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Pegasus: the spyware technology that threatens democracy
Pegasus: the spyware technology that threatens democracy Illustration: Ali Assaf/Guardian Design
Pegasus: the spyware technology that threatens democracy Illustration: Ali Assaf/Guardian Design

First Thing: Human rights activists, dissidents and journalists targeted by Pegasus spyware

This article is more than 2 years old

A Guardian investigation shows activists and many others around the globe ended up on governmental surveillance lists thanks to the dangerous software that threatens democracy

Good morning.

Human rights lawyers, activists and dissidents across the globe were selected as possible candidates for invasive surveillance via their phones, leaked phone data suggests.

The Guardian’s Pegasus project reveals that their mobile phone numbers appeared in leaked records, indicating they were selected prior to possible surveillance targeting by governmental clients of the Israeli company NSO Group, which developed the Pegasus spyware.

NSO has repeatedly insisted that Pegasus is meant to be used only to spy on terrorists and serious criminals. The tool can extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones.

  • Loujain al-Hathloul, the most prominent women’s rights activist in Saudi Arabia, was one of those selected for possible targeting, just weeks before her 2018 abduction in the United Arab Emirates and forced return to Saudi Arabia, where she was imprisoned for three years and allegedly tortured. It is believed Hathloul was selected by the UAE, a known client of NSO and close ally of Saudi Arabia.

  • Check out this handy explainer about Pegasus, and what this spyware is capable of.

NSO has claimed it will cut off clients if they misuse Pegasus. In a response to the consortium, it denied the leaked records were evidence of targeting with Pegasus and said it “will continue to investigate all credible claims of misuse and take appropriate action based on the result of these investigations”.

A ‘chilling’ rightwing backlash to Biden takes root in Republican states

US president Joe Biden delivers remarks in a speech at National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, last week. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

Joe Biden may have promised to use his presidency to “restore the soul of America” and to unite the nation, defuse “anger, resentment and hatred” and lead Americans back to a world where they treated “each other with dignity and respect”.

But six months on, Biden’s assurances are at risk of appearing overly romantic. About 1,400 miles west from the White House, in Dallas, Texas, people who had been hoping for change are witnessing an explosion of regressive, extreme rightwing laws pushed through by the state’s Republicans, Ed Pilkington writes.

  • Of particular concern is the Republican bill to make it even more difficult to vote – in a state that already makes it harder to vote than any other in the country.

  • Another new law expected to come into effect in September effectively tries to turn ordinary citizens into anti-abortion bounty hunters, offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who successfully sues a fellow Texan for helping a woman seek an abortion beyond six weeks of pregnancy.

Huge Oregon blaze grows as wildfires burn across western US

The Bootleg fire burns in south-east Oregon. The wildfire is the largest among many now burning in the west. Photograph: National Wildfire Coordinating G/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The Bootleg Fire, the largest wildfire in the US, torched more dry forest landscape in Oregon on Sunday, one of at least 70 major blazes burning across the west and nearby states.

The wildfire, which is raging just north of the California border, grew to more than 476 sq miles (1,210 sq km), an area about the size of Los Angeles.

  • Erratic winds fed the Bootleg Fire, creating dangerous conditions for firefighters and hampering their efforts.

  • Two thousand residents have been evacuated from a largely rural area of lakes and wildlife refuges.

  • The blaze, which is 22% contained, has burned at least 67 homes and 100 outbuildings while threatening thousands more.

In other news …

File photo from December 2016 of Katie Hopkins, who has been axed from the upcoming season of Australia’s Big Brother VIP after reportedly admitting to deliberately disobeying strict hotel quarantine rules. Photograph: Philip Toscano/PA
  • The British far-right commentator Katie Hopkins is facing imminent deportation from Australia, after her visa was cancelled because she boasted about breaching hotel quarantine rules. Hopkins, 46, broadcast a live video from what she claimed was a Sydney hotel room on Saturday morning, describing Covid-19 lockdowns as “the greatest hoax in human history”.

  • A US father and son have been imprisoned in Tokyo for helping the former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn flee to Lebanon. A Tokyo court has handed down the first sentences related to Ghosn’s arrest and escape from Japan, ruling that the US army special forces veteran Michael Taylor will be jailed for two years and his son, Peter, for one year and eight months.

  • The billionaire space race could be one giant leap for pollution, as Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson and co are hoping to vastly expand the number of people travelling to space.

  • Spectators cheered as a stone statue of a Confederate general was hoisted by a crane and removed from a pedestal where it stood for 99 years in front of a city hall in south Louisiana on Saturday.

Stat of the day: almost 80% of dozens of everyday grocery items are supplied by just a handful of companies

A joint investigation by the Guardian and Food and Water Watch shows that a handful of mega firms dominate every link of the food supply chain: from seeds and fertilizers to slaughterhouses and supermarkets to cereals and beers, US consumers are almost entirely at the mercy of a few huge companies when buying food.

Don’t miss: Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico

Workers at Hufcor, a family-owned company founded in Janesville, Wisconsin, 120 years ago, are fighting the closure of the plant and the moving of operations to Monterrey, Mexico, which is wiping out the jobs of 166 workers. Their opponent? The private-equity firm OpenGate Capital, which acquired the company four years ago and which, according to the Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin, “has a history of shutting down businesses and giving workers pink slips in Wisconsin”.

Climate Check

Covering the climate crisis is one of the most important things we do at the Guardian. So today we’re introducing Climate Check, a new First Thing section to help you stay on top of the environmental stories that matter the most. Today, we thought we’d bring to your attention that the American Petroleum Institute, a powerful US lobby group, receives millions from oil companies to help big oil block climate action. My colleague Chris McGreal reports.

Last Thing: Is it wrong to steal someone’s tattoo?

Adele Exarchopoulos tattoo detail at the ‘OSS 117: From Africa with Love’ premiere and Closing Ceremony, at the 74th Cannes Film Festival in France on Saturday. Photograph: David Fisher/REX/Shutterstock

Once a symbol of individualism, many tattoos are now far from unique. What happens when you walk into a tattoo parlour and come out with someone else’s inky ornament on your arm after a quick Google of “cool tattoos men”? James Shackell knows.

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