一周热闻｜撒哈拉沙漠经历罕见暴雨洪灾、亚洲男性遭遇深度伪造恋爱骗局

(CNN, 2024-10-14)

The Sahara does experience rain, but usually just a few inches a year and rarely in late summer. Over two days in September, however, intense rain fell in parts of the desert in southeast Morocco, after a low pressure system① pushed across northwestern Sahara.

撒哈拉沙漠确实会下雨，但通常情况下，每年的降雨量仅有几英寸，且夏末极少降雨。然而，今年9月的两天，由于低压系统横扫撒哈拉西北部，摩洛哥东南部的部分沙漠地区遭遇了强降雨。

Errachidia②, a desert city in southeast Morocco, recorded nearly 3 inches of rainfall, most of it across just two days last month. That’s more than four times the normal rainfall for the whole month of September, and equates to more than half a year’s worth for this area.

仅9月的两天内，摩洛哥东南部沙漠城市拉希迪耶的降雨量便接近了3英寸，是9月整月正常降雨量的4倍多，相当于该地区半年多的降雨量。

As the rain flowed over the desert terrain, it created a new, watery landscape amid the palm trees and scrubby flora. Some of the most dramatic images are from the desert town of Merzouga, where the rare deluge carved new lakes into the sand dunes.

雨水流经沙漠地带，在棕榈树丛和灌木丛中塑造了水域新景观。其中，沙漠小镇梅尔祖卡的一些景象尤为震撼，罕见的强降雨竟在沙丘上冲刷出新的湖泊。

The rain also filled lakes that are normally dry, such as one in Iriqui National Park, Morocco’s largest national park. NASA satellite images from the region, using false color③ to better highlight the floodwaters, show newly-formed lakes across swaths of the northwest Sahara.

雨水还填满了平时干涸的多个湖泊，如摩洛哥最大的国家公园伊里基国家公园中的一个。美国国家航空航天局对撒哈拉西北部地区的卫星图像进行了伪彩色处理，使洪水冲刷的景象更加醒目，清晰展现了该地区新形成的各个湖泊。

More extreme rainfall events could be expected in the Sahara in the future, according to recent research, as fossil fuel pollution continues to heat up the planet and disrupt the water cycle.

最近的研究显示，由于化石燃料污染持续加剧全球变暖及扰乱水循环，未来撒哈拉沙漠预期会出现更多极端降雨事件。

【注释】

① low pressure system：低压系统，又称“气旋”，指同一高度上中心气压低于四周的大气涡旋，按生成和活动范围可分为温带气旋和热带气旋两类。

② Errachidia：拉希迪耶，非洲北部国家摩洛哥的城市，位于撒哈拉沙漠和阿特拉斯山脉边缘，海拔高度1009米。

③ false color：伪彩色，指将黑白图像转化为彩色图像，或将单色图像变换成特定彩色分布的图像。这种技术通常用于增强图像的某些特征或用于监测曝光水平，以便更好地分析照片。

(CNN, 2024-10-15)

In a news conference Monday, police in Hong Kong announced the arrests of more than two dozen members of a romance scam ring③, which targeted men from Taiwan to Singapore and as far away as India.

10月14日，中国香港警方在新闻发布会上宣布，成功捣毁一个以中国台湾、新加坡乃至印度等地男性为目标的恋爱诈骗团伙，逮捕涉案成员20余名。

Aged 21 to 34, the suspects were mostly well-educated, with many of them digital media and technology graduates recruited by the gang after attending local universities, police said. The suspects allegedly worked with IT specialists overseas to build a fake cryptocurrency platform, where the victims were coerced to make investments, police added.

警方称，犯罪嫌疑人年龄在21岁至34岁之间，大多受过良好教育，很多是从当地大学数字媒体与技术专业毕业后被该团伙招募的。此外，警方提及，嫌疑人涉嫌与海外IT专家勾结，建立虚假的加密货币平台，受害人被诱导在该平台上进行投资。

The deepfake scam typically began with a text message, in which the sender – posing as an attractive woman – said they had mistakenly added the wrong number. The scammers then struck up online romances with their victims, fostering a sense of intimacy until they began planning a future together.

这种深度伪造骗局通常从发送一条短信开始——冒充迷人女性的发送人会在短信中声称自己误加了受害人的号码。随后，诈骗犯与受害人展开网恋，逐步增进亲密感，直至双方开始共同规划未来。

The group was highly organized, and divided into departments responsible for different stages of the scam, police said. They even used a training manual to teach members how to carry out the con④ by taking advantage of “the victim’s sincerity and emotion,” said police.

据警方介绍，该诈骗团伙组织严密，分工明确，设有多个部门负责不同阶段施骗。警方称，该团伙甚至还有一份培训手册，指导成员如何利用“受害人的真诚和情感”来实施诈骗。

The scam ran for about a year and used deepfake artificial intelligence to lure its victims into parting with⑤ more than $46 million.

这一骗局持续了大约一年，利用深度伪造人工智能技术从受害者手中骗得4600多万美元。

【注释】

① deepfake：深度伪造技术，最常见的方式是AI换脸技术，此外还包括语音模拟、人脸合成、视频生成等。

② rake in：make a lot of money, typically very easily （尤指轻易）捞进大笔钱。

③ ring：[rɪŋ] n. a group of people who are working together, especially in secret or illegally （尤指秘密的或非法的）团伙，帮派。

④ con：[kɒn] n. an act of cheating sb 骗局。

⑤ part with：give sth to sb else, especially sth that you would prefer to keep 交出（尤指不舍得的东西）。