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Syrian forces expel Kurdish fighters as US strikes Islamic State targets

Syrian government forces have detained 300 Kurds and evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters after clashes in Aleppo, the interior ministry has said, as US and allied forces carried out separate “large-scale” strikes against Islamic State targets. An interior ministry official told Agence France-Presse that about 360 Kurdish fighters and 60 wounded had been bussed to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous zone in the north-east from the Sheikh Maqsoud district, the last area of Aleppo to fall to the army. A further 300 Kurds, including members of the Kurdish internal security forces, were detained, the official said on Sunday. The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said it had agreed under a ceasefire to withdraw from Aleppo after days of fighting. Kurdish forces had controlled several pockets of Syria’s second city and operate a de facto autonomous administration across large swathes of the north and north-east, much of it captured during the country’s bloody 14-year civil war. The Aleppo clashes, some of the most intense since the regime of the longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024, erupted on Tuesday after negotiations to integrate the Kurds into the country’s new government stalled. The violence in Aleppo has deepened one of the main faultlines in Syria, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s promise to unify the country under one leadership has faced resistance from Kurdish forces wary of his Islamist-led government. It has also raised fears of a regional escalation, with neighbouring Turkey, a close ally of Syria’s new Islamist authorities, saying it was ready to intervene. Israel has sided with the Kurdish forces. At least 21 civilians have been killed, according to figures from both sides, while Aleppo’s governor said 155,000 people had fled their homes. Both sides have blamed the other for initiating the clashes. US and allied forces said they had carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria on Saturday, in the latest response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead. Washington said a lone gunman from the militant group carried out the 13 December attack in Palmyra, which killed two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter. The area is home to Unesco-listed ancient ruins and was once controlled by jihadist fighters. “The strikes today targeted Isis throughout Syria” and were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the deadly Isis attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra”, US Central Command said in a statement. The Jordanian army said it had participated in the strikes in coordination “with partners within the framework of the international coalition … to neutralise the capabilities of terrorist groups and prevent them from reorganising”. The Palmyra attack was the first such incident since the fall of the Assad regime. The US personnel targeted were supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, the international effort to combat IS, which seized swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014. The jihadist group was ultimately defeated by local ground forces backed by international airstrikes and other support, but IS still has a presence in Syria, particularly in the country’s huge desert. Syria’s military, which had earlier announced its seizure of Aleppo’s other Kurdish-held neighbourhood, Ashrafiyeh, confirmed early on Sunday that it had “finished operations” in the Sheikh Maqsoud district. State-run Ekhbariya TV said the last Kurdish-led SDF fighters had left Aleppo on Sunday after the ceasefire deal allowed the evacuations. The official SANA news agency said buses “carrying the last batch of SDF members” were heading north-east. The SDF said in a statement it had “reached an understanding that led to a ceasefire and secured the evacuation of the martyrs, the wounded, the trapped civilians and the fighters from Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods”. The SDF statement said the ceasefire had been reached “through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo”. Both the US and EU had called for a return to political dialogue. The US envoy Tom Barrack said on Saturday he had met al-Sharaa in Damascus and urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return to dialogue”. He said the US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s team was ready to mediate. AFP and Reuters contributed to this report

Ukraine war briefing: Kyiv struggles to stabilise ruined power grid after major Russian attack

Engineers in Kyiv scrambled on Saturday to stabilise a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes, including one two nights ago. The city’s residents huddled against bitter winter cold inside their unheated apartments on Saturday as engineers worked to restore power, water and heat. Prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that the power situation in the capital was still difficult, as the grid was badly damaged and people were using more electric heaters because of the cold. Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha confirmed Saturday the UN security council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Russia’s latest large-scale attack on Ukraine, which used an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. “The meeting will address Russia’s flagrant breaches of the UN Charter,” Sybiha wrote on X. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said major attacks by Russia on Friday “have resulted in significant civilian casualties and deprived millions of Ukrainians of essential services, including electricity, heating and water at a time of acute humanitarian need.” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov spoke with representatives of the United States on Saturday as Kyiv and Washington seek to agree on a framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We continue to communicate with the American side on practically a daily basis,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram app. The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 residents were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike. In a statement posted on Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that work was under way to restore supplies, but that the situation was “extremely challenging”. A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, officials said Saturday. Ukraine’s General Staff said Saturday it had struck the Zhutovskaya oil depot overnight. In a statement on Telegram, it said the depot is supplying fuel to Russian forces, adding that damage was being assessed. Ukraine’s military said that besides the oil depot in Volgograd, it had struck a drone storage facility belonging to a unit of Russia’s 19th Motor Rifle Division in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, as well as a drone command and control point near the eastern city of Pokrovsk. An overnight Ukrainian drone attack injured at least four people and damaged several buildings in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh, the governor of the Voronezh region said on Sunday. An emergency service facility, seven apartment buildings and six houses were damaged as a result of the attack, the governor, Alexander Gusev, said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia’s defence ministry said Saturday that its forces used aviation, drones, missiles and artillery to strike Ukrainian energy facilities and fuel-storage depots on Friday and overnight. It did not immediately specify the targets or damage.

Protester pulls down national flag from Iranian embassy in London

A protester has climbed on to the balcony of the Iranian embassy in central London and pulled down the country’s flag during an anti-regime demonstration. Social media footage appeared to show a man replacing the flag with the pre-Islamic revolution lion and sun flag, often used by opposition groups in the country. The Iranian embassy later posted a picture on its X account of the flag back in place with the caption “Iran’s flag is flying high”. The Metropolitan police said an estimated 500 to 1,000 people attended the protest on Saturday at its peak in Kensington. Two arrests were made, one for aggravated trespass and assault on an emergency worker and one for aggravated trespass. Officers are also seeking another individual for trespass. The force said: “We saw no serious disorder and officers will remain in the area to ensure the continued security of the embassy.” People demonstrating against the regime have been gathering outside Iranian embassies across the world. In Berlin, hundreds of people were seen waving Iran’s former imperial flag and carrying pictures of exiled crown prince Reza Pahlavi as they marched through the German capital. The demonstrations in Iran began on 28 December and have transformed into the most significant challenge to the regime for several years. Iranian protesters taking to the streets in the face of violent repression by the Tehran regime were praised by the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper. She said those speaking out against supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government should not face “the threat of violence or reprisals”. Cooper said: “It takes real courage to speak up in an authoritarian system, especially for young women, but it should not require courage just to make your voice heard. “These are fundamental rights: free speech; peaceful assembly; and the exercise of those rights should never come with the threat of violence or reprisals. “That is why the UK, France and Germany made the statement we did, and we urge the Iranian authorities to listen.” Earlier this week, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned the killing of protesters in the country and urged Tehran to “exercise restraint” amid a crackdown on demonstrations. At least 62 people are reported to have been killed and 2,300 detained during weeks of protests initially sparked by anger over the country’s ailing economy. Iran’s leaders have shut down access to the internet and international telephone calls in response to the protests. A UK government spokesperson said: “We are deeply concerned by reports of violence against protesters in Iran who are exercising their legitimate right to peaceful protest and are monitoring the situation closely.” Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former shah of Iran, called for protesters to take to the streets on Saturday and Sunday and seize control of their towns. Based in the US, Pahlavi, 65, asked people on social media to hoist the pre-1979 “lion and sun” flag, which was used during his father’s rule. He said the Islamic Republic would be brought “to its knees”, adding: “Our goal is no longer merely to come into the streets; the goal is to prepare to seize city centres and hold them.”

‘It’s younger people seeking some sort of spirituality’: UK Bible sales reach record high

For Christian booksellers, any good news about Bible sales has been few and far between. But recent retail figures have shown a revival. Sales of the good book reached a record high in the UK in 2025, increasing by 134% since 2019 – the highest since records began – according to industry research. Last year, total sales of Bibles in the UK reached £6.3m, £3.61m up on 2019 sales. The sudden uptick of interest has caused booksellers and scholars to ask some profound questions of their own, such as where these newly curious readers are coming from and whether faith, or another more modern phenomenon – namely social media influencers – have called them to the word of God. “We’ve seen an increase in people coming to the Bible from scratch,” says Aude Pasquier, retail sales director at Church House bookshop near Westminster Abbey. “They have no Christian background whatsoever. They have no grounding from their parents or from their school. Whereas most people in prior generations would have. “It’s definitely younger people who are seeking some sort of spirituality – they want to understand the world and themselves better,” she said. Steve Barnet, the owner of St Andrews bookshop in Buckinghamshire, believes that same search for spirituality is setting some young people on a path which starts with online personalities such as Jordan Peterson – the conservative Canadian influencer – and leads to religious texts such as the Bible. “[Peterson] is not a Christian, but through him, a lot of people are going on a spiritual journey. Some are ending up in church, some are ending up elsewhere. Some are ending up in a good place. I would think ending up as a Christian in church is a good place.” Barnet has personally observed a new “surprising” clientele of young men entering his shop. “Almost out of the blue something’s changed where people are turning to faith,” he says. The research was conducted by Christian publisher SPCK Group. It analysed data from the Nielsen BookScan, a service that compiles the sales data of books across the globe. The study also suggests that religion is one of the fastest growing nonfiction genres, with an 11% boost in sales in 2025, an increase from 2024, when sales grew by 6%. Last year, the bestselling Bible translation was the English Standard Version published by Crossway. The upward surge in Bible sales in the UK correlates with growth in church attendance in England and Wales in previous years. According to a report published in April 2025 by the Bible Society, the number of people attending church in England and Wales rose by 50% since 2018. Leading the charge is young people. Only 4% of 18- to 24-year-olds said they attended church monthly in 2018, but in 2024 that number rose to 16% – the largest increase of any age demographic. Sam Richardson, the CEO of the publisher SPCK Group, notes that these findings are indicative of a changing tide in which the appeal of Christianity has emerged as a “counter-cultural” force, particularly for younger generations in the UK, who have grown up in more secular family and social environments. “The rebellious thing to do was to be an atheist and follow people like Richard Dawkins and the new atheism which used to be very popular. Now, I think things are reversed. For the next generation it’s more interesting to be a Christian, they’re open to exploring that rather than being automatically closed against it,” says Richardson. “As we face worldwide political and social change, including the after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, global wars, the rise of AI, and a growing mental health crisis, individuals are re-engaging with questions of meaning and spirituality.” Richardson also considers social media an instrumental factor that has made Christianity more “accessible” to young people. “There’s lots of ways that people can have visibility of other people’s spiritual journeys in a much more personal way than was done 20 years ago where you might have to turn up at church and listen to whoever’s in the pulpit.” The Bible Society report also highlighted that men are more likely to go to church than women, suggesting that this widening interest in Christianity has been spurred by younger males specifically. The trend is also echoed in the US, where Bible sales reached a 21-year-high in 2025. Similar to the US, a brand of Christian nationalism leveraged for political gain has now become part of the UK political discourse. At a Unite the Kingdom carol service in December, far right figure Tommy Robinson stood beneath a banner which read: “Jesus saves.” However, leading figures in the Church of England were quick to denounce the “co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith and symbols to exclude others.” Richardson says that peaking church attendance and Bible sales predates the development of a Christian nationalist rhetoric. “It has probably been overplayed as a factor,” he says. “There’s definitely something going on, but it seems very recent that Christian nationalism has really started to get attention, whereas this increase in Bible sales has been sustained for six or seven years since 2019.”

Trinidad and Tobago went all in with the US – it will prove a costly misjudgment | Kenneth Mohammed

There is a saying in Trinidad and Tobago: “Cockroach should stay out of fowl business.” It captures a hard truth. Small states that stray into great-power conflicts rarely emerge unscathed. They are not players; they are expendables. It’s a statement that frames the reality of where Trinidad and Tobago sits uneasily today. For small states, geopolitics is not a theatre for bravado but a discipline of diplomacy and survival. That discipline has now collapsed. Trinidad and Tobago will pay the price of auctioning off its sovereignty to its neocolonial master, the US. The nation now sits dangerously exposed, economically, diplomatically, and potentially militarily, after the US attack on Venezuela and the extraordinary kidnapping of its president, Nicolás Maduro. With Delcy Rodríguez now installed as Venezuela’s president and Diosdado Cabello still embedded, the Maduro regime remains largely intact. Trinidad and Tobago now faces an openly hostile neighbour whose senior leadership has denounced the dual island state’s prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, as a complicit enabler of US aggression and designated her persona non grata. This is not misfortune. It is the price of strategic misjudgment. This crisis did not arrive overnight. Through rhetorical excess, Persad-Bissessar has steadily narrowed our country’s room for manoeuvre. What is now unfolding is the predictable outcome of decades of amateurish improvisation masquerading as governance. Successive administrations have failed to articulate a coherent foreign policy for what was once the wealthiest country in the Caribbean. For small states, the cardinal sin is not choosing the “wrong” side but collapsing strategic ambiguity. That is precisely what Trinidad and Tobago did. Persad-Bissessar boxed her country in. Her public alignment with Washington’s racist dictator in chief, combined with disparaging remarks toward respected Caribbean leaders and a casual dismissal of regional diplomacy and historic ties, has left Trinidad and Tobago isolated at precisely the moment when geopolitical flexibility was necessary. During her earlier term, memorably declaring that Trinidad and Tobago was “not the ATM of the Caribbean”, Persad-Bissessar signalled to our Caribbean community (Caricom) that regional solidarity was conditional and transactional. Yet Caricom is not a marketplace; it is a family. Disagreements are inevitable, but they are meant to be managed privately, with a public posture of unity that small states depend on for collective strength and survival. Today, the cost of that posture is coming due. After the action in Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago finds itself isolated from one of its largest trading partners. Across the region, calls for boycotts have begun circulating. Leadership in geopolitics is not about sounding tough or forcing false choices. On that test, this administration has failed. This is not a story about choosing between Washington and Caracas. It is about what happens to small states when they mistake alignment for strategy. Much ink has been spilled portraying Trump as the hero and Maduro as the villain. For small states, this distinction offers little protection. Both leaders operate through pressure, spectacle and intimidation. Both personalise power, elevate loyalty over competence, and govern through permanent crisis. Trump does so within institutions that are still resilient but eroding; Maduro atop institutions he had hollowed out. Both are widely perceived as corrupt. Both have enriched their families, allies, cronies and themselves. Both have the same instincts but different power. Small states, such as Trinidad and Tobago, do not get the luxury of moral binaries when caught between rival strongmen. They get consequences. Venezuela’s relationship with the Caribbean has been economic and strategic. Several states became structurally exposed to Caracas through energy dependence, most notably through PetroCaribe, launched in 2005 under Chávez, which offered concessional oil financing framed as development support rather than commercial exchange. These arrangements created not only economic ties but political memory. It is notable that the largest number of Venezuelan refugees in the Caribbean live in Trinidad and Tobago. Against this backdrop, expanding US military activity in Trinidad was sold as counter-narcotics cooperation. Radar installations, “capacity building”, joint exercises – all while killings continued unexplained off the Venezuelan coast. Trump confirmed what many suspected: this was never about drugs. It is about oil, gas and minerals – what he frames as wealth “stolen” from US corporations during Venezuela’s nationalisation drive. From ExxonMobil to ConocoPhillips, US corporations were systematically expelled under Chávez and Maduro. Demanding sovereignty has always been the real crime in the region, from Cuba in the north to Venezuela in the south. Without the selective amnesia that often accompanies western commentary, let’s state plainly: Venezuela is a sovereign state whose sovereignty has been repeatedly violated by the US and the UK. Since 2015, US sanctions have immiserated a society, accelerating the collapse of what was a wealthy country and displacing millions of people. The most egregious symbol of this pattern was Britain’s seizure of roughly $1.95bn (£1.4bn) in Venezuelan gold held in London – funds refused to Venezuela even during Covid, when they could have financed medicines and humanitarian relief. This was not an anomaly but precedent. First was the refusal to recognise Maduro after Chávez. Then the farce of Juan Guaidó – a western-backed fiction who never won an election and never governed. The script has been recycled with María Corina Machado, burnished with accolades and recast as a “president in waiting”, despite inviting foreign military intervention against her own country. She, too, has now been discarded by Trump as not having “respect within the country”. Persad-Bissessar would do well to note the pattern. Many Venezuelans may despise Maduro. But it is misreading to assume this translates into affection for Washington. Among Venezuelans there is hostility, the US seen as an architect of imperialism. The illusion that Trinidad and Tobago could host US security infrastructure without becoming entangled in Trump’s vendetta was always just that – an illusion by a naive leader. But this crisis cannot be pinned on one government alone. Former prime minister, Keith Rowley, pursued the opposite folly: courting Caracas, indulging in displays of friendship with Maduro, alienating Washington. Rowley and Persad-Bissessar are opportunists. One flirted with the Caracas dictator; the other leans toward Washington’s authoritarianism. Neither built a doctrine grounded in Caribbean collective security. The result is exposure without leverage. None of this is unprecedented. In 2003 Nelson Mandela said, “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world it is the United States of America. They don’t care for human beings. “To say, look, this is the power that we have, if you dare oppose what we do, this is what is going to happen to you. Who are they now, to pretend that they are the policemen of the world?” That same year Noam Chomsky described a US “grand imperial strategy” bent on securing global dominance regardless of international law or human cost. All that is new today is brazenness. Invoking the colonial Monroe doctrine to justify stealing Venezuelan oil is pathetic. Under Trump, dissent is framed as unpatriotic, even treasonous. Allies are coerced. Smaller states are used and discarded. Targets are selected solely for resource endowment: oil, gas, minerals. So where does this leave Trinidad and Tobago? Internally, the country is divided – and soon distracted by carnival. Evasive explanations about “airport works” and US radar installations will fade from public memory. But regionally, Trinidad will remain estranged. If perceived – fairly or not – as complicit in US military action against Venezuela, there will be no oil and gas deals with a Rodríguez-led government. The potential loss exceeds $1.2bn annually. Should conflict escalate, Trinidad will bear the costs – economic collapse, refugee inflows, long-term instability – while Washington moves on to its next theatre in Greenland or Cuba. In the end, the hard truth is this: small states such as ours are not geopolitical actors but geopolitical spaces. When leaders forget that distinction, their people are impoverished and their countries become expendable pawns.

Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats

Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and must decide the future of the Arctic island themselves, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory have said, after Donald Trump warned the US would “do something whether they like it or not”. The leaders of five political parties in the Greenlandic parliament issued a united statement on Friday night, soon after the US president reiterated his threats to acquire the mineral-rich island. “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders,” said the group, which included the island’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.” Stressing the desire of the people of Greenland, a former Danish colony, to have self-determination, they said: “No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country’s future ourselves – without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries.” The statement was signed by Nielsen, his predecessor as prime minister, Múte B Egede, and Pele Broberg, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C Jerimiassen. At a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump had said Greenland was crucial for US national security. “We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way,” he told reporters. Trump is “actively” discussing making a potential offer to buy the island with his national security team, the White House confirmed earlier this week. Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85% of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll. Polling also shows only 7% of Americans support the idea of a US military invasion of the territory, which the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, recently said would mean the end of “Nato and therefore post second world war security”. She has urged Trump to stop threatening to take over the country, saying the US has “no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish kingdom [meaning Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands]”. Trump said on Friday: “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a Nato right now.” When asked whether his priority was preserving the alliance or acquiring Greenland, he previously told the New York Times: “It may be a choice.” Asked about Trump’s statement, the head of Nato’s forces in Europe, US Gen Alexus Grynkewich, said he did not wish to comment on whether the alliance – which includes Denmark – would survive without the US. But he responded on Friday by saying Nato was far from being in a crisis. “There’s been no impact on my work at the military level up to this point … I would just say that we’re ready to defend every inch of alliance territory still today,” he said. “So I see us as far from being in a crisis right now,.” The US has operated a military base on the northwestern tip of Greenland since the second world war, where more than 100 military personnel are permanently stationed. Existing agreements with Denmark would allow Trump to bring as many troops as he wanted to the island. But Trump told reporters on Friday that a lease agreement was not enough. “Countries have to have ownership and you defend ownership, you don’t defend leases,” he said. “And we’ll have to defend Greenland,.” Trump previously made an offer to buy the island in 2019, but was told it was not for sale. Since then he has claimed that Greenland, which has vast natural resources including rare-earth minerals and potentially huge oil and gas reserves, “is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place”. In an interview with the Guardian on Friday, Jess Berthelsen, the chair of SIK, Greenland’s national trade union confederation, said people in the territory did not recognise the US president’s allegations that Russian and Chinese ships were scattered throughout its waters. “We can’t see it, we can’t recognise it and we can’t understand it,” he said.

Iran’s internet shutdown is chillingly precise and may last some time

Iran’s internet shutdown, now in place for 36 hours as the authorities seek to quell escalating anti-government protests, represents a “new high-water mark” in terms of its sophistication and severity, say experts – and could last a long time. As the blackout kicked in, 90% of internet traffic to Iran evaporated. International calls to the country appeared blocked and domestic mobile phones had no service, said Amir Rashidi, an Iranian digital rights expert. This is far from the first time a country has blocked the internet for political reasons. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak blocked the internet for six days during the 2011 Tahrir protests, and the Taliban shut down Afghanistan’s for 48 hours in September, ostensibly to curb “immorality”. But the level of shutdown in Iran is unprecedented and in some ways far harsher than its 2019 digital blackout, which internet observers described at the time as the most “severe disconnection” they had seen anywhere. “There is no reception on the phones. There is no antenna. It’s like you are living in the middle of nowhere, with no BTS towers,” said Rashidi. Even Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite system, which was a lifeline for Iranians during the 2022 protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody, was being jammed, Rashidi said, although the extent varied from one neighbourhood to another. While Iranians across the country were suddenly cut off from the internet, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, continued to post on X. He did so at least 12 times on Friday, inveighing against Donald Trump and US action in Venezuela. This is what makes this blackout different from previous internet blockages in Iran, said Doug Madory, an expert in internet infrastructure who studies such disruptions. It is more sweeping, but also appears to be more fine-tuned, which potentially means Tehran will be able to sustain it for longer. Rashidi said: “There are things that are important for the government to do. If they want to put out their propaganda they need to have access to Telegram, they need to have access to Twitter, they need to access Instagram.” Alluding to Mubarak’s 2011 shutdown, Madory said there were “big costs to taking everything down”. “If you look at what happened in Egypt … the government couldn’t operate,” he said. “People really use the internet for a lot of things, and when they take it all down, nothing works.” Based on external evidence, Madory and Rashidi believe the Iranian government has whitelisted some sites, allowing some officials and institutions to continue to access the internet. Some of its Telegram channels appeared to be working, Rashidi said, indicating that its administrators must have internet service. The government appeared to soften the blackout briefly for university websites on Friday, then shut service down again. All of this suggests Iran has developed more precise tools for censoring the internet. “If they end up implementing a whitelist, and it works as planned it may enable them to operate in some kind of degraded state for an extended period of time,” said Madory. “What they’re doing is trying to set this up so that they don’t have to turn everything back on. They want just the bare necessities to be able to communicate and then shut everything else off.” Iran has been working to upgrade its ability to censor the internet for some years, said Rashidi and Madory, trying to build a internal service similar to China’s that connects domestic users while cutting them off from the outside world. It is not alone in trying to refine government control over the internet. India is building a government-managed messaging app to rival WhatsApp, and Russia is pushing a state-backed “super app” similar to China’s WeChat. Iran’s national model may not yet be working, however, because sites linked to it are currently inaccessible, said Rashidi. National internet or no, however, Madory suspects the blackout may last some time. “This might be for the long haul,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for a while and I think it’s going to be a big one.”

Indonesia blocks Musk’s Grok chatbot due to risk of pornographic content

Indonesia temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot on Saturday due to the risk of AI-generated pornographic content, becoming the first country to deny access to the AI tool. The move comes after governments, researchers and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned and some have opened inquiries into sexualised content on the app. xAI, the startup behind Grok, said on Thursday it was restricting image generation and editing to paying subscribers as it tried to fix safeguard lapses that had allowed sexualised outputs, including depictions of scantily clad children. “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space,” communications and digital minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement. The ministry has also summoned X officials to discuss the matter. Musk said on X that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they had uploaded illegal content. xAI replied to Reuters’ email seeking comment with what seemed to be an automated response: “Legacy Media Lies”. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Indonesia, with the world’s biggest Muslim population, has strict rules that ban the sharing online of content deemed obscene. Indonesia’s block follows Grok switching off its image creation function on Friday for the vast majority of users after the widespread outcry about its use to create sexually explicit and violent imagery. Musk has also been threatened with fines, regulatory action and reports of a possible ban on X in the UK. The tool has also been used to manipulate images of women to remove their clothes and put them in sexualised positions. The function to do so has been switched off except for paying subscribers. Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has also expressed concern over the use of artificial intelligence on the Grok chatbot to enable exploitative sexual content. The prime minister on Saturday joined a growing list of international leaders including British counterpart Keir Starmer in criticising the social media platform. “The use of generative AI to exploit or sexualise people without their consent is abhorrent,” he told reporters in Canberra. “The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent. “It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.” While the number of reports received by Australia’s eSafety Office remains small, it says there has been a recent increase relating to the use of Grok to create sexualised or exploitative imagery. The watchdog warned on Friday it would use its powers including removal notices where such material meets the thresholds defined in the Online Safety Act. “X, Grok and a wide range of other services are also subject to systemic safety obligations to detect and remove child sexual exploitation material and other unlawful material as part of Australia’s world-leading industry codes and standards,” it said. With Reuters and AAP