected and transnational public-security challenges. – China to host 2026 Global Public Security Cooperation Forum amid growing focus on technology-driven crime | Digital Watch Observatory
Ukraine
(Reuters) A local ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has taken effect to enable repairs for the restoration of external power to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the agency said on Saturday. The Russian-controlled nuclear power plant, located in Ukraine, has been without external power since August 20 and has relied on emergency diesel generators to cool its vital safety systems. – Localized ceasefire in effect to enable repairs to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant: IAEA
US – Mexico
(AFP) The United States said Friday it had shot down over 300 drones operated by cartels along the Mexican border since the start of 2026. The US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) – which covers the United States and neighboring countries – linked the drones to the drug trade, without naming any specific group. It said it shot down 100 drones in August alone but did not say on which side of the border. – US says shot down 300 cartel drones on Mexico border
War in Iran – Middle East – Gulf
(Reuters) Explosions were heard on Saturday near Iran’s Kharg Island in the Gulf, a key oil terminal, but their origin was unknown, the semi-official Fars news agency reported. The state-affiliated Nournews said there were unconfirmed reports from local sources that an Iranian tanker had been targeted near Kharg by a missile fired by US forces. – Explosions heard near Iran’s Kharg Island
Yemen
(Al Arabiya) The Yemeni Armed Forces announced Saturday that they had launched a counteroffensive on the southern al-Jarahi front in Hodeida Governorate, while the Yemeni navy announced that it had destroyed two Houthi boats that attempted to target the al-Fajra and Mokha port. Earlier, a Yemeni military source said the Yemeni army was continuing to carry out airstrikes against Houthi positions in Taiz and Hodeida. An Al Arabiya correspondent reported that Yemeni army artillery was targeting Houthi positions in al-Kassara in Marib, and that Yemeni Armed Forces aircraft were carrying out airstrikes on Houthi warehouses in al-Hazm in Al-Jawf. – Counteroffensive launched on southern al-Jarahi front in Hodeida: Yemeni army
The Global Eye is in partnership with SIOI – Società Italiana per l’Organizzazione Internazionale
Secondo Federico Fubini sul Corriere della Sera (5 settembre 2026), l’ipotesi che Donald Trump possa invitare Vladimir Putin al G20 di Miami rappresenta molto più di una scelta di protocollo: sarebbe un gesto ad alto valore strategico, capace di riaprire alla Russia uno spazio di legittimazione internazionale proprio mentre Mosca continua a condurre la guerra in Ucraina e a mantenere una pressione ostile sull’Europa. Il punto centrale dell’articolo è che l’eventuale presenza di Putin negli Stati Uniti per la seconda volta durante la presidenza Trump segnerebbe una discontinuità forte rispetto alla linea di isolamento costruita dopo la Crimea e rafforzata dopo l’invasione totale dell’Ucraina. – Trump e l’idea di invitare Putin al G20 di Miami | The Global Eye
Secondo Marta Serafini sul Corriere della Sera (5 settembre 2026), l’attacco alla sede dei servizi di sicurezza ucraini a Kiev segna un passaggio importante nella strategia russa: non colpire soltanto infrastrutture o obiettivi militari convenzionali, ma prendere di mira il cuore operativo e simbolico dello Stato ucraino. Il raid con drone contro gli 007 di Kiev non è quindi solo un episodio bellico: è un messaggio diretto sulla capacità di Mosca di penetrare, intimidire e tenere sotto pressione i centri nevralgici della resistenza ucraina. – Mosca attacca la sede degli 007 di Kiev. E Trump prova a mediare | The Global Eye
Secondo Il Foglio del 5 settembre 2026, il messaggio che arriva dal comandante supremo della NATO in Europa, Alexus G. Grynkewich, e’ netto: la Russia resta la minaccia più significativa per la sicurezza euro-atlantica, e l’errore più grave che l’Europa potrebbe compiere oggi sarebbe sottovalutarne tempi, intenzioni e capacità di pressione. L’intervista non va letta solo come riaffermazione di linea atlantica, ma come un tentativo di ricollocare la questione russa dentro una grammatica strategica più dura, nel momento in cui l’Europa entra in una fase politicamente fragile e più esposta alla tentazione di relativizzare il pericolo. – NATO, Europa e la sfida russa. Parla, a Il Foglio, il Capo Supremo della NATO in Europa | The Global Eye
