Lebanon Attack, Instagram Changes, Diddy’s Arrest, & A Soccer Strike

September 18, 2024

Hello, readers – happy Wednesday! Today, we’ll be talking about the Lebanon attack, Instagram’s changes, Canada shifting right, natural disasters, Diddy’s arrest, AI in Hollywood, and footballers…errr, soccer players going on strike.

Here’s some good news: the World Meteorological Organization said that the world’s ozone layer is on “the road to long-term recovery” – it’s on track to recover to 1980 levels by around 2066 over the Antarctic, 2045 over the Arctic and 2040 for the rest of the world. Also, Google is planning to roll out a technology that will identify whether a photo was taken with a camera, edited by software like Photoshop, or produced by generative AI models.

“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” – Hippocrates

A Different Kind Of Bombing Campaign

(Hospital in Beirut by Anwar Amro via Getty Images)

Yesterday, Israel pulled off a massive attack that will surely be talked about in the halls of Mossad headquarters for years to come. Late in the afternoon on Tuesday, thousands of electronic pagers used by members of the Hezbollah militant group exploded all at once, injuring over 2,800 people and killing at least nine. At least 200 of the injured were in critical condition at time of writing — pagers are normally worn at the hip, and even a small explosion in the area could easily sever the large arteries that bring blood to the legs.

According to the New York Times, the pagers were manufactured by Gold Apollo, a Taiwan-based company. American officials with knowledge of Israel’s plot said that Israeli intelligence operatives had implanted small amounts (up to two ounces) of explosive materials into an entire shipment of about 3,000 pagers before they reached Lebanon. Hezbollah members received a specific message that appeared to come from the group’s leadership but actually came from Israel, triggering the mini-bombs.

Hospitals around Beirut were quickly overwhelmed, forcing Lebanon’s Health Ministry to declare a state of emergency. Aside from causing mass physical injuries among Hezbollah’s ranks, the attack also hit them in a logistical pain point — the group used pagers to keep their communications private. Hezbollah has already vowed revenge for the attack, but it’s unclear how much damage the bombing has done to the organization’s ability to operate.

Doing It For The Kids (And Parents)

Instagram has unveiled a new suite of features, and we predict some users will be very excited about them…and some, maybe not so much. The company is planning to provide parents more tools to make sure their kids are being safe online. New features include the “Teen Accounts” setting, which allows parents to set up accounts for their kids that are only fed age-appropriate content and are private by default. Parents will also be able to see the accounts that their teenager has messaged recently. The company will also pause notifications for under-18 users between the hours of 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. in order to help younger users get their sleep.

The changes are a response to increasing pressure by U.S. regulators, who are pushing to make online spaces safer for kids and teenagers. Earlier this summer, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called for social media platforms to come with warnings (similar to cigarettes) about their mental health risks, and the Senate also passed a bill requiring social media sites to enact safety and privacy measures to protect younger users.

This New Toilet Paper Just Might Save the World

Every 24 hours, 27,000 trees are cut down to make toilet paper. That felt like way too many, so honeycomb created luxury 3-ply toilet tissue made from bamboo. It feels just like regular high-end TP, but doesn’t harm trees.
Why bamboo? It’s the fastest-growing plant in the world, growing 100x faster than the average tree. That means thousands of rolls can be produced in the time it would take a single tree to grow back.
Honeycomb toilet paper is biodegradable, always 100% plastic-free, and they deliver straight to your front door. Use code PNUT30 for 30% off your first purchase for the next 24 hours.

Another Centrist Bites The Dust?

(Justin Trudeau by Thierry Monasse via Getty Images)

2024 has not been a good year for the centrist liberal parties of the world. Yesterday, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party in Canada started to show cracks as well, losing Montreal’s historically Liberal parliamentary seat to Louis-Philippe Sauvé, a candidate for a Quebec nationalist party. Sauvé scraped to victory with 28% of the vote, while the Liberal candidate won 27.2% of ballots cast.
At the moment, Trudeau’s Liberals are forecast to lose an upcoming general election, which must be held before October 2025. Last week, a national poll found that public support for Canada’s Conservative party was at 45%, with just 25% of respondents saying they’d vote Liberal. Trudeau, unsurprisingly, wants to stay the course until next year, but his Liberal colleagues have begun calling for a leadership change.

A Song Of Fire And… Floodwaters?

Europe is in some sort of Biblical pickle, torn between opposite ends of the ol’ natural disaster spectrum. In Central Europe, a massive storm system has delivered torrential rainfall across multiple countries, causing floods that have forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The rain is expected to let up soon, but low-lying areas are still in danger as rivers and dams are still filled to bursting.
In Portugal, locals are dealing with a very different problem. Wildfires have forced authorities to shut down multiple roads, including major arteries between the capital of Lisbon and Porto, the country’s second-biggest city. Over 5,000 firefighters have been deployed to contain the many fires that are still burning across the country, but low humidity and high nighttime temperatures are keeping the fires burning.

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There’s Nothing Puffy About A Jail Cell

Let’s turn our attention to some celebrity news (kind of). Sean “Diddy” Combs, A.K.A. Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puff, Puffy, and Love (that was a weird time) was arrested on Monday night in Manhattan. Yesterday morning, the indictment was unsealed, revealing that Combs was accused of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Diddy pleaded “not guilty” to accusations that he was coercing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.” His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring, but U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sent him to jail to await trial instead.

Newsom And The Nanny Make Some Noise

In other celebrity news (again, kind of), California Gov. Gavin Newsom and SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher (of The Nanny fame) announced new legislation yesterday that would protect actors from being replaced by digital imposters without their consent. The pair of laws marks a huge win for Hollywood in the fight against AI.
The first law sets new rules about the use of digital replicas in performer contracts, while the second law would allow the estates of deceased celebrities to sue if someone digitally replicates them without consent. Newsom is in a precarious position between Silicon Valley, the heart of the AI revolution, and Hollywood, which fought for AI regulations during the actors’ strikes last year.

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Wait, No, That’s The Wrong Kind Of Striker

Football season in the U.S. started two weeks ago. Two weeks before that, club football (or soccer, depending on where you live) started up again in Europe as well. Just about a month into the new season, professional soccer players are apparently on the verge of going on strike to protest the number of games that they’re being forced to play.
A soccer game normally lasts 90 minutes, with teams only allowed five or six substitutions. This means that at least half of a starting eleven will be stuck running around on the pitch for a full hour and a half (plus injury time). Soon after club play started up in mid-August, top players were asked to travel and play matches for their national teams. This week, the Champions League began, adding yet another set of matches for the world’s top players. Last year, some players were asked to play in up to 80 games – almost two games per week. This year, FIFA has asked players to participate in its new 32-team Club World Cup, adding even more games to the schedule.
“In my humble opinion, I think it is too much,” Manchester City midfielder Rodri told reporters yesterday. “We have to take care of ourselves. Someone has to take care of ourselves because we are the main characters of, let’s say, this sport or this business. Not everything is money or marketing. It is also the quality of the show. In my opinion, when I rest, when I’m not tired, I perform better. If people want to see better football, we need to rest.” When asked if players might start refusing to play to preserve their health, he answered, “I think we are close to that.”

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