nso group denies any wrongdoing and says the report is full of wrong assumptions. phone numbers of 14 heads of state are said to be targeted. include pakistan's prime minister, a south african president, and the french president. a newspaper says mccrone's phone number is on the list selected by morocco's intelligence service for potential cyber spying. if the allegations are true, the president says it will be very serious. morocco has denied using pegasus spyware and rejected what it says are groundless allegations. other phones are said to be those belonging to people close to the saudi journalist who was murdered at the saudi embassy 2018. media organizations working with the pegasus investigation say more than 180 journalists were found on the list, including 25 in mexico. here's what one mexican journalist had the same. test had to say. >> i think a must all mexican journalists fear we have aside -- certain type of surveillance. we assume that because mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to work as a journalist. anchor: the mexican president is looki

the reporting also revealed a massive wave of attacks by nso group's customers on iphones, potentiallycting thousands of apple users worldwide. in one of the most shocking findings, the pegasus project reported the israeli government allowed nso to continue to do business with saudi arabia even after the saudi government was -- saudi journalist jamal khashoggi was assassinated in 2018 in istanbul. in a moment, we will speak with the secretary general in one of the lead reporters. at first, pbs frontline report that follows "washington post" reporter dana priest, one of more than 80 journalists working on the pegasus project, as she traveled to turkey to verify if pegasus had been used to surveil khashoggi's fiancÉe, hatice cengiz. the report was coordinated by the journalism nonprofit forbidden stories, with technical support from amnesty international's security lab. >> from october 2, 2018, journalist jamal khashoggi walked into the saudi consulate in turkey and never came back out. around the time of his murder, the powerful spyware may have been used to surveil his family. >> journ

well, ultimately it is the i ultimately it is the responsibility of the company, nso group, and the responsibilityefence, which is regulating the export of these tools. it is their responsibility to sit nso down and say look, if you sell this to saudi arabia, if you sell this to the uae or bahrain or these other repressive governments, what do you think they are going to do with that? well, maybe they will go after some criminals and terrorists, but the main concern with these governments like saudi arabia is trying to figure out what their critics up figure out what their critics up to, trying to ensure the survival of the monarchy. he is speaking truth to power, what are they planning next and how can we subvert them? you mention — can we subvert them? you mention some _ can we subvert them? you mention some of - can we subvert them? you mention some of the - can we subvert them? you j mention some of the other countries there, some of the others that have been alleged to be doing the same things are india, morocco, mexico, rwanda even, hungary as well. it is quite a list, isn't it? we shouldn't

well, ultimately it is the responsibility of the company, nso group, and the responsibility of israel'sh is regulating the export of these tools. it's their responsibility to sit nso down and say look, if you sell this to saudi arabia, if you sell this to the uae or bahrain or these other repressive governments, what do you think they're going to do with it? well, maybe they'll go after some criminals and terrorists. but the main concern of these governments like saudi arabia is trying to figure out what their critics up to, trying to ensure the survival of the monarchy. who's speaking truth to power, what are they planning next, and how can we subvert them? yeah, you mentioned some of the other countries there. some of the others that have been alleged to be doing the same things are india, morocco, mexico, rwanda even, hungary as well. i mean, it is quite a list, isn't it? we shouldn't be too surprised, though, should we? i mean, this is frankly what many governments will do. well, i think there's two main takeaways from this report here. the first one is, you know, i think people are

well, nso group sells the pegasus spyware to dozens of governments all around the world, and originallyn a link to facilitate the hacking of the phone. but nowadays the spyware system uses what is called a zero—click technique, meaning that the government can hack the phone without the target having to take any action. your phone can be sitting on the table — one minute it's fine, the next minute it's compromised. it is the responsibility of the company and israel's government, the ministry of defence, which is regulating the export of these tools — it is their responsibility to set nso group down and say, look, if you sell this to saudi arabia, if you sell this to the uae, bahrain, or other oppressive governments, what do you think they will do? maybe they will go after criminals and terrorists, but the main concern, in my view, is trying to figure out what their critics are up to, trying to ensure the survival of the monarchy. who is speaking truth to power? what are they planning next and how can we subvert them? there are two main takeaways — the first one is people are quite surpri

who nso group have sold this spyware to?o know and we know that those countries do not have good human rights records. when we talk about azerbaijan, they do not have good human rights records. same for morocco, same for mexico, for saudi arabia. we know that when you are a journalist in azerbaijan, like khadija ismayilova, and you want to investigate corruption with that kind of regime that is having a lot ofjournalists and political opponents injail, you are taking a lot of risk and you are surveilled. and that was not the first time that khadija was surveilled, but this time we were able to get the evidence of the hacking of the device of khadija. nso company is selling that kind of cyber weapons to countries with a bad track record in terms of human rights abuses. paul lewis, of the guardian, if i can bring you in here. there are 17 news outlets partnering on this. how'd the guardian come to be one of them? we were invited into this project by laurent at forbidden stories. he contacted us. we had to be very careful when

nick: in a statement, the nso group called "the washington post" story "flimsy."roup is on a lifesaving mission, and the company will faithfully execute this mission undeterred despite continued attempt to discredit it on false grounds. judy: interesting. we know most of those targeted are in mexico? nick: this was interesting. up to 15,000 phones in mexico were targeted by a mexican client who employed pegasus to target as many as 15,000 phones. one belonged to a journalist cecilio berto.he was investigating local police colluding with a drug cartel. that is when his phone ended up on a list for pegasus twice. and mexican client using pegasus shortly after he was shot and killed. mexico is the most deadly country in the world for journalists. there is no connection between pegasus and his murder, but the people calling on the nso group to stop exporting this software, people calling on israel to not allow it to be exported, and for governments not to employ it say this is a matter of life and death. judy: this is so disturbing. nick schifrin, thank you. tonight,

nso group ask on a lifesaving mission and thcompany will faithfully execute this mission unde terred despite any and all continued attempts to discredit it on false grounds. >> interesting. and nick, we note that most of those targeted are in mexico. >> this was interesting. so up to 15,000 phones in mexico were targeted by a mexican client. who employed peg sus to target as many as 15,000 phones. and one in particular belonged to a journalist named d-- that is him right there. we wanted to bring him up because back in 2017 he was investigating local plises, local politicians, colluding with a drug car tell. that is when his phone ended up on the target list for pegasus twice, again by a mexican client, using pegasus, shortly after he was shot and killed. now mexico is the most deadly country in the world for journaluses. there is no confirmed connection between pegasus and his murder. but the people who are calling on the nso group to stop exporting this software, people are calling on israel to not allow it to be exported and for governments not to employ it, say this is a matter o

looking at a case like the apple iphone that supposedly had a vulnerability that allowed the nso groupjob is to find vulnerabilities in iphones and if apple miss one it can be used to the detriment of someone very seriously. be used to the detriment of someone very seriously-— very seriously. what is the safest wa to very seriously. what is the safest way to communicate, _ very seriously. what is the safest way to communicate, apart - very seriously. what is the safest way to communicate, apart from | very seriously. what is the safestl way to communicate, apart from a carrier pigeon?— carrier pigeon? lower tech is sometimes _ carrier pigeon? lower tech is sometimes the _ carrier pigeon? lower tech is sometimes the way - carrier pigeon? lower tech is sometimes the way to - carrier pigeon? lower tech is sometimes the way to go. i carrier pigeon? lower tech is - sometimes the way to go. encryption tools like signal and whatsapp give the illusion of security but that only protects you from having your message intercepted. if your phone thatis message intercepted. if your phone that is hol

allegations are -- they have discovered a list of 50,000 phone numrs which they claim has come from nso groupsis is the surveillance software. they are saying on that list is not just terrorists and criminals, it's innocent people, like human rights activists, oppositions of governments. as part of their investigation, they discovered at least 188 journalists are on the list. they also did some analysis on some mobile phones and discovered some have been hacked. nso is denying all of these. anchor: we're going to have to leave it here. thank you so much for joining me. the acting prime minister of haiti has agreed to step down. he has largely been running the country, but in an interview with the washington post, he has agreed to step aside in favor of a rival politician. a florida man has become the first to be sentenced to prison. he pleaded guilty in june. the sentence is expected to set the benchmark for hundreds of upcoming cases. still to come on tonight's program. the waters have largely receded but the damage has been done. the latest from germany. south africa's former president has a

i think it's the responsibility of the company nso group and the responsibility of israel's governmentics are up to. more messages from you. thank you. david says "it seems like those who have made the effort to stay safe over the last 18 months are being thrown under the bus. we will only go to places where people wear masks and keep social distancing." darren says "let the bed—wetters stay behind the sofa and mashed up forever never going outside and never doing anything again, the fear firmly embedded into them." charming! this from richard who says "i'm apprehensive, but let's respect each other�*s choices." carol is here with a full weather forecast for you. hello again. yesterday, we recorded 31.6 celsius at london heathrow, making it the hottest day of this year so far. once again today, it's going to be hot and sunny. at the moment, what we have is a bit more cloud across the north and the west, courtesy of these weather fronts. high pressure firmly in charge, though, keeping things settled. and high pressure will be with us for much of this week. so still a little bit of cloud

an investigation into the widespread use of spying technology from israel's nso group claims hundredsf journalists, activists, and leaders in several countries were hacked. >> french president emmanuel macron held a lengthy meeting to discuss these allegations that have emerged that moroccan and services may have tried to target the -- one of the mobile phones of the french prime ministers. and more than a dozen ministers and dozens of journalists in france. the release they put out, they say of course the president is taking these allegations seriously, but they are urging caution. they have launched a full investigation to try and see and verify exactly what the situation is. the president is following this investigation closely. also, the president has changed his mobile phone numbers and security has been stepped up. >> thousands of people have rallied in the ethiopian capital to show support for government troops. speakers called on ethiopians to be unified against rebels and t gry -- in tigray. the conflict has widened to include fighters from neighboring regions. we report from

nso group has said the reports are based on false assumptions and incorrect data. minister, ariel henry, has formally taken office, nearly two weeks after the country's president, jovenel moise, was shot dead in an attack on his residence in the capital, port—au—prince. the late president had named mr henry as prime minister shortly before his assassination. the uk has accused the european commission of seeking to undermine its sovereignty over gibraltar, which spain disputes. britain and spain had agreed that external border checks could be carried out by eu border guards but the commission says this is now something spanish guards should do. the disgraced hollywood mogul harvey weinstein has been handed over for transport to california to face sexual assault charges. weinstein has been serving a 23—year prison sentence in new york since being convicted of rape last year. prosecutors in los angeles charged him with further allegations of sexual assault and launched extradition proceedings. more than 80 major fires are now raging across 13 us states. in oregon, the

joe, we have heard about this nso group before, but it seems that the scale of the use of these spy toolsn we realised? ., ,, ., ~ ., , . realised? yeah, nso make no secret ofthe realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power — realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of _ realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of its _ realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of its spy _ realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of its spy tools. - realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of its spy tools. it - realised? yeah, nso make no secret of the power of its spy tools. it is - of the power of its spy tools. it is this pegasus software that they use to effectively hack anyone phone that they want to. they are selling the tools to governments in their words to take down terrorist cells and paedophile rings. that sort of serious high—level criminalisty these tools are being used for. and it is very powerful software, so sometimes politics is a phone call, you don't even need to click on anything or download anything. this slavery can be on your phone or camera, y

the nso group denies the allegations, but the numbers include those of journalists, activists and academics. even rob malley, the biden administration special envoy for iran who we spoke to earlier on the show, his number was on there. how do we stop this? the secretary-general of amnesty international joins me now. thanks for coming on the show. i want to start asking you about the death of journalist jamal khashoggi. you concluded in a report in 2019 you conclude that saudi arabia was responsible for jamal's premeditated execution. we now know nso's spyware was used by the saudi to monitor people close to khashoggi, family members before and after his death. how much of a surprise was that to you? >> not quite. you know, it was an important crucial part of the execution. he was monitored before and clearly his death did not stop the monitoring because it also targeted his fiancee for the four days after his murder. there was an intent to control the information after the murder and to keep track on the trial itself. >> and what do we do about this spying software because it's coming out o

17 news outlets including the guardian and the washington post found israeli surveillance company nso group targeted the phones of journalists, activists and political figures around the world for foreign governments, using their pegasus software. a massive data leak, shared with the publications by amnesty international and forbidden stories, a paris-based non-profit, contained over 50,000 phone numbers gathered since 2016 which reportedly includes heads of state. it's unclear how many phones were actually breached. the report has identified 37 hacks out of 67 listed smartphones that were analyzed. the washington post said the cell phone of the fiance of its slain columnist jamal khashoggi, was infected with the malware days after his murder october 2018 at the saudi consulate in istanbul. in climate news, the death toll from the catastrophic, -- catastrophic floods through -- that have for days tore through western germany and belgium continues to rise. at least 157 people have been confirmed dead in germany, while 31 fatalities are being reported in belgium. rescue efforts are continuing

itself on number appeared on elite database from benesova group, and israeli company -- from nso groupds of state were in the database. there is a team to investigate and manage the fallout of the revelations. nso denies president macron was a target of their software. china has rejected accusations that it was behind the hack of the microsoft exchange email system. in beijing today, the foreign ministry said the u.s. is the real cyber culprit. >> the u.s. going going dapper with its allies and launched an unweighted accusation against china on cybersecurity, this is made out of thin air and confused right and wrong. it is purely smear and suppression out of political motives. the u.s. itself is the largest source of cyberattacks in the world. stephanie: beijing demanded the u.s. dropped charges against four chinese citizens accused of stealing trade secrets. central china has been hit by heavy flooding after extreme rainfall. whole neighborhoods around the city of zhengzhou were inundated. subway cars attract passengers inside, and more than 10,000 people were moved to shelters. at le

the reports linked nso group to a leaked list of more than 50,000 cell phone numbers from more than 50ddition to stealing hard drive data, the software reportedly allows users to pinpoint a target's location through the phone camera, and even record conversations made on or near that phone. that is so scary. nso has denied the allegations, in a statement said in part it sells its technology to law enforcement intelligence agencies of vetted governments for the sole purpose of saving lives through preventing crime and terror acts. how possible is that. >> this company nso has been under scrutiny before. two weeks ago released a report they said was a transparency report to show they were doing the right things to protect people's privacy and internationalists said the report was a sales brochure. now we have a story, i guess we know, mika, that big tech companies are listening in, technology is being used by rogue actors or governments to listen in on people. i think it is the scale of this. 200 journalists in 21 different countries who have had their phones being monitored. that's a sc

so, nso group sells the pegasus spyware to governments spyware to dozens of governments all around theel's government, the ministry of defence, which is regulating the export of these tools, it is their responsibility to sit nso down and say, look, if you sell this to saudi arabia, the uae, bahrain, or these other repressive governments, what do you think they are going to do with them? well, maybe they will go after some criminals and terrorists, but the main concern, in my view, the main concern of these governments like saudi arabia, is trying to figure out what their critics are up to. the controversial right—wing commentator and reality tv star katie hopkins is to be deported from australia after having her visa cancelled. the australian government took the decision after she made comments about breaching the rules of the country's mandatory hotel quarantine system. she was in the country to appear in celebrity big brother. in an instagram video she said she was given instructions by hotel quarantine officers that when someone knocks on her door essentially to deliver food that sh