NEW DELHI: The semi-government agency behind India’s national identity card project on Saturday denied a report by news website ZDNet that the program has been hit by another security lapse that allows access to private information.
ZDNet reported that a data leak on a system run by a state-owned utility company, which it did not name, could allow access to private information of holders of the biometric “Aadhaar” ID cards, exposing their names, their unique 12-digit identity numbers, and their bank details.
But the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which runs the Aadhaar program, said “there is no truth in this story” and that they were “contemplating legal action against ZDNet.”
ZDNet could not immediately be contacted for comment on the UIDAI’s response.
“There has been absolutely no breach of UIDAI’s Aadhaar database. Aadhaar remains safe and secure,” the agency said in a statement late on Saturday.
“Even if the claim purported in the story were taken as true, it would raise security concerns on database of that utility company and has nothing to do with the security of UIDAI’s Aadhaar database,” it said.
More than a billion users
ZDNet had reported that even though the security lapse had been flagged to some government agencies over a period of time, it has yet to be fixed. It said it was withholding the name of the utility and other details.
Karan Saini, a New Delhi-based security researcher, said that anyone with an Aadhaar number was affected.
“This is a security lapse. You don’t have to be a consumer to access these details. You just need the Uniform Resource Locator where the Application Programming Interface is located. These can be found in less than 20 minutes,” Saini told Reuters.
In recent months researchers and journalists who have identified loopholes in the identity project have said they have been slapped with criminal cases or harassed by government agencies because of their work.
Aadhaar, a biometric identification card with over 1.1 billion users, is the world’s biggest database.
But it has been facing increased scrutiny over privacy concerns following several instances of breaches and misuse.
Last Thursday, the CEO of the UIDAI said the biometric data attached to each Aadhaar was safe from hacking as the storage facility was not connected to the Internet.
“Each Aadhaar biometric is encrypted by a 2048-key combination and to decode it, the best and fastest computer of our era will take the age of the universe just to hack into one card’s biometric details,” Ajay Bhushan Pandey said.
Indian agency denies reported security lapse in ID card project
Indian agency denies reported security lapse in ID card project
Rashford returns to Champions League in Aston Villa’s 3-1 win at Club Brugge
- Rashford did not score his first goal with his new team but put on a strong first-half display
- Rashford was replaced by Marco Asensio in the 64th minute
BRUGGE: Marcus Rashford resumed his Champions League career Tuesday, starting in Aston Villa’s 3-1 win at Club Brugge in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Rashford did not score his first goal with his new team but put on a strong first-half display, making himself available and showing his pace and great technique on the wing.
After Leon Bailey put Villa ahead, Rashford had an excellent chance to double Villa’s lead on the break in the 10th minute from a tight angle, but his effort was blocked by goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
Rashford was replaced by Marco Asensio in the 64th minute.
It was Rashford’s first Champions League match since November 2023, when he was sent off for Manchester United against FC Copenhagen.
Rashford joined Villa in February on loan from United, where he had fallen out with manager Ruben Amorim. He had not played for United since Dec. 12 amid Amorim’s concerns about Rashford’s commitment to training.
The 27-year-old forward’s loan runs to the end of the season.
Rashford has been in great from since his departure from Old Trafford. Although he has yet to score for his new team, he has been influential and set up three goals for Asensio.
According to UEFA statistics, Rashford played 33 Champions League games for United, scoring 12 goals.
Villa were a league-phase surprise, finishing eighth to set up the round-of-16 matchup against a Club Brugge squad that defeated Villa 1-0 in November and eliminated Atalanta in the playoffs.
King Abdullah holds talks with leaders at Arab summit on Gaza reconstruction
- Discussions focus on pressing regional developments
CAIRO: Jordan’s King Abdullah II held high-level talks on Tuesday with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Cairo, on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Arab Summit hosted by Egypt.
The discussions focused on pressing regional developments, including efforts to sustain the ceasefire in Gaza, accelerate humanitarian aid, and support reconstruction efforts without displacing the Palestinian population, the Jordan News Agency reported.
The leaders also addressed escalating tensions in the West Bank, emphasizing the need for coordinated regional responses to maintain stability.
King Abdullah reaffirmed the strong ties between Jordan and Iraq during the meeting with Rashid, and expressed his commitment to deepening cooperation across various sectors. Both leaders stressed the importance of continued coordination on shared regional security concerns.
The king stressed Jordan’s steadfast support for Lebanon’s efforts to maintain its security and stability during his talks with Aoun. The two leaders explored ways to further enhance cooperation and strengthen relations.
The meetings were also attended by Jordanian Prime Minister Jafar Hassan, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, and Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh.
The focus of the summit was on mobilizing financial and logistical support for reconstruction efforts in Gaza, and ensuring that the Palestinian population stays in their homeland, in opposition to the proposal put forward by US President Donald Trump last month.
PSG coach Enrique warns his players about Liverpool’s ‘fighter jets’ in attack
- Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career with 30 goals in 39 games, and is well supported by Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in attack
PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique is worried about the speed of Liverpool’s “fighter jets” in attack and warned his team not to give the ball away in their Champions League clash.
PSG host six-time champion Liverpool in the first leg of the round of 16 at Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
“Liverpool has one of the best counter attacks in Europe so we will try to keep the ball and be careful not to suffer too much from transitions,” Enrique said Tuesday at a pre-match news conference. “They have three fighter jets in attack and it’s not easy to stop these fighter jets.”
Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career with 30 goals in 39 games, and is well supported by Luis Díaz and Cody Gakpo in attack.
“We are facing the team that has played the best football in the group stage. They were the most consistent side,” Enrique said. “Arne Slot has done a great job. He has created a near-perfect team, which knows how to defend, knows how to press, which can attack either by holding the ball or accelerating.”
In a rare admission, Enrique conceded that Liverpool may have the slight edge.
“Liverpool is also able to create danger without the ball, maybe they don’t need it as much we do,” he said. “To impose ourselves we generally need to keep the ball.”
However, PSG are on a 22-game unbeaten run since a 1-0 loss at Bayern Munich in late November. PSG have won their past 10 matches with an eye-watering 40 goals scored in a successfully re-shaped attack since Kylian Mbappe’s departure to Real Madrid.
“The advantage of our forward is that they can play in every position,” said Enrique, whose clever positional switch has allowed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Bradley Barcola to play alongside Ousmane Dembele in attack.
PSG have much better teamwork in the post-Mbappe era, with Dembele scoring a career-best 26 goals in 33 games. The speedy 19-year-old forward Desire Doue and sharpshooter Gonçalo Ramos provide a threat from the bench. Enrique hopes Liverpool’s players will be rattled in Paris.
“It’s difficult for our opponents to play at Parc des Princes with the pressure,” he said. “The atmosphere is extraordinary and I hope we can profit from it.”
However, Liverpool’s Anfield stadium is one of the toughest places for a return leg, as Lionel Messi’s Barcelona found out in the 2019 semifinals, losing 4-0 after winning 3-0 at home.
Both sides are dominating their respective leagues.
Unbeaten PSG are coasting toward a record-extending 13th French title.
Liverpool are closing in on a record-equaling 20th Premier League title, while a seventh Champions League crown would move them level with AC Milan in second place outright.
PSG lost the only Champions League final in their history 1-0 to Bayern in 2020 in the Coronavirus-shortened campaign.
What shutdown of USAID programs means for vulnerable Arab countries
- The Trump administration has slashed funding for aid projects it says “do not align with US national interests”
- Experts warn that ending USAID programs could fuel unrest, economic decline, and extremist recruitment
LONDON: The impact of the Trump administration’s decision to slash $60 billion in aid funding and cancel 90 percent of contracts by the US Agency for International Development is being felt by millions of the most vulnerable people in the Middle East and North Africa.
In countries like Iraq, Syria and Yemen, lifesaving aid programs to feed and provide healthcare for huge populations affected by conflict have halted. In Jordan, hundreds of development projects to boost the economy face an uncertain future and thousands of jobs may disappear.
The widespread halt in aid was confirmed just as countries across the region started to mark the holy month of Ramadan.
In an internal memo and filings in federal lawsuits, the US administration said it is eliminating more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world. The memo said officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.”
More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said, “to use taxpayer dollars wisely to advance American interests.”
Many Republican lawmakers believe USAID has been wasteful and harbors a liberal agenda. President Donald Trump has also promised to dramatically reduce spending and shrink the federal government.
USAID’s supporters say the agency not only provides vital assistance around the world, but for less than one percent of the federal budget, it is also America’s greatest soft power tool.
The crisis first arose on Jan. 20 when Trump signed an executive order halting all foreign assistance for a 90-day review period because the aid industry was “not aligned with American interests.”
Within days, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency was homing in on USAID programs, and by last week termination letters had been sent to nongovernmental organizations around the world.
Nearly 5,800 of USAID’s 6,200 multi-year contracts worth $54 billion were cut. The State Department also cut $4.4 billion in foreign aid-related grants.
Much of the agency’s vast array of work, from providing food to the starving, healthcare programs and economic development initiatives, has been stopped.
Many promised waivers for lifesaving programs have reportedly failed to materialize.
More than 6,000 of USAID’s 10,000 staff have been placed on administrative leave or fired, and tens of thousands of people working around the world have also lost their jobs.
Control of USAID has been moved to the State Department, which is locked in legal battles over the cuts. The department did not respond to a request for comment.
The MENA region received $3.9 billion from USAID in 2023. The sudden removal of the agency’s support could cause further suffering and instability in the region, Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House, told Arab News.
“We’re talking about budgets of billions, which goes to projects between humanitarian and development,” he said. “The minute you take it away, you make people either suffer from humanitarian crises or you stop the development of these countries.
“If you want to maintain stability in the Middle East, which is important to the United States, you need economic development.”
Below are details of how the shuttering of USAID has affected people and projects across the region.
IRAQ
In a country where more than 1 million people have still not returned to their homes after the war with Daesh extremists ended in 2017, USAID provided vital support to vulnerable populations.
Since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the agency has spent billions trying to help Iraq rebuild. USAID funded clean water supplies, food aid, healthcare and support for women victims of violence.
The agency also provided grants to grow businesses and boost local economies and funded development projects to improve water supplies and food production.
The amount spent in Iraq in 2023 was more than $220 million, but many of the long-term projects, which have now stopped, were based on spending commitments over many years.
One USAID officer working on Iraq told Arab News that he could not imagine what would happen to Iraq’s displaced population without the agency’s funding.
“It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “I shudder to think of the human impacts of this, the lives lost, the time … it will take to ever recover from this. The whole sector is destroyed.”
Before the widespread canceling of contracts last week, he said some UN agencies and NGOs continued with essential assistance as they tried to interpret Trump’s executive order and the promised waivers.
Now everything related to USAID funding had stopped, said the officer, whose decade-long career with the agency was also terminated with 15 days’ notice.
This included assistance to the 100,000 displaced people in 21 formal camps in the northern Kurdish region.
The USAID officer said the halt was particularly bitter for Iraqis given the recent history of US foreign policy in the country.
He said the halting of aid risks plunging Iraq back into chaos by opening the way for extremist ideologies to regain traction.
“We are pulling the rug out from under what the US would consider a critical ally in this region.”
SYRIA
The humanitarian community was just getting to grips with a new Syria after the fall of President Bashar Assad in December.
The approach to delivering aid to the country during its 14-year civil war was hampered by the division of territory under the warring parties, along with international sanctions against the Assad regime.
Finally, it seemed, a coordinated surge of humanitarian operations could take place with new rulers in Damascus in control of much of the country.
“It was the opportunity in Syria for the first time in 14 years to really do an ‘all of country’ response,” Imrul Islam from the Syria International NGO Regional Forum told Arab News.
The war had left more than 16 million Syrians needing humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
Islam estimates that USAID paid for at least a quarter of the entire humanitarian funding in Syria, with the northern parts of the country particularly reliant on NGOs to deliver essential aid.
When the “stop work” orders were sent in January from USAID to the NGOs they funded, it was a bitter blow.
Aid organizations in Syria were left in limbo as most projects ground to a halt almost overnight. The waivers granted for lifesaving aid failed to deliver a release of funds, so organizations continued essential deliveries by running up debt.
Last week’s blanket termination of contracts means that almost everything previously funded by USAID has now stopped, including operations considered lifesaving.
NGO coordination forums in Syria are assessing the scale of the fallout, but already Islam warned that “people will die” as a result.
Several international NGOs rely on USAID for 95 percent of their funding and are now deciding whether they will have to leave Syria altogether.
As of February, NGOs estimate that at least 300,000 people would be affected by the halting of water and sanitation projects, and around 600,000 are not receiving food assistance.
In just northeast Syria, at least 2,800 per month would lose access to surgical procedures. “Thousands and thousands” of people are losing their jobs, Islam said.
Millions of people, he added, would lose access to assistance in the north of the country.
GAZA
The USAID freeze has jeopardized aid supplies to Gaza, where Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas and other militant groups has left the entire population of more than 2 million reliant on humanitarian assistance.
It also risks undermining the ceasefire agreed in January that halted the devastating 15-month conflict.
USAID has provided $2.1 billion in humanitarian assistance in Gaza since October 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the war.
The agency said in November it would provide an additional $230 million for economic recovery and development programs in the West Bank and Gaza.
Staff working for USAID on Palestine have been laid off. The organizations that deliver aid inside Gaza have also stopped working, their contracts have been terminated, and local Palestinian employees have lost their jobs.
“It’s a very bleak picture,” Dave Harden, a former USAID mission director for Gaza and the West Bank, told Arab News.
“There’s no people, there’s no officers, there’s no staff, there’s no budget, there’s no (Washington) D.C. back office and there’s no active agreements.”
He agreed that it placed extra pressure on an already fragile ceasefire that relies on a massive aid delivery operation to alleviate the suffering.
“The risks are higher if there is any reduction in food,” he said.
So far, he believed UN reserves of food and other aid have filled the gap left by USAID, but this will start to run out.
Harden said the loss of USAID was not only devastating for Palestinians but also bad for Israel, which often used the agency as a communication channel.
JORDAN
As a long-term, reliable and stable US ally in the region, Jordan was the third largest recipient of USAID funding globally.
In 2023, the kingdom received $1.2 billion from the agency with much of it being used to support economic development.
While not suffering the scale of the humanitarian struggles in other countries in the region, the USAID funding supported businesses and government projects.
The funding was so entwined in Jordan’s economy that it accounted for more than 2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2024, Reuters reported, citing JPMorgan.
The cuts in funding have rippled through the economy, leading to thousands of job losses according to some reports.
Rana Sweis spent a year going through an extensive application process to secure funding for a project for her Amman-based media and marketing company, Wishbox Media.
She then waited more than four months before approval came for an $81,000 grant from USAID’s Makanati project, which encouraged women into work in Jordan.
The year-long project started in May 2024 with money released in monthly increments in line with regular progress reports.
When she was told in January that funding would be frozen, her company was more than 80 percent through the promised work on empowering women in the workforce.
This included a 25-minute documentary, social media campaigns, infographics and other multimedia production.
Sweis said they now expect to lose nearly half of the grant but still hope to receive two pending payments left outstanding.
She had to let one staff member go and cancel the company’s internship program. “It’s a big loss for a small company, but what can I do?” she told Arab News.
“People are losing their jobs in Washington, people are not getting all these humanitarian lifesaving vaccines in Africa, and that’s how I deal with the loss we had.”
While she may be putting the impact on her company in perspective, hundreds of businesses across Jordan would have been taking similar or even greater financial hits in recent weeks.
“It’s a shock for Wishbox, but it’s a shock for me personally because USAID is such an integral part of Jordan and the development of Jordan,” she said. “It’s in every sector, in education, in water and in every level, from the government to civil society.”
YEMEN
Yemen is considered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with half of the country’s population requiring assistance, according to the UN.
With one-third of the money to pay for that aid coming from the US — mostly through USAID — there is deep concern about the impact the agency’s cutbacks will have on the country.
The US announced $220 million in additional aid, including nearly $200 million through USAID, in May 2024.
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014 when the Houthi militia, backed by Iran, took control of the capital and largest city, Sanaa, demanding a new government.
Since the eruption of the war, the US has spent nearly $5.9 billion on the humanitarian response, according to a US Embassy statement last year.
One aid worker in Yemen told Arab News that projects across the country helping feed families, providing critical healthcare and improving water sanitation had been halted.
The worker said the cuts had come at a particularly difficult time with the start of Ramadan.
US organization scraps Palestine issue of Journal of Architectural Education, fires executive editor
US organization scraps Palestine issue of Journal of Architectural Education, fires executive editor
- Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture cites ‘substantial risks’ at personal and editorial levels as reason for its decision
- Executive editor McLain Clutter says he was fired for opposing cancellation of the planned issue
LONDON: The Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture has scrapped plans for the fall 2025 edition of its Journal of Architectural Education, which would have focused on Palestine, and dismissed the publication’s interim executive editor.
The decision followed a vote on Feb. 21 by the association’s board of directors, which cited “substantial risks” at both personal and editorial levels, The Architect’s Newspaper reported over the weekend.
“The decision followed an extended series of difficult discussions within the organization about the potential risks from publishing the issue,” the board said.
“The ACSA board decided that the risks from publishing the issue have significantly increased as a result of new actions by the US federal administration, as well as other actions at state levels.
“These substantial risks include personal threats to journal editors, authors and reviewers, as well as to ACSA volunteers and staff. They also include legal and financial risks facing the organization overall.”
The same day, the association dismissed the journal’s interim executive editor, McLain Clutter, who is also an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
Clutter, whose position with the journal was supposed to continue until 2026, told The Architect’s Newspaper that he was fired because he refused to support the decision to cancel the issue, and accused the association of being “on the wrong side of history.”
He added: “I am deeply disappointed by the actions of the ACSA Board. This decision represents a blatant violation of the principles of academic freedom, intellectual integrity and ethical scholarship that the organization claims to uphold.”
Founded in 1912, ACSA is an international organization that represents academic architectural programs and faculty, primarily in the US and Canada. It publishes the Journal of Architectural Education, and Technology: Architecture + Design.
Plans for the Fall 2025 issue of the former included a focus on the “ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign against Palestinians in Gaza” and “urgent reflections on this historical moment’s implications for design, research and education in architecture,” according to a call for papers issued last fall.
The editors of the issue — including Palestinian scholar Nora Akawi, an assistant professor at The Cooper Union in New York — criticized the cancellation and Clutter’s dismissal as part of a broader trend of censorship in the US and Europe of topics related to Palestine.
They said they were “dismayed by the decision” but “not surprised,” given that the ACSA had sought to block the plans for the issue even before the call for papers went out in September 2024. They accused the organization of using “new actions by the US presidential administration” as a pretext for its latest actions.
The ACSA said the fall 2025 issue of the publication would proceed with a different theme, and it was “evaluating its options for the journal within a broader framework.”
The spring 2025 issue, titled “Architecture Beyond Extraction,” which explores the relationship between architecture and extractivism and resource use, will be published in the coming weeks as scheduled.
