Source: Engadget
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 4 January 2021 11:31:27
WhatsApp Set an All-time Record for Calls on New Year's Eve
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many to have virtual New Year’s Eve get-togethers, and that’s very clearly reflected in WhatsApp’s numbers. Facebook’s chat app set a record as 2020 came to a close, with 1.4 billion video and voice calls placed on New Year’s Eve 2020 — the most ever in a single day on WhatsApp. It was a 50 percent spike over the event from a year earlier, and surpassed even the early days of the pandemic in March.
Other apps pushed boundaries as well. Facebook Messenger had its largest-ever volume of group video calls in the US, with almost twice as many calls as on the average day. Facebook Live and Instagram Live also had 55 million broadcasts worldwide.
Facebook said it had to make “unprecedented efficiency improvements” and otherwise bolster its infrastructure to handle the load from its various apps during the pandemic. Teams were at the ready during New Year’s Eve, too. If your WhatsApp call went smoothly, you now know why.
The WhatsApp record is one Facebook likely won’t mind keeping for a long time to come — ideally, mass vaccinations make in-person New Year’s Eve celebrations a reality again. Still, this shows how internet calling has been critical to preserving traditions at a particularly difficult moment.
