A total of twelve people, among them an infant, lost their lives on Monday in two incidents with migrants boats in the eastern Aegean Sea. There is information of missing persons. The one incident took place off the island of Lesvos where a Greek Coast Guard patrol boat collided with the migrants boat doing dangerous […]

The post 12 people die, among them an infant, in two incidents with migrants boats appeared first on Keep Talking Greece.

Greece remains a major entry point for migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union by sea.

On Monday, Greek authorities confirmed that six people died and 14 others were rescued after a speedboat carrying migrants capsized off the island of Samos, hours after a separate collision between a migrant speedboat and a Greek coast guard patrol vessel off Lesvos left six people dead.

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Mediterranean Migration Crisis: Pope Leo XIV Condemns Devastating Economic System Leaving 1,397 Dead

The boat capsized during manoeuvres about 3.7 nautical miles north of Samos. A search-and-rescue operation was underway, involving a navy vessel, a coast guard rescue boat and an air force helicopter.

In a separate incident off Lesvos, another eastern Aegean island, four men, a woman and an infant died when a speedboat carrying migrants collided with a Greek coast guard patrol vessel in the early hours of Monday.

Authorities said the migrant boat had made dangerous manoeuvres to evade a coast guard inspection before the collision.

The text reads, “Between 2014 and 2025, at least 4,414 children died along migration routes—an average of more than one per day over the course of twelve years. This figure comes from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a United Nations agency that has been tracking migrant deaths and disappearances worldwide since 2014.

In a report published on October 13, produced in collaboration with a network of organizations led by UNICEF, the IOM warns that the actual number is likely much higher. Over these twelve years, nearly 81,000 migrant deaths or disappearances have been recorded; in more than half of these cases, the individuals’ ages are unknown. Among the children whose ages are known, more than a hundred were under five years old.

More than half of these minors died in the Mediterranean, the deadliest route. In 2024, minors accounted for 19% of the people who arrived in Italy and Malta, yet they represented only 2% of the deaths recorded along that same route. This discrepancy exists because many children who die are never accounted for.

Some disappear without their deaths being registered, while others appear in the data without a specific age—particularly adolescents, who are often classified as adults. The most precise age-related data comes from forensic experts and the police, though they document only a small fraction of cases; the rest of the information is gathered through humanitarian organizations, media outlets, survivors, and witnesses.

IOM Director Amy Pope links these deaths to the lack of safe and legal migration pathways. The organization urges states to systematically record the age of deceased individuals and to share this information among police forces, forensic experts, and humanitarian organizations.

‘Every child who dies during a migratory journey deserves to be accounted for. Yet far too many do not appear in the data. We cannot protect children from dangers that we do not see,’ says Stuart Campo, strategy lead for the IOM’s Data Department.”

Eight survivors — four men, two women and two children — were rescued and taken to hospital for treatment. The boat’s 37-year-old Turkish operator was arrested on suspicion of people smuggling.

Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Vassilis Kikilias expressed grief and anger over the deaths off Lesvos. He reiterated the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards people smugglers, describing them as criminals who endanger the lives of desperate people for profit.

Greece, located at the southeastern edge of Europe, remains a major entry point for migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union by sea.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: Xinhua

The BBC has suspended a placement scheme for civil servants amid an outcry over impartiality after it was revealed that Whitehall staff were tasked with fact-checking contentious issues such as immigration and Covid.

The post BBC Suspends Civil Service Fact-Checking Scheme Amid Impartiality Outcry appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Backlash against content creators includes restricted hours for filming and even outright bans

Stand in any vaguely photogenic spot these days on holiday and the chances are you will come across people posing with raised phones and even ring lights. Some may be influencers with huge audiences on social media, others just overkeen Instagram users. With hotels and beauty spots now so overrun, however, bans on photography are coming into place.

The five-star Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, known for its glamorous clientele, views of the Côte d’Azur and a stunning infinity pool, has brought in rules against photoshoots: no longer allowed without prior permission.

In recent years, one of the predominant policy initiatives of the progressive left has been raising the minimum wage in locales around the country. At the same time, left-leaning politicians have sought the elimination of what's known as the tip credit, which allows employers to pay restaurant servers and other tipped employees a lower hourly base wage that they then bolster with gratuities.

Just a few years into this experiment, however, policymakers are showing signs of an about-face on the tip credit's abolition as they grapple with the unfortunate, and predictable, economic results.

In 2022, Washington, D.C., made news headlines when voters passed Initiative 82. As originally designed, it would have repealed the tip credit and required servers to be paid the District's full statutory minimum wage by 2027. (D.C.'s minimum wage was $16.10 per hour in 2022, but has since risen to $18.40 due to inflation indexation.) Prior to Initiative 82, D.C. servers could be paid a $5.35 tipped wage, so long as they earned enough tips to make up the difference between the lower tipped wage and the higher traditional minimum wage.

D.C.'s Initiative 82 was just the beginning. One Fair Wage, a progressive group that lobbies against subminimum wages, quarterbacked an all-out push to eliminate the tip credit in jurisdictions across America. Chicago became the second prominent city to follow suit. States like New York, Connecticut, and Illinois also quickly saw legislation introduced to eliminate the tip credit at a statewide level. (Apart from this recent wave, a small handful of American states—including California, Oregon, and Alaska—have long operated without a tip credit).

But just when it seemed like momentum against the tip credit had reached its apex, progressive politicians started to see the writing on the wall. In the aftermath of the tip credit's repeal, D.C. saw a close to 5 percent decline in full-service restaurant jobs. Tipped worker earnings also dropped by just under $12 million—likely a result, at least in part, of restaurants reducing hours for staff in the face of higher labor costs. At the same time, many D.C. restaurants began implementing service fees or so-called auto-gratuity policies that added mandatory 10-20 percent charges onto customers' bills.

Mugged by this economic reality, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the full repeal of Initiative 82. Ultimately, the D.C. Council settled for a partial repeal in 2025, maintaining at least some semblance of a tipped wage that sits below the traditional minimum wage into the years ahead (although the tipped wage eventually rises to 75 percent of the traditional wage by 2034). This was a familiar story: The council had previously repealed Initiative 77, a near-identical attempt to abolish the tipped wage that voters passed in 2018.

After Chicago moved to eliminate the tip credit, the Illinois Restaurant Association found that 89 percent of Windy City restaurants raised menu prices; another 79 percent responded by reducing worker hours. Again bowing to economic reality, the progressive Chicago City Council voted to freeze the tip credit's planned elimination, only to see the effort vetoed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Eventually, a compromise was brokered to at least pause the tip credit at its current level for two years—which punts the issue until after Johnson stands for election again, allowing a potential successor to endorse a more lasting reversal.

In Michigan, a 2024 state supreme court ruling set the tip credit on the path toward elimination by 2030. But state lawmakers intervened last year, deciding to maintain a 50 percent tip credit in perpetuity after 2031. Notably, Michigan is currently governed by a Democratic trifecta in the governorship and both houses of the Legislature. The tip credit's revival garnered key support from Republican lawmakers to pass in a bipartisan fashion, before being signed into law by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

While progressive efforts to eliminate the tip credit may be motivated by an earnest desire to ensure waiters are paid more, the math isn't that simple. Requiring a server to be paid a $16 traditional minimum wage—up from a $5 tipped wage—might appear to raise their pay on paper. But this fails to consider several important factors.

Under our "No Taxes on Tips" new normal, raising the minimum wage for servers could lead to a partial reduction in tips, which under certain scenarios can result in less take-home pay for waiters once the taxman takes his cut. If more server earnings come in the form of "auto-gratuity" policies—which are treated as taxed wages under the law—then the tax repercussions may grow even grimmer.

But more broadly, these laws attempt to subvert basic economics. As of 2025, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that D.C. restaurants shed over 1,600 jobs in aftermath of Initiative 82; meanwhile, between 2022 and 2025, restaurant job growth in the District declined by more than 8 percent. This is just one example. The fallout is the inevitable result of restaurants responding to labor costs that suddenly skyrocket, forcing establishments to cut worker hours and sometimes transition to quick-service models that require less hourly staff. And that's to say nothing of the diners who bear the cost with higher prices and new service fees.

"We're watching a beloved bar back, a beloved busser, a dishwasher have their jobs taken away," D.C. restaurant worker Valerie Graham told Reason in 2024. "Not because our owner-operator is an evil billionaire but because they're an independent business owner who had to make some business decisions and there's a callousness with which our industry is talked about."

To be sure, the tip credit has only survived in modified and reduced form in D.C., Chicago, and Michigan—and in the case of Chicago, the about-face is only temporary. But the partial reversals show the tip credit's elimination is not a foregone conclusion. Economic reality continues to rear its head.

The post Some Progressives Tried To Abolish the Tipped Minimum Wage. Now They're Backtracking. appeared first on Reason Magazine.

• Los Tacos No. 1 came under fire on social media after receiving a private equity investment.
• Some fans feared the beloved New York City Tijuana-style taco chain would lose its iconic flavor.
• The chain's CEO told Business Insider they will scale cautiously, preserving quality and low prices.

Christian Pineda, CEO and cofounder of Los Tacos No. 1, couldn't fall asleep.

He was caught in a scroll of enraged social media posts. The storm of customer indignation followed news last month that the beloved New York City taco chain had received an investment from the private equity firm TSG Consumer. The internet seemed convinced their favorite carne asada and adobada tacos would lose their quality, and Pineda had not expected the reaction.

To remedy the situation, he said he felt it was his duty to address his customers directly. He woke up at 4:30 the next morning to clear the air.

"No, we're not going to start charging extra for guac. We're not switching to horse meat. And no, we're definitely not messing with the tacos," read the Instagram post published September 4.

"I wanted to keep it simple, honest, and comical too at the same time," Pineda told Business Insider. "I saw it as inspiring, honestly, to really prove our customers wrong — that private equity is not always bad."

Colin Welch, managing director and head of New York at TSG Consumer, said the backlash among some underscored what TSG saw in the taco business to begin with: a "cultlike following" customer base protective of the food, and an experience that made Los Tacos a "New York institution."

"It's our responsibility to show those skeptics that it's going to be exactly the same Los Tacos experience, and that nothing's going to change for the worse," Welch said. "We got to show them, not tell them, and that'll happen over time."

The PE firm, founded in 1986 and with $14 billion in assets under management, also has investments in food names Pura Vida Miami, Crumbl, and Dutch Bros Coffee. TSG declined to disclose the terms of the deal or the amount it paid for its investment in or stake in Los Tacos No. 1, which opened in 2013.

Welch said the firm plans to let Pineda and his team run the show, while TSG will provide guidance on future expansion. He pointed to Pura Vida Miami, a lifestyle café chain founded in Miami. It grew from locations in two states to seven since TSG announced its minority stake in 2025.

Pineda said the chain focused on finding an investor that would allow Los Tacos No. 1 to scale in a "cautiously smart" way. With 10 locations in Manhattan and a sister location, Los Mariscos, at Chelsea Market, the taco chain wants to continue expanding into other boroughs and markets. It's looking to open a new location in Brooklyn before the end of the year, and another three new locations are planned to open in 2027.

The PE investment comes after 13 years of growth in New York City — a journey that began with three architects and the search for a good taco.

Selling an experience

Pineda and his co-founders, Tyler Sanders and Kyle Cameron, moved from California to New York City in 2010. They lived together in a one-bedroom apartment in the West Village, where Pineda and Sanders, both architects, spent days knocking on doors to find jobs. They found jobs, but there was one thing they could not find wherever they looked — a good taco.

The three men had been raised on Tijuana-style tacos. Pineda was born in San Diego but was raised between there and Tijuana, where his parents are from. Meanwhile, Sanders and Cameron were born in Brawley, California, a city near the border with Mexicali.

Thus, the "No ticket, No taco" order model was born. Customers get a ticket from the cashier, and then have to find and give it to one of the many "taqueros," or cooks, working at once. They can then give the taquero specific instructions for their tacos and watch them prepare the food in front of them. The interactive experience is designed to induce an organized chaos, brought to life by Mexican folk music in the background as the staff speaks in Spanish among themselves.

Growing and scaling a business in NYC

It's no secret that the Big Apple is expensive, and as the cost of living increases, so do expenses for businesses like Los Tacos No. 1.

Since they opened, annual revenue has grown by around 30% each year, and they currently serve about 1,200 customers per day, with an average check of about $20, Pineda said.

In recent months, the expenses that have increased the most are beef, limes, avocados, and tomatoes, Pineda said. Beef prices were 5.9% higher in August 2026 than in August 2025, and they are forecast to increase a total of 9.4% this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

To adjust to these increases, the chain keeps other expenses "tight, lean and sustainable," and will not raise prices or cut quality because of a temporary spike, Pineda said. To keep up, the business has to "be efficient in everything else," Pineda said.

"Our idea was always you need to have the best taco and the cheapest taco," Pineda said. "Our carne asada started at $3.50 in 2013. Now our carne asada tacos are $5.95 after 13 years, so we take pride in that."

Pineda sees the new partnership with TSG Consumer as an opportunity to grow the company while preserving its quality, and maybe going public one day, debuting by ringing the opening bell on a stock exchange.

"We want to be in a room where we're with people who have done 100, 200, 1,000 locations. We haven't done that," he said. "We partner up with them because of their knowledge and the people that they've worked with, the brands that they've helped with — a big goal has been if we can ring the bell — that'd be amazing."

Andrej Babis has repeatedly criticized Spain’s migrant regularization initiative.

On Friday, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis suggested the possibility that his country might have to protect its borders against migrants arriving from Western countries.

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“We see what is happening in Spain. Some politicians are willing to replace the population with immigrants solely to keep their positions and remain in government, although that does not concern us,” Babis said upon his arrival for the second day of the European Union summit of heads of state and government in Brussels.

The Czech leader added that, for some countries, it was “too late” to manage migration and floated the idea that they “might” have to “defend the borders so that immigrants from Western countries do not come” to Czech territory “if things continue this way.” “We are preparing for that,” he added.

Diplomatic sources explained that the Czech prime minister “was speaking generally about situations in countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Spain,” without specifying which situations he was referring to.

Babis, an admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies, has repeatedly criticized Spain’s migrant regularization initiative since this summer.

In August, he accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of promoting migration for electoral purposes, saying on Czech television network Nova that the Spanish leader believed those who benefited from the measure would end up voting for him.

Babis also linked the mass arrival of immigrants in Ceuta to the Spanish government’s migration policy and, in July, even advocated temporarily excluding Spain from the Schengen Area.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

New Findings Expand the Country’s Documented Ant Inventory to About 845 Species and Highlight Gaps in Biodiversity Research.

On Wednesday, the National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO) reported that researchers had documented 15 ant species in Ecuador for the first time, expanding the inventory of documented species in the Andean country to approximately 845 species across 103 genera.

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The new records comprise 15 species distributed across four subfamilies and eight genera. One of the most notable results is the first record of the genus Cryptomyrmex, represented by the species Cryptomyrmex longinodus, found in Yasuni National Park, one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, located in the Amazonian province of Pastaza.

According to Inabio, these species were known to occur in other countries, such as Colombia, Peru and Brazil, but had never been identified in mainland Ecuador.

The identified species were found in the Amazonian provinces of Napo, Pastaza, Sucumbios and Zamora Chinchipe; the coastal provinces of Esmeraldas, Guayas and Santa Elena; the tropical province of Los Rios; and the Andean province of Cañar.

The researchers are affiliated with the Higher Polytechnic School of Chimborazo province, INABIO, the Agency for Phytosanitary and Zoosanitary Regulation and Control, Uru Foundation and the National Polytechnic School, all in Ecuador, as well as Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research.

They found specimens in diverse environments, including Amazonian forests, montane forests and tropical dry forests, many of them in leaf litter on the forest floor. One species, Dorymyrmex brunneus, for example, was found in dragon fruit crops in Cañar province.

Inabio noted that “several of these findings considerably expand the known geographic distribution of the species in South America,” since, in some cases, the Ecuadorian records are hundreds or even more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from locations where the species had previously been documented.

INABIO explained that ants are “ecosystem engineers” because they sustain the structure and functioning of these habitats. They contribute to soil aeration and nutrient cycling, pest control and seed dispersal, interact with multiple species, and form part of ecological networks in forests, agricultural areas and cities.

The study also identified gaps in information about ants in Ecuador, particularly in mountainous areas and transition zones between the Andes and the Amazon. Further research is needed, especially in light of threats associated with habitat transformation, agricultural expansion and climate change.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

Back in 1983, the Supreme Court declared that "a person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another." That increasingly doubtful proposition underpins a nationwide network of more than 144,000 AI-assisted cameras that track the travels of innocent motorists across the country billions of times each week.

So far, state and federal courts have almost uniformly rejected constitutional challenges to automated license plate readers (ALPRs) installed by companies such as Flock Safety. But in a decision that could signal a shift in the legal treatment of Flock cameras, a federal judge in Oklahoma recently recognized that they enable "a type of indiscriminate mass surveillance."

ALPRs are much more sophisticated than the technology that the Supreme Court considered in 1983, when it approved the warrantless use of a radio transmitter that helped police tail a suspected methamphetamine manufacturer's car. Three decades later, by contrast, the Court said police should have obtained a search warrant before attaching a GPS tracker to another drug suspect's car.

The majority opinion in the latter case emphasized the physical intrusion necessary to install the tracker. But five justices embraced an alternative rationale, saying GPS tracking impinges on reasonable expectations of privacy by revealing potentially sensitive information about the target's historical whereabouts.

That theory came to the fore in a 2018 case involving mobile-phone location data collected by cell sites, which the majority said implicated the Fourth Amendment because "individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements." The Supreme Court reiterated that principle this year, extending it to data collected by Google's Location History feature.

"An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cell phone's location," Justice Elena Kagan said in the majority opinion, "and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information." By similar logic, U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill concluded this month in the Oklahoma case, people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in ALPR records, and police therefore generally need a warrant to search them.

Those databases include "information about all vehicles that pass by any network-connected camera at all times," which police can peruse "on demand," Hill noted. "Freedom from persistent, dragnet-style surveillance while in public is not a foreign concept in our society, and it is a reasonable expectation that society already accepts," as reflected in the Supreme Court's cellphone decisions.

Like cars, cellphones "move in public places where people can see you in plain view," Hill wrote. "But it becomes constitutionally problematic when law enforcement can indiscriminately and passively catalog your whereabouts over an extended period of time and then use that information for any purpose whenever convenient."

At this point, Hill's decision is an outlier. "It appears that nearly every court examining the issue to date has determined that ALPR technology use is not a search under the Fourth Amendment because people have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their movements on public streets," she noted.

Last month, for instance, a federal judge in California held that ALPR database searches are "clearly distinguishable from and less extensive than the 'near perfect surveillance' achievable" with cell-site or Location History data. And the day after Hill's ruling, a state judge in California rejected a challenge to San Jose's Flock camera network, saying "there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in license plate data collected from cameras directed solely at public streets."

A federal lawsuit involving the same city's ALPR system, which the Institute for Justice filed last April, is still pending. So are challenges to Flock cameras in cities such as Wichita, Kansas, and Norfolk, Virginia.

Even when they reject such lawsuits, courts commonly acknowledge that the legal picture could change as the number and capabilities of ALPRs multiply. If so, it seems likely that Hill will eventually be joined by other judges who recognize the perils of "indiscriminate mass surveillance."

© Copyright 2026 by Creators Syndicate Inc.

The post Other Courts Should Heed a Federal Judge's Warning About Flock-Enabled Mass Surveillance appeared first on Reason Magazine.

More than 100,000 signatures were submitted against a plan that tenants’ advocates say could worsen abusive rents.

On Tuesday, the Swiss Tenants Association (ASLOCA) submitted more than 100,000 signatures to the Swiss government in protest against an “outrageous” proposal to reform the rental pricing system, which would increase instances of abusive rents.

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The government’s plan is a counterproposal to a popular initiative that ASLOCA wants to put to a national referendum. Launched in 2025, the initiative seeks to incorporate a definition of abusive rent into the federal Constitution and requires rental prices to be reviewed automatically and periodically.

The government opposes that text and proposed the counterproposal in late September. The alternative has now sparked outrage at ASLOCA and calls for a more flexible pricing system based on a range of different prices.

According to the tenants’ association, which is headed by Geneva Socialist Sen. Carlo Sommaruga, the government’s proposal would allow very high rents to be factored into subsequent statistics, potentially driving up benchmark rents with each update.

“Tenants are already paying rents that are too high, and the Federal Council wants to ask them to pay even more. They will not accept it,” Sommaruga said in a statement.

According to Eurostat, around 58% of Switzerland’s population lives in rented housing, making the country the one with the highest share of tenants in Europe. Along with Germany, Switzerland is one of the few countries on the continent where renters outnumber homeowners.

Currently, the Swiss debate over rents is unfolding amid a clash between two segments of the population: retirees and tenants.

“Retirees’ pensions depend in part on the returns generated by the real estate portfolios held by their pension funds. These institutions are estimated to own one in six homes in Switzerland and exert a constant influence on real estate-related initiatives—as seen in Zurich last June, when voters rejected a proposal aimed at restricting the termination of rental contracts,” the Tribune de Genève explained.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

The International Refugee Assistance Project warns the new policy could facilitate mass deportations.

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the United States will reduce from 30 days to 10 days the period refugees have to defend themselves when the federal government seeks to revoke their immigration status.

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The new rule shortens the time available to submit evidence and arguments in response to a notice from authorities stating their intention to revoke that protection.

The measure seeks to “restore integrity to the immigration system, mitigate public and national security risks, and prevent fraud,” DHS said.

Under the law, the U.S. government can revoke refugee status only if it determines that the person did not meet the requirements for obtaining it when they were admitted to the country.

If authorities determine that the evidence and arguments submitted do not justify maintaining the protection, they can revoke the person’s status and subject them to deportation proceedings.

The process of obtaining this protection can take years. Available pathways include referral to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) by the United Nations, a U.S. Embassy, or a nongovernmental organization. Applicants must also pass interviews and security screenings, including background checks conducted by various federal agencies.

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) rejected the changes and warned that they would facilitate “mass” deportations of refugees. IRAP said the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been persecuting refugees and illegally detaining them since the beginning of the year.

IRAP has sued the U.S. government over its detention of refugees and attempts to deport them to countries including Rwanda, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Trump’s mass deportation campaign has also affected people who had authorization to remain in the United States.

His administration has revoked Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for several countries, canceled humanitarian parole programs and pushed for certain asylum applications to be denied without a full hearing. According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), 1.6 million immigrants lost their legal status during the first year of Trump’s second term.

The shortened deadline turns the process into a “mere formality” to “strip refugees who were lawfully admitted and are lawfully living in the country of their status and deport them to places where they would face persecution or worse,” said Laurie Ball Cooper, IRAP’s vice president of U.S. legal programs.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

A new restaurant in Portimão is looking to revive the relaxed atmosphere of Portugal’s traditional casas de petiscos (tapas houses), with a menu built around sharing food, familiar flavours and

The post New Portimão restaurant brings back spirit of the traditional petisco house appeared first on Portugal Resident.

Iniciativa vai permitir discutir ideias de projetos com os operadores dos vários programas.

O conteúdo EEA Grants Roadshow termina em Faro com apresentação de oportunidades de financiamento aparece primeiro em Barlavento.

CPEC 2.0 aims to move past the infrastructure-heavy first phase toward industry, agriculture, mining, technology, green development and business-to-business investment. That shift could deepen economic ties between Pakistan and China, but it also changes the nature of the security challenge. Big infrastructure projects can be guarded behind fixed perimeters. Industrial zones, mines, private businesses and […]

The post CPEC 2.0 will be won or lost on keeping China’s investors safe appeared first on Asia Times.

Depuis le 1er octobre 2026, neuf plateformes prélèvent elles-mêmes les cotisations sociales de leurs indépendants et les versent à l'Urssaf. Obligatoire pour toutes dès le 1er janvier 2027, ce dispositif laisse au travailleur tous les risques de son statut, mais plus la maîtrise de sa trésorerie.

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Jusqu’ici, le micro-entrepreneur encaissait son chiffre d’affaires, le déclarait à l’Urssaf, puis réglait lui-même ses cotisations. Ce circuit disparaît progressivement pour les revenus réalisés par l’intermédiaire des plateformes.

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La plateforme encaisse, calcule et reverse

L'article L613-6-1 du code de la sécurité socialet le décret n° 2026-488 du 10 juin 2026 organisent ce nouveau mécanisme. À chaque versement, la plateforme applique le taux correspondant à l’activité, prélève les sommes dues, puis les reverse mensuellement à l’Urssaf.

Pour les prestations de services relevant des BIC, le taux reste de 21,2 % du chiffre d’affaires. Il atteint 25,6 % pour les activités libérales non réglementées, tandis que la vente de marchandises reste à 12,3 %. Rien ne change donc juridiquement dans le montant des cotisations : c’est leur circuit de collecte qui est bouleversé. Le gouvernement présente cette évolution comme une simplification. Mais pour l’indépendant, la différence financière est immédiate : sur 2 000 euros de recettes soumises au taux de 21,2 %, 424 euros sont prélevés avant même d'arriver sur son compte.

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L'indépendant garde les risques, mais perd la main sur sa trésorerie

Le dispositif transfère ainsi une fonction traditionnellement assumée par le cotisant vers une entreprise privée. La plateforme devient l'intermédiaire entre le travailleur et l'Urssaf, avec obligation de calculer, déclarer et reverser les sommes. Les coûts de cette opération restent à sa charge.

Reste surtout la question du contrôle. En cas d'erreur de chiffre d'affaires ou de taux, l'indépendant devra vérifier les montants transmis, réclamer une correction à la plateforme puis, si nécessaire, saisir l'Urssaf. Le décret prévoit d'ailleurs des mécanismes de rectification.

Le paradoxe n'est pas qu'on prélève. Le salarié connaît ce mécanisme depuis longtemps. Mais le salarié bénéficie d'un employeur responsable de sa paie. L'indépendant, lui, conserve la totalité des risques : absence de chômage, revenus irréguliers, charge de la preuve. Il perd en revanche le geste élémentaire de déclarer et de payer lui-même.

La simplification vantée à l'indépendant sert d'abord la fluidité des recettes publiques. Et rien n'indique, dans les textes, que les plateformes devront assumer financièrement leurs propres erreurs de calcul.Il fallait d'abord attirer les travailleurs vers le statut. On les y retient désormais en tenant leur caisse.

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Près de 12 millions d’euros destinés notamment à l’hébergement de demandeurs d’asile auraient été détournés via des sociétés écrans avant de financer des opérations immobilières au Maroc, au Sénégal et en Mauritanie. Le 11 septembre, le tribunal judiciaire de Créteil a condamné l’ancien directeur territorial de Coallia à sept ans de prison et 500 000 euros d’amende.

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Le montage judiciaire retenu est lourd : détournement de fonds publics, escroquerie en bande organisée, blanchiment, prise illégale d'intérêts, corruption passive. Selon les éléments produits à l'audience, les subventions destinées à l'hébergement des demandeurs d'asile ont d'abord transité par des sociétés écrans avant d'être réinjectées dans des opérations immobilières au Maghreb et en Afrique de l'Ouest.

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Des millions transitent par des sociétés écrans

L’affaire remonte à des mouvements financiers détectés au printemps 2023 par Tracfin. Le service de renseignement financier avait relevé des opérations atypiques au sein de l’unité départementale de Coallia à Choisy-le-Roi, dirigée depuis 2012 par l’ancien responsable. Les enquêteurs du SDPJ du Val-de-Marne ont ensuite identifié plusieurs sociétés sans activité économique réelle qui auraient reçu plusieurs millions d’euros de l’association entre janvier 2020 et juillet 2024.

Selon les éléments produits à l'audience, les subventions destinées à l'hébergement des demandeurs d'asile ont d'abord transité par des sociétés écrans avant d'être réinjectées dans des opérations immobilières au Maghreb et en Afrique de l'Ouest. Des salariés ont également décrit des demandes de rétrocommissions liées à des marchés. Une partie des fonds aurait finalement été blanchie dans des acquisitions immobilières au Maroc, au Sénégal et en Mauritanie.

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Une gestion associative sans surveillance

Le 11 septembre, Gaye C. a été condamné pour détournement de fonds publics, escroquerie en bande organisée, blanchiment, prise illégale d’intérêts et corruption passive. Son épouse et son frère ont chacun reçu trois ans de prison, dont deux avec sursis. Deux chefs d’entreprise ont été condamnés à quatre ans, dont trois avec sursis. L’association Coallia a elle-même été condamnée à 50 000 euros d’amende pour détournement de fonds par négligence.

Le montant prend une dimension particulière lorsque l’on considère l’importance de Coallia dans le dispositif public : l’association avait reçu 148 millions d’euros de subventions de l’État en 2022 au titre de la mission « immigration, asile et intégration ». Sa direction affirme n’avoir découvert les détournements qu’à la suite des investigations, évoquant notamment une faille du logiciel de paiement.

Au-delà de la sanction pénale, cette condamnation interroge la chaîne entière de la subvention publique. L'argent du contribuable, censé financer des places d'hébergement pour demandeurs d'asile, a servi à constituer un patrimoine familial à l'étranger, avec la complicité de partenaires commerciaux extérieurs à l'association. Le jugement de Créteil expose les failles structurelles d'un secteur où la confiance accordée aux gestionnaires associatifs tient lieu, trop souvent, de contrôle effectif. La question reste ouverte : combien d’autres circuits similaires fonctionnent encore hors de tout regard effectif ?

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L’administration a progressivement fermé ses guichets pour imposer les démarches numériques. En avril 2026, le portail de l’ANTS, devenu France Titres, a pourtant subi une faille permettant la divulgation de données personnelles concernant potentiellement 11,7 millions de comptes. Le portail a dû être placé en maintenance, tandis qu’une enquête était ouverte pour déterminer la chaîne des responsabilités.

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Le 15 avril 2026, un adolescent de 15 ans exploitait une vulnérabilité IDOR sur le portail moncompte.ants.gouv.fr, accéde aux données de 11,7 millions de comptes en modifiant un simple chiffre dans une URL. La centralisation des données d’identité entre les mains d’une administration qui refuse d’investir dans sa propre sécurité n’est pas une simplification, c’est un transfert de risque.

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11,7 millions de comptes concernés

Le 15 avril 2026, l’Agence nationale des titres sécurisés détecte un incident de sécurité sur son portail. Le 21 avril, le ministère de l’Intérieur reconnaît que 11,7 millions de comptes particuliers pourraient être concernés.

Les données exposées sont loin d’être anodines : identifiant de connexion, nom, prénoms, adresse électronique, date de naissance et identifiant unique du compte. Pour certains usagers peuvent s’y ajouter l’adresse postale, le lieu de naissance ou le numéro de téléphone. Le ministère précise en revanche que les pièces jointes et données biométriques ne font pas partie des informations dont la divulgation a été constatée à ce stade.

L’incident est particulièrement révélateur d’une administration devenue dépendante d’un portail numérique centralisé. Pour obtenir une carte grise, un permis ou effectuer certaines démarches liées aux titres d’identité, l’usager doit désormais passer par cette architecture numérique.

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Une panne, une enquête et une responsabilité à établir

Le 24 avril à 19 h 30, l’ANTS ferme son portail afin de renforcer sa sécurité. Les nouvelles démarches d’immatriculation, de permis et de titres d’identité deviennent temporairement indisponibles.

Le dossier ne s’arrête pas à une opération de maintenance. L’incident a été signalé à la CNIL et à la procureure de la République de Paris, avec transmission à l’Office anti-cybercriminalité. Le ministre de l’Intérieur a également saisi l’Inspection générale de l’administration pour établir la chaîne de responsabilité. La Cour des comptes avait anticipé. Dans un rapport du 12 mars 2026, elle identifiait trente scénarios de fraude distincts et alertait sur la vulnérabilité structurelle d’un système délégué à plus de 30 000 opérateurs privés sans contrôle sérieux. Un an plus tôt, le 16 juin 2025, elle constatait déjà que les responsabilités en matière de sécurité informatique étaient « trop éclatées » et que les montants alloués à la cybersécurité 176,9 millions d’euros début 2022, restaient en deçà des enjeux.

Face au scandale, le Premier ministre Sébastien Lecornu a annoncé le 30 avril un plan cyber de 200 millions d’euros. Un adolescent de 15 ans a été placé en garde à vue. L’État promet de « tirer toutes les conséquences ». Mais les victimes n’ont toujours pas été prévenues individuellement.

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