The Monocle Minute

It may be one of the most astonishing endeavours in the history of espionage: hundreds of members of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah were targeted by exploding pagers across Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon. At least nine people have reportedly been killed and thousands injured. It’s understood that the devices detonated upon receiving a text message. According to Lebanese security forces these devices, which were manufactured by a company based in Budapest, were tampered with before reaching Lebanon. Hezbollah has blamed Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, and vowed retaliation.

Israel’s secret services have used portable communications devices as weapons before. In 1996, for example, Hamas bomb-maker Yahya Ayyash was killed in Gaza by a booby-trapped mobile phone supplied, unbeknownst to him, by Israeli intelligence. But phones are a security risk beyond any prospect of them being turned into grenades – especially when your enemy is the country that developed the Pegasus spyware. Earlier this year, Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah insisted that the movement’s members ditch their phones for pagers.

The immediate damage to Hezbollah is the numerous casualties that it has sustained; it will also now be beset with corrosive uncertainty about its communications and operational security more generally. This might prove especially significant should Israel – if, as reports suggest, it is the culprit – follow this operation with a wider assault on Hezbollah’s strongholds. It’s worth noting that revealing a capability as extraordinary as the complete penetration of an enemy’s communications is not something that any state should do lightly.

But it’s also a colossal blow to Hezbollah’s zealously cultivated reputation for being impregnable, unhackable and indomitable. Right now, the organisation looks not merely vulnerable but faintly ridiculous.

Andrew Mueller is a contributing editor at Monocle and the presenter of ‘The Foreign Desk’ on Monocle Radio. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin ordered an expansion of Russia’s armed forces, with the goal of increasing its numbers to 2.38 million people – 1.5 million of whom would be in active service. If successful, the plan would make the country’s military the second largest in the world, after China’s. While this is the third time that Putin has expanded the army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it remains to be seen how viable the option really is.

Russia has been sustaining heavy losses since the beginning of the war, which shows no sign of ending. According to analysts, one way to fill gaps in military personnel would be to expand the duration of conscription service but this would risk a significant backlash from the public. Alternatively, Russia could pass new laws to allow women to have more active roles in the army. As the Kremlin contends with economic sanctions from the West and the strain of a prolonged war, it will also have to ask itself: can it foot the bill?

With the US Federal Reserve expected to announce an interest-rate cut later today, Hong Kong’s property sector is crossing its collective fingers more tightly than most. Because the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to that of the US, the high cost of borrowing in the world’s largest economy has had a significant effect on new-home sales in the leading Asian financial centre. Potential buyers have been waiting for the rate to come down before taking out a mortgage, pushing property developers in the Chinese special administrative region to sell existing inventory at a discount.

With high levels of office vacancies and low commercial rents also weighing down the sector, Hong Kong’s economy is suffering from a prolonged slump. Some property industry experts believe that only a cut of a full percentage point could make a big difference to the city’s beleaguered housing market. Though the hard times might not be over, the view from the famous peak is starting to look a little brighter.

Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons will be auctioning 131 art and design pieces from his personal collection at the Piasa auction house in Paris tomorrow. The sale, entitled “Design + Picasso Ceramics from the Collection of Raf Simons”, will feature vases painted by Pablo Picasso, sculptures by Jens Jacob Bregnø and furniture designed by, among others, Le Corbusier and Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret. It’s a significant grouping of items that offers insight into Simons’ personal tastes and his appreciation for minimalist and modernist design.

Throughout his career, Simons has influenced the fashion world as creative director at Prada, Christian Dior, Calvin Klein and Jil Sander. For collectors and design enthusiasts, this is a unique opportunity to acquire pieces that have inspired his designs. “I am attracted to strong, singular creative makers and the objects that they have brought into the world,” said Simons in a recent statement. “This auction represents a meaningful selection of my collection and each piece has played a role in my life.”

As the author of six critically acclaimed novels, Rabih Alameddine is no stranger to the living art of storytelling. He speaks with Georgina Godwin about his writing and working with a new generation of writers.