US sanctions have had a “horrifying effect” on her life, according to Canadian ICC Judge Kimberly Prost, who told Al Jazeera. She spoke with our correspondent Step Vaessen, one of nine US officials who has been charged with trying to prosecute Israeli and American citizens.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
Following a significant backlash resulting from concerns about digital rights, India has suspended a command to smartphone manufacturers to install a government-owned cybersecurity application on all new mobile devices.
All leading smartphone manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, were given 90 days to add the government’s Sanchar Saathi application to all newly produced devices, according to an official notification released by the Department of Telecommunications on November 28.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government claimed the decree was a step in a campaign to combat mobile phone fraud and abuse.
However, both tech companies and advocates for digital privacy were against the order. Previously, a number of privacy- and security-related issues reportedly caused Apple, headquartered in the United States, to say it would not comply with the order.
What we know is as follows.
Manufacturers were instructed to ensure that Sanchar Saathi was “pre-installed on all mobile handsets manufactured or imported for use in India” within 90 days in accordance with the directive issued by India’s Department of Telecommunications.
Manufacturers were informed that the app’s features were “not disabled or restricted,” and that it was “readily visible and accessible to the end users at the time of first use or device setup.”
Manufacturers and importers were instructed to “make an effort to push the App through software updates” for devices already in stock, according to the order.
Companies were also required to submit compliance reports to the telecom ministry within 120 days of the directive.
More than 85 percent of Indian households are smartphone owners, according to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in May.
It’s obvious that Sanchar Saathi is a snooping app, but it’s ridiculous. The right to privacy is a right of citizens. Without the government’s supervision, everyone must have the right to privacy when communicating with friends and family.
It’s more than just phone snooping. They’re… pic. twitter.com/omw2XlD5pq
The government supported the decree, stating that Sanchar Saathi would enable “stakeholders to report International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) – related suspicious misuse and also verify the authenticity of IMEIs used in mobile devices.” Sanchar Saathi added that the country’s Telecom Cyber Security Rules empower it to establish “necessary to identify and report acts that may endanger telecom cyber security.”
A unique 15-digit IMEI is used to identify a particular mobile device.
According to a source with knowledge of Apple’s concerns about the app, the tech giant would tell the Indian government that it would not abide by any such laws anywhere in the world.
Samsung, a South Korean-based tech company, was reportedly reviewing the order, a source inside the industry told Reuters, but it had not provided any information regarding how it planned to proceed.
Its “deeply worrying expansion of executive control over personal digital devices” was described by the Indian Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF).
On the surface, the stated goal of halting IMEI fraud and improving telecom security appears to be a legitimate state goal. However, the methods chosen are “disproportionately” legal fragile, “economically hostile” to user privacy and autonomy,” it said in a statement.
Priyanka Gandhi, a leader of the Congress and Lok Sabha member, described Sanchar Saathi as “ridiculous” and “snooping.”
The Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center claimed that the directive was yet another attempt to “destroy user autonomy, make a mockery of consent, and have a 24-hour State in My Home measure.”
“This is the beginning of a function creep slope.” The extensive integration of state software on private devices results in an increase in surveillance capabilities without the need for fresh public debate whenever new changes are made, according to the statement.
“Government has no business being in our devices that are more meaningful to us than our loved ones,” he said.
The Indian government’s COVID-19 contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, was the subject of a similar controversy in 2020, when it was deemed a “privacy minefield” by critics.
The government announced early on Wednesday that it would be willing to change the order “based on the feedback we receive.” The order was voided a few hours later.
The Indian Communications Ministry stated in a press release that the government has decided not to require pre-installation for mobile manufacturers.
The app is secure, according to the statement, and is only intended to protect users from “bad actors in the cyber world.”
Government mandates no pre-installation of Sanchar Saathi apps.
The government mandated the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on all smartphones with the intention of allowing all citizens to gain access to cyber security. The app is secure, and it’s only intended to assist citizens… twitter.com/u4AgSuLrkh
The IFF claimed that the full legal order governing the revocation was still a “welcome development” even though it was still in its entirety.
Statement
The PIB just announced in a statement at 3:00 PM on December 3, 2025 that the government won’t require mobile manufacturers to install the Sanchar Saathi app prior to December 3. Although we are still waiting for the legal order’s full text, we are pleased that this has been made. twitter.com/VQV4t8YNfK
Russia released Max earlier this year, an app designed to stop stolen phones from being used in fraud schemes and expand access to state-backed digital services.
Max is allegedly more secure than apps provided by foreign competitors by Russian authorities.
Max, a product of the state-controlled tech company VK, is integrated with government platforms and is required on all new cell phones and tablets sold as a result of the government’s requirement since September 1.
Moscow claimed that the move would create a “digital ecosystem” that was “smarter”. The app is likely to be used for surveillance, claim Moscow has refuted, though, according to critics.
Shurina, 15, embarks on an unanticipated journey through history and loss when she is cast as a kamikaze pilot in her school play. In honor of schoolgirls who were forced to commit suicide during World War II, she visits World War II memorials and hangs paper cranes in her honor across Japan.
As her final performance approaches in Okinawa, Shurina tries to find the courage to honor the voices of the past.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
Some Palestinians continue to play informal sports as a way to deal with years of trauma, despite the fact that organized sports in Gaza have been almost completely banned by Israel’s devastating war. In the center of Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum played volleyball.
Published On 3 Dec 2025
Imran Khan, 73, was detained by his family for almost a month, according to his 73-year-old former prime minister, Imran Khan, who has been in jail. This has sparked protests and concerns about his health.
However, after his sister, Uzma Khanum, finally came to visit him on Tuesday this week at Adiala jail, the central jail in Rawalpindi, close to Islamabad, she claimed Khan’s health appeared to be good.
She continued, noting that his conditions are poor and that his imprisonment has been characterized as “mental torture.”
Khan has been found guilty of corruption charges and is currently serving protracted prison terms.
Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, is also serving a seven-year term in prison for accepting land bribes in the al-Qadir Trust case. All of the allegations made against them have been refuted by Khan and Bibi.
What we know about the reasons behind blocked visits to Khan are as follows.
Khan, who was Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been incarcerated since being arrested in August of this year on corruption charges. Following a number of legal cases, including:
Khan contends that all of the allegations against him are politically motivated.
Khanum, a doctor, informed reporters in Rawalpindi that her brother is restricted to his cell for the majority of the day and is only permitted to go outside for a brief period of time following her visit on Tuesday.
He is well-weight physically. However, he is constantly confined inside and only leaves for short periods. No one is in contact with them. He claimed that they were treating him with mental torture and was very angry.
She continued, noting that no mobile devices were permitted during the 30-minute meeting with Khan.
She later told the media that when she met him, he was very disturbed and enraged, along with her sister Aleema Khanum and the party’s leaders in Pakistan. He claimed that they are putting him and Bushra Bibi through mental torture in a small room and that they are preventing them from meeting for four weeks. He claimed that this mental torture was even worse than physical torture.
The authorities in Pakistan have not established whether or not there is a legal ban on visits to Khan or what might cause it.
Following allegations that Khan’s family and PTI leaders had been prevented from seeing him despite court orders, his sister and his sister were scheduled for a Tuesday meeting.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a directive to the Adiala jail superintendent in late October of this year to implement a directive from the court that allowed Khan to meet with designated visitors on Tuesday and Thursday of every week.
However, family members claim that these visits were never permitted. In response, Khan’s supporters began to spread rumors that he was either being treated for cancer or being transferred to another jail. Khan’s death was the subject of some speculation.
Khan’s imprisonment has drawn the opposition of his sisters and supporters for a long time. On November 18, they physically protested the restricted access outside the Adiala jail.
They added that their demonstration was in solidarity with the families of PTI members killed in earlier popular demonstrations calling for Khan’s release from prison on May 9, 2023, October 4, 2024, and November 26, 2024.
The sisters of Khan claimed on November 18 that they had been “violently detained” and “manhandled” while camping outside the Adiala jail.
Aleema said, “Who knows, maybe Imran has been shifted. ” In a second protest outside the jail on November 25, which was livestreamed on the PTI YouTube channel. Why won’t they let us meet him?
Then, on November 28, PTI member and chief minister of Pakistan’s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sohail Afridi, staged a live-streamed sit-in outside the Adiala jail, alleging eight times he had been denied access to Khan.
Peshawar, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that has been a PTI stronghold since 2013 when the party first established a provincial government there, also saw protests calling for Khan’s release.
As protests continued outside the Adiala jail on Tuesday, Khan and his sister finally met.
Then, on Tuesday, local authorities passed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which forbids district governments from assembling four or more people in public spaces for a limited time until Wednesday this week in Rawalpindi. This includes the two-month period in Islamabad, which runs until Wednesday.
The government hasn’t explicitly stated why access to Khan has been impeded or provided any justification for this.
On November 28, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a politician from Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), told the National Assembly that the rumor about Khan’s health had been spread by the Indian and Afghan media.
According to Chaudhry, “His health is in good hands and there is no danger to his life.”
According to some experts, the government of Pakistan’s PML-N may use a political strategy to prevent visits to Khan in jail.
Political analyst Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Islamabad-based think tank Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), claimed that “the primary objective of blocking access and keeping Khan in solitary confinement is apparently meant to break him into] agreeing to] a compromise and neutralize the groundswell of antigovernment sentiment.
Politicians are either in the government or in jail, according to Usama Khilji, a Pakistani columnist and director of Bolo Bhi, a digital rights advocacy organization. Imran Khan is currently a victim of politically motivated cases where the judiciary’s increasingly controlled approach undermines due process.
Numerous party leaders have been detained, and Khan’s PTI has been denied the right to participate in the 2024 national elections. More seats were won by party members than any other candidate during the election campaign.
However, the PTI claimed that the election was rigged by the military and the government to prevent them from getting any more seats, and independent observers also cited a number of vote-counting irregularities. The accusations of election manipulation have been consistently refuted by the military and the government.
His political party’s protests have been met with violent counterreaction and the virulent outlaw of any kind of demonstrations, according to Khilji, who is the most well-known politician in Pakistan right now.