🌐Weekly News Digest [ January 5 – January 11 ]
That was the first full-fledged week of the new year of 2026, during which rulers forgave those who polluted their land, dismissed those who were managing their oil.
💡Here are the key highlights:
🇧🇼 Botswana
— Botswana Invites Russia to Invest in Its Mining Sector
🇨🇩 DR Congo
— Congolese clergy speaks against the US-DRC agreement.
— The government allows processing units to accept ore from artisanal miners amid protests
🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea
— Equatorial Guinea moves its capital to a brand new city built on oil revenues
🇬🇭 Ghana
— A Ghanaian prophet predicts the discovery of major onshore oil deposits in Ghana
— Ghana hopes to keep its oil fields viable until 2040
🇲🇱 Mali
— JNIM militants attack a gold mine in southeastern Mali
🇳🇪 Niger
— Niger replaces its oil minister
🇳🇬 Nigeria
— President reshuffles the country's oil sector management
🇸🇩 Sudan
— Sudan’s central bank and Sudanese Mineral Resources Company set up a joint commission to curb illegal gold exports.
🇺🇬 Uganda
— Uganda to start its first oil exports by October, despite environmental concerns
🇿🇲 Zambia
— First report on the toxic pollution caused by a Chinese company designates 160 people as victims
— Zambia is concerned over the safety of its workers in southern DRC
#NewsDigest
➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow
🤯F-Droid выражает протест против обязательной верификации всех разработчиков
Разработчики альтернативного магазина open-source приложений выражают обеспокоенность тем, что обязательная верификация для распространения приложений на устройствах, сертифицированных Google, негативно влияет на творчество.
Но у меня сразу ряд вопросов:
👉 Какие проблемы это создает для распространения через F-Droid?
👉 Исходный код и все авторы приложения из F-Droid известны
👉 Авторы гарантируют что софт настоящий и без трекинга, то в чем суть подтверждения авторства?
Официальное заявление можно найти тут
#android#googleplay#fdroid
🐱Buckwheat (на русском звучит "Гречка") - это приложение с открытым исходным кодом, которое помогает вам тратить деньги разумно. Запись каждой статьи расходов приводит вас в чувства и дает представление о том, сколько и как вы можете потратить.
Стек технологий: Jetpack Compose, KotlinX Coroutines, Room, Dagger + Hilt, Coil
🛒 Вы можете установить приложение из Google Play
#android#opensource#пример#fdroid#compose
A post from the developer of #WireGuard on the severe #security flaws and lack of trustworthiness of #FDroid:
https://bsky.app/profile/grapheneos.org/post/3lgq7wqwzpk26
The Bluesky link has GrapheneOS posts explaining
https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/issues/3110#note_1613430404
Stuff here but not to the point like the Bluesky link
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/18731-f-droid-vulnerability-allows-bypassing-certificate-pinning/
Keep Android Open
https://keepandroidopen.org
https://f-droid.org/2026/02/20/twif.html
During out talks with F-Droid users at FOSDEM26 we were baffled to learn most were relieved that #Google has canceled their plans to lock-down #Android.
Why baffled? Because no such thing actually happened, the plans announced last August are still scheduled to take place. We see a battle of PR campaigns and whomever has the last post out remains in the media memory as the truth, and having journalists just copy/paste Google posts serves no one.
But Google said… Said what? That there’s a magical “advanced flow”? Did you see it? Did anyone experience it? When is it scheduled to be released? Was it part of Android 16 QPR2 in December? Of 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 last week? Of Android 17 Beta 1? No? That’s the issue… As time marches on people were left with the impression that everything was done, fixed, Google “wasn’t evil” after all, this time, yay!
While we all have bad memories of “banners” as the dreaded ad delivery medium of the Internet, after FOSDEM we decided that we have to raise the issue back and have everyone, who cares about Android as an open platform, informed that we are running out of time until Google becomes the gate-keeper of all users devices.
Hence, the website and starting today our clients, with the updates of F-Droid and F-Droid Basic, feature a banner that reminds everyone how little time we have and how to voice their concerns to whatever local authority is able to understand the dangers of this path Android is led to.
We are not alone in our fight, IzzyOnDroid added a banner too, more #FDroid clients will add the warning banner soon and other app downloaders, like Obtainium, already have an in-app warning dialogue.
#why
#Droidify#Fdroid client
Added SHA256 for signature verification (Long press on Sync icon to refresh index)
https://github.com/Droid-ify/client/releases
Many more android app stores at
https://t.me/Libreware/1132 and #apk@LibreWare
Tell us your favorite or any missing ones
Droid-ify
Unofficial F-Droid client with Material UI based on Foxy-Droid
Features:
Material F-Droid style
No cards or inappropriate animations
Fast repository syncing
Standard Android components and minimal dependencies
https://github.com/iamlooker/Droid-ify/
Download:
https://github.com/Iamlooker/Droid-ify/releases
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.looker.droidify
https://android.izzysoft.de/repo/apk/com.looker.droidify
📡@NoGoolag📡@Libreware
#droidify#apk#fdroid
Neo Store
A quick material F-Droid client
🎨 Material F-Droid style
🎯 No cards or inappropriate animations
✈️ Fast repository syncing
🔧 Standard Android components and minimal dependencies
https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Store
Channel @neo_applications
Group @neo_android_store
#neostore#fdroid#apk
Keep Android Open
https://keepandroidopen.org
https://f-droid.org/2026/02/20/twif.html
During out talks with F-Droid users at FOSDEM26 we were baffled to learn most were relieved that #Google has canceled their plans to lock-down #Android.
Why baffled? Because no such thing actually happened, the plans announced last August are still scheduled to take place. We see a battle of PR campaigns and whomever has the last post out remains in the media memory as the truth, and having journalists just copy/paste Google posts serves no one.
But Google said… Said what? That there’s a magical “advanced flow”? Did you see it? Did anyone experience it? When is it scheduled to be released? Was it part of Android 16 QPR2 in December? Of 16 QPR3 Beta 2.1 last week? Of Android 17 Beta 1? No? That’s the issue… As time marches on people were left with the impression that everything was done, fixed, Google “wasn’t evil” after all, this time, yay!
While we all have bad memories of “banners” as the dreaded ad delivery medium of the Internet, after FOSDEM we decided that we have to raise the issue back and have everyone, who cares about Android as an open platform, informed that we are running out of time until Google becomes the gate-keeper of all users devices.
Hence, the website and starting today our clients, with the updates of F-Droid and F-Droid Basic, feature a banner that reminds everyone how little time we have and how to voice their concerns to whatever local authority is able to understand the dangers of this path Android is led to.
We are not alone in our fight, IzzyOnDroid added a banner too, more #FDroid clients will add the warning banner soon and other app downloaders, like Obtainium, already have an in-app warning dialogue.
#why
PCAPdroid
Capture traffic on Android devices and send the PCAP via UDP without root
PCAPdroid lets you capture the Android traffic and analyze it remotely (e.g. via Wireshark). The traffic can be easily captured on a remote PC via an UDP socket.
💡 Features:
✅ Capture apps traffic without root privileges
✅ Send captured traffic via UDP
✅ Download the traffic PCAP via the integrated HTTP server
✅ Show captured traffic real time statistics
✅ Apply a filter to only capture traffic for the selected app
✅ Decrypt HTTPS/TLS traffic via a remote mitmproxy
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.emanuelef.remote_capture/
#PCAPdroid#android#fdroid#app
[email protected] - Drizzle in my repo today with 2 new apps. Most prominently:
Watomatic – to help those of you still stuck at WhatsApp to leave that s(t)inking ship without being afraid "nobody can find you": it sends auto-responses to everyone writing you, telling them you've left and where to look. So: no more excuses, here's your door! https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.parishod.watomatic
Further running: SpaceXFollower (SpaceX events, facts, statistics) and Auxio, a nice music player, added yesterday.
Enjoy #foss#Android#apps with #fdroid!