South Korea's National Police Agency is investigating an "epidemic" of deepfake pornographic material, including doctored images of teenagers, distributed and shared on the messaging platform Telegram.

Human Rights Watch says AI-generated explicit images of "hundreds of women and girls" are being shared in channels with up to 220,000 members on the app.

What are deepfakes?
Deepfakes are images created by superimposing the likeness of a real person onto an AI-generated body. There are now thousands of sites devoted to deepfake pornographic material, which uses real images of the target harvested from social media to generate explicit images and videos.

What is happening and how bad is it?
South Korea's police agency said that 297 cases of deepfake porn offences were reported in the first seven months of the year – up from 180 last year. But the issue is "believed to be more serious than the official figures suggest", said The Guardian, and the authorities are being accused of not taking the issue seriously enough.

What is being done?
South Korea's president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has ordered a crackdown on digital sex crimes, and police will "aggressively" pursue offenders in a seven-month campaign that started this week, with a focus on those who exploit children and teenagers.

Women's rights groups argue that a wider problem is being ignored: misogyny in South Korean online culture, including a "spy cam epidemic", where women "were secretly filmed using public toilets and changing rooms", the BBC reported. However, Yoon has "denied the existence of structural sexism" and is abolishing the government's gender equality ministry.

What has Telegram said?
In a statement to South Korea's Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), Telegram said the situation was "unfortunate", adding that it "apologised if there had been an element of misunderstanding". It also confirmed that it had taken down 25 videos as requested by KCSC. Telegram is "known for having a 'light touch' moderation stance", said the BBC, making it a "prime space for criminal behaviour to flourish".

Prince Harry is looking into ways to "rehabilitate" his image in the UK ahead of a potential return to the royal fold, having grown increasingly "dissatisfied" with advice from US-based image experts, the Mail on Sunday has reported.

But "well-placed sources" told the BBC's royal correspondent Sean Coughlan that the Duke of Sussex "is not planning a permanent move" from the US, where he has lived with his wife, Meghan, and their two children since 2020.

Operation 'bring Harry in from the cold'
"Harry is feeling more and more isolated in California, which is why he has been reconnecting with old friends back home", a source "close to his inner circle" told The Sun.

Part of a strategy dubbed "Operation Bring Harry In From The Cold" in the Daily Mirror may involve performing "very low-key royal duties" to rebuild public trust. "He is clearly reaching out thinking, 'I need to do something different because what I'm doing is clearly not working'," said one source.

But there is an "ongoing, labyrinthine legal wrangle with the Home Office over his security status in the UK", said the BBC's Coughlan, which "has become a thorny issue in any discussion about a return".

Healing royal relationships
William and Harry were last week spotted in the same room for the first time since the May 2023 coronation of their father, at the funeral of their uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, in Norfolk. Last month, People described the rift between the brothers as "very bad" if not "irreparable". Harry has, however, been trying to repair his relationship with his father for some time, said The Times, with the paper reporting in February that he was willing to return to a temporary royal role in the UK to support the family as the King was treated for cancer.

But "unless matters change very considerably, it is unlikely that either the King or Prince William will countenance any kind of formal return for Harry into the royal family," said The Spectator's Alexander Larman. It would be too humiliating after what has happened, and would risk making the institution a laughing stock.

Forget giant marketing budgets, sometimes all you need to create the "buzziest" show on TV is a "small border terrier called Colin who has wheels for back legs", said James Jackson in The Times. That's the premise behind "Colin from Accounts" – an Australian comedy about the "will-they-won't-they" friendship of Gordon and Ash, scripted by and starring real-life couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall.

The duo were brought together in season one when bar-owner Gordon ran over a dog after medical student Ash flashed her nipple at him and became an instant "word-of-mouth hit": quite simply, because it was "funny", with a "whack of relatable honesty". Now, the second season has arrived and thankfully it's "every bit as good as the first".

"Everything that made it great is back", agreed Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. The action picks up a few weeks after the end of season one, when Ash and Gordon, on the verge of breaking up, give Colin away to a new family. Now, the couple are back together and trying to get their beloved dog back.

Dyer and Brammall remain the "perfect foils for each other", delivering "sarcastic one-liners" and "bruising truths", while Ash's "superbly toxic mother" Lynelle (Helen Thomson) and her "magnificently creepy" boyfriend are a "transcendently awful" pair.

While "not every episode is as strong as the others", added James Hibbs in Radio Times, there isn't a single one that "misses the mark". "Colin from Accounts" is a "consistently funny eight-episode binge" that makes for "perfect easy watching of an evening".

David Lammy's token gesture will hardly advance the prospects for peace
The Independent editorial
The UK government's decision to revoke some arms export licences to Israel "begs many questions about the UK's attitude towards the conflict in Gaza" and how it judges the "moral and legal, as well as political" status of those involved, writes The Independent. As Foreign Secretary, David Lammy must clarify "why this curiously half-hearted policy" is being advocated for now, and how it will "make a valuable difference" to peace prospects.

Putin is Xi's puppet – he just doesn't realise it yet
Matthew Henderson in The Telegraph
Vladimir Putin "told a class of Siberian children that some youngsters in his family have learnt to speak Chinese fluently", writes Matthew Henderson. This "unusual personal revelation" sheds light on "how his regime views its interactions with Chinese authoritarian power". Putin sees them "in an ever-closer partnership" with shared ambitions to "overthrow the global geopolitical status quo".

The Times view on Japanese flamenco success: Spanish Steps
The Times editorial
A Japanese dancer winning a Spanish flamenco competition "has prompted outrage", says The Times, with critics arguing that "only a native Spaniard, preferably an Andalusian, can truly interpret and execute the traditional folk dance to an elite level". It is an "absurd" theory to which too many have subscribed – "cultural protectionism impoverishes everyone".