In the sweltering, red-dust streets of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, a quiet but relentless battle for hearts and minds is being fought. It is not waged with bullets or armored vehicles, but with words, images, and the silent logic of artificial intelligence. According to a report by the US-based AI company Anthropic, Russian agents have been deliberately using its chatbot Claude to spread pro-Russian influence, monitor opposition politicians, and manufacture propaganda that serves the Kremlin’s interests in this fragile, conflict-scarred nation. The report, titled “Detecting and Countering Misuse of AI,” published in September, paints a picture…

She looks like somebody’s grandmother, warm and reassuring, with a lifetime of homespun wisdom to share. That, in many ways, is what makes Barbara O’Neill so persuasive—and so worrying to the doctors, scientists, and public health experts who have spent years watching her career. O’Neill, a 73-year-old Australian who describes herself as a naturopath and nutritionist, lectures across the world on what she calls “natural self-healing.” But her version of natural health comes with claims that mainstream medicine flatly rejects: that cancer is a fungus that can be treated with bicarbonate of soda, that vaccines have caused epidemics of autism…