WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if licensed guns owners have a right to carry their weapons at public places, including parks, beaches and stores.
At issue are laws in California, Hawaii and three other states that generally prohibit carrying guns on private or public property.
Three years ago, Supreme Court ruled that law-abiding gun owners had a 2nd Amendment right to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon when they leave home.
But the justices left open the question of whether states and cities could prohibit the carrying of guns in “sensitive locations,” and if so, where.
In response, California enacted a strict law that forbids gun owners from carrying their firearm in most public or private places that are open to the public unless the owner posted a sign permitting such weapons.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down that provision last year as going too far, but it upheld most of a Hawaii law that restricted the carrying of guns at public places and most private businesses that are open to the public.
Gun-rights advocates appealed to the Supreme Court and urged the justices to rule that such restrictions on carrying concealed weapons violate the 2nd Amendment.
The court agreed to hear the case early next year.
Trump administration lawyers urged the justices to strike down the Hawaii law.
It “functions as a near-complete ban on public carry. A person carrying a handgun for self-defense commits a crime by entering a mall, a gas station, a convenience store, a supermarket, a restaurant, a coffee shop, or even a parking lot,” said Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
Gun-control advocates said Hawaii had enacted a “common sense law that prohibits carrying firearms on others’ private property open to the public.”
“The 9th Circuit was absolutely right to say it’s constitutional to prohibit guns on private property unless the owner says they want guns there,” said Janet Carter, managing director of Second Amendment Litigation, at Everytown Law. “This law respects people’s right to be safe on their own property, and we urge the Supreme Court to uphold it.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Robert Luna, claiming the department violated county gunowners’ 2nd Amendment rights by delaying thousands of concealed carry permit application decisions for “unreasonable” periods of time.
In a statement, the DOJ claimed that the Sheriff’s Department “systematically denied thousands of law-abiding Californians their fundamental Second Amendment right to bear arms outside the home — not through outright refusal, but through a deliberate pattern of unconscionable delay.”
The complaint, filed in the Central District of California, the federal court in Los Angeles, cites data provided by the Sheriff’s Department about the more than 8,000 concealed carry permit applications and renewal applications it received between Jan. 2, 2024, and March 31.
During that period, the DOJ wrote, it took an average of nearly 300 days for the Sheriff’s Department to schedule interviews to approve the applications or “otherwise” advance them.
As a result, of the nearly 4,000 applications for new concealed carry licenses it received during those 15 months, “LASD issued only two licenses.” Two others were denied, the DOJ said, while the rest remained pending or were withdrawn.
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately provide comment Monday. In March, when the Trump administration announced its 2nd Amendment investigation, the department said it was “committed to processing all Concealed Carry Weapons [CCW] applications in compliance with state and local laws.”
The department’s statement said it had approved 15,000 applications for concealed carry licenses but that because of “a significant staffing crisis in our CCW Unit” it was “diligenty working through approximately 4,000 active cases.”
Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi said Monday that the DOJ was working to safeguard the 2nd Amendment, which “protects the fundamental constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to bear arms.”
“Los Angeles County may not like that right, but the Constitution does not allow them to infringe upon it,” Bondi said. “This Department of Justice will continue to fight for the Second Amendment.”
The federal agency’s complaint alleged that the practice of delaying the applications effectively forced gun permit applicants “to abandon their constitutional rights through administrative exhaustion.”
In December 2023, the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. sued the Sheriff’s Department over what it alleged were improper delays and rejections of applications for concealed carry licenses. In January, U.S. District Court Judge Sherilyn P. Garnett ordered the department to reduce delays.
In the new complaint, the DOJ called on the court to issue a permanent injunction.
Gun rights groups heralded the move by the Trump administration.
“This is a landmark lawsuit in that it’s the first time the Department of Justice has ever filed a case in support of gun owners,” Adam Kraut, executive director of the Second Amendment Foundation, said in a statement. “We are thrilled to see the federal government step up and defend the Second Amendment rights of citizens and hope this pattern continues around the country.”
Another week, another big-name running back across the field on the opponent’s sideline.
Rams running back Kyren Williams acknowledged the well-deserved attention Saquon Barkley received last week before the Rams played the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
Now Jonathan Taylor of the Indianapolis Colts, the NFL’s leading rusher, is coming to SoFi Stadium.
Williams said a “competitive mindset” drives him when high-profile backs are in the building.
“I know how people look at those guys,” Williams said, “and so it’s like, ‘Bro, you better look at me the same way.’ I love it.”
Williams, who signed a $23-million extension before the season, and second-year pro Blake Corum are providing the Rams with the backfield balance coach Sean McVay envisioned as the Rams built a team regarded as a Super Bowl contender.
Last season, the 5-foot-9, 207-pound Williams carried the ball 316 times. Only Barkley (345 carries) and Derrick Henry (325) of the Baltimore Ravens had more. The Rams averaged 103.8 yards rushing per game, which ranked 24th among 32 teams.
Through three games, the Rams are ranked ninth, averaging 127 yards rushing per game.
Williams, a fourth-year pro, has rushed for 226 yards and a touchdown in 55 carries (4.1 yards per carry). He also has five receptions for 35 yards and a touchdown.
Rams running back Kyren Williams celebrates after scoring a touchdown against the Houston Texans on Sept. 7.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Corum has rushed for 99 yards and a touchdown in 14 carries (7.1 yards per carry). He has one catch for 14 yards.
“Those two play off each other really well,” McVay said, adding, “We feel really good about where both of those guys are at, and continue to lean into it and look for a good balance of being able to keep Kyren feeling good throughout it and take advantage of Blake’s skill set.”
McVay has said that ideally he would like to see Williams get 65% of the carries, Corum 35%. But the flow of the game dictates whether that plays out.
After Williams carried the ball 18 times, and Corum only once, in the opener against the Houston Texans, the duo provided more balanced production in the next two games.
“It was a good one-two punch,” offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said.
That is what McVay and general manager Les Snead aimed for after Williams carried a combined 544 times in the previous two seasons.
“We’ve got it kind of dialed into where, like, we’re able to feed off each other,” Williams said of he and Corum. “It’s like friendly competition as well. I go out and make a play, now Blake is going to come in and make a play.
“It allows me to stay fresh throughout the whole game. So it doesn’t feel like I just took 50 carries and it’s only the second quarter. To me it’s a great system.”
Rams running back Blake Corum carries the ball during a preseason win over the Dallas Cowboys in August.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Corum, a 2024 third-round draft pick from Michigan, is enjoying the expanded opportunity after getting only 58 carries last season.
“It’s been great getting my feet under me, being able to just go out there and play free and fast,” he said. “Kyren and I are feeding off each other, so it’s been phenomenal.”
Against the Eagles, Williams bested Barkley, who was limited to 46 yards rushing in 18 carries.
Taylor, the 2021 NFL rushing champion, arrives Sunday averaging 112.7 yards rushing per game. Last week, he gained 102 yards and scored three touchdowns in 17 carries against the Tennessee Titans.
After each of the last two games, Taylor was named AFC offensive player of the week.
Both Williams and Corum aim to continue their production, and to break free for long gains. This season, each of their longest runs has been 15 yards.
“I know I’m capable to create not those 15-yard runs but those 40- and 50-yard runs,” Corum said. “Just need to keep working in practice to hopefully go out and show that on Sundays.”
In almost any other season, Dave Roberts might have made a different choice.
Even though Tyler Glasnow was pitching a no-hitter, Roberts would have at least considered removing the right-hander after six innings on Monday night.
Glasnow’s pitch count was already at 91.
This season is unlike any other, however. Up is down, down is up, and the Dodgers can’t rely on their bullpen.
The uncharacteristic problem required an uncharacteristic solution from Roberts, who kept Glasnow in the game.
What was most important about the series-opening 3-1 win over the Colorado Rockies wasn’t that Glasnow kept a no-hitter intact for another inning or that human propane tank Tanner Scott blew it by giving up a double to Ryan Ritter in the ninth.
Rather, the most promising development of the night was that Glasnow completed seven innings and threw 105 pitches.
Starts like this will be necessary for the Dodgers to overcome their most obvious weakness. Starts like this will be indispensable in their quest to repeat as champions.
For the Dodgers to have a chance to win another World Series, they will have to lean more than usual on their starting pitching.
“I do think that there’s certain times, if [the starters] give me the opportunity as far as efficiency and how their stuff is playing, to push them a little more,” Roberts said.
Roberts is already pushing them.
Two days earlier in Baltimore, Roberts granted Yoshinobu Yamamoto a chance to complete a no-hitter. Yamamoto came up short by an out.
Glasnow has completed seven innings in each of his last two starts.
“Those things are going to be good going forward,” Roberts said.
As much as Roberts continues to champion his relievers — “I believe in them,” he insisted — the reality is that the Dodgers’ bullpen ranks 19th in the majors in earned-run average entering play Tuesday. The less Roberts has to call on that group, the better.
Scott, the team’s $72-million closer, has a 4.47 ERA. Kirby Yates, another questionable offseason acquisition, is even worse at 4.71.
Blake Treinen was a postseason hero last year but he was sidelined for more than three months with a forearm sprain and has struggled with consistency since his return.
The only addition made to the bullpen at the trade deadline was Brock Stewart, who is on the injured list.
The situation could force the Dodgers to move away from the kind of bullpen-heavy game plans they have used in recent years and turn back the clock to the days when their starters accounted for an overwhelming majority of their innings.
Since the start of August, the Dodgers are second in the majors in innings pitched by their starters. Their starters have a combined ERA of 3.31 in that period, also second-best in the majors.
The Dodgers are expected to have four pitchers in their playoff rotation, and they have five legitimate candidates for those positions in Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani, Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw.
But pitching deep into a postseason game isn’t the same as pitching deep into a regular-season game. Snell and Glasnow have each started 10 playoff games. Snell didn’t complete six innings in any of them. Glasnow did it only twice.
Yamamoto crossed the sixth-inning threshold once in four postseason starts last year, as he pitched into the seventh inning against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the World Series.
Kershaw’s last six-inning start in the playoffs was in 2020. Ohtani has never pitched in the playoffs, and the most he has pitched this season is five innings.
The pitching staff’s composition could lead to hard decisions for Roberts in October.
Yamamoto, Snell and Glasnow have each averaged 4 ⅔ innings in their postseason starts. If, say, Snell runs into trouble in the fifth inning of a playoff game, what should Roberts do? Could he trust this particular group of relievers to cover the last four-plus innings of a game? Would Snell be the more reliable option to record the final outs of the inning? Or would either choice lead to disaster?
There’s potential for irony. The manager previously second-guessed for removing starting pitchers too early could now come under scrutiny for leaving them in too long.
My dad’s passport is among his most valuable possessions, a document that not only establishes that he’s a U.S. citizen but holds the story of his life.
It states that he was born in Mexico in 1951 and is decorated with stamps from the regular trips he takes to his home state of Zacatecas. Its cover is worn but still strong, like its owner, a 74-year-old retired truck driver. It gives Lorenzo Arellano the ability to move across borders, a privilege he didn’t have when he entered the United States for the first time in the trunk of a Chevy as an 18-year-old.
The photo is classic Papi. Stern like old school Mexicans always look in portraits but with joyful eyes that reveal his happy-go-lucky attitude to life. He used to keep the passport in his underwear drawer to make sure he never misplaced it in the clutter of our home.
At the beginning of Trump’s second term, I told Papi to keep the passport on him at all times. Just because you’re a citizen doesn’t mean you’re safe, I told my dad, who favors places — car washes, hardware stores, street vendors, parks, parties — where immigrants congregate and no one cares who has legal status and who doesn’t.
“Exagera,” my dad replied — Trump exaggerates. As a citizen, my dad reasoned he now had rights. He didn’t have to worry like in the old days, when one shout of “¡La migra!” would send him running for the nearest exit of the carpet factory in Santa Ana where he worked back in the 1970s.
Masked migra swept across Southern California under the pretense of rounding up criminals. In reality, they grabbed anyone they thought looked suspicious, which in Southern California meant brown-skinned Latinos like my father. The feds even nabbed U.S. citizens or detained them for hours before releasing them with no apology. People who had the right to remain in this country were sent to out-of-state detention camps, where government officials made it as difficult as possible for frantic loved ones to find out where they were, let alone retrieve them.
This campaign of terror is why the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit in July arguing that la migra was practicing racial profiling in violation of the 4th Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. A federal judge agreed, issuing a temporary restraining order. The Trump administration appealed, arguing to the Supreme Court that it needed to racially profile to find people to kick out of the country, otherwise “the prospect of contempt” would hang “over every investigative stop.”
In a 6-3 vote, the justices lifted the temporary restraining order as the ACLU lawsuit proceeds. L.A.’s long, hot deportation summer will spill over to the fall and probably last as long as Trump wants it to. The decision effectively states that those of us with undocumented family and friends — a huge swath of Southern California and beyond — should watch over our shoulders, even if we’re in this country legally.
And even if you don’t know anyone without papers, watch out if you’re dark-skinned, speak English with an accent or wear guayaberas or huaraches. Might as well walk around in a T-shirt that says, “DEPORT ME, POR FAVOR.”
The ruling didn’t surprise me — the Supreme Court nowadays is a Trump-crafted rubber stamp for his authoritarian project. But what was especially galling was how out of touch Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion was with reality.
Kavanaugh describes what la migra has wrought on Southern California as “brief investigative stops,” which is like describing a totaled car as a “scratched-up vehicle.” A citizen or permanent resident stopped on suspicion of being in this country illegally “will be free to go after the brief encounter,” he wrote.
The justice uses the words “brief” or “briefly” eight times to describe what la migra does. Not once does he mention plaintiff Brian Gavidia, the U.S. citizen who on June 9 was at a Montebello tow yard when masked immigration agents shoved him against the fence and twisted his arm.
Gavidia’s offense? He stated he was an American three times but couldn’t remember the name of the East L.A. hospital where he was born. A friend recorded the encounter and posted it to social media. It quickly went viral and showed the world that citizenship won’t save you from Trump’s migra hammer.
Would Kavanaugh describe this as a “brief encounter” if it happened to him? To a non-Latino? After more cases like this inevitably happen, and more people are gobbled up by Trump’s anti-immigrant Leviathan?
Brian Gavidia stands in a parking lot next to East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park. A video of him having his arm twisted and held by an immigration officer against a wall despite being a U.S. citizen went viral. He’s currently a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit alleging the Trump administration is violating the 4th Amendment with indiscriminate immigration raids.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Anyone who applauds this decision is sanctioning state-sponsored racism out of apartheid-era South Africa. They’re all right with Latinos who “look” a certain way or live in communities with large undocumented populations becoming second-class citizens, whether they just migrated here or can trace their heritage to before the Pilgrims.
I worry for U.S.-born family members who work construction and will undoubtedly face citizenship check-ins. For friends in the restaurant industry who might also become targets. For children in barrios who can now expect ICE and Border Patrol trucks to cruise past their schools searching for adults and even teens to detain — it’s already happened.
Life will irrevocably change for millions of Latinos in Southern California and beyond because of what the Supreme Court just ruled. Shame on Kavanaugh and the five other justices who sided with him for uncorking a deportation demon that will be hard to stop.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor recounts Gavidia’s travails in her dissent, adding that the Real ID he was able to show the agents after they roughed him that established his citizenship “was never returned” and mocking Kavanaugh’s repeated use of “brief.”
“We should not have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job,” she wrote. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”
I will also dissent, but now I’m going to be more careful than ever. I’m going to carry my passport at all times, just in case I’m in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even that is no guarantee la migra will leave me alone. It’s not a matter of if but when: I live in a majority Latino city, near a Latino supermarket on a street where the lingua franca is Spanish.
And I’m one of the lucky ones. I will be able to remain, no matter what may happen, because I’m a citizen. Imagine having to live in fear like this for the foreseeable future for those who aren’t?
“So what?” Richard Martin, a US-based pan-Africanist, shot back on LinkedIn, dismissing another user who dared to call a trending speech of Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, by its real name: a deepfake.
It was the kind of fiery anti-imperialist speech delivered by Muammar Gaddafi at the United Nations in 2009.
“You ask, ‘Why is Africa poor?’ That’s the wrong question,” Traoré tells the big news companies in crisp, accented English. “The real question is, how is Africa kept poor when it’s so rich?”
Patti Boulaye, a British-Nigerian singer and actress, shared it on LinkedIn, lending it an aura of authenticity. Many of the over 300 comments under her post on the social media platform echoed her conviction that the speech was real. Another sizable fraction recognised it as fake but embraced it anyway. Among those who raised concerns was London-based IT training consultant Andrian Moore, who was quickly pushed back by Richard: So what?
Undeterred by criticism, Patti, who, according to her LinkedIn bio, leads a fundraising effort to build healthcare clinics and a school in some African countries, posted yet another AI-generated speech.
“All I ask is that you do not throw away the baby with the bath water,” she wrote.
The new video shows the same man in his signature brownish camouflage, speaking on a global podium. Like the first, which was reposted over 250 times and received reactions from more than 1,300 users, the second video also went viral.
Captain Traoré seized power in Burkina Faso on September 30, 2022, citing military leader Paul-Henri Damiba’s failure to curb an escalating Islamic insurgency, and pledged to restore democracy within two years. But as the deadline approached, he extended his rule by five more years, cementing his place as president of the Francophone nation.
In office, Traoré has overseen notable agricultural and industrial initiatives, while also drawing international criticism. In May, Burkina Faso’s military was accused of killing at least 130 civilians in Solenzo, a town in the country’s west.
His rule has been marked by bold geopolitical shifts: withdrawing from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), forging a new alliance with other military-led neighbours, severing ties with France, and deepening relations with Russia.
A dictator loved by some and criticised by others across borders, Traoré’s complex personality made him a tool of choice in the deepfake videos now making the rounds in Africa.
Many of them hit the internet in May, attributed to Traoré and conveying similar messages – Africa, a historical victim of Western exploitation, must deliver itself.
The videos appear to premiere on YouTube before spreading to social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The responses, from thousands of people, are often the same: tears, admiration, accolades, as well as scepticism.
“This is not a simple speech, it’s rather a textbook of freedom for Africa,” one YouTube comment reads.
The numerous fact-checks that followed, proving the videos are synthetic, could not stop the people from believing them.
One, “President Ibrahim Traoré’s Bold Speech to the IMF Shocks the West,” has got close to 1.5 million YouTube views, while “Africa Will Not Kneel: Traoré’s UN Speech Shocks the West and Defies Neocolonial Power” has over 600,000. Now deleted by YouTube, “Pope Leo XIV Responds to Captain Ibrahim Traoré| A Message of Truth, Justice & Reconciliation” was streamed nearly a million times. Its description as “a work of fiction inspired by the life of IBRAHIM TRAORÉ” had little effect on the thousands who flooded the comment section.
“They sound like what leaders should say but seldom dare to,” Ghanaian strategic communicator Rifkin Dodo said of the moving speeches.
Yaw Kissi, a pan-African writer popular on LinkedIn, shares the same view: “When people hear voices, even artificial ones, boldly articulating what they’ve always felt but rarely heard echoed, it sparks something powerful.”
File: Traoré attends the Russia-Africa summit. Source: Diario El Tigrense
Where are they from?
Because of their anti-West rhetoric and pan-African posture, the biggest bet would be that these speeches originated in Africa itself. Yet an in-depth analysis of seven of them, collected from different YouTube channels, tells a different story.
The earliest uploads can be traced to three channels: Pan-African Dreams, Black Rebellion, and Univers Inspirant. The latter two were both created in March this year. Though Pan-African Dreams, which premiered the viral deepfake of the newly-inaugurated head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, responding to Traoré, has since been deleted by YouTube, archived records show it shared the same “Welcome to …” opening line in its page description as the other two.
Labelled D1 through D7, metadata extracted from the three channels was subjected to forensic linguistic analysis, using advanced AI language models.
An analysis of authorship and voice, lexical patterns, and stylistic markers revealed overlaps suggesting the channels are from one source:
Black Rebellion and Univers Inspirant both joined YouTube…in March 2025, within 9 days of each other.
Pan-African Dreams shares the same “Welcome to …” channel intro formula despite deletion.
All seven videos were released within 10 days (May 15–24, 2025) — a compressed schedule suggesting a campaign roll-out rather than organic posting.
While Black Rebellion chose a different core style, Pan-African Dreams and Univers Inspirant share the same linguistic fingerprint in their video descriptions. In one instance, Black Rebellion merged the styles of the other two channels.
This pattern implies one production team testing multiple rhetorical frames (religious/spiritual, militant/anti-colonial, media-critique) to maximise resonance across audiences.
Illustration by Damilola Ayeni via GPT-5
YouTube transcripts of two videos from Black Rebellion and Univers Inspirant were also subjected to a similar analysis:
The core linguistic fingerprint—the ideology, the confrontational pronoun strategy, the complete lack of filler words, the passionate tone, and the reliance on specific rhetorical patterns—is remarkably consistent across both texts.
The significant differences in structure, pacing, and lexical focus are best explained not by a change in author but by a deliberate and skilful adaptation to audience and medium.
The underlying idiolect is the same; only the presentational style has been modified to fit the specific context.
Surprisingly, Black Rebellion and Univers Inspirant are both located in France, prompting an AI model to conclude:
The timing, registration, style overlaps, disclaimers, and cross-channel duplication all strongly suggest that Pan-African Dreams, Black Rebellion, and Univers Inspirant are not independent outlets but rather part of a single coordinated network, seeded from France in March 2025, with the May videos representing a first major campaign wave.
Illustration by Damilola Ayeni via GPT-5
Truths, lies, and half-truths
Richard repeated the same statement many times under Patti’s post: It’s absolutely true. Like him, many embrace the AI speeches, convinced they contain undiluted truths about Africa.
But a fact-check revealed a mix of accurate data, exaggerations, and popular opinions.
Take Captain Traoré’s age. Official records show he was born in 1988, making him 37 in 2025. Yet in one of the videos, he declares: “I am 34 years old.”
Misleading claims of 46 US military bases in Africa, and the unverifiable annual transfer of $500 billion to France by the African CFA franc bloc, among others, further erode the speeches’ credibility.
But one cannot deny the compelling manner in which facts are presented, shining light on historical exploitation and suppression of pan-African voices.
It’s true, for instance, that Africa is a “net creditor of the world,” receiving $134 billion in aid and losing $192 billion annually through illicit channels. It’s also true that citizens derive little benefit from resources taken from African soils.
“Africa has 70 per cent of the world’s cobalt,” one deepfake Traoré declares. The mineral powers cell phones, computers, and electric cars, but many Congolese, from whose soil it is mined, cannot afford these products.
A significant share of the world’s diamonds and gold comes from Africa. But several miners in those regions remain extremely poor.
“Africa does not owe you,” Traoré tells the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in another deepfake. “You owe Africa. You owe us for the gold taken under colonial boots. You owe us for the minerals that power your smartphones while our villages remain in darkness.”
Declassified documents and government inquiries have linked Belgium to the removal of Congo’s anti-imperialism leader Patrice Lumumba in 1960, which culminated in his murder. Thomas Sankara’s 1987 overthrow and assassination have also raised questions about France’s role.
“Lumumba spoke the truth and paid the price,” said Rifnikin. “Sankara challenged the system, and bullets followed. Leaders today remember these as if it was yesterday.
“AI speaks openly because it has nothing to lose and cannot be arrested, poisoned or assassinated. African leaders remain silent because they have everything to lose: power, comfort, and sometimes even their lives.”
Yet, as Yaw warns, the same technology that gives voice to suppressed truths also carries the risk of distortion when cloaked in the aura of charismatic leaders.
“Communities must be equipped to critically engage with these narratives, separating emotional resonance from factual accuracy, while leveraging the technology to reclaim our own stories,” he said.
To what end?
“What are the objectives of those who posted the video?” Adrian asked during our conversation. “Are we advancing this agenda by sharing it?”
A closer look at the YouTube channels provided some answers. Mid-roll and interactive overlay ads, features tied to AdSense, Google’s monetisation programme, were embedded in the videos, suggesting that profit, not ideology, is at play.
While a ‘Join’ button and fan-funding features that could have confirmed channel monetisation are absent, further analysis indicates significant background, voice, and musical variations in videos that are substantially the same. This could be explained by the YouTube policy requiring that borrowed content be significantly altered to qualify for monetisation.
Black Rebellion (28,000+ subscribers and more than 2.5 million views) and Univers Inspirant (46,000+ subscribers and more than 6 million views) are likely generating revenue from disinformation targeting Africans. On Black Rebellion, only three of its 40 videos are not about Traoré, but they are still about Africa. Univers Inspirant hosts 112 videos; just six do not feature Traoré. Those six, produced in French, highlight the achievements of France’s past and present leaders, a divergence that hints at the channel’s possible origin.
While metadata alone does not conclusively prove that the channels were registered in France, as creators can obscure their real location, the French-language content, French name (Inspiring Universe in English), and page description in French reinforce the suspicion.
“Today, we have an inspiring message from Ibrahim Traoré,” said Adrian, who also told me his surprise at finding such a deepfake circulating on LinkedIn, shared by someone from whom one would ordinarily expect due diligence.
“Tomorrow, we could have Ibrahim Traoré promoting prejudice or justifying crimes, and it would be accepted, even acted upon, simply because it came in the voice of a visionary African leader.”
Africa has endured centuries of exploitation. Yet the ongoing weaponisation of her pain, packaged through deepfakes by individuals linked to a country that once colonised her, opens a new chapter in the history of human exploitation.
“Colonialism never ended,” says Traoré in one such deepfake. “It just changed its face.”
Tearfully recalling the moment, she said: “I saw Leo on his bike perched up against a wall, and he was talking to himself as if he had an imaginary friend, and it made me fall in love with him so much.
“But equally and probably one of the reasons why it’s jerking tears is because, I guess for a second I thought, ‘oh god is this because he doesn’t have any siblings?’’.
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As Ryan attempted to reassure his emotional partner, she revealed her first time mum fears that Leo’s behaviour was “abnormal.”
He reflected: “I think that’s very normal for kids, I’m pretty sure I had imaginary friends.”
To this, Louise shared: “I guess Leo’s our only child and we’re still first-time parents and navigating all of those milestones for the first time.
“And you don’t really know what to expect when you have one child, you have nothing to compare it to, so I didn’t know whether that was normal.”
However, she then claimed a fan had got in touch with her to tell her that a child having an imaginary friend was a “sign of intelligence.”
Alongside the podcast clip, Louise wrote: “First-time parenting really is just learning on the go, isn’t it?
Louise Thompson’s fiance Ryan admits he ‘resented her’ after traumatic birth of son where she asked him ‘am I dying?’
“Every week there’s something new, something that makes you stop and think.
“It can feel scary, but it’s also the most rewarding thing in the world.”
I worried that it was because we haven’t been able to give Leo a sibling yet
Louise Thompson
Opening up about the support from fans, the brunette beauty wrote: “One of my followers messaged me to say that having an imaginary friend at a young age is a sign of intelligence.
“That was really kind of her because as an anxious first time mum navigating this whole world as each milestone passes, I worried that it was because we haven’t been able to give Leo a sibling yet.”
Numerous other fans followed and eagerly rushed to the comments to share their support and reassure Louise that Leo’s behaviour was in fact “normal”, as one said: “Bless though wonderful mummy tears. That raw protective emotion we feel is unmatched to one another.”
A second chimed in: “All the only children I know are so smart, great with people of all ages and very capable and independent thinkers.”
Is it selfish having an only child?
MARRIED gift company owner Calypso, 40, has a five-year-old son. She says:
I took great pride in being an only child. That’s why I deliberately have just the one.
I never felt I was missing out on anything through not having a sibling. There was never a time when I craved a brother or sister.
It was not until I was in junior school, aged eight, that I gave it any thought. I wasn’t a loner – I had lots of friends – but the advantage was I got to have time alone too.
I’d make up games or draw for hours. If anything, being an only child stretched my imagination.
Mum worked long hours in the TV industry. People might think it’s glamorous but working freelance meant she couldn’t afford to have another child, financially or time-wise.
I’ve always been told I have “only child” traits, like working for myself or being a bit bossy. And I’m the first to say I am headstrong. I certainly don’t take to being told what to do, either.
I’d always known I would have just the one child – and that’s because I like my independence. We get to go away. I cycle everywhere with my son on the back of my bike and we live on a canal boat.
It’s a life we all love and it wouldn’t work with four of us. I also have more time for my other half, as my mum is very happy to look after one child.
I like an easy life. I just don’t know how parents cope with three kids. One child is enough for me to parent. I like my moments of peace and I don’t enjoy chaos.
I’ve got enough energy, resources and focus to make sure he gets my attention to live his best life.
It’s working so far. He hasn’t noticed that he doesn’t have any brothers or sisters.
He thrives on having lots of “Mum and Dad time”. My husband has a brother yet he wasn’t fussed about having more than one kid. He also prefers an easy life.
With the financial resources we have, I can give my son a good life filled with love, adventure and my undivided attention.
Maybe I’m selfish but we are working to our capabilities to keep a happy and healthy family unit.
Meanwhile, a third penned: ”I have a daughter, only child, and I still worry and she’s 33! She is the kindest, most grounded girl and I’m so proud of her….. you’re doing an amazing job.”
At the same time, one mother explained: “Our 5-year-old daughter used to have an imaginary friend called Boxy. I was worried at first but it’s very normal and also a sign of great imagination. I love her for it.”
With the desire to extend her family in the future, Louise has also spoken of difficulties and admitted she will “never carry another child.”
Our 5-year-old daughter used to have an imaginary friend called Boxy. It’s very normal and also a sign of great imagination
Instagram user
She told Grazia: “For a long time I was so triggered by babies – I couldn’t look at people’s babies and pregnancy announcements and those sorts of things.
“The tricky thing for us is that this just isn’t really possible in the conventional way because I’m not going to carry another child.
“I really wanted to freeze my eggs and some embryos last year, but I was overcoming my stoma surgery for a good chunk and then that was when I started to feel really well.
“And I feel like I slightly missed the boat but I can’t put the blame on myself because there wasn’t really an appropriate time before I started taking a bit of a dip again.”
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The mum-of-one received a flood of support from fansCredit: instagram/@hesaid.shesaid.podcast
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Many reassured her and praised her son’s “great imagination”Credit: Instagram
Aug. 22 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has authorized members of the National Guard who are patrolling Washington, D.C., to begin carrying weapons on duty, a Defense official said.
The new authority is expected to become effective in coming days, the person told ABC News, CNN and Fox News.
The decision paves the way for the nearly 2,000 troops mobilized in the district to expand their operations, including possible security patrols in neighborhoods that struggle with crime.
“At the direction of the Secretary of Defense, [Joint Task Force]-DC members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons, consistent with their mission and training,” the official said.
President Donald Trump visited with National Guard personnel Thursday and suggested the military would be playing a larger role in law enforcement in the city.
“You got to be strong, you got to be tough,” Trump told Guard personnel at the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility. “You got to do your job. Whatever it takes to do your job.”
Though they will carry weapons, they will not be able to make arrests. They will still be under orders to temporarily detain people if needed before transferring them to law enforcement as soon as possible.
“The D.C. National Guard remains committed to safeguarding the District of Columbia and serving those who live, work, and visit the District,” the official added.
The move comes as other states’ National Guard members have begun arriving in Washington to be in-processed to help the D.C. National Guard.
More than 1,900 troops from multiple states have been called up as part of the mission, including from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Louisiana, and Tennessee, according to a release from JTF-DC on Thursday.
