August 28, 2024 6:48 am Welcome to Tuesday’s Early Edition from .More than ten years ago, Pavel Durov looked like a hero to opposition movements in Russia. The founder of the country’s most popular social network – leading him to be dubbed the “Russian Zuckerberg” – defied authorities by refusing to hand over the details of Ukrainians who had used his site in relation to anti-government protests. It is said he also refused to block the page of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Back then, the enigmatic character was known for bizarre stunts including throwing money out of his office block window in St Petersburg, and quoting The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in his eventual resignation from his job, which many at first thought was a joke. But Durov is now cast under a very different light. His platform Telegram has become a haven for far-right extremists, terrorists and other criminals. In defending it, he has become an Elon Musk-like advocate of free speech. His career arc, however, has taken yet another turn, after he was arrested by French police at the weekend in relation to an investigation linked to allegations of criminal offences facilitated by his platform. Who is he, and what implications does his arrest have? We’ll take a look, after the headlines.   Today’s news, and why it matters  Sir Keir Starmer will lay the ground work for softening Brexit by opening talks with the EU’s largest member over a new defence and trade pact. The Prime Minister will say it’s time “turn a corner” on Brexit during a visit to Berlin as he begins talks with Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Access to PE is failing children with special needs and disabilities as around 320,000 do not get enough exercise, i can reveal. It comes as the Paralympic Games commences in Paris on Wednesday, with more than 4,000 athletes from around the world set to inspire children with disabilities across the UK. Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves could head off a potentially damaging Labour rebellion over cuts to the winter fuel allowance by pledging more generous support from energy companies to fund household bills, it has emerged. While the Government has insisted it will not reverse the Chancellor’s controversial plan of means testing the winter fuel benefit, there is growing speculation of a longer-term replacement to the policy. Plant-based alternatives to meat are better for the planet and mostly healthier than products such as burgers and sausages made from animals, new research has found. There are just 100 spaces left in men’s prisons in England and Wales amid an overcrowding crisis in jails, according to reports. Male prisons are now reportedly the closest they have ever been to running out of space, according to The Telegraph which first reported the figure. Two men have been charged with murder and attempted murder over a house fire, which killed a mother and her three children. Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her three children: Denisty Birtle, nine; Oscar Birtle, five; and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle; died after their home in Bradford was set alight in the early hours of 21 August. Three questions over Pavel Durov: Who is he? As a young boy, Pavel Durov told classmates he wanted to become an ‘Internet icon’ and was known as a gifted mathematician able to crack codes. In 2006 he founded Russia’s version of Facebook, called Vkontakte. He left the company in 2014 after a long-running dispute with its Kremlin-linked owners. Announcing his resignation at the time he wrote: “The freedom of action of the chief executive in managing the company has considerably decreased. It has been harder and harder to remain with those principles on which our social network is based,” adding: “So long and thanks for all the fish”. Durov sold all his shares in the company for millions and left Russia. “For me, it was never about becoming rich. Everything in my life was about becoming free. To the extent that is possible, my mission in life is to allow other people to become free,” Durov told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview earlier this year. “I don’t want to take orders from anyone.” That site is now under state control. When he departed, his biographer said Durov “would focus on developing a new web messaging service, Telegram, which had the potential to become a global brand”. But Telegram quickly became controversial. Most notoriously, it was used to coordinate so-called Islamic State terror attacks in Paris and Berlin. In the aftermath of the Paris attack, Durov told 60 minutes: “You cannot make just one exception for law enforcement…without endangering private communications of hundreds of millions.” Durov is estimated to be worth $15.5 billion, making him the 120th wealthiest person in the world, according to Forbes. He describes himself as a libertarian, and also says he shuns material assets such as property, private planes or designer clothes. He is a vegetarian and enjoys being photographed topless (which he says is to keep up the competition with Putin). Durov, who is 39, also claims to have fathered 100 children. How has Russia reacted to his arrest? To some degree, Russia has portrayed the tussle over Durov as proof of the West’s hypocrisy on freedom of speech. Russia’s foreign ministry said it had sent a note to Paris demanding access to Durov and some government officials expressed outrage, calling it politically motivated. A Russian politician Maria Butina, who spent 15 months in US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, said Durov “is a political prisoner – a victim of a witch-hunt by the West.” His arrest led news bulletins in Russia. However former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Durov “miscalculated. For all our common enemies now, he is Russian – and therefore unpredictable and dangerous.” But his arrest – and the potential for there to be a crackdown on Telegram – could have significant implications in Russia. As the Guardian’s Russian affairs reporter notes: Telegram has remained the primary channel for dissent in Russia, especially after the outbreak of the war. Many in the Russian opposition therefore quickly expressed concerns that Durov’s cooperation with French authorities could prompt Moscow to shut down the platform domestically or open the door to similar demands to gain access to Telegram from the Russian government.” It could also have an impact on the war. Telegram has become the main source of content and propaganda from both sides, becoming what some analysts call “a virtual battlefield”. What could it mean for Farage and Musk? The X and SpaceX owner, Elon Musk, has tried to suggest Durov’s arrest is an assault on liberty, tweeting in support of him with the hashtag “#freepavel”. Nigel Farage also described the arrest as “worrying” and asked: “What next… the arrest of Elon Musk?” As Cahal Milmo writes: “Indeed, while Mr Durov is only relatively mid-ranking in a menagerie of social media big beasts led by the likes of Mr Zuckerberg and Mr Musk, the arrest of the Telegram boss has profound implications for his digital plutocrat peers and, arguably, the users of their networks. The actions by French investigators take place against a backdrop of an increasingly muscular approach to online moderation by the EU and the UK, where the Government has nodded towards stricter enforcement of new digital safety rules in the wake of this month’s far-right disorder. The increased readiness in Brussels to pursue the owners of platforms with lawsuits and enforcement has already seen Mr Musk’s Twitter/X charged with breaching the EU’s new Digital Services Act – a move which could eventually see the messaging site fined up to six per cent of its global revenues. But the arrest of Mr Durov brings this simmering tension to a new level by signalling that European countries are now willing to arrest the billionaire leaders of social media platforms and potentially hold them personally accountable for the actions of their companies.” Read the full piece here.  Founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov in Spain in 2016 (Photo: Albert Gea/Reuters)  Around the world  Ukraine has carried out its first successful test of a homemade ballistic missile, Volodymyr Zelensky has said. The Ukrainian president told a forum in Kyiv: “It may be too early to talk about it but I want to share it with you,” saying the test’s result was “positive”. Israel has announced the rescue of a hostage in a “complex operation” in Gaza. Qaid Farhan Alkadi, 52, was freed by soldiers from a tunnel in southern Gaza and is in “stable condition” as he undergoes further medical tests, Israeli authorities said. 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