everything in their path, including coral reefs, scientists predict that within a decade, ocean ecosystems will collapse because of a combination of rising temperatures, over fishing, and human pollution. with it will disappear the opportunity for humans to encounter new species of life. because for them, time may be running out. nicholas hawk al jazeera k are cynical. ah, this is al jazeera, these are the top stories. india's military is reinforcing. rescue operations in its western regions after the heaviest, rain for july and decades cause flooding and landslides, more than 100 people are known to have died and dozens more. a missing the us government has pledged $100000000.00 in emergency assistance for refugees and displaced people in afghanistan. it includes those affected by a recent increase in fighting. as the taliban makes rapid territorial gains,

james base has this update from cobble immediately. and right now what the afghan government, i think would like, is additional support from the americans themselves. robin support for the african military. and we have seen, in recent days, the american military conducting air strikes, even though the vast majority of american troops have left this country, only a small number, guarding the u. s. embassy. so these strikes have been taken place from outside. i've gone to stone and certainly see your african officials. we'd like to see more of that at the moment to stop the taliban advance. we've seen in recent weeks. the 1st guild metal is been awarded the tokyo olympics going to chinese young c n in the women's 10 meter rifle competition, metals are also up for grabs in fencing to do and weight lifting later on saturday for they have been more cases a covered 19 and the athletes, village, thousands of people in australia's most populous city have breached corona virus

restrictions to protest against lockdown measures. violent roles broke out, and sidney and items were thrown at officers. the police shut down the city center, and they also made a number of arrests. major storm, his lashing northern taiwan typhoon info, maitland fall on saturday, bringing heavy rain and strong winds its course widespread damage bringing down houses and trees. the storm is threatening to bring more flooding to parts of china, including the regions which has already been deluged this week. the leases were instant young in the central province of her on heavy rain over night caused a river to best its banks rescue as a trying to move people to safety. those are your headlines up next, it's the listening post. i'll have more news immediately after that. i'll see you that something was going to change anything really change. this is systemic violence that needs to be addressed at its core. we are in a race against the variance know what to say. so we are all saying we're looking at

the world as it is right now, not the world. we like it to be. the devil is always going to be in the details. the bottom line, when i was just there, i'm 17 media organizations and investigated the israeli cyber surveillance company. and it was a bigger by scandal. the fiber history may have a list of more than 50000 phone numbers. this includes, john, i mean had the pick up by way, shouldn't be afraid. nobody is safe at the alarm to gilbert in europe, the listening post where we don't cover the news, we cover the way the news is covered. here are the media stories we're examining. this week, user warning for activist dissidence and journalists, the world over your mobile phones may have been compromised by spyware. that one company is selling. and authoritarian governments are buying a match maiden face rockets there, billionaire payload, you sit in the jet days. those are the news outlets,

the cannot get enough of the story. there is a crucial election coming up in germany, and the most widely read newspaper is building up its coverage, trying to maintain its influence and cranking anti lockdown protesters in the u. k . can you feel the hand of the new welder upon us with a fake news reporter and trolling the tabloids driving the store? it has been a week now since a global consortium of media outlets blew the lid off a huge surveillance scandal revealing how the hacking to pegasus has been used by governments around the world to spy on dissidence and journalists via their mobile phones. this is not the 1st time the spyware has made headlines. pegasus is the brain child up in his really tech company, and so it came up in the investigation into the murder of saudi journalist jamal shoghi, what is different this time around is the scale of the story, the leak of 50000 phone numbers belonging to some big name politicians,

corporate figures, and nearly 200 journalists reportedly identified as targets of n as those clients. the evidence would suggest that the company has been all too willing to sell it spyware, to repressive governments known to crush, to set. ultimately, this is a story about privacy, the vulnerabilities of modern technology, and the lack of regulation of a surveillance industry that's on the rise. our starting point this week is the malware that's distracting people's fall from the weapons. and once it's inside to they get everything, they got your voice, the actually, the camera, they can say like the person that is over your shoulder and he's reading what you, what you really watch, what's your washing, largest buy in your pocket. a global journalistic consortium. more than 80

reporters, 17 different news outlines in 10 countries porting over 50000 phone numbers to confirm what had long been suspected. that pegasus spyware tool developed in israel is being used by multiple governments to target the phones of opposition, figures activists, and journalists like bradley hope and ro, heaney saying i'm an investigative reporter. i writing 30 people. i don't. stories on private rates will be on the job the, the 2nd will be the governing one. we didn't story, so it makes me angry and i've been very, very barbie, this whole investigation and revelations and all these newspapers, what it shows is that this is something that widespread,

we've seen in the past. lots of individual cases of journalists are interested in evidence that this software has been used. but what's so powerful about this reporting is it we're seeing massive abuse of this kind of technology that was meant to be used for national security. pegasus was created by an israeli tech firm . and so and 1st surfaced in news stories in 2016. then came occasional reports of rights activists. and journalists in countries like the united arab emirates, morocco, and mexico. having their phones infiltrated, suggesting the spyware was growing popular with more and more government. the consortium proved that its work began when a list of 50000 phone numbers identified 4 targeted by pegasus users was leaked to paris based n g o forbidden stories. for one compromise working along with amnesty international security, the n g, i was able to identify some of the targets,

including political leaders and opposition figures as well as dozens of journals. just pretty much off the matter of the 1st that was to identify the name who was behind it from numbers to everything that's happened on your phone with some dualist human rights defenders. and we told them we have reasons to believe that you have been of the civilians. and would it be possible to check your form? and this is, were the scenes national security focus team job. because they were able to set up a process to know if your phone is infected by the big as a software. and we found traces infection inside the phone. so many people and those traces into the software packages. there weren't the governments that have done business with, and i so have a lot to answer for,

but most have either denied buying the spyware or are staying silent, like saudi arabia, which relied on pegasus to inspect the phones of people close to your mouth, shutting before the journalist was killed by saudi operators. i know india were prime minister modi's chief political rival, raoul gandhi, has been targeted as have reporters, including from the new site the wire. then there's mexico, its former government use the spyware on its critics, including dozens of opposition. politicians, some of whom are now in power that started in 2017, the same year that a journalist, cecilio ping, yetta, was murdered. his phone had been hacked. we found the phone numbers some mexicans. and one of them was just only 2 months after we see the numbers of the senior in the us kill. we lot of cases even

worry. we all colleagues, 036 in india while you're, we're investigating people to, to, to more that modem back numbers to see if this is not check to keep it in a very short time. so the b to b and the so is very fast. the government's i'm seeing and so was last friday when it's all by weight, just really get by software. i'm having come up with a pure explanation. and so has been critical of the consortiums reporting calling aspects of an erroneous and false. but the company doesn't help its case, it says that its clients are contractual compelled to only use pegasus to fight serious crime and terrorism. but then admits we do not operate the system,

nor do we have access to the data of our customers. and it won't even confirm or deny which governments it sells pegasus to bombarded with questions from journalists all week. it set us an email saying enough is enough that it will no longer be responding to media inquiries and will not play along with this vicious and slanderous campaign. they have no credibility because ultimately to say a country is contractually bound not to abuse them. what are you now going to shut down like all the countries that we now know were abusing their? their contract though is a leading technology developer would really harm their business because the countries that really need it or the country's most likely to abuse software. so we have a lot of explaining to do and so group has simply given us no reason to trust them . we have cotton and lies over and over again. and last of all,

government describe opposition to them as furious crime and terrorism all. but one of the hallmarks of authoritarian government is that to oppose that government is to commit a serious crime or to commit terrorism saying your software is only going to be used to fight terrorism or serious crime is absolutely not a bulwark against abuse. remember when one sure fire way to prevent malware from infecting your device was to spot that dodgy looking link sent to you, and deleting it, those days are gone. pegasus is click free spyware. all it needs is your mobile number, and you can be compromised. that is why investigative reporters meeting with sources they do not want revealed in danger. now say they will leave their phones at home. the journalists who have been targeted by peg face or real dilemma,

because they know that they're being actively targeted by a government. it becomes much more difficult for them to do their journalism and to find people who will trust them and communicate with them over the phone. so i think we're going to be looking at a lot more face to face meetings, a lot more sort of alternative methods of communication. they get into trouble that the risk taking i, i'm not going to be getting the like you could be with you wherever you go. 30 years into the digital age. more than 10 years after citizen journalism changed the way stories are told, reporters and their sources are seeing their mobile phones turned against. low tech journalism is making a comeback and companies like s so and the government's using pegasus against their

own people are the ones to blame. american media outlets have been feasting on a story that's more of a spectacle. the billionaire space race monoxide robbie's been examining the coverage. mean there's a reason that american journalists called the hot months of summer. the silly seas isn't there. absolutely. and this story fits the bill. we have 3 billionaires, british businessmen, richard branson, the founder of amazon, jeff, pathos, and pick entrepreneur ilan musk, all 3 of them racing to reach the fringes of space in rockets developed by their teams. blantan one that contest a couple of weeks ago, but this past week it was jeff is also turn. this is the world's richest man, and most of his wealth comes from the mega corporation that he founded amazon. the corporation avoids tax on the world. it's been criticized for not paying blue collar workers living wage and not even giving them enough time for bathroom breaks

. but put bays off in a rocketship, and us media outlets tend to lose their faculty. this interview that he did with cbs is morning news show is just one example. so what's next? because just you don't have to do anything, but you choose to do one of the hardest things. well, you do the things that you're passionate about, based on the newspaper, the washington post. one of its op eds describe the billionaire space flights as important milestones. bear in mind that humans base travel began 60 years ago, while another op ed told leaders that this benefits the rest of us. let's compare and contrast the coverage of that, against the coverage of another story. also about the planet that is far more consequential. climate change and what we see the richard is indefensible, according to meet him at his foot america a us based nonprofit. the morning news show is spent 212 minutes coveting jeff is off the space launch in one day. that's almost as much time as they spend covering the global climate crisis all of last year. one example of the way in which the

networks handle these stories comes in the case of climate scientists, captain harold. she was due to appear on cnn to discuss the record breaking heat we across west or north america. but her segment was dropped in order to make room for more coverage on just a space launch. ok, thanks me. when germans go to the polls in september, they will be taking part in a watershed election voting in a new chancellor, after 16 years of anglo merkel. a major media player in that process will be build a tabloid paper that for nearly 70 years has been a shrill and provocative constant in the german political landscape. love it or hate it. few germans are ambivalent about built the influences wheels. it remains the go to site for quick bait headlines and political scoops for readers from all walks of life. but like most legacy media outlets build is struggling to maintain its relevance, its dealing with declining circulation, some internal upheaval,

and has invested heavily in online streaming. and a new tv network. but listening posts flow phillips now on build. and the efforts underway to preserve the papers place. at the heart of german politics you could say union right held was born for the job, a child of build. his parents met with the paper, he says that by age 13, his ambition was to become its editor in chief. build has been a companion for people over almost 70 years, describing their mood, catching what they care about catching what they feel about strongly describing that in words, people understand and giving people unique voice, especially people that feel that they're not being hurt. but there is no question that this is also a very controversial brand, that the people who strongly disagree with our inventory positions who don't like

the overall job of a tabloid journalism, who quite frankly despised build. it was under the be nice melissa. i don't read it any more. i simply refuse to bid aims to emotional life to sensationalize, and from time to time to demonize actual news. information that is useful and relevant appears in the margins, but the rest is how do i say it meaningless? stories about affairs and sex. crime and so on. my time is depression, so this is mary tied to shot it. the problem is for the more than half of germany that doesn't like it, filled it everywhere. kiosk, train station laundromat, anywhere germans spend that time with a daily circulation of $1200000.00 and roughly $25000000.00 online view as a month billed is more widely read them papers like f said,

deutscher and well combined. it's a tabloid full of gossip and google, but it does politics to and its ability not just to report on events, but to influence them is why it's read by both builders on that break. and government ministers in berlin had those minor this and because it's appointed to build, had a certain political agenda that it wants to achieve. and currently, for obvious reasons, the pandemic is a big topic. bills have played a remarkably significant role here because the tried once again to influence politics was very clear messaging. so not always successful, but every now and then bill do manage the shape, the national discourse with reporting that suits their own agenda. data and unable to extend the length that to the most part is a center right populist agenda. take for example, a stream of anti immigrant coverage over the last few years. it's narrative around greeks out to steal german euros in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. or its

depiction of german welfare recipients as lazy and parasitic. and the paper has the kind of political clout that cannot be ignored. take it from 3 former chancellor of germany in 1909, got shrewder, announced during his 1st time. all i need to govern is build build on sunday and the tv. he then hired a build editor. it says press secretary, true to his predecessor, how much cool on another full moville that a to best man at each other's wedding. and chancellor, helmut schmidt once said that starting an argument with build would be an act of political suicide. that's how much power the paper has wielded over german politic square foster for the mightiest doppler. the ceo of springer, one said that whoever goes up an elevator with build needs to be prepared to go down with them as well. a good example of this is christie and wolf. during his

time in the regional politician, he had a very close relationship with building, offering up exclusive stories about the political elite in exchange for positive coverage. however, when he became the federal president, he made it very clear to the editor at the time that he no longer appreciated what bill to doing. and that's when bill started the kind of which hands against him and their reporting would turn even the slightest thing into a huge scandal. got off about for the that's f soil and up has only kind of tuition a blue outside on a tabloid, doesn't just grown someone celebrity status for no reason why. it's not in big interest to just help a politician gain popularity. they're in it for their circulations on the moment it became more attractive to scandalize loose. that's what happened. and his reputation was permanently destroyed, has called upon buddhism, incredibly powerful organization. and the fear of being targeted by bid still

influences the actions of almost every politician in the land in their bonus pollution on the inside. the king making power off build has always been a mess. and it would be foolish to follow that myth a couple of years ago, bill was too much part of you know, that whole favorite game between journalists and politicians that lead to, you know, misreading our respective societies. and we've changed that sometimes reporters go under cover to get the real story. that's what going to while rested in 1977. only he was pretending to work as a build reporter in order to reveal the way the paper operated. his expos, a day off marker, the lead uncovered a number of dubious journalistic practices. the picture he painted was not pretty, does not enter out. did it tell us to you back then? it was a completely authoritarian system where the editor chief made of the decisions the headlines would come from the headquarters of both of us on the ground. well then

tasks with going out into the research. no one wanted to come back saying things were different and that the headline was completely false. those who tried it once would be gone. they would start, i ended up after my investigation, the new editor, and she described it as having your time provided off and to time post and emphasized wanting to keep him open mind this really did lead to a more moderate style of reporting. but now it has returned to being a powerful smith sheet of michigan head slotskum. and there are many germans who take issue with the paper. am with right helps himself. some of them even come from within his own organization. but those point of contention, just add to the myriad challenges build faces as it tries to rectify it's 75 percent drop in circulation. over the past 20 years, when publisher axle should bring a founded build back in 1952,

he intended it to be the printed answer to the television. on the right house, it isn't just print, it's online, it's live and it's very soon to be television to build live has more than 500 reporters history, news and information. sometimes for up to 14 hours straight. when news breaks, build live is that an anchors light pool runs. i'mma have been known to float that access to the powerful sometimes reading out the text messages they get from politicians live on the at most i'm a fall isn't yeah, gotta design mercy. starting the farm fun elite and for time on it revealed to kind of elite ism, i find it ironic that booth a critique of the elite and the self proclaimed voice of the common man. those about its close relationships with those very same it needs. it says something about the balance and accumulation of power, and this is highly problematic from

a democratic perspective. democratic to let us hope problematic. we're very clear about not doing any access to this. you know, you, you can talk to us, you will not get any favorites for us. it's your role. it's your duty as a politician to be in touch with us, to talk to us to explain what you doing. and it's our job to not fall for political spin and narratives, but to tell people our own analysis. busy of what our own report us see on the streets find out in the research and all that. so from the beginning, i felt that built has to be more political again and has to find its whole own way . and new way of telling political stories and covering politics. ah, this is an important political moment for germany and forbid, whatever union, right has professors build currently is or isn't the paper clearly wants to make a splash in this watershed election? germany, how are you doing?

that's the strap line of its election coverage. the question remains is build asking germans, how they feel or telling them. ah, finally this past week, the british government lifted almost all corona virus restrictions in england, which given that the u. k. has europe, highest rate of new infections is a controversy or move prime minister boris johnson has taken a lot of heat over his handling of the pandemic, including his decision to delay lockdown. it's one that scientists say, undoubtedly, cost lives. according to a former colleague, johnson's dithering can be traced back to the anti locked down crusade in sections of the you case, right wing press newspapers like the daily telegraph, where johnson used to work as a reporter and the tabloid, the daily mail. which brings us to dale maley. he's a fake journalist character,

created by an actor comedian, joly, and rubenstein. maley is a correspondent for the fictitious good british news. that's a play on the u. k. new right? leaning channel, g b, news. he went to a protest held by covert skeptics in london. he trolled the demonstrators on the her beliefs and the tabloids on their so called journalism was the next time here at the listening. mommy, what's the chin? don't be surprised that you hear child play that because they are looking to many of the i don't know about you, but i'm sick of the scientific sticking a cotton but down approach society and telling us how to live on a bunch of time. yes, lose the ferry and i'm going to bring them damn well do that. you have it. and as you will hear, you know, signing in the hall with the freedom of saying whenever you want, can you feel the hand of the new well border upon us? yes, and can you still feel like the hand of the illuminati here upon us? definitely. yeah, no,

he don't. right. yeah. but in general. yeah that but just not here over that definitely over there. no, it says my boss. never watch, man save. you told me, and it's not me. i mean, i actually actually went to the toilet 5 minutes. go to wash my hands, but you do like you do. so i can i just confirm you. is it a public health emergency? are you concerned today and are you working with george stuart on the question? so you all actually, you won't speak about what continue. well order you can see here, you can see more policeman, more towards sources on a people apart enough. when people have had enough, we do not taken freed. 2 this route on counting the cost, the tourism, the world's richest man, making a grab to control access to the trillion dollars space industry. taos, the new coal. why rich nations of emitted agriculture from climate change and how

lowering costs lives in iraq? counting the cost on al jazeera, besieged by violent crime and drugs. confronted by racism and integration. 0 traces the history of such generation lebanese australians, exploring the conflict and the struggle for acceptance. ah, once upon a time in punch bowl, on our 0 i i,

i'll give you a call i the devastation of losing their homes. the death toll from the flooding in western india rises to more than 100. ah, hello and welcome. i peter w, watching al jazeera alive from headquarters here and also coming up help from the us and canada to resettle afghan interpreters who worked with coalition forces shooting to go the.