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The South African
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The South African
Meet the AI-generated sisters that are duping the internet
Mia Zelu, a stunning blonde influencer with piercing blue eyes and flawless skin, recently turned heads with her stylish photo series from Wimbledon. To the casual scroller, she looks like just another fashion-savvy content creator enjoying the London Grand Slam – an event known for attracting A-list spectators. However, a closer look reveals something more sinister: Mia is entirely AI-generated. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 𝑀𝑖𝑎 𝑍𝑒𝑙𝑢 ♡ (@miazelu) Her profile, which already boasts more than 160 000 followers, openly describes her as a 'digital storyteller & AI influencer.' Though the creator behind the persona remains a mystery. Her Instagram page is filled with enviable, bucket-list stuff that is so lifelike that many users admit they were fooled at first glance. In her latest upload, Mia is posing with her sister Ana at the Belgian Grand Prix, with the inspirational caption 'Amid all the noise and speed — find your line. The one only you can drive.' Ana, meanwhile, has been active on Instagram since January 2024, and has amassed nearly 270 000 followers.* In fact, Ana introduced Mia on 14 March 2025 with a post that read, 'Meet my wonderful sister Mia @miazelu and my favorite photographer! She finally decided to open up her Instagram, so show her some love!' In the accompanying photo, the influencer sisters are sitting together at a cafe in Spain. Or so viewers are led to believe. More concerning than the fake accounts, as some commentators have pointed out, is that Mia and Ana belong to a new wave of AI influencers promoting an unattainable, Eurocentric standard of beauty. 'AI is shaping our world – and with it, our perceptions of beauty,' said Dominique Baxewanos, creative director at ad agency VML South Africa. VML (who work with Dove) have developed a world-first Chrome extension that makes it possible for anyone to generate realistic images of beauty that reflect all ages and ethnicities. 'AI tools carry with them a significant problem: their outputs reflect the biases inherent in the data on which they're trained,' Baxewanos added. 'Ask an AI to generate a 'beautiful woman,' and the result is often a filtered, Western-centric ideal.' For the Zelu sisters, it's not just the pictures that are convincing, but also their computer-generated personas. And they're not the only ones grabbing attention. Ana and Mia have joined a rising wave of virtual influencers – ever since Lil Miquela first burst onto Instagram in 2016. Miquela now commands an audience of over 2.4 million, while Spain's Aitana Lopez, created in 2023, has nearly 400 000 followers. According to Lopez's creators, the AI model can earn up to €10 000 (R207 00) a month, with the average usually around €3 000 (R62 000) per month.* With creators staying mostly behind the scenes, AI influencers like Mia and Ana Zelu are blurring the line between digital fiction and real life. *at time of publishing Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1. Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and Bluesky for the latest news.
Morocco World
4 days ago
- Politics
- Morocco World
The Colonial Grammar of Resistance: Taleb Sahara and the Paradox of Racialized Militancy
In the aftermath of decolonization, Frantz Fanon warned that the greatest danger to liberation movements was the internalization of colonial logics under the guise of resistance. Today, figures like Taleb Sahara illustrate a troubling mutation of this insight: militants of identity politics who, in the name of emancipation, reproduce the very epistemologies of racism, hierarchy, and essentialism that colonial power once used to dominate the 'native.' In this essay, I argue that Taleb Sahara represents a paradigmatic case of postcolonial racialized militancy that harnesses Eurocentric morophobia to define 'identity,' while simultaneously undermining the moral and ontological legitimacy of the very subject he claims to liberate. I. The Psychoanalytic Seduction of Purity Taleb Sahara's rhetoric is fixated on a fantasy of racial and moral purity, one that opposes the 'civilized Sahrawi' to the allegedly 'criminal' Moroccan. Drawing from Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, we see here a classic mechanism of projection and scapegoating. The abject Other — in this case, the Moroccan migrant — serves to stabilize a fragile Sahrawi self-image. This maneuver constructs identity through negation: I am Sahrawi because I am not Moroccan. Such boundary-drawing is a response to postcolonial anxiety — an attempt to fix identity in the face of historical fragmentation, hybridity, and geopolitical ambiguity. But this disavowal of the Other is a double bind. As Judith Butler reminds us, identity is never self-possessed; it is always relational, citational, and embedded in power. The Sahrawi subject, as articulated by Taleb Sahara, is only imaginable through the disarticulation of the Moroccan. This is not liberation; it is a psychic repetition of colonial race-thinking. II. The Racial Instrumentalization of the Migrant Taleb's claims — that Morocco 'exports criminals' to Spain as a form of hybrid warfare — echo right-wing conspiratorial narratives across the Global North. The irony is stark: in his attempt to demonize Moroccan statecraft, he borrows the exact racist discourses used by Vox, Rassemblement National, and AfD to exclude all North Africans from the European political imaginary. Here, Taleb joins what Paul Gilroy once called 'the new raciologies' — postcolonial actors who co-opt the biopolitics of race in service of ethno-nationalist agendas. By portraying Moroccan migrants as criminal by default, he reproduces the colonial trope of the 'unassimilable native,' whose very presence threatens the integrity of the Western state. This is not an anti-colonial critique; it is racial ventriloquism. What's more disturbing is Taleb's instrumentalization of state clemency — claiming that Moroccan prisoners pardoned near the end of their sentence are 'weaponized' as migrant criminals. He offers no data, no causality, only paranoid inference. His accusation is not just empirically hollow; it is conceptually perverse. It enacts what Edward Said called a 'travesty of liberation': deploying colonial frameworks of control and suspicion in the name of postcolonial freedom. III. Identity as Fetish, Race as Tool The contradiction in Taleb Sahara's position lies in the fact that while he invokes anti-colonial language — 'liberation,' 'resistance,' 'self-determination' — he does so by deploying the race card as a tactical weapon. But race, as Stuart Hall taught us, is not a stable ground on which to construct identity. It is a floating signifier, subject to the ideological work of power. Taleb's use of race as a tool — to divide, to criminalize, to stigmatize — reintroduces the logics of colonial racial classification into the bloodstream of liberation discourse. He is not dismantling the coloniality of power; he is repurposing it with new targets. This is identity as fetish — a reified, purified ideal that occludes the messiness, plurality, and shared histories of Maghrebi peoples. Postcolonial theorists from Achille Mbembe to Homi Bhabha have shown us that identity is always impure, always in process. To build identity on the foundation of exclusion is not only politically dangerous; it is philosophically bankrupt. It transforms difference into deviance, solidarity into suspicion. IV. The Political Economy of Morophobia Taleb's discourse cannot be separated from a broader European context in which morophobia — a racialized fear of Moroccans — is increasingly weaponized to shape migration policy and diplomatic alignments. His narratives are not isolated; they feed into a transnational economy of fear, one that seeks to devalue Morocco's partnerships and delegitimize its strategic role in Africa and the Mediterranean. But here's the contradiction: while Taleb accuses Morocco of using migrants as pawns, he himself instrumentalizes migrants as political symbols. He invokes the figure of the Moroccan prisoner, stripped of name, voice, or humanity, to enact a rhetorical performance of Sahrawi purity. The migrant becomes a cipher, a blank screen onto which fantasies of contamination, crime, and geopolitical conspiracy are projected. This is not anti-imperialism. It is a re-enactment of imperial power — now in the hands of the postcolonial militant. V. Conclusion: The Trap of Reactive Identity Taleb Sahara's rhetoric exemplifies the danger of what I call reactive identity politics: the construction of selfhood not through affirmative liberation, but through the negation of the Other. This is not a politics of becoming; it is a politics of boundary policing. As Fanon once warned, 'the oppressed will always believe the worst about themselves.' Taleb has taken this one step further — he believes the worst about others in order to justify his own imagined virtue. But in doing so, he resurrects the skeleton of colonial race-thinking and dresses it in the clothes of resistance. True liberation does not require scapegoats. It requires solidarity, plurality, and the rejection of racial logics — especially when they are dressed as emancipation.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
‘Existential issues not just Europe's concern': India counters Western pressure on Russian oil
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for his upcoming visit to the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has pushed back against renewed Western criticism over India's continued imports of Russian oil. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Misri emphasised that India's energy security remains a fundamental priority and warned against viewing the global energy crisis through a narrow, Eurocentric lens. While acknowledging the gravity of the security crisis in Europe stemming from Russia's war in Ukraine, Misri stressed that other parts of the world are facing their own urgent and potentially existential challenges — many tied to energy affordability and access. "On energy-related issues itself, also, as we have said previously, it is important not to have double standards and to have a clear-eyed perception of what the global situation is insofar as the broader energy market is concerned... We do understand that there is an important and serious security issue that is confronting Europe, but the rest of the world is also there. It is also dealing with issues that are existential for the rest of the world, and I think it's important to keep balance and perspective when talking about these issues," Misri was quoted as saying. He argued for a balanced, globally inclusive perspective on energy policy and warned against double standards in applying sanctions or pressuring energy partners. EU sanctions put India's oil exports at risk His remarks come as the European Union rolls out a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia's oil revenues. The new restrictions — aimed at curbing Moscow's ability to finance its war effort — include tighter controls on fuels derived from Russian crude, a lower price cap, and new banking penalties. Among the targets is an Indian refinery operating in partnership with Russian energy giant Rosneft, raising concerns about collateral damage to India's energy trade. The EU's crackdown is expected to affect countries like India, Turkey, and the UAE, which process Russian crude and export refined products such as diesel and jet fuel — often to European buyers. Analysts warn that this could pose a direct threat to India's export earnings. According to trade policy think tank GTRI, India's petroleum product exports to the EU have already fallen sharply — from $19.2 billion in FY24 to $15 billion in FY25, a drop of over 27per cent. The EU's new sanctions may further squeeze India's $5 billion in oil-derived exports to the bloc, especially since they now prohibit imports of refined fuel made from Russian crude, even if processed outside Russia. At the same time, India's reliance on Russian oil has grown. In FY2025, India imported over $50 billion worth of crude oil from Russia — making up more than a third of its total oil import bill of $143 billion. U.S. threatens harsh tariffs on Russian oil buyers Meanwhile, Washington has also adopted a tougher stance. US President Donald Trump and several U.S. lawmakers have threatened punitive trade measures against countries like India, China, and Brazil for maintaining energy ties with Moscow. Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking on Fox News, warned that the U.S. would impose steep tariffs on nations buying Russian oil, accusing them of enabling the war through "blood money." Trump has gone a step further, saying the U.S. would levy 100per cent secondary tariffs on any country continuing to import Russian fossil fuels, unless Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to a peace deal within 50 days. His remarks came during a meeting with NATO officials, signaling that this could become a key foreign policy position in a potential second Trump administration.
Time of India
22-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
‘Existential issues not just Europe's concern': India counters Western pressure on Russian oil
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares for his upcoming visit to the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has pushed back against renewed Western criticism over India's continued imports of Russian oil. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Misri emphasised that India's energy security remains a fundamental priority and warned against viewing the global energy crisis through a narrow, Eurocentric lens. While acknowledging the gravity of the security crisis in Europe stemming from Russia's war in Ukraine, Misri stressed that other parts of the world are facing their own urgent and potentially existential challenges — many tied to energy affordability and access. "On energy-related issues itself, also, as we have said previously, it is important not to have double standards and to have a clear-eyed perception of what the global situation is insofar as the broader energy market is concerned... We do understand that there is an important and serious security issue that is confronting Europe, but the rest of the world is also there. It is also dealing with issues that are existential for the rest of the world, and I think it's important to keep balance and perspective when talking about these issues," Misri was quoted as saying. He argued for a balanced, globally inclusive perspective on energy policy and warned against double standards in applying sanctions or pressuring energy partners. EU sanctions put India's oil exports at risk His remarks come as the European Union rolls out a fresh round of sanctions targeting Russia's oil revenues. The new restrictions — aimed at curbing Moscow's ability to finance its war effort — include tighter controls on fuels derived from Russian crude, a lower price cap, and new banking penalties. Among the targets is an Indian refinery operating in partnership with Russian energy giant Rosneft, raising concerns about collateral damage to India's energy trade. The EU's crackdown is expected to affect countries like India, Turkey, and the UAE, which process Russian crude and export refined products such as diesel and jet fuel — often to European buyers. Analysts warn that this could pose a direct threat to India's export earnings. According to trade policy think tank GTRI, India's petroleum product exports to the EU have already fallen sharply — from $19.2 billion in FY24 to $15 billion in FY25, a drop of over 27per cent. The EU's new sanctions may further squeeze India's $5 billion in oil-derived exports to the bloc, especially since they now prohibit imports of refined fuel made from Russian crude, even if processed outside Russia. At the same time, India's reliance on Russian oil has grown. In FY2025, India imported over $50 billion worth of crude oil from Russia — making up more than a third of its total oil import bill of $143 billion. U.S. threatens harsh tariffs on Russian oil buyers Meanwhile, Washington has also adopted a tougher stance. US President Donald Trump and several U.S. lawmakers have threatened punitive trade measures against countries like India, China, and Brazil for maintaining energy ties with Moscow. Senator Lindsey Graham, speaking on Fox News, warned that the U.S. would impose steep tariffs on nations buying Russian oil, accusing them of enabling the war through "blood money." Trump has gone a step further, saying the U.S. would levy 100per cent secondary tariffs on any country continuing to import Russian fossil fuels, unless Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to a peace deal within 50 days. His remarks came during a meeting with NATO officials, signaling that this could become a key foreign policy position in a potential second Trump administration.
IOL News
22-07-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
The MKP's two-faced foreign relations on Western Sahara
South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) relied on its reputation for principled support of the occupied peoples. Image: Leon Lestrade / Independent Newspapers. THE Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a complete African Union (AU) member state and is recognised by more than 40 United Nations (UN) member states. Despite decades of occupation by Morocco and the ongoing struggle for self-determination, its existence is a testament to the resilience of its people and the enduring principles of international law regarding decolonisation. The UN classified this contested territory as a non-self-governing territory in 1963, following Spain's submission of information under Article 73(e) of the UN Charter. However, the territory has remained in a state of legal limbo despite multiple resolutions, diplomatic interventions and a protracted conflict involving Morocco, the Polisario Front and Algeria. This status affirms that the Sahrawi people have yet to exercise their right to self-determination under international law. The recent political stunt by Jacob Zuma's Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party), which dismissed this right as 'Balkanisation', reflects a troubling ahistorisation of a people's identity and a flagrant disregard for international legal norms. South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) relied on its reputation for principled support of the occupied peoples. The MK Party's stance on Western Sahara would cripple this moral standing, inviting accusations of hypocrisy. Worse, Zuma's use of the national flag during party-to-government talks with Morocco was improper, as he acted solely in his MK Party capacity, not in any official national role. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading In an op-ed, MK Party parliamentarian Mzanyele Manyi attempts to reframe the party's position as a rejection of 'Eurocentric binaries' and a commitment to precolonial African structures. A closer examination reveals a deeply contradictory and, frankly, two-faced approach that undermines the very principles the MK Party claims to uphold. Manyi's argument hinges on a romanticised and selective interpretation of history, conveniently overlooking the realities of international law and the fundamental right to self-determination that the AU has consistently championed. To suggest that Western Sahara was merely 'integrated with Morocco' through 'trade, kinship and religious institutions' before colonialism, and that this somehow equates to legitimate sovereignty, is to deliberately blur the lines between historical influence and political dominion. While precolonial connections existed, they do not negate the distinct identity of the Saharawi people or their internationally recognised right to choose their destiny. The assertion that Moroccan Sultans exercised 'spiritual and political suzerainty' akin to the British monarch's role over the Commonwealth is a disingenuous comparison. Based on colonial logics, the Commonwealth is a voluntary association of so-called independent states. Thus, it does not provide a historical justification for territorial claims over a people who have consistently sought their statehood. Furthermore, equating Morocco's actions in Western Sahara to an 'African character' while simultaneously dismissing the Saharawi's struggle for independence as 'intellectually lazy and historically dishonest' reveals a profound bias. Who, then, defines 'African character' in this narrative? Is it only those who align with pre-colonial monarchies, regardless of the aspirations of indigenous populations? Nevertheless, the 1975 International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion found no ties of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and Morocco. Manyi's dismissal of this advisory opinion as 'just that… an opinion, not a binding judgment' is a classic legal evasion, as it ignores its foundational role in the UN and AU's stance on decolonisation. While advisory opinions are not directly binding in the same way as contentious judgments, they carry significant legal weight and are highly influential in international law. The ICJ explicitly stated that it 'did not find any ties of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity'. This critical finding, conveniently downplayed by Manyi, directly challenges the MK Party's narrative of historical Moroccan suzerainty. To suggest that those who rely on this opinion are 'disingenuously using it as a hammer' is to accuse the international legal framework itself of being disingenuous when it doesn't align with the MK Party's preferred outcome. Furthermore, it is crucial to recall that Spain's 1975 tripartite agreement with Morocco and Mauritania, which ceded administrative control of Western Sahara without a referendum, was a direct violation of UN General Assembly Resolution 1514 (XV) on the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which affirms the right to self-determination for all colonial territories. The MK Party's purported 'rejection of the Balkanisation of Africa' is perhaps the most glaring hypocrisy. For a party to claim it stands 'firmly against the further splintering of our continent into externally sponsored micro-states' while simultaneously advocating for the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco is a monumental contradiction. The Saharawi Republic is a member of the AU, recognised by a significant number of African states, including South Africa. Its struggle is one of decolonisation and self-determination, not 'external sponsorship' designed to create a 'micro-state' for foreign interests. This is a classic case of projection, where the MK Party attributes to the Saharawi what many accuse Morocco of pursuing: territorial expansion under the guise of historical claims. The appeal to 'African sovereignty' and the 'legitimacy of political structures that preceded colonial conquest,' specifically the Moroccan monarchy, is a dangerous precedent. While respecting indigenous institutions is crucial, it cannot come at the expense of human rights or the universally accepted principle of self-determination. If the MK Party genuinely champions African Renaissance, it should uphold the rights of all African peoples, not just those aligned with powerful historical monarchies. To suggest that the AU's decision to readmit Morocco was purely an act of 'African agency' without considering geopolitical manoeuvring or economic influence is naive at best and intellectually dishonest at worst. Morocco had voluntarily left the continental body in 1984 because it disagreed with the decision of the AU's predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), to admit the Sahrawi Republic as a full member — effectively refusing to share a room with the very people it claims to share heritage and historical ties with. What Manyi omits to mention is that Western Sahara suffered a similar fate to that of black South Africans during the 1960s, when Britain conferred political independence on Afrikaners. Spain ceded the territory to Rabat instead of the Sahrawi people, leading to a political standoff with Mauritania, which had also made a concurrent claim. Following the colonial terra nullius myth, Afrikaners also make false claims that the land was empty or unused prior to their arrival and that Black South Africans were latecomers, erasing centuries of indigenous presence, land use, and political organisation by African communities. Moroccans follow almost an identical logic in Western Sahara, portraying the territory as historically ungoverned or inherently part of Morocco, thus denying the Sahrawi people's longstanding political identity and their right to self-determination. Like Zambia and others, MK Party appears to have also fallen under the spell of the despotic foreign policy of a pariah state that seeks validation from former colonial powers. In effect, Morocco exercises what Moses Ochonu calls 'colonialism by proxy', a form of indirect rule on behalf of European interests eager to exploit Western Sahara's rich mineral wealth, particularly phosphates and iron ore, without Sahrawi consent. Phosphates are crucial for fertiliser production and global agriculture. Morocco's extractivist agenda violates international law and entrenches neocolonial control over resources that rightfully belong to the Sahrawi people. The export of phosphates from Boucraa has been the subject of international legal challenges, including rulings by the European Court of Justice that trade agreements with Morocco cannot legally include resources from Western Sahara without the consent of the Sahrawi people. Beyond phosphates, Morocco has developed significant wind and solar farms in the occupied territory, such as Nareva's 50MW Foum el Oued farm, specifically powering the Bou Craa phosphate mines. Furthermore, European Union (EU) and Russian fishing fleets continue to plunder Western Sahara's rich Atlantic waters under trade agreements that, per ECJ rulings, cannot lawfully apply to Sahrawi territory. Similarly, Morocco has permitted large-scale agribusiness exports, including citrus and tomatoes, using water-intensive farming on occupied Sahrawi land, exacerbating local water scarcity and environmental degradation. Under international law, primarily UN General Assembly Resolution 1803 (1962) on permanent sovereignty over natural resources, the Sahrawi people are the rightful owners of these resources. However, as the territory remains non-self-governing and partially occupied by Morocco, any extraction or export without their free, prior and informed consent is considered illegal by many legal scholars, the AU and the UN. Despite international efforts to find a resolution, including the Baker Plans (Baker I and Baker II), which proposed varying degrees of autonomy for Western Sahara followed by a referendum on self-determination, viable alternatives remain underdeveloped. These UN-backed proposals, though at times accepted by one party and rejected by the other, represent pathways that prioritise the Sahrawi people's right to choose, offering a stark contrast to Morocco's unilateral autonomy initiative. Beyond the MK Party's internal contradictions, Rabat's international manoeuvring also merits scrutiny. France's 2024 endorsement of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, following the US recognition, indicates a concerning shift by major powers, prioritising geopolitical interests over international law and Western Sahara's self-determination. This trend is further amplified by Morocco's strategic utilisation of Israel normalisation, particularly through the Abraham Accords. This exploits a complex regional dynamic to garner global support for its occupation, at the expense of established principles of decolonisation and human rights. The MK Party's position on Western Sahara, as articulated by Manyi, is not a nuanced 'African-centred reading of history'. It is a thinly veiled justification for an international relations position that prioritises a selective historical narrative and the interests of a specific state over the fundamental right of a people to determine their future. MK Party's stance effectively legitimises resource theft disguised as anti-Western posturing. Therefore, the MK Party's foreign relations strategy is not only inconsistent but also fundamentally two-faced: it champions African unity and decolonisation in rhetoric, while actively undermining it in practice, particularly concerning the Saharawi people. The 'ghosts of colonial borders' that Manyi wishes to reject seem to linger quite strongly in the MK Party's approach, but only when it suits their political agenda. There is a need to address the MKP's rhetoric-reality gap, evident in their endorsement of Morocco's 'autonomy plan' as 'decolonisation' while simultaneously silencing Sahrawi self-determination. This constitutes a colonial proxy masked in anti-Western slogans. Siyayibanga le economy! * Siyabonga Hadebe is an independent commentator based in Geneva on socio-economic, political and global matters. ** The views expressed here do not reflect those of the Sunday Independent, Independent Media, or IOL. Get the real story on the go: Follow the Sunday Independent on WhatsApp.
