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Academics issue tougher guidelines while trying to clear space for political debate

Universities across the US are tightening rules on protests, raising fresh concerns over free speech and faculty governance at the start of the new academic year as they brace for further campus tensions linked to the conflict in Gaza.

As students begin to arrive on campus after a spring marked by fierce protests, clashes and arrests at many leading institutions, officials are seeking ways to limit renewed troubles and learn the lessons of the past few months.

They are under intense scrutiny from politicians, alumni and donors as well as their own faculty in the build-up to November’s US presidential election and the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

John King, chancellor of the State University of New York, said: “You have to worry. We have been preparing table top exercises, and exploring civil discourse on how to express different views respectfully and appropriately.”

Many leaders are seeking to stress the importance of free speech and respect for others, on pain of tough disciplinary measures for those who disrupt university life.

In a note to students, staff and faculty, Santa Ono, president of the University of Michigan, highlighted its students’ responsibilities and commitments to freedom of expression. “One person’s right to protest must not infringe on the rights of others, endanger our community or disrupt the operations of the university,” he warned.

Institutions including New York University have resolved to enforce sanctions on students judged in violation of their codes of conduct during disruptive demonstrations in recent months, and to consolidate future disciplinary hearings into a single centralised team.

They are mindful of the fallout from protests and pressure in recent months, which have cost at least three Ivy League presidents their jobs. Many more leaders face lawsuits and regulatory investigations linked to claims that they responded inadequately to antisemitic or anti-Muslim actions.

Some of the fallout has landed in the courts: a federal judge this month issued an injunction preventing the University of California — the scene of clashes between demonstrators and with police in April — from allowing pro-Palestinian protesters to block Jewish students from accessing campus buildings.

Critics of student protests have called for tough action against harassment. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a conservative-leaning non-profit, has issued guidance recommending rules “forbidding encampments and harassment and establishing sanctions for infractions” and rebuffing calls for divestment from Israel — one widespread demand from many pro-Palestinian student protests.

Harvard University, whose president Claudine Gay resigned at the start of this year after criticism of how the institution handled the protests, is among those that has strengthened and pulled together in one place rules for students. It warns that practices including camping, chalking messages or the use of amplified sound are forbidden without prior authorisation.

But others are concerned about restrictions on students and faculty autonomy. The Association of American University Professors has warned that colleges have “hastily enacted overly restrictive policies . . . [which] impose severe limits on speech and assembly that discourage or shut down freedom of expression” and curtail the rights of students and faculty.

Risa Lieberwitz, a professor of law at Cornell University and the association’s general counsel, singled out the University of Pennsylvania, whose president resigned last December. Its new “temporary standards” restrict the use of bullhorns and require prior registration and approval of events in public spaces such as its central Locust Walk, including a security assessment two weeks in advance. It outlaws encampments and overnight demonstrations. Penn declined to comment.

She said: “We are seeing multiple schools adopting new restrictions on speech without respecting governance procedures. They will discourage protests, have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and threaten harsh sanctions without due process.”

“We can strongly infer [the rules] are made to appease politicians calling for the use of a heavy hand on protests, donors and boards of trustees,” she added. “It’s this external audience that universities seem to be most concerned about.”

Alongside tougher measures designed to limit disruption, universities are seeking to enhance formal education for students on topics including the history of the Middle East and foster greater tolerance for different views outside the classroom.

Caroline Mehl, chief executive of the Constructive Dialogue Institute, a nonprofit she founded with the academic Jonathan Haidt in 2017, said it had seen a surge in interest in its training programmes for college administrators, faculty and students in recent months, and it was now working with 88 universities across the country.

“We have been growing really rapidly this past year,” she said. “Ever since October 7 and the congressional hearings, there has just been a surge in demand for our work.”

One Ivy League administrator hoped the effects of Covid-19 — which created a generation isolated during lockdowns and more aggressive and less socially integrated afterwards — could be on the wane in the incoming student cohort.

Yet history, location and the nature of students and faculty mean some universities, such as Columbia, whose president Minouche Shafik just resigned, and Harvard, are likely to remain in the spotlight in the weeks ahead.

Dealers say many car shoppers who are interested in going electric still want the security of a gas engine

The plug-in hybrid, long a fringe technology in the car business, is gaining some traction.

As automakers slow-walk plans to roll out more fully electric vehicles in response to lighter-than-expected consumer interest, more are embracing plug-in hybrids, which run on battery power for about 20 to 40 miles before reverting to a gas engine.

The technology has been on the market for more than a decade, but sales hadn’t taken off until recently. Some automakers shied away from offering them because of the added cost and engineering complexity—they essentially require two ways to power the car, packed under one hood. The relatively small number of models available also were pricier than gas-powered cars, limiting their appeal.

Now, car companies are finding more reasons to offer plug-in hybrids, which provide another path beyond full EVs to meet tougher U.S. tailpipe-pollution rules.

Ford Motor F 3.21%increase; green up pointing triangle said this past week that it canceled plans for a fully electric large SUV and instead will offer hybrid versions, potentially including plug-ins.

The number of plug-in-hybrid models on sale in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 2019, to 47, according to automotive-research site Edmunds. These include well-known nameplates, such as the Toyota 7203 0.64%increase; green up pointing triangle RAV4 and Ford Escape compact SUVs.

Dealers say some car shoppers who are interested in going electric still want the security of a gas engine. Buyers also are finding that, with hefty support from automakers and the federal government, plug-in hybrids can sometimes be the cheapest option.

Bria Adams, a 28-year-old firefighter from Central Massachusetts, once considered herself a “naysayer” on electric vehicles. This past spring, though, she pounced on a plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler at her local dealership that was about $200 a month cheaper to lease than the gas SUVs she browsed.

Adams said the Jeep is surprisingly quiet when running on electricity. “It was definitely a switch from driving pickup trucks for most of my life,” she said.

Toyota Motor in the early 2000s popularized conventional hybrids with its original Prius, which combines a small battery and motor to assist the gas engine and improve fuel efficiency. Plug-in hybrids like the Prius Prime take the concept further, with batteries large enough to power the car on electricity alone for short trips.

A few years ago, plug-in hybrids seemed destined to fade as the industry rushed to develop full EVs. Now some automakers are giving them another look, partly because EV demand has been lighter-than-expected.

For example, General Motors GM 4.54%increase; green up pointing triangle was one of the first companies to offer a plug-in hybrid with its 2010 launch of the Chevrolet Volt. The Detroit automaker phased out the Volt in 2019, declaring its future in EVs. Now GM plans to bring back plug-in hybrids, starting in 2027.

Plug-in hybrid sales in the U.S. jumped 59% in the first quarter of this year from a year earlier, and their share of the overall market—while still small—has roughly doubled since 2022, to 2.4%, according to research from Cox Automotive.

The technology is growing at a faster rate globally, led by China, where plug-in hybrids are projected to account for 15% of the market this year, according to consulting firm AlixPartners.

In the U.S., much of the growth of plug-in hybrids has been driven by regulations, analysts say.

The Jeep Wrangler and Grand Cherokee alone accounted for about one-third of U.S. plug-in hybrid sales during the first half of 2024, according to data from research firm Motor Intelligence.

Yet, there is “limited natural demand” among Jeep customers for electric range in their rugged SUVs, said John Morrill, who owns Planet Chrysler Jeep Dodge in Franklin, Mass. Sales of the plug-in Jeeps are supported by “very aggressive” manufacturer discounts of up to $12,000 a vehicle, plus a $7,500 federal tax credit if the vehicles are leased, he said.

“A lot of people come in and say, ‘I don’t want a hybrid,’ ” Morrill said. But after the salesperson explains it is $70 cheaper a month than the gas version, “they say, ‘I’ll take the hybrid.’ ”

Global automaker Stellantis STLA 3.07%increase; green up pointing triangle, parent company of Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chryser, has paid hefty federal fines for failing to meet emissions rules in the past, a byproduct of its fuel-thirsty vehicle lineup. The company, which only this year started selling a fully electric vehicle in the U.S., is leaning into plug-in hybrids as a way to comply with state and federal laws.

Stellantis in recent years has limited the stock of regular, gas-only Jeeps for Morrill and other dealers in about a dozen states that have adopted California’s stricter emissions rules.

“Plug-in hybrids balance the need to reduce vehicle emissions and offer consumers an entry point to electrified vehicles,” a Stellantis spokesperson said.

Now, federal regulatory changes will ensure more plug-in hybrids hit the market in coming years, auto executives and analysts say.

The Environmental Protection Agency in March completed new tailpipe-emissions thresholds to crack down on pollution limits for model years 2027 through 2032. The EPA said plug-in hybrids would likely play a bigger role in helping the industry hit those targets than the agency originally envisioned.

Mainly because of the EPA rules, Toyota will expand its plug-in hybrid lineup from the RAV4 and Prius, while making plug-ins more widely available, said David Christ, group vice president at Toyota Motor North America.

German auto giant Volkswagen VOW3 0.50%increase; green up pointing triangle is strongly considering plug-in hybrids for its U.S. lineup, said Lyndon Lie, executive vice president of Volkswagen Group of America. For now, it is a better business than EVs, he said.

“You can make money on a [plug-in hybrid] or at least break even…and give the customer something that they are more comfortable with,” he said.

Plug-in hybrids have their detractors. Some clean-energy advocates say they have fewer environmental benefits than advertised because many drivers don’t plug them in and rely mostly on the gas engine.

Adams, though, routinely charges her Wrangler at her firehouse, and loves saving on gas. “And I feel like I’m doing a little bit for the environment,” she said. “A tiny amount.”

Investment in maker of ‘low-cost cruise missiles’ a sign of Silicon Valley’s shifting stance towards the arms industry

Y Combinator, the San Francisco start-up incubator that launched Airbnb, Reddit, Stripe and Coinbase, is backing a weapons company for the first time, entering a sector it has previously shunned.

Ares Industries, which launched last week, has pitched its “low-cost cruise missiles” as suited for use in a potential war between the US and China in the Taiwan Strait. The start-up claims that US weapons stockpiles would be exhausted within weeks in such a conflict, and that “recent conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have shown that our weapons are too large, too expensive for the wars of today”.

Ares’ founders, Alex Tseng and Devan Plantamura, say their $300,000 anti-ship cruise missiles “will be 10x smaller and 10x cheaper” than today’s alternatives. On the YC website, Tseng’s biography consists of a single sentence: “Missiles are cool.”

The pair did not respond to a request for comment.

Underwriting weapons is a departure for Y Combinator, a finishing school for founders that has become one of Silicon Valley’ pillars over its 19-year history. YC has historically backed software start-ups, ecommerce businesses and financial technology companies.

Against the backdrop of conflict in Europe and the Middle East, technology investors have ditched red lines against investment in military hardware. They have also been encouraged by the emergence of a crop of fast-growing companies that want to update America’s armoury in return for a slice of an annual defence budget of roughly $800bn.

The US defence industry is dominated by an oligopoly of contractors such as Raytheon and Boeing that receive an overwhelming majority of government contracts.

Anduril Industries, the most prominent defence tech start-up, raised $1.5bn this month to accelerate the production of autonomous weapons for the US military and its allies. That investment was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, one of the first big venture capital firm to embrace defence technology.

Since then, venture investment has flooded in from mainstream companies such as Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst. In the past year, Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent firms, made its first investments in defence and weapons. It backed Mach Industries, which makes hydrogen weapons, and Neros, a drone-maker aiming to boost the supply of quadcopters to Ukraine for use in data gathering, mine clearing and offensive missions.

There is “a very interesting situation where geopolitical heat and the end of zero-interest rate policies have made people become more pragmatic,” said the founder of one start-up that was in the same group of YC-funded companies as Ares. The response to the weapons company among other founders in the group had been positive, they added. “People support builders doing cool, hard stuff.”

Rather than building massive, complex weapons systems, the start-ups are focused on cheaper weapons and drones that can be produced quickly at scale. Anduril’s new funds will go towards a network of weapons factories which the company says will adopt the manufacturing techniques used by Tesla to boost production.

Jared Friedman, a partner at YC, said the company started actively encouraging defence tech start-ups to apply earlier this year. “Why now? It’s not that we wouldn’t have funded this earlier, but simply that this is the first time that a great company like this applied,” he said.

Philip Lane wary of amount of relief central bank will be able to provide borrowers

The European Central Bank’s chief economist has cautioned that the bank’s goal of getting inflation back to 2 per cent is “not yet secure” as he said interest rates will need to stay restrictive for the time being.

Philip Lane told the Kansas City Federal Reserve’s annual global symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that there had been “good progress” so far in taming price pressures across the Euro area. Yet, he struck a circumspect tone about how much relief the ECB will be able to provide borrowers.

“The return to target is not yet secure,” he said on a panel on Saturday. “The monetary stance will have to remain in restrictive territory for as long as needed to shepherd the disinflation process towards a timely return to the target.”

The ECB was one of the first movers among central banks in advanced economies to begin easing policy, cutting its key deposit rate by a quarter-point in June. It was the first such move in almost five years.

Markets expect the ECB to lower interest rates twice more this year, with the next move set for September.

Lane’s comments come as his peers in the US and Bank of England debate how much to lower interest rates now that inflation has come down and labour markets have started to soften.

Speaking at Jackson Hole on Friday, Fed chair Jay Powell sent his strongest signal to date for a September rate reduction, saying “the time has come for policy to adjust”.

“The direction of travel is clear, and the timing and pace of rate cuts will depend on incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks,” Powell said.

Later on Friday, Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey said he was “cautiously optimistic” about inflation, but it was “too early to declare victory” after an extended period of elevated price rises.

The BoE lowered interest rates in August in a knife-edge vote and is expected to hold rates unchanged in September, with another cut priced in for November.

Now that inflation has retreated, policymakers appear increasingly focused on safeguarding their respective economies from undue harm.

Lane said the return to the inflation target needed to be “sustainable”.

“A rate path that is too high for too long would deliver chronically below-target inflation over the medium term and would be inefficient in terms of minimising the side-effects on output and employment,” he said.

Top London investor undergoes restructuring after departure this year of ex-Tiger fund manager Johnny de la Hey

Toscafund, one of London’s leading investment firms, is undergoing a restructuring and retreating from its two-decade focus on financials after the departure this year of ex-Tiger hedge fund manager Johnny de la Hey.

The company has culled its financials marketing specialists and will focus on managing private equity, small and medium-sized UK company stocks and global equities, according to people close to the firm.

It marks the end of an era for Toscafund, formed in 2000 by de la Hey and Martin Hughes, who made their names as financials experts at Tiger Management.

Tiger was one of the City’s first hedge funds established by Julian Robertson in 1980. As Tiger alumni, de la Hey and Hughes were dubbed “Tiger cubs”.

The restructuring of Toscafund, known for its successful bets on banking stocks until it came unstuck during the financial crisis, comes after de la Hey parted ways with the company in March.

That followed a tough period for de la Hey’s $350mn financials hedge fund, Tosca, which also bet against stocks through short positions.

The company confirmed at the time that it had closed down Tosca and other funds run by de la Hey to return money to shareholders.

As a result, the firm has also closed its office in Australia and axed its New York-based marketing team, which were both focused on raising money for de la Hey.

According to Companies House, de la Hey has set up a company called Hunters Moon. He did not respond to requests for comment.

De la Hey said in a note to Tosca investors before leaving that operating as a long-short equity manager in the financials sector had become more challenging because of the increase of cheap index-tracker funds, among other factors, according to London-based media group Citywire.

City grandee John McFarlane, who previously chaired Aviva and Barclays, has also stepped down from the board of Toscafund’s holding company, Old Oak, according to company documents. A source close to the firm said this was also due to his age; McFarlane is 77.

Old Oak, in which Hughes is majority shareholder, also owns private equity firm Penta Capital which, together with Toscafund, have about £8bn in private companies.

As part its strategic shift, Toscafund has hired three portfolio managers, including Marshall Wace’s Sangeeta Gomez, to help run its global equity fund.

Toscafund — chaired by Martin Gilbert, co-founder of Aberdeen Asset Management, which became Abrdn — has made successful bets on taking companies private, such as healthcare group Circle, which it took off the market with Penta Capital in 2017 before selling out a few years ago.

The firm also took telecoms firm TalkTalk private in 2021 with founder Sir Charles Dunstone and Penta Capital. This month, TalkTalk agreed a refinancing deal with its lenders, which involved a capital injection from its backers, including Toscafund.

In addition, it has stakes in private companies such as digital lender Atom Bank, where de la Hey still sits on the board.

The company’s success in the financials sector ran into trouble during the financial crisis, when it made a series of bets in the spring of 2008 on financial stocks. But the view on the sector recovering proved to be premature.

Other “Tiger cubs” include Bill Hwang, who opened the family office Archegos Capital Management, which collapsed in 2021.

Toscafund declined to comment

Activity dries up amid Beijing’s listings crackdown and planned US investment curbs

Most of the world’s biggest private equity firms, including Blackstone, KKR and Carlyle, have put the brakes on deals in China this year as geopolitical tensions rise and Beijing exerts tighter control over business.

Dealmaking in the world’s second-largest economy has slowed significantly, with just five new investments — mostly small — by the 10 largest global buyout firms this year.

The figures underscore how quickly overseas investors’ enthusiasm for China, once a hot market, has waned in recent years. The same 10 firms collectively made 30 investments in the country as recently as 2021 and similar numbers in earlier years, but the numbers have fallen every year since then. This year, seven of the 10 have made no new investments at all, the figures from Dealogic show.

“China has been a roller coaster for investors, with geopolitical tensions, regulatory unpredictability and economic headwinds,” said Kher Sheng Lee, Asia-Pacific co-head for the Alternative Investment Management Association.

While the country’s rapid growth had fuelled a “gold rush” in the past, “today, it’s more like panning for gold with a magnifying glass and tweezers”, he said.

For much of the past decade, firms rushed to gain exposure to a large and fast-growing market, buying stakes in Chinese companies that could later list in the US and netting their investors a large windfall.

But since the ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing’s troubled New York initial public offering in 2021, Beijing has cracked down on overseas listings, leaving investors with fewer ways to cash out.

China’s slowing growth has deterred investors, as have planned US restrictions on private equity investment in some Chinese technology.

“Geopolitical constraints such as outbound investment rules make China increasingly look radioactive as an investment market despite its opportunities,” said Han Lin, China country director at consultancy The Asia Group.  

The data covers the 10 largest buyout groups by funds raised for private equity over the past decade, ranked by Preqin. It excludes those that have done no deals in China, as well as Vista Equity Partners, which has done just one deal in the country. It includes real estate deals.

Dealogic also counts some deals struck by companies that private equity groups later acquired. Private equity firms do not always disclose their deals, and any undisclosed investments may be missing from the data.

Warburg Pincus, once one of the most active US private equity firms in China — which has bought stakes in Ant Group and classifieds site 58.com — has not done a deal in China this year and struck just two in each of the previous two years, down from 18 in 2017 and 15 in 2018.

With the exception of a small proposed deal this year to boost its stake in a supply chain management company, Blackstone, whose founder and chief executive Stephen Schwarzman is among the most well-known foreign dealmakers in China, has not done a private equity deal in the country since 2021, according to the Dealogic figures.

Private equity dealmaking has slowed globally as rising rates have made the industry’s debt-fuelled model more expensive. But the number of deals struck by the 10 firms has fallen more sharply in China than globally in recent years.

Apart from Blackstone’s supply chain deal, Advent and Bain are the only firms among the 10 to have agreed deals in the country this year, according to the data.

Advent invested in Shanghai-based conference and exhibitions group VNU Exhibitions Asia and Seek Pet Food, a Chinese pet food manufacturer.

Fedrigoni, a packaging products group in which Bain owns a stake, did the remaining two of this year’s five deals, buying stakes in Quzhou paper mill owner Arjowiggins and radio-frequency identification (RFID) company BoingTech.

A Bain spokesperson said the firm had “conviction in our core themes in China, including industrials, renewables and consumer services” and that “attractive valuations and the need for growth capital offer additional opportunities”. The other firms declined to comment.

Jean Salata, chair of EQT’s Asia business, told the Financial Times in June that the “bar is high” for investing in China.

The pace of offshore listings of Chinese companies has slowed since an investigation into Didi after its IPO and new mainland rules governing listings.

“The IPO market’s deep freeze has left many fund managers in China stranded,” Lee said. “When you can’t float your company, you’re looking at other exit routes, which are often less lucrative . . . maybe trade sales or mergers will gain traction, but the absence of a robust IPO market will probably weaken returns.”

Last year, US President Joe Biden signed an order to restrict US investment in China’s quantum computing, advanced chips and artificial intelligence sectors in an effort to cut the flow of US capital and expertise to the Chinese military, a move that has hit investors’ appetite.

Le milliardaire franco-russe de 39 ans faisait l’objet d’un mandat de recherche émis par des enquêteurs français visant diverses infractions de sa messagerie cryptée. Il devrait être présenté à la justice dimanche.

Le patron de Telegram, Pavel Durov, a été interpellé, samedi 24 août en soirée, à l’aéroport du Bourget, près de Paris, un mandat de recherche étant émis contre lui par des enquêteurs français visant diverses infractions de sa messagerie cryptée, ont fait savoir des sources proches du dossier, confirmant une information de TF1 et LCI.

Accompagné de son garde du corps et de son assistante qui le suivent en permanence, le milliardaire franco-russe de 39 ans a été interpellé entre 19 h 30 et 20 heures. Il venait de Bakou et devait passer au moins la soirée à Paris où il avait prévu de dîner, a ajouté une autre source proche du dossier.

Pavel Durov, naturalisé français en 2021 par le biais d’une procédure exceptionnelle, devrait être présenté à la justice dimanche.

L’Ofmin, chargé de la lutte contre les violences faites aux mineurs, avait émis un mandat de recherche, au titre du service coordinateur d’une enquête préliminaire associant divers services enquêteurs, pour des infractions allant de l’escroquerie, au trafic de stupéfiants, au cyberharcèlement, à la criminalité organisée en passant par l’apologie du terrorisme et la fraude, a expliqué une des sources proches du dossier.

Absence de modération

La justice reproche à Pavel Durov de ne pas agir (absence de modération et de collaboration avec les enquêteurs) contre les utilisations délictuelles de sa messagerie par ses abonnés. « Ça suffit l’impunité de Telegram », s’est félicité un des enquêteurs, étonné que le milliardaire, sachant qu’il était recherché en France, ait décidé quand même de venir à Paris.

La messagerie en ligne lancée en 2013 par Pavel Durov et son frère Nikolaï, sur laquelle les communications sont chiffrées de bout en bout et dont le siège social se trouve à Dubaï, s’est positionnée à contre-courant des plates-formes américaines, critiquées pour leur exploitation mercantile des données personnelles. Elle s’est engagée à ne jamais dévoiler d’informations sur ses utilisateurs.

Lors d’une de ses rares interviews, Pavel Durov a raconté en avril à Dubaï avoir eu l’idée de lancer une messagerie cryptée après avoir subi de nombreuses pressions des autorités russes à l’époque de VK, un réseau social qu’il a créé dans son pays d’origine avant de le vendre et quitter la Russie en 2014.

Risque de circulation virale de fausses informations

Il a dit avoir ensuite essayé de s’installer à Berlin, Londres, Singapour et San Francisco avant d’opter pour Dubaï, dont il a loué l’environnement des affaires et la « neutralité ». « Je pense que nous faisons du bon travail avec Telegram, avec 900 millions d’utilisateurs qui dépasseront probablement le milliard d’utilisateurs mensuels actifs d’ici un an », a-t-il affirmé.

Dans l’émirat du Golfe, Telegram s’est mise à l’abri des règles de modération des Etats, à l’heure où l’Union européenne comme les Etats-Unis mettent la pression aux grandes plates-formes pour supprimer le contenu illégal.

Avec ses groupes de discussion pouvant accueillir jusqu’à 200 000 personnes, la messagerie est parfois accusée d’augmenter le potentiel viral des fausses informations et la prolifération de contenus haineux, néonazis, pédophiles, complotistes ou terroristes.

Le milliardaire franco-russe de 39 ans faisait l’objet d’un mandat de recherche émis par des enquêteurs français visant diverses infractions de sa messagerie cryptée. Il devrait être présenté à la justice dimanche.

Le patron de Telegram, Pavel Durov, a été interpellé, samedi 24 août en soirée, à l’aéroport du Bourget, près de Paris, un mandat de recherche étant émis contre lui par des enquêteurs français visant diverses infractions de sa messagerie cryptée, ont fait savoir des sources proches du dossier, confirmant une information de TF1 et LCI.

Accompagné de son garde du corps et de son assistante qui le suivent en permanence, le milliardaire franco-russe de 39 ans a été interpellé entre 19 h 30 et 20 heures. Il venait de Bakou et devait passer au moins la soirée à Paris où il avait prévu de dîner, a ajouté une autre source proche du dossier.

Pavel Durov, naturalisé français en 2021 par le biais d’une procédure exceptionnelle, devrait être présenté à la justice dimanche.

L’Ofmin, chargé de la lutte contre les violences faites aux mineurs, avait émis un mandat de recherche, au titre du service coordinateur d’une enquête préliminaire associant divers services enquêteurs, pour des infractions allant de l’escroquerie, au trafic de stupéfiants, au cyberharcèlement, à la criminalité organisée en passant par l’apologie du terrorisme et la fraude, a expliqué une des sources proches du dossier.

Absence de modération

La justice reproche à Pavel Durov de ne pas agir (absence de modération et de collaboration avec les enquêteurs) contre les utilisations délictuelles de sa messagerie par ses abonnés. « Ça suffit l’impunité de Telegram », s’est félicité un des enquêteurs, étonné que le milliardaire, sachant qu’il était recherché en France, ait décidé quand même de venir à Paris.

La messagerie en ligne lancée en 2013 par Pavel Durov et son frère Nikolaï, sur laquelle les communications sont chiffrées de bout en bout et dont le siège social se trouve à Dubaï, s’est positionnée à contre-courant des plates-formes américaines, critiquées pour leur exploitation mercantile des données personnelles. Elle s’est engagée à ne jamais dévoiler d’informations sur ses utilisateurs.

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Lors d’une de ses rares interviews, Pavel Durov a raconté en avril à Dubaï avoir eu l’idée de lancer une messagerie cryptée après avoir subi de nombreuses pressions des autorités russes à l’époque de VK, un réseau social qu’il a créé dans son pays d’origine avant de le vendre et quitter la Russie en 2014.

Risque de circulation virale de fausses informations

Il a dit avoir ensuite essayé de s’installer à Berlin, Londres, Singapour et San Francisco avant d’opter pour Dubaï, dont il a loué l’environnement des affaires et la « neutralité ». « Je pense que nous faisons du bon travail avec Telegram, avec 900 millions d’utilisateurs qui dépasseront probablement le milliard d’utilisateurs mensuels actifs d’ici un an », a-t-il affirmé.

Dans l’émirat du Golfe, Telegram s’est mise à l’abri des règles de modération des Etats, à l’heure où l’Union européenne comme les Etats-Unis mettent la pression aux grandes plates-formes pour supprimer le contenu illégal.

Avec ses groupes de discussion pouvant accueillir jusqu’à 200 000 personnes, la messagerie est parfois accusée d’augmenter le potentiel viral des fausses informations et la prolifération de contenus haineux, néonazis, pédophiles, complotistes ou terroristes.

Warning from EU task force comes after Houthis claim to have struck vessel carrying 150,000 tonnes of crude

Parts of the Red Sea face the risk of a “severe ecological disaster”, an international naval force has warned after Yemen’s Houthis apparently deliberately blew up an oil tanker laden with 150,000 tonnes of crude oil.

The EU’s Aspides task force gave the warning on Saturday after the Houthis on Friday posted a video of what they said was an explosion on the 274-metre long ship set off by its fighters. The task force is made up of members from the bloc working to combat the threat from Iran-backed Houthis to international shipping.

The Sounion’s crew were rescued from the vessel on Thursday by a French naval vessel operating as part of Aspides. The ship had been left drifting after a series of attacks by the Houthis the previous day, 77 nautical miles west of the port of Hodeidah.

The blowing up of the ship marks a new tactic for the Houthis. Since the group began its campaign against international shipping last November, it has sunk two ships — the Rubymar, attacked in February, and the Tutor, struck in June. However, it has not previously deliberately blown up an abandoned ship.

The Aspides statement, posted on X, said there was no fire visible on the ship when its forces rescued the crew. The naval force did not acknowledge the Houthis’ claim to have blown up the ship.

But it said: “On August 23, the vessel was on fire as the result of an attack by an unknown source, posing a significant environmental threat due to the large volume of crude oil on board, which could lead to a severe ecological disaster with potentially devastating effects on the region’s biodiversity.”

The statement gave no assessment of how much ecological damage had already been caused.

But it concluded: “This situation underlines that these kinds of attacks pose not only a threat against the freedom of navigation but also to the lives of seafarers, the environment, and subsequently the life of all citizens living in that region.”

The video posted on a Houthi X account on Friday evening showed huge explosions ripping through a vessel bearing the words “Delta Tankers”, the name of Sounion’s Greece-based owners.

The Houthis’ spokesman, Yahya Sare’e, posted the footage with words describing it as showing the Yemeni Navy — the name the group gives to its own naval forces — burning the Sounion. The post said its owners had violated the Houthis’ bans on using ports in “occupied Palestine”, as they call Israel.

The Houthis have portrayed their campaign as an effort to support Palestinians in Gaza following Israel’s response to the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. The hundreds of attacks on commercial ships have prompted many international shipping groups to reroute vessels away from the strategic route through the Red Sea and Suez Canal linking the Middle East and Asia with the Mediterranean and Europe.

The Sounion’s 150,000-tonne cargo would be around the full capacity of a vessel of its type — about 1mn barrels.

A communications agency representing Delta Tankers reiterated the company’s previous insistence that it was seeking to salvage the ship.

“Delta Tankers is doing everything it can to move the vessel and cargo,” the agency said, after publication of the Houthis’ video.

It had previously insisted the Sounion suffered only “minor damage” in a series of missile strikes on Wednesday.

It was the Houthis’ first successful attack on a commercial ship since it struck the Tutor on June 12, which killed a mariner as well as sinking the ship.

The sinkings of the Rubymar and the Tutor posed less environmental threat because they were carrying dry bulk cargoes, rather than environmentally damaging oil.