US diplomat Dorothy Shea corrected herself after saying Israel’s government had “spread chaos, terror and suffering” across the Middle East during her statement at the UN Security Council. Shea went on to blame Iran for the conflict with Israel, saying they should have agreed to a deal.
Published On 20 Jun 2025
Over 100 Gen Apha kids are set to one day become overnight millionaires—and they may not even know it.
That’s because the 40-year-old Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, has six “official” children with three different partners; but he’s also been donating to a sperm clinic for 15 years, which told him he has helped conceive over 100 babies across 12 countries. And luckily for them, they’ve just been included in Durov’s $13.9 billion will, despite potentially not knowing their wealthy biological father.
“I wrote my will very recently,” Durov told French publication Le Point in a recent interview. “I make no difference between my children: there are those who were conceived naturally and those who come from my sperm donations. They are all my children and will all have the same rights! I don’t want them to tear each other apart after my death.”
That means his at least 106 children could each earn around $132 million for being related to the Russian-born entrepreneur. But they’ll have to wait a long time before inheriting that fortune.
“I decided that my children would not have access to my fortune until a period of thirty years has elapsed, starting from today,” Durov continued. “I want them to live like normal people, to build themselves up alone, to learn to trust themselves, to be able to create, not to be dependent on a bank account.”
Give Legacy, a sperm and fertility clinic, tells Fortune whether or not they know they’re set for the windfall from their biological dad depends on whether Durov was a “directed donor,” known to the birth parent, or an “anonymous donor” with tighter regulations.
“Identity verification is reasonably straightforward. Paternity tests can confirm that Pavel is the father,” says Khaled Kteily, CEO of Give Legacy. “Anyone who believes that Pavel is their biological father could submit a sample to verify. Depending on each country’s laws as well as relationships with the birth mother, the child could already be made aware.”
Russian-born Durov founded Telegram in 2013—a messaging app divorced from government-requested censorship. But he had to flee his home country in 2014 after refusing to comply with demands to shut down opposition communities on another popular communications platform he had founded, VKontakte. Once he left, he invested all his energy into building up Telegram.
While boundless free speech can allow diverse political and social opinions to thrive, a lack of moderation on the platform has led to some serious issues.
In August of 2024, the Telegram founder and CEO was placed under formal investigation in France. It was alleged that he was complicit in running a platform that enabled an organized gang to perform illicit transactions. Durov was also accused by French prosecutors of complicity in the organized distribution of sexual images of children on Telegram.
Indicted on six charges in total, he was barred from leaving France without permission during the investigation, but was later authorized to move to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he holds dual-citizenship and runs his platform. Durov’s lawyer, David-Olivier Kaminski, told BBC that it was “absurd” to accuse his client of being involved “in criminal acts that don’t concern him either directly or indirectly.”
Telegram has also been criticized for reportedly allowing disinformation and extremism to spread, including neo-Nazi ideologies and pedophilic material.
Fortune reached out to Telegram for comment.
When it comes to passing immense wealth down to kids, Durov stands out in a crowd of nepotism-conscious leaders. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, worth $176 billion, plans to leave less than 1% of his fortune to his children.
“My kids got a great upbringing and education, but less than 1% of the total wealth because I decided it wouldn’t be a favor to them,” Gates said on the Figuring Out With Raj Shamani podcast earlier this year. “It’s not a dynasty, I’m not asking them to run Microsoft. I want to give them a chance to have their own earnings and success.”
Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, who was married to late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, also won’t be forking over her $14.1 billion estate to her kids. And Guy Fieri—one of the wealthiest hosts in food TV history, with a $100 million Food Network contract—said his kids won’t get a dime unless they work for it.
“If you want any of this cheese, you’ve gotta get two degrees,” Fieri said in an interview with Fox News this year. “None of this, that I’ve been building, are you gonna get unless you come and take it from me.”
A training camp for the Senegalese women’s basketball team in the US has been scrapped, with the West African nation’s prime minister saying he cancelled it because some of the squad were denied US visas.
Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said the team would now train in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, “in a sovereign and conducive setting”.
It comes amid reports that the US plans to impose fresh travel restrictions on 25 more African countries, including Senegal.
Earlier this month the US announced a ban on citizens from 12 countries, including seven from Africa. There were also partial travel restrictions on nationals from a further seven countries, with three from Africa.
The Senegalese basketball team had planned to train in the US for 10 days to warm up for the 2025 Women’s AfroBasket tournament in Ivory Coast next month.
But the visa applications for five players and seven officials were not approved, according to a statement from the federation.
This prompted an angry response from the prime minister.
“Informed of the refusal of issuing visas to several members of the Senegal women’s national basketball team, I have instructed the Ministry of Sports to simply cancel the ten-day preparatory training initially planned in the United States of America,” Sonko said on Thursday in a statement shared to social media.
It is not clear why the visas were denied.
A US State Department spokesperson told the BBC it could not comment on individual cases because visa records are confidential under American law.
Senegal has one of the best women’s basketball teams in Africa – consistently reaching the final four in AfroBasket tournaments and boasting players from top leagues in the US, Europe and Egypt.
The visa refusals are raising eyebrows because, according to the recently leaked diplomatic cable containing details of the extended travel restrictions, targeted countries were given up to 60 days to address the concerns raised by the US.
These reportedly include people overstaying their visas, lack of co-operation with deportations, links to terror attacks in the US, antisemitism or what it termed “anti-American” activity.
Following the reported new travel restrictions, Senegal’s foreign ministry urged nationals to comply with their permitted periods of stay in the US.
Although it did not directly comment on Senegal’s possible inclusion in the latest list of restricted countries, the government statement underscored that diplomatic and consular services were working in close collaboration with the US administration.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yussuf Tuggar said the expanded travel bans could impede possible energy and rare earth mineral deals which West African countries can offer the US.
The Trump administration insists national security concerns and the high rate of visa overstays from some countries must be addressed.
Swim of the Week is brought to you by arena, a SwimSwam partner.
Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Thai swimmer Kamonchanok Kwanmuang had a standout swim in the final of the women’s 200 butterfly this week at the French Elite Championships in Montpellier, becoming the first swimmer from her nation to break 2:10 in the event.
Kwanmuang was the runner-up in the final in a time of 2:09.70, lowering her own Thai Record of 2:10.68 set at the 2023 Asian Games.
The 20-year-old had previously been 2:11.46 in 2025, doing so at the Canet stop of the Mare Nostrum Tour in May, which put her in position to qualify for the 2025 World Championships as she was comfortably under the ‘B’ cut of 2:13.73. Her swim in France came within a half-second of the ‘A’ standard, which stands at 2:09.21.
Split Comparison
| 2023 Asian Games | 2025 Mare Nostrum – Canet | 2025 French Elite Champs |
| 29.47 | 29.86 | 29.93 |
| 1:02.82 (33.35) | 1:03.77 (33.91) | 1:02.74 (32.81) |
| 1:36.75 (33.93) | 1:37.75 (33.98) | 1:36.16 (33.42) |
| 2:10.68 (33.93) | 2:11.46 (33.71) | 2:09.70 (33.54) |
Kwanmuang now ranks 33rd in the world in 2025, and will have a chance to earn a second swim at the World Championships for the second straight year after 2:10.82 was the cut-off for a berth in the semi-finals at the 2024 Olympics.
Kwanmuang has represented Thailand at the last three World Aquatics Championships, earning a career-high 12th-place finish in the 200 fly at the 2024 Worlds in Doha. She also placed 17th in the 400 IM in 2022 and 20th in the 200 fly in 2023.
At the 2023 World Junior Championships, she placed 6th in both the 200 and 400 IM, 9th in the 200 fly, 12th in the 100 fly and 16th in the 200 free.
In addition to her runner-up finish in the 200 fly at the French Elite Championships, Kwanmuang also placed 2nd in the 400 IM (4:45.00), less than a second shy of her National Record of 4:44.04, and also topped the 200 IM ‘B’ final in 2:16.85, with her Thai Record sitting at 2:14.79.
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arena has revolutionized the world of aquatic sport through insightful collaboration with world class athletes and the development of cutting edge competitive swimwear since 1973. Today, this spirit of collaboration and innovation lives on through a continuous evolution of advanced materials and Italian design that improves the performance, style and expression of all those who chose arena. From leading the lanes to living in style, arena is dedicated to providing all swimmers with the tools they need to express themselves, feel confident, win and achieve more. Because in arena, you can.
If there’s one resource we’re running out of in the fight against global warming, it’s time. That’s why, as countries prepare for the next climate summit with decarbonization goals in focus, scientists and engineers are exploring more direct methods to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide in the short term. One such approach gaining attention is carbon sequestration, which can accelerate the process without replacing the use of renewable energy or indirect strategies like reforestation.
This article explores five key carbon sequestration technologies:
The core idea behind carbon capture and storage is to trap and store carbon before it’s released from industrial facilities. This can be done in several ways, from post-combustion gas separation to oxy-combustion—where pure oxygen is used to produce nearly pure CO2.
Once captured, the carbon can either be injected into geological formations deep underground or converted into raw materials for other industrial processes.
Direct air capture (DAC) offers more flexibility, as it involves placing large machines in almost any location to suck in air and capture CO2 using liquid solvents or solid sorbents that bind to carbon. Once captured, CO2 is released via pressure or heat, after which it’s stored or repurposed as a raw material, similar to the CCS method. Although this technology is currently expensive, future cost reductions are anticipated.
Since plants naturally absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, another strategy involves using biomass to capture carbon. Agricultural residues or plant matter with high carbon content are converted into biofuels to produce heat or electricity, or burned directly. During combustion, carbon capture techniques—similar to those used in CCS—are applied, such as underground storage or conversion into raw materials. The result is a net reduction of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Mineralization is one of the more recent carbon sequestration techniques, relying on natural chemical reactions to turn CO2 into solid, stable carbonates. This reaction typically occurs with minerals like basalt or olivine. In industrial settings, this process is used to create calcium carbonate, which is added to cement to produce carbon-negative concrete.
The ocean has enormous potential for natural CO2 sequestration. In fact, along with forests and agricultural soils, oceans are among the planet’s largest carbon sinks, absorbing a quarter of global emissions. Some researchers propose artificially enhancing this capacity. Two approaches include:
Currently, the high costs and potential environmental risks of these methods make them impractical for large-scale use. However, other approaches are available to reduce CO2 emissions in industrial processes.
One example is using industrial slag to reduce the amount of CO2 needed to produce concrete. ACCIONA’s green concrete used in the Port of Cádiz, for instance, generates 27% fewer emissions.
To learn more about carbon sequestration strategies and technologies that reduce environmental impact, subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.
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BTS will return as a complete seven-member group in March 2026, marking the end of a hiatus that started in 2022 when the members entered mandatory military service.
That’s according to The Korea Herald, which reported that timeline on Wednesday (June 18), citing a source’s confirmation from a HYBE official.
“BTS’ comeback date is set for March next year,” the official reportedly said.
The report comes as Suga, the final member to serve, is set to complete his 18-month military service on Saturday (June 21). His discharge will officially end the chapter on the group’s military commitments, allowing them to resume activities as a group.
Over a week ago, RM and V were discharged from the military in Chuncheon City, South Korea, after joining in December 2023, according to multiple news outlets out of South Korea and overseas.
BTS’s oldest member, Jin, was discharged in June 2024, while J-Hope finished his service in October 2024. Meanwhile, Jimin and Jung Kook are reportedly set to complete their service on June 11.
News about BTS’s imminent comeback sent HYBE’s stock to a three-year high on June 10 to KRW 309,000 ($225). The stock has since eased to KRW 304,000 ($221) on Wednesday (June 18).
Meanwhile, another source told The Korea Herald: “While the exact date is unknown, I think it will be mid-March. I heard BTS is returning in the same month as their brother group Tomorrow X Together.”
“It could be BTS first, then TXT — or the other way around.”
The nine-month preparation window is in line with statements from HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang during the company’s March shareholder meeting. At the time, Lee said: “We’re preparing alongside top-tier producers, but the artists also need time to reflect and prepare.”
Enhypen, managed by HYBE subsidiary Belift Lab, moved their planned March comeback to January to avoid conflicts with BTS activities, another source reportedly told The Korea Herald.
Ahead of the reported return, Jin, the group’s eldest member who completed his service in June last year, is set to kick off his solo fan concert tour, Runseokjin_EP.Tour, beginning June 28-29 in Goyang, Gyeonggi province. The tour spans 18 performances across nine cities — including Chiba and Osaka in Japan, Anaheim, Dallas, Tampa and Newark in the US — through August 10.
Jin and J-Hope, who also returned to civilian life in 2024, have released solo projects since HYBE went on hiatus, while maintaining limited public appearances.
On May 16, Jin released his second solo album, titled Echo. He partnered with TikTok last month for a campaign introducing multiple in-app experiences on the platform. In November last year, Jin also partnered with the ByteDance-owned platform on a multimedia campaign in support of his first solo album, Happy.
Jimin also dropped two albums while BTS was in hiatus. He released Face in March 2023 and Muse in July 2024. Jimin also teamed up with TikTok on an in-app hub to promote Muse last year.
News of BTS’s break as a group in 2022 rattled investors, with the company’s shares falling by around 25% that day, wiping around $1.5 billion from HYBE’s market cap value in the process.
With the group’s absence, HYBE’s operating profit dropped 37.5% YoY to KRW 184.82 billion ($135.55 million) in FY 2024, which the company attributed to, among other factors, “BTS‘ temporary break.”
Music Business Worldwide
Nikol Pashinyan’s visit marks Ankara and Yerevan’s second attempt at reconciliation.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is on a rare visit to Istanbul to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in what Yerevan has described as a “historic” step towards regional peace.
The visit forms part of the two countries’ efforts to normalise ties strained over historical disputes and Ankara’s alliance with Azerbaijan, which has been in a long-simmering conflict with Armenia.
“This is a historic visit, as it will be the first time a head of the Republic of Armenia visits Turkiye at this level. All regional issues will be discussed,” Armenian parliament speaker Alen Simonyan told reporters on Friday. “The risks of war [with Azerbaijan] are currently minimal, and we must work to neutralise them. Pashinyan’s visit to Turkiye is a step in that direction.”
Pashinyan’s visit comes a day after Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks in Turkiye with Erdogan, during which he praised the Turkish-Azerbaijani alliance as “a significant factor, not only regionally but also globally”, and Erdogan reiterated his support for “the establishment of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia”.
Baku and Yerevan agreed on the text of a peace deal in March, but Baku has since outlined a host of demands, including changes to Armenia’s constitution, that it wants met before it will sign the document.
Pashinyan is scheduled to meet Erdogan at Istanbul’s Dolmabahce Palace at 15:00 GMT, Erdogan’s office said.
An Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the AFP news agency that the pair will discuss efforts to sign a comprehensive peace treaty.
The regional fallout from the Israel-Iran conflict, which began last Friday when Israel launched several waves of air strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities and military sites, will also be discussed.
Armenia and Turkiye have never established formal diplomatic ties, and their shared border has been closed since 1993.
Relations between the two nations have been historically strained over the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire – atrocities historians and Yerevan say amount to genocide. Turkiye rejects the label, contending that while many people died in that era, the death toll is inflated and the deaths resulted from civil unrest.
Ankara has also backed its close ally, Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, in the long-running Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia. This region, which had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia in the late 1980s. In 2020, Turkiye backed Azerbaijan in its second war with Armenia, which ended after six weeks with a Russia-brokered peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of the region.
Pashinyan has actively sought to normalise relations with both Baku and Ankara.
Ankara and Yerevan appointed special envoys in late 2021 to lead a normalisation process, and resumed commercial flights in 2022 after a two-year pause.
Earlier this year, Pashinyan announced Armenia would halt its campaign for international recognition of the 1915 mass killings of Armenians as genocide – a major concession to Turkiye that sparked widespread criticism at home.
Pashinyan’s first visit to Turkiye was to attend Erdogan’s inauguration in 2023.
This is Ankara and Yerevan’s second attempt at reconciliation. Turkiye and Armenia reached an agreement in 2009 to establish formal relations and open their shared border, but the deal was never ratified because of strong opposition from Azerbaijan.
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The writer is director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme
Three men — Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — stand at the centre of the unfolding war between Israel and Iran. Each has wielded ideological conviction, personal style and strategic instinct to shape their leadership trajectories. Now, their egos and world views are colliding, with consequences for the wider Middle East. In war, it’s not just policies that matter — personalities do too. Indeed, the ambitions of leaders often steer history more than armies or institutions.
Khamenei, now 86, has spent more than three decades at the helm of the Islamic republic. While often cast as a cautious cleric who rose by default after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989, he has demonstrated shrewd adaptability and a consistent strategic vision. His leadership is marked by deep suspicion of the west and an unwavering belief in the Islamic republic’s mission as the vanguard of resistance against western imperialism and Israeli aggression at the expense of the Iranian people.
Under Khamenei, the Islamic republic has transformed from an inward-looking theocracy to an ambitious actor that has projected regional power through its destabilising network of militias in Iraq and Syria and proxy networks in Lebanon and Yemen.
Khamenei’s personality — calculating and ideologically rigid — has been both an asset and liability. It allowed the regime to endure threats on Iran’s borders during the 2001 and 2003 US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. His instinct, honed by years of survival in a volatile region, has been to avoid full-scale escalation and play for time. While he did support negotiations prior to the 2015 nuclear deal, he remained perpetually suspicious of US intentions — always fearing Washington’s broader goal was regime change.
This distrust sabotaged Iran’s small window of opportunity after the 2015 nuclear deal. Rather than empower moderates such as then president Hassan Rouhani, Khamenei maintained a hostile posture. This included ramping up nuclear enrichment, backing strikes against Saudi oil facilities and bolstering allied militias like Hamas, Hizbollah and the Houthis, all while increasing rounds of brutal repression at home.
In recent months, Khamenei has supported negotiations with the Trump administration in the hope of rescuing Iran’s economy from international sanctions, corruption and mismanagement. He was hoping to rehabilitate his flailing legitimacy by planning for succession. But Israel’s strikes mark a rupture.
Now, he faces the greatest challenge of his tenure: a war that threatens his regime’s carefully fortified foundations. If this further destabilises the regime or if Khamenei is seen as capitulating, it could mark the end of Iran’s theocratic model.
Meanwhile Netanyahu, the most polarising figure in Israeli politics, has made it clear that such regime capitulation, if not regime change, is a key objective. He has built his career on charisma, polarising rhetoric, an uncanny ability to outmanoeuvre rivals and a reading of history that depicts Jews as perpetually under siege. This worldview defines his response to both diplomacy and war. His opposition to the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, stance on Iran’s broader threat to Israel’s security and eventual support for the Abraham Accords are driven more by personal conviction than Israeli popular opinion.
In the wake of Hamas’s brutal October 7 attacks and the devastating war in Gaza, Netanyahu has been accused of allowing domestic divisions to distract from security threats and has faced international isolation. But his instinct remained to project strength, avoid compromise and outlast his enemies. Now he is widely seen as the man who took the fight directly to Tehran.
Finally, there is Trump, whose presence looms large over this crisis. Impulsive and transactional, it was his 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal — after direct lobbying from Israel and Gulf leaders — and begin a maximum pressure campaign that forced Tehran into a corner.
Trump’s foreign policy has lacked consistency but not impact. His rapport with Netanyahu helped catalyse the 2020 Abraham Accords, a vision for Israel’s integration into a new Middle East. Yet his approach also hollowed out US credibility, leaving allies worried about America’s reliability and rivals like Khamenei unable to navigate his unpredictability. Rather than showing consistent leadership, Trump has left the world guessing about US military action in Iran. “I may do it. I may not do it,” he said, promising a decision in the next two weeks, further perpetuating anxiety.
This conflict is more than a military confrontation; it is a clash of ageing leaders now keen to secure their legacies. Khamenei, Netanyahu and Trump have paved the road to war with decades of miscalculation and brinkmanship. Much will now hinge on whether Netanyahu believes his legacy requires total victory, whether Khamenei concludes that survival demands escalation or compromise, and whether Trump accelerates a regional reckoning.
Their instincts over the coming days will not only determine the outcome of this war, but potentially the future of the Islamic republic, the credibility of US power and the stability of an already fractured Middle East.
The Israel-Iran war: how far will it go? Join an FT subscriber webinar with Sanam Vakil and FT experts on Wednesday June 25 at 1300-1400 BST (1200-1300 GMT) and put your questions to our panel
Niger’s military junta says it will nationalise the majority French-owned local uranium company in the latest escalation in a row between the two countries.
Somaïr is operated by French nuclear fuels company Orano, which Niger accuses of several “irresponsible acts”.
Since seizing power in 2023, Niger’s military leaders have said they want to keep more local control of the country’s mineral wealth, and have distanced themselves from France, the former colonial power, moving closer to Russia.
Niger is the world’s seventh largest producer of uranium and has the highest-grade ores in Africa.
“This nationalisation will allow for healthier and more sustainable management of the company and, consequently, optimal enjoyment of the wealth from mining resources by Nigeriens,” the junta said in a statement.
Orano has not yet commented.
The company, which has operated in Niger for decades, owns a 63% stake in Somaïr but last year the military authorities seized operational control of the firm.
According to the Reuters news agency, Orano, which is owned by the French state, has launched legal action against Niger over its actions.
Niger achieved independence from France in 1960 and the former colonial power managed to secure exclusive access to Niger’s uranium supply through various agreements.
Analysts say this was seen by many in Niger as a symbol of the country’s continued domination by France.
However, they also note that any uncertainty over the mining sector’s future could threaten hundreds of jobs, as well as export earnings.
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