🇮🇷🩸| "As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan 8 and 9 alone"

— Two senior officials of the country's Ministry of Health told TIME.

@ParadoxBackup

गणतंत्र दिवस की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएँ!
जय हिन्द 🇮🇳

📱 Update on Bots

— All Telegram bots can now use premium emojis in their messages. Previously, this feature was only available to bots with NFT usernames. However, it is also possible that this is just a server-side bug. - no confirmation from tg

‼️ Note: The bot owner must have a premium account to use premium emojis in their bots. If the bot owner does not have Telegram Premium, they cannot use premium emojis in the bot.

@ParadoxBackup

✴️ | ✴️ Why the $300M Telegram–Grok Deal Didn’t Happen

Telegram was in talks to integrate Grok (xAI) into the platform, but the deal never materialized.

— Talks stalled mainly over user privacy and data access concerns

— Telegram was unwilling to allow AI access to private chats and user data

— Similar discussions with Perplexity also failed for the same reasons

— Elon Musk later clarified that no final deal was signed

— Ultimately, Telegram chose not to proceed with any deep AI integration and is instead building its own decentralized AI system, Cocoon (@Cocoon).

🌟 Telegram chose privacy and control over monetization, even at the cost of big AI partnerships.

@ParadoxBackup | Source: Durov's Code

👀 Another big update is being prepared for Telegram bots.

A few days ago, Telegram allowed all bots (on production servers) to use Premium custom emojis in messages, depending on the user’s Premium status. Now, in beta, Telegram has added colored inline and keyboard buttons with custom icons.

New features in beta:

— Colored Buttons:
Bot developers can now customize the background color of keyboard buttons. Three button styles are currently available to all developers, regardless of Premium status:

• bg_primary
• bg_danger
• bg_success

keyboardButtonStyle#4fdd3430 flags:# bg_primary:flags.0?true bg_danger:flags.1?true bg_success:flags.2?true icon:flags.3?long = KeyboardButtonStyle;

— Custom Icons:
Bots can now display icons (custom emojis) inside buttons.

‼️ Note: These features are currently in beta. To use Premium-related features in bots, the bot owner must have a Telegram Premium account.

@ParadoxBackup

📱 ChatGPT Ads Update (rolling out soon!)

Ads coming to Free & Go plans (US testing starts in weeks)

— Personalized using current chat + past chats/memory + ad clicks
But: Advertisers NEVER see your chats, memories, name, email, or location

— New “About this ad” panel: hide, report, ask ChatGPT why you see it

— Ads controls in settings: toggle personalization, delete ad data, view history
Plus/Pro users stay ad-free

Privacy stays protected. Your data isn’t shared!

@ParadoxBackup

🇮🇳 India’s 2026–27 Defence Budget Hits $87 Billion — 15.3% Increase 📈

India has allocated ₹7.85 lakh crore (~$87 billion) for its defence budget in FY 2026–27, marking a 15.3% increase over the previous year’s ₹6.81 lakh crore.

➡️ Key Points:

— 4th Largest Defence Budget Globally

— ₹2.19 lakh crore earmarked for capital outlay, focusing on modernization and procurement of new equipment.

— ₹1.12 lakh crore dedicated to domestic procurement, aligning with the 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiative.

— ₹26,816.82 crore allocated to DRDO, a 12.4% increase, to bolster innovation in defence technologies.

@ParadoxBackup

🇮🇳 Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully tests Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet technology

— The breakthrough places India among an elite group with advanced long-range air-to-air weapons tech

@ParadoxBackup