The ‘put her in a bikini’ trend rapidly evolved into hundreds of thousands of requests to strip clothes from photos of women, horrifying those targeted

Like thousands of women across the world, Evie, a 22-year-old photographer from Lincolnshire, woke up on New Year’s Day, looked at her phone and was alarmed to see that fully clothed photographs of her had been digitally manipulated by Elon Musk’s AI tool, Grok, to show her in just a bikini.

The “put her in a bikini” trend began quietly at the end of last year before exploding at the start of 2026. Within days, hundreds of thousands of requests were being made to the Grok chatbot, asking it to strip the clothes from photographs of women. The fake, sexualised images were posted publicly on X, freely available for millions of people to inspect.

As synthetic personas become an increasingly normal part of life, meet the people falling for their chatbot lovers

Lamar remembered the moment of betrayal like it was yesterday. He’d gone to the party with his girlfriend but hadn’t seen her for over an hour, and it wasn’t like her to disappear. He slipped down the hallway to check his phone. At that point, he heard murmurs coming from one of the bedrooms and thought he recognised his best friend Jason’s low voice. As he pushed the door ajar, they were both still scrambling to throw their clothes on; her shirt was unbuttoned, while Jason struggled to cover himself. The image of his girlfriend and best friend together hit Lamar like a blow to the chest. He left without saying a word.

Two years on, when he spoke to me, the memory remained raw. He was still seething with anger, as if telling the story for the first time. “I got betrayed by humans,” Lamar insisted. “I introduced my best friend to her, and this is what they did?!” In the meantime, he drifted towards a different kind of companionship, one where emotions were simple, where things were predictable. AI was easier. It did what he wanted, when he wanted. There were no lies, no betrayals. He didn’t need to second-guess a machine.

Does central London really need another fancy Italian restaurant? Well, yes, apparently it does …

Does the area around Sloane Square in central London really need another fancy, Italian-leaning restaurant that serves up tortellini in brodo and veal Milanese? Well, yes, apparently it does. One Saturday lunchtime late last year at Martino’s was hectic even in the delightful reception area, where we were waiting to check in a coat with the elegantly uniformed front-of-house ladies. All the tables in this hot new all-day brasserie were booked and busy, and plenty of walk-ins were champing at the bit for cancellations.

Actually, “delightful reception” is not a phrase I’ve often uttered, or even thought, but this is a Martin Kuczmarski restaurant, so the small things tend to add up to a larger picture – this cocoon-like holding pen keeps would-be queuers away from the diners. Why was I so charmed by this weird, crisply officiated bends chamber that operates as a liminal space between the real grubby world outside and the glitzy, sexy, mock-Italian trattoria inside? Well, it turns out that’s because it solved a problem that I didn’t even realise I had.

Independents muscle in on craze for the black stuff with dark beers that use same nitrogen process as Irish favourite

Famously, according to the advertising slogan anyway, Guinness is good for you. But for the past couple of years, Guinness has been practically inescapable.

Backed by its owner Diageo’s £2.7bn marketing war chest, the brand has shaken off its “old man” reputation, becoming a staple of gen Z pub culture, exploiting its Instagrammable colour scheme and social media trends such as the “splitting the G” drinking game.

The president’s inability to tell right from wrong fuels his increasingly dictatorial, illegal and erratic behaviour

Donald Trump made 30,573 “false or misleading” claims during his first term, according to calculations published in 2021 by the Washington Post. That’s roughly 21 fibs a day. Second time around, he’s still hard at it, lying to Americans and the world on a daily basis. Trump’s disregard for truth and honesty in public life – seen again in his despicable response to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis – is dangerously immoral.

Trump declared last week that the only constraint on his power is “my own morality, my own mind”. That explains a lot. His idea of right and wrong is wholly subjective. He is his own ethical and legal adviser, his own priest and confessor. He is a church of one. Trump lies to himself as well as everyone else. And the resulting damage is pernicious. It costs lives, harms democracy and destroys trust between nations.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Counselling should help, but it sounds as if you need to slow down and give yourself time to grieve

I am 37 years old, happily married and have two children, who came along quickly after we got married in my late 20s. I instantly fell in love with them. However, I wasn’t really emotionally or practically ready, and developed postnatal anxiety.

I’ve always cared about the climate crisis, and since after having kids, and knowing it will affect their lives more than mine, I became motivated to make changes. We live a very “green” life.

Heidi Alexander calls for end to violence while Tory leader says she would ‘not have an issue’ with regime change

The UK wants to see a “peaceful transition” of power in Iran, a cabinet minister has said, after Donald Trump said he could support protesters with military force.

As the US weighs the option of military strikes, Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, said she would not be drawn on America’s foreign policy towards Iran, where protests have been met with a violent police response.

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds AI Overviews provided inaccurate and false information when queried over blood tests

Google has removed some of its artificial intelligence health summaries after a Guardian investigation found people were being put at risk of harm by false and misleading information.

The company has said its AI Overviews, which use generative AI to provide snapshots of essential information about a topic or question, are “helpful” and “reliable”.

In first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to US, Mandelson says association with Epstein was ‘terrible mistake’ but adds: ‘I was not culpable’

Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador.

Mandelson says he did like Trump, listing of numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his “language”.

I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousness…

I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didn’t, did I? Did he make me gasp?

What’s going to happen is there’s going to be, another discussion, a lot of consultation and a lot of negotiation.

At the end of the day, we are all going to have to wake up to the reality that the Arctic needs securing against China and Russia.

Exclusive: Guardian investigation finds PIs have been hired as part of harassment campaigns and in some cases have tracked women to domestic violence refuges

As Laura stood in the court witness box, preparing to tell magistrates about her ex-husband’s obsessive nature, she flicked through the prosecution’s evidence file and saw the photographs. One of her leaving the house, another of her driving her car on the motorway. They had been taken by a professional. Staring at the grainy images, she felt numb.

Laura’s ex-husband had hired a private investigator to put her under surveillance. On two occasions she had been trailed, with the PI taking photographs of her as he went. Her ex-husband was later sanctioned with a stalking protection order, but the man he hired to facilitate his harassment was never even questioned.