Author: Alan Lorenz

German Police Arrest 25 Right-Wing Extremists Who Wanted to Storm Parliament and Commit a Coup

7Dec

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

German Police Arrest 25 Right-Wing Extremists Who Wanted to Storm Parliament and Commit a Coup

Twenty-five right-wing extremists were arrested in Germany on Wednesday morning who allegedly wanted to commit an armed coup. This was announced by a spokesman for the federal prosecutor's office. As part of a significant operation, some three thousand German police officers carried out raids on more than 130 locations on Wednesday morning: in eleven of the sixteen German states and also in Italy and Austria. The group reportedly wanted to storm the Reichstag and stage a coup. "The accused are part of a terrorist organization founded in November 2021, which set itself the goal of overthrowing the existing government in Germany and replacing it with its form of government, which they had already devised," said the Generalbundesanwalt. . For example,,, those responsible for new mi...

Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China

28Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

Business, China, News, US

Apple Falls on Lower Wall Street on Unrest in China

The American technology group Apple was under pressure on the stock exchanges in New York on Monday. The company relies heavily on China to produce its devices, and investors are concerned about the social unrest arising in that country over the strict corona measures. In major Chinese cities, people took to the streets to protest President Xi Jinping's zero-covid policy. Apple lost 1.4 percent. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the unrest at Apple's largest iPhone production site in China may result in a production slump of 6 million devices. However, a lot depends on how quickly Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that operates the factory, can get people back on the assembly line after the violent protests against the corona measures. Electric car manufacturer Tesla, which h...

Car Hits Group of People in England: Two Dead, Two Injured

21Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

News, UK

Car Hits Group of People in England: Two Dead, Two Injured

In the English municipality of Oldbury, near the city of Birmingham, a car drove into a bunch of people on Sunday evening. A nineteen-year-old man and a sixteen-year-old girl were killed, the police announced on Monday. A man and a woman, both aged between 20 and 30, were critically injured. Police have arrested a 54-year-old man. The police are calling on eyewitnesses not to share pictures and videos of the incident on social networking sites. It is requested that these images be made available to the researchers.

The European Commission Wants to Intervene in the Event of High Gas Prices

17Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

Business, Europe, News

The European Commission Wants to Intervene in the Event of High Gas Prices

The European Commission is proposing to EU countries to introduce a “correction mechanism” for gas prices to temporarily apply a maximum price during periods of “exceptionally high prices” on the European gas market. The ceiling for the European wholesale price should be predefined concerning the cost of liquefied gas (LNG) on the world market and adjusted monthly. The correction mechanism is activated if the gas price on the leading Amsterdam gas market exceeds the maximum and is automatically deactivated as soon as possible, the committee writes in a plan submitted to the EU ambassadors. She argues that the temporary mechanism should prevent suppliers from selling their gas elsewhere, which would jeopardize supplies in the EU. EU leaders have asked the executive board of th...

OPEC Sees More Uncertainties in Oil Market

14Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

Business, News

OPEC Sees More Uncertainties in Oil Market

Oil cartel OPEC sees increasing uncertainty in the global oil market and is again adjusting its forecast for oil demand downwards. The organization points to, among other things, high inflation, corona restrictions in China, recession concerns and interest rate hikes by central banks, which could affect oil demand. Oil demand is now expected to increase by 2.55 million barrels per day this year. That is 100,000 less per day than previously thought. It is the fifth time since April that OPEC has lowered its forecast for oil demand for this year. Expectations for next year were also lowered. "The global economy entered a period of significant uncertainty and increasing challenges in the fourth quarter of 2022," OPEC said in its monthly report. As a result, the oil cartel is wor...

Twitter Invents New Verification Checkmark

9Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

News, Technology, US

Twitter Invents New Verification Checkmark

Twitter seems to be returning to previous plans around the verification check marks. Paid unverified check marks will be added, but Twitter also wants to roll out an extra check mark to recognize the authentic accounts of, for example, governments. Just days after the first announcement of plans for a paid subscription to Twitter, the messaging service appears to be addressing some of the criticisms of those plans. For those lucky enough to have missed all the fuss: it revolves around (among other things) 'blue checkmarks', the check mark next to someone's account name on Twitter. Currently, only accounts whose identity has been verified by the company will receive such a checkmark. Therefore, the check marks are used by, for example, government organizations and public figures,...

Elon Musk Bans People Who Impersonate Him on Twitter

7Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

News, Technology

Elon Musk Bans People Who Impersonate Him on Twitter

Pretending to be someone else without clearly stating it is a parody is no longer possible on Twitter. That has the new boss Elon Musk announced. Such parody accounts will be permanently suspended. The announcement came after several users impersonated Musk himself. Elon Musk goes through Twitter with a coarse brush. After a major layoff, he is now also fighting people who imitate him on Twitter. "In the future, all Twitter addresses that engage in impersonation without clearly identifying 'parody' will be permanently suspended. Previously, we issued a warning before suspending, but now that we are introducing widespread verification, there will be no more warning," the new Twitter boss tweeted Monday night. And he immediately turned that measure into reality. American actres...

2Nov

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

News, Technology

Dropbox Code Partially Stolen

Part of the Dropbox code was stolen in a phishing attack. The company itself has announced this. Online vault service Dropbox says attackers have accessed and copied some 130 of the company's private repositories at Github. As a result, the source code and some of Dropbox's API data were stolen. However, customer data, passwords and payment information would not have been stolen. "We believe the risk to customers is minimal," Dropbox said in a statement. The leak was discovered on October 13 when Github noticed suspicious behaviour with Dropbox's corporate account. After an investigation, Dropbox now says it has been the victim of a phishing attack. The attackers created a fake login page for the coding platform CircleCl. Dropbox employees use the same login in Github as they do...

Eurozone Economy is Still Growing, But at a Slower Pace

31Oct

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

Business, Europe, News

Eurozone Economy is Still Growing, But at a Slower Pace

The economy in the eurozone continued to grow in the third quarter, reports the European statistical office Eurostat. However, growth is less strong than in the second quarter, when the economy was still progressing strongly due to the reopening of the economy after the corona restrictions. Meanwhile, high inflation and interest rate hikes to limit this depreciation also affect economic growth. The eurozone economy was 2.1 percent larger in the third quarter than a year earlier. Across the European Union, the economy had grown 2.4 percent. However, in both areas, growth compared to the second quarter was 0.2 percent. Portugal had the strongest annual growth at 4.9 percent of the countries that already provided data. The economy in Latvia has already contracted. Major economie...

US Federal Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Claims

27Oct

By Alan LorenzNo Comments

News, Technology, US

US Federal Investigation into Tesla Autopilot Claims

The US Justice Department wants to find out whether Tesla misled its customers with claims about the self-driving capabilities of its cars. The research focuses on the Autopilot software. The Department of Justice started an investigation into Tesla's driver guidance software as early as 2021, the Reuters news agency reported. The so-called Autopilot is sold as 'fully self-driving' in the United States. According to CEO Elon Musk, the software makes Tesla the safest car on the market. However, US regulators do not fully agree. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), among others, has already contradicted the claims. And now, the Ministry of Justice is also going into more detail. According to Reuters, the government wants to determine whether Tesla has misled...