🎙️ The Ensemble: Violence Erupts as Iran Goes Dark, Stars Signal Criticism of ICE at Golden Globes, & X's Grok Withdraws some Sexualised Images
It's been all Iran for me all week - if it sounds like I'm personally invested in this, it's because I am.
Like many diaspora Iranians I’ve spent the week close to the phone, hoping and waiting to hear news from family and friends inside Iran. The shut-down of most internet connectivity has made things particularly hard - waiting days at a time for a few messages or videos to come through. There have been all too few - ominously so.
Chilling Silence in Iran as the US Weighs Intervention
Protests in Iran took a deadly turn this week amidst a state Internet shutdown that has lasted over 5 days. Elon Musk deployed Starlink to work around the outage while Iranian officials accused the US and Israel of using foreign weapons, tools, and agents to incite terrorism, scrambling to confiscate Starlink dishes in a new round of electronic warfare. Iranian officials staged mass pro-government rallies to dispel perceptions of impending regime change and charged rioters with enmity against God, a crime punishable with the death sentence in Iran. US-based Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) estimates that more than 10,000 people have been arrested and over 1500 people killed since Iran went dark, with many shot at close range to the head and patients with eye injuries flooding hospitals. Among the dead is 23-year-old Tehranian fashion design student Rubina Aminian, who was killed after joining protests from her college campus. State terrorism investigations made it impossible for her family to hold a formal funeral, forcing them to bury her body along the roadside.
The deadly crackdown has attracted mixed messaging from the Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (in a black floral Alice & Olivia Karley Wrap Coat that subtly signaled war and peace) said on Monday that Iran had privately signaled willingness to negotiate with the US despite its public anti-US rhetoric. Trump later acknowledged he was in communication with Iranian leaders while weighing diplomatic and military options. By Tuesday afternoon, Trump had suspended diplomatic talks with Iranian officials, appealing directly to the Iranian people on social media to keep protesting and overthrow state institutions, adding that “help is on the way”. UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has expressed horror at the mounting violence against protestors and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai voiced support for antigovernment demonstrations, highlighting the key role of women and girls in Iran’s protest movements. The author JK Rowling republished a popular meme of a young Iranian woman lighting her ciagrette from a picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader. Another viral video on social media showed a woman protestor wearing Nike sneakers as she scaled a monument to raise Iran’s pre-Islamic Republic lion and sun flag in a heroic enactment of the brand’s “Just Do It” slogan, highlighting the impact of soft power in times of global political upheaval.
Sources: BBC, Al Jazeera, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Newsweek (story); Getty Images, The Times, The New Republic, Newsweek/ Instagram/ X (images)
Rallies and Pins Aim to Oust ICE as Tensions Escalate
State violence is also igniting protests in the US this week after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good, a Minneapolis resident described by friends and family as a caring advocate for immigrant rights. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in multiple rallies over the weekend in Minneapolis, where the DHS claims it has made more than 2000 arrests since December. Over 60 “ICE Out for Good” protests have been held nationwide in response to Good’s shooting, drawing large crowds along with teargas, pepper balls, flash bangs, and arrests from law enforcement officials in Minneapolis, Washington DC, Seattle, New York, Austin, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Eight people were arrested outside a federal building in Minneapolis on Tuesday as the Trump administration doubled down on threats to protestors and city officials who may try to impede their mass deportation agenda. The clashes came as the administration prepared to deploy more officers to Minneapolis in what it has dubbed “its largest operation in DHS history”.
While US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said ICE agents acted in self-defense after Good “weaponized” her car to attack them in an act of “domestic terrorism”, local officials have insisted Good posed no danger. Bystander videos of the confrontation circulating on social media appear to contradict the Trump administration’s assertions, suggesting Good tried to turn her car away from the path of the ICE agent who shot and killed her. The Trump administration has claimed that ICE officers have federal immunity while tasking the FBI with a formal inquiry, effectively freezing local Minnesota law enforcement out of the investigation and stifling calls for accountability. State and city officials in Minnesota and Illinois filed federal lawsuits against the Trump administration on Monday, claiming the mass deployment of ICE agents to Minneapolis and Chicago violated the Constitution and infringed on states’ rights. In Hollywood, Golden Globe nominees wore “ICE Out” and “Be Good” pins to last weekend’s awards ceremony, adding flair to their evening wear whie signalling their critique of US immigration enforcement to global audiences.
Sources: BBC, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Guardian, AP (story), AP, Variety, Chicago Tribune (images)
As Sexualized Deepfakes Surge on Grok, Countries Move to Hold X Accountable
While global protestors hit the streets to oppose state violence, governments around the world are cracking down against gender violence on digital platforms. In the first week of 2026, Elon Musk’s X unleashed a frenzy of nonconsensual images of undressed or scantily-clad women and children requested by users and generated by X’s AI tool Grok. A Wired study tracked more than 15,000 sexualized AI-generated images created during a 2-hour period on New Year’s Eve. X introduced Grok’s “Spicy Mode” for generating adult content last summer, rolling out an image editing feature last month. While users have exploited AI image generation technology to harass women for years, Grok’s massive output of nonconsensual images appears to be the most widespread violation to date. Unlike nudify software, Grok generates images for free and within seconds, normalizing the creation of nonconsensual images and making it easily accessible to millions of users on X. Critics say by embedding AI-enabled image abuse in a mainstream platform, X has made sexual violence easier and more scalable.
X’s weaponization of nonconsensual images recently targeted Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch, when AI-generated images depicting her in a bikini went viral on the platform. Grok is also being used to undress women in hijabs and saris, reinforcing calls to redefine the scope of “intimate image” abuse in culturally sensitive and inclusive ways. Earlier this week, Indonesia and Malaysia became the first countries in the world to block Grok, citing concerns over nonconsensual deepfake sexual images as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and digital safety and warning they’ll restrict access until effective guardrails are in place to prevent harm. In the UK where I’ve been this week, Keir Starmer described Grok as ‘disgusting’ at his weekly Prime Ministers Questions, even as X announced it would withdraw the service, blocking it from altering pictures of women and children. Germany has warned of the “industrialization of sexual harassment”, and the European Commission has cracked down on the tool, saying “This is not spicy. This is illegal.” Around the world, the incident is sparking debate about digital harm and the need to regulate the interface between technology, culture, and power.
Sources: Guardian, Vox, Wired, The Guardian, The New York Times (story), France24, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Wired (images)
Abu Dhabi Draws a Diplomatic Red line
Has the United Arab Emirates (UAE) entered a new era of soft power play with the UK? The Gulf State has removed British universities from its list of academic institutions eligible for state funding due to concerns over the threat of Islamist radicalisation on UK campuses. The move has reignited debate over the sanctuary of academic freedom versus the perceived rise of extremist influence within British lecture halls. Abu Dhabi has long expressed frustration with London’s refusal to designate the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a terrorist organisation, a group the UAE views as a foundational threat to regional stability. The MB, a Sunni Islamist organisation, has affiliates in over 70 countries and is a designated terrorist group in countries like the US and Germany. The scholarship freeze is seen by many as a sharp diplomatic warning; a way to insulate young Emiratis from the “darker corners” of campus activism that the UAE associates with radicalization. While Downing Street maintains that the UK offers a world-class education with “stringent measures on student welfare”, the UAE remains unconvinced, highlighting a doubling of radicalisation referrals at UK universities over the past year.
The decision marks a new chapter in the soft-power exchange that’s historically defined UK-Gulf relations. Since the UK hosts some of the world’s top universities, higher education analysts worry about potential economic and academic fallout. Degrees from non-accredited UK institutions will no longer be recognised by the UAE, rendering them “less valuable” for graduates who return to the UAE’s labor market. As the UK tries to maintain its reputation as a premier educational destination, the UAE’s quiet withdrawal serves as a stark reminder that the lecture hall is as much a battlefield as the courtroom.
Sources: The Telegraph, The Financial Times (story), MSN, Sky News Australia, India Times (images)
As Global Anxieties Flare, Analogue Bags are Packing Wellness
While the global political climate is prompting a vicious cycle of doomscrolling and screen fatigue, analogue bags are trending as the self-care accessory of the season for Gen Z and millennials. Rather than designer labels or splashy logos, it’s what’s inside the new “it” bags that commands attention. Designed to reduce screen time, enhance concentration, and promote wellbeing by providing essentials to coax their users offline for as long as possible, the bags swap smartphones, chargers, and airpods for low-tech substitutes like crosswords, journals, gel pens, sketchbooks, and knitting needles. Championed by users as a “toy box for your attention span”, the bags have become a sensation on social media, with users posting videos revealing the contents of their bags and sharing tips on how to fill them. Part of a wider backlash against doomscrolling, social media addiction, and the pressure to be constantly online, analogue bags are flying off the shelves along with vinyl records, point-and-shoot cameras, and wired headphones, suggesting that people are renegotiating their relationship with technology for the long haul.
Sources: Guardian (story), Inc., Amazon, Business Insider (images)
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Brilliant piece pulling these threads together. The Starlink deployment in Iran is such a fascinating wrench in the usual playbook, basically turning tech infrastructure into a battleground where states can't just flip the kill switch anymore. I was tracking something similar when Turkey tried internet blackouts during the Gezi protests, but the sophistcation of circumvention tools has accelerated way beyond what we saw even a few years back. The part about shooting protestors at close range is absolutley haunting.