Daily: 11/08/2021

США звинуватили українця і росіянина у справі про кібершахрайство

За даними Міністерства фінансів США, виплати викупів через програми-вимагачі у Сполучених Штатах досягли 590 мільйонів доларів у першому півріччі 2021 року проти 416 мільйонів доларів у 2020 році

your ad here

Наріману Джелялу висунули нове звинувачення – адвокат

Нарімана Джеляла звинуватили у контрабанді вибухового пристрою

your ad here

European Rights Group: Palestinian Civil Society Workers’ Phones Hacked

A European human rights group alleged Monday that Israeli-made Pegasus spyware was used to hack the phones of staff members of six Palestinian civil society groups that Israel’s defense ministry has designated as terrorist organizations.

Dublin-based Front Line Defenders said its allegation was confirmed independently by researchers for Amnesty International and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.

Front Line Defenders stopped short of blaming the Israeli government for installation of the spyware on the phones of the Palestinian human rights workers. But it condemned Israel’s designation of their organizations as linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a Marxist group labeled as a terrorist organization by many Western nations, including the United States.

Last month, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz designated six Palestinian civil society territory groups in the occupied West Bank territories as “terrorist organizations.” The groups are Addameer, Al-Haq, Defense for Children – Palestine, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Bisan Center for Research and Development, and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees.

Israel declined Monday to comment on the allegation that Pegasus was used against the groups’ staff members but pushed back against international criticism of the terrorism designation against the organizations, saying it had an “excellent file” of evidence linking the groups to the PFLP.  

Front Line Defenders said use of the Pegasus spyware made by NSO Group turns cell phones into pocket-spying devices, giving attackers “complete access to a phone’s messages, emails, media, microphone, camera, passwords, voice calls on messaging apps, location data, calls and contacts.”

The U.S. Commerce Department sanctioned the NSO Group last week, putting in on a blacklist that prohibits the company from receiving American technologies. It acted after U.S. officials determined that the NSO Group’s phone-hacking tools had been used by foreign governments to “maliciously target” government officials, journalists and activists around the world.

Asked about the new allegations, NSO Group said, “As we stated in the past, NSO Group does not operate the products itself … and we are not privy to the details of individuals monitored.” The company said it only sells to law enforcement and intelligence agencies and that it takes steps to curb abuse.

Front Line Defenders said it examined 75 iPhones and found six of them contaminated with the spyware, including phones used by Ghassan Halaika, a field researcher and human rights defender working for Al-Haq; Ubai Al-Aboudi, an American who is executive director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development; and French national Salah Hammouri, a lawyer and field researcher at the Jerusalem-based Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.

Three other Palestinians whose phones were hacked declined to be identified.

Front Line Defenders said that use of the Pegasus spyware “means that, in addition to the targeting of Palestinians, including dual nationals, non-Palestinians (including foreign nationals and diplomats) with whom these victims were in contact, including Israeli citizens, could have also been subject to this surveillance, which, in the case of its citizens, would amount to a breach of Israeli law.”

In a statement, Front Line Defenders said it “strongly condemns the decision and allegations of terrorism brought against these Palestinian human rights organizations in response to their peaceful human rights work. Human rights defenders are not terrorists.”

Some material in this report was supplied by Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

your ad here

Польські спецслужби: Лукашенко намагається дестабілізувати Польщу, Литву і Латвію

Велику колону мігрантів вранці 8 листопада зафіксували очевидці у прикордонному районі Білорусі, яка рухалася до прикордонного КПП «Брузги-Кузниця» на білорусько-польському кордоні

your ad here

Саакашвілі перевели до тюремної лікарні

Таке рішення, як йдеться в повідомленні пенітенціарної служби, ухвалили, щоб уникнути погіршення стану здоров’я та у зв’язку з небезпекою, що зросла

your ad here

Депутат Шахов не задекларував майна на понад 15 мільйонів гривень – НАЗК

НАЗК виявило ознаки недостовірного декларування в діях народного депутата, члена депутатської групи «Довіра» Сергія Шахова

your ad here

Kremlin: Putin, CIA Chief Discuss ‘Regional Conflicts’

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed regional conflicts and a crisis in ties with the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency who paid a rare trip to Moscow last week, the Kremlin said Monday.

CIA chief William Burns was in Russia for two days of meetings with top officials at the request of President Joe Biden, the US embassy has said.

CNN reported last week that Burns had been sent to Moscow to warn the Kremlin about the alleged build-up of troops near Ukraine’s border. It said that after his meetings in Russia, Burns spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky by phone.

The Kremlin’s spokesman said on Monday that Putin and Burns discussed bilateral ties, “regional conflicts” and a crisis in diplomatic relations. He did not provide further details. 

Burns, who was the US ambassador to Russia in 2005-2008, visited Moscow during a severe crisis in ties between Moscow and Washington. 

Biden has increased pressure on Putin since becoming US president in January. In May, Russia formally designated the United States an “unfriendly state”.

The Pentagon said last week it was monitoring the situation in Ukraine closely amid reports of a new build-up of Russian troops on the country’s border.

Publicly, Ukraine has denied reports of a new Russian troop build-up.

The Ukrainian army is locked in a simmering conflict with pro-Russian separatists that erupted after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

After a rise in violence early this year, Russia in the spring amassed around 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, sparking fears of a major escalation. Under pressure from Kiev’s Western allies, Moscow later announced a pullback.

your ad here

Jailed ex-US Marine Whelan to Keep Fighting for Transfer from Russia

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, convicted by Russia of spying, will continue to fight for his transfer to the United States despite losing a court appeal on Monday, Interfax news agency quoted his lawyer as saying.

Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced last year to 16 years in jail. He denies espionage and has said he was set up in a sting operation. Washington has demanded his release. 

Whelan had challenged the refusal of a regional court to hear his case for being sent home, but an appeals court in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, around 400 km east of Moscow, deemed the original ruling lawful. 

Ahead of the hearing, one of Whelan’s lawyers, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said that negotiations between Washington and Moscow to try to agree to his release were no longer taking place, but that his team would continue to seek deportation through other channels.

“According to my information, all negotiations, including about a possible exchange, extradition or pardon of Whelan are not being held now, everything is suspended,” Zherebenkov was quoted as saying. 

“That is why we are trying to do it this way. I hope our justice system will expel him.” 

However, Zherebenkov said that extradition was unlikely without the recognition of the Russian sentence by the U.S. side. 

Whelan has said he hoped to be freed as part of a prisoner swap, a topic President Vladimir Putin discussed with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden at a summit in June. 

Moscow said that Whelan had been caught red-handed with classified information in a Moscow hotel room where agents from the Federal Security Service detained him on Dec. 28, 2018. 

Whelan said he was in Russia for a wedding and on holiday and set up by a Russian man he thought was a friend. 

your ad here

Білорусь: колону мігрантів зафіксували на шосе на шляху біля польського кордону

Користувачі мережі припускають, що це мігранти з Близького Сходу

your ad here

Корнієнко планує скласти повноваження голови партії «Слуга народу»

За словами Корнієнка, він хоче зосередитися на роботі першого заступника голови парламенту

your ad here

Китаянка вперше вийшла у відкритий космос

Очікується, що «Тяньгун» пропрацює у космосі не менше 10 років

your ad here

Разумков заявив, що подав звернення про створення міжфракційного об’єднання «Розумна політика»

За словами ексспікера, звернення про створення МФО вже «на розгляді керівництва парламенту»

your ad here

Після смерті жінки і протестів у Польщі уряд дав дозвіл на переривання вагітності при загрозі здоров’ю

Відповідна директива з’явилася після того, як у вересні в лікарні померла 30-річна жінка, в якої виникли проблеми зі здоров’ям на 22-му тижні вагітності

your ad here

Costs, Literacy and Design: The Invisible Barriers to Tackling the Digital Divide

Connecting everyone in the world to the web will not single-handedly bridge the digital divide, tech experts at the Web Summit said this week, citing other invisible barriers like high costs, low digital literacy and complicated user interfaces.

The so-called “digital divide” refers to the gap between those who have access to computers and the internet and those who don’t, with the latter group made up of nearly half the world’s population, according to the United Nations.

With many essential services like schooling and banking moving online, the coronavirus pandemic has brought new urgency to global efforts to get the unconnected online by bringing internet coverage to remote or deprived areas.

“(COVID-19) made us clearly understand that what used to be seen as a ‘nice-to-have’ technology is now a ‘must-have’,” said ‘Gbenga Sesan, executive director of Paradigm Initiative, a pan-African social enterprise working on digital inclusion.

Reaching everyone can be a daunting task.

Even identifying where exactly internet access is needed is no easy feat in parts of the globe, said Sophia Farrar, who leads a program that uses satellite imagery and other data to locate offline schools and get them connected.

“No one actually knows how many schools there are in the world,” Farrar, of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, told a panel at Europe’s biggest tech conference in Lisbon.

“What we aim to achieve through the mapping is even just setting what that baseline target is.”

Increased mobile penetration has accelerated the process.

 

The number of active mobile broadband subscriptions worldwide jumped more than 75% to nearly 6 billion, including people with multiple accounts, between 2015 and 2020, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

Only about 450 million people live in areas not covered by mobile broadband, according to telecoms lobby group GSMA.

But even where there is coverage, more than 3 billion are not online, largely because they lack tools, skills and money to make use of it, said Robert Opp, chief digital officer at the U.N. Development Program (UNDP).

“If you just connect somebody with infrastructure, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to have productive use of your internet connection,” told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Cost is one major barrier, he noted.

There are only a few developing countries where internet prices are in line with the U.N.’s target of less than 2% of the national average monthly income, Opp said.

Even in rich nations like Britain or the United States poor people often can’t afford to buy data, an issue that has sparked calls for price caps and motivated some countries to declare the internet an essential public service during the pandemic.

Others might not have the skills to navigate often complex, jargon-filled websites and applications, Opp added.

The problem has come to the fore with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, as the elderly and the frail in countries from Sweden to South Africa report having trouble booking their shots online.

 

Lack of digital literacy also leaves people exposed to risks such as misinformation and loss of privacy, said Opp.

While education is key to helping people protect themselves online, designing digital tools that are easier to understand and tailored for the communities they are meant to serve is also essential, said Howard Pyle, a digital designer turned social entrepreneur.

“Most websites and mobile apps are designed for digitally privileged users who already know how to use those tools – typically the most profitable users that companies will get most traction with,” Pyle said in an interview at the Web Summit.

“But this excludes people who have different needs or different abilities, for example, those who are older or lack experience with technology or lower income users who have limits in terms of the types of devices they have access to.”

Pyle’s social enterprise, ExperienceFutures, looks to help firms and governments make their web services more accessible by cutting jargon and complexity and involving the communities they are trying to serve at the design stage.

“At the moment, there is too much emphasis on trying to create one-size-fits-all tools and expect users to learn how to use them,” he said.

“We have to evolve to a place where the technology is flexible enough that individuals can understand it based on their abilities.”

your ad here

В Україні засудили «замах на прем’єр-міністра Іраку»

«Переконані, що подібні акти терору та насильства не завадять втіленню прагнень іракського народу та не зупинять зусилля його уряду щодо розбудови суверенної, демократичної та процвітаючої держави»

your ad here

Poland’s Health Ministry Clarifies Abortion Law After Woman’s Death 

Poland’s Health Ministry issued instructions Sunday to doctors confirming that it is legal to terminate a pregnancy when the woman’s health or life is in danger, a directive that comes amid apparent confusion over a new restriction to the country’s abortion law. 

The document addressed to obstetricians comes in reaction to the hospital death of a 30-year-old mother whose pregnancy was in its 22nd week. The woman died in September but her death became widely known this month. Doctors at the hospital in Pszczyna, in southern Poland, held off terminating her pregnancy despite the fact that her fetus lacked enough amniotic fluid to survive, her family and a lawyer say.

The doctors have been suspended and prosecutors are investigating. 

Angered Poles held massive nationwide protests over the weekend, blaming the woman’s death on Poland’s restrictive abortion law. Women’s rights activists say it has a chilling effect on doctors in this predominantly Roman Catholic nation.

The ministry stressed it is in line with the law to terminate a pregnancy when the woman’s health is in danger, even more so in case of threat to her life. It included guidance in case of premature loss of the amniotic fluid.

“It should be clearly stressed that doctors must not be afraid to take evident decisions. stemming from their experience and the available medical knowledge,” the ministry said.

Until a year ago, women in Poland could have abortions in three cases: if the pregnancy resulted from a crime like rape, if the woman’s health or life was at risk, or in the case of irreparable defects of the fetus. That last possibility was eliminated a year ago, when the Constitutional Tribunal ruled it went against Poland’s law. 

your ad here