The office of the Budapest-registered BAC company, which the Taiwanese Gold Apollo claims manufactured the pagers that exploded in Lebanon, is empty, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

The company is registered in a residential area near the center of Budapest, on the ground floor there are office premises, on the second floor there are apartments.

Residents say they have never seen anyone from BAC. Sputnik's correspondent could not get through to the company, and there was no response to the written request either.

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A representative of the Hungarian company, which is allegedly associated with the explosion of pagers in Lebanon, told Sputnik that the company was not engaged in the production of these devices.

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Ancient junk or useful tool? Who uses pagers in this day and age?

A wave of pager explosions that rocked Lebanon on September 17 has, among other things, raised some questions: what are pagers, who still uses them and who produces them?

What is a pager?

🔹A pager is a small, portable device that uses radio signals to receive and, in some models, send voice or text messages.

🔹Pagers do not have to stay in nearly constant contact with transmission towers like the cellphones do, making pager owners much harder to track electronically.

🔹Pagers operate using radio waves, potentially also making them a good choice for areas where phone reception is poor or the use of cellphones may be potentially hazardous, and can quickly get a message to a large number of people.

Who uses them nowadays?

🔹Pagers are often used by hospital personnel, miners, emergency services workers, nuclear and chemical plant personnel, birdwatchers, and (possibly) members of certain groups who want to stay under the radar.

🔹While pagers are still widely used in the Middle East, North America and Asia, some countries (namely, Japan and Russia) discontinued their use (Japan in 2019 and Russia in 2021).

Who are pager service providers?

Last year, the global pager market amounted to $1.6 billion, with Cognitive Market Research predicting this market’s compound annual growth rate of 5.9% until 2030.

Sales revenues for pagers in North America in 2023 were the highest, reaching $528 million, followed by sales revenues in Europe ($496 million), Asia Pacific ($432 million) and South America ($80 million); sales revenues for both Middle East and Africa combined were $60 million that year.

The US' leading paging company, Spok, had – as of 2023 - at least 800,000 pagers in use across the country – in comparison to 6.6 million in 2004.

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Putin speaks at the plenary session of the Eurasian Women's Forum in St. Petersburg.

Russia's president welcomed the participants of the forum and noted its potential in solving modern problems.

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Jeffrey Sachs says BRICS must champion education & cooperation, while blasting US confrontational stance

Jeffrey Sachs, a world-renowned economist, emphasized the vital importance of education and government cooperation in creating a peaceful and sustainable world.

Speaking to participants at the BRICS Urban Future Forum in Moscow on September 18-19, he underscored the necessity of large-scale infrastructure and services, such as education and healthcare, stating that these initiatives "cannot be done on a piecemeal basis." Sachs commended countries like Russia and other BRICS nations for their robust educational institutions, highlighting their crucial role in empowering both individuals and societies.

Furthermore, Sachs criticized the confrontational stance of the United States, arguing that international relations should be guided by cooperation rather than competition. "We need cooperation, not confrontation," he stated, urging governments to prioritize improvements in quality of life over engaging in conflicts that jeopardize global stability.

Sputnik is the forum’s general information partner.

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Watch as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gets cornered by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy

During this heated briefing, Doocy rips into and dismantles the Democrats' anti-Trump rhetoric.

"How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president, the vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump other than 'threat'?" Doocy contended, grilling the White House’s press secretary. 

In response, Karine Jean-Pierre’s defense was nothing more than just cringeworthy backpedaling.

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💬'Russian women are the soul of Russia' - Vladimir Putin

"This year, St. Petersburg greets female leaders from 126 countries of the world... Naturally, we have delegations from all the regions of Russia representing our multinational, national, multiethnic people with its rich culture and centuries of traditions," the Russian president also said at the Eurasian Women's Forum.

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🇷🇺🇨🇳Russian and Chinese coast guards show off their skills in inaugural joint drills

Coast guards from the two countries held their first-ever joint drills in Vladivostok, a Sputnik correspondent reports.

The primary focus of the exercises was to combat smuggling and enhance maritime rescue operations. Both nations plan to hold these joint exercises on an annual basis moving forward.

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Footage of an explosion of an unknown device during a farewell ceremony for Hezbollah supporters killed on Tuesday in the southern suburb of Beirut Dahiya

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