up for now cheaper electric vehicles a leading the way in china. function knows how many electric car isn't for everyone but with a short daily commute she says it's more than enough between e.u. al-jazeera china al-jazeera dot com for all the latest not help stories and plenty of analysis that takes you behind the headlines as well. as. our main story this hour police in the united in the u.s. city of nashville say an explosion was a an intentional act 3 people have been taken to hospital none of them though earn a critical condition a blast in a park to motor home was felt several blocks away and several blocks in the tennessee's city now remain closed off the explosion happened at $630.00 local time on christmas day meaning nearby streets were largely empty

a time that i should reach body count it in are the day it had a recording saying it paid to would detonate that within 15 minutes of says the bride here yet decided to evacuate the buildings nearby so they could get knocking on doors to get in the house reserving the emergency communications communicate with everyone to keep people safe. shortly after that we are the exploding. in our headlines millions of americans of ignored advice to stay over the holidays as coronavirus infections that saw more than a 1000000 people paused through u.s. airports on wednesday the busiest travel day since march the christmas rush echoes a similar rise that we saw around the thanksgiving holiday which is by and blamed for the current spike in infections and deaths more than 193000 new cases were detected on thursday and nearly 3000 deaths. elsewhere the pandemic has led to muted christmas celebrations pope francis used his christmas day message to call on

world leaders to ensure access to vaccines for all not just for wealthy countries and then in the occupied west bank town of bethlehem only a small number of russia pose were allowed to attend midnight mass at the church of the nativity a cease fire between rebels and the government in the central african republic has collapsed just one day after it was announced and 2 days before the country's election fighting has been reported in the eastern town of baquba which is home to one of the country's largest gold mines a rebel force called the coalition of patriots for change says the government rejected the peace deal is now ranged against the army and un peacekeepers. that lines this hour we'll have more news in about 30 minutes time i'll see you then coming up next up front.

are the rich doing enough to combat climate change i'll ask award winning environmental activist neemo bassy but 1st we debate whether their surveillance and history is out of control and how it can be kept in check. authoritarian regimes and even democracies that want to spy on citizens and clamp down on activist movements can now tap into a murky largely unregulated global surveillance market even criminal organizations are suspected of having gotten their hands on cyber weapons the surveillance industry has grown basically unchecked the u.n.

has even called for a moratorium on the global sale and transfer of private surveillance technology until new regulations are put in place to protect civil liberties and as good reason to worry the number of cameras use for surveillance globally it's expected to reach more than 1000000000 next year joining me to discuss this are ron deeper director of the citizen lab an academic group based in canada the documents state surveillance and the ways fernando garcia the director of red that work in defense of digital rights a human rights organization in mexico thank you both for joining me in the arena ron i want to start with you so in a report published this month your lab found that a surveillance firm affiliated with the israeli cyber arms manufacture and so group likely sold spying technology to at least 20 countries yes that in. authoritarian governments like the united arab emirates but also democratic ones like belgium so what does that say about the reach of massive surveillance well i think we've been

going through a really profound shift in how we communicate over the last couple of decades at the heart of which is the proliferation of sensors and the acumen accumulation of data in the ands of a number of private companies and so you have effectively our personal lives turned inside out and that leaves digital trails and breadcrumbs everywhere and of course governments are going to seek to exploit that to take advantage of it for whatever reason whether it's law enforcement investigations national security investigations or in the case of corrupt actors or autocratic actors to go after a political opposition and in the in the same period of time especially within the last 5 years we've seen a proliferation of this industry that services their needs so these are a wide range of companies most of which are based in the west but that's changing

as well the technologies are sold to governments without really anyone checking to make sure there is proper due diligence in place to prevent harms and not surprisingly we're seeing widespread abuses as a result so governments are repeatedly using these technologies to go after journalist to go after human rights defenders to go after lawyers sometimes even with lethal consequences as we saw in the case most prominently the murdered washington post columnist jamal shoji we found out citizen. showed you these inner circle of confidence had their phones hacked by saudi operatives using very sophisticated israeli surveillance technology i want to bring you into this now in 2017 you work with with citizen. add to reveal something really startling about the mexican government ramos is talking about things that governments to raid

your deal that the mexican government had in fact at the phones of members of civil society with spyware supplied to them by the israeli tech company n.s.o. group which we mentioned and according to an investigation by a group of global journalists called the cartel project police forces in mexico have even sold similar tools to drug cartels they were supposed to be tracking down so i'm curious what concerns you the most the obvious corruption and bad governance or the fact that companies like n.s.o. group are able to do business with countries that have a dismal track record on human rights exactly i think sometimes peace the narrative from they're not the companies that sell these i don't surveillance software is that is a really black and white world with good bison good guys and bad guys but the reality in places like mexico is that for example the line between organized crime and the government itself it's blurry or not excuse that most of the time so you end up with situations in which mouths are that he's bought using as an excuse the

securities you commission of a country he's in are not used secretly used against society for example one of the cases he's about a human rights group that represents the families of more than 43 students disappeared in mexico in 2014 and their mouths were instead of being used to find those responsible for disappearance of these. young students west used to target the lawyers representing the family some of the students you see also that these tools that are marketed as being sold to combat crime are actually used by criminals either directly or through the corruption and lucian that excuse between many. authorities. organized crime members so let me ask you about that given that the chants the potential for abuse that you just talked about the surveillance

capabilities why haven't these technologies come under tight international legal control the same way there are protocols and conventions restricting the use of conventional weapons well i guess because it's the same reason because the drug war is not ending is because it's a big business for a lot of people it's a big business for governments to give these contract these really huge contracts very with a lot of discretion they can choose who they purchase these 2 tools from because the companies also become barry very. well rich selling these people's tools and all these contracts are on there are a lot of secrecy there is not transparency of them and there's a little impunity also even though we have uncovered things that were not asked me yes more than $25.00 cases in mexico there's total impunity no one's in jail you know if you can it be tried for sort of being a journalist

a humorous defense so it's still let me bring iran into this ron how can we expect there to be any accountability on surveillance abuses when the european union has supplied drones and wiretapping equipment to share for example that's a country his government has has cracked down on activists so there are worldwide organizations that seem to be complicit in this yeah louie's are absolutely right here the financial incentives are huge this is a big and growing marketplace it's an industry that makes a lot of people money i would just add to it that traditionally the type of activities we're talking about here happen to be the most secretive of governments so so most governments especially the well resourced ones within. there are security apparatus signals intelligence agencies some of whom go back decades most of whom operated entirely in the shadows without any accountability so it's very

hard to clean this up for both of those reasons you have state secrecy you have a very lucrative industry it's going to take a lot of work to turn this around and start mitigating would a really horrific hormones that are proliferating yes i do want to ask you about china some of the most egregious uses of surveillance technologies happen and china the party state employs facial recognition systems to subjugate millions of muslims and the region and china has also exported its monitoring systems to at least 18 countries including ecuador and germany so what does that mean for freedom and privacy standards globally. well we do really have to worry about china because you know it's quite daunting to think about the progression china has gone

through over the last 10 years especially where they've proven. you know how being information controls and and a largely one party state authoritarian system can co-exist can actually be very profitable when it's come by and with this type of surveillance so it suits both the government and it suits the private sector and so a lot of chinese companies are innovating around facial recognition artificial intelligence empowered surveillance and you're right they're beginning to export this which is why there's an urgency to what we're talking about here if western countries let's let's just start with don't get their own houses in order don't bring about some degree of accountability over their security agencies and over the companies that are export ing these type of technologies we won't be able to address the looming threat of chinese technology which is already creeping into the marketplace as you mention ok so let's talk more about using safeguards on on these

tools that actually could be beneficial if you have the safeguards there are some countries that were really praise for the way they handled the cove in 1000 pandemic they curb the spread of the virus in part because of really invasive surveillance tactics specifically in taiwan the government tracked quarantine residence g.p.s. locations using their phone numbers and then we get a notification that somebody had left an area that they were supposed to stay and so is it that proof some way louise that surveillance can benefit societies well i wouldn't go that far i think there is a lot of uncertainty and not reluctant rico maybe this oh why certain countries not be more successful than others in combat into. 19 and then week in week out the same way as you mentioned they want we have a lot of examples with very basic tools that have not been producing those paper resorts or i would temper the conclusions on whether massive surveillance it's

really important by the way that's a really. it's. supposed the emergency situation that it's not going to last forever so it's important to not draw the conclusion that total surveillance it's good for society definition you're saying you don't believe it's getting too much credit and situations like this you think there's any at least part of the marketing strategy of the companies that want to sell these type of tools and so group rebranded it but it's pegasus to all to try to sell it to governments to combat 19 it's really more of a marketing gimmick that actually something that actually based on on on on an editor's secrets are important but there are also things that we even we shouldn't be allowed in the democratic society or at least we should have these question of whether we want to allow them a private society to exist. i believe for example as i were it's it's something

that it's very difficult to do to control even more now because for example it's of mexico we were able to document those cases because their britain infected had to click on a link sent on an s.m.s. message but now we know that group and other vendors are have the capability of infecting phones without even leaving any trace without leaving any evidence of that surveillance happening so that makes it even more difficult to control so we really need to put 2 to have a really meaningful discussion on where to put red lines on which the knowledge is we shouldn't allow to be used and which ones we can allow what we really strong and robust safeguards that really keep meaningful accountability and allow society to extend control over the use of these technologies so ron do you think there are instances where or using surveillance technology is justified. absolutely i mean

you know we live in a very dangerous world we live in a risk society we need governments to protect us and to enforce the law if if for nothing else than to protect and preserve human rights and you want governments to be well equipped to have the technologies they need to be able to do their jobs the confusion arises when people think there is some kind of tradeoff between surveillance and privacy what we need are robust restraint mechanisms safeguards exactly what you're talking about there's no in compatibility here governments and private companies for that matter need to be subjected to independent oversight by appropriate agencies that are established with significant capabilities themselves and authorities to be able to examine cross-check independently to make sure that a technology that is extremely invasive as louise describes the latest versions of

these type of spyware require no interaction on the part of a target you can simply ring up a phone and take it over track that person turn on their camera this is like atomic level surveillance capabilities in the hands of governments that are going to abuse them obviously we need to buckle down on restraint mechanisms which currently do not exist that will be the final word randeep are the ways for nanak i see it thank you both for joining me in the arena. thank you very much. bob a coronavirus crisis grabbed headlines worldwide this year scientists and activists have been ringing the alarm on another crisis threatening our way of life climate change earlier i spoke to a pioneer in linking human rights to the environment whether of the right livelihood award widely known as the alternative nobel prize they were bassy as found in multiple environmental groups in his native nigeria a decade ago he said the richest one percent of the world had decided it was ok to

sacrifice the 99 percent i started by asking him if anything has changed since then oh sure that. should be was because at the time there was an element of seriousness about redeployment the mission. which gradually. ready for missions to action but rather it was. all governments looking for ways to of. what it was all about violence should be a good balance where nobody will be doing it by. nations are going to be a beautiful nationality contributions mission i mean what is suitable for them to do what is going to be good for them to do. is nothing nothing to respond to it

should. remember who get it through these communities and individuals are being exposed so to exactly get worse let's talk about giving up responsibility leaders in the global south will say we are just trying to grow we are trying to keep our heads above water it's not expected it's not fair rather to expect them to cut back so much grain else gas emissions when there are other or fully industrialized countries that should be taking the lead on this what do you think about that. they do. is right for 4 countries in africa in the pacific snow i lasted that never really got to make that a significant need to global warming is not it's not right to get money from them to cut it me shows that didn't create it in the short space this is right in the current dynamics you find that countries were proposing to do shop more than they need to do a desk should not bishan because of that never contributed to the climate problem

should much more admission to the rich countries industrialized countries who are not serious about short term measures but are rather pushing everything to be looked at rates so that dickon of foyt do it and it immediately but will well if needed mounties if needed action. is abandoning fossil fuels at a realistic target. it is realistic to turner is the kind of narratives will build a body as human beings our history our lives by a combination of politics that were driven by stories that we tell ourselves about so many years people out there always said we can do without force of choice so it was said was or will be made and they just saw us into the foreseeable future but no size is say now we're just having a few more years look about it to the atmosphere that we have to ship so if we

want humans and other living beings on the planet that's all right we have no option but to ship to fulfill so we both wish there were that we like you know not something that just has to be done so or something that happens in the us it is what seen as a market based solution a very capitalistic term will get to that in a minute but subsequent things like cap and trade. i don't think you're a fan of that why not why do you think that that is not the way to go to make sure doesn't work at it metrics nature doesn't look on human economy may shows nature nature at least not thought. cut and trade carbon offsetting an all source market mechanism so marketed barmen time is of. begun to take place and just pays strong. to nettie said that you're doing if

you're the politico because diminish it that. they bought a member correctly most countries wouldn't it but you might get it. call it using market forces or market mechanisms to talk about when we got the time but there was a lot of pressure off was that that was the way to go and to do we had to get at these lead net 0 or the couple of mass asian economies are signs of a beautiful doesn't it but net 0 simply means it's another way of to trade some stuff for what it means you've got to keep on polluting europe and then you probably see if you trace enough to shore up and keep on polluting the atmosphere because the trees are weighed africa countering what i'm doing in europe that is. this is climates tradition it doesn't address the real issue which is to stop the pollution plan that would make it more national crisis making money from other

people's misery so you can you can so you have the space you have all those who come. and said that really needs to happen is the pollution needs to stop and as a result of this horrible pandemic we've been living in and a lot of ways some pollution has stopped when when cities stopped and the streams stopped right at the core of this and that people say it's a return to nature there with some blue water blue skies in places that we have not seen before how does it make you feel that it took something like a deadly pandemic for us to see what can actually happen. what will really well the biggest dollar john much in that sense because it showed that humans can change we're not it's not impossible for us to change. so the prime minister was cautious to 2nd place a restricted our movement is restricted. conduction activities and.

seeding they could create a little bit. was just for a moment. we didn't have enough time to lead the lesson that ought to be lent. the climate would not could not solve the problems of global warming it would give us clean water for the little time i'm speaking to you should be not did they. do with oil spills on google during the lockdown because the oil corporations were pretty they were considered to be 7 sysco you might think that so they kept on drilling polluting even where there were locked up in their homes so we give no with mischa quit unity or let it on the. that think rather than wait for the pandemic or you now know you should judge the sub the problems we have this problem we have to change the situation by ourselves we have to mobilize we have to work

easily diety we have to join forces to make sure that we see the change that is needed so let's pivot to boko haram for a moment and i know that some people may not understand how that fits this conversation but it does because whenever you talk about boko haram we often talk about it and a religious or security context but there is very much an environmental and also to look at when you talk about boko haram and what is happening and nigeria why don't we see more of the connection between the 2 well you know generally the environment is no dust does not to get doug rich in news in politico compositions. is much more is talk about religion as a job out of dollars and of course there is a question of balance also arced religion as a reason for the balance but is vision also that a lot of responsibly established it did not is that part of nigeria is caused by

the government of the tubes. which is it didn't begin as fresh what the electorate want a licking west africa shed by nigeria. and the. mother 90 percent the size it was in $1000.00 sixty's this us made this mess middle she shows the spacemen a plaster on his displacement of well off thomas of course when they moved they moved it the streets where they moved to this people were displaced of choice either easily we did lose the misapply because they can easily be recruited into this kind of militia groups or if we just might respond with a crit mccall's so we have a sinister motive ometer tradition madura with a trip. as well as. greeted by global warming i want to end on a personal note what you do is dangerous ari in mentioned that when you started

your activism the country was under military rule would you have been incarcerated detained harassed some activists of and paid with their lives and specifically one study found that killings of environmental defenders had doubled over the last 15 years to reach levels usually associated with war zones do you ever personally fear for your safety for your life. when you took on the kind of work that we do it's driven by commitment and passion and it's you know it's. a good lunch for some who don't on the show. i just heard much said that europe is not. we when we. do it's kind of situations we just don't have an option but to critic or just that'll be the final word mr neavitt passing thank you very much for joining

us here but you probably agree. that as our show up front i'll be back next year. january on al-jazeera it's 10 years since the arab spring sold to bring change to the middle east al-jazeera looks into how successful that delusion is what a new documentary series examined through history and giancana takes in drug trafficking and the way states and drug lords have used it as an instrument of power

a spark selections are being doled out around the world hope of returning to name comes back again repeating the trends constantly changing listening post continues to analyze having discovered the will of the most intense election campaigns the us is set to inaugurate it's 46 percent in. january on al-jazeera. water scarcity has become a major global issue the demand is going straight up and the supply is going straight down turning an essential natural resource into a commodity trade into the profit just because life doesn't mean it's going to be priced what about the guy that can afford it guys teles water. al-jazeera examines the social financial and environmental impact of war to privatisation loads of water on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. where every. hello i'm maryam namazie munden quick look at the top stories this hour police in the u.s. city of nashville say an explosion was an intentional act 3 people have been taken to hospital but none of them are in a critical condition the blast in a part of most homes felt several blocks away and several blocks in the tennessee city remain closed off the explosion happened at 6 30 am local time on christmas day meaning that nearby streets were launched the empty. but well should respond to be counted in or the day ahead recording a new baby to get bored with it made that would.