Concern as India orders phone manufacturers to preload govt app

India has ordered smartphone makers to pre-install a government-run cyber security app that cannot be removed, a move that has raised concerns about users’ privacy.The country has a massive 1.16 billion mobile phone users, according to government data from 2024, and authorities say the app will better protect them from fraud.Late on Monday, New Delhi gave manufacturers 90 days to comply with new rules saying the app “Sanchar Saathi” — meaning communication partner in Hindi — must be “pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India”.The order, detailed in a press release, also asked phone makers to ensure the app was “readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup and that its functionalities are not disabled or restricted”.The government said the app was designed to allow users to block and track lost or stolen phones.It also lets them identify and disconnect fake mobile subscriptions made in their name, among other functions.Government figures show the app has already helped trace more than 2.6 million phones. However, rights advocates and politicians have sounded the alarm over potentially serious consequences.Advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) said Tuesday it was concerned about the new directive.The order “represents a sharp and deeply worrying expansion of executive control over personal digital devices”, it said in a statement on X.”The state is asking every smartphone user in India to accept an open ended, updatable surveillance capability on their primary personal device, and to do so without the basic guardrails that a constitutional democracy should insist on,” the IFF said.For devices that have already been manufactured and exist in the market across the country, the government mandated that “the manufacturer and importers of mobile handsets shall make an endeavour to push the App through software updates.”Cyber security analyst Nikhil Pahwa said the rules were “clearly” an invasion of privacy. “How do we know this app isn’t used to access files and messaging on our device, which is unencrypted on device? Or a future update won’t do that?” he said on X.”This is clearly an invasion of our privacy,” he added.Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opponents in the Congress party demanded an immediate rollback of the order, calling the move unconstitutional.”Big Brother cannot watch us,” Congress politician KC Venugopal said on X.”A pre-loaded government app that cannot be uninstalled is a dystopian tool to monitor every Indian,” he added.”It is a means to watch over every movement, interaction and decision of each citizen.” In August, Russia issued a similar directive ordering manufacturers to include a new messaging platform called Max on all new phones and tablets, but rights advocates warned the app could be used as a powerful surveillance tool.

La Maison Blanche confirme avoir frappé deux fois un même bateau soupçonné de narcotrafic

La Maison Blanche a confirmé lundi qu’un amiral américain avait ordonné début septembre de bombarder une deuxième fois un bateau supposément chargé de drogue dans les Caraïbes pour tuer les survivants d’une première frappe, au moment où la légalité de ces opérations militaires est mise en doute à Washington.Depuis août, les Etats-Unis ont considérablement renforcé leur présence militaire en mer des Caraïbes, au nom de la lutte contre le narcotrafic selon l’administration du président Donald Trump, qui accuse son homologue vénézuélien Nicolas Maduro de diriger un cartel de la drogue. Caracas dément, qualifie ces frappes d’exécutions extra-judiciaires et rétorque que l’objectif de M. Trump est de renverser M. Maduro et de mettre la main sur le pétrole du pays.Un total de 11 personnes avaient péri, début septembre, dans une double frappe dans les eaux internationales contre un bateau soupçonné de transporter des stupéfiants, la première d’une vingtaine d’attaques par les forces armées américaines qui ont fait 83 morts au total.Les médias américains avaient rapporté la semaine dernière que deux survivants de la première frappe, qui s’accrochaient à leur bateau en flammes, avaient été tués dans une deuxième attaque, autorisée par le ministre de la Défense Pete Hegseth. Le Pentagone avait initialement démenti.Mais la Maison Blanche a confirmé lundi que Pete Hegseth avait autorisé l’amiral Frank Bradley, le commandant des opérations spéciales de l’armée américaine, “à mener ces frappes cinétiques”.L’amiral Bradley “a agi dans le cadre de ses fonctions et conformément à la loi régissant l’engagement militaire afin de garantir la destruction du bateau et l’élimination de la menace qui pesait sur les États-Unis d’Amérique”, a déclaré la porte-parole de la présidence Karoline Leavitt.- “Héros américain” -“Je soutiens Bradley et les décisions qu’il a prises au combat, lors de la mission du 2 septembre et toutes les autres depuis”, a renchéri M. Hegseth sur le réseau social X. L’amiral est “un héros américain, un vrai professionnel”, a-t-il assuré.”Les républicains comme les démocrates en viennent à la conclusion qu’il s’agissait d’un acte illégal et profondément immoral”, a déclaré le sénateur démocrate Chris Murphy à la chaîne CNN.”Les gens sont très préoccupés par la manière dont ces frappes ont été menées”, a dit lors de la même émission sur CNN le député républicain Mike Turner.M. Hegseth a récemment soutenu que l’offensive des Etats-Unis contre les bateaux suspects en mer des Caraïbes et dans l’océan Pacifique est “conforme au droit des conflits armés et approuvée par les meilleurs juristes”.Cependant, la double frappe du 2 septembre semble enfreindre le manuel du Pentagone sur le droit de la guerre, qui dispose que “par exemple, les ordres de tirer sur les naufragés seraient clairement illégaux”.Un autre sénateur démocrate, Mark Kelly, a demandé lundi au Congrès d’ouvrir une enquête.”Je crains que s’il y avait effectivement, comme cela a été rapporté, des survivants accrochés à un navire endommagé, cela puisse dépasser les limites”, a déclaré M. Kelly, ancien pilote de chasse et astronaute et l’un des six élus à avoir provoqué la colère de Donald Trump en diffusant en novembre une vidéo affirmant que les “ordres illégaux” pouvaient être refusés.Le président américain devait réunir lundi son Conseil de sécurité nationale, deux jours après avoir décrété que l’espace aérien du Venezuela devait être considéré comme “totalement fermé”.Avant cela, M. Trump avait déclaré jeudi que les Etats-Unis allaient “très bientôt” commencer à cibler des “trafiquants de drogue vénézuéliens” lors d’opérations “sur terre”, et pas seulement en mer.Devant des milliers de ses partisans rassemblés à Caracas, Nicolas Maduro a de son côté assuré qu’il ne se laisserait pas intimider.”Nous voulons la paix, mais une paix avec souveraineté, égalité, liberté! Nous ne voulons pas la paix des esclaves, ni la paix des colonies!”, a-t-il lancé, évoquant “22 semaines d’une agression que l’on peut qualifier de terrorisme psychologique, 22 semaines qu’ils nous mettent à l’épreuve”.Le chef de la minorité démocrate au Sénat, Chuck Schumer, a menacé qu’en cas de frappes contre le Venezuela, il soumettrait à nouveau au vote une résolution visant à interdire à la Maison Blanche toute utilisation des forces armées dans la région sans approbation au préalable du Congrès.

Palestinians evacuated from Gaza face tough adjustment in Greece

Raghad al-Fara is struggling to rebuild her teenage life in Athens, not least because she now moves around with crutches because of injuries suffered in the Gaza war.Evacuated from the besieged Palestinian territory in February she now lives in a shelter for refugee women. “I never thought I would survive, let alone set foot on European soil,” the 15-year-old told AFP. Raghad is one of 10 Gazan minors suffering from “complex” orthopaedic and psychological injuries, according to Heracles Moskoff, secretary general for vulnerable persons at the migration ministry. Injured during an Israeli bombing, she was evacuated with her mother Shadia and her younger sister Argwan. The rest of the family — three other children and the father — remain in Gaza.In total, 26 Palestinians arrived in Athens at the end of February, according to the Greek foreign ministry.”When we learned that Greece agreed to host us, it was a relief,” said Shadia al-Fara, the teenager’s mother. – ‘Not just a survivor’ -Sara Al-Sweirki, 20, who now also lives in Athens, is determined to “not just be a survivor.” “I want to be a girl my age like others, learn guitar and piano, and study,” stressed the young woman, who left Gaza in September with her mother and brother.Accepted by the private Deree American College of Greece, al-Sweirki will begin her studies in January. She chose psychology “to help others overcome their traumas,” she said. Raghad could use such expertise. Her mother noted that the teenager still has not received psychological support “even though she wet the bed for months” due to the severe shock she experienced. Raghad was injured in a July 2024 Israeli bombing in the Gaza city of Khan Younis that caused hundreds of casualties. Her right leg and back were crushed under the rubble of a building.”For two months, my daughter was on a respirator and for seven months, bedridden, unable to move,” al-Fara recalled painfully. Upon her arrival in Greece, Raghad was treated by an orthopedist and a physiotherapist at a children’s hospital.But she had to wait months for a support belt, and her mother, a former hairdresser, had to find orthopedic shoes on her own.”Greece took responsibility for us but then abandoned us,” Raghad’s mother said, stating that the Greek state provides no financial assistance.Even though the Palestinian community in Athens has asked the government to host more injured Gazans, there is “no political will” by the conservative Greek government, said Palestinian official Latif Darwesh. “The current government has forgotten its historic friendship with the Palestinian people,” Darwesh said.Many Palestinian students found refuge in Greece in the 1980s, under the socialist administration of Andreas Papandreou, who cultivated close relations with late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.- Popular solidarity -Israel’s tactics used against Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 set off the war, has heightened solidarity towards Palestinians among the Greek population. The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has yet to recognise a Palestinian state, even though 74 percent of Greeks would support such a move, according to a recent study by aboutpeople, a Greek social research group.Sara al-Sweirki does not know if she will stay in Athens “forever,” though she acknowledges that “the future in Gaza remains very uncertain.” A truce agreement that came into effect on October 10 “does not mean reconstruction,” said Shadia Al-Fara, who has enrolled her daughters in Greek school. “We cannot return to live under tents with the fear of bombings resuming!” said the mother. “My three other children in Gaza ask me to get them out of this hell” but Al-Fara says she feels “powerless” to help them.Sara Al-Sweirki, meanwhile, looks to the future. “My dream was interrupted” after October 7. “But now I am more determined than ever to pursue my goal (of studying),” she said.