September 1 on nwsTrail: Nepal battles floods and forgeries, Pentagon enters the oil business, misinformation spreads in Europe

The government of Nepal has requested urgent financial aid from the UN Loss and Damage Fund, as the consequences of the August 26 Bhotekoshi flood exceed the country's immediate response capacity. This is Nepal's first application to the fund, which was established in 2022. Nepal wants an answer before the fund's board meeting scheduled for December 10—December is far off, and it is understandable why the Nepalese government is in a hurry.

As if the actual disaster were not enough, fake videos about the Nepal floods are spreading with millions of views. A clip viewed over seven million times, in which floodwaters appeared to sweep away people and vehicles, was created with artificial intelligence. Alleged "before and after" photos were also forged, as was a video of an elephant supposedly saving a trapped man. Old glacier and flood videos filmed elsewhere and earlier were also linked to the disaster.

In Indonesia, Mount Sinabung has begun erupting after a five-year hiatus. The volcano, located in North Sumatra, spewed ash up to 3,500 meters above its peak, with ash spreading up to 20 kilometers to the east and southeast. Before the eruption, which lasted over an hour, 85 volcanic earthquakes were recorded, and monitoring officials warn that the first eruption could be followed by larger ones. Activity is prohibited within a six-kilometer radius in the southern and eastern sectors, and residents along rivers are being warned about volcanic mudflows.

In Montenegro, the search for a Russian citizen suspected of killing three employees at a shooting range in Danilovgrad ended with his suicide. Police found 30-year-old Mikhail Nikolayevich Shabunin in a forest near Herceg Novi. According to police, after being surrounded, he fired at officers and then shot himself. The three victims were employees of the shooting range who were unarmed while on duty and unable to defend themselves. A potential motive has not been disclosed, and the investigation continues. Montenegro has declared days of mourning. It remains unknown why the three people were killed in the first place.

In Albania, animals at the Tirana zoo are suffering from extreme heat, lack of shade, water shortages, and construction noise. Sprinklers operate three times a day for two hours at a time, as there is insufficient running water for continuous cooling. Animals are also given frozen fruit, but young trees do not provide the necessary shade, and the mere presence of water, food, and cooling snacks does not yet constitute modern animal welfare. The zoo was closed in 2015 due to poor conditions and reopened in 2022.

Meanwhile, in Polish-Czech relations, an attempt was made to stir up trouble out of almost nothing. A disinformation campaign claimed that Poland was preparing to demand that the Czech Republic cede territory. To achieve this, a Polish regional broadcaster's website was hacked, a fake site mimicking Czech public radio was created, and the social media accounts of a diplomat and a Polish deputy foreign minister were forged. The campaign relied on a real border issue that has been treated as a technical matter for decades, dating back to a 1958 border change and involving an unresolved 368 hectares. A forged document inflated this into a claim that Warsaw was demanding over 600 hectares of Czech territory. This is a common method of using disinformation: take a bit of truth and add lies. By the time the fraud is officially debunked, it has already spread and served its purpose. It sounds like yet another Russian campaign.