How pagers and hand-held radios can be modified to remotely explode

Published

4 months ago

September 19, 2024

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Sky News’ Data and Forensics team has spoken to four experts to answer the question – how does a pager or hand-held radio explode?

The pagers that exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday are consistent with the AR-924 model of pager with Gold Apollo branding.

The Taiwan-based company has distanced itself from the devices, saying they were made under licence in Budapest by a firm called BAC Consulting.

The chief executive of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, told NBC News, Sky News’ US partner: “I don’t make the pagers. I am just the intermediate. I think you got it wrong.”

Meanwhile, Icom, the Japanese maker of the brand of walkie-talkies linked to the deadly blasts, has said it stopped making the model a decade ago and it would be impossible to lace them with explosives during manufacturing.

So while it might not be clear at what stage the pagers or radios could have been turned into bombs, experts can say how it might have been done.

First, let’s look at the explosive – you only need a very small amount, a gram or two is enough to “explode someone’s arm or face”, says Dr Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli navy and intelligence operative.

It is not yet clear exactly what type of explosive was used. There have been unverified reports pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, was used. Experts told Sky News it also could have been TNT or another equivalent.

“The point is that you can mix them in with another component effectively to make a plastic explosive,” Andrea Sella, professor of chemistry at University College London, says. 

“So that means that you could conceivably insert some of this stuff into the nooks and crannies [of a pager].”

The explosives could have been in the battery, inside a detonating device or hidden elsewhere in the pager, Dr Pinko says. 

Middle East latest: Pagers and walkie-talkies banned on Lebanon flights

But once the explosives are in the pager, how can it be remotely detonated?

The other thing that will likely have been added to the pager is a detonator, says Carl Robson, who used to be a British army bomb disposal operator and is now a bomb disposal project manager for Igne UXO. 

A detonator is a “small cylindrical barrel” which, even without any added explosives, would easily cause injury once initiated, Mr Robson says. 

To initiate the detonator, you need a power source. In this case, that is the battery for the pager 

But how does the battery set off the detonator?

You need a trigger – Mr Robson compares it to a light switch, and in this case, the flick of a switch is a particular message being sent to the pager. 

This message, which could have been a specific string of letters or symbols, is identified and “starts creating the explosive chain”, Dr Pinko explains.

“Which means that it takes a current from the battery, heating the explosive to the level of energy which is needed. And then [the explosion] occurs. 

“You only need a fraction of a second [of heating] to get this kind of explosion,” he adds.  

Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordnance disposal expert, puts it another way: “Normally the pager beeps when you [get a message]. What they’ve done is they said, ‘OK, instead of beeping, send the charge that normally goes to the beeper to the detonator instead’.”

But he says there’s still a question mark over how the pager was programmed to react to the message. 

Videos of the pager and radio explosions suggest a “very similar method” was used to cause the explosion, Mr Robson says.

The size of the blasts caught on camera also suggest there was an “extremely consistent” amount of explosives used across the different devices.

But it’s also possible some of the radios contained more explosives.

“Naturally, if you look at a two-way radio against the pager, there is the capability to put a lot more explosives in it.”

That could create a “bigger blast radius”, potentially doing more damage, he says.

The second wave of explosions killed 20 people, while 12 people died and almost 3,000 more were injured when the pagers exploded.

Mr Robson says the higher death rate could have been down to the nature of the communication devices – hand-held radios are more likely to be used in crowded places, while pagers are carried at all times.

The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.

World

Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other

Published

2 hours ago

January 10, 2025

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Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet - and that he and Barack Obama 'probably' like each other

Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.

Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.

“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.

Ukraine war latest updates

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.

“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.

“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”

Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’

Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.

The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.

Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.

Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.

“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.

“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”

The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.

Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.

Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.

On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”

World

‘The future is in our hands’ scientists say, as 2024 becomes first year to pass 1.5C global warming threshold

Published

11 hours ago

January 10, 2025

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'The future is in our hands' scientists say, as 2024 becomes first year to pass 1.5C global warming threshold

Last year was the warmest on record, the first to breach a symbolic threshold, and brought with it deadly impacts like flooding and drought, scientists have said.

Two new datasets found 2024 was the first calendar year when average global temperatures exceeded 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – before humans started burning fossil fuels at scale.

The record heat has not only has real-world implications, as it contributed to deadly flooding in Spain and vicious drought in places like Zambia in southern Africa.

It is also highly symbolic.

Countries agreed in the landmark Paris Agreement to limit warming ideally to 1.5C, because after that the impacts would be much more dangerous.

The news arrives as California battles “hell on earth” wildfires, suspected to have been exacerbated by climate change.

And it comes as experts warn support for the Paris goals is “more fragile than ever” – with Donald Trump and the Argentinian president poised to row back on climate action.

What caused 2024 record heat – and is it here to stay?

Friends of the Earth called today’s findings from both the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change service and the Met Office “deeply disturbing”.

The “primary driver” of heat in the last two years was climate change from human activity, but the temporary El Nino weather phenomenon also contributed, they said.

The breach in 2024 does not mean the world has forever passed 1.5C of warming – as that would only be declared after several years of doing so, and warming may slightly ease this year as El Nino has faded.

But the world is “teetering on the edge” of doing so, Copernicus said.

Prof Piers Forster, chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, called it a “foretaste of life at 1.5C”.

Dr Gabriel Pollen, Zambia’s national coordinator for disasters, said “no area of life and the economy is untouched” by the country’s worst drought in more than 100 years.

Six million people face starvation, critical hydropower has plummeted, blackouts are frequent, industry is “decimated”, and growth has halved, he said.

Paris goal ‘not obsolete’

Scientists were at pains to point out it is not too late to curb worse climate change, urging leaders to maintain and step up climate action.

Professor Forster said temporarily breaching 1.5C “does not mean the goal is obsolete”, but that we should “double down” on slashing greenhouse gas emissions and on adapting to a hotter world.

The Met Office said “every fraction of a degree” still makes a difference to the severity of extreme weather.

Copernicus director Carlo Buontempo added: “The future is in our hands: swift and decisive action can still alter the trajectory of our future climate”.

Climate action is ‘economic opportunity’

Copernicus found that global temperatures in 2024 averaged 15.10°C, the hottest in records going back to 1850, making it 1.60°C above the pre-industrial level during 1850-1900.

The Met Office’s data found 2024 was 1.53C above pre-industrial levels.

The figures are global averages, which smooth out extremes from around the world into one number. That is why it still might have felt cold in some parts of the world last year.

Greenpeace campaigner Philip Evans said as “the world’s most powerful climate denier” Donald Trump returns to the White House, others must “take up the mantle of global climate leadership”.

The UK’s climate minister Kerry McCarthy said the UK has been working with other countries to cut global emissions, as well as greening the economy at home.

“Not only is this crucial for our planet, it is the economic opportunity of the 21st century… tackling the climate crisis while creating new jobs, delivering energy security and attracting new investment into the UK.”

World

Picture shows baby girl moments after birth on packed migrant dinghy heading for Canary Islands

Published

11 hours ago

January 10, 2025

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Picture shows baby girl moments after birth on packed migrant dinghy heading for Canary Islands

Photographs have captured the moments after a baby girl was born on a packed migrant dinghy heading for the Canary Islands.

The small boat was carrying 60 people and had embarked from Tan-Tan – a Moroccan province 135 nautical miles (250km) away.

One image shows the baby lying on her mother’s lap as other passengers help the pair.

The boat’s passengers – a total of 60 people, including 14 women and four children – were rescued by a Spanish coastguard ship.

Coastguard captain Domingo Trujillo said: “The baby was crying, which indicated to us that it was alive and there were no problems, and we asked the woman’s permission to undress her and clean her.

“The umbilical cord had already been cut by one of her fellow passengers. The only thing we did was to check the child, give her to her mother and wrap them up for the trip.”

The mother and baby were taken for medical checks and treated with antibiotics, medical authorities said.

Dr Maria Sabalich, an emergency coordinator of the Molina Orosa University Hospital in Lanzarote, said: “They are still in the hospital, but they are doing well.”

When they are discharged from hospital, the pair will be moved to a humanitarian centre for migrants, a government official said.

They will then most likely be relocated to a reception centre for mothers and children on another of the Canary Islands, they added.

Thousands of migrants board boats attempting to make the perilous journey from the African coast to the Spanish Canaries each year.

In 2024, a total of 9,757 people died on the route, according to Spanish migration charity Walking Borders.

Mr Trujillo said: “Almost every night we leave at dawn and arrive back late.

“This case is very positive, because it was with a newborn, but in all the services we do, even if we are tired, we know we are helping people in distress.”