Bezos Goes to Space; Security on Iphone No Match for NSO Spyware; Castillo Wins Peruvian Election

On this edition of The Critical Hour, Dr. Wilmer Leon discusses the successful completion of today's near-space flight trip and reports that the Israeli NSO Group's Pegasus can hack into "any phone without your knowledge."

Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston, author, historian, and researcher; and Chris Smalls, former Amazon employee and current Amazon union organizer; join our host to discuss this morning's edge of space flight that included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The trip made history by including 82-year old Wally Funk, a former engineer and 18-year old student Oliver Daemen. These two members became the oldest and youngest people respectively to reach space.

Chris Garaffa, web developer and technologist, joins us to discuss the NSO Group's Pegasus Spyware. An Amnesty International report says Apple iPhones can be hacked through zero-click software that doesn't require a target to click on a link. 

Francesca Emanuele, Peruvian sociologist, writer and columnist for the progressive Peruvian publication, Wayka, joins us to discuss Peru's presidential election. Pedro Castillo has finally been declared the winner of the presidential race.

Dr. Jemima Pierre, associate professor of Black Studies and Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and editor of the "Black Agenda Review," joins us to talk about Haiti. Many of the people of Haiti said the past two administrations could have helped their country's inner turmoil and did nothing, so the US's new offers to do "something is no longer welcome in Port-au-Prince."

Ajamu Baraka, former VP candidate for the Green Party, joins us to discuss A Responsible Statecraft article that said the US must stop supporting "forever presidents" in Africa. The article also suggests that prospective trade, aid and security assistance should be positioned to address anti-democratic leaders in the continent.

Laith Marouf, broadcaster and journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon, joins us to discuss Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi spoke about his upcoming visit to Washington and said that while the upcoming visit to Washington will put an end to the presence of US combat troops in Iraq, there is still a need for continued US training, air force, and intelligence support.

Jim Kavanagh, writer at thepolemicist.com and CounterPunch, joins us to talk about the Julian Assange case. The US is on "shaky constitutional ground" with their espionage indictment of Assange so they are counting on a computer intrusion charge to stick in hopes to portray Assange as a hacker and not a journalist providing facts.

Author and activist Miko Peled reports on Ben & Jerry's boycott of selling ice cream in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories. Ben & Jerry's announced the boycott yesterday, saying that the sale of its products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem was "inconsistent with their values." Israel's prime minister, Naftali Bennett, responded by threatening to take "strong action" against the boycotts.

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