HarmonyOS NEXT symbolizes milestone in China's homegrown operating system

The HarmonyOS NEXT, China's first completely homegrown operating system developed by domestic tech giant Huawei, will vigorously boost the country's technological advancement in various fields, said scholars and industrial insiders.

Huawei on Tuesday released the milestone operating system in Shenzhen City of south China's Guangdong Province, marking a watershed achievement in developing China's homegrown mobile operating system.

The previous HarmonyOS versions still used part of the open source code of the Android system and was somehow confined by the Android logic. Therefore, the HarmonyOS NEXT made a significant breakthrough in China's information technology industry, said information engineering experts.

Other well-known operating systems, such as the iOS and the Android, were basically developed from the two major technical cores of Unix and Linux, however, the HarmonyOS NEXT was established on a self-developed core, providing strong autonomy for China's technological empowerment and network security, said information engineering experts.

"With autonomy, we can effectively address security concerns. If the foundation is not ours, for example, we can't construct a protective structure without permission. With our own basic platform, we can design a good structure on it, and then protect our users' data and network connections very well," said Xu Zhen, a researcher at the Institute of Information Engineering under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

At present, more than 15,000 applications and meta-services based on the HarmonyOS NEXT are available, covering 18 industries. They include general office applications that can provide services to more than 38 million enterprises in China.

At the same time, HarmonyOS NEXT realizes the interconnection and interoperability of multiple devices and scenarios such as mobile phones, tablets, and car cockpits. Behind the release of this homegrown operating system is the all-round development of related industries of China, according to Huawei leading officials.

"We have developed this new operating system of the HarmonyOS NEXT in line with the era of the internet of everything and intelligence and everything. Hongmeng operating system can meet the needs at all scenarios such as mobile phones, tablets, wearable devices like the watch I wear, industrial machinery and equipment, and various terminals across different industries including those in our transportation, medical, and education industries, which is a significant advantage of our HarmonyOS,” said Yu Chengdong, executive director of Huawei.

In the exhibition area of the launching event, Huawei staff also demonstrated a variety of applications such as intelligent code recognition and scanning, intelligent AI interaction, and secure file transmission on Huawei smart devices.

The updated applications are more life-oriented and intelligent, and are more interesting on the basis of practicality and convenience, according to staff members.

"In the past, when we used video software, we watched it on our mobile phones. After watching it, if we wanted to continue watching it on our pads, we had to find the corresponding video software on our pads, open it, and then find the last playback history. It took three to four or even five steps to continue watching the video, and now we can open it on another device in one step," said staff member Wang Quanquan.

"In our work and life, we need file transfer functions a lot, and we have designed file verification and encryption based on the operating system. Before sharing a certain document, we can encrypt it and choose who can view it. And if this document is forwarded to a person through some popular chatting applications, other people will not be able to open it," said another staff member Huang Lei.

HarmonyOS NEXT symbolizes milestone in China's homegrown operating system

Israeli strikes on Lebanon have left many people in urgent need of medical care, adding pressure to an already struggling healthcare system of the country.

Since Sept. 23, the Israeli army has been conducting intensive airstrikes on Lebanon in a dangerous escalation with Hezbollah.

While Israel claims it is targeting Hezbollah, the offensive has destroyed hundreds of homes, devastated border villages, and resulted in the deaths of over 2,000 people.

According to a report released Tuesday by the Disaster Risk Management Unit at the Lebanese Council of Ministers, the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the onset of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has reached 2,530, with injuries totaling up to 11,803.

Dr. Mazen Alameh, the manager of a small hospital in southern Beirut, is among those dealing with the aftermath.

"We are one of the hospitals that have received many injured patients, especially given our location. An explosion nearby damaged the hospital, forcing us to move patients to other facilities with the help of the Lebanese Red Cross. Since then, we have been operating only for emergency cases. Most of the remaining medical teams and staff sleep at the hospital; we prefer not to leave due to the difficulty of moving around, so they work 24 hours a day," said Alameh.

Suleiman Haroun, president of the Syndicate of Hospital Owners, noted that medical facilities across the country are under pressure, not just in the regions directly affected by Israeli attacks.

"The problem is that hospitals in 'safe areas' are also overwhelmed. For example, most dialysis patients have relocated to these 'safe areas,' so the dialysis centers in these hospitals are inundated with patients. Even before the war, these centers were already operating at full capacity," said Haroun.

Other areas are also suffering under Israel's military offensive. The conflict has put immense pressure on hospitals and the healthcare system in general, particularly with the influx of displaced people in Lebanon.

UNICEF warns of a potential outbreak of infectious diseases due to the displacement of over 1.2 million people - nearly 25 percent of the population - into the streets or inadequately equipped shelters.

"We're concerned at the moment about the spread of waterborne diseases like cholera, diarrhea, hepatitis because when water systems and health services are interrupted or destroyed in some way, that can impact children's access to safe water and also increase the spread of waterborne diseases. If it escalated any further, that would definitely be catastrophic for children, and we're trying to prevent that," said Tess Ingram, spokesperson of UNICEF Middle East.

Despite international condemnation, Israel has been accused of targeting the country's healthcare infrastructure, making it increasingly difficult to provide services.

Officials warn that there is an urgent need to end the conflict, as Lebanon's healthcare system can only survive for a few more weeks before it completely collapses.

Israeli airstrikes overwhelm Lebanon's healthcare system