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Shackled woman in Hungary court sparks Italy anger

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Italy has expressed strong concern and summoned Hungary’s ambassador after images of Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old Italian woman, shackled in a Budapest court triggered public and political outrage. Salis, accused of participating in violent assaults against neo-Nazi sympathizers in February 2023, faced restraints on her hands and feet during the court appearance. The attacks occurred following a neo-Nazi rally in Budapest, with alleged far-left militants assaulting individuals after the “Day of Honour” rally.

A video showing anti-fascist activists beating a Hungarian person circulated widely in Hungary, leading to Salis’ arrest along with two German nationals. Salis faces charges of conspiracy to commit assault causing grievous bodily harm, with a potential 11-year jail term if convicted. Her case gained attention in October when her father highlighted the harsh conditions of her detention. Images of Salis in shackles during the court hearing sparked further outrage, with an online petition garnering over 90,000 signatures demanding her return to Italy.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani summoned the Hungarian ambassador to inquire about the perceived violation of fundamental norms on detainee conditions. While Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has not commented, there are calls for her intervention. The Five Star Movement leader urged Meloni to prioritize the rights and dignity of Italians over political alliances.

Salis’ lawyer criticized the scenes in court as a clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights. Allegations of unsanitary conditions in Hungarian prisons were contested by the prison service, emphasizing high hygiene standards. However, human rights groups reported overcrowded and understaffed prisons in Hungary.

The case, dominating Italian headlines, has also attracted attention in Hungary and Europe. Concerns were raised about the use of physical restraints in court and the perceived repressive nature of Hungary’s judiciary system. The president of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties deemed the scene in the EU state’s court as “appalling.” Salis’s lawyer expressed pessimism about the trial’s outcome and called for Salis to serve pre-trial detention in Italy, citing EU law allowing citizens to be held on house arrest in their resident member country.

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Vladimir Kara-Murza: Fears for Russian activist after secretive jail move

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A lawyer representing Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was imprisoned on treason charges for criticizing the war in Ukraine, has disclosed that he has been relocated to another prison in Siberia’s Omsk region. Concerns for his safety heightened when Kara-Murza disappeared from his initial jail, prompting UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron to seek clarity on his whereabouts. Russian prison transfers are typically secretive and can take weeks.

Previously held in a penal colony in Omsk, Kara-Murza’s lawyers revealed that he was moved to a different penal colony in the same region. The British national, sentenced to 25 years in April for spreading “false” information about the Russian army and alleged affiliation with an “undesirable organization,” had been an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin and had played a significant role in advocating for sanctions against Russian officials for human rights abuses and corruption.

Kara-Murza’s wife expressed deep concern over his transfer, emphasizing that there were no apparent grounds for it. She highlighted the gravity of the situation, as her husband had previously survived two alleged assassination attempts in 2015 and 2017 through poisoning. The British government, along with the US State Department, condemned Kara-Murza’s sentencing and described him as a target of Russia’s escalating repression campaign.

The UK government summoned Russia’s ambassador and pledged to explore measures against those responsible for his detention and mistreatment. Kara-Murza, who holds British citizenship, received support from various quarters, including UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who demanded information about his whereabouts.

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Hamburg Airport hostage drama ends after 18 hours

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A hostage incident at Hamburg Airport, involving a young child, concluded after 18 hours, as stated by local authorities. On Saturday night, a 35-year-old man breached security and drove onto the airport tarmac with his four-year-old daughter. Parking beneath a plane, he surrendered to the authorities without resistance and was subsequently apprehended. The child was reported to be unharmed, according to the police.

The disruption led to delays in several inbound and outbound flights, although operations have now resumed. At approximately 20:00 local time, the perpetrator fired his weapon into the air and hurled burning bottles from the vehicle, causing a commotion. While it remained unclear if he had explosives, he halted the car close to a fully occupied commercial flight, prompting the safe evacuation of all passengers on board.

Reportedly, the individual’s motive stemmed from disagreement with authorities over custody arrangements, expressing a desire to travel to Turkey with the child. Police spokeswoman Sandra Levgruen shared that he felt his life was in disarray, as per German broadcaster ZDF. Authorities attributed his actions to an “extraordinary psychological state” due to the custody conflicts with his ex-wife. The man had previously faced allegations of kidnapping the child when he took her to Turkey without permission, resulting in an investigation last year. The mother later returned the child to Germany.

Following the incident, Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher extended his support to the mother, child, and their family. Meanwhile, the airport pledged to swiftly restore regular operations, having originally planned 286 flights with around 34,500 passengers for the day.

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Berlin Police on the Hunt for Suspected Roaming Lion

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German authorities are conducting a search for a suspected wild lioness that has been reportedly sighted in the south-western outskirts of Berlin. The animal was first spotted chasing a boar, leading to alerts from several witnesses, including a police officer. A video on Twitter, believed to be authentic by the police, showed the lioness in a forest in Kleinmachnow. Residents have been advised to remain indoors until the animal is located.

The origin of the lioness remains unknown, as local zoos, animal sanctuaries, and circuses have confirmed that no lions have escaped from their facilities. Police have extended the warning area to the south of Berlin, covering Kleinmachnow, Teltow, and Stahnsdorf. Helicopters, veterinarians, and hunters with tranquilizer guns are involved in the search, with authorities aiming to capture the animal humanely. The lioness is suspected to be resting in a wooded area at present.

While some are skeptical about the presence of a lioness, the search continues as a precautionary measure. Residents have been urged to keep their pets indoors and avoid the forest, seeking immediate shelter if they spot the elusive animal. In case of an encounter, authorities advise individuals to remain calm, stand still, and move towards a safe area such as a car or building.

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Parts Of Twitter Source Code Leaked Online: Report

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A legal document revealed that some of Twitter Inc.’s source code has been leaked, and the social media site, which is owned by billionaire Elon Musk, is looking for information on the perpetrator.
The filing claims that a user going by the name of “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” shared “multiple snippets” of the source code used to power Twitter’s online operations on Github, a platform controlled by Microsoft.
According to Github, the code was removed on Friday at Twitter’s request.

According to the March 24 complaint, Twitter has requested the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to require Github to turn over “Any identifiable information” connected to the user name “FreeSpeechEnthusiast.”

Github did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on whether it has supplied such information. It also did not comment on how long Twitter’s source code had been publicly available.A request for comment from Twitter also received no quick response. The New York Times was the first to break the news.

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Bird Statue Gets $100,000 As Elon Musk Auctions Twitter Headquarter Items

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On Wednesday, Elon Musk auctioned off furniture, decorations, kitchenware, and other items from the tech company’s downtown San Francisco headquarters. A figurine of a Twitter bird brought in $100,000.

A 10-foot neon light in the form of Twitter’s bird logo was included in an online auction of “surplus corporate office assets of Twitter” that lasted just over 24 hours and received a winning price of $40,000, the Heritage Global Partners auction service reported.

Espresso machines, ergonomically sound desks, televisions, bicycle-powered charging stations, pizza ovens, and a colourful planter in the form of a “@” sign were some of the 631 lots.

As he set out to find a new CEO for his struggling social media network, Mr. Musk claimed in December that drastic cost cutbacks at Twitter had fixed the company’s poor financial situation.

At the time, the erratic billionaire claimed in a live chat room that Twitter would have lost $3 billion annually without the reforms, which included sacking more than half of its staff.

Mr. Musk claimed that at the platform he paid $44 billion for, he had been “reducing expenses like crazy.”

Elon Musk sacked over half of Twitter’s 7,500-person workforce just a few weeks after acquiring the firm, alarming governments and advertisers and raising questions about whether the company had enough employees to handle content moderation.

He claimed that his strategy was to drastically cut expenses while increasing revenue, and that a new subscription service called Twitter Blue, which charges users for the coveted blue tick, would aid in achieving that objective.

Following Elon Musk’s takeover, there was an increase in tweets that were racist or bigoted, which attracted regulatory attention and drove away Twitter’s major advertiser base.

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Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey’s Apology Amid Elon Musk’s Change Overdrive

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A day after cutting close to 50% of its workforce, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey expressed his regret to the company’s staff today.


“Folks at Twitter past and present are strong and resilient. They will always find a way no matter how difficult the moment. I realize many are angry with me. I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly. I apologize for that,” Mr Dorsey tweeted.

Elon Musk, who last week purchased Twitter, has fired the majority of the company’s top executives, the board, and about half of its 7,500 employees. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the company’s new owner, tweeted on Friday that the site was seeing a “huge loss in revenue” as a result of the advertiser retreat, capping a week of tumult and ambiguity over the company’s future.

Jack Dorsey officially ended his association with the social network he co-founded in 2006 by resigning from the Twitter board in May of this year. Since 2007, he has served as a director. Most recently, from mid-2015 until last year, he served as CEO of Twitter.

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Twitter sued by Dutch town Bodegraven-Reeuwijk over paedophilia rumour

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A Dutch town has filed a lawsuit against Twitter for spreading the rumour that a group of paedophiles who worship Satan formerly lived there. In 2020, three men spread the first untrue information that Bodegraven-Reeuwijk was the scene of the abuse and murder of several children in the 1980s.

The primary perpetrator said he had seen the crimes when he was a young boy. He had grown up in the town close to The Hague. The posts should all be deleted, according to local officials. Numerous individuals have been drawn by the allegations to visit the town’s Vrederust cemetery and pay their respects to the graves of seemingly unrelated dead youngsters.

Prior to a hearing in The Hague District Court on Friday, Jens van den Brink, Twitter’s attorney, declined to comment. The same court ordered the three original guys to delete all tweets against the town last year, yet the allegations are still being spread.

Cees van de Sanden, the town’s attorney, claimed that Twitter had ignored a request in July for it to track down and take down all posts connected to the allegations. According to RTL Nieuws, Mayor Christiaan van der Kamp described the allegations as “extremely distressing and occasionally even dangerous for the relatives of the deceased.”

The three men who made the claims are currently in jail after being found guilty in separate incidents of inciting and issuing threats to kill several people, including Dutch Prime Minister.

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It’s official: Elon Musk has paid $44 billion for Twitter

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Elon Musk, a billionaire, has taken control of Twitter in one of the biggest tech deals in history. Musk will pay approximately $44 billion for the social network, with shares valued at $54.20. On April 14, Musk announced his takeover bid, calling it his ‘best and final offer.’

“Free speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where important issues affecting humanity’s future are discussed.” I also want to make Twitter better than it has ever been by adding new features, opening up the algorithms to increase trust, defeating spam bots, and authenticating all humans.However, Twitter initially put in place a “poison pill defence” against the hostile takeover. However, after Musk announced that he had secured funding, the Tesla board entered into negotiations with the co-founder of the company. Musk met “privately with several shareholders of the company to extol the virtues of his proposal” on Friday, according to the Wall Street Journal, and also made video calls to them to press his case.

“I hope that even my harshest critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means,” Musk said earlier today on Twitter. It’s also worth noting that Musk sent out a rather obnoxious tweet about Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Saturday, ostensibly in response to Gates shorting Tesla. More than a million people have liked the tweet. He then joked that his tweet was being reviewed by the’shadow ban council.’

On the platform, he has been a staunch supporter of ‘free speech.’ “I invested in Twitter because I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. “Twitter has extraordinary potential,” he wrote in the filing. “I’ll get it unlocked.”

Musk has already floated the idea of privatising Twitter. “If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he tweeted recently. Then came another post in which he stated that all humans on the platform should be authenticated.

The Tesla co-founder has previously spoken about the need for a ‘Edit Button’ on the platform, and even held a poll in which he purposefully misspelt yes and no, presumably to emphasise the need for an edit button given the frequent typos that people make while tweeting. It’s worth noting that Twitter has already confirmed that an Edit button will be introduced.

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