Anonymous ID: 048497 Aug. 25, 2024, 6:27 p.m. No.21482226   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2319 >>2375 >>2489

Arrested Telegram founder is worth $15 billion

 

Pavel Durov, the co-founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested at an airport in Paris Saturday after getting off his private jet, according to French media reports.

 

The billionaire Russian exile was arrested at around 8 p.m. at Le Bourget airport by French cops after flying in from Azerbaijan, French outlet TF1 Info reported.

 

French authorities had issued a search warrant as part of a preliminary investigation into Durov — a staunch free speech advocate — and his encrypted messaging app, which has some 900 million users worldwide.

 

Law enforcement believes that Telegram’s lack of moderation and the tools it offers, such as cryptocurrencies, make it complicit in global drug trafficking, pedophilia and fraud. But the search warrant was only valid if Durov stepped foot on French soil.

 

“He made a blunder this evening. We don’t know why… Was this flight just a stopover? In any case, he’s in custody,” a source close to the investigation told TF1.

 

Durov, 39, is a Russian-born tech entrepreneur best known for founding the social networking site VK (VKontakte) and the messaging app Telegram.

 

He lives in Dubai, where Telegram is based, and is also a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, according to Fortune.

 

Durov founded Telegram in 2013 with his brother Nikolai, but fled Russia in 2014 after he refused to hand over encrypted user data to Russian officials or silence communities opposing the government, which he later sold.

 

Durov decided to live in self-imposed exile, stating that when he left, Russia was “incompatible with internet business at the moment,” according to The Sun.

 

During an interview with Tucker Carlson in April, Durov said he fled Russia because he didn’t want to take orders seemingly from the Russian government.

 

“I understood that I would rather be free. I wouldn’t want to take orders from anyone and I left behind probably a comfortable life,” Durov said.

 

“For me it was never about becoming rich. For me everything in my life was about becoming free, and to an extent it is possible, my mission in life was to allow other people to also become free.”

 

In 2018, Russia blocked Telegram when the app refused to comply with a court order and share its encryption keys. The ban was lifted in 2020.

 

Durov is worth an estimated $15.5 billion, according to Forbes.

 

Telegram emphasizes users’ privacy, which has drawn criticism from many governments for allowing militants and organized criminals to discreetly communicate.

 

It has also become a major source for information in the Russia-Ukraine war.

 

Durov has maintained that Telegram is a neutral social media platform and not a “player in geopolitics.”

 

“I think it’s the best place for a neutral platform like ours to be in if we want to make sure we can defend our users’ privacy and freedom of speech,” he told Carlson.

 

He is expected to appear before a judge on Sunday on charges connected to terrorism, narcotics, complicity, fraud, money laundering, receiving stolen goods and child pornography, according to TF1.

 

“Pavel Durov will end up in pretrial detention, that’s for sure ,” an investigator familiar with the case told TF1.

 

“On his platform, he allowed an incalculable number of offenses and crimes to be committed, for which he did nothing to moderate or cooperate, ” the source added.

 

https://nypost.com/2024/08/24/world-news/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-arrested-at-paris-airport-report/

Anonymous ID: 048497 Aug. 25, 2024, 6:35 p.m. No.21482250   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2312 >>2319 >>2375 >>2489

NASA astronauts to be stranded for 6 more months by Boeing

 

NASA will return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the spacecraft, the agency announced Saturday. The uncrewed return allows NASA and Boeing to continue gathering testing data on Starliner during its upcoming flight home, while also not accepting more risk than necessary for its crew.

 

Wilmore and Williams, who flew to the International Space Station in June aboard NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test, have been busy supporting station research, maintenance, and Starliner system testing and data analysis, among other activities.

 

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.”

 

Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission. Starliner is expected to depart from the space station and make a safe, controlled autonomous re-entry and landing in early September.

 

NASA and Boeing identified helium leaks and experienced issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters on June 6 as Starliner approached the space station. Since then, engineering teams have completed a significant amount of work, including reviewing a collection of data, conducting flight and ground testing, hosting independent reviews with agency propulsion experts, and developing various return contingency plans. The uncertainty and lack of expert concurrence does not meet the agency’s safety and performance requirements for human spaceflight, thus prompting NASA leadership to move the astronauts to the Crew-9 mission.

 

“Decisions like this are never easy, but I want to commend our NASA and Boeing teams for their thorough analysis, transparent discussions, and focus on safety during the Crew Flight Test,” said Ken Bowersox, associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate. “We’ve learned a lot about the spacecraft during its journey to the station and its docked operations. We also will continue to gather more data about Starliner during the uncrewed return and improve the system for future flights to the space station.”

 

Starliner is designed to operate autonomously and previously completed two uncrewed flights. NASA and Boeing will work together to adjust end-of-mission planning and Starliner’s systems to set up for the uncrewed return in the coming weeks. Starliner must return to Earth before the Crew-9 mission launches to ensure a docking port is available on station.

 

“Starliner is a very capable spacecraft and, ultimately, this comes down to needing a higher level of certainty to perform a crewed return,” said Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. “The NASA and Boeing teams have completed a tremendous amount of testing and analysis, and this flight test is providing critical information on Starliner’s performance in space. Our efforts will help prepare for the uncrewed return and will greatly benefit future corrective actions for the spacecraft.”

 

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program requires spacecraft fly a crewed test flight to prove the system is ready for regular flights to and from the space station. Following Starliner’s return, the agency will review all mission-related data to inform what additional actions are required to meet NASA’s certification requirements.

 

The agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission, originally slated with four crew members, will launch no earlier than Tuesday, Sept. 24. The agency will share more information about the Crew-9 complement when details are finalized.

 

NASA and SpaceX currently are working several items before launch, including reconfiguring seats on the Crew-9 Dragon, and adjusting the manifest to carry additional cargo, personal effects, and Dragon-specific spacesuits for Wilmore and Williams. In addition, NASA and SpaceX now will use new facilities at Space Launch Complex-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida to launch Crew-9, which provides increased operational flexibility around NASA’s planned Europa Clipper launch.

 

The Crew-9 mission will be the ninth rotational mission to the space station under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which works with the American aerospace industry to meet the goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the orbital outpost on American-made rockets and spacecraft launching from American soil.

 

For more than two decades, people have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station is a critical testbed for NASA to understand and overcome the challenges of long-duration spaceflight and to expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit. As commercial companies focus on providing human space transportation services and destinations as part of a robust low Earth orbit economy, NASA’s Artemis campaign is underway at the Moon where the agency is preparing for future human exploration of Mars.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-decides-to-bring-starliner-spacecraft-back-to-earth-without-crew/

Anonymous ID: 048497 Aug. 25, 2024, 6:37 p.m. No.21482265   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2319 >>2375 >>2398 >>2489

Wealthy Texas lawyer, 61, is shot dead 'by his wife, 52, who then killed herself' at their stunning $1.6M mansion

 

A wealthy Texas lawyer's wife killed her husband then herself at their stunning mansion, police say.

 

Jerry Hernandez, 61, and his wife Sonia, 52, were both found dead at the $1.6 million property in the Shavano Park on Wednesday morning.

 

Police say they had been called to the address just before 8am after receiving reports of gunshots at the four bed, five bath home which has beautifully-manicured grounds.

 

The Bexar County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Jerry's death as a homicide and his wife's a suicide.

 

It remains unclear what triggered the horrific bloodbath, or how the killings were carried out.

 

Shavano Park is a leafy suburb in the northern section of San Antonio.

 

No further details surrounding their deaths have yet been released by authorities.

 

According to an online profile for Hernandez, he has worked as a lawyer for over thirty years having worked in personal injury.

 

He earned his bachelor's degree in 1985 from the University of Texas in Austin, and then earned his law degree from California Western School of Law in 1988.

 

In 2017 he was named a top personal injury lawyer by S.A. Scene Magazine, and is often asked to speak to lawyer groups about trial tactics.

 

Online records show that Sonia owned a beauty boutique. The couple are parents to one daughter, 25 year-old Bianca Rose.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13771465/Texas-lawyer-homicide-wife-mansion.html

Anonymous ID: 048497 Aug. 25, 2024, 6:39 p.m. No.21482277   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2319 >>2375 >>2489

Syrian refugee living in migrant home arrested for stabbing 11 and killing 3 in German attack

 

MUNICH — A suspect has been arrested in a knife attack Friday night in Germany that killed three people and wounded eight others, officials said Saturday.

 

The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack in the western German city of Solingen, where a celebration of the city’s anniversary had been taking place, officials said. Four of the six severely injured are still in life-threatening condition.

 

The suspect is a 26-year-old Syrian citizen, identified by the German Federal Prosecutor's office as "Issa Al H." He had applied for asylum in Germany, police told The Associated Press.

 

He turned himself into police Saturday and “stated that he was responsible for the attack,” Düsseldorf police and the prosecutor’s office said in a joint statement.

 

“This person’s involvement in the crime is currently being intensively investigated,” the statement added.

 

The German Federal Prosecutor's office took over investigation Sunday and "issued an arrest warrant and ordered the execution of pre-trial detention," according to a statement.

 

The prosecutor's office said the man is accused of three counts of murder and eight counts of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm, adding that he shares the ideology of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which he joined before Friday.

 

"Due to his radical Islamist beliefs, he decided to kill as many people as possible, who he considered to be non-believers, at the Solingen city festival on August 23, 2024," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. "There he stabbed festival visitors repeatedly and deliberately in the neck and upper body with a knife."

 

The state interior minister of North-Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, said in a TV interview Saturday that pieces of evidence were recovered and that police had followed leads to the person throughout the day.

 

Reul confirmed that the suspect, based on his current knowledge, had stayed at a refugee shelter that was searched earlier in the day.

 

A 15-year-old and another man were previously arrested in connection with the attack. Police said that they did not believe either of them was the attacker but that both were questioned.

 

Investigators said they believe the 15-year-old, who was detained Saturday morning, may have known about the attack in advance. Two witnesses told police that the 15-year-old had a conversation with another person about plans for an attack.

 

The Islamic State-run Amaq news agency said in a statement Saturday that the attacker targeted Christians and is a “soldier of the Islamic State” who was seeking “to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere.”

 

Markus Röhrl, the Wuppertal police president, said at a news conference Saturday that there was no concrete threat before the festival.

 

The attack happened at 9:40 p.m. local time Friday during a celebration for the city’s 650th anniversary. The Festival of Diversity began Friday and was to run through Sunday. Authorities canceled the rest of the festival.

 

Reul told the media Friday that the attacker came “out of nowhere” and stabbed people randomly. A woman and two men were killed, he said.

 

German DJ Tobias Topic wrote on Instagram that security personnel asked him to continue playing his set even as the attack was unfolding to prevent mass panic. He said he kept playing, "even though it was incredibly hard."

 

He added that the music was stopped after about 15 minutes and that he hid with others in a nearby store while police helicopters circled above.

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Saturday he mourns the victims and underscored that “the perpetrator must be caught quickly and punished to the full extent of the law.”

 

Mayor Tim Kurzbach said in a statement Friday night: "We are all in shock, horror and great sadness in Solingen. We all wanted to celebrate our city’s anniversary together and now we have to mourn dead and injured people.”

 

"I also have great sympathy for all the people who had to witness this; it must have been terrible images. I thank all the rescue and security forces for their efforts," Kurzbach said. "I ask you, if you believe, to pray with me and if not, then to hope with me.”

 

Hendrik WĂĽst, the minister-president of North Rhine-Westphalia, where Solingen is located, also expressed shock and said the state is with the victims and the people of the city.

 

"An act of brutal and senseless violence has struck our country at the heart," WĂĽst said.

 

Solingen is a city of around 150,000 about 16 miles northeast of Cologne.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/deadly-knife-attack-festival-germany-rcna168050