COLUMBUS: Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval will face Cory Bowman, the half brother of Vice President JD Vance, this fall after the pair were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary. Pureval placed a dominant first in the nonpartisan three-way contest, in which third-place finisher Republican Brian Frank was eliminated. Under the rules of the southwest Ohio city’s nonpartisan primaries, only the top two primary finishers advance to the November general election. With nearly all votes counted, Pureval led Bowman by about 70 percentage points Tuesday night, highlighting the uphill fight that Bowman will face in November. If Bowman pulls an upset in this predominantly Democratic city, he would be the latest family member of a president or vice president to serve in office. That includes the brother of Mike Pence, President Donald Trump’s first vice president, elected to Congress during their previous administration. In a statement, Pureval said the city deserves a “substantive and healthy debate of ideas about the future of our city” headed into the fall. “There is work ahead of us in Cincinnati, but I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years,” he said. “We have made meaningful, tangible progress for folks across our community, and this is a moment to keep building on the momentum we’ve worked so hard to create.” Bowman did not have an immediate comment. He has said he wants to improve his city, not get involved in national politics. Pureval, 42, is viewed as a Democratic up-and-comer. A former special assistant US attorney, congressional candidate and Hamilton County clerk of courts. He won the 2021 mayor’s race with nearly 66% of the vote to lead Ohio’s third-largest city. Bowman, 36, co-founded an evangelical church on the city’s West End and owns a coffee shop. He has never held public office but says his half brother’s inauguration inspired him to enter politics. Vance didn’t take an active role in the campaign, but he posted a message of support for Bowman on Tuesday. “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community,” the vice president wrote on X. “Get out there and vote for him!” Bowman thanked Vance in reply: “Love you brother!”

The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as likely being used in a number of countries with poor human rights records [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

A U.S. jury on Tuesday handed WhatsApp a major victory in its cyberespionage suit against NSO Group, ordering the Israel-based firm to pay some $168 million in damages.

Meta-owned WhatsApp sued NSO in late 2019 in federal court in Northern California, accusing it of planting Pegasus spy software on the smartphones of targets using the messaging app.

“This trial put spyware executives on the stand and exposed exactly how their surveillance-for-hire system — shrouded in so much secrecy — operates,” Meta said in a blog post.

“Put simply, NSO’s Pegasus works to covertly compromise people’s phones with spyware capable of hoovering up information from any app installed on the device.”

Pegasus software also enables smartphone cameras or microphones to be remotely turned on without letting users know, according to Meta.

WhatsApp accused NSO of cyberespionage targeting journalists, lawyers, human rights activists and others on the Facebook-owned messaging service.

A jury on Tuesday found that NSO should pay WhatsApp $444,719 in compensatory damages and another $167,254,000 in punitive damages intended to discourage repeating the behavior that landed it in court.

“We will carefully examine the verdict’s details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal,” NSO vice president for global communication Gil Lainer said in response to an AFP inquiry.

“We firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies.”

Evidence presented at the trial said NSO had spyware installation methods to exploit the technology of companies other than Meta, spending tens of millions of dollars annually on ways to install malicious code through messaging, browsers and operating systems, according to Meta.

In 2016, Apple rushed out a security update after researchers said prominent Emirati rights activist Ahmed Mansoor was targeted by UAE authorities using Pegasus spyware.

The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as likely being used in a number of countries with poor human rights records.

“Given how much information people access on their devices, including through private end-to-end encrypted apps like WhatsApp, Signal and others, we will continue going after spyware vendors indiscriminately targeting people around the world,” Meta said in the blog post.

“These malicious technologies are a threat to the entire ecosystem and it’ll take all of us to defend against it.”

The legal complaint said the attackers “reverse-engineered the WhatsApp app and developed a program to enable them to emulate legitimate WhatsApp network traffic in order to transmit malicious code” to take over the devices.

Infecting smartphones or other gadgets being used for WhatsApp messages meant the content of messages encrypted during transmission could be accessed after they were unscrambled for recipients.

Founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, NSO Group is based in the Israeli seaside hi-tech hub of Herzliya, near Tel Aviv.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio after India’s Operation Sindoor on Pakistan, said that he is closely monitoring the unfolding situation between the nuclear-armed nations, expressing hope for a swift de-escalation and reaffirming Washington’s commitment to promoting peace in the region.Posting on social media platform X, Rubio said, “I am monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely. I echo @POTUS’s comments earlier today that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution.”Rubio’s remarks followed India’s launch of Operation Sindoor, a targeted military campaign against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The action was in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 civilians—including one Nepali national. According to a statement from the Indian embassy in Washington, “India’s actions have been focused and precise. They were measured, responsible and designed to be non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani civilian, economic or military targets have been hit. Only known terror camps were targeted.” The embassy also confirmed that NSA Ajit Doval had briefed Rubio on the operation shortly after the strikes.The US has urged restraint from both sides. US President Donald Trump, responding to the situation, told reporters, “It’s a shame. We just heard about it as we were walking in the doors of the Oval. Just heard about it… I hope it ends very quickly.” He noted that tensions between the two nations have persisted for “many, many decades… centuries, actually”.Rubio had earlier spoken to both Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif following the Pahalgam attack. In that call, Rubio urged both nations to “de-escalate tensions, re-establish direct communications, and maintain peace and security in South Asia,” as per a statement from his office.The US has also stressed the importance of holding terrorists accountable. “The Secretary spoke of the need to condemn the terror attack on April 22… He also encouraged Pakistan to work with India to de-escalate tensions,” his office added.India, meanwhile, continues to brief international stakeholders on its counter-terrorism actions.