Newslaundry Podcast

Time Codes:0:57 - Headlines5:45 - Pegasus snooping49:30 - Afghanistan crisis1:24:15 - Tokyo Olympics1:34:24 - Subscriber emails1:54:13 - Recommendations This week, Abhinandan Sekhri, Raman Kirpal and Manisha Pande are joined by Siddharth Varadarajan, founding editor of the Wire, and Happymon Jacob, author, commentator and JNU professor. Siddharth talks about his organisation's reporting on the revelations that dozens of Indian activists, politicians and journalists – including the Wire editor himself – were targets or potential targets of surveillance using the Israeli spyware Pegasus. In this context, Manisha explains the dangers that such surveillance poses to journalists and press freedom in the country.Happymon analyses the Taliban’s rapid advance in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops after 20 years of war. If the situation doesn’t change soon, he predicts, “it’s only a matter of time before the Taliban take power in Kabul.Amid public health concerns given the coronavirus pa