title: Red (Taylor's Version)

text: In Australia, Swift achieved a chart double by topping both ARIA Albums and Singles charts simultaneously; she scored her ninth number-one album on the former with "Red (Taylor's Version)" and her second of 2021 following "Fearless (Taylor's Version)". Swift became the first artist in the history of the ARIA Charts to have four number-one albums in a span of two years. Additionally, she tied Eminem for the most consecutive number one albums on the ARIA Albums Chart, at nine each. "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)" debuted atop the singles chart as Swift's eighth Australian number-one song. It marked the fourth time she achieved a chart double, after "1989" and "Blank Space" in 2014, "Folklore" and "Cardigan", and "Evermore" and "Willow". Eleven other tracks from "Red (Taylor's Version)" also entered the ARIA Singles Chart the same week. The album debuted at number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart as well, as Swift's tenth number one album there. In Japan, the album debuted at number 15 on the Oricon Albums Chart, and on the Japanese Hot Albums "Billboard Japan" at number 16.


title: Red (Taylor's Version)

text: Various brands and companies used their social media accounts to endorse the album; some of them added "(Taylor's Version)" to their Twitter usernames during the release week"." Fitness equipment manufacturer Peloton announced that the album's songs will be used in their on-demand classes, such as of cycling, running, and yoga, upon popular demand. "Paper" wrote that Swift's impact was "felt across social media", with the brands "capitalizing on her momentum". "Inc." said the companies leveraged the album's cultural relevance. Beauty company Cosmetify reported that Google searches for "red lipstick" increased 669 percent following the release of "Red (Taylor's Version)".


title: Red (Taylor's Version)

text: Media outlets and fans online dubbed "Red (Taylor's Version)" as part of a 2021 music trend called "Sad Girl Autumn" or "Sad Girl Fall", which refers to the release of melancholic and introspective music by female artists during autumn, such as Adele's "30" and Mitski's "The Only Heartbreaker"; it is a counterpart to "Hot Girl Summer", a catchphrase coined by American rapper Megan Thee Stallion with her 2019 song of the same name. Swift herself acknowledged the phenomenon by releasing an acoustic rendition of "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" subtitled "Sad Girl Autumn Version".


title: Red (Taylor's Version)

text: "The Wall Street Journal" stated that "Red (Taylor's Version)" is "reshaping the music industry", highlighting how the re-recorded songs are outperforming their original counterparts on streaming services, going viral on TikTok, and landing "lucrative" licensing deals for usage in motion pictures. According to the newspaper, Universal Music Group—the parent company of Republic Records—implemented stricter terms in recording deals which effectively doubled the time before an artist can rerecord their music. Other changes in the contracts included increased royalty payments to artists following their demands for better revenue shares. "Variety" named Swift the "Queen of Stream" for setting multiple streaming records with the release of "Red (Taylor's Version)". "Rolling Stone" opined "it's no small feat" for a re-released album to score a number-one song, and said deluxe or special editions of albums are often "gimmicky", but "Red (Taylor's Version)" challenged that norm and evolved on the original album rather than attempting to replace it.


title: Red (Taylor's Version)

text: Publications have said the release of "Red (Taylor's Version)", "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)", the , and Swift's re-recording venture collectively is one of the biggest newsmakers and pop culture moments of 2021. "Vogue" called it a "multimedia, news-cycle-dominating release" and stated "nobody releases (or rereleases!) an album like Swift." The Recording Academy called "Red (Taylor's Version)" a pop phenomenon that defined 2021. "Ms." and "Slate" journalists stated "Red (Taylor's Version)" is a testament to "Red" legacy, highlighting how some critics in 2012 called "Red" a sub-par album citing its "hyper-emotionality and obsessive romanticism" but eventually saw it as a "masterclass in pop songwriting and poetry ahead of its time". "Ms." wrote the period's sexist scrutiny downplayed her artistry; "Slate" stated the media had no sympathy for Swift, painting her as a "boy-crazy, vengeful ex" and failing to assess "Red" without prejudice. "Billboard" named Swift the "Greatest Pop Star of 2021" for her "unequivocal" success that year. "Rolling Stone" reported she was the highest-paid female musician of 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the United States, it has resulted in confirmed cases with all-time deaths, the most of any country, and the twentieth-highest per capita worldwide. The COVID-19 pandemic ranks first on the list of disasters in the United States by death toll; it was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2020, behind heart disease and cancer. From 2019 to 2020, U.S. life expectancy dropped by 3years for Hispanic and Latino Americans, 2.9years for African Americans, and 1.2years for white Americans. These effects have persisted as U.S. deaths due to COVID-19 in 2021 exceeded those in 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The first known American deaths occurred in February. On March 6, 2020, Trump allocated $8.3 billion to fight the outbreak and declared a national emergency on March 13. The government also purchased large quantities of medical equipment, invoking the Defense Production Act of 1950 to assist. By mid-April, disaster declarations were made by all states and territories as they all had increasing cases. A second wave of infections began in June, following relaxed restrictions in several states, leading to daily cases surpassing 60,000. By mid-October, a third surge of cases began; there were over 200,000 new daily cases during parts of December 2020 and January 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020, under emergency use, beginning the national vaccination program, with the first vaccine officially approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 23, 2021. Studies have shown them to be highly protective against severe illness, hospitalization, and death. In comparison with fully vaccinated people, the CDC found that those who were unvaccinated were from 5 to nearly 30 times more likely to become either infected or hospitalized. There has nonetheless been some vaccine hesitancy for various reasons, although side effects are rare. There have also been numerous reports that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients have strained the capacity of hospitals throughout the country, forcing many to turn away patients with life-threatening diseases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: A fourth rise in infections began in March 2021 amidst the rise of the Alpha variant, a more easily transmissible variant first detected in the United Kingdom. That was followed by a rise of the Delta variant, an even more infectious mutation first detected in India, leading to increased efforts to ensure safety. The January 2022 emergence of the Omicron variant, which was first discovered in South Africa, has led to record highs in hospitalizations and cases, with as many as 1.5 million new infections reported in a single day.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: State and local responses to the pandemic have included the requirement to wear a face mask in specified situations (mask mandates), prohibition and cancellation of large-scale gatherings (including festivals and sporting events), stay-at-home orders, and school closures. Disproportionate numbers of cases have been observed among Black and Latino populations, as well as elevated levels of vaccine hesitancy, and there has been a sharp increase in reported incidents of xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans. Clusters of infections and deaths have occurred in many areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has also led to misinformation and conspiracy theories and has highlighted weaknesses in the U.S. public health system.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In November 2019, COVID-19 infections had first broken out in Wuhan, China. China publicly reported the cluster on December 31, 2019. After China confirmed that the cluster of infections was caused by a novel infectious coronavirus on January 7, 2020, the CDC issued an official health advisory the following day. On January 20, the World Health Organization (WHO) and China both confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred. The CDC immediately activated its Emergency operations center (EOC) to respond to the outbreak in China. Also, the first report of a COVID-19 case in the U.S. was publicly reported, though the "All of Us" study (released in 2021) showed five states already had cases weeks earlier. After other cases were reported, on January 30, the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)its highest level of alarmwarning that "all countries should be prepared for containment." The same day, the CDC confirmed the first person-to-person case in the U.S. The next day, the country declared a public health emergency. Although by that date there were only seven known cases in the U.S., the HHS and CDC reported that there was a likelihood of further cases appearing in the country.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The Trump administration evacuated American nationals from Wuhan in January. On February 2, the U.S. enacted travel restrictions to and from China. On February 6, the earliest confirmed American death with COVID-19 (that of a 57-year-old woman) occurred in Santa Clara County, California. The CDC did not report its confirmation until April 21, by which point nine other COVID-19 deaths had occurred in Santa Clara County. The virus had been circulating undetected at least since early January and possibly as early as November. On February 25, the CDC warned the American public for the first time to prepare for a local outbreak. The next day, New York City saw the sickening of its "patient zero", Manhattan attorney Lawrence Garbuz, then thought to be the first community-acquired case. Another case known as "patient zero" in Los Angeles is a man named Gregg Garfield, who spent 64 days in the Burbank Hospital, on a ventilator for 30 days, with a 1% chance to live. Contracting the virus from a ski trip, Garfield was able to return to the slopes, although with fingers and toes amputated. In February, Vice President Mike Pence took over for Secretary Alex Azar as chair of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By March 11, the virus had spread to 110 countries, and the WHO officially declared a pandemic. The CDC had already warned that large numbers of people needing hospital care could overload the healthcare system, which would lead to otherwise preventable deaths. Dr. Anthony Fauci said the mortality from COVID-19 was ten times higher than the common flu. By March 12, diagnosed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. exceeded a thousand. On March 16, the White House advised against any gatherings of more than ten people. Three days later, the United States Department of State advised U.S. citizens to avoid all international travel.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By the middle of March, all fifty states were able to perform tests with a doctor's approval, either from the CDC or from commercial labs. However, the number of available test kits remained limited. As cases began spreading throughout the nation, federal and state agencies began taking urgent steps to prepare for a surge of hospital patients. Among the actions was establishing additional places for patients in case hospitals became overwhelmed.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: Throughout March and early April, several state, city, and county governments imposed "stay at home" quarantines on their populations to stem the spread of the virus. By March 26, "New York Times" data showed the United States to have the highest number of known cases of any country. By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases. On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry. On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world when the number of deaths reached 20,000, surpassing that of Italy. On April 19, the CMS added new regulations requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families and representatives, of COVID-19 cases in their facilities. On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 1million.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By May 27, less than four months after the pandemic reached the U.S., 100,000 Americans had died with COVID-19. State economic reopenings and lack of widespread mask orders resulted in a sharp rise in cases across most of the continental U.S. outside of the Northeast. A study conducted in May 2020 indicated that the true number of COVID-19 cases in the United States was much higher than the number of confirmed cases with some locations having 6–24 times higher infections, which was further confirmed by a later population-wide serosurvey.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On July 6, the United States Department of State announced the country's withdrawal from WHO effective July 6, 2021. On July 10, the CDC adopted the Infection Fatality Ratio (IFR), "the number of individuals who die of the disease among all infected individuals (symptomatic and asymptomatic)", as a new metric for disease severity. In July, US PIRG and 150 health professionals sent a letter asking the federal government to "shut it down now, and start over". In July and early August, requests multiplied, with a number of experts asking for lockdowns of "six to eight weeks" that they believed would restore the country by October 1, in time to reopen schools and have an in-person election.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In August, over 400,000 people attended the 80th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, and from there, at least 300 people in more than 20 states were infected. The CDC followed up with a report on the associated 51 confirmed primary event-associated cases, 21 secondary cases, and five tertiary cases in the neighboring state of Minnesota, where one attendee died of COVID-19. The U.S. passed five million COVID-19 cases by August 8.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On September 22, the U.S. passed 200,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In early October, an unprecedented series of high-profile U.S. political figures and staffers announced they had tested positive for COVID-19. On October 2, Trump announced on Twitter that both he and the First Lady had tested positive for COVID-19 and would immediately quarantine. Trump was given an experimental Regeneron product with two monoclonal antibodies and taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he was given remdesivir and dexamethasone.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: "USA Today" studied the aftermath of presidential election campaigning, recognizing that causation was impossible to determine. Among their findings, cases increased 35 percent compared to 14 percent for the state after a Trump rally in Beltrami County, Minnesota. One case was traced to a Joe Biden rally in Duluth, Minnesota.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On November 9, President-elect Biden's transition team announced his COVID-19 Advisory Board. On the same day, the total number of cases had surpassed ten million while the total had risen by over a million in the ten days prior, averaging 102,300 new cases per day. Pfizer also announced that its COVID-19 vaccine may be up to ninety percent effective. In November, the Trump administration reached an agreement with a number of retail outlets, including pharmacies and supermarkets, to make the COVID-19 vaccine free once available.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In spite of recommendations by the government not to travel, more than 2million people flew on airlines during the Thanksgiving period. On December 8, the U.S. passed 15million cases, with about one out of every 22 Americans having tested positive since the pandemic began. On December 14, the U.S. passed 300,000 deaths, representing an average of more than 961 deaths per day since the first known death on February 6. More than 50,000 deaths were reported in the past month, with an average of 2,403 daily deaths occurring in the past week.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On December 24, following concerns over a probably more easily transmissible new SARS-CoV-2 variant from the United Kingdom, later called Alpha, the CDC announced testing requirements for American passengers traveling from the UK, to be administered within 72 hours, starting on December 28. On December 29, the U.S. reported the first case of this variant in Colorado. The patient had no travel history, leading the CDC to say, "Given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On January 1, 2021, the U.S. passed 20million cases, representing an increase of more than a million over the past week and 10million in less than two months. On January 6, the CDC announced that it had found at least 52 confirmed cases of the Alpha variant, and it also stressed that there could already be more cases in the country. In the following days, more cases of the variant were reported in other states, leading former CDC director Tom Frieden to express his concerns that the U.S. will soon face "close to a worst-case scenario". It was believed the variant had been present in the U.S. since October.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On January 19, the U.S. passed 400,000 deaths, just five weeks after the country passed 300,000 deaths. On January 22, the U.S. passed 25million cases, with one of every 13 Americans testing positive for COVID-19. On January 29, a nationwide requirement for use of face masks on public transit and other forms of public transportation was issued by the CDC and the federal Transportation Security Administration, to go into effect on February 1. (Subsequently, extended, the federal mask mandate for public transportation remains in effect in April 2022.)


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On February 22, the U.S. passed 500,000 deaths, just five weeks after the country passed 400,000 deaths. By March 5, more than 2,750 cases of COVID-19 variants were detected in 47 states; Washington, D.C.; and Puerto Rico. In the first prime time address of his presidency, on March 11, Biden announced his plan to push states to make vaccines available to all adults by May 1, with the aim of making small gatherings possible by July 4. On March 24, the U.S. passed 30million cases, just as a number of states began to expand the eligibility age for COVID-19 vaccines. Experts began warning against public relaxation of COVID-19 mitigation measures as vaccines continue to be administered, with CDC director Rochelle Walensky, warning of a new rise in cases.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By April 7, the Alpha variant had become the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S. On April 12, the U.S. reported its first cases of a new "double mutant" SARS-CoV-2 variant from India, later called Delta, in California. By April 25, the country's seven-day average of new infections was reported to be decreasing, but concerns were raised about drops in vaccine demand in certain parts of the U.S., which were attributed to vaccine hesitancy. On April 29, the CDC estimated that roughly 35% of the U.S. population had been infected with the virus as of March 2021, about four times higher than the official reported numbers.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On May 4, Biden announced a new goal of having 70 percent of all adults in the U.S. receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot by July 4, along with steps to vaccinate teenagers and more inaccessible populations. The country ultimately did not reach that goal, with only 67 percent of the overall adult population having done so by July 4. On May 6, a study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated that the true COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. was more than 900,000 people. On May 9, Dr. Fauci confirmed that the U.S. death toll was likely undercounted.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On May 13, the CDC changed its guidance and said that fully vaccinated individuals do not need to wear masks in most situations. Some states ended their mask mandates shortly after, while others maintained the mandate. The CDC was criticized for the confusion resulting from the announcement, as it did not remove existing state and local mandates. The guidance also did not remove the federal mask mandate on public transportation. On June 15, the U.S. passed 600,000 deaths, though the number of daily deaths had decreased due to vaccination efforts.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By June, COVID-19 cases rose again, especially in Arkansas, Nevada, Missouri, and Wyoming. The rising numbers were believed to be attributable to the Delta variant. By July 7, the Delta variant had surpassed the Alpha variant to become the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S., according to CDC data. By August the Delta variant accounted for 99 percent of all cases and was found to double the risk of hospitalization for those not yet vaccinated.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On August 1, the U.S. passed 35million cases. By early and mid-August, hospitals in some states with low vaccination rates began to exceed capacity. One-quarter of the U.S. population resides in eight states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, and Texas—but, by mid-August, these states together had a half of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the nation. By the end of the month, the ICUs of five of those—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Texas—were over 90% full.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On September 8, the U.S. passed 40million cases. By September 15, one in every 500 Americans had died from COVID-19. By September 20, COVID-19 had killed over 675,000 Americans, the estimated number of American deaths from the Spanish flu in 1918. As a result, COVID-19 became the deadliest respiratory pandemic in recent American history. The Associated Press called the new numbers a "colossal tragedy" because, despite a century of advances in science, the country failed to take full advantage of vaccines. On October 1, the U.S. passed 700,000 deaths. On October 18, the U.S. passed 45million cases. On November 26, Biden announced that the U.S. will restrict travel from South Africa and seven other African countries due to concerns over a new variant from the area, called Omicron.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: At the beginning of January 2022, the number of cases per day exceeded 1,000,000. As of February 1, fatality rates were 63% higher in the U.S. than other large wealthy countries, due in part to far lower vaccination rates compared to those countries. On March 9, the Biden administration advised Congress of a lack of funding for testing, therapeutics and vaccines, but Republicans continued to block new spending on the pandemic so Democrats removed an emergency aid package from a proposed spending bill. On March 20, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci warned of an "uptick" in cases like Europe has seen recently, stating the U.S. should "be prepared for the possibility that we might get another variant".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In April 2022, it was reported by CNN that COVID-19 numbers reached pandemic lows across the US, resulting in many testing sites closing their doors. With testing sites seeing as low as single digits per day, Director of Public Health Services Division of the Haywood County Health and Human Services Agency in North Carolina Sarah Henderson suggested that she expected most counties to see closures soon, if they hadn't already. "We were seeing an excess of 100 patients at our testing site in the first few days [of January], which doesn't sound like a lot, but our community is very small," Henderson said. "The last couple of weeks, we have seen single digits every day. I certainly won't speak for other counties, but I think we're probably heading in that direction where if they're not closing down, they're decreasing hours and staff."


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On April 18, 2022, the federal transportation mask mandate, which had been extended to May 3 by the Biden administration on the advice of the CDC, was ended nationwide by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Florida. The Justice Department challenged the ruling several days later, yet masks remained optional on airplanes, buses, and subway systems, except when required by local mandates.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The first annual National COVID Week of Remembrance & Action was held from April 24–30, with mayors and other political officials declaring the week of remembrance in their respective jurisdictions as part of a national movement led by a collection of COVID advocacy groups.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: According to data compiled by NBC News, the U.S. death toll reached 1,000,000 on May 4, 2022, the largest recorded death toll in any single country, followed by Brazil, with about 660,000 deaths. The White House confirmed the 1 million mark with a presidential proclamation on May 12, ordering flags to be flown at half-staff at all federal facilities through sundown on May 16.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In June, the United States concluded the approval process for the vaccination of children under five years of age, with the first vaccines expected to be administered on June 21. On June 12, the U.S. dropped COVID testing requirements for inbound international air travelers, while vaccination requirements largely remained in place for inbound travelers using any mode of cross-border transportation.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The number of cases for the months of January through June 2022 was about 2.4 times the number for the same period in 2021, and the number of COVID-attributed deaths likewise averaged 0.74 times the number in 2021. Nonetheless, as of July 14, only 21 states have active COVID-19 emergency orders in place, and there are no state-level mask requirements still in force.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The number of cases for July and August 2022 was 3,672,358 and 3,154,320 respectively, with 11,963 and 15,943 COVID-attributed deaths, respectively. The totals for these two months reflect about 1.6 times the number of cases and 0.81 times the number of deaths from the same months in 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On September 18, 2022, in an appearance on "60 Minutes", president Joe Biden declared his belief that the COVID-19 pandemic was "over" in the United States. This assessment met some debate in the medical community: at the time, the United States had roughly 400 deaths from the disease per day, and when extrapolated to 150,000 per year is three times the fatality rate of a bad flu season.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The number of cases for the months of July through September 2022 was about 0.86 times the number for the same period in 2021, and the number of COVID-attributed deaths likewise averaged 0.42 times the number for the same period in 2021.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In October, new variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 from the dominant BA.5 appeared to be spreading quickly, but comprised only a small proportion of overall variants. Although variant XBB was of concern intentionally, it was rare in the United States. Recommendations for receiving vaccination booster shots are mixed: while populations at risk of severe disease and death should stay up-to-date, healthy, middle-aged-and-younger populations are rarely at risk of severe illness, and most have adequate immunity. Although the newest bivalent boosters target the recent BA.4 and BA.5 variants and their risks are low, some experts recommend new strategies to develop vaccines with broader effectiveness.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In a survey of vaccination booster intake (after completing a primary series), about 15% reported receiving the updated booster. The rates varied racially with 19% among White, non-Hispanic people, about 11% among Hispanic people, and about 7% among non-Hispanic American Indians, Alaska Native people, Black people, and those of multiple races, leading to concerns of vaccination access inequity.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In the months leading up to November, deaths from COVID-19 substantially decreased, attributed to high levels of population immunity (through vaccination or prior infection), and improvements in early treatment for patients at risk for severe disease. The CDC recommended vaccinations, treatments for immunocompromised individuals and to reduce severity of the disease, and continuing to wear masks in public. Nonetheless, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, said the Biden administration felt that there was "enough community protection that we're not going to see a repeat of what we saw last year at this time" (referring to the emergence of the Omicron variant.)


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: A study of vaccine effectiveness found that U.S.-authorized bivalent mRNA boosters to those having already received 2 to 4 monovalent vaccinations provided significant additional protection against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On January 28, 2020, the CDC updated its China travel recommendations to level3, its highest alert. On February 8, the WHO's director-general announced that a team of international experts had been assembled to travel to China and he hoped officials from the CDC would also be part of that mission. In January, Boeing announced a donation of 250,000 medical masks to help address China's supply shortages. On February 7, the State Department said it had facilitated the transportation of nearly eighteen tons of medical supplies to China, including masks, gowns, gauze, respirators, and other vital materials. On the same day, U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo announced a $100million pledge to China and other countries to assist with their fights against the virus.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: Contact tracing is a tool to control transmission rates during the reopening process. Some states like Texas and Arizona opted to proceed with reopening without adequate contact tracing programs in place. Health experts have expressed concerns about training and hiring enough personnel to reduce transmission. Privacy concerns have prevented measures such as those imposed in South Korea where authorities used cellphone tracking and credit card details to locate and test thousands of nightclub patrons when new cases began emerging. Funding for contact tracing is thought to be insufficient, and even better-funded states have faced challenges getting in touch with contacts. Congress has allocated $631million for state and local health surveillance programs, but the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security estimates that $3.6billion will be needed. The cost rises with the number of infections, and contact tracing is easier to implement when the infection count is lower. Health officials are also worried that low-income communities will fall further behind in contact tracing efforts which "may also be hobbled by long-standing distrust among minorities of public health officials". As of July 1, 2020, only four states were using contact tracing apps as part of their state-level strategies to control transmission. The apps document digital encounters between smartphones, so the users will automatically be notified if someone they had contact with has tested positive. Public health officials in California claim that most of the functionality could be duplicated by using text, chat, email, and phone communications.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In the United States, remdesivir is indicated for use in adults and adolescents (aged twelve years and older with body weight at least ) for the treatment of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization. The FDA issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the combination of baricitinib with remdesivir, for the treatment of suspected or laboratory confirmed COVID-19 in hospitalized people two years of age or older requiring supplemental oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). In early March, President Trump directed the FDA to test certain medications to discover if they had the potential to treat COVID-19 patients. Among those were chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, which have been successfully used to treat malaria for over fifty years. A small test in France by researcher Didier Raoult had given positive results, although the study was criticized for design flaws, small sample size, and the fact that it was published before peer review. On March 28, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) which allowed certain hospitalized COVID-19 patients to be treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. On June 15, the FDA revoked the EUA for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine as potential treatments for COVID-19, saying the available evidence showed "no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery". However, Trump continued to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 through July.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: From early 2020, more than 70 companies worldwide (with five or six operating primarily in the U.S.) began vaccine research. In preparation for large-scale production, Congress set aside more than $3.5billion for this purpose as part of the CARES Act. On November 20, 2020, the Pfizer–BioNTech partnership submitted a request for emergency use authorization for its vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which was granted on December 11. On December 18, 2020, the FDA granted the Moderna vaccine emergency use authorization, which Moderna had requested on November 30, 2020. Starting on December 14, 2020, the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: Polling showed a significant partisan divide regarding the outbreak. In February 2020, similar numbers of Democrats and Republicans believed COVID-19 was "a real threat": 70% and 72%, respectively. By mid-March 2020, 76% of Democrats viewed COVID-19 as "a real threat", while only 40% of Republicans agreed. In mid-March, various polls found Democrats were more likely than Republicans to believe "the worst was yet to come" (79–40%), to believe their lives would change in a major way due to the outbreak (56–26%), and to take certain precautions against the virus (83–53%). The CDC was the most trusted source of information about the outbreak (85%), followed by the WHO (77%), state and local government officials (70–71%), the news media (47%), and Trump (46%). A May 2020 poll concluded that 54% of people in the U.S. felt the federal government was doing a poor job in stopping the spread of COVID-19 in the country. 57% felt the federal government was not doing enough to address the limited availability of COVID-19 testing. 58% felt the federal government was not doing enough to prevent a second wave of COVID-19 cases later in 2020. In September 2020, Pew Research Center found that the global image of the United States had suffered in many foreign nations. In some nations, the United States' favorability rating had reached a record low since Pew began collecting this data nearly twenty years earlier. Across thirteen different nations, a median of fifteen percent of respondents rated the U.S. response to the pandemic positively.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The pandemic, along with the resultant stock market crash and other impacts, led a recession in the United States following the economic cycle peak in February 2020. The economy contracted 4.8 percent from January through March 2020, and the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent in April. The total healthcare costs of treating the epidemic could be anywhere from $34billion to $251billion according to analysis presented by "The New York Times". A study by economists Austan Goolsbee and Chad Syverson indicated that most economic impact due to consumer behavior changes was prior to mandated lockdowns. During the second quarter of 2020, the U.S. economy suffered its largest drop on record, with GDP falling at an annualized rate of 32.9 percent. As of June 2020, the U.S. economy was over ten percent smaller than it was in December 2019.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: In September, Bain & Company reported on the tumultuous changes in consumer behavior before and during the pandemic. Potentially permanently, they found acceleration towards e-commerce, online primary healthcare, livestreamed gym workouts, and moviegoing via subscription television. Concurrent searches for both low-cost and premium products, and a shift to safety over sustainability, occurred alongside rescinded bans and taxes on single-use plastics, and losses of three to seven years of gains in out-of-home foodservice. OpenTable estimated in May that 25 percent of American restaurants would close their doors permanently.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The economic impact and mass unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has raised fears of a mass eviction crisis, with an analysis by the Aspen Institute indicating 30–40 million are at risk for eviction by the end of 2020. According to a report by Yelp, about sixty percent of U.S. businesses that have closed since the start of the pandemic will stay shut permanently.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The pandemic has had far-reaching consequences beyond the disease itself and efforts to contain it, including political, cultural, and social implications.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: From the earliest days of the pandemic, there were reported incidents of xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans. During the first year, an ad-hoc organization called Stop AAPI Hate received 3,795 reports of racism against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: Disproportionate numbers of cases have been observed among Black and Latino populations. Of four studies published in September 2020, three found clear disparities due to race and the fourth found slightly better survival rates for Hispanics and Blacks. As of September 15, 2020, Blacks had COVID-19 mortality rates more than twice as high as the rate for Whites and Asians, who have the lowest rates. CNN reported in May 2020 that the Navajo Nation had the highest rate of infection in the United States. In June 2021, the CDC confirmed these numbers, reporting that American Indian or Alaska Native, Non-Hispanic persons had the highest rates of both hospitalizations and deaths, while Hispanic and Latino persons suffered the highest rates of COVID compared to White persons. However the CDC noted that only 61% of case reports included race and ethnicity data, which could result in inaccurate estimates of the relative risk among groups. Additionally, a study published by the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2020 revealed that the effect of stress and weathering on minority groups decreases their stamina against COVID.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: From 2019 to 2020, in the United States, the life expectancy of a Hispanic American decreased 3years, for an African American 2.9years, and for a White American 1.2years. The COVID Tracking Project published data revealing that people of color were contracting and dying from COVID-19 at higher rates than Whites. An NPR analysis of April–September 2020 data from the COVID Tracking Project found that Black people's share of COVID-19 deaths across the United States was 1.5 times greater (in some states 2.5 times greater) than their share of the U.S. population. Similarly, Hispanics and Latinos were disproportionately infected in 45 states and had a disproportionate share of the deaths in 19 states. Native American and Alaskan Native cases and deaths were disproportionally high in at least 21 states and, in some, as much as five times more than average. White non-Hispanics died at a lower rate than their share of the population in 36 states and D.C.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The pandemic prompted calls from voting rights groups and some Democratic Party leaders to expand mail-in voting, while Republican leaders generally opposed the change. Some states were unable to agree on changes, resulting in lawsuits. Responding to Democratic proposals for nationwide mail-in voting as part of a COVID-19 relief law, President Trump said "you'd never have a Republican elected in this country again" despite evidence the change would not favor any particular group. Trump called mail-in voting "corrupt" and said voters should be required to show up in person, even though, as reporters pointed out, he had himself voted by mail in the last Florida primary. Though mail-in vote fraud is slightly higher than in-person voter fraud, both instances are rare, and mail-in voting can be made more secure by disallowing third parties to collect ballots and providing free drop-off locations or prepaid postage.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: High COVID-19 fatalities at the state and county level correlated with a drop in expressed support for the election of Republicans, including the reelection of Trump, according to a study published in "Science Advances" that compared opinions in January–February 2020 with opinions in June 2020.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The US map below is for the percent of people of all ages who received all doses prescribed by the initial COVID-19 vaccination protocol. Two of the three COVID-19 vaccines used in the U.S. require two shots to be fully vaccinated. The other vaccine requires only one shot. Booster doses are recommended too.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: By August 2021, more than 800 colleges and universities, over 200 health care companies and dozens of states, local governments and school districts, had some type of vaccination requirements. President Biden has appealed to public organizations and private companies to require employees to be vaccinated, which companies are now legally allowed to do.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: Until August to September 2021, many companies were giving bonuses for getting vaccinated. Nonetheless, nearly 2,000 private hospitals and health systems had previously issued vaccine mandates. Many companies outside health care did the same, such as United Airlines, Tyson Foods, and Walmart among them. Washington state had already required vaccines for all state employees and contractors. With the new Delta variant spreading infections more quickly due to its higher transmissibility, companies including Facebook, Google, and Salesforce, have already issued employee vaccine mandates.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: According to a "USA Today" poll from August 2021, 68% supported a business's right to refuse service to unvaccinated customers, and 62% supported employer's right to mandate vaccinations to its employees. In the same poll, 72% also felt that mandating masks was "a matter of health and safety" and should not be considered an infringement of personal liberty.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On February 17, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a formal shift toward endemic management of COVID-19 in California, saying "we are moving past the crisis phase into a phase where we will work to live with this virus".


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: During his State of the Union Address on March 1, 2022, Biden stated that "because of the progress we've made, because of your resilience and the tools we have, tonight I can say we are moving forward safely, back to more normal routines." However, he also stated that the federal government would "never just accept living with COVID-19", explaining that it would "continue to combat the virus as we do other diseases." The White House released a new action plan the next day, which included plans to make COVID-19 antiviral medication available for free to high-risk patients at testing locations such as pharmacies and clinics, funding in support of vigilance and preparedness in the event of new surges and variants, preventing the closure of schools and businesses, and ensuring global vaccine distribution.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On April 26, 2022, Dr. Fauci said that the United States is "out of the pandemic phase" and the following day, stated that "we're really in a transitional phase...into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity", but further clarified that "the world is still in a pandemic...we are still experiencing a pandemic" and the United States could still see new waves of infection. Fauci's comments follow a report from the CDC indicating that the United States has a much higher level of collective immunity at this time, due to the Omicron variant.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: On May 16, 2022, Joseph Wendelken, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Health stated that COVID-19 is now "an endemic disease" and said "we should expect moderate increases and decreases in our COVID-19 levels over the coming months". In an interview with "60 Minutes" aired on September 18, 2022, Joe Biden declared that the pandemic stage of COVID-19 was over in the United States.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: The United States has experienced pandemics and epidemics throughout its history, including the 1918 Spanish flu, the 1957 Asian flu, and the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemics. In the most recent pandemic prior to COVID-19, the 2009 swine flu pandemic took the lives of more than 12,000 Americans and hospitalized another 270,000 over the course of approximately a year.


title: COVID-19 pandemic in the United States

text: According to the Global Health Security Index, an American-British assessment which ranks the health security capabilities in 195 countries, the U.S. was the "most prepared" nation in 2020.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus is spyware developed by the Israeli cyber-arms company NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices) running most versions of iOS and Android. Pegasus is able to exploit iOS versions up to 14.7, through a zero-click exploit. As of 2022, Pegasus was capable of reading text messages, tracking calls, collecting passwords, location tracking, accessing the target device's microphone and camera, and harvesting information from apps. The spyware is named after Pegasus, the winged horse of Greek mythology. It is a Trojan horse computer virus that can be sent "flying through the air" to infect cell phones.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus was discovered in August 2016 after a failed installation attempt on the iPhone of a human rights activist led to an investigation revealing details about the spyware, its abilities, as well as the security vulnerabilities it exploited. News of the spyware caused significant media coverage. It was called the "most sophisticated" smartphone attack ever; it was the first time that a malicious remote exploit used jailbreaking to gain unrestricted access to an iPhone.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The spyware has been used for surveillance of anti-regime activists, journalists, and political leaders from several nations around the world. In July 2021, the investigation initiative Pegasus Project, along with an in-depth analysis by human rights group Amnesty International, reported that Pegasus was still being widely used against high-profile targets.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: NSO Group developed its first iteration of Pegasus spyware in 2011. The company states that it provides "authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime." NSO Group has published sections of contracts which require customers to use its products only for criminal and national security investigations and has stated that it has an industry-leading approach to human rights.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus's iOS exploitation was identified in August 2016. Arab human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor received a text message promising "secrets" about torture happening in prisons in the United Arab Emirates by following a link. Mansoor sent the link to Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, which investigated, with the collaboration of Lookout, finding that if Mansoor had followed the link it would have jailbroken his phone and implanted the spyware into it, in a form of social engineering.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Citizen Lab and Lookout discovered that the link downloaded software to exploit three previously unknown and unpatched zero-day vulnerabilities in iOS. According to their analysis, the software can jailbreak an iPhone when a malicious URL is opened. The software installs itself and collects all communications and locations of targeted iPhones. The software can also collect Wi-Fi passwords. The researchers noticed that the software's code referenced an NSO Group product called "Pegasus" in leaked marketing materials. Pegasus had previously come to light in a leak of records from Hacking Team, which indicated the software had been supplied to the government of Panama in 2015. Citizen Lab and Lookout notified Apple's security team, which patched the flaws within ten days and released an update for iOS. A patch for macOS was released six days later.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Regarding how widespread the issue was, Lookout explained in a blog post: "We believe that this spyware has been in the wild for a significant amount of time based on some of the indicators within the code" and pointed out that the code shows signs of a "kernel mapping table that has values all the way back to iOS 7" (released 2013). "The New York Times" and "The Times of Israel" both reported that it appeared that the United Arab Emirates was using this spyware as early as 2013. It was used in Panama by former president Ricardo Martinelli from 2012 to 2014, who established the "Consejo de Seguridad Pública y Defensa" Nacional (National Security Council) for its use.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Several lawsuits outstanding in 2018 claimed that NSO Group helped clients operate the software and therefore participated in numerous violations of human rights initiated by its clients. Two months after the murder and dismemberment of "The Washington Post" journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi human rights activist, in the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, a Canadian resident, filed suit in Israel against NSO Group, accusing the firm of providing the Saudi government with the surveillance software to spy on him and his friends, including Khashoggi.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2020, an Al Jazeera investigative show "The Hidden is More Immense" covered Pegasus and its penetration into the phones of media professionals and activists; and its use by Israel to eavesdrop on both opponents and allies.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The spyware can be installed on devices running certain versions of iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, as well as some Android devices. Rather than being a specific exploit, Pegasus is a suite of exploits that uses many vulnerabilities in the system. Infection vectors include clicking links, the Photos app, the Apple Music app, and iMessage. Some of the exploits Pegasus uses are zero-click—that is, they can run without any interaction from the victim. Once installed, Pegasus has been reported to be able to run arbitrary code, extract contacts, call logs, messages, photos, web browsing history, settings, as well as gather information from apps including but not limited to communications apps iMessage, Gmail, Viber, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Skype.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In April 2017, after a Lookout report, Google researchers discovered Android malware "believed to be created by NSO Group Technologies" and named it Chrysaor (Pegasus' brother in Greek mythology). According to Google, "Chrysaor is believed to be related to the Pegasus spyware". At the 2017 Security Analyst Summit held by Kaspersky Lab, researchers revealed that Pegasus was available for Android in addition to iOS. Its functionality is similar to the iOS version, but the mode of attack is different. The Android version tries to gain root access (similar to jailbreaking in iOS); if it fails, it asks the user for permissions that enable it to harvest at least some data. At the time Google said that only a few Android devices had been infected.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus hides itself as far as is possible and self-destructs in an attempt to eliminate evidence if unable to communicate with its command-and-control server for more than 60 days, or if on the wrong device. Pegasus also can self-destruct on command. If it is not possible to compromise a target device by simpler means, Pegasus can be installed by setting up a wireless transceiver near a target device, or by gaining physical access to the device.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The earliest version of Pegasus - which was identified in 2016 - relied on a spear-phishing attack which required the target to click a malicious link in a text message or email.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: As of August 2016 - according to a former NSO Employee - the U.S. version of Pegasus had 1-click capabilities for all phones apart from old Blackberry models which could be infiltrated with a 0-click attack.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2019, WhatsApp revealed Pegasus had employed a vulnerability in its app to launch zero-click attacks (the spyware would be installed onto a target's phone by calling the target phone; the spyware would be installed even if the call was not answered).


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: By 2020, Pegasus shifted towards zero-click exploits and network-based attacks. These methods allowed clients to break into target phones without requiring user interaction and without leaving any detectable traces.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Google's Project Zero documented another exploit, dubbed FORCEDENTRY, in December 2021. According to Google's researchers, Pegasus sent an iMessage to its targets that contained what appeared to be GIF images, but which in fact contained a JBIG2 image. A vulnerability in the Xpdf implementation of JBIG2, re-used in Apple's iOS phone operating software, allowed Pegasus to construct an emulated computer architecture inside the JBIG2 stream which was then used to implement the zero-click attack. Apple fixed the vulnerability in iOS 14.8 in September 2021 as CVE-2021-30860.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Human rights group Amnesty International reported in the 2021 investigation that Pegasus employs a sophisticated command-and-control (C&C) infrastructure to deliver exploit payloads and send commands to Pegasus targets. There are at least four known iterations of the C&C infrastructure, dubbed the "Pegasus Anonymizing Transmission Network" (PATN) by NSO group, each encompassing up to 500 domain names, DNS servers, and other network infrastructure. The PATN reportedly utilizes techniques such as registering high port numbers for their online infrastructure as to avoid conventional internet scanning. PATN also uses up to three randomised subdomains unique per exploit attempt as well as randomised URL paths.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Although Pegasus is stated as intended to be used against criminals and terrorists, it has also been used by both authoritarian and democratic governments to spy on critics and opponents. A UN special rapporteur on freedom of opinion found that the use of the spyware by abusive governments could "facilitate extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings, or enforced disappearance of persons."


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: About twenty Armenian citizens were spied on via Pegasus spyware. Media expert Arthur Papyan said it targeted the key figures of the opposition and the government - current and past government employees who knew valuable state secrets and have political influence, including the former director of the National Security Service and current chairman of the center-right Homeland Party. The local experts suspected that they were targeted either by the government of Armenia or Azerbaijan, or perhaps both. Papyan said that NSO group appears to be jailbreaking a phone and provides interface for viewing the obtained data. Minister of high-tech industry Vahagn Khachaturyan also received a warning letter from Apple, he rejected the theory that the spying party could be the current Armenian government.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The list of spied-upon citizens included dozens of journalists and activists from Azerbaijan. It was alleged that their mobile phones were tapped. The head of Azerbaijani service of Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (Azadliq) Jamie Fly expressed his anger when it was revealed that the phones of his five current and former employees were tapped with Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Citizen Lab revealed the government of Bahrain used the NSO Group's Pegasus to hack activists, bloggers, members of Waad (a secular Bahraini political society), a member of Al Wefaq (a Shiite Bahraini political society), and members of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights. Bahrain reportedly acquired access to spyware in 2017. As per the report, the mobile phones of a total of nine rights activists were “successfully hacked” between June 2020 and February 2021. Those hacked included three members of Waad, three of the BCHR, one of Al Wefaq, and two of the exiled dissidents who reside in London. The Citizen Lab attributed “with high confidence” that a Pegasus operator, LULU, was used by the Bahraini government to breach the phones of at least four of the nine activists.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022, Bahrain was accused of using the Pegasus spyware to hack a human rights defender, Ebtisam al-Saegh. The prominent activist's phone was hacked at least eight times between August and November 2019. As per the Citizen Lab, following the hacking attempt, al-Saegh faced incidents where she was harassed by the Bahrain authorities. It included being summoned to a police station, interrogation, rape threats, and physical and sexual assault. The attack left the rights defender in a state of “daily fear and terror”.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In February 2022, an investigation by Citizen Lab and Amnesty International revealed that the Pegasus spyware was used to infect the devices of a lawyer, an online journalist, and a mental health counsellor in Bahrain. All of the three activists were critical of the Bahraini authorities and were targeted with Pegasus between June and September 2021. One of the three activists remained anonymous, while the other two were Mohammed al-Tajer and Sharifa Swar (mental health counselor).


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2018, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency purchased Pegasus for the Djibouti government to conduct counter-terrorism operations (despite Djibouti's poor human rights record).


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Egyptian PM Mostafa Madbouly was selected for potential targeting by Pegasus - apparently by Saudi Arabia.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022, El Faro, a prominent Salvadoran news outlet, revealed that a majority of its staff had their phones infiltrated using Pegasus. The targeting was uncovered in an investigation conducted by Citizen Lab, and Access Now; the investigation revealed that the journalists of another 13 Salvadoran news organisations were targeted as well. Between July 2020 and November 2021, Pegasus was deployed on the phones of 22 employees of El Faro, including reporters, editors, and other staff. At the time of the targeting, the El Faro was looking into governmental corruption scandals, and the government's clandestine dealings with the country's gangs. The Salvadoran government denied responsibility for the espionage, and NSO Group declined to reveal whether the Salvadoran government was a client.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Estonia entered negotiations to procure Pegasus in 2018, and had made a $30 million down payment for the tool. Estonia hoped to use the tool against Russian phones (presumably for gathering intelligence). Israel initially approved the export of Pegasus to Estonia, but after a senior Russian defense official approached the Israeli defense agencies and revealed that Russia had learned of Estonia's intentions to obtain Pegasus, Israel decided to disallow Estonia from using Pegasus against any Russian phone number (following a heated debate among Israeli officials) so as to avoid damaging Israeli relations with Russia.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022 Finnish foreign ministry reported that several phones of Finnish diplomats have been infected with the Pegasus spyware.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In July 2021, Le Monde reported that President of France Emmanuel Macron and 14 French ministers were flagged as potential Pegasus targets for Pegasus spying by Morocco; Moroccan authorities denied Pegasus use and labelled the allegation as "unfounded and false".


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus is in use by German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). BKA acquired Pegasus in 2019 with "utmost secrecy", and despite hesitations from its legal council. The use of Pegasus by BKA was later revealed by German media.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The government of Viktor Orbán authorized the use of Pegasus by Hungarian intelligence and law enforcement services to target the government's political opponents. The Orbán government has been accused of using it to spy on members of media as well as on Hungarian opposition. According to the findings released in July 2021, journalists and managers of media holdings appear to have been spied on by the Hungarian government with Pegasus. Phone numbers of at least 10 lawyers, at least 5 journalists, and an opposition politician were included on a leaked list of potential Pegasus surveillance targets.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In November 2021, Lajos Kósa, head of a parliamentary defense and law enforcement committee, was the first Hungarian senior official who acknowledged that the country's Interior Ministry purchased and used Pegasus. Kósa admitted that Hungary had indeed purchased and used Pegasus, stating "I don't see anything objectionable in it [...] large tech companies carry out much broader monitoring of citizens than the Hungarian state does."


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In late 2019, Facebook initiated a suit against NSO, claiming that Pegasus had been used to intercept the WhatsApp communications of a number of activists, journalists, and bureaucrats in India, leading to accusations that the Indian government was involved. 17 individuals including human rights activists, scholars, and journalists confirmed to an Indian publication they had been targeted.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Phone numbers of Indian ministers, opposition leaders, ex-election commissioners and journalists were allegedly found on a database of NSO hacking targets by Pegasus Project in 2021. Phone numbers of Koregaon Bhima activists who had compromising data implanted on their computers through a hack found on a Pegasus surveillance phone number list.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Independent digital forensic analysis conducted on 10 Indian phones whose numbers were present in the data showed signs of either an attempted or successful Pegasus hack. The results of the forensic analysis threw up shows sequential correlations between the time and date a phone number is entered in the list and the beginning of surveillance. The gap usually ranges between a few minutes and a couple of hours.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: 11 phone numbers associated with a female employee of the Supreme Court of India and her immediate family, who accused the former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment, are also allegedly found on a database indicating possibility of their phones being snooped.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Records also indicate that phone numbers of some of the key political players in Karnataka appear to have been selected around the time when an intense power struggle was taking place between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress-led state government in 2019.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The phone of Iraqi President Barham Salih was found on a list of potential Pegasus surveillance targets (however actual targeting - attempted or successful - could not be determined). The targeting of Salih appeared to have been linked to Saudi Arabia and UAE.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022, it was reported that Pegasus was unlawfully used by the Israeli Police to monitor citizens as well as foreign nationals who were accidentally or intentionally infected by the software. The surveillance was ordered by high-ranking police officers, and was carried out without warrants or judicial supervision. The legal basis for use of spyware against citizens is disputed. The police had allegedly targeted civilians not suspected of any crime, including organisers of antigovernmental protesters, mayors, anti-LBGT parade activists, employees of government-owned companies, an associate of a senior politician, and former government employees. In one case, it was alleged that police targeted an activist who was not suspected of a crime, allegedly to gather information about the activist's extra-marital affairs and use it as leverage.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In some cases, Pegasus was used to obtain information unrelated to an ongoing investigation to be used later to pressure the subject of an investigation. In some cases, police used Pegasus to obtain incriminating information from suspects' devices, and then concealed the source of the incriminating information claiming it would expose intelligence assets. While the Israeli Police formally denied the allegations in the report, some senior police officials have hinted that the claims were true. The report led to the announcement of a number of parallel investigations into the police's conduct, with some officials demanding a Commission of inquiry. Although the Attorney General launched an internal probe into the allegations, the Privacy Protection Council (which advises the Minister of Justice), demanded that a state commission of inquiry be created.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: On February 1, the police admitted that there was, in fact, misuse of the software. On February 7, the widespread extent of the warrantless surveillance was further revealed to have included politicians and government officials, heads of corporations, journalists, activists, and even , the son of then-Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. This has led to renewed calls for a public inquiry, including from the current police commissioner Kobi Shabtai himself (appointed January 2021), as well as from the Minister of the Interior, Ayelet Shaked and others.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Later in the day, the Minister of Public Security (the minister responsible for the police), Omer Bar-Lev, announced that he would be forming a commission of inquiry, to be chaired by a retired judge. Bar-Lev stressed that this commission will essentially be granted all the powers of a state commission (whose formation requires full cabinet support), including having the authority to subpoena witnesses, "regardless of seniority," whose testimony may be used in future prosecutions. Despite this, calls for a state commission persisted from several ex-ministry heads who were targeted. The next day, the State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, calling the crisis a "trampling on the values of democracy and privacy," said that the investigation launched by his office will also be extensive, adding that it will not only include the police, but also the Ministry of Justice and the State Attorney's Office.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Between August 2019 and December 2021, Apple phones of four Jordanian human rights activists, lawyers and journalists were hacked by a NSO government client (apparently Jordanian government agencies). The Jordanian government denied involvement.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022, it was revealed that Jordanian lawyer and activist Hala Ahed Deeb's phone was targeted with Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Activists in Kazakhstan were targeted, in addition to top-level officials, like Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Askar Mamin and Bakytzhan Sagintayev. Among the 2000 targeted Kazak numbers were government critic Bakhytzhan Toregozhina, as well as journalists Serikzhan Mauletbay and Bigeldy Gabdullin. Most of these victims were involved in a civic youth movement Oyan, Qazaqstan.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Mexico was the first country to purchase Pegasus. Early versions of Pegasus were used to surveil the phone of Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo. In 2011, Mexican President Felipe Calderón reportedly called NSO to thank the company for its role in Guzmán's capture. When a list of 50,000 phone numbers of potential Pegasus surveillance targets (selected by individual client governments) was leaked in 2021, a third of them were Mexican.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2017, Citizen Lab researchers revealed that NSO exploit links may have been sent to Mexican scientists and public health campaigners. The targets supported measures to reduce childhood obesity, including Mexico's "Soda Tax."


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In July 2017, the international team assembled to investigate the 2014 Iguala mass kidnapping publicly complained they thought they were being surveilled by the Mexican government. They stated that the Mexican government used Pegasus to send them messages about funeral homes containing links which, when clicked, allowed the government to surreptitiously listen to the investigators. The Mexican government has repeatedly denied any unauthorized hacking.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Cecilio Pineda Birto, a Mexican freelance journalist was assassinated by hitmen while resting in a hammock by a carwash. Brito had been reporting on the ties between local politicians and criminal organizations, and had received anonymous death threats during the weeks preceding the assassination; at about the same time, his phone number was selected as a possible target for Pegasus surveillance by a Mexican Pegasus client. Pegasus spyware may have been used to ascertain Brito's location to carry out the hit by geolocating his phone; the deployment of Pegasus on his phone could however not be confirmed as his phone disappeared from the scene of the murder.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In the run-up to the 2018 Mexican presidential election, dozens of close associates of the presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador (who was subsequently elected) were selected as potential targets. Potential targets included close family members, his cardiologist, and members of his personal and political inner circle. Recordings of Obrador's conversations with family and party colleagues were subsequently leaked to the public in an attempt to disrupt his electoral campaign.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus has been used by drug cartels and cartel-entwined government actors to target and intimidate Mexican journalists.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A widow of slain renowned Mexican journalist was a target of an attempted Pegasus attack 10 days after her husband was assassinated.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2019, two Moroccan pro-democracy campaigners were notified by WhatsApp that their phones had been compromised with Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In June 2020, an investigation by Amnesty International alleged that Moroccan journalist Omar Radi was targeted by the Moroccan government using the Israeli spyware Pegasus. The rights group claimed that the journalist was targeted three times and spied on after his device was infected with an NSO tool. Meanwhile, Amnesty also claimed that the attack came after the NSO group updated their policy in September 2019.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In July 2021, it was revealed that the Moroccan PM Saad Eddine el-Othamani and Moroccan King Mohammed VI were selected for targeting - apparently by Moroccan state actors themselves.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: According to revelations from July 2021, Morocco had targeted more than 6,000 Algerian phones, including those of politicians and high-ranking military officials, with the spyware. The Algerian government subsequently severed diplomatic relations with Morocco in August 2021, citing alleged Moroccan deployment of Pegasus against Algerian officials as one of the "hostile actions" that undergirded the decision.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus spyware was used to spy on Ridouan Taghi, a high profile criminal. After the murder on the lawyer Derk Wiersum, the AIVD (Dutch security service) was asked to help with the process of catching Ridouan Taghi.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: President of Panama Ricardo Martinelli personally sought to obtain cyberespionage tools after his election in 2009. After a rebuff by the U.S. in 2009, Martinelli successfully sought such tools from Israeli vendors, expressing an interest in acquiring a tool capable of hacking into mobile phones in a 2010 private meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu. In 2012, NSO systems were installed in Panama City. The equipment was subsequently widely used for illicit domestic and foreign spying, including for spying on political opponents, magistrates, union leaders, and business competitors, with Martinelli allegedly going so far as to order the surveillance of his mistress using Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The mobile phones of six Palestinian activists were hacked using Pegasus with some of the attacks reportedly occurring as far back as July 2020, according to a report from Front Line Defenders. Salah Hammouri, a French-Palestinian human rights defender and one of the victims six victims of the Pegasus attack, has filed a lawsuit against NSO in France, accusing the company of a privacy rights violation.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus licenses were agreed on between Benjamin Netanyahu and Beata Szydło in July 2017. Citizen Lab revealed that several members of political opposition groups in Poland were hacked by Pegasus spyware, raising alarming questions about the Polish government's use of the software. A lawyer representing Polish opposition groups and a prosecutor involved in a case against the ruling Law and Justice party were also compromised.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2021, Citizen Lab announced that Pegasus was used against lawyer Roman Giertych and prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, both critical of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) government, with Giertych's phone suffering 18 intrusions. 33 hacks to the phone of Krzysztof Brejza, a senator from the opposition Civic Platform (PO) were uncovered, and confirmed by Amnesty International. Leading to the 2019 European and Polish parliamentary elections, Brejza's text messages were stolen as he was leading the opposition parties' campaign. The texts were doctored by state-run media, notably TVP, and used in a smear campaign against the opposition. This prompted the Polish Senate to begin an inquiry into the deployment of the spyware.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: On January 25, 2022, more victims were confirmed by Citizen Lab, including Michał Kołodziejczak of the agrarian movement Agrounia, and Tomasz Szwejgiert, a journalist and alleged former associate of the CBA.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: According to the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), 544 of its employees' devices were under surveillance over 7,300 times, some could be infected with Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A joint investigation by "The Guardian" and "Le Monde" alleged political activists in Rwanda were targeted with Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2020, it was reported that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed a zero-click iMessage Pegasus exploit against two London-based reporters and 36 journalists at the "Al Jazeera" television network in Qatar.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus was used by Saudi Arabia to spy on Jamal Kashoggi, who was later killed in Turkey. In October 2018, Citizen Lab reported on the use of NSO software to spy on the inner circle of Jamal Khashoggi just before his murder. Citizen Lab's October report stated with high confidence that NSO's Pegasus had been placed on the iPhone of Saudi dissident Omar Abdulaziz, one of Khashoggi's confidantes, months before. Abdulaziz stated that the software revealed Khashoggi's "private criticisms of the Saudi royal family," which according to Abdulaziz "played a major role" in Khashoggi's death.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2018, a "New York Times" investigation concluded that Pegasus software played a role in the Khashoggi's murder, with a friend of Khashoggi stating in a filing that Saudi authorities had used the Israeli-made software to spy on the dissident. NSO CEO Shalev Hulio stated that the company had not been involved in the "terrible murder", but declined to comment on reports that he had personally traveled to the Saudi capital Riyadh for a $55 million Pegasus sale.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2021, allegations arose that the software may also have been used to spy on members of Kashoggi's family. The wife of Jamal Khashoggi, Hanan Elatr, intended to sue the NSO Group, alleging that she was targeted with Pegasus spyware. She also prepared a lawsuit in the US against the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for their involvement in the attempts to install the software on her mobile phone. Elatr was arrested in Dubai in April 2018. Activity on Etatr’s confiscated phone, while she was in the custody of UAE intelligence services, further suggested that an attempt was made to install the software at that time.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Pegasus was also used to spy on Jeff Bezos after Mohammed bin Salman, the crown-prince of Saudi Arabia, exchanged messages with him that exploited then-unknown vulnerabilities in WhatsApp.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A "New York Times" correspondent covering the Middle East, Ben Hubbard revealed in October 2021 that Saudi Arabia used the NSO Group's Pegasus software to hack into his phone. Hubbard was targeted repeatedly over a three-year period between June 2018 to June 2021 while he was reporting on Saudi Arabia, and writing a book about the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Hubbard was possibly targeted for writing the book about the Crown Prince, and for his involvement in revealing the UAE's hacking and surveillance attempt of Project Raven. Saudis attempted to peek into Hubbard's personal information twice in 2018, one through a suspicious text message and the other through an Arabic WhatsApp message inviting him to a protest at a Saudi embassy in Washington.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Two other attacks were launched against him in 2020 and 2021 using the zero-click hacking capabilities. Lastly, on June 13, 2021, an iPhone belonging to Hubbard was successfully hacked using the FORCEDENTRY exploit. Citizen Lab said in “high confidence” that the four attacks were attempted using Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Another Saudi exile Omar Abdulaziz in Canada was identified by McKinsey & Company as being an influential dissident, and hence had two brothers imprisoned by the Saudi authorities, and his cell phone hacked by Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In June 2018, a Saudi satirist, Ghanem Almasarir, was targeted by Saudi Arabia with Pegasus software. The targeting and hacking of Almasarir’s phone by a network linked to Saudi Arabia was confirmed by researchers at the Citizen Lab. On 28 May 2019, the letter of claim was delivered to the Saudi embassy in London on behalf of Ghanem Almasarir. In August 2022, a British judge ruled that the prominent dissident in London can sue Saudi Arabia for Pegasus hacking.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: South African president Cyril Ramaphosa was revealed to have been selected as a potential target of Pegasus surveillance, possibly by the Rwandan state.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: According to an investigation by "The Guardian" and "El País", Pegasus software was used by the government of Spain to compromise the phones of several politicians active in the Catalan independence movement, including President of the Parliament of Catalonia Roger Torrent, and former member of the Parliament of Catalonia Anna Gabriel i Sabaté.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The scandal resurfaced in April 2022 following the publication of a report of a CitizenLab investigation that revealed widespread use of Pegasus against Catalan politicians and citizens, as well as Basque politician Arnaldo Otegi and MP Jon Iñarritu. A total of 63 victims was identified, with targets including elected officials (including high-ranking ones) and civil society members (including activists, journalists, lawyers, and computer scientists). The true extent of the targeting was potentially far larger as Android devices are far more common in Spain while CitizenLab tools are specialised to uncover infiltration of Apple devices. Citizen Lab did not attribute the responsibility for the attacks to any perpetrators, but did note that circumstantial evidence strongly suggests the attacks were perpetrated by the Spanish Government. On May 5, 2022, the Spanish Defense Minister admitted to surveillance of 20 people involved in the Catalan independence movement.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In May 2022, the Spanish Government revealed that the smartphones of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Defense Minister Margarita Robles had been targeted by Pegasus in May 2021. Prime Minister Sanchez's device was infected twice, and Robles' device was infected once. A total of over 2.7GB of data was exfiltrated from the PM device, while only 9MB of data was extracted from the Defense Minister's device. The espionage is, as of today, denied yet attributed to Moroccan entities, given the diplomatic tensions between the two at the time of the target.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: According to a report by Citizen Lab and Digital Reach, at least 30 political activists and government critics from Thailand were affected by the spyware. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society stated his ministry was not aware of any Pegasus usage by the government. A researcher from Citizen Lab has said that while 30 targets were confirmed definitively, they expect the actual number to be much higher.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A joint investigation by "The Guardian" and "Le Monde" alleged that Pegasus software was used to spy on six critics of the government in Togo.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: It has been reported that Muhoozi Kainerugaba brokered a deal to use Pegasus in Uganda, paying between $10 and $20 million in 2019. The software was later used to hack the phones of 11 US diplomats and employees of the US embassy in Uganda some time during 2021.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: At least since 2019, Ukraine had sought to obtain Pegasus in its effort to counter what it saw as an increasing threat of Russian aggression and espionage, however, Israel had imposed a near-total ban on weapons sales to Ukraine (which also encompassed cyberespionage tools), wary of selling Pegasus to states that would use the tool against Russia so as not to damage relations with Russia. In August 2021, at a time when Russian troops were amassing on the Ukrainian border, Israel again rebuffed a request from a Ukrainian delegation asking to obtain Pegasus; according to a Ukrainian official familiar with the matter, Pegasus could have provided critical support in Ukraine's effort to monitor Russian military activity. In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials rebuked Israel's tepid support of Ukraine and Israeli efforts to maintain amicable relations with Russia.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2020, it was reported that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates deployed a zero-click iMessage Pegasus exploit against two London-based reporters and 36 journalists at the "Al Jazeera" television network in Qatar.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Qatar hired Israeli-based cybersecurity firm “Sdema Group “in exchange of million-euro contract for providing security at the 2022 World Cup soccer championship in Qatar.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The United Arab Emirates used Pegasus to spy on the members of Saudi-backed Yemeni government according to an investigation published in July 2021. The UAE used the spyware to monitor and spy on the ministers of the internationally recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, including Yemeni president and his family members, former Prime Minister Ahmed Obaid Bin Dagher, former Foreign Minister Abdulmalik Al-Mekhlafi, and current Minister of Youth and Sports, Nayef al-Bakri.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In August 2021, Amnesty International confirmed that David Haigh, a prominent British Human Rights lawyer and founder of Human Rights NGO Detained International, was the first British person to have evidence on his mobile phone that it had been hacked by NSO spyware. It is believed the illegal hacking was carried out in August 2020 by the government of Dubai. At the time of the infection, David Haigh was the lawyer representing Dubai Princess Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum who was being held hostage, and he was assisting Princess Haya bint Hussein and her legal team as well. Haigh had been exchanging videos and text messages in secret for more than a year and a half with Princess Latifa through a phone that had been smuggled into the Dubai villa where she was being held. She stopped responding on July 21, 2020, according to a screenshot of the messages Haigh shared. The analysis shows that Haigh's phone was hacked two weeks later.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: On 24 September 2021, "The Guardian" reported that the telephone of Alaa al-Siddiq, executive director of ALQST, who died in a car accident in London on 20 June 2021, was infected with the Pegasus spyware for 5 years until 2020. Citizen Lab confirmed that the Emirati activist was hacked by a government client of Israel's NSO Group. The case represented a worrying trend for activists and dissidents, who escaped the UAE to live in the relative safety, but were never out of the reach of Pegasus.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In October 2021, the British High Court ruled that agents of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum used Pegasus to hack the phones of his (ex)-wife, Princess Haya bint Hussein, her solicitors (including baroness Fiona Shackleton), a personal assistant and two members of her security team in the summer of 2020. The court ruled that the agents acted "with the express or implied authority" of the sheikh; he denied knowledge of the hacking. The judgment referred to the hacking as "serial breaches of (UK) domestic criminal law", "in violation of fundamental common law and ECHR rights", "interference with the process of this court and the mother's access to justice" and "abuse of power" by a head of state. NSO had contacted an intermediary in August 2020 to inform Princess Haya of the hack and is believed to have terminated its contract with the UAE.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: On 7 October 2021, the NSO Group stated that it had terminated its contract with the UAE to use its Pegasus spyware tool after the ruling by UK’s High Court that Dubai’s ruler misused the firm’s Pegasus software to spy on his ex-wife and her legal advisers.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In 2022, sources revealed that a unit of Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, Mubadala Capital was one of the largest investors in €1 billion Novalpina Capital private equity fund, which bought the NSO Group in 2019. Since then, Mubadala has been an investor in the firm with its commitment of €50 million, acquiring a seat on the committee of largest investors of the equity fund. Journalists, human rights defenders and the women of Dubai’s royal family were traced to have been hacked using the Pegasus spyware during the same time.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A report by the Citizen Lab revealed that Pegasus spyware linked to an Emirati operative was used to hack into the phones at the Downing Street and the Foreign Office. One of the spyware attack on No 10 was on 7 July 2020, which was asserted to have infected the phone of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Besides, at least five attacks were identified on Foreign Office phones by UK allies, including the UAE, between July 2020 and June 2021. The UAE was also alleged of hiring a firm to “monitor” Jeremy Corbyn.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In April 2022, Citizen Lab released a report stating that 10 Downing Street staff had been targeted by Pegasus, and that the United Arab Emirates was suspected of originating the attacks in 2020 and 2021.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: NSO Group pitched its spyware to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which declined to purchase it due to its high cost.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In August 2016, NSO Group (through its U.S. subsidiary Westbridge) pitched its U.S. version of Pegasus to the San Diego Police Department (SDPD). In the marketing material, Westbridge emphasized that the company is U.S.-based and majority-owned by a U.S. parent company. An SDPD Sergeant responded to the sales pitch with "sounds awesome". The SDPD declined to purchase the spyware as it was too expensive.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In July 2021, it was revealed that the phone numbers of about a dozen U.S. citizens - including diplomats, journalists, aid workers, and dissident expatriots - were on a list of prospective targets for Pegasus infiltration, however, it was not known whether an attack was ever attempted or completed against any of their devices. Among the phone numbers discovered on the list were those of the Biden administration's chief negotiation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as well as those of several United Nations diplomats residing in the U.S. NSO Group has said that Pegasus is not deployed against any device located within the territory of the U.S., however, it has been suggested that U.S. citizens can become targets when abroad.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In December 2021, it was reported that Pegasus spyware was found in the preceding months on the iPhones of at least nine U.S. State Department employees, all of whom were either stationed in Uganda or worked on matters related to Uganda. Later the same month, AP reported that a total of 11 U.S. State Department employees stationed in Uganda had their iPhones hacked with Pegasus. The US government blacklisted the NSO Group to stop what it called "transnational repression".


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In January 2022, it was reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had secretly bought the Pegasus spyware in 2019 and had seen a demonstration of Phantom, a newer tool capable of targeting American phone numbers. The FBI went on to test both tools, and considered their use for domestic surveillance in the U.S., which reportedly led to discussions between the FBI and United States Department of Justice; ultimately the FBI decided against using NSO spyware. However, despite the 2021 decision rejecting use of NSO software, Pegasus equipment is still in the FBI's possession at a New Jersey facility. Responding to the reports, FBI officials played down the domestic surveillance aspect of the Pegasus testing, instead stressing counter-intelligence as their purported main goal. A document later obtained by "The New York Times" clearly showed that the agency weighed using Pegasus and Phantom in domestic law enforcement cases.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: L3Harris, a U.S. defense contractor, was in talks to acquire NSO Group, the maker of Pegasus. L3Harris reportedly had the backing of U.S. intelligence in undertaking the acquisition negotiations. After months of negotiations, the talks were scuttled after they were made known to the public by the news media in June 2021, with the U.S. government publicly rebuking the acquisition attempt.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: The forensic analysis of UN independent investigator Kamel Jendoubi’s mobile phone revealed on 20 December 2021 that he was targeted using spyware while probing war crimes of Yemen. Jendoubi was targeted while he was examining possible war crimes in Yemen. Jendoubi's mobile number was also found in the leaked database of the Pegasus Project. According to the data, Jendoubi was one of the potential targets of one of NSO Group's long-time clients, Saudi Arabia. However, NSO spokesperson denied Kamel Jendoubi as any of its client's targets.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In April 2022, according to two EU officials and documentation obtained by Reuters, the European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and other European Commission officials had been targeted by NSO's software. The commission learned of this after Apple notified thousands of iPhone users in November 2021 that they were targeted by state-sponsored hackers. According to the same two sources, IT experts examined some of the smartphones, but the results were inconclusive.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: A leak of a list of more than 50,000 telephone numbers believed to have been identified as those of people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016 became available to Paris-based media nonprofit organisation Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. They shared the information with seventeen news media organisations in what has been called "Pegasus Project", and a months-long investigation was carried out, which reported from mid-July 2021. The Pegasus Project involved 80 journalists from the media partners including "The Guardian" (UK), Radio France and "Le Monde" (France), "Die Zeit" and "Süddeutsche Zeitung" (Germany), "The Washington Post" (United States), "Haaretz" (Israel), "Aristegui Noticias", "Proceso" (Mexico), the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, "Knack", "Le Soir", "The Wire", "Daraj", Direkt36 (Hungary), and "Frontline". Evidence was found that many phones with numbers in the list had been targets of Pegasus spyware. However, The CEO of NSO Group categorically claimed that the list in question is unrelated to them, the source of the allegations can't be verified as reliable one. "This is an attempt to build something on a crazy lack of information... There is something fundamentally wrong with this investigation".


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: French intelligence (ANSSI) confirmed that Pegasus spyware had been found on the phones of three journalists, including a journalist of France 24, in what was the first time an independent and official authority corroborated the findings of the investigation.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: On 26 January 2022, the reports revealed that mobile phones of Lama Fakih, a US-Lebanese citizen and director of crisis and conflict at Human Rights Watch, were repeatedly hacked by a client of NSO Group at a time when she was investigating the catastrophic August 2020 explosion that killed more than 200 people in Beirut.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: In July 2021, a joint investigation conducted by seventeen media organisations, revealed that Pegasus spyware was used to target and spy on heads of state, activists, journalists, and dissidents, enabling "human rights violations around the world on a massive scale". The investigation was launched after a leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets. Amnesty International carried out forensic analysis of mobile phones of potential targets. The investigation identified 11 countries as NSO clients: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the United Arab Emirates. The investigation also revealed that journalists from multiple media organizations including "Al Jazeera", CNN, the "Financial Times", the Associated Press, "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", "Bloomberg News" and "Le Monde" were targeted, and identified at least 180 journalists from 20 countries who were selected for targeting with NSO spyware between 2016 and June 2021.


title: Pegasus (spyware)

text: Responding to August 2016 reports of a targeting of an Arab activist, NSO Group stated that they provide "authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime", although the Group told him that they had no knowledge of any incidents.