The ability to use xAI’s chatbot, Grok, to edit images on X has now been restricted to only paying users of the social media platform. The change happens as regulators around the world have turned their fire on the chatbot, which has generated thousands of sexualised non-consensual deepfakes over recent weeks.

The EU is against regime change in Iran, while condemning violence and drafting new sanctions, with a foreign policy largely unchanged since before the protests turned deadly.

World regulators, including Malaysia, Indonesia and the UK have taken action against AI Grok, with calls for the European Commission to intervene via its Digital Services Act, in response to users producing sexualised deepfakes with the chatbot.

Across Europe, mayors and local councillors are facing a disturbing rise in harassment, threats, disinformation, and even physical violence. These aren’t isolated incidents — they are a growing pattern. And they’re not 'just politics'. They are deliberate attempts to silence, intimidate, and push people out of public life, warns the Council of European Municipalities and Regions.

A French banker inside Euroclear, who flew to Russia 155 times for "private" reasons, allegedly tried to connect the company's CEO, Valérie Urbain, with Russian spies and threatened her when she declined, according to an investigation by EUobserver, Humo, De Morgen, and Dossier Center.

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