from unesco to take venice or at least put it on this endangered list. was taken very seriously by prime minister, my dear dog and other members of the government. now, most people you come and speak to here in venice, they, they don't care whether or not venice is on this list, but it clearly worried the powers that be that venice faced some really serious repercussions if they didn't finally say no more, we're not going to have these big ships which turn up a lot of water and perhaps damage the foundations of the city, passing through this canal. ah, hello. the headlines on al jazeera, there has been intense fighting and last car guard the besieged capital of gonna stand helman province. the gun air force has been blamed for bombing a private hospital in the area killing at least one person. and rockets have struck kandahar airport in the south, while flight in and out of the city are cancelled. charlotte, bella has more from couple. fighting is ongoing. it and it, it is incredibly tant,

we still video today a fire burning in the city residents. they telling us that fighting was going door to door and the special forces the most leaks of the ask and special forces had flown in last night by a helicopter. there were, if strikes around the city, us were supporting us can military with it strikes. so less car got under heavy heavy pressure from the taliban and it's not the only place me and marz willing genta has announced the formation of a caretaker government. it's liter men on why will become the prime minister and has promised multi party elections. 6 months after seizing power in a true. he says the vote will take place by late 2023. changes to hong kong immigration law have come into effect and critic said, will give the government sweeping powers to stop people from coming in or out facing impose. that's controversial. national security law. last year, a bella russian's printer and tokyo says she's been taken to the airport to be

flown home against her. well, after publicly complaining about her coaches, christina tomorrow, sky out was due to compete in the olympic when women's 200 meters on monday. but she told the reuters news agency that coaches ordered her to pack her bags on sunday. iran has denied any involvement in an attack on an is really operate a tanker off the coast of oman. but israel's prime minister insist that his country has intelligence confirming that iran is responsible to people were killed on board the m. b mercer on thursday when it was hit by what appears to have been a drug strike. new zealand prime minister has made a formal apology for raids on people who overstayed their visa nearly 50 years ago . at a ceremony just in the order and told representatives of pacific communities that her government was sorry for the often violent rates. those are the headlines on al jazeera, the listening post is coming up next. nelson, sorry,

should we be about raising prices? this is hardly down to the government. we bring you the stories and development for the rapidly changing the world. we live in time in that designate adult jaime to has the task of fixing a war torn economy. counting the cost on al jazeera israeli government, encouraged the developers of cyber tiber went in, and it's only life assessing allegations the balance in the gulf, journalists, and even high profile politicians alarm to gilbert. and 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 so, and for the israeli government, the revelation about and are so spyware known as pegasus, the way it's been used on dissidents and journalists have made international headlines, particularly in the countries affected, leaving israeli political leaders with some explaining to do surveillance tools such as pegasus our modern day weapons of war, since the israeli government has to sign off on any export deals that n as so makes, it can play the role of gatekeeper effectively controlling which countries and i so

can or cannot sell it spyware, to both the israeli government and the company claim, the 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 as clients features a number of authoritarian governments and the timing of their deals with. and i so tells a different, damming 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 had like, including journalists looking at where nothing 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, hungary, the 1st numbers are entered. busy into the database of potential target only after that, then the visit with one target actually being asked in the met the head of the security . rwanda with gap. it is a bit longer. it takes like a year or 2, but we don't see any so targets or potential people like this being targets of edison spyware, before they're tied to now what we can deduct from this is that

a lot of these trips, key aspect and 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 automation. 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 n s, 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. mm. the tech sector is based quite a lot on the alumni of the elite israeli technological. these people were trained by the best and use during their military service to surveil palestine. in a lot of times they used to beta. 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 80 percent of founder and israel cybersecurity companies come from the israeli military establishment. and particularly from the idea of intelligence,

the palestinian territories in 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 re genes around the world to do the same, targeting their own people and their own citizens and journalists, and what israel basically saying is, hey, we are 4 friends of creating this cyber surveillance 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's some of its ability, isabel 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 pegasus 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 s o l's, that the government only gives the exporting of pegasus the green light when the country's buying it, use the spyware for security purposes. try telling that to the family of jamal has shoghi the journalist who's 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 ridiculous claims. the israeli ministry of defense has to prove every exports of the surveillance technology and has systematically ignored mounting evidence that those technologies are being used to facilitate egregious human rights violations. in the case of saudi arabia, there was a hard in the relation between brianna. so, and saudi arabia,

after the murder of degenerative jamal, she'll be back in 2018 at the conflict. and if somebody will, 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 show up in saudi arabia where you can show up, you know, that memory certainly cannot tell high end technology that, you know, may have some security ramifications that can sell that in our country. unless someone's cleared it knowledge has revealed, but these are actually pushed and, and so to sell to the saudis and push the sell to the u a. so we can see that there's a certain diplomatic alignment between the, 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 ops, benjamin netanyahu is no longer in the job. his successor is enough tale. bennett, bennett, coalition, government has said it's creating a task force to determine if changes are need to israel is 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 corporate 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 gun. it's just another 2 which is being sold and you don't want done burden of being associated with this industry. and a lot of people want to return to the great startup. they should not be an offensive cyber nation who addresses other when it's not only about the group. there are many other surveillance 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 to rail technologies until there is a human right. the global human rights mechanism in place that would regulate this industry, the hold companies and government accountable to human rights abuses related to the

use of spyware. this pegasus gambler been created by around. oh, actually we would never have the end of the this is the threats to privacy, democracy, and all that kind of thing. because of course, because need to but i think chris lee, the most detrimental aspects of 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 and discouraged, janice, actors, etc. on being critical if there is jane and doing the best of 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 said fire the prime minister unsuspended parliament. after weeks of protests over the government handling of the economy and colbert, 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 just there was reporters 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 lot, v haji told us that they hadn't received any official explanation from the thirty's 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 ounces. 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 are near the reason was given for this, but the channel had grown increasingly editorially independent of the government since finished the transition to democracy 10 years ago you were 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 where the uprisings got their start back in 2010. and once protesters had toppled the former dictator, ben 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 for 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. 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. pop 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. me 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 out 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. they work with high profile clients to help shape their public image. is it that the plain i've seen? it suggested i haven't seen it. i haven't seen a government book that so you know, i have no idea of any 2nd interview. the minister was asked the question again, you know, pay for the plane, they transported mr. recess, looking it to one to 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 listen 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 are paying huge amounts 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 the, our families manipulate and try and create a foes message. so 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 asked the show, gave, violated their ethical standards. the answer was yes. it is completely immoral and unethical from 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 best 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 children with attains to deny,

when we put this to them, the minister at no point to see the media and shall get 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 to 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. o, b, a is africa, has morse comb,

death spots. i'm for 38. he has ruled a country whose maris even the west is the bus. you know, it is important for us to showcase an image that is a country where foreign direct investment can call me a contrary, where we cannot trust our life and ensure that we don't get in some nation about some common room a lot have spent $3600000.00 between 200620171 western p r firm. so the went from p r from the attracted by money on the present by the relationship that they can build with these governments to be able to continue to mind the 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 contact the cloud, public affairs and asked about their work with the be a government. we received no response. i. it's a similar story in bob way, which recently transitioned out of nearly 40 years under robert mcgarvey, its current president. emerson. many 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 a respectable tempo which look like here it is to be honest because they paint a very unrealistic pico, these involvement situation. remodeling is not open for business wins. have known them as well for 41 years. he was the chief in for solved and get a resume so they can be fooled by what the p machine is trying to do. me. hiring p r firms to control narratives is standard practice. but the reliance on a western p, r firm's by some african state 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 do complete western

government south fearing come room for the night by the french and the english. for there is that along 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, putting people, helping p r. contracts are multiplying across the continent, but so 2 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. partners was exposed when bank cropped 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, 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 c. 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 though, not a seam, russia, but as the r o c, the russian olympic committee. and they're not allowed to play the russian national . 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 zach 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 right to mention, i'm supposed to often not embed them where you don't need random stuff to ship versus axa status, new store summer glumly to national sports. me in the media wouldn't net, i mean a concept q i could a proposal. so i could do she even a glitch that, daniel, such as a, you know, that was just way by the other. those pieces not get cranking are still because period that's national minimum total and this is for the men of book you're, you're going to bid that any better my,

let them move. what's the video manager land run by the it in which the books it's, you know, it's little digital is still missing because it's we will walk. you is it? i see the focus on the united states is ending in 20 year military presence in afghanistan with what it means for the country. one of the one piece showcase that you didn't trailblazing environmental policy. able to read the country of all present from a 3rd way to the vaccine rollout. the latest developments at the corona virus and demi continued to spread around the world witness showcase of award winning documentaries. that bring world issues into focus to human stories with political and economic tensions writing down be

a hope to the po at the competing to define the future august on the stand, the differences and similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter when you call home will be used in current affairs that matter to you, the. ready news this is al jazeera ah hello, i'm rob matheson and this is denisa live from doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes conflict enough janice, down the tunnel on the edges towards cities after season rural areas and border crossings. me and my military zooms declares it is now a transitional government led by a prime minister 6 months after season power in a qu.