
Macron's Approval Rating Rises Slightly to 29%, Ifop Poll Shows
The figure for his prime minister, Francois Bayrou, remained stable compared with last month's survey at 27%. This is down from a peak of 39% in February.

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Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gerry Adams donates €100k BBC libel payout to 'good causes'
GERRY Adams has said he has made donations to 'good causes' after the BBC paid the former president 100,000 euro (£84,000) in defamation damages. The broadcaster lost a defamation case earlier this year after Adams took them to court over a 2016 episode of its Spotlight programme and an accompanying online story. It contained an allegation that Adams sanctioned the killing of former Sinn Fein official Denis Donaldson. READ MORE: UK Government backs down on demand to access US Apple user data, spy chief claims Adams denied any involvement. In May, a jury at the High Court in Dublin found in his favour and awarded him 100,000 euro (£84,000) after determining that was the meaning of words included in the programme and article. Johnsons Solicitors, which represented Adams in his action, confirmed that the BBC has discharged the order of the court in relation to the compensation to their client. Adams said he intended to donate any damages awarded to good causes. READ MORE: Netanyahu 'primarily responsible' for October 7 attack, Israeli genocide scholar says The law firm said donations have been made to 'Unicef for the children of Gaza', local Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) organisations, a support group for republican prisoners and their families called An Cumman Cabhrach, to the Irish language sector, to the 'homeless and Belfast based-youth, mental health and suicide prevention projects', and others. The BBC, which was found by the jury not to have acted in good faith, nor in a fair and reasonable way, was also ordered to pay the former Sinn Fein leader's legal costs, potentially in the order of millions. However, it is understood that the final costs have yet to be determined.


Gizmodo
an hour ago
- Gizmodo
UK Official Calls for Age Verification on VPNs to Prevent Porn Loophole
A U.K. government official wants tougher rules to stop kids from using VPNs to dodge the country's latest online safety laws. The Online Safety Act, which went into effect this summer, puts new legal pressure on online platforms, including search engines and social media sites, to protect users from harmful content. The laws are mostly aimed at keeping children away from porn and other 'harmful' material tied to self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders. One of the act's main provisions is that pornography sites and platforms with user-uploaded content must use technology to verify or estimate a user's age. That typically means requiring people to upload a government-issued ID or a photo of themselves to prove they meet the age requirement. But users have already found ways around these new digital checkpoints. Some crafty gamers discovered they could use the photo mode in Death Stranding to trick age verification systems on Reddit and Discord. Most, though, are simply turning to virtual private networks (VPNs), which reroute internet traffic through servers in other countries and hide a user's real IP address. That makes it easy to get around the age verification requirements. Interest in VPNs spiked in the UK the week after the laws took effect on July 21, according to Google Trends. Now, one official is pushing to close the VPN workaround. Dame Rachel de Souza, England's children's commissioner, told BBC Newsnight on Monday that VPNs are 'absolutely a loophole that needs closing' and called for age checks on the services themselves. In a new report, de Souza recommended requiring age verification for the use of VPNs. The report argues the move would help stop underage users from accessing porn. A survey conducted right before the law took effect found that about 70% of children had seen pornography online, with X (formerly Twitter) cited as the most common source. The report also flagged the violent nature of much of the porn kids are exposed to, with 58% of respondents saying they had seen porn depicting strangulation before turning 18, and 44% reporting seeing depictions of rape of a person sleeping. 'This is having an impact on children's view of what is normal sexual behaviour,' the report argues. A government spokesperson told the BBC that there are no plans to ban VPNs, 'but if platforms deliberately push workarounds like VPNs to children, they face tough enforcement and heavy fines.' In the U.S., nearly half of the states have passed laws requiring porn sites to use age verification systems. Nine states have also approved rules forcing social media platforms to demand either age checks or parental consent for minors.


New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Macron Calls Putin a ‘Predator' and an ‘Ogre'
Hardening his tone as talks to end the war in Ukraine gather pace, President Emmanuel Macron of France called Vladimir V. Putin, the Russian president, 'a predator, and an ogre at our doorstep.' The statement, made in an interview with the French TV news network LCI that was broadcast on Tuesday, was consistent with Mr. Macron's recent warnings that Mr. Putin is not to be trusted. But it was blunter and harsher than his previous characterizations of the Russian leader. The remarks represented a considerable shift from the warmth between the two men six years ago, when Mr. Macron invited Mr. Putin to the Brégançon fort, the summer retreat of French presidents that is on the southern coast of France. Mr. Macron declared after that meeting that the 'architecture of security' between the European Union and Russia needed reinvention to take account of Russian strategic concerns. Speaking after the meeting in Washington on Monday between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, which Mr. Macron and other European leaders attended, the French president called Mr. Putin 'a destabilizing force' who 'needs to eat for his own survival.' This appeared to be an allusion to the 2022 Russian invasion aimed at swallowing Ukraine and to Moscow's earlier predations in Crimea and Georgia. Mr. Macron called Russia a potential threat for many European countries and warned their leaders not to be naïve. 'I am not saying that France will be attacked tomorrow, but the menace is there for Europeans,' he said. In effect, Mr. Macron appears to be playing bad cop to Mr. Trump's good cop, siding emphatically with Mr. Zelensky and repeatedly expressing pessimism about Mr. Putin's willingness to reach a peace settlement that is not a Ukrainian capitulation. Mr. Macron has clearly been angered by Mr. Putin's broken promises, including a pledge the Russian leader made to him not to send troops into Ukraine just before the full-scale invasion. The French leader also views the defense of Ukraine as an absolute condition for the strong and resilient Europe he seeks to build in light of American unpredictability under Mr. Trump.