Author: DW

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday defended his decision to grant French citizenship to Pavel Durov, the CEO of the messaging app, Telegram. Durov received French nationality in 2021 via a special process reserved for those deemed to have made a special contribution to France. Granting Durov French nationality was “good for our country,” Macron said. He also mentioned Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel, who like Durov won French citizenship via the process for ”merited foreigners.” Macron said he “totally” backed the citizenship decision, adding it was a “strategy” concerning those who “make the effort to learn the French language” and…

Telegram Messenger, better known as Telegram, is a social media and instant messaging service. For millions of users it is simply a daily tool for communication. For others it is much more than that. At its most basic level Telegram enables users to chat, and share photos and files for free. It offers end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls. It also lets users post files, use cryptocurrency, have unlimited cloud storage, create groups for up to 200,000 members, or start channels with an unlimited number of subscribers — and untold influence. As of 2022, it offers a paid subscription version…

Two former news editors in Hong Kong have been found guilty of sedition – the first journalists to be convicted under the law.Stand News’ former editor-in-chief Chung Pui-kuen and former acting editor-in-chief Patrick Lam face two years in prison and a fine of up to HK$5,000 (£585) after being found guilty on Thursday. They are the first journalists to be convicted of sedition since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.Critics, including the US government and the last governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, say their case reflects deteriorating media freedoms under the national security crackdown.Mr Chung, 54,…

South Korean singer Taeil has been kicked out of the popular K-pop group NCT after he was accused of having committed an unspecified sexual crime, his label SM Entertainment said on Wednesday. “We recognized the seriousness of the issue, and we have decided that Taeil can no longer continue team activities,” SM Entertainment wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We have discussed this matter with Taeil, and it has been decided that he will leave the group,” it said, adding that Taeil is fully cooperating with the police investigation. The singer is also the fourth member of NCT to leave the…

If you were feeling unhappy, afraid or threatened by the changing reality of your life and surroundings — your neighborhood, work, grocery store — would your first instinct be to join a political party reinforcing those negative feelings? You might if that very same party told you they — and only they — could fix things for you. Two researchers found this when they examined voters who had turned to support the German far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The AfD is classified as a “suspected” far-right extremist organization and is alleged to have used Nazi-era sloganeering. However, there…

The 2024 Paris Paralympics got underway with a magical four-hour-long opening ceremony that is being described as one of the best to date. Thousands of athletes paraded down the famed Champs-Elysees avenue to Place de la Concorde in central Paris.  The celebrations began at 8 p.m. local time (1800 GMT/UTC) with delegations from 168 countries entering the iconic square in alphabetical order.   More than 4,000 athletes with physical, visual and intellectual impairments will compete in 22 sports from Thursday until September 8. French fighter jets fly over the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris to open the Paralympic GamesImage: picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS Five French…

Typhoon Shanshan hit the southwestern coast of Japan on Thursday, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds. The typhoon made landfall on the southern island of Kyushu around 8:00 am local time (2300 GMT Wednesday), with strong winds of up to 252 kilometers (157 miles). ” We ask that people living in areas expected to flood or be at risk of landslides evacuate as soon as possible,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a post on X. Winds tear walls, smash windows Authorities have issued the highest level of alerts, evacuating several people and warning of storms, floods and landslides. Winds…

The first attempt to recover a tiny amount of highly radioactive fuel debris from Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant was delayed shortly before the delicate maneuver was due to take place on August 22, but analysts and the operator of the plant insist the hold-up will be brief. Although it had been hoped that the first debris could be retrieved as far back as 2021, experts say that ensuring safety remains the absolute priority and that delays are inevitable as nuclear engineers attempt something that has never been tried before. “Retrieving fuel debris from the reactor buildings at…

Moves by some Western airlines to cut flights to China this summer have raised questions about the future of travel to the country. British Airways recently suspended flights between London and Beijing following Virgin Atlantic’s decision to pull of its London-Shanghai route and Qantas ending flights between Sydney and Shanghai. One of the biggest reasons aviation insiders cite is the Russian airspace ban and the extra costs it forces on airlines. After Western nations hit Moscow with sanctions following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia barred practically all European and North American airlines from flying over its airspace. Chinese airlines are not…

Flights have been grounded and police officers were forced to communicate by text while on duty as a network outage at the Dutch ministry of defence caused major IT failures across the country.The extent and cause of the problems are not yet known, but a spokesperson for the Dutch defence ministry confirmed the issue can be traced back to one of their networks that is also used by other parts of the Dutch government. Travellers at Eindhoven – the Netherlands’ second-largest airport – were stuck since early morning with flights from budget airlines Ryanair and Transavia cancelled. Follow Sky News…