
Several Paris Jewish institutions sprayed with green paint
Police found the paint damage early on Saturday on the Shoah Memorial, which is the Holocaust museum in Paris. (AP pic)
PARIS : Five Jewish institutions were sprayed with green paint in Paris overnight and an investigation has been opened, a police source said on Saturday.
Police found the paint damage early on Saturday on the Shoah Memorial, which is the Holocaust museum in Paris, three synagogues and a restaurant in the historic Jewish neighbourhood of Le Marais, the source said.
Interior minister Bruno Retailleau said on X that he was disgusted by these 'despicable acts targeting the Jewish community'.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a post on X later on Saturday that he was 'appalled by the attack' on Jewish institutions in the French capital.
'I call on the French authorities to act swiftly, and firmly to bring the perpetrators to justice, and to defend the Jewish community from hatred and attacks of any kind,' Herzog said.
It was not yet known who committed the damage, or why. The interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment on details of the incidents.
France has seen a rise in hate crimes: last year police recorded an 11% rise in racist, xenophobic or antireligious crimes, according to official data published in March. The figures did not break down the attacks on different religions.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Free Malaysia Today
6 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
TotalEnergies on trial in landmark greenwashing case in France
Since 2021, TotalEnergies advertised its goal of 'carbon neutrality by 2050' and touted gas as 'the fossil fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions'. (AFP pic) PARIS : French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies goes on trial in Paris today over allegations of misleading climate claims, an unprecedented 'greenwashing' case against a fossil fuel firm in France. The civil case stems from a March 2022 lawsuit by three environmental groups accusing the French energy giant of 'misleading commercial practices' for saying it could reach carbon neutrality while continuing oil and gas production. Starting in May 2021, TotalEnergies advertised its goal of 'carbon neutrality by 2050' and touted gas as 'the fossil fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions'. At the time, the company had also changed its name from Total to TotalEnergies to emphasise its investments in low-carbon energy, such as electricity. The plaintiffs have logged around 40 'false advertisements' in their lawsuit. The ads 'don't sincerely reflect the reality of TotalEnergies' operations', Apolline Cagnat, a legal counsel at Greenpeace, told AFP. Cagnat said the NGOs want the court to send a 'strong signal' to fossil fuel companies by ordering 'an immediate stop, under penalty, of the misleading commercial practices'. TotalEnergies disputes the charges, insisting the messages are part of its institutional communication, regulated by financial authorities – not consumer law. It argues no consumer organisation is party to the case, and that the NGOs are misusing consumer protection rules to challenge its corporate strategy. Environmental groups in recent years have turned to the courts to establish case law on companies misleading consumers by appearing more eco-friendly than they are. In Europe, courts ruled against Dutch airline KLM in 2024 and Germany's Lufthansa in March over misleading consumers about their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of flying. In Spain, utility Iberdrola failed to secure a conviction against Spanish oil and gas company Repsol over similar allegations of 'false' environmental claims. A greenwashing case against Australian oil and gas producer Santos, challenging its claim to be a 'clean fuels' company, has been ongoing since 2021. Based on a EU directive targeting unfair commercial practices, the TotalEnergies lawsuit is the first time a French court has heard such a case against a fossil fuel company. The NGOs said the Paris court will rule, for the first time in the world, on the legality of ads presenting gas as essential to the energy transition. Climate experts say methane leaks from the gas industry have a powerful warming effect on the atmosphere. TotalEnergies maintains it has not engaged in misleading commercial practices. The company says it plans to show that its messages 'about its name change, strategy and role in the energy transition are reliable and based on objective, verifiable data'.


Malay Mail
14 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube go dark in France amid row over age verification and user privacy
PARIS, June 5 — French visitors to major adult websites Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube were met yesterday with a message denouncing privacy risks from government demands that they verify users' ages. 'Your government suggests checking your age every time you visit our site — that's crazy, right?' asked a message displayed on Pornhub in place of the platform's usual torrent of explicit content. It was topped with an image of the bare-breasted allegorical figure of Liberty brandishing the French flag from Eugene Delacroix's 1830 painting 'Liberty Leading the People'. France has this year gradually introduced requirements for all adult websites to have users confirm their age with details like a credit card or ID document, aiming to prevent minors from accessing pornography. In a bid to preserve privacy, operators must offer a third-party 'double-blind' option that would keep the platforms themselves from seeing users' identifying information. But Pornhub parent company Aylo says this is an ineffective mechanism that puts people's data at risk from bad actors, hacks or leaks. 'Requiring you to repeatedly provide sensitive personal information creates an unacceptable security risk that we refuse to impose on our users,' the message read. The platform argues that the French law also 'diverts users to thousands of sites that deliberately circumvent regulations' and that fail to moderate videos for issues like the age and consent of performers. Aylo has called for governments to instead have makers of operating systems like Apple, Microsoft and Google verify users' ages at the level of individual devices. An 'age signal' from the operating system could then be used to grant or deny access to adult content without compromising privacy, the company argues. 'Let (Pornhub, YouPorn and RedTube) go,' France's digital affairs minister Clara Chappaz said in a statement. 'They can come back the day they're ready to finally respect our rules.' Women's rights group Osez le feminisme (Dare to be Feminist) said in a statement that 'this multi-billion-dollar industry prefers to mobilise its resources to fight any attempt at regulation... rather than give up the free, unconditional access that feeds its business model.' — AFP


Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Microsoft says to step up AI-powered European cybersecurity
Microsoft has accused Russia, China, Iran and North Korea of being behind the infiltration of European computer networks for espionage. (EPA Images pic) PARIS : US tech giant Microsoft said today that it would step up its cooperation with European governments against cyber threats, including by deploying AI-powered intelligence gathering. Its new European Security Programme 'puts AI at the centre of our work as a tool to protect traditional cybersecurity needs,' Microsoft vice chairman Brad Smith wrote in a blog post. Aiming to deliver real-time intelligence about cyber threats to governments, the scheme will extend to the '27 EU member states, as well as EU accession countries, members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the UK, Monaco, and the Vatican,' he added. Microsoft accused the governments of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea of being behind the infiltration of European computer networks for espionage and other purposes. Meanwhile, cybercriminals are expanding attacks using tools such as ransomware, which encrypts data on victims' computers and demands they fork over cash to unlock it again. 'We see 600 million attacks on our customers every single day,' Smith told reporters in a briefing ahead of the blog post's release, calling cyber defence a 'multi-billion-dollar expense for customers across Europe'. 'AI systems can help detect and identify new forms of attack,' Smith wrote in his blog post. However, Microsoft has seen malicious actors using the technology for everything from researching targets to writing code and 'social engineering' – or convincing human employees to facilitate access by hackers. ''Influence operations' by nation-states are increasingly using AI to mislead and deceive, including with convincing 'deepfake' images, audio and video,' Smith added. The company itself 'tracks any malicious use of new AI models we release and proactively prevents known threat actors from using them,' he wrote. Microsoft last month helped police across Europe take down large swathes of digital infrastructure supporting an 'infostealing' network, Lumma, that had been gathering sensitive information like passwords and crypto wallets from victims' devices. In future, members of the company's digital crimes unit will be embedded with Europol's cybercrime specialists in The Hague, Smith wrote, part of a broader increase in collaboration with European security forces. Microsoft's cybersecurity effort is part of a wider push to increase its operations in Europe. The drive comes as trade tensions simmer between the EU and the Trump administration in the US, with many voices questioning European firms' strategic dependence on American-made technology.