Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the messaging app Telegram, was arrested in Paris over the weekend over allegations that his platform is being used for illicit activity such as drug trafficking and the distribution of child sexual abuse images.

Durov, who was born in Russia, spent much of his childhood in Italy and is a citizen of France, Russia, the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis and the United Arab Emirates. He was taken into custody at Paris-Le Bourget Airport in France on Saturday after landing from Azerbaijan.

Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 14 people, half of them children.

The Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said three children and their mother were killed in an airstrike late Monday in the Tufah neighborhood of Gaza City. It said three other people were missing after the strike.

Israel’s government has extended housing grants for Israeli evacuees and families of hostages by one month until the end of September, as the war drags on with no immediate end in sight.

Thousands of Israelis are still living in temporary housing as the war nears its 11th month. They have been displaced in the south by ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and in the north from Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has met with top Israeli defense leaders and visited the Israeli military’s Northern Command headquarters.

Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey, Brown’s spokesperson, said the chairman met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Israeli Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi in Tel Aviv, and he participated in operational updates with Israeli army senior leaders.

Israel and Hezbollah pulled back after an exchange of heavy fire over the weekend that briefly raised fears of an all-out war.

But their decades-long conflict is far from over, regional tensions linked to the war in Gaza are still high, and it's probably only a matter of time before another escalation.

Ahead of Taylor Swift's July 14, 2023, concert in Denver, Aditi Desai, chief marketing officer at the Food Bank of the Rockies, got an unusual call. The billionaire pop star wanted to donate tens of thousands of meals to the nonprofit — a philanthropic effort she had repeated, much like her favorite songs, as she traverses the country on her 52-city Eras Tour.

"I was shocked and then thrilled by the news," Desai said. "When (Swift's representatives) shared the news, they were so kind, letting us know that Taylor wanted to express her gratitude for the work we do in our community every day."

Justin Bieber, who rose to international stardom in 2010 with his hit "Baby," has welcomed one of his own with his wife, Hailey Bieber (nee Baldwin).

The singer, 30, posted a photo of a baby's foot Friday on Instagram, revealing the child's name as Jack Blues Bieber. The model, 27, reshared the post on Instagram Stories. It's not clear when the baby was born; a representative for Hailey Bieber told The Associated Press on Friday night that no further details were available.

Before he died this week, French film icon Alain Delon once suggested he wanted his beloved sheepdog Loubo buried with him. To the relief of animal lovers around France, Loubo will be allowed to survive.

Delon, an internationally acclaimed and prolific actor and producer, died Sunday, aged 88, and will be buried on Saturday at his family home in Douchy, south of Paris.

After World War II, Black people in Houston found the rare chance to buy a nice home in the new community of Pleasantville, Texas. But in the years that followed, officials routed the Interstate 610 loop with its tailpipe exhaust along one side of Pleasantville and cement plants and other heavy industry grew nearby.

Just days after taking office in 2021, the Biden administration made huge promises to heavily polluted Black, Latino, Indigenous and lower income areas like this, known as environmental justice communities.

On a remote tallgrass prairie in North Dakota, a secretive orchid pokes up from the ground. You'll only find it if you know where to look.

The striking, bright white blooms of the western prairie fringed orchid are elusive to fans who try to catch a glimpse — and as a threatened species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, it is also a puzzle for researchers trying to learn more about the orchid's reproduction and role in its ecosystem.