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Israeli spyware successfully broke into journalists' iPhones by sending iMessages that didn't even need to be read

Isobel Asher Hamilton
Business Insider
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 00:00 UTC
iPhone attacks
© Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Amnesty International found evidence of iPhones being hacked with 'zero-click' attacks
A forensic analysis by Amnesty International found a type of military-grade spyware was used to successfully break into journalists' iPhones, apparently by sending iMessages that didn't even need to be clicked.

The spyware is made by Israeli company NSO Group, a private firm that sells advanced hacking tools to clients including governments.

A group of 17 media outlets and Amnesty International published a report Sunday claiming NSO Group's Pegasus software was used by its clients to hack the phones of at least 37 journalists, activists, politicians, and business executives around the world.

NSO Group strongly denied the report, claiming it contained factual inaccuracies and lacked evidence.

Amnesty International published a forensic methodology report of how it analyzed targets' phones to discover whether they had been compromised by Pegasus.

The organization found evidence of "zero-click" iMessage attacks being targeted at journalists going back to 2018, with alarming implications for iPhone security. Zero-click attacks don't require any interaction from the victim to break into a phone.

Comment: What were some of the targets for Pegasus?
A leaked list of over 50,000 phone numbers is believed to include targets marked by clients of Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group for hacking. Some of the phones were reportedly infected with its flagship malware, Pegasus.

Among the people presumed to be selected for digital surveillance are
"hundreds of business executives, religious figures, academics, NGO employees, union officials and government officials, including cabinet ministers, presidents and prime ministers."
It also includes "close family members of one country's ruler, suggesting the ruler may have instructed their intelligence agencies to explore the possibility of monitoring their own relatives."

The bombshell allegations came on Sunday from members of a collective of 17 media organizations, which includes the British newspaper, based on their investigation of a leak obtained by the French outlet Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International.

The average number of targets per customer was 112 and that the company had 45 customers for its Pegasus spyware, corroborating the NSO Group's assessment of the 50,000 figure.

The suspected hacking 'wishlist' reportedly goes back to 2016 and consists of entries selected by NSO Group clients in 10 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Clients in Mexico selected the most numbers - more than 15,000 - followed by Morocco and the UAE, each with more than 10,000 numbers.
See also:

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Footprints

Russian envoys in Afghanistan evacuated 'temporarily' as Taliban fighters gain ground in troubled nation after US forces withdraw


RT
Mon, 12 Jul 2021 15:58 UTC
Afghan militia
© AFP/Hoshang Hashimi
Afghan militia in support of Afghanistan security forces against the Taliban
Russian diplomats and consular staff stationed in the Afghan border city of Hairatan have now been relocated to neighboring Uzbekistan, as the country descends into fierce fighting between Taliban militants and government troops.

Zamir Kabulov, the Russian president's special representative for Afghanistan, told TASS on Monday that personnel located in the northern town had crossed the frontier amid a worsening security situation.

"In Hairatan, since it is in a state of limbo, in order not to jeopardize the safety of our employees, we temporarily moved them to the territory of Uzbekistan," he said. The diplomats had reportedly been providing support to citizens in the region in recent days, and have only crossed into the relative safety of the former Soviet republic until fighting has died down.

However, Kabulov emphasized that there is "no such threat" to Russian staff working in the embassy in the capital, Kabul. While the situation is deteriorating, he said that the state of affairs was "alarming, but predictable. What we predicted is happening."
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Star of David

Israel comes up with new plan 'for punishing violators of lockdowns'


Sputnik
Sun, 18 Jul 2021 23:41 UTC
Bennett
© Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Israeli PM Naftali Bennett
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is boosting the enforcement of coronavirus regulations against violators, the prime minister's office announced.

Bennet held a Corona Cabinet discussion on Sunday, during which the Public Security Ministry presented the prime minister with a plan for a national effort to enforce COVID-19 pandemic regulations.
"Our goal is to determine logical directives, alongside aggressive and efficient enforcement against violators. Whoever violates the directives is endangering his health and the other citizens of Israel. We will not allow this. The Delta mutation is leaping forward around the world. Implementing the directives on the ground is a critical component in managing the pandemic in order to beat the mutation."
The plan, presented to the Israeli prime minister. combines technological means and enforcement actions to be carried out by police officers and municipal inspectors.

Enforcing coronavirus regulations envisages the filing of criminal indictments against verified coronavirus patients who knowingly violate quarantine. Special emphasis will be put on weddings and other celebratory events as they carry greater potential for infection, according to the Israeli government.
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Quenelle

"Yankee, time to go home!": Iraqi PM says US combat troops have to leave

Ilya Tsukanov
Sputnik
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 19:16 UTC
US troops soldiers iraq
© AP Photo / Ali Abdul Hassan / File
In this March 27, 2020 file photo, U.S. soldiers stand guard during the hand over ceremony of Qayyarah Airfield, Iraqi Security Forces, in the south of Mosul, Iraq.
In January 2020, Iraq's parliament issued a resolution ordering the expulsion of all US and coalition forces from their country in response to the unprovoked assassination of a senior Iranian military commander in Baghdad. Washington has pared down its deployment and handed over some bases to Iraq, but refused to depart the country completely.

Iraq continues to depend on American security and training assistance, but doesn't want US combat troops to remain present in the country, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has said amid his preparations to visit Washington next week.

"We are visiting Washington to set out our relationship with America. The Iraqi army still needs their forces for training. We need their support to our air force, and we need their intelligence support in the fight against ISIS*," al-Kadhimi said, speaking to Saudi Arabia's al-Hadath TV on Sunday.
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Russian Flag

Moscow's media watchdog says YouTube leads in anti-Russian censorship and refusing to delete illegal content, after anti-trans video row


RT
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 18:57 UTC
youtube censor
© YouTube/KJN
Russia's state media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has pointed the finger at Google's video-streaming platform, YouTube, as the leading offender in both hosting illegal material and making unaccountable decisions to censor clips.

Officials made the comments on Sunday, after the American tech giant moved to block a video posted by Senator Alexey Pushkov, entitled 'Attack on the minds of babies: Children as victims of the transexual revolution'. Moscow's online watchdog is insisting that the post be restored.

"YouTube more often than other foreign services restricts access to materials from Russian media," Roskomnadzor said. "In total, about 30 cases of censorship of Russian publications and information resources have been identified."

Comment: And since YouTube is owned by Google:

Google to de-rank RT and Sputnik, makes millions in advertising revenue from videos that exploit children

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Bad Guys

Belarusan 'Guaido' begs help from Biden: Tikhanovskaya calls on Americans to oust Lukashenko


RT
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 18:39 UTC
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya belarus president
© Global Look Press / Darius Mataitis via www.imago-im
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, failed Belarus presidential candidate
The self-described leader of Belarus' opposition movement, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, has called on US politicians to support her bid to remove her country's embattled leader, Alexander Lukashenko, as part of her visit to Washington.

In an interview with the National Interest magazine, published on Sunday, the 39-year-old activist, who has been living abroad since last summer's Belarusian presidential election, expressed hope that new US President Joe Biden would directly intervene in the Eastern European nation's domestic dispute. "With Biden's help we will prevail," she said.

Comment: If there's possibly a more pathetic political wannabe than Venezuela's Juan Guaido, Tikhanovskaya fills the bill. And it would do to be wary of any opinions or policies promoted by Chatham House. They are an old money, elitist think tank.

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Quenelle

French protesters draw anger at comparing vaccines to Nazi horrors - but the objectors are missing the point


The Independent
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 18:12 UTC
fire vaccine center france
© Associated Press
Vandals targeted the Urrugne vaccination in southwest France the weekend of July 19, 2021
A French Holocaust survivor has denounced anti-vaccination protesters comparing themselves to Jews who were persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. French officials and anti-racism groups joined the 94-year-old in expressing indignation.

As more than 100,000 people marched around France against government vaccine rules on Saturday, some demonstrators wore yellow stars recalling the ones the Nazis forced Jews to wear. Other demonstrators carried signs evoking the Auschwitz death camp or South Africa's apartheid regime, claiming the French government was unfairly mistreating them with its anti-pandemic measures.

"You can't imagine how much that upset me. This comparison is hateful. We must all rise up against this ignominy," Holocaust survivor Joseph Szwarc said Sunday during a ceremony commemorating victims of antisemitic and racist acts by the French state, which collaborated with Adolf Hitler's regime.

Comment: The gentleman interviewed is upset because he feels his history is being disrespected, but it also means he is blind to the blatant similarities of his experience, in the policies towards the current outgroup: those who refuse the vaccination. Ironically, ISRAEL is at the forefront of marking and tracking individuals to make sure they are vaccinated:

Freedom? Israel launches Covid-tracking 'FREEDOM BRACELET' as alternative to quarantine

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Attention

South Africa - The first country built on 'Critical Race Theory' - officially implodes


Revolver
Fri, 16 Jul 2021 17:12 UTC
critical race theory south africa
© Revolver News
South Africa is disintegrating.

After the jailing of Jacob Zuma, supporters of the former president took to the streets, ostensibly to protest but actually to simply plunder at will. The official death toll already runs into the dozens, but in a country as violent as South Africa (57 murders a day) the real toll will likely never be known for certain.

Rioters have plundered shops and entire shopping malls. When they run out out of normal goods, they steal livestock. When it's too heavy to carry by hand, they bring a forklift.
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Eye 1

Victoria's lockdown extended for 'as long as it needs to be', despite only '72 active' coronavirus cases


Sky News
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 10:39 UTC
Premier Daniel Andrews

Premier Daniel Andrews
Premier Daniel Andrews has announced Victoria will not be exiting lockdown at midnight on Tuesday - warning it would bring just a "few days of sunshine" - as the state records 13 locally acquired cases of COVID-19.

"All of them are linked to the current outbreak, so that's 72 active cases in total," Mr Andrews said.

"There are 15,800 primary close contacts who are in quarantine, that are isolating at home or in another place which we have supported them to secure, so that's the best part of 16,000 who, to protect all of us, are staying at home.


Comment: Meanwhile a number of other countries declared months ago that they would have to 'learn to live with' the now endemic, and still relatively harmless, coronavirus. Why is Australia enforcing such extreme measures when clearly they do not achieve their stated goal, and worse, they provably cause more suffering and even death? US infants struck by winter virus in summer after lockdowns disrupt immunity & transmission


Comment: The draconian response seen in Australia - and Victoria in particular - should serve as a warning of what may be to come for citizens elsewhere:

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Pirates

Bill Gates & George Soros team up for buyout of Coronavirus testing co., The Telegraph reports


Sputnik
Mon, 19 Jul 2021 08:58 UTC
covid test
© AP Photo / Dar Yasin
The billionaires are close to buying a company which has managed to develop a 10-minute COVID-19 test that it aims to make for as little as $1.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is believed to have teamed up with George Soros and his Economic Development Fund in a deal to buy Mologic, a UK-based company which has developed a 10-minute coronavirus test, The Telegraph writes.

Their consortium will reportedly invest nearly £30 mln into Mologic to focus on development of the low-cost tests for tropical diseases such as dengue fever and river blindness. Founded in 2003, the company is currently owned by Foresight Group LLP and Calculus Capital.

Comment: See also:

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