Indonesia has temporarily restricted access to xAI’s flagship chatbot amid growing criticism
Indonesia has blocked Elon Musk’s Grok AI over growing concerns that the chatbot facilitates the creation of deepfake pornographic content.
The move by the country’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs makes the Southeast Asian nation the first to temporarily ban access to the AI tool.
Grok has come under scrutiny globally after reports emerged that the chatbot can generate erotic deepfakes from photographs, including images of minors. Some regulators have since opened inquiries into sexualized content produced by the app, which was developed by xAI.
Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, enforces strict rules banning material deemed to be obscene.
“The government views non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and citizens’ security in the digital space,” Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said, describing the misuse of AI to create fake pornography as a form of “digital-based violence.”
Hafid added that Grok’s future in Indonesia, one of the world’s largest social media markets, will depend on X’s willingness to implement robust content filters and adhere to ethical AI standards. Officials from X have been summoned for talks.
On Thursday, the European Commission ordered X to preserve all documents and data related to the Grok chatbot until the end of 2026. The precautionary move, taken under the EU’s Digital Services Act, is intended to prevent the loss of evidence amid concerns over potentially illegal content.
In the UK, The Telegraph reported earlier this week that X could face a possible block over pornographic content generated by Grok. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has reportedly referred the issue to media regulator Ofcom, with options said to include a full ban.
Earlier this month, French prosecutors opened a probe into the alleged spread of sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok after hundreds of people reported their photos had been digitally “undressed.”
Musk’s AI venture has faced mounting controversy since the launch of Grok 4 in July 2025, with critics pointing to extremist rhetoric, a political bias and sexualized features as evidence of inadequate safeguards. Experts warn that poorly moderated AI tools risk exposing users, particularly children, to harmful content.
President Ramaphosa says the values of human solidarity and social justice are under attack worldwide
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has criticized both domestic and international “bullies” who, he said, are attempting to divide South Africans and undo the gains of democracy. He made the remarks during the African National Congress’s (ANC) 114th anniversary celebration on Saturday.
The president began his speech by commemorating the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s Constitution, which remains one of the most progressive in the world.
However, he said this celebration takes place amid “increasingly strident attacks” on constitutional values, the rule of law and the rule-based international order.
”Across the world, the values of democracy, equality, equity, inclusion, human solidarity, gender equality and social justice are under attack,” Ramaphosa said.
He stated that while the majority of South Africans, and indeed of global humanity, embrace these values of freedom, equality, non-racialism, non-sexism and human solidarity, there is an increasingly vocal minority in our country that has found a common cause with this global attack, and actively propagates falsehoods.
Although he stopped short of naming any organisations, he was clearly referring to South African movements such as AfriForum and Solidarity, which are accused of having engaged with US President Donald Trump’s conservative political networks as well as the media in the US.
Ramaphosa even accused these “forces” of trying to establish regime change in South Africa.
”Their aim is to undermine South Africa’s constitutional democracy, non-racialism, non-sexism and the transformation project. They employ multifaceted tactics, including the propagation of blatant falsehoods such as claims of ‘white genocide’, to attract sympathy and solidarity from global racist movements and individuals,” the president said.
”On the one hand, they form and fund political parties designed to fragment the motive forces of change. On the other hand, they sow the seeds of regime change, establish parallel state structures and foment secessionist tendencies.”
Ramaphosa said there is a growing and increasingly open effort by domestic anti-transformation forces and their international allies to roll back the gains of democracy. In response, he argued that the moment requires building the broadest possible united front to defend and deepen the national democratic revolution, strengthen constitutional democracy, and protect South Africa’s sovereignty on the global stage.
“We as a people refused to be divided, we refuse to be bullied by anyone, whether here or around the world.
”We are united in our will and our resolve.”
Ramaphosa also used his address to recognise the ANC’s own weaknesses and failures in service delivery, while admitting that slow economic growth and high levels of unemployment had demoralised and alienated many South Africans. He acknowledged that the political party needed to correct its weaknesses in order to reclaim its role as “leader” of society.
To that end, Ramaphosa said the government had identified six tasks that would be prioritised in 2026. These include:
Fixing local government and improving basic services.
Speeding up economic transformation, inclusive growth and job creation.
Waging war on crime and corruption, with GBVF clearly identified as a National Disaster.
Building a South Africa that belongs to all through the National Dialogue and the 30th anniversary of the Constitution.
Making organisational renewal visible and irreversible.
Building a better Africa and a better world
Basic services and infrastructure would also be prioritised. To that end, over the next three years, the government has pledged to invest R54 billion to repair water and electricity infrastructure in areas such as Buffalo City, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay.
The ANC’s 114th anniversary celebrations come as the party tackles its most serious challenge since taking power in 1994, having lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in the 2024 general elections and now being forced to govern through coalition arrangements at both national and provincial levels.
The party also faces pressure from a resurgent opposition, rising civic activism, and widespread frustration over socio-economic issues such as poverty, unemployment, and energy insecurity.
New Delhi and Washington are bound by a relationship anchored at the highest level, Sergio Gor has said
Talks between India and the US on a trade deal will resume on Tuesday, the American ambassador-designate to New Delhi has said.
New Delhi and Washington have held several rounds of discussions to reach a trade deal after the administration of US President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on India, half of it as a punitive measure for New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil.
The South Asian nation will also be invited to join Pax Silica next month, Sergio Gor said, referring to a US-led initiative to build a silicon supply chain from critical minerals to semiconductors and AI, Reuters reported.
“Both sides continue to actively engage. In fact, the next call on trade will occur tomorrow,” Gor said in New Delhi on Monday, adding that the two countries will continue to work on issues such as security, counterterrorism, energy, technology, education, and health.
#WATCH | Delhi: After assuming charge as the US Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor says, “… No partner is more essential than India. In the months and years ahead, it is my goal as ambassador to pursue a very ambitious agenda. We will do this as true strategic partners, each… pic.twitter.com/0qY9AgRoHw
“The United States and India are bound not just by shared interests, but by a relationship anchored at the highest level,” Gor said, adding that “real friends can disagree, but always resolve their differences in the end.”
Gor’s statement comes after US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed last week that a trade deal did not materialize because Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not heed Washington’s demand to call the US president to finalize it.
Trump has said he supports a bipartisan bill in Congress that would authorize him to impose sweeping sanctions on Russia’s trade partners.
New Delhi signed three trade deals, with the UK, Oman, and New Zealand, in 2025. India is also pursuing trade pacts with a dozen other countries or trading blocs, including the European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who is in India on a two-day visit, said on Monday that he hopes an EU free trade agreement with New Delhi can be signed at a summit later this month.
After talks with Merz, Modi said Berlin is New Delhi’s most important trading partner in the EU.
The agreement is reportedly based on a rare earths deal granting American investors preferential access to future mining projects
Washington and Kiev are preparing to sign an $800 billion agreement to rebuild Ukraine, The Telegraph has reported. The deal is scheduled to be sealed at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos later this month, Western sources told the newspaper.
The agreement is reportedly structured around the rare earth minerals deal clinched by Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump last year. The accord grants Washington preferential access to the resources; however, the security guarantees long sought by Kiev are not included.
At the time, Trump promoted the agreement as a way to recover what he described as the massive financial aid provided to Kiev by the previous administration. Earlier this week, he reiterated that a deal on rare earth metals was a condition for the White House to continue its efforts to peacefully resolve the Ukraine conflict.
“I said that if we want to move forward, we need rare earth metals,” Trump told Fox News on Thursday. “We want our money back.”
Officials told The Telegraph that the “prosperity” plan envisages attracting around $800 billion over ten years through a combination of loans, grants and private-sector investment.
The newspaper noted that US envoy Steve Witkoff called the agreement a crucial part of the overall ceasefire package he has been negotiating for the past few months. The top state official reportedly said that the world’s largest investment group, BlackRock, would participate in the program.
Trump repeatedly criticized unconditional aid to Kiev in the past, calling Zelensky “the greatest salesman on earth.” Last year, he said his predecessor, Joe Biden, had “fleeced” America by committing $350 billion in military aid to Ukraine.
He has since argued that the US is now profiting from the conflict by sending Ukraine weapons which are being paid for by Washington’s European NATO partners. Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western arms deliveries to Kiev, arguing that they prolong the fighting without altering its outcome.
He told the media that the US-made jet was brought down by an S-300 air defense missile system
A Russian commander has said his S-300 air defense battery shot down a US-made F-16 fighter jet operated by Ukraine.
In an interview aired on Russia 1 TV on Sunday, the commander, identified by the callsign ‘Sever’, told journalist Vladimir Solovyov that the US-supplied aircraft was “the most interesting target” his unit has encountered.
He said the battery fired two missiles at the F-16, with the first damaging the aircraft and the second “delivering the final blow.”
“It took us a lot of time to prepare for this operation. We were tracking it and anticipating it. The enemy boasted that these planes were indestructible. As it turns out, they fall out of the sky just like the rest,” Sever said. He did not say when the incident occurred.
Ukraine began receiving F-16s in August 2024 and has since confirmed the loss of four in combat.
America’s revived Monroe Doctrine, from Venezuela to Colombia and Mexico, puts hegemony above international courts and the UN system
The US military intervention in Venezuela to kidnap President Maduro was a gross violation of the UN Charter. Nothing justifies this blatant flouting of international law. The arguments given by the US to justify its aggression do not stand up to scrutiny.
The Western Hemisphere consists of several sovereign countries that are members of the UN. Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela either signed the 1942 Declaration by United nations or were among the original members which signed the UN Charter in 1945.
The UN Charter is based on the sovereign equality of nations and non-interference in their internal affairs, and must be the basis of relations between the US and Latin America.
The US has invoked the Monroe Doctrine in its National Security Strategy 2025 document to assert and legitimise its past hegemony over the Americas. A ‘Trump Corollary’ has been added to infuse the Monroe Doctrine with Trump’s thinking (much like Xi Jinping’s Thought being incorporated in the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party). By this revived imperialistic thinking, the US is repudiating the UN Charter.
By stating “This is the Western Hemisphere. This is where we live — and we’re not going to allow the Western Hemisphere to be a base of operation for adversaries, competitors, and rivals of the United States,” US Secretary of State Rubio is enunciating a highly contentious proposition.
Russia has parallel strategic concerns about the relentless expansion of NATO towards its borders and Europe being used as an American base of operations, concerns that the US has ignored. By this logic, China too could oppose the western Pacific becoming a US base of operations. Would the US be prepared to accept this logic?
When Rubio adds “We’ve seen how our adversaries all over the world are exploiting and extracting resources from Africa, from every other country” and claims this is not going to happen in the Western Hemisphere under Trump, he is enunciating another highly disputable proposition.
The US itself is now eyeing Africa’s critical raw materials and is developing political and investment strategies to extract them on an urgent basis. The competition is with China, so much so that the US has actually overtaken China as the biggest foreign direct investor in Africa, according to the latest annual figures.
The US has entered into agreements with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to establish a supply chain for electric vehicles batteries, underscoring its interest in the copper, lithium and cobalt resources of the two countries. The US is building the Lobito Rail Corridor, which will transport minerals from Congo, Zambia and Angola. The political initiative taken by Trump to preside over a ceasefire between the DRC and Rwanda was part of this economic strategy. The US think tanks have produced many studies focused on the US exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources in a major way.
Trump has announced that the US will run Venezuela. He expects the government of Delcy Rodriguez, the new president, to do his bidding, failing which he will maintain the oil embargo on Venezuela and starve it of revenues.
To enforce these illegal sanctions, the US Navy has begun to board vessels infringing the embargo, including a Russia-flagged oil tanker in the high seas in the Atlantic, which has upped the ante with Moscow. Rubio has already questioned why Venezuela needed to trade in oil with Russia, China and Iran. The logic of this position is that Venezuela should only trade in oil with the US. Washington’s new narrative is that the resources of the Western Hemisphere belong to the US.
In Trump’s plans, all Venezuelan oil will be delivered to the US for marketing and the use of the proceeds, including in Venezuela, will be decided by him. Venezuela will only be able to buy US products with this oil money. None of this has any legal basis. Trump had the gumption of declaring that he has been in touch with US oil firms before and after the invasion of Venezuela. He wants them to invest in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, which is in poor shape at present, with the goal of exercising control over the world’s largest known oil reserves so that the US becomes the dominant player in the global oil market.
The caveat to all this is that developing Venezuela’s oil infrastructure will need billions of dollars of investment. For the US oil companies, such long term investment has to be predicated on assurance that the political environment in Venezuela will remain friendly in the years ahead. The neo-colonial and imperialistic approach of the US does not necessarily guarantee that.
Buoyed by his success in Venezuela, Trump has begun to threaten the Colombian president, whom he has described as a “sick person” and a drug trafficker to the US, the charge made against Maduro. Trump is also threatening Mexico, declaring that they “need to get their act together.”
Rubio considers the US action against Maduro legal, as he had been indicted by a US court for drug trafficking. This is not a sustainable position under international law, as it disregards the sovereign immunity of a serving Head of State. The extension of US domestic law to a foreign country also breaches international law. But the US is a recidivist in this regard, having kidnapped the leader of Panama, Manuel Noreiga, on January 3, 1990, the exact date on which Maduro was abducted in 2026.
It is a matter of deep concern to the international community that the US has begun to spurn multilateralism and reject the constraints of international law. Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has bluntly asserted that for the US, only strength and power matter, not international law or norms.
He claims that “We live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else …But we live in a world, in the real world … that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.” This destructive thinking belongs to the pre-nuclear era.
The US has now announced that it is withdrawing from 66 international organizations, many of them UN-related. Important ones in the areas of climate change, energy and trade have been targeted, such as UNFCCC, IPCC, GCF, ECOSOC, UNCTAD, and the International Solar Alliance which India had taken the lead to set up along with France.
The US argument is that these institutions are redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to those of the US, or are a threat to the sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity of the US. This is a move away from multilateralism and the UN system in part, which may actually result in the erosion of US leadership, because the world will learn to live without the US. The US had earlier walked out of UNESCO, the WHO, the UNHRC, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, etc., but these bodies have survived.
India has expressed “deep concern” regarding the developments in Venezuela, without directly criticizing the US, keeping in mind our consistent refusal to criticize Russia regarding its special military operation in Ukraine. Russia has to assess what this US adventurism against Venezuela, which hits at Russian interests in the country, implies with regards to the understandings the two sides have tried to reach in their efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict.
The key question is: to what extent the can the Trump administration be trusted? The report that Trump has given the green light to Senator Lindsey Graham’s Russia Sanctions Bill will be problematic for both Russia and India, and Brazil as well.
Europe has driven itself into an untenable situation by burning all bridges with Russia as a loyal ally of the US, and now the territorial threat to Europe is coming from the US.
Europe’s narrative about the danger of Russia has been blown up by Trump’s action against Venezuela and his threat to take over Greenland for national security reasons, by force if necessary. This could potentially endanger the future of NATO and the EU as well.
Now, Iran is on the boil because of street protests over the deteriorating economic conditions in the country. A regime change in Iran has been long on the agenda of the US and Israel. Trump has warned that the US is “locked and loaded” to intervene if the Iranian government moves to suppress the “peaceful” protestors.
Trump has already crossed a line in bombing Iranian nuclear sites. Another military action by him cannot be entirely ruled out. He is on record as having said that the US knows the location of Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei and he can be taken out when needed. After targeting China’s and Russia’s interests in Venezuela, it is not inconceivable that Trump may seek to do that in Iran by encouraging a regime change, even if the risks of doing this are much higher.
Trump wants to raise the US defense budget to $1.5 trillion in 2027. If his foreign policy is to be based not on respecting international law but on power equations, then in that uncharted landscape the worst can happen.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Last month West Jerusalem became the first and only international actor to recognize the breakaway region as a sovereign state
The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council has condemned Israel’s recognition of Somaliland’s independence and called for its “immediate revocation.”
“The Council strongly condemns, in the strongest terms, the unilateral recognition of the so-called ‘Republic of Somaliland’ by Israel,” it said in a post on X.
The council reaffirmed its “unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, unity, territorial integrity, and stability” of Somalia.
On December 26, West Jerusalem signed a declaration recognizing Somaliland as a sovereign state, becoming the first and only nation to do so.
Somaliland proclaimed sovereignty in 1991 after a decade-long civil war, and has since built its own government institutions, security forces, and currency. President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, who took office last year, has made securing international recognition a central priority.
Somalia, which continues to regard Somaliland as part of its territory, has condemned Israel’s recognition as “illegitimate actions” and a “deliberate attack” on its sovereignty. The Somali government has warned that the move could “exacerbate political and security tensions.”
On Tuesday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar arrived in Somaliland, and the parties agreed to open embassies and appoint ambassadors. The Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned Sa’ar’s visit, calling it a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Israel’s decision has drawn sharp reactions across the region, including warnings from Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The group has threatened to strike Israeli-linked targets in Africa if it expands its presence there.
African governments have broadly condemned the move, citing concerns it could undermine regional stability. The African Union and the East African Community have also reaffirmed their commitment to the territorial integrity of Somalia.
Commenting on Israel’s move, Andrey Maslov, head of the Center for African Studies at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, told RT that securing a foothold on the Indian Ocean coast “is essential not only for Israel but also for its allies, primarily Washington, and not only in connection with the Houthis but also in the context of potential confrontation with China in the Indian Ocean basin.”
The measure would facilitate oil sales and come within days, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said
Washington could lift some of the sanctions against Venezuela within days in order to facilitate oil sales, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has announced. His comments came after US President Donald Trump insisted that America needs “total access” to the country’s crude.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Bessent said the US Treasury was already “de-sanctioning the oil that’s going to be sold” and review changes that would help repatriate proceeds from Venezuelan crude stored largely on ships back to the country.
“How can we help that get back into Venezuela, to run the government, run the security services and get it to the Venezuelan people?” he said, adding that more sanctions could be removed “as soon as next week,” without specifying which measures.
He also said nearly $5 billion worth of the country’s frozen IMF Special Drawing Rights could be deployed to help rebuild the economy. Bessent also suggested that smaller privately held companies were likely to move quickly back into Venezuela’s oil sector.
Some major US oil companies remain wary, however. On Friday, Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods called Venezuela, which holds the world’s largest oil reserves, “uninvestible” under current conditions, citing weak legal protections and past nationalizations.
Bessent’s remarks come after a US attack on Caracas and the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was flown to New York to face drug trafficking and weapons possession charges he denies.
After the kidnapping, US President Donald Trump said Washington would “run” Venezuela while cooperating with the officials in Caracas until a transition was achieved, while stressing that the US needs “total access… to the oil and to other things in their country.”
Days later, Trump announced that Venezuela’s interim authorities would “turn over” 30 to 50 million barrels of “sanctioned oil” to be sold and “used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States.”
Meanwhile, Caracas said it was open to dialogue with the US, but warned that the country “will never return to being the colony of another empire.”
The ‘Will for Peace 2026’ naval exercises started off the coast of Cape Town on Saturday
South Africa considers joint drills with its BRICS allies – Russia, China and Iran – an absolute necessity given the current tensions on high seas, a top commander has said.
The ‘Will for Peace 2026’ exercises started off the coast of Cape Town on Saturday, just days after US forces seized a Russian-flagged oil tanker over claims it had breached Washington’s sanctions against Venezuela.
The US has also recently captured five other tankers in the Caribbean as part of its naval blockade of the Latin American nation.
South Africa’s Deputy Defense Minister Bantu Holomisa said on Friday that the drills were not a response to the latest moves by the US, pointing out that they had been planned months ago.
“Let us not press panic buttons because the US has got a problem with countries. Those are not our enemies,” he said. The focus should be “on cooperating with the BRICS countries and making sure that our seas, especially the Indian Ocean and Atlantic, they are safe,” Holomisa insisted.
According to media reports, South Africa, China and Iran have deployed destroyers for ‘Will for Peace 2026’ drills, with Russia and the United Arab Emirates being represented by corvettes. Other BRICS nations – Brazil, Indonesia and Ethiopia – have sent their observers to the exercises, which are scheduled to conclude on January 16.
The third iteration of the Mosi (Smoke) naval drills between China, Russia and South Africa had initially been slated to take place near Cape Town in November. However, the exercises were postponed due to the G20 summit hosted by South Africa the same month. A decision was later made to reschedule them, give them a new name and expand the number of participating nations.
The killing of a mother of three was a “tragedy of her own making,” the US vice president has said
The fatal shooting of a woman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by an ICE agent was a “tragedy of her own making,” US Vice President J.D. Vance has said, throwing his full support behind the agency.
Graphic footage shows multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) swarming the victim’s SUV. One of the agents attempts to forcibly open the vehicle’s door, while another agent, who tried to block the car from the front, fires several shots at the driver at point-blank range as she attempts to drive away. The victim, 37-year-old mother of three Renee Nicole Good, was killed on the spot.
Vance spoke out in support of ICE officers in the aftermath of the incident, which sparked mass protests across the country, warning the “radicals assaulting them, doxxing them, and threatening them” and vowing that the Trump administration will “work even harder to enforce the law.”
“I want every ICE officer to know that their president, vice president, and the entire administration stands behind them,” the VP wrote on X.
He also backed the agency’s assessment of the shooting, suggesting the victim was to blame. “You can accept that this woman’s death is a tragedy while acknowledging it’s a tragedy of her own making. Don’t illegally interfere in federal law enforcement operations and try to run over our officers with your car,” Vance wrote in a separate post.
The remarks echoed the stance taken by US President Donald Trump, who accused the deceased woman of trying to “viciously run over” the ICE agents. Trump’s critics, however, blamed the agents, pointing out that law enforcement officers are instructed not to stand in front of vehicles in such situations, and claiming that ICE has no place on the streets of the American cities in the first place.
Trump launched a crackdown on illegal immigration after taking office in January 2025, promising to carry out the largest ever deportation operation. The administration has repeatedly deployed ICE and other law enforcement agencies in American cities to hunt down illegals, sparking allegations of abuse of power and scapegoating of migrants.
