simple goals for why we even came to this country. that's all we want. they also hope saying, sorry will help build trust between the island communities and the government and into a future generations feel secure in new zealand. even if the apology has taken nearly 50 years, wayne, hey, al jazeera, oakland mon use whenever you want to be the web sites, the address as 20 dot com, including the latest there on those wildfires last contained in turkey. ah, updating your top stories here on alex's era took his president, his promising assistance to areas affected by the worst wildfires in recent years. 6 people have been killed. most fires have not been contained. her to show it to mit. considering the possibility of sabotage and any other sources of the fire

starting and we will carry out the investigation to provide answers to these, we will not give up until we have all the answers on. the afghan air force has been blamed for bombing a hospital in helmand province killing at least one person. it happened as taliban fighters pushed further into the provincial capital, laska, ga. the group is also making gains in had at and kandahar peruse. new left, his president petro castillo, is facing anti government process just days after taking office supporters of his rival in last month's election rallied in the capital, lima casea narrowly bes keiko for to morrow. and a bit of the contested boat polarized the country. 2 the u. s. is urging shanicea to outline a democratic future national security advisor james sullivan spoke to president said on the telephone, he called to the formation of a new government after said dismissed the prime minister and suspended the parliament. millions of americans are at risk of being thrown out of their homes as

a temporary ban on evictions is set to expire. the bytes administration has been criticized for failing to challenge the supreme court ruling. preventing an extension of the morrow tore him pakistan's type in corona virus restrictions on vaccinated people in our bod, from government offices, schools, restaurants, shopping malls, and commercial flights. the country's biggest city? correct? she will go into a one week partial locked down this weekend. pakistan reported in the 5000 and you case on saturday, the highest single day tally in the past 2 months. french police a class with professed as opposed to so called vaccine passports as the 3rd consecutive weekend. the protest have taken place. the government trying to make the health of compulsory and bars and restaurants actually to say it's limiting their personal freedoms. laura has 30 minutes of news for you from 3 g from me, pete, adobe, and the dawn crew here in doha. thanks for watching me health and should be about

raising prices and harley down to the time we bring you the stories and developments that are rapidly changing the world. we live in time in that setting that i don't have made today. but as the task of fixing a war torn economy counting the cost on al jazeera israeli government encouraged the development of a local library. when only lights tomorrow government assessing allegations about peggy that got acknowledging any of that high profile on officially alarm forgives burden. you're at the listening post where we dig into the coverage and look at how news is reported. here are the stories we're examining this week. a global cyber surveillance scandal. spyware, developed in israel, has put the government there under the media microscope. and it story doesn't data to nivia is one week into

a state of emergency journalist fair are feeling the he handling public relations for governments is lucrative work for western p. r. firms. africa has emerged as a new hunting ground. and despite being banned from the olympics, we will walk this foreign ministry spokeswoman in moscow, deserves a metal for her spin on the story. it's been a bad couple of weeks for the israeli cyber espionage firm. and as so, and for the israeli government, the revelation about and i, so spyware, known as pegasus, the way it's been used on diffidence and journalists have made international headlines, particularly in the countries affected, leaving israeli political leaders with some explaining to do surveillance tools such as texas, our modern day weapons of war, since the israeli government has to sign off on any export deals that and so makes, it can play the role of gatekeeper effectively controlling which countries and so

can or cannot sell it spyware, to both the israeli government and the company claim that pegasus is exported only if the client state uses it to fight crime or terrorism follows the terms and conditions. but the list of n s o is clients features a number of authoritarian governments and the timing of their deals with. and i so tells a different damning story that the criteria is not solely about keeping people safe . it's also about his railey interest, and it's putting people perhaps even democracies endangered. our starting point, this is telling me usually reporters like the ones digging into and are so pegasus and phone surveillance are taught, follow the money this time was different. they followed the photo on they are the smoking guns that tell the story wherever former israeli prime minister

benjamin netanyahu went. whichever leader he was meeting with, that government would often end up with the israeli made spyware. that it could then use against whoever, like including journalists, looking at yahoo went it's actually really good for me at the potential pegasus customers we saw and now who visit india or wanda hungry reservation visited, soon afterwards for identified as having pegasus infection. for example, under the 1st numbers are entered into the database of potential targets only after lithonian visits with one target actually being asked and met the head of the security rwanda gap. it is a bit longer. it takes like a year or 2, but we don't see any so targets, or potential people select as being targets of edison spyware, before they're tied to. now, what we can deduct from this is that

a lot of these trips, a key aspect of the discussion of things like, quote unquote security and stability. when israel ingratiate itself to governments by offering very advanced spyware. israel has the tools to conduct what's come to be known as by tech diplomacy, the sporting of surveillance equipment that other governments want to get their hands on. it has a power house of a high tech sector and likes to call itself start up nation more than $3000000000.00 a year and us financial aid, much of its spent on defense, certainly help. the israeli government can also choose which countries companies like and so can deal with through the selective issuing of export license, which means the pegasus story isn't just about surveillance. the spyware is a form of diplomatic currency. the israeli government spends to make new friends

and forge new alliances through technology whose roots traced back to israel's military and it's surveillance of palestinians. what's the israeli tech sector? it is based quite a lot on the alumni of the elite israeli technological. these people who are trained by the best and use during their military service to surveil palestine and other times they use the data they gathered in order to explore it or to use against palestinians in order to come out with additional information. it's no coincidence that israel has the highest surveillance companies per capita in the world. it's also not a coincidence, but a 2 percent of founders of israel cybersecurity companies come from the israeli military establishment. and particularly from the idea of intelligence,

the palestinian territories, and the palestinian people have been effectively a testing ground for israeli technologies. and then we see the disastrous outcome of handing these tools to oppressive regimes around the world to do the same, targeting their own people and their own citizens. and journalists, what israel are basically saying is, hey, we're for friends of creating this cyber survey capability. you won't really get products as good as this anywhere else, nor will you necessarily find regimes who acts as amenable to selling this product . so please buy them. and that's what spite it from its ability as well, in hardware to form relationships with other regimes. and crucially, the ability to expand and implement the foreign policy through this diplomacy. ah, we contacted the israeli government with questions about texas, his clients,

using the spyware to crush democratic forms of descent and target journalists. we received no reply. the defense ministries line on this echoes, and as owes that the government only gives the exporting of pegasus the green light . when the country's buying it used the spyware for security purposes. tried telling that to the family of jamal her, shoghi the journalist, whose murder at the hands of saudi operatives came shortly after pegasus had infiltrated the phones of people close to the victim. which are ridiculous arguments and a ridiculous claim. the israeli ministry of defense has to prove every export of the surveillance technology and has systematically ignored mounting evidence of those technologies are being used to facilitate egregious human rights violations. in the case of saudi arabia, there was a pause in the relation between bene, so,

and saudi arabia, after the murder of degenerative back in 2018 at the consulate. and there's some bull. and according to report, the relationship resumed after a direct intervention from from the israeli government. and if you think about, you know, regional politics, israeli can't show up in saudi arabia, very can show up, you know, the memory certainly cannot tell. high end technology that, you know, may have some security ramifications. we can't sell that in our country unless someone's cleared it. knowledge has revealed, but israel actually pushed and so to sell to the saudis and push the sell to the u . h. so we can see that there's a certain diplomatic alignment between the client and israel. we've lawmakers, they know what's going on. they're not really shock. they're just bombed that, you know, they're reading about in the newspaper,

the prime minister who featured in all those photo. benjamin netanyahu is no longer in the job. his successor is enough tale. bennett bennett's coalition government has said it's creating a task force to determine if the changes are need to israel's exporting of cyber where task forces take months if not years. plenty of time for the story to blow over. and investigators are unlikely to tell bennett who got rich in the tech sector. anything that he and the world doesn't already know, that israel has peddled spyware to oppressive regime at the expense of activists journalists, democratic move, all while branding itself, start up, nation, and the middle east. only democracy, israel corporates, was oppressive regimes worldwide. and allows export of technology is mostly in the secret. the thing is that those tools are no different than when it's also

helicopters playing guns. it's just another 2 which is being sold and you don't want the burden the being associated with this industry. and a lot of people want to return to the great startup nation and not be an offensive cyber nation who addresses other when it's not only about the group. there are many other companies that explored their technologies to democratic in london craddick countries. and therefore, the best solution would be an immediate, more terrorism on the federal transfer, unused of railer technologies until there is a human right. the global human rights mechanism in place that would regulate this industry, the companies and government, accountable to human rights abuses related to the use of spyware.

this pegasus gamble and things like that. we would never had the end of the you know, this is a threat to privacy, democracy and all that kind of thing. because of course, because need to but i can personally, the most detrimental aspect. it's and how it will have a chilling effect from civil society in the middle east, because people are worried about being watched. they'll behave in a way that the same with them actually being watched. that's discouraged, janice, actor is etc, from being critical if they're a gene and doing journalism to, to nicea now, which has been in political turmoil ever since. the president declared a state of emergency there. what critics are calling to flow phillips has been tracking the impact on the news media, including this network al jazeera. it started last sunday. richard when the

president you said fired the prime minister unsuspended parliament. after weeks of protests, over the government handling of the economy and cobit 19 the next day plainclothes officers entered algae, there is bureau and tunis without warrants or did everybody out and confiscated the keys. so the office has been shut down. but i'm just here with report has have continued to cover the story going live from the country journalist union headquarters, the s and j t. the union has condemned the shutting down of algae. there is office as have media, freedom groups, light reporters without borders, and the committee to protect journalists. why would the authorities go after auditor? it's not clear. the bureau chief locked fee had g told us that they hadn't received any official explanation from the authorities. central to this political crisis is the sidelining of the moderate islamist party at not that which control to holler. and the leader of the party has denounced the emergency measures put in place by

the president, cooling his supporters. on the 3, there is one prominent news outlet that tennesseans can hear those kind of criticisms from. but it isn't the only one that's been effected. this past wednesday, the president dismissed the head of state television. what omnia, no reason was given for this, but the channel had grown increasingly editorially independent of the government. since trinity a transition to democracy 10 years ago, you are alluding to the arab spring to new year is often held up as the only long term success story in terms of governance, democracy, media, freedom is all of that. now in jeopardy, while to this year was why the uprising has got that start back in 2010. and once protesters had toppled the former dictator been lee, it was the only country that really managed for many kind of stable multi party democracy. and over the past 10 years, tennessee and journalists have enjoyed unprecedented freedom to speak truth to power. all of that and

a good deal more engineer is now at risk. thanks. depending on what country you live in, some of the messaging coming out of your government today may have been brought to you by a p. r company. public relations firms. many of them based in the us and the u. k. make a lot of money trying to make governments look even authoritarian wise clients of those firms can be found in washington, d. c. re odd. tel aviv bay j among others. but one region where the industry is on the rise is africa. we've seen its shadow, we saw exposed in rwanda, cameroon, zimbabwe, south africa. and those are just the stories that we know about. since p r operatives ply their trade behind the scenes out of camera range. usually that is the listening posts. ryan, cause now pulls back the curtain on the secret of world of p. r. headliner valley the wind injustice minister jack february 2021. rwanda's. justice minister johnson

b. c. a is in the hot seat on al jazeera upfront. he's there to address the ongoing trial of a well known rwandan dissident who claims he was kidnapped and forced back to the country. paul sets up again a got on a plane and he was going to rudy. what he ended up in wanda. instead. how to get there more arrived in kigali bron daily on a plane interview with standard news fair. a minister deflecting tough question, looking to avoid any negative headline. however, the next day, johnson, the senior, was back on the show. majestic ministers team mistakenly sent upfront a one and a half hour long recording, including a practice interview. the minister did with the p. r team on how to answer questions about was at the beginning of case we gave the minister the opportunity

to come back on our program. and the video that had been accidentally sent to era provided a rare glimpse behind the curtain of a very secret of industry. the p r firms, in this case, the london base target that work with high profile clients to help shape their public image. is that the plain i've seen? it suggested i haven't seen it. i haven't covered that. so you're saying i have no idea. right? and in a 2nd interview, the minister was asked the question again, you know, pay for the plane then transported mr. recess, looking it to wanda. the conversation with your advisor was what was written. i just want to tell me who did the government is very revealing that there was this preparation session and that the talking points were fine grained and specific. and this person was being prepared to advance

a particular message, bits of hard information that you've been to say i be cautious about that because his show and the difficult work can journalists have in getting straight answers from public figures. it's a global phenomenon, but it does reveal that these p r firms are very, in many cases, very good at what they do. it also shows us the role of pierre offends, and the reliance that, you know, these politicians in africa have on, on these fans, which they're paying huge amount of money. he's looking for something that they could put out a press release about the interview. they were looking for nuggets of hard stuff, a horrifying to see the way that our families manipulate and try and create a foes message. we actually encouraging him to lie. we show these exchanges between child gate and there are wandering government to the public relations and communications association. the p r. the aid,

the biggest p r oversight already in the world. basically, they do p r for the p r industry. we ask that shall get violated their ethical standards. the answer was yes. it is completely immoral and unethical for public relations professionals to play any part in deceiving the media. i cannot think of any possible way in which advising a dictatorship on how they might spin the kidnap of a political rival would meet those requirements. despite the existence of organizations like the p, r, ca, the industry functions without any meaningful regulation in the countries where they operate, child a is just one of many western p r firms taking on contracts with african government . others include mercury, public affairs, and b t p advisors. there's that's often include former government officials and corporate insiders who bring death communication skills to manage the message for their client. one of the things that child with attains to deny,

when we put this to them, the minister at no point to see the media and show gate, offered no advice that he should do. so. that statement would appear to be at odds with their own interview preparation. you don't always need to answer the question because you can actually change the good, like it's been a topic was raised by the interviewer and you can leave it on the other. rhonda isn't the only african country taking advice businesses to mean across the region while p r work for african governments is often well intentioned. improving messaging on health, tourism and public safety collaborations with authoritarian leaders are widespread, very well paid, and often take place in the shadows. take cameroon, the west african nation is run by the continent all this liter amanew cares about his image. of the african morse comb death spot

for $38.00. he has ruled a country who's not receiving the west to the bus. you know, piece, it is important for us to showcase an image, but he's a country where foreign direct investment can call me a concrete where we cannot trust our lives and ensure that we don't get in some nation about some common law and have spent $3600000.00 between 200620171 western p r firm. so the went from, from the, attracted by money on the present by the relationship that they can build with these governments to be able to continue to my interest in those countries all be as government has relied heavily on us base p r firms to manage here then is countries international reputation?

one firm, quote, public affairs was paid $660000.00 between 20192020 the objective. promoting a positive and favorable image of the government. tricia teja, media work including op eds. in conservative outlet, we contacted cloud public affairs and asked about their work with the be a government. we received no response. it's a similar story in symbolic way, which recently transitioned out of nearly 40 years under robert mcgarvey, its current president. emerson meaning douglas has hired firms like the u. k. bass p. t. p advisors and mercury public affairs headquarters in the united states to re brand the government's tattered image and not of its long standing ruling party is an u. p. f. in pierre offend. watching turn, or london, they're working very hard to try and paint that good picture isn't. but despite the

realities on the ground, we've also seen is in, in, in, in respectable temple, which looked like here it is to be honest because they paint a very unrealistic pico, these situation. remodel is not open for business wins have known the m s. and when i go for 41 years, he was the chief in for solved and got a resume. so they can be food by what the p machine is trying to do me. hiring p r firms to control narrative is standard practice. but the reliance on a western p, r firm's by some african states to furnish their profiles, is confounding. when you realize they're often partnering with former colonizers, africa was, will continue to honda to the west, the respective on the fact that most of the time,

they don't complain. that western government fearing come room for the night by the french and the english for there is that long, which i've been also friends has a lot of interest income, especially in the utilities corporation. i'm so that continue or interest is something that fin the government to words. these are now my stuff though possibly helping p r. contracts are multiplying across the continent. but so to is public scrutiny time shareholders and investors deserts in p. r. john bel passenger in 2017, one of the world's largest p. r. firm spell passenger found itself in the middle of a major south african political scandal accused the stoking racial hatred on behalf of its client, a prominent business family with close connection to the government. partner was

exposed, went bankrupt and was forced to shut down. however, these moments of accountability are rare, because this is an industry that's been incredibly successful in keeping its work under wraps. not every day you get to see a video that exposes the inner workings of the p, r industry. and finally, to the olympic games where thousands of athletes are competing for metals and there's not a russian flag to be fi. that's because russia is still banned from the olympics after it was found to be running a huge doping program, which it's always denied. a limited number of russian athletes are allowed to compete in tokyo, not a seam, russia, but as the r o c, the russian olympic committee. and they're not allowed to play the russian national and the p. r. oper rochester, at the kremlin, are not taking this lying down the woman you're about to see beating up on the

international media almost literally is maria's back out over. she's a spokeswoman for the russian foreign ministry. and what she delivers is like a counter narrative on steroids. was the next time here at the listen post the region was i'm a colleague in the read too much them supposed to, but also none of them were you don't need to random stuff. why should actor status new stores summer glumly to national sports. me in the media with that, i mean the concept sky i could play a little so i could do she eager them a glitch that daniel, such as in, you know that up was just way by the other, those pieces notice get cranking. i still because really period that national sports man, i'm and this is for men of talk you're, you're going to be fitted that any better them move. what's the v m merger lamb run

by the it in which the books it's, you know, it's a little bit, but you know, if you missed this because it's, we will walk. you is it? i see i al jazeera as a you ah, all join the debate do not have back scenes reaching those who are mostly nice and amplify your voice. it allowed a diverse community and how an array of different stories, no topic. it's off the table. it's such a tough ethical debate where there is an obvious discrimination in systematic discrimination of play. people are thursdays for new, wasted. the stream where

a global audience becomes a global community on al jazeera. there is no channel that covers world news like we do. we revisit places, mistake. i'll just there are really invest in that, and that's the privilege. as a journalist. ah, me, it's all about intensifying, be offensive, and i've got, has done, the armed group laid these to 3 major cities. ah, i know them are a coil, this is out there in life and also coming up a rush to get out of hong kong as a controversial immigration law comes into force that could fall people from entering or leaving the.