In France, gov’t transitions from U.S. digital platforms
The French government announced on Monday its plans to gradually transition to French online platform Visio by 2027, replacing American apps Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
This shift follows a trend of European nations exploring alternatives to U.S.-based organizations, as tech giants including Amazon, Microsoft and Google control roughly 70% of the European cloud infrastructure market.
The software was developed by the Interministerial Digital Authority, while the French company Outscale maintains its cloud infrastructure. It’s a part of the broader plan called Suite Numérique, France’s collection of secure digital tools aimed at replacing global standards such as Gmail and Slack. Other changes included FranceTransfert for file transfers, Messagerie for emails and texts and Fichiers for file organization, though these programs are not currently available to public and private companies.
After a year of testing, Visio is currently used by 40,000 public employees, and French authorities are targeting a user goal of 250,000 when the system is fully integrated. They claim that transitioning to Visio can save the government around $1 million per year for every 100,000 users by eliminating licensing costs.
Last September, France mandated public servants to switch to a government-owned messaging software called Tchap, citing concerns that widely used foreign platforms including WhatsApp and Telegram are “not without security flaws,” according to a circular signed by former Prime Minister Francois Bayrou. The following month, an Amazon Web Service outage led several European nations, including France, to seek more control of their digital infrastructures.
“The infrastructure underpinning democratic discourse, independent journalism and secure communications cannot be dependent on a handful of companies,” Corinne Cath-Speth, the head of digital at human rights organization Article 19, said.“When a single provider goes dark, critical services go offline with it — media outlets become inaccessible, secure communication apps like Signal stop functioning, and the infrastructure that serves our digital society crumbles.”
In Argentina, wildfires continue as state resources lack funding
Pervasive wildfires have affected over 90,000 acres of forests, grasslands and villages in the Chubut province since Jan. 5, with reports pointing to systematic problems within the government leading to an insufficient response.
Wildfires typically begin in March, but rising global temperatures have caused them to occur earlier in the year. The combination of high temperatures, low humidity and sustained winds continue to increase the risk of fires in the region.
The government under President Javier Milei defunded its National Fire Management Service’s budget by 53.6% compared to the previous year, making it one of Argentina’s most underfunded agencies. Milei’s dismissal of climate change as a “socialist hoax” caused him to slash funding for public health and the environment after taking office in 2023.
“Generally, at the political level, fire begins to be a topic of conversation when there is already a declared fire and when it has reached such magnitude that it has become a public issue,” director of the Wildlife Foundation of Argentina Manuel Jaramillo told Mongabay.“At the technical level, within government structures, there is a lot of preparation, a lot of concern to be able to improve coordination.”
Representative of the national parks’ union Alejo Fardjoume told The Guardian that monthly pay for firefighters is between 650,000 to 850,000 pesos, which falls below the poverty line of 1.3m pesos per month.
Despite the criticism of his handling of the wildfires, Milei affirmed that his focus will continue to revolve around the economy.
In China, a high-ranking general is dismissed
President Xi Jinping fired General Zhang Youxia after allegedly being accused of corruption according to People’s Liberation Army Daily — the Chinese military’s official newspaper — though the exact allegations are unknown to the public.
Xi and another officer who directed the dismissals remain the final two members of the Central Military Commission, which controls the nation’s armed forces. Former head of the Joint Staff Department, General Liu Zhenli, is also under investigation, according to the Chinese Defense Ministry.
“I have quite some doubts about allegations like that. We never know,” Shanshan Mei, a political scientist at nonprofit research organization RAND, told The World. “Chinese politics is notoriously black box.”
Zhang was a decorated veteran and one of China’s few generals with active military combat experience, having served in China’s war with Vietnam that started in 1979. High-level officials said that the general was accused of leaking information on nuclear programs to the United States.
Experts also worry about the implications of the removal on Taiwan.
“I think he could assess U.S. and Taiwan military capabilities objectively and explain to Xi Jinping what the military risks and costs of an operation to take Taiwan would be,” Pentagon official Drew Thompson told The New York Times. “I worry about the consequences of someone other than Zhang Youxia providing Xi Jinping with military advice.”
Contact Justin Yen at [email protected].