Showing posts with label Al Jazeera. Show all posts

Friday, October 16, 2026

Israel-based "AdFection"... Spyware vendors found a way to make targeted ads even worse- Israeli adtech outfit allegedly helped spyware vendors infect phones while enjoying Google's seal of approval

The online advertising industry has found a new way to make itself even more unpopular, with one adtech outfit accused of helping spyware vendors infect people's phones without them even clicking an ad.

Researchers at Citizen Lab say they've uncovered the first publicly confirmed case of a zero-click mercenary spyware attack being delivered through targeted online ads, with devices at Al Jazeera among those infected.

The technique, dubbed "AdFection," turns advertising networks into a spyware delivery system. Simply opening a website or app can be enough to trigger the attack, with no suspicious links or downloads involved.

Israeli adtech firm Discover-Tech is allegedly behind the operation, according to researchers at Citizen Lab, which says the company acts as a middleman between the online advertising industry and multiple spyware and hacking vendors.

"We present technical evidence that the Israel-based company Discover-Tech, while purporting to be a legitimate advertising company, appears to be a front for large-scale ad espionage abuse," the researchers wrote. “In fact, it appears that serving as this bridge is Discover-Tech’s primary purpose."

Discover-Tech’s Controlium platform exploits the real-time bidding system that decides which ads appear on websites and apps. Every time someone loads a page, advertisers compete for available ad space and, in the process, receive information about the user's device and location. Discover-Tech allegedly used that data to identify specific targets and serve them malicious ads.

One spyware vendor linked to the operation is Candiru, the Israeli developer now known as Integrity Labs. Citizen Lab traced attacks against at least 45 devices at Al Jazeera in 2024 and 2025 to Candiru spyware delivered through ads from Discover-Tech.

Discover-Tech didn't have to sneak into the advertising system, as Google and IAB Europe had listed the company as an approved vendor since 2020, apparently unaware of what it was Citizen Lab claims it was doing with that access.

Citizen Lab sifted through nearly four billion ad-bidding records and found Discover-Tech ads on more than 70,000 mobile apps and 120,000 websites between March and June 2026.

Some reached networks belonging to government agencies, defense organizations, and NATO. Researchers found no evidence that those organizations were infected, but they say the ads could have been used to profile devices on those networks.

The researchers said the operation also covertly directed millions of devices toward... READ MORE https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/10/15/spyware-vendors-found-a-way-to-make-targeted-ads-even-worse/5303334

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Thursday, September 17, 2026

'Everything changed': The human cost of 25 years of US wars... Successive wars launched after 9/11 have killed at least 4.5 million people and displaced more than 38 million others.

"The United States has spent an estimated $5.8 trillion on two decades of war, with an additional $2.2 trillion reserved for veterans' care in the coming decades - bringing the total cost to at least $8 trillion.

By 2030, the US will have spent as much on interest as on the fighting itself, a debt today's under-25s will help pay off."

By Hanna Duggal and Alia Chughtai

Twenty-five years have passed since 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four commercial aeroplanes and slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.

What followed was a series of US-led wars that reshaped Washington’s foreign policy for a generation, in which every year since 2001, US forces have bombed a country somewhere in the world, devastating the lives of millions.

“Everything changed,” Omar*, an Iraqi student at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, told Al Jazeera. The war was launched on the false pretence that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction.

Less than a month after 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan, launching what President George W Bush called the “War on Terror” - a series of seemingly endless wars and military campaigns spanning Afghanistan, Iraq and countries across the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

According to the Cost of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates that US-led wars since 2001 have directly or indirectly killed an estimated 4.5 to 4.7 million people - including approximately 940,000 direct deaths and 3.6 to 3.8 million indirect deaths from disease, malnutrition and health complications.... READ MORE

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2026/9/11/everything-changed-the-human-cost-of-25-years-of-us-wars

The long-term costs have also been enormous. The Costs of War Project estimates that caring for post-9/11 veterans in the United States could cost $2.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion by 2050, much of it still unpaid. Many veterans continue to face a mental-health crisis.

“Four times as many US service members and veterans died by suicide as were killed in combat during the post-9/11 wars,” Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War Project, told Al Jazeera

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Saturday, September 5, 2026

"Zionists have been contemplating the ethic cleansing of the Palestinians ever since Herzl. 750,000 were evicted in 1948; 325,000 more in 1967. Katz & Ben Gvir want to kick out 2m more: "US rejects Israeli suggestions of removing Palestinians from Gaza"" William Dalrymple

William Dalrymple

@DalrympleWill

Zionists have been contemplating the ethic cleansing of the Palestinians ever since Herzl. 750,000 were evicted in 1948; 325,000 more in 1967. Katz & Ben Gvir want to kick out 2m more "US rejects Israeli suggestions of removing Palestinians from Gaza"

Palestinians amid the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli air raids in Gaza City, August 17, 2026 [Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]

US rejects Israeli suggestions of removing Palestinians from Gaza

US State Department tells Al Jazeera that Washington ‘does not support any plan’ for the expulsion of Palestinians.

By Ali Harb

In a rare public display of disagreement with Israel, the United States has rejected calls by top Israeli officials that the Palestinian population should be removed from Gaza.

Asked about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s call for de-populating Gaza as the only “solution” to the crisis, the US State Department reiterated Washington’s commitment to President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” that established the “ceasefire” last year.

“As explicitly stated in Point 12 of the President’s plan: ‘No one will be forced to leave Gaza and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza’,” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement on Friday.

“The United States does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer of the population of Gaza,” the spokesperson said.

Katz had said that Trump had only “frozen” – not cancelled – his support for removing Palestinians from the territory, a proposal that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing.

“In the end, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration,” Katz said on Wednesday.

Israeli officials have been using “migration” as a euphemism for de-populating Gaza.

Katz said the Israeli government is ready to get Palestinians out of Gaza “by sea, by air and by any means to do it” and the idea is still “being discussed all the time”.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed Katz’s statements the following day.

“Instead of illusions of peace now, we need actions of emigration now,” Ben-Gvir said. “Instead of [Palestinians] digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases.”

Arab states, including some close allies of the US, have forcefully rejected any effort to remove Palestinians from their land.... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/4/us-rejects-israeli-suggestions-of-removing-palestinians-from-gaza

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Tuesday, August 11, 2026

"Insane how little media coverage the occupied West Bank gets while Israel steals more land and terrorizes Palestinians every, single, day." Assal Rad

Please FOLLOW HER: Assal Rad

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Assal Rad

@AssalRad

https://x.com/AssalRad/status/2087088992999309741

Al Jazeera English

@AJEnglish

BREAKING: Israeli military continues attacks and raids across the occupied West Bank, with arrests, home raids, and forced displacement reported in several areas. LIVE updates: aje.news/s92crs

Escalation in settler attacks in occupied West Bank driven by upcoming Israeli elections

The recent escalation in settler attacks against Palestinians is state-sponsored and driven by the upcoming Israeli elections at the end of October, according to Ubai Al-Aboudi, a human rights advocate and former executive director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development.

“As a policy and a way to promote their policies or to promote themselves among the general electorate, the Israeli politicians that are now in charge of the government are giving more of a free hand and encouraging settlers even more to do these kinds of widespread attacks, pogroms, ethnic cleansing operations against Palestinians,” Al-Aboudi said.

Al-Aboudi noted that the surge in violence is also linked to a potential change in government in October.

“So, the settlers also understand that any new government might not be as lenient towards them, towards the ethnic cleansing process that they are taking right now on the ground,” he said, emphasising that the primary objective is to displace Palestinians from their land.

“The fact [is] that Israelis, through the government policy, through their genocidal policies, through their support of the settler militias … have been trying to push Palestinians out of our lands, to drive us away to make us refugees again,” Al-Aboudi added. https://aje.news/suhi9z?update=4845765

ANALYSIS

Israeli illegal settlement enterprise aimed at denying Palestinians their rights

Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise in the occupied West Bank is aimed at preventing Palestinians from exercising their rights and ultimately preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, political analyst Xavier Abu Eid has told Al Jazeera.

“The effect on Palestinians is exactly the same. It’s part of the same settler enterprise aimed at preventing Palestinians from enjoying their rights in their homeland,” Abu Eid said. He said the issue of Israeli settlers has been normalised locally and internationally, with attempts to distinguish between those living in illegal settlements for economic reasons and more ideologically driven settlers.

But Abu Eid said such distinctions obscure the broader system Israel has built around illegal settlements. “It’s not just about settlements and housing, but about the whole infrastructure,” he said.

As an example, Abu Eid said it is cheaper to travel by bus to an Israeli settlement than to a Palestinian village in the West Bank, highlighting how Israel prioritises illegal settlements and the infrastructure serving them.

He described this as part of a creeping takeover of Palestinian land, accompanied by restrictions on Palestinian movement and the seizure of more territory for Israeli settlers. https://aje.news/suhi9z?update=4845425

Western Media manufactures consent for genocide https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/834977/dont-say-palestine-by-assal-rad/

Sunday, August 9, 2026

Israel’s ‘Green Rafah’ plan aims to fragment Gaza, experts say Analysts warn Israel’s new administrative zones seek to erase the Palestinian cause and force mass displacement.

Buildings lie in ruins amidst the rubble in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, December 8, 2025 [Nir Elias/Reuters]

By Mohammad Mansour

Israel has quietly given the green light for infrastructure work to begin in a designated area of southern Gaza, according to Israeli media, as it advances a post-war vision that experts warn is designed to reshape reality on the ground and permanently fragment the enclave.

Dubbed “Green Rafah”, the project backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz is in eastern Rafah near the unilaterally imposed “Yellow Line”, the effective Israeli buffer zone squeezing Palestinians into smaller areas.

Army Radio, which reported the approval on Sunday, said the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office described the initiative as an Emirati-backed pilot project aimed at establishing temporary housing “free” of the influence of the Palestinian group Hamas.

While the Israeli military will reportedly supervise the installation of water, sewage and electrical infrastructure, Palestinian labourers will be subjected to intense security screenings by the Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Furthermore, strict limitations have been imposed on the project, with Israeli authorities reportedly banning the entry of “caravans” or mobile homes into the area until at least November.

Also on Sunday, Netanyahu said he rejects the 15-point plan for Gaza announced last month by the United States-led Board of Peace.

The plan calls for the disarmament of Hamas in stages and the phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Strip, but Netanyahu said an Israeli pull-out won’t happen until Hamas is fully disarmed.

As political negotiations over the future of Gaza stall, Palestinian political researcher Ahmed al-Atawneh warned that projects such as “Green Rafah” are designed to create isolated cantons under total Israeli administrative and security control. With this framework, he argued, Israel leaves Palestinians with only three choices: “Either they fully submit to Israeli policies, face death or imprisonment if they resist, or emigrate.”

Far from providing genuine humanitarian relief, al-Atawneh said Israel’s strategy relies on stripping the Palestinian struggle of its political dimension.

“Treating Palestinians merely as residents rather than citizens with a national cause means, in practice, undermining and liquidating the Palestinian cause,” he said, adding that this approach aligns with the broad consensus in the Israeli parliament rejecting any Palestinian political entity.

Al-Atawneh further criticised Arab involvement in such frameworks outside of a unified Palestinian consensus. “If any country is involved in this project based on the Israeli vision and away from the Palestinians, it raises many questions and essentially serves Israeli policy, rather than genuinely assisting or relieving Palestinians,” he added.

The Israeli ban on mobile homes and delay of meaningful reconstruction of civilian infrastructure carry deep strategic implications, according to experts.

Mohammad Hamed al-Aila, a Palestinian researcher, pointed out that the humanitarian protocol attached to a ceasefire agreement signed last year in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh explicitly mandates the entry of temporary housing (caravans) and repair of civilian infrastructure.

“Israel has not adhered to these obligations, despite 10 months passing since” the signing of a ceasefire deal, said al-Aila, noting that Israel continues to stall while Hamas demands the full implementation of the first phase.

“Preventing the entry of caravans and postponing any serious reconstruction track cannot be separated from the broader Israeli goal of perpetuating the humanitarian catastrophe,” said al-Aila. “Israel views the humanitarian situation in Gaza as a tool of political pressure aimed at gradually pushing the population towards migration.”

Al-Atawneh agreed, suggesting that Netanyahu is using these delays to buy time ahead of Israel’s elections in October in an effort to preserve his far-right-wing coalition, all while pursuing long-term goals of demographic engineering and displacement.

The international force dilemma

In tandem with these administrative zones, preparations are moving forward to deploy a limited International Stabilization Force (ISF). Reports indicate that countries such as Morocco and Uganda may send small contingents of around 200 troops each, falling drastically short of initial plans for a much larger multinational force.

Al-Aila argued that these token numbers reflect Israel’s traditional tactic of superficially accepting US proposals while hollowing out their actual implementation.... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/9/israels-green-rafah-plan-aims-to-fragment-gaza-experts-say

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Historical reckoning: The push for the US to acknowledge the Nakba... On the 78th anniversary of the mass expulsion of Palestinians, experts say US ‘political amnesia’ continues.

Palestinian villagers who fled from their homes during fighting between Israeli and Arab troops, on November 4, 1948 [Jim Pringle/AP Photo]

By Joseph Stepansky

Washington, DC – It is a question that reaches a fever pitch this time of year for Palestinian survivors and rights advocates: Can the United States government create just policy in the Middle East without a full accounting — or recognition — of Palestinian history?

Thursday marks the annual day of remembrance for the Nakba, a period that began in 1948 with the mass expulsion of Palestinians and the creation of the state of Israel.

Since then, Palestinians have endured decades of displacement and ethnic cleansing.

But the US government does not recognise the Nakba, which translates to the “catastrophe” in Arabic, even as it continues to assert gargantuan influence over the region and maintains ironclad support for the Israeli government.

Under the second administration of President Donald Trump, the US has taken a further active role in Palestinian affairs, establishing the controversial “Board of Peace” to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, even as it continues to take a permissive approach towards Israel’s genocide.

When faced with the question of whether the US can responsibly address Palestinian issues without acknowledging the Nakba, Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute, believes the answer is simple: No.

“If you only acknowledge the humanity and suffering of one side, that forces you also to ignore historical realities that are still with us today,” he told Al Jazeera.

Elgindy said “political amnesia” has long defined the US government’s approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

For decades, the US has supported Israel with billions in foreign assistance and military aid, despite the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and a system of segregation that rights groups say constitutes apartheid.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza has killed at least 75,000 Palestinians. Elgindy told Al Jazeera that the US has played a key role in underwriting the conflict.

“For better or worse, mostly for worse, the United States is inextricably tied to the Palestinian issue,” Elgindy said.

A fundamental – if long delayed – corrective step would be recognition of the Nakba, he said. “It is a historical reality that Palestinians have a collective trauma that is part of their identity and part of their political psychology.”

‘The ongoing Nakba’

On Thursday, US Representative Rashida Tlaib introduced a resolution to officially recognise “the ongoing Nakba and Palestinian refugees’ rights”.

It was the fifth consecutive time she has put forward the bill, with the latest version carrying 12 co-sponsors, up from six when it was first introduced in 2022.

In a video conference this week, she explained that it was necessary to draw attention to the Nakba, given that the human rights abuses against Palestinians continue.

“Too many of my colleagues in Congress like to act like … the state violence against the Palestinian people began with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Tlaib said.

“We know that Palestinian history has been one of the ongoing Nakba and the ethnic cleansing campaign since the creation [of Israel] in 1948.”

All told, about 750,000 Palestinians were violently expelled during the Nakba, displaced to refugee camps across the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab countries.

About 400 cities and villages were depopulated, with massacres committed in Balad al-Sheikh, Saasaa, Deir Yassin, Saliha and Lydda, among others.

Like in past years, Tlaib’s latest legislative effort is largely symbolic, with little chance of progressing in Congress, which remains predominantly pro-Israel.

Still, the latest resolution comes amid signs of shifting public awareness, with polls showing increasing sympathy for Palestinians and a rise in negative views towards Israel’s government. Polls have shown tanking support for Israel, particularly among Democrats, amid the genocide in Gaza.

Attitudes in Congress have also shown significant, if more incremental, signs of change. Though support for Israel was once considered sacrosanct... READ MORE https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/15/historical-reckoning-the-push-for-the-us-to-acknowledge-the-nakba

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