x01 Archives

Blurb:

The UK government says Elon Musk’s platform X limiting Grok AI image edits to paid users is “insulting” to victims of misogyny and sexual violence.

Speaking on Friday, Downing Street said the move “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service”.

It follows significant backlash after Grok digitally altered images of others by undressing them – something it says it now can only do for those who pay a monthly fee.

But the prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters on Friday it showed X – which has not yet commented – “can move swiftly when it wants to do so”.

Blurb:

“ENCOURAGING ANNOUNCEMENTS”

Lebanon’s army said Thursday it had “achieved the objectives of the first phase” of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani River – around 30km from the Israeli border – with the intention to extend it to the rest of the country.

Israel said the efforts were encouraging but not enough.

“The ceasefire agreement … states clearly, Hezbollah must be fully disarmed,” the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

“Efforts made toward this end by the Lebanese government and the Lebanese armed forces are an encouraging beginning, but they are far from sufficient,” it added.

Blurb:

Simultaneous disruption and progress, with a relentless Taiwan-focused capability development deadline.

That’s the overriding theme of the 25th edition of the Department of Defense’s China Military Power Report, released on Dec. 23, 2025. Despite extensive leadership purges and ongoing disciplinary investigations across China’s military and defense industry, the 2025 report concludes that China continues to make progress toward General Secretary Xi Jinping’s 2027 “Centennial Military Building Goal” and associated warfighting capabilities against Taiwan.

The report shows China’s military undergoing simultaneous disruption and advancement, with leadership purges and procurement-related investigations generating short-term turbulence even as Xi’s armed forces surge forward.

Blurb:

ISTANBUL — The Iranian government is struggling to contain protests that began late last month with merchants in Tehran and have exploded into mass demonstrations and extended strikes in cities and towns across the country. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in remarks on Friday that the government would “not back down” against the protesters, whom he described as “vandals.”

 

Blurb:

Two people were shot by federal agents in Portland, Oregon on Thursday, Portland police said. The Department of Homeland Security said the shooting involved Customs and Border Patrol agents.

Two people, a man and a woman, were wounded and hospitalized, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said in a news conference Thursday night. Their conditions were unknown and their names have not been released.

DHS said Border Patrol agents stopped a car searching for a Venezuelan they claim is in the country illegally and a member of the Tren de Aragua gang. DHS said after the agents identified themselves, the driver “weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over the law enforcement agents.”

Blurb:

The official White House narrative of how a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a U.S. citizen in her vehicle in Minneapolis is bumping hard up against what can be seen in videos of the incident.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem are all insisting that the victim, Renee Nicole Good, deliberately rammed her vehicle into an ICE officer who then fired shots in self-defence because he feared for his life.

Yet three videos from the scene — each verified by CBC News as authentic — contradict these claims and raise serious questions about why the White House is defending the fatal shooting as justified.

Blurb:

Renee Nicole Good, the woman who was shot and killed while attempting to run over a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis on Wednesday, was an anti-ICE “warrior” and was part of a group of activists who worked to “document and resist” federal immigration operations, according to a new report.

According to a report from the New York Post, Good moved to Minneapolis last year and linked up with the anti-ICE group through parents at her six-year-old son’s charter school. The school boasts that it puts “social justice first” and prioritizes “involving kids in political and social activism,” local sources told the outlet.

“She was a warrior. She died doing what was right,” a mother named Leesa, whose child attends the same school, told The Post at a vigil near the site of the shooting on Wednesday night.

Blurb:

President Trump said on Truth Social Wednesday that Venezuela will use the money that it draws from a recent oil sale deal with the U.S. on “ONLY American Made Products.”

Those purchases could include agricultural products, medicines, medical devices and equipment needed to fix the country’s beleaguered electrical grid, Mr. Trump wrote.

“In other words, Venezuela is committing to doing business with the United States of America as their principal partner – A wise choice, and a very good thing for the people of Venezuela, and the United States,” the president continued.

Since Maduro’s capture, Mr. Trump has focused on Venezuela’s oil industry, pressing U.S. companies to enter the country — a move he has suggested could help rebuild the oil-rich nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

Blurb:

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner held a press conference on Thursday and issued a stark warning to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Krasner told ICE agents who are in his city, or planning to come to his city, to “get the F out of here” if they were coming to “commit crimes.” Krasner’s press conference was in response to the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot after seemingly driving her car into an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this week. The press conference was somewhat unusual, given that the incident had no connection to Philadelphia whatsoever.

“Let me be clear,” Krasner said. “If any law enforcement agent — any ICE agent — is going to come to Philly to commit crimes, then you can get the F out of here. Because if you do that here, I will charge you with those crimes, you will be arrested, you will stand trial, you will be convicted — whether it’s in state or federal court, it’s my office prosecuting it, that’s how the law works — and you will do your time. Because Donald Trump cannot pardon you for a state court conviction.”

Blurb:

“The violence we are seeing did not begin on January 7. The only difference now is that more people are finally seeing it.”

Activists march in downtown Boston Thursday night to protest the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent. Ken McGagh/The Boston Globe

Several hundred people marched in Boston Thursday night to protest the fatal shooting of Renee Good, a 37-year-old Minnesota mother, by a federal immigration agent as she tried to drive away from agents.

With glowing Park Street Church as a backdrop, close to a thousand people chanted, calling for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to leave local communities and for an end ro deportations.

The protest, organized by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, was the second in Boston after Good’s killing. In a quickly organized event, crowds also gathered at the Boston Common Wednesday evening.

“We are outraged. People all across the country, but also here in Boston, are sick of ICE,” Ximena Hasbach, a PSL organizer, told Boston.com. “We demand an end to ice terror. We demand justice for Renee. We demand the arrest of Jonathan Ross, the man who killed her.”

Blurb:

 

The federal agent who shot and killed a driver in Minneapolis is an Iraq War veteran who has served for nearly two decades in the Border Patrol and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good on Wednesday, has served as a deportation officer with ICE since 2015, records show. He was seriously injured last summer when he was dragged by the vehicle of a fleeing suspect whom he shot with a stun gun.

Federal officials have not named the officer who shot Good, a 37-year-old mother who was shot as she tried to drive away from federal agents. But Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem said the agent who shot Good had been dragged by a vehicle last June, and a department spokesperson confirmed Noem was referring to the Bloomington, Minnesota, case in which documents identified the injured officer as Ross.

Blurb:

Protesters in Iran defied a government crackdown on Saturday night, taking to the streets despite medics at two hospitals telling the BBC more than 100 bodies have been brought in over a two day period.

Videos verified by the BBC and eyewitness accounts appeared to show the government was ramping up its response.

Iran’s attorney general said anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the death penalty.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to hit Iran “very hard” if they “start killing people”. Iran’s parliament speaker warned that if the US attacks Iran, Israel and all US military and shipping bases in the region would be legitimate targets.

Blurb:

Russia’s foreign ministry has accused the United States of “unlawful actions” after US forces seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Marinera in international waters. Moscow said the seizure violates international maritime law and risks further escalating already strained Russia–US relations.In an official statement issued on Thursday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov called on Washington to respect established principles of international maritime law and immediately halt actions against the Marinera and other civilian vessels operating on the high seas. This comes after US forces seized the tanker on January 7.

Blurb:

This weekend, Democrat Somali Rep. Ilhan Omar joined thousands of leftists in Minnesota to protest ICE.

But, she might be wishing she hadn’t, now…

At one point during the protest, Rep. Omar stood right next to a woman who started screeching into a microphone about two of Omar’s buddies — Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.

And, it’s obvious that it started to make Rep. Omar feel very uncomfortable.

Watch this for yourself: