Six years ago, more than a million migrants traveled across the Mediterranean and Europe to reach Germany — many of them Syrians escaping the civil war. So, could history repeat itself as refugees try to flee Taliban rule in Afghanistan? As Henry Ridgwell reports from Berlin, immigration is high on the agenda as Germany prepares for a general election later this month.Camera: Henry Ridgwell, Memet Aksakal Produced by: Henry Ridgwell, Mary Cieslak
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13 вересня пасажирський літак Пакистанських міжнародних авіаліній (PIA) приземлився в аеропорту Кабула, ставши першим комерційним рейсом PIA, який здійснив посадку в афганській столиці, відколи завершилася масштабна евакуація людей з Афганістану
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Активістів затримали, коли вони розгорнули банер опозиційного змісту
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З початку року укладено майже 3,5 тисячі договорів про надання відповідних послуг
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The European Union’s chief executive called on member nations to develop its defense capabilities without U.S. support, an appeal that came after the Taliban’s recent seizure of Afghanistan.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s remarks came a month after the Afghan army’s swift collapse and the messy evacuation of thousands of people fleeing the country after the Taliban’s seizure of Kabul.“Europe can and clearly should be able and willing to do more on its own,” von der Leyen said during her annual state of the union speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “What has held us back until now is not just shortfalls of capacity, it is a lack of political will,” said von der Leyen, a former German defense minister whose country is among the most hesitant EU member countries to send troops into combat around the world.She called on the EU to create a “defense union,” a development that would complement the bloc’s traditional soft power approach.The EU president proposed tax incentives to encourage the development and sale of weapons within the EU, improving intelligence-sharing programs and bolstering defenses against cyberattacks. The proposal to establish a 5,000-member force was first raised in May during a review of the bloc’s overall strategy. EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell said at the meeting he hoped a plan would be finalized by November.The EU currently has a system of combat troops to deploy to areas of unrest, but they have never been used. Some information in this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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London’s High Court said on Wednesday it would take steps if necessary to serve papers on Britain’s Prince Andrew in a U.S. lawsuit brought by a woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her two decades ago.
The prince, Queen Elizabeth’s second son, is accused by Virginia Giuffre of assaulting her when she was 17, at a time she says she was being abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andrew, 61, who is officially known as the Duke of York, has rejected the accusations and his lawyers have described the case as baseless. His legal team declined comment.
Last week, Giuffre’s legal team said it had tried to serve papers on Andrew by leaving the documents with a police officer at his home in southern England. The prince’s lawyers told the U.S. District Court in Manhattan they had not been properly served under English law and the Hague Convention.
A spokesperson for London’s High Court said the issue about how claims could be served on parties in different jurisdictions was governed by the Hague Service Convention, which requires requests to be made and approved by the relevant authority in each country.
“The lawyers acting for Ms Giuffre have now provided further information to the High Court, and the High Court has accepted the request for service under the Hague Service Convention,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“The legal process has not yet been served but the High Court will now take steps to serve under the Convention unless service is arranged by agreement between the parties.” Manhattan hearing
At a hearing on Monday in Manhattan, the prince’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, said Giuffre appeared to have in 2009 signed away her right to sue the prince in resolving a separate lawsuit.
“This is a baseless, nonviable, potentially unlawful lawsuit,” Brettler said. “There has been a settlement agreement that the plaintiff has entered into in a prior action that releases the Duke and others from any and all potential liability.”
Andrew is a former friend of Epstein, a registered sex offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 after U.S. prosecutors charged him with sexually exploiting dozens of girls and women.
The prince stepped down from royal duties and charities and other organizations distanced themselves from him after a BBC interview in November 2019 about his relationship with Epstein.
He denies having sex or any relationship with Giuffre. Her lawsuit, filed last month, says he forced her to have unwanted sexual intercourse at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate.
It also said Andrew abused Giuffre at Epstein’s mansion on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and on a private island Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges she aided Epstein’s sexual abuses. She faces a scheduled Nov. 29 trial before U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan.
The next conference for Giuffre’s lawsuit is scheduled for Oct. 13.
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У ДБР вказують, що підставою для внесення відомостей до Єдиного реєстру досудових розслідувань стала публікація на одному з Telegram-каналів
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Як повідомляють американські ЗМІ, зокрема, Washington Post, AP і CNN, про це йдеться в новій книжці «Загроза», що має вийти наступного тижня
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Головний редактор проєкту Дрю Салліван пояснила, що зараз робота в Росії «може принести місцевим журналістам більше шкоди, ніж користі»
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Йдеться про кримчанина Азіза Ахтемова
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«Безперечно, що не ДТП. Було встановлено відключення подушок безпеки, підробку огляду місця події, було встановлено вбивство на Волині основного свідка», – сказав Микола Голомша
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На даний момент Франчетті, який брав участь в окупації Криму в 2014 році, переведений в празьку тюрму Панкрац
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Олексія Навального називають людиною, «якої найбільше боїться Путін», наголошується в публікації, присвяченій російському опозиціонеру
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U.S. warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over shielding cybercriminals holed up in Russia appear to have made little impact, according to top U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials. “There is no indication that the Russian government has taken action to crack down on ransomware actors that are operating in the permissive environment that they’ve created there,” Paul Abbate, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Tuesday at an intelligence summit just outside Washington. “We’ve asked for help and cooperation with those who we know are in Russia, who we have indictments against, and we’ve seen no action,” Abbate said. “So, I would say that nothing’s changed in that regard.” U.S. President Joe Biden has twice called on the Russian leader to take action against cybercriminals operating out of Russia — first at a summit in June in Geneva and again in a phone call a month later. FILE – President Joe Biden, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at the Villa la Grange, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021.”I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is,” Biden told reporters following the July phone call.Biden, Putin Discuss Ransomware Attacks From Russia Biden warns of consequences if attacks continueSince the initial talks, senior White House officials have noted a decrease in ransomware attacks, though they have been hesitant to attribute the change to any action by Moscow. “The present absence of criminal activity should not be confused with solid policing,” U.S. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis told an audience later Tuesday. “There’s still a monetary incentive and possibly a geopolitical incentive to allow that to come back,” he said, pushing back against calls for the U.S. to go on the offensive. “There is a sense that we can perhaps fire some cyber bullets and kind of shoot our way out of this. That will be useful in certain circumstances if we have a clear shot at a cyber aggressor and it could take them offline,” Inglis said. “That’s not going to affect the leadership that allows this to happen.” “We have to figure out what is it that matters to Putin and the oligarchs and how do we change their decision calculus,” he added. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any role in a series of ransomware and cyberattacks against U.S. companies and infrastructure. And following the Biden-Putin call in July, it issued a statement supporting collaboration on cybersecurity, calling for such efforts to “be permanent, professional and nonpoliticized and should be conducted via special communication channels … and with respect to international law.” New: Discussions w/#Russia on #cyber continue, per Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber Anne Neuberger@POTUS “looking for action” she says, adding US must also focus on “doing everything we can to lock our digital doors”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) September 2, 2021The U.S. blames Russia or Russian-based cyber actors for a series of high-profile hacks and ransomware attacks, including the December 2020 hack of SolarWinds, a U.S.-based software management company, and for the May 7 ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the U.S. U.S. officials have blamed the GRU for targeting the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 elections and the pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines against the coronavirus. US, Britain Warn of Russian ‘Brute Force’ Cyber CampaignUS officials urge agencies and organizations to take basic precautions as a first step in fighting backAsked Tuesday whether the U.S. has reached the point where it is ready to take action against Russia, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command deferred to the White House. “That’s obviously for the president to decide,” CYBERCOM’s General Paul Nakasone said. “But those options certainly will be provided for his consideration.” VOA’s Masood Farivar contributed to this report.
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Таліби оприлюднили відео нібито Барадар зняв на нещодавній нараді в Кандагарі. На кадрах видно лише потилицю чоловіка
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Генеральна асамблея ООН відкрила 76-у сесію 14 вересня
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Apple released a critical software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action.
Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said the security issue was exploited to plant spyware on a Saudi activist’s iPhone. They said they had high confidence that the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire firm, Israel’s NSO Group, was behind that attack.
The previously unknown vulnerability affected all major Apple devices — iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches — the researchers said. NSO Group responded with a one-sentence statement saying it will continue providing tools for fighting “terror and crime.”
It was the first time a so-called “zero-click” exploit — one that doesn’t require users to click on suspect links or open infected files — has been caught and analyzed, the researchers said. They found the malicious code on September 7 and immediately alerted Apple. The targeted activist asked to remain anonymous, they said.
“We’re not necessarily attributing this attack to the Saudi government,” said researcher Bill Marczak.
Citizen Lab previously found evidence of zero-click exploits being used to hack into the phones of Al-Jazeera journalists and other targets but hasn’t previously seen the malicious code itself.
Although security experts say that average iPhone, iPad and Mac user generally need not worry — such attacks tend to be limited to specific targets — the discovery still alarmed security professionals.
Malicious image files were transmitted to the activist’s phone via the iMessage instant-messaging app before it was hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware, which opens a phone to eavesdropping and remote data theft, Marczak said. It was discovered during a second examination of the phone, which forensics showed had been infected in March. He said the malicious file causes devices to crash.
Citizen Lab says the case reveals, once again, that NSO Group is allowing its spyware to be used against ordinary civilians.
In a blog post, Apple said it was issuing a security update for iPhones and iPads because a “maliciously crafted” PDF file could lead to them being hacked. It said it was aware that the issue may have been exploited and cited Citizen Lab.
In a subsequent statement, Apple security chief Ivan Krstić commended Citizen Lab and said such exploits “are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users.” He noted, as he has in the past, that such exploits typically cost millions of dollars to develop and often have a short shelf life.
Apple didn’t respond to questions regarding whether this was the first time it had patched a zero-click vulnerability.
Users should get alerts on their iPhones prompting them to update the phone’s iOS software. Those who want to jump the gun can go into the phone settings, click “General” then “Software Update,” and trigger the patch update directly.
Citizen Lab called the iMessage exploit FORCEDENTRY and said it was effective against Apple iOS, MacOS and WatchOS devices. It urged people to immediately install security updates.
Researcher John Scott-Railton said the news highlights the importance of securing popular messaging apps against such attacks.
“Chat apps are increasingly becoming a major way that nation-states and mercenary hackers are gaining access to phones,” he said. “And, it’s why it’s so important that companies focus on making sure that they are as locked down as possible.”
The researchers said it also undermines NSO Group’s claims that it only sells its spyware to law enforcement officials for use against criminals and terrorists and audits its customers to ensure it’s not abused.
“If Pegasus was only being used against criminals and terrorists, we never would have found this stuff,” said Marczak.
Facebook’s WhatsApp also was allegedly targeted by an NSO zero-click exploit. In October 2019, Facebook sued NSO in U.S. federal court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of the encrypted messaging service with spyware.
In July, a global media consortium published a damning report on how clients of NSO Group have been spying for years on journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, and people close to them, with the hacker-for-hire group directly involved in the targeting.
Amnesty International said it confirmed 37 successful Pegasus infections based on a leaked targeting list whose origin was not disclosed.One case involved the fiancee of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi just four days after he was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The CIA attributed the murder to the Saudi government.
The recent revelations also prompted calls for an investigation into whether Hungary’s right-wing government used Pegasus to secretly monitor critical journalists, lawyers and business figures. India’s parliament also erupted in protests as opposition lawmakers accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using NSO Groups’ product to spy on political opponents and others.
France also is trying to get to the bottom of allegations that President Emmanuel Macron and members of his government may have been targeted in 2019 by an unidentified Moroccan security service using Pegasus.
Morocco, a key French ally, denied those reports and is taking legal action to counter allegations implicating the North African kingdom in the spyware scandal.
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In a message of inclusion, Pope Francis is reaching out to the Roma people of Slovakia, where he has condemned Central Europe’s historic marginalization of communities including Jews.On his second day in Slovakia, the pope travelled to the town of Presov in the eastern part of the country where he celebrated mass in the Byzantine rite in the city’s sports stadium. The highlight of the day was a visit to the Roma community in the nearby town of Kosice — a gesture analysts see as a sign of inclusion.The impoverished Lunik neighborhood, which the pope will visit, is home to the country’s highest community of Roma residents, where his message is welcomed by a population living with problems that include overcrowded housing, in some cases with no running water or electricity. Slovakia has a 400,000-strong Roma minority which has historically faced discrimination.On Monday, the pope addressed the Slovak president and other officials in the gardens of Bratislava’s presidential palace and stressed the need to work for the common good and not focus on individual needs.Referring to nation’s communist past, the pope said that until a few decades ago, a single thought system stifled freedom adding that “today another such system is emptying freedom of meaning, reducing progress to profit and rights only to individual means.”Pope Francis said, “Fraternity is necessary for the increasingly pressing process of integration.” The pope also addressed representatives of the Jewish community on Monday at a memorial for Jews that were killed in the Holocaust. At this site, a synagogue was demolished in 1969 in what the pope said were efforts to cancel every trace of the Jewish community.Here in this place, the pope said, the Name of God was dishonored, for the worst form of blasphemy is to exploit it for our purposes, refusing to respect and love others.More than one hundred thousand Slovak Jews were killed during the Holocaust and the pope added that it was shameful how people who said they believed in God perpetrated or allowed “unspeakable acts of inhumanity.”The Jewish community in Slovakia now amounts to some 2,000 people. Pope Francis said, “Let us unite in condemning all violence and every form of antisemitism.”An open-air Mass in the Slovak town of Sastin Wednesday caps the pontiff’s visit before his return to Rome. This visit to Hungary and Slovakia is his first foreign trip since he underwent intestinal surgery in July.
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A Russian court has fined Facebook, Twitter and Telegram, saying the companies failed to delete content that Russian internet regulator Roskomnadzor said violates Russian law.
Facebook was fined about $288,000, while Twitter was fined about $69,000 and Telegram was hit with $124,00 in fines, according to the magistrate court in Moscow’s Taganskiy district.
None of the companies has commented on the issue.
The most recent fines come as Russia has levied similar fines on Google, WhatsApp and TikTok in recent months.
In March, the Kremlin slowed down Twitter in the country for failing to remove content.
The fines have been over content, as well as for the companies’ refusal to store personal data on Russian users in Russia.
Russia is also trying to compel these companies to open official offices in Russia.
Kremlin critics say the moves are an effort by the country’s ruling United Party to stifle dissent in the run-up to September 19 parliamentary elections.
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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