The Living Archives

Hezbollah confirmed Aqil was martyred on Friday, hours after the Israeli military said it had killed him in the attack on the Dahiyeh area.

The attack killed at least 14 people and wounded 66 others, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health said, in a preliminary toll.

Aqil, a senior leader in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force, was reportedly in a joint meeting between Hezbollah and an unnamed Palestinian group when the Israeli attack leveled at least two buildings.

Aqil joined Hezbollah in the 1980s, and was responsible for the group’s attacks outside of Lebanon, according to the Israeli military.

Like most senior Hezbollah military officials, Aqil has been a shadowy figure, making no public appearances or statements.

The Radwan Force is at the forefront of Hezbollah’s cross-border fighting with the Israeli regime.

Aqil was injured during the pagers explosions on Tuesday and was discharged from the hospital earlier on Friday, according to an Israeli newspaper.

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The Israeli police have issued warnings about damage to roads after Hezbollah fired 140 rockets from the other side of the Lebanese border into the north of the country.

In a post on Telegram, Israel Police says officers and detectives are scanning the area to remove any risk to the public.

The highway between Ayelet HaShahar and Yesud HaMa’ala in the Northern District is currently closed to traffic while the damaged is assessed, it adds.

Officers can be seen removing the debris from fallen rockets buried in the tarmac.

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 Lebanon’s Hezbollah was still handing its members new Gold Apollo branded pagers hours before thousands of the devices blew up this week, two security sources said, indicating the group was confident they were safe despite an ongoing sweep of electronic equipment to identify threats.

One member of the Iranian-backed militia received a new pager on Monday that exploded the next day while it was still in its box, said one of the sources.

A pager given to a senior member days earlier injured a subordinate when it detonated, the second source said.

In an apparently coordinated attack, the Gold Apollo branded devices detonated on Tuesday across Hezbollah’s strongholds of south Lebanon, Beirut’s suburbs and the eastern Bekaa valley.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Hezbollah walkie-talkies exploded. The consecutive attacks killed 37 people, including two children, and injured more than 3,000 people.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel was behind the attacks. Israel’s secretive military intelligence Unit 8200 was involved in the planning, a Western security source said this week. Israel, which has since stepped up air strikes on Lebanon, has neither denied nor confirmed involvement. The batteries of the walkie-talkies were laced with a highly explosive compound known as PETN, another Lebanese source familiar with the device’s components said on Friday. Up to three grams of explosives hidden in the pagers had gone undetected for months by Hezbollah.

One of the security sources said it was very hard to detect the explosives “with any device or scanner”. The source did not specify what type of scanners Hezbollah had run the pagers through.

Hezbollah examined the pagers after they were delivered to Lebanon, starting in 2022, including by travelling through airports with them to ensure they would not trigger alarms, two additional sources told Reuters.

In total, Reuters spoke to six sources familiar with the details of the exploding devices for this story.

The sources did not specify the name of the airports where they conducted the tests.

Rather than a specific suspicion of the pagers, the checks had been part of a routine “sweep” of its equipment, including communications devices, to find any indications that they were laced with explosives or surveillance mechanisms, one of the security sources said.

The attacks, and the distribution of the devices despite the routine sweep and checks for breaches, have struck at Hezbollah’s reputation as the most formidable of Iran’s allied `Axis of Resistance’ umbrella of anti-Israel irregular forces across the Middle East.

In a televised speech on Thursday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said the attacks were “unprecedented in the history” of the group.

Hezbollah’s media office and Israel’s armed forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this story. Taiwan-based Gold Apollo has said it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, saying they were made by a company in Europe licensed to use the firm’s brand.

A batch of 5,000 pagers was brought to Lebanon this year. Hezbollah turned to pagers to evade Israeli surveillance of its mobile phones, following the killing of senior commanders in targeted air strikes over the past year.

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In an extraordinary celestial event, sky watchers will be treated to a spectacular combination of a Supermoon and a partial lunar eclipse on [date]. This rare occurrence promises a breathtaking display as the moon will appear both unusually large and partially shadowed, creating a unique visual experience.

A Supermoon occurs when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth in its orbit, known as perigee. This results in the moon appearing up to 14% larger and 30% brighter than usual. Meanwhile, a partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth’s shadow partially covers the moon, casting a subtle but striking darkening across its surface.

Astronomers and enthusiasts alike are excited about this event, as the simultaneous occurrence of these phenomena is relatively uncommon. The best viewing will be in areas with clear skies, away from city lights. For those interested in observing, a pair of binoculars or a telescope can enhance the experience, though the event will also be visible to the naked eye.

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 A couple had a narrow escape after their car plunged into the water at a marina in South Carolina. The incident occurred on [insert date], when the vehicle veered off the road and ended up in the marina waters, prompting a swift response from nearby restaurant staff.

Employees at a waterside restaurant immediately sprang into action upon witnessing the car entering the water. Several staff members rushed to the scene, working together to help the couple out of their sinking vehicle. Thanks to their quick thinking and coordinated efforts, the couple was safely rescued without any serious injuries.

Emergency services were called to the scene shortly after the incident. The couple was evaluated by medical personnel and, though shaken, were found to be in stable condition. The car was later retrieved from the water with the help of local authorities.

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Apple has officially launched its highly anticipated iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, showcasing a range of innovative features and improvements designed to enhance user experience. The new models were unveiled during a live event, emphasizing Apple's commitment to pushing the boundaries of smartphone technology.

The iPhone 16 series boasts a sleek design with a durable ceramic shield front cover, improved battery life, and the powerful A18 Bionic chip, ensuring faster performance and greater efficiency. The devices feature advanced camera systems, including enhanced night mode capabilities and improved optical zoom for stunning photography in any condition.

In a significant update, Apple announced that users will receive a free upgrade to Siri, the company’s intelligent assistant. This new version of Siri promises enhanced voice recognition, context-aware responses, and improved integration with smart home devices, making it easier for users to control their environments with just their voice.

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In a groundbreaking initiative aimed at safeguarding humanity's genetic legacy, scientists have developed a revolutionary method to store the human genome in what they term a "memory crystal." This innovative approach offers the potential to preserve genetic information for billions of years, ensuring that future generations—or even extraterrestrial civilizations—may one day understand the biological blueprint of humankind.

The memory crystal, a sophisticated storage medium, utilizes advanced synthetic DNA and nanotechnology to encode vast amounts of genetic data in a compact format. Researchers at [Institution Name] have successfully demonstrated the ability to store and retrieve complete human genome sequences, marking a significant leap in biobanking and genetic preservation efforts.

"With the current threats of climate change, habitat loss, and potential extinction, it is crucial to consider how we can preserve our species for the future," said Dr. [Scientist's Name], the lead researcher on the project. "This memory crystal acts as a time capsule, capturing the essence of what it means to be human."

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In a dramatic turn of events, MrBeast, the popular YouTube sensation known for his extravagant challenges and giveaways, along with Amazon, has been slapped with a lawsuit by multiple contestants from his $5 million reality show. The competitors allege that the show was marred by 'unsafe' conditions, raising serious concerns about the production's adherence to safety protocols.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses MrBeast and Amazon of failing to provide a safe environment for participants. The plaintiffs claim that during the filming of the high-stakes competition, they were subjected to hazardous conditions that jeopardized their well-being. Specific allegations include inadequate medical support, lack of proper safety equipment, and exposure to extreme physical and mental stress.

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I am in a high-end coffee shop in a tech-heavy area of San Francisco, staring suspiciously into a cup of espresso. This is no conventional coffee: it is made without using a single coffee bean.

It comes from Atomo, one of a band of alt-coffee start-ups hoping to revolutionise the world of brewed coffee.

“We take great offence when someone says that we're a coffee substitute,” says Andy Kleitsch, the chief executive of Seattle based start-up Atomo, from whose pure, beanless ground product my espresso has been made.

Traditional coffee substitutes have a reputation for not tasting much like coffee and are usually caffeine-free.

However, the newcomers intend to replicate one of the world’s most popular beverages from taste, to caffeine punch, to drinking experience – and the first of this nascent industry’s beanless concoctions have begun to appear.

They say there's a strong environmental argument for their beanless brews.

According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, coffee cultivation is currently the sixth largest cause of deforestation.

That impact is expected to widen as demand increases: consumption is fast rising in traditional tea drinking countries like India and China.

Meanwhile, climate change is pushing plantations to higher altitudes to escape the heat.

So, beanless coffee is potentially a less environmentally damaging alternative.

The newcomers also argue that, if scaled up, beanless coffee could be cheaper than its conventional competition.

And, with coffee prices reaching record levels on the international markets this year, that point is timely.

Also, in December, a new EU regulation is set to come into effect that outlaws the sale of products, coffee included, that can’t prove they are not linked to deforestation.

“A lot of big coffee companies are watching this field,” says Chahan Yeretzian, a professor of analytical chemistry, who heads the Coffee Excellence Centre at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.

Niels Haak, director of sustainable coffee partnerships at Conservation International, an environmental non-profit, welcomes the innovative approaches to tackling coffee’s deforestation problem, but he also doubts if beanless coffee will be able to make much dent.

Coffee growing provides livelihoods and income to many smallholder farming families globally, he further notes. The conundrum is if they move away from growing coffee, they will likely instead turn to growing more coca – the plant cocaine derives from – which has similar deforestation issues. “There are no silver bullets,” he says.

He notes there is work ongoing – from coffee certification schemes, to efforts aimed at strengthening so-called shade coffee farming where coffee is grown under a canopy of other trees – to make coffee growing more sustainable and support communities. “[The coffee sector] is on a journey to transform,” he says.

Yet the beanless companies counter that transformation isn’t wide enough or quick enough. Coffee is causing massive deforestation and coffee farmers live in poverty.

If alt-coffee could offset even just the extra projected coffee demand it would be a win for the planet that wouldn’t put anyone out of business.

And, as the climate changes, there are plenty of crops beyond illicit ones that coffee farmers could switch to that don’t require slashing more forest.

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