Economy
Telegram chief put on Russia wanted list over aiding terrorism charges
Russia charged Pavel Durov, the founder, owner and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, with aiding terrorism and put him on an international wanted list, the country’s top domestic security agency said Wednesday.
In response, Telegram’s official account on the social media platform X posted an image of the Russian-born billionaire making an obscene gesture with his middle finger.
The charges against Durov, who was born and began his career in Russia but later moved abroad, came as the Russian authorities restrict Telegram, one of the most popular messaging apps in the country. It is part of a long-term effort to bring the internet under the Kremlin’s full control that has intensified since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Federal Security Service, also known as the FSB, accused Telegram’s administration in a statement of failing to remove “numerous channels, chats and bots” that are “actively used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies, terrorist, and extremist organizations to prepare and coordinate acts of sabotage and terrorism, mass murder, and cyberfraud” in Russia, which resulted in “numerous human casualties.”
The agency accused Ukrainian security services of using a popular dating chatbot on Telegram to lure and recruit Russians for “sabotage and terrorist activities,” and said 46 users of the chatbot, from 12 to 22 years old, have been detained across Russia since July 2025 for assaulting law enforcement officers, arson and other acts.
Durov earlier this year announced that the Russian authorities opened a criminal investigation against him and accused them of fabricating pretexts to restrict access to Telegram as part of an attempt to “suppress the right to privacy and free speech.”
Durov’s current whereabouts unclear
If convicted, the entrepreneur could face up to life in prison in Russia.
Telegram did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its official website says that the company is based in Dubai and that Durov, who holds dual citizenship of France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), lives there, too.
The FSB statement did not specify what mechanism Russia would use to get Durov arrested.
The global police organization Interpol did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If Moscow does request a Red Notice, however, the process is unlikely to be quick, a source with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Dubai has friendly relations with Moscow and growing ties in energy, business and finance. But handing him over to Russia could risk damaging the emirate’s image as an attractive hub for enterprise and technology.
Durov posted that he was in Georgia last week, but his current whereabouts are unclear.
Russia restricted Telegram
Russian authorities have engaged in multipronged efforts to rein in the internet. They have adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that don’t comply and focused on improving technology to monitor and manipulate online traffic.
Multiple popular social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, have been banned in Russia; YouTube has been throttled; popular messaging apps, such as Signal and Viber, have been blocked, and the most popular ones – WhatsApp and Telegram – have been restricted.
Russia’s popular Facebook-like social media platform VK, founded by Durov long before he launched the Telegram messaging app, had come under the control of Kremlin-friendly companies. Russia tried to block Telegram between 2018-20 but failed.
While it’s still possible to circumvent some of the restrictions by using virtual private network services, many of them are routinely blocked, too.
At the same time, Russia actively promotes the “national” messaging app known as MAX, which critics say could be used for surveillance. The platform is touted by developers and officials as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more. It openly declares it will share user data with authorities upon request, and experts also say it doesn’t use end-to-end encryption.
Arrest in France
Durov has faced criminal investigations elsewhere.
In 2024, he was arrested in Paris over allegations that his platform was being used for illicit activity, including drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images. Durov said in March 2025 that he returned to Dubai after spending “several months” in France.
The Kremlin at the time criticized the French authorities for their move against Durov as “selective.”
“I know that many countries have raised concerns about the platform being used in certain ways by certain individuals and entities whose activities could harm the economy or security of certain countries. I think the Russian government might also have had some questions,” President Vladimir Putin said in September 2024, after Durov’s arrest.
“But all platforms of this kind are guilty of this. If this is what they’re doing to Durov, then others should probably be arrested,” the Russian leader said, adding that the French government’s “actions are not entirely clear to me, as they are selective.”
The rogue agent that escaped from OpenAI and carried out a days-long hacking spree at AI company Hugging Face also breached a customer at another tech firm, New York-based Modal Labs, a report said Tuesday, citing a Modal executive and two other sources familiar with the matter.
Modal executives emphasized that the company itself was not hacked. According to a timeline published by Hugging Face on Tuesday, the rogue agent broke into a sandbox, or an isolated testing environment, “hosted on a third-party provider’s infrastructure” before turning it into a launchpad for the broader hack.
The third-party provider was not named in the blog post, but Modal’s chief technology officer, Akshat Bubna, said the agent exploited vulnerable code written by a customer that was hosted on Modal’s platform.
Modal said the customer had “published an unauthenticated endpoint that allowed anyone on the internet to use their sandboxes for code execution” – the digital equivalent of leaving a door open on the internet.
“Modal’s platform or isolation were not compromised in any way,” Bubna said.
Although the compromise of a Modal customer was just an initial step in the wider hacking campaign against Hugging Face, it shows that the rogue agent roamed further afield than was previously known.
OpenAI declined to comment specifically on the hack of one of Modal’s customers, instead referring Reuters to an update in which the company said that its rogue agent had broken into four accounts at four separate services.
OpenAI did not identify those services, but a person familiar with the matter identified Modal as one. The company said it had not identified “any other activity at the level of severity or scale of what we’ve shared related to Hugging Face, which involved a platform-level compromise.”
The early July intrusion at Hugging Face, carried out by an out-of-control agent that OpenAI was testing, drew global attention, evoking science-fiction scenarios of artificial intelligence run amok.
Last week, Reuters reported that OpenAI did not notice that its agent had gone haywire until well after the threat was contained and the FBI was alerted. OpenAI said at the time that there were inaccuracies in the Reuters reporting but did not elaborate.
The company said in its Tuesday update that it had taken the AI model being tested and “deactivated, encrypted, and restricted it from research access.”
BMW is set to offer voluntary redundancy to nearly half of its German staff as the premium carmaker moves to eliminate 8,000 jobs by the end of 2027, a report said Wednesday.
About 40,000 of BMW’s roughly 85,000 permanent German employees would receive the offers from October, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said, citing a company source.
The source added that production line workers would be spared the cuts.
“The workforce will ultimately be reduced by around 8,000 people by the end of 2027,” the source said. “We’re planning on the basis of that.”
BMW employs about 154,000 people worldwide and the offer would be open to German employees in desk-based roles, the source said.
The plan had taken about six weeks to negotiate between the board and BMW’s works council, the source added.
Suffering from slimmer margins on electric cars, U.S. tariffs and above all intense Chinese competition, German carmakers have sought to cut overheads.
Volkswagen is weighing up to 100,000 job cuts across its 10 brands while Mercedes-Benz has its own voluntary redundancy program.
A BMW employee present at a staff meeting announcing the plans said the carmaker’s CEO had called the situation critical, partly blaming European regulations that force the sale of electric cars despite patchy demand as well as increasing tariff barriers around the world.
“We are talking about a substantial change to the rules of the game,” CEO Milan Nedeljkovic told staff. “That is also a consequence of political mandates that are out of step with the market.”
“Neither the protectionism nor far-reaching changes in the market are going to disappear,” he added.
BMW’s press office confirmed a restructuring plan for the company’s white-collar workers, but would not provide any figures.
Trouble in China
Deciding early on to maintain petrol and diesel options for its customers, BMW has so far been widely seen to have weathered the storm better than its peers, avoiding costly strategy changes at the same time as seeing its electric sales rise.
But the carmaker issued a shock profit warning last month, saying that business in China was proving even worse than expected amid fierce competition and a sluggish economy.
BMW’s vehicle deliveries in China were last year already at their lowest level since 2017 and they fell 30% year-over-year in the three months to June.
“BMW is now responding to the slump in the Chinese market whilst simultaneously working to strengthen the competitiveness of its German sites,” said Horst Ott, head of the Bavarian branch of the powerful IG Metall union, who sits on BMW’s supervisory board under a German system giving labor representatives half the seats.
But he warned that “provisions under collective bargaining agreements are non-negotiable. The company is also making use of natural staff turnover.”
‘Immense’ pressure
The redundancy program is expected to meaningfully reduce BMW’s costs by 2028, the source said, with the bulk of departures coming next year.
Cutting its profit outlook last month to a margin potentially as low as 1% at its cars business, BMW said restructuring measures would cost it in the second half of 2026.
The costs this year would probably run into the hundreds of millions, the source said, adding that the exact figure was uncertain and depended on uptake.
The news throws a spotlight on the woes of Germany’s crucial automotive sector.
Industrial companies in Germany last year cut 124,000 jobs, according to consultancy EY, about double the figure for 2024, and losses were concentrated in the automotive sector.
BMW last year opened a new plant in lower-cost Hungary and Mercedes-Benz earlier this month unveiled an extension to its Kecskemet plant in the same country that more than doubled its size, making it the firm’s largest in Europe.
Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kaellenius, speaking to reporters and investors at the carmaker’s financial results presented Tuesday, said that given international competition, the German car industry needed to do more with less.
“The whole sector could benefit from improved productivity, no two ways about it,” he said. “The pressure is immense.”
BMW is due to announce first-half earnings Thursday.
Tehran has rejected Oman’s proposal for regional joint management of the Strait of Hormuz, a report said Wednesday, dashing hopes for a swift diplomatic breakthrough in the war that has disrupted Gulf trade for months.
Oman proposed a new regional deal aimed at resolving the conflict over the critical strait, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in late February.
However, Tehran ruled out Oman’s proposal for regional joint management of the strait, saying it had no chance of success, a senior Iranian official told Reuters.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are trying to pressure Oman to advance their “unrealistic plans” regarding the strategic strait, the official told Reuters. Iran insisted the entire inbound route through the strait and part of the outbound route must be under Iranian control, the official added.
A 50-50 joint control arrangement with Oman would not serve Iran’s interests, though Tehran considers Oman a valuable neighbor, the official said.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday its forces struck three oil tankers in the strait and forced them to stop after they ignored warnings for taking an “unsafe and illegal route.”
The IRGC Navy said in a statement that it continued to maintain full control over the strategic waterway and warned that “unlawful U.S. military interference” and instructions to vessels in the region would not go unanswered.
Oil prices surge again
Oil prices rose over $3 a barrel on Wednesday as attacks intensified once again.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia launched strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq on Wednesday, saying they were responsible for drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, prompting Iran to warn that blaming it for such attacks was a “major miscalculation.”
The U.S.-Saudi strikes in eastern Iraq occurred just hours after the U.S. military said its air defenses had averted a surprise Iranian attack on U.S. troops in the region. The IRGC said on Wednesday it had fired several ballistic missiles at U.S. military installations in Jordan.
Jordan’s military said its air defenses intercepted and shot down five Iranian missiles targeting the kingdom on Wednesday.
Back-and-forth attacks in recent days have ended a brief pause in the fighting, after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign and Iran appeared to follow suit.
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that its air defenses destroyed several drones targeting oil facilities in the kingdom’s Eastern Province. Iran-backed groups launched the attacks from Iraqi territory, Saudi Defense Ministry spokesperson Turki al-Maliki said.
Later in the day, U.S. Central Command and Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry said the two countries hit multiple sites across eastern Iraq that they said had been used by Iran to direct drone attacks.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) said a number of its official headquarters in different parts of Iraq were attacked on Wednesday by what it described as U.S. and Saudi forces. The PMF said preliminary reports indicated several people were killed and others wounded, with damage to a number of its buildings and facilities.
Speaking to state TV in Iran, an Iranian defense official strongly denied any connection between projectiles fired from other countries toward Saudi targets.
The unnamed military official, quoted by state broadcaster IRIB, said attributing attacks on U.S. interests in the region to Iran was a “major miscalculation.”
Oman proposes joint management of Hormuz
In an effort to resolve the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz, Oman had presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the waterway that would include collecting voluntary fees from ships.
Under the Omani proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, a Gulf source and a Western diplomat briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.
Iran effectively shut the strait after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. A deal last month between the U.S. and Iran partially reopened the strait, with future talks planned to resolve larger issues including Iran’s nuclear program. But the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on vessels using a shipping channel it does not recognize.
Türkiye is making a strategic contribution to NATO’s future security architecture through its technology development capacity, engineering expertise and defense industry cooperation, according to the chief of the top Turkish defense contractor.
Remarks by Mehmet Demiroğlu, the CEO of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), came during a panel, Perspectives from Ankara: The security and defense implications of the NATO Summit, hosted by the U.K.-based think tank Chatham House in London.
The panel addressed trends shaping the defense industry, evolving security requirements and the transformative impact of technology, Demiroğlu said on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.
Discussions also focused on joint capability development, technology integration, and cooperation among NATO defense industries, as well as Türkiye’s strategic role in this transformation.
Demiroğlu said the Turkish defense industry had moved beyond merely developing military platforms and become a strategic stakeholder in the emerging security architecture shaped by the “NATO 3.0” vision.
He said Türkiye will continue contributing to NATO’s future security architecture through its ability to develop technology, its engineering strength, and its approach to cooperation.
Production capacity central to collective deterrence
Demiroğlu said production capacity, technological development, and joint industrial projects were becoming key elements of NATO’s collective deterrence.
Under the new security paradigm, security depends not only on military strength but also on a robust defense industry, sustainable manufacturing capacity, resilient supply chains, technological superiority and cooperation among allies, he said.
Türkiye’s defense industry ecosystem is well positioned to support this approach, while TAI contributes through its indigenous platforms, engineering infrastructure and production capabilities, he added.
Demiroğlu said Türkiye had become a major producer contributing not only to its own defense needs but also to the security of friendly and allied countries.
He also stressed the importance of stronger transatlantic cooperation for European security.
“We want to see a stronger NATO with contributions from both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
Defense spending should be assessed not only by budget size but also by the capabilities developed to address specific threats, he added.
Hürjet strengthens Türkiye’s role in NATO ecosystem
Demiroğlu said the planned export of the Hürjet advanced jet trainer to Spain represented more than a commercial achievement.
The project is a strategic step strengthening the position of Türkiye’s aviation technologies within the European and NATO defense ecosystem, he said.
Hürjet can be adapted to different user requirements and conduct missions in line with NATO standards, helping deepen cooperation with allied countries, he added.
Demiroğlu said cost-effective systems that can be produced rapidly and adapted to operational needs were gaining importance alongside advanced platforms.
TAI will continue strengthening Türkiye’s global position in the defense industry while contributing to NATO’s and Europe’s future security architecture, he added.
Oman has presented Iran with a plan backed by Gulf states to manage the Strait of Hormuz, including the collection of voluntary transit fees, a report said Tuesday. The proposal could provide a basis for ending the trade disruption in the waterway caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who abruptly called off a two-week U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend in his latest strategic U-turn, said there were “good talks” underway with Iran but threatened to restart strikes unless negotiations deliver.
Iran denies seeking to resume talks with the United States. Washington launched its renewed bombing campaign earlier this month to break Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flowed before the war.
Iran effectively shut the strait to ships other than its own after the United States and Israel attacked on Feb. 28. A deal last month between the United States and Iran partially reopened it, but the agreement collapsed in early July after Iran fired on ships using a channel it does not approve.
Iran has said it wants to manage the strait alongside Oman, which controls the opposite shore, and charge service fees to ships that use it. Washington wants to return to the status quo prior to the war, when ships were able to pass freely with no payments, and says charging mandatory fees would be illegal.
Under the Omani proposal, Iran would not exercise sole control and fees would be voluntary, Reuters said, citing a Gulf source and a Western diplomat briefed on the matter.
The system would be analogous to one in place on Asia’s Strait of Malacca, where Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore ask ships to pay voluntary contributions to fund navigation, environmental protection and search-and-rescue operations.
The Western diplomat compared it to a voluntary carbon tax for flights, where anyone buying a plane ticket can choose to tick a box if they want to pay to offset their emissions.
The Gulf source said that as of Monday evening there had been no formal response from Iran to the proposal. Omani officials met Iranians in Tehran over the weekend.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi discussed the Strait of Hormuz with his Omani and Saudi counterparts on Monday and stressed the need for regional cooperation, an Iranian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Trump warns of more strikes
Trump called off his latest campaign of airstrikes after receiving advice from military commanders that the strategy had run its course. The 13 nights of renewed U.S. bombing killed scores in Iran and destroyed bridges and tunnels across the south as well as military targets.
Iran had responded with attacks on U.S. bases in neighbouring countries that killed four service members, and strikes on civil infrastructure in Gulf states that it said were in response to U.S. strikes on civilian targets.
Iran has said it would hold fire as long as Washington does. But drone attacks were reported in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and northern Iran on Monday, and Jordan reported another drone being downed on Tuesday.
Speaking on Monday, Trump expressed optimism for a deal to end the five-month conflict, while warning that U.S. strikes would resume if negotiations failed to deliver.
“I think there’s a good chance that something could happen, and if it does, good, if it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”
Iran says it has not sought any new negotiations with the United States, which it accuses of violating the agreement reached last month on a framework for talks to end the war.
The U.S. president is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Tuesday. Although Israel was involved in the initial bombing campaign, it has not been part of subsequent peace talks, and recent relations between the two leaders have been strained.
Trump has had to rein in the Israeli leader from attacking targets in Lebanon, complicating peace talks with Tehran.
The end of the U.S. bombing campaign over the weekend sent oil prices tumbling by around 8% on Monday, and the fall continued on Tuesday. Brent crude futures were down more than 2.5% at around $86 a barrel by mid-morning on Tuesday.
Washington and Tehran reached an agreement in June on a framework for talks meant to take place by the end of August to resolve major issues such as Iran’s nuclear program. But they have disputed the meaning of the memorandum’s language about the strait, with Washington insisting it requires Tehran to allow free travel, while Iran says it grants it the authority to supervise transit.
An electro-optic reconnaissance, surveillance and targeting system developed by Türkiye’s state-run defense contractor Aselsan has been integrated into the South African-developed multi-role tactical aircraft Mwari, a report said Tuesday.
That expands the Turkish company’s international footprint with ASELFLIR-500, a product the country developed indigenously following years of restrictions and embargoes on drone camera systems.
The integration enhances the capabilities of the aircraft, developed by South Africa’s Paramount Aerospace Industries, in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as target detection, tracking and designation, Anadolu Agency (AA) said, citing information provided by Aselsan.
Designed for both manned and unmanned aerial platforms, the ASELFLIR-500 combines a high-resolution mid-wave infrared camera, a daylight camera and a short-wave infrared imaging channel.
The system also features laser rangefinding, laser target designation, automatic target tracking, precision stabilization and advanced image-processing capabilities. Weighing approximately 54 kilograms, its laser rangefinder and designator have an operational range of up to 35 kilometers (22 miles).
Equipped with artificial intelligence-supported image processing, the ASELFLIR-500 enables long-range target detection and identification by processing imagery from multiple optical channels.
Its four-axis gimbal and two-axis optical stabilization system minimizes the effects of aircraft maneuvering and vibration, allowing operators to maintain a stable view of targets during missions.
The two-seat Mwari aircraft features an open architecture and plug-and-play integration approach, enabling it to be configured with a range of sensors, weapons and mission systems.
It is designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, border and coastal security, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism and precision-strike operations.
Powered by a single turboprop engine, the aircraft can carry payloads of up to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 pounds) across six underwing hardpoints. It has a maximum cruise speed of about 230 knots, a service ceiling of 21,000 feet and a mission range of approximately 1,150 nautical miles.
The integration combines Türkiye’s expertise in electro-optical systems with South Africa’s aircraft development capabilities and is expected to support Aselsan’s expansion into new export markets while enhancing the Mwari’s competitiveness in international sales campaigns.
Aselsan began serial production of the ASELFLIR-500 in 2024. The system has since been integrated into multiple aerial platforms, including the world-renowned Turkish combat drones, including Bayraktar TB2 and Bayraktar TB3, and has been exported to more than 20 countries.
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