Israeli authorities indicted a Jewish Israeli man for being recruited by Iran to pursue an assassination plot against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials.

Moti Maman, 73, told authorities he had a “lapse of judgment” and is now cooperating with law enforcement.

Israeli police arrested Maman in August, saying he had twice visited Iran to meet with intelligence officials who gave him various tasks to conduct in Israel.

During his latest trip to Iran in August, Israeli authorities say Iranian intelligence proposed assassination plots against Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Shin Bet head Ronen Bar.

Authorities say Maman demanded a $1 million advance payment in exchange for his participation, but Iran paid him only 5,000 Euros.

“This is a very serious affair that is an example of the great efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit Israeli citizens to promote terrorist activities in Israel. The security officials assess that the Iranians will continue their efforts to recruit operatives in Israel to gather intelligence and carry out terrorist missions in Israel while also turning, among other things, to elements with a criminal background to carry out the missions,” a senior Shin Bet official said in a statement.

“At a time when the State of Israel is at war on several fronts, an Israeli citizen goes to an enemy country on two different occasions, meets with Iranian intelligence agents, and expresses a willingness to carry out serious terrorist acts on Israeli soil. His actions helped Iran and its intelligence agents in their campaign against Israel,” the statement continued.

News of Maman’s indictment comes days after a massive Israeli operation targeting pagers used by Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy terrorist group in Lebanon.

The explosions of hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday and the detonation of a second wave of electronic devices a day later remain a mystery, though experts are calling the deadly blasts a sophisticated attack that likely took months of planning.

The two waves of bombings killed at least 37 people, including at least two children, and wounded more than 3,000 others, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

Hezbollah has used pagers to communicate for years, and the group’s leader recently called on members to stop using cell phones altogether over concerns that Israeli intelligence could track the devices.

While Israel has not claimed responsibility for the waves of explosions, its intelligence agency, Mossad, is widely credited for the operation.

Hezbollah and Lebanon immediately pointed fingers at Israel following the explosions on Tuesday. On Wednesday, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Israel was behind the pager explosions.

An Alaska man was arrested Wednesday for allegedly threatening to assassinate six members of the Supreme Court and harm two family members, the Justice Department said.

Panos Anastasiou, 76, is accused of sending more than 465 messages to the Supreme Court through an online portal, which included violent, racist, and homophobic rhetoric, according to court filings. Anastasiou allegedly threatened to assassinate, kidnap, torture, hang, behead and execute the justices, and encouraged other people to join him in committing acts of violence, the Justice Department said.

He faces nine counts of making threats against a federal judge and 13 counts of making threats in interstate commerce. Anastasiou appeared before a federal magistrate judge Wednesday and pleaded not guilty.

“We allege that the defendant made repeated, heinous threats to murder and torture Supreme Court Justices and their families to retaliate against them for decisions he disagreed with,” Attorney General Merrick Garland, a former federal appeals court judge, said in a statement. “Our justice system depends on the ability of judges to make their decisions based on the law, and not on fear. Our democracy depends on the ability of public officials to do their jobs without fearing for their lives or the safety of their families.”

The Supreme Court declined to comment on the charges. An attorney for Anastasiou was not listed in court records.

The targeted justices are not named in the indictment and identified only as “Supreme Court justices 1-6.” Charging documents state that some of the threats allegedly made by Anastasiou “were intended to intimidate” the justices and “retaliate against them for official actions” they had taken in their capacity as judges.

The messages were sent between January and July, when the Supreme Court ended its term, court documents.

In one of the messages, sent Jan. 4, Anastasiou allegedly threatened to murder one justice by saying he’d like to see the justice and an unidentified former president “hanging together from an Oak tree,” and said he would “gladly provide the rope and pull the handle.” The unnamed former president is likely former President Donald Trump, as a subsequent message included in court filings references him as a “convicted criminal.” Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a crime when a New York jury convicted him on 34 state felony counts earlier this year.

Another message on May 10 included a threat to kill the same justice by “lynching” and included a racial slur, according to legal documents.

Court filings state that in a May 16 message referring to a second member of the Supreme Court, Anastasiou allegedly threatened to kill the justice by putting “a bullet in this mother f***ers head.” The Justice Department said a message sent the following day was targeted not only at the first two justices, but also two unnamed family members. It warned of sending “fellow Vietnam veterans” to “spray” one Supreme Court member’s house with bullets with hopes of killing them. The same message again used a racial slur, and Anastasiou allegedly said he hoped the first justice and his “white trailer trash … insurrectionist wife are visiting.”

A message sent on July 5 stated, “We should make [Supreme Court Justices 1-6] be AFRAID very AFRAID to leave their home and fear for their lives everyday,” according to court filings.

Federal prosecutors said Anastasiou began sending “concerning messages” to the Supreme Court in the spring of 2023. The Supreme Court Police reviewed them and determined they were “concerning enough” to warrant an investigation. The FBI interviewed Anastasiou about the messages. Later, he allegedly sent a message to the Supreme Court “daring” the justices to visit his home, prosecutors said.

The Justice Department said the messages took an “even more violent turn” in January. In addition to threatening justices with “lynching,” court filings show he advocated for “mass assassinations” and called for “patriotic” Americans to kill members of the high court.

The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and has come under immense criticism in recent years for decisions on politically charged issues including abortion, guns and presidential power. In its most recent term, the six conservatives voted to find former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official acts undertaken in the White House.

Its June 2022 decision unwinding the constitutional right to abortion was highly criticized and led to protests outside the homes of several conservative justices, including Justices Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. A California man was arrested in June 2022 after he was found outside of Kavanaugh’s Maryland house with a gun, knife and various tools, and charged with threatening to assassinate the justice. He pleaded not guilty.

Attendees to Donald Trump’s rally in Arizona have reported sustaining mystery eye problems from the event.

The rally in Tucson, Arizona, on September 12, which drew over 2,000 people in 100 degree heat, resulted in a number of Trump supporters going to the emergency room.

The Trump campaign has said it is investigating the event. The Secret Service told News 4 Tucson that it was unaware of anything out of the ordinary occurring at the rally. It added that it was unaware of any planned threat to Trump in Arizona.

The rally was set up so that 48 exclusive attendees could stand on the stage with Trump. They were then split into two groups, one on stage right, and one on stage left.

The group on stage left reported no symptoms or anything suspicious, but according to a report from News 4 Tucson, several people in the group on stage right left the rally with excruciating pain in their eyes.

Mayra Rodriguez, a former Planned Parenthood director turned Trump supporter, told News 4 Tucson that her eyes were burning and it became hard for her to see. She said she went to the ER where they asked if she was sprayed with anything.

She told reporters that she is still in pain days later. She said: “I can’t see anything. When I try to open my eyes it’s like a white cloud of cover. It hurts.”

Another woman who wished to remain anonymous also came forward with the same symptoms, saying: “This is horrible.”

And a man who also wished to remain anonymous said: “My eyes were red like hell, it was terrible, I just couldn’t handle it.”

Kathleen Winn, a former Congressional candidate from Arizona’s Congressional District 6, spoke to News 4 Tucson after the event, saying: “We hope there’s no nefarious actors in this and this is not a strategic hit.”

At the rally itself, Trump spoke about two policy proposals: no tax on tips, and making housing “affordable again.”

Trump pledged a new tax plan at the rally, by promising to end taxes on overtime.

The Harris campaign was in Tucson the same day. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, hosted a crowded, but private, event in downtown Tucson.

Both candidates are expected to spend significant time Arizona as it is a key battleground state, holding 11 critical Electoral College votes.

Additionally, Arizonans carry the legacy of John McCain, and Jimmy McCain’s recent endorsement of Harris may influence undecided Republican and Independent voters.

The most recent Arizona poll, taken by Data Orbital on September 17, has the candidates neck-and-neck at 46 percent. However, the average of all recent Arizona polls has Trump ahead by a thin margin of 0.8 percent.

Israel launched a series of overnight strikes on sites in Lebanon where the Israeli military says Hezbollah terrorists operated. The strikes follow two waves of deadly electronic device explosions across Lebanon.

The Israeli strikes targeted infrastructure sites in southern Lebanon, including the areas of Chihine, Tayibe, Blida, Meiss El Jabal, Aitaroun and Kfarkela, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Thursday. Israel also struck a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Khiam.

“The IDF will continue to operate against the threat of the Hezbollah terrorist organization in order to defend the State of Israel,” the IDF said in a statement.

במהלך הלילה, מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר תקפו מבנים צבאיים של ארגון הטרור חיזבאללה במרחבים שיחין, א-טייבה, בליידא, מיס אל ג’בל, עיתרון וכפר כילא שבדרום לבנון>> pic.twitter.com/wz1P9veyfi

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 19, 2024

The strikes followed two deadly waves of explosions across Lebanon in which electronic devices detonated in near-simultaneous explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hundreds of pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded on Tuesday, killing 12 people, including two children, and wounding some 2,800 others.

Another wave of electronic devices detonated on Wednesday, killing at least 25 and wounding more than 450. Hezbollah officials said the devices included walkie-talkies and solar equipment.

Israel has largely been blamed for the two rounds of deadly blasts. The Israeli government has not commented on the explosions.

On Wednesday, a senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that Israel is behind the explosions of pagers used by members of Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed the deadly two-day attack on Thursday, saying the group is investigating.

“Yes, we were subjected to a huge and severe blow,” Nasrallah said. “The enemy crossed all boundaries and red lines. The enemy will face a severe and fair punishment from where they expect and don’t expect.”

“The enemy went beyond all controls, laws and morals,” he continued, adding the attacks “could be considered war crimes or a declaration of war.”

The Israeli military released another statement on Thursday, blaming Hezbollah for turning Lebanon into “a combat zone.”

“The Hezbollah terrorist organization has turned southern Lebanon into a combat zone. For decades, Hezbollah has weaponized civilian homes, dug tunnels beneath them, and used civilians as human shields,” Israel’s military said.

The explosions that rocked Lebanon have deepened concerns about an escalation into an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel has injured thousands across Lebanon, with hundreds in critical condition and dozens more dead, this week in two waves of simultaneous explosions of electronic communications equipment targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists.

The blasts — which may have killed 19 and wounded 150 of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members — started on Tuesday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. local time when pagers used by Hezbollah started beeping with a message from their leadership.

After a few beeps, the pagers simultaneously exploded across the country, blinding hundreds, tearing off limbs, and leaving gaping holes in bodies.

The messages that the devices received were not from Hezbollah leadership; they were from Israel’s intelligence and military apparatus, and they were part of a multi-year plan.

There was initial confusion as to what happened when the explosions were reported. Various news reports said that malware had potentially been uploaded to the devices, causing the batteries to overheat and explode. Then reports surfaced claiming a small amount of highly explosive material had been placed into each device after Israel intercepted the devices after they were manufactured by a Taiwanese company.

However, none of those reports were accurate, according to a New York Times report that revealed that Israel never intercepted the pagers — it made them.

Hezbollah has forced tens of thousands of Israelis to evacuate their homes in northern Israel since October 7 as the terrorist group fires drones, rockets, and missiles on a regular basis — having fired many thousands in nearly 12 months.

Israel has responded with precision strikes, killing more than 300 top Hezbollah commanders and numerous lower-level terrorists.

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah pushed for the terrorists to abandon their phones and switch to low-tech pagers to avoid being tracked by Israel. Nasrallah had bragged that his strategy would “blind” Israel.

However, unbeknownst to Hezbollah, Israel had been secretly manufacturing the pagers that Hezbollah was buying for years.

The Taiwanese company Gold Apollo had contracted with a company called B.A.C. Consulting in Hungary to manufacture the pagers. B.A.C. Consulting was one of three shell companies that Israel created to mask the true manufacturer of the communications equipment: Israeli intelligence.

B.A.C. Consulting created real pagers for numerous customers to create the perception of a legitimate company in order to get picked up for the contract to produce the pagers for Hezbollah.

The pagers manufactured for Hezbollah were separate from those made for other clients, the report said. The pagers that Hezbollah received “contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN” and began shipping in 2022, the report said.

After the first round of explosions on Tuesday, Israel struck again on Wednesday, detonating Hezbollah’s backup communications equipment: walkie-talkies.

The explosions from the walkie-talkies were significantly larger than the explosions from the pagers because the devices were larger, meaning they could be packed with more explosive material. Videos posted online showed entire apartment units blown out and numerous cars engulfed in flames.

After the second wave of explosions, many in Lebanon threw their phones away, turned them off, or removed the batteries.

The walkie-talkies that Hezbollah used appeared to be from the Japanese telecommunications manufacturer Icom; however, the company said that the model Hezbollah was using had been discontinued for a decade.

The company said that it had warned consumers for years that the model of radios that Hezbollah purchased were counterfeits.

One of the goals behind the second wave of the attack was to “increase paranoia and fear in Hezbollah’s ranks, in an attempt to press the militia’s leadership to change its policy regarding the conflict with Israel,” Axios reported.

IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Col. Herzi Halevi, said that Israel was “very determined to create the security conditions that will return the residents to their homes, to the communities, with a high level of security, and we are ready to do all that is required to bring about these things.”

He warned Hezbollah: “We still have many capabilities that we have not yet activated. We saw some of these things here, and it seems to me that the readiness is good and we are preparing these plans going forward. The rule is that every time we work on a certain stage, the next two stages are already ready to advance. At each stage, the price for Hezbollah must be high.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran hacked former President Donald Trump’s campaign and turned over the stolen materials to the Biden-Harris campaign, federal officials said in a statement.

Federal officials from ODNI, FBI, and CISA said in a joint statement that Iranian hackers sent the stolen materials to then-Biden-Harris campaign officials in June and July.

Information that the hackers sent to the then-Biden-Harris campaign “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails.”

“This is further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election to help Kamala Harris and Joe Biden because they know President Trump will restore his tough sanctions and stand against their reign of terror,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign National Press Secretary. “Kamala and Biden must come clean on whether they used the hacked material given to them by the Iranians to hurt President Trump. What did they know and when did they know it?”

Although President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in mid-July after getting crushed by Trump during the presidential debate, many on his campaign were retained by Harris when the campaign was given to her.

The federal officials claimed that there was “currently no information indicating” Biden-Harris officials replied to the emails.

The statement claimed that Iran’s goal was to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process,” which is contradicted in part by numerous statements that federal officials have made in recent months about how Iran is specifically trying to stop Trump.

The Harris campaign tried to distance itself from the Biden campaign and claimed that they were “among the intended victims of this foreign influence operation.”

National security officials have warned that Iran is trying to sabotage Trump’s campaign, Iran hacked Trump’s campaign and gave the information to news organizations, and Iran has attempted to assassinate Trump.

Wall Street rallied on Thursday with the Dow and S&P 500 hitting another intraday record high — a day after the Federal Reserve kicked off its easing cycle with half-a-percentage point reduction and forecast more cuts were on the horizon.

In recent trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 569 points, or 1.4%, to 42,072. The blue-chip index had soared as much as 600 points to an all-time high of 42,105.01.

The S&P 500 gained 1.9%, and the Nasdaq leaped nearly 500 points, or 2.8%.

Rate-sensitive growth stocks that have led much of this year’s rally rose. Microsoft added 2%, Tesla gained 7% and Apple advanced 3.8%.

Semiconductor stocks such as Nvidia rose 5.3%, while Advanced Micro Devices gained 3.5% and Broadcom added 3.8%, sending the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index up 3.6%.

The Russell 2000 index also rose 2.1% with the broader market, as a lower interest environment could mean lower operating costs and greater profits for credit-dependent companies.

After delivering its super-sized verdict on Wednesday, the Fed forecast rates to fall by another 50 bps by year-end and unveiled macroeconomic projections that analysts say reflect a goldilocks scenario, where growth is steady and inflation and unemployment stay low.

Data on the day showed jobless claims for the week ended Sept. 14 stood at 219,000, lower than economists’ estimates of 230,000.

“There’s a delayed reaction to the Fed’s rate cut … the claims came in low, so it’s only going to help fuel the idea that a soft landing is in play,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.

“The guidance for plenty more cuts by the end of 2025 should open up (rate-sensitive) sectors to reengage and expand.”

Traders now see a 63.1% chance that the central bank will lower interest rates by 25 basis points at its November meeting, as per the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

BofA Global Research now anticipates a total of 75 bps rate cuts by the end of this year, compared with 50 bps forecast earlier.

Market reaction in the aftermath of the decision was muted, with all the three indexes closing slightly lower in the previous session.

However, data going back to 1970 from Evercore ISI showed the S&P 500 has posted an average 14% gain in the six months following the first reduction of a rate-cutting cycle.

September has generally been a disappointing month for US equities with the S&P 500 notching an average loss of 1.2% since 1928.

Bank of America and Wells Fargo advanced over 1% each after the big banks lowered their respective prime rates.

Citigroup also rose 4%, sending the broader banks index 2% higher.

Among individual movers, fertility benefits management firm Progyny plunged 32% after a significant client notified the company it had elected to exercise a 90-day option to terminate its services agreement.

In just under 24 hours of its release, without any radio play, Breitbart’s Jon Kahn’s moving tribute to President Donald Trump “FIGHTER” landed at #1 on the iTunes charts across all genres.

With millions of views of the video on X alone, “FIGHTER” surpassed songs from the music industry’s biggest artists like The Weeknd, Lady Gaga, and Billie Eilish, Luke Combs, and Jelly Roll.

After hearing the news of the #1, Kahn told us: “I know I speak for my co-writer, Chris Wallin, when I say we are beyond grateful that the song is resonating so strongly and that folks responded to a portrayal of President Trump that reflects his resilience, passion and love for this country….especially when the media and Hollywood are bending over backwards to hide it.”

Speaker Mike Johnson’s six-month government funding plan failed on the House floor Wednesday amid yet another rebellion within the House Republican conference over spending.

The collapse, which was expected, follows a weeklong effort to shore up support for Johnson’s stopgap, which would leave federal agencies with largely static budgets through March 28. It also included legislation that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote, known as the SAVE Act. GOP leaders pulled the package from the floor last week amid the same internal party problems, pushing forward with a vote Wednesday despite dim prospects for passage.

Fourteen House Republicans ultimately joined most Democrats to sink Johnson’s stopgap proposal on Wednesday, culminating in a 202-220 vote, with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) voting present. Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine), Don Davis (D-N.C.) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) were the Democrats who voted for the measure.

Johnson has repeatedly struggled this year to muster enough support to pass GOP funding bills, thanks to many of the same disagreements over spending currently plaguing his conference.

Those dissenting Republicans defied the calls of former President Donald Trump, who weighed in a few hours before the vote, redoubling his demands. “If Republicans don’t get the SAVE Act, and every ounce of it, they should not agree to a Continuing Resolution in any way, shape, or form,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Although a government shutdown on Oct. 1 remains unlikely, Johnson and GOP leaders are now left without a fallback plan to stave off a funding lapse in less than three weeks.

The failure increases the likelihood that House Republicans will wind up with a three-month stopgap spending bill, free of any divisive policy add-ons. Senate appropriators are readying their own spending patch through December but haven’t made a move while Johnson sorts through his options.

“I assume that if [House Republicans] can’t pull it off today, then they pivot to something else and hopefully process it in time for them to vote next week and for us to vote next week and make sure it’s all done before September 30,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said earlier Wednesday.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), a senior Republican appropriator, said it would be wise to have a backup plan, adding that he would support a stopgap into December — the option endorsed by some Republicans, Hill Democrats and the White House.

“There always needs to be a Plan B and a Plan C because we don’t want to shut the government down,” he said, adding, “We have another chamber we’ve got to satisfy as well.”

Once again, Johnson finds himself in the likely position of having to rely on Democrats to shepherd must-pass spending legislation through the House, as he did back in March with passage of two fiscal 2024 government funding packages. Some conservatives have said they’re unwilling to support a short-term spending patch, no matter what.

“We do not need today’s vote,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democratic appropriator in the House, who said the lower chamber could have passed a “clean” stopgap through December last week. “But we’ll go through this ritual.”

Republican appropriators left a meeting with Johnson on Tuesday night saying they’re in lockstep with the speaker, supporting his six-month plan paired with the SAVE Act. But privately, they’ve been urging Johnson to call a vote on a so-called continuing resolution through December, stressing that the six-month option is untenable, especially for the military.

Spending leaders on both sides of the aisle also want the stopgap to buy only enough time to wrap up fiscal 2025 government funding talks by the end of the calendar year, leaving a clean slate for a new administration and the next Congress in January.

“The goal is to make sure that the speaker has as much leverage as possible,” said Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a senior Republican appropriator, before meeting with Johnson on Tuesday night. “A short-term CR is what I’d like to get for him, for the Republicans.”

Lawmakers are also weighing add-ons to the stopgap spending bill for agencies and programs that can’t limp along on flat budgets in the coming months. That includes disaster aid and a potential funding boost for the Secret Service following two failed assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump, although some lawmakers are skeptical that more money will address the agency’s needs.

There’s bipartisan agreement, however, on the need for language allowing the Secret Service to spend money at a faster rate.

Hand-held radios used by Lebanese armed group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon’s south, further stoking tensions with Israel a day after similar explosions hit the group’s pagers.

Lebanon’s health ministry said 14 people were killed and about 450 injured on Wednesday in Beirut’s suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, while the death toll from Tuesday’s explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.

Israeli officials have not commented on the blasts, but security sources said Israel’s spy agency Mossad was responsible. One Hezbollah official said the episode was the biggest security breach in the group’s history.

The operations, which appeared to throw Hezbollah into disarray, played out alongside Israel’s 11-month-old war in Gaza and heightened fears of an escalation on its Lebanese border and the risk of a full-blown regional war.

“We are opening a new phase in the war. It requires courage, determination and perseverance from us,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in remarks at an air force base.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi accused Israel of pushing the Middle East to the brink of a regional war by orchestrating a dangerous escalation on many fronts.

The U.S., which denied any involvement in the blasts, said it was involved in intensive diplomacy to avert an escalation of the conflict.

At least one of Wednesday’s blasts in Lebanon took place near a funeral organised by Iran-backed Hezbollah for those killed the previous day when thousands of the group’s pagers exploded across the country and wounded many of its fighters.

A Reuters reporter in the southern suburbs of Beirut said he saw Hezbollah members frantically taking batteries out of any walkie-talkies that had not exploded, tossing the parts in metal barrels. Hezbollah turned to pagers and other low-tech communications devices in an attempt to evade Israeli surveillance of mobile phones.

Lebanon’s Red Cross said on X that it was responding with 30 ambulance teams to multiple explosions in different areas, including the south of Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley.

Images of the exploded walkie-talkies showed labels with “ICOM” and “made in Japan.” According to its website, ICOM, which did not immediately reply to a request for comment, is a Japan-based radio communications and telephone company.

The company has said that production of model IC-V82, which appeared to be the model in the images, was phased out in 2014.

The hand-held radios were purchased by Hezbollah five months ago, around the same time as the pagers, a security source said.

In Tuesday’s explosions, sources said Israeli spies remotely detonated explosives they planted in a Hezbollah order of 5,000 pagers before they entered the country.

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Friday over the pager blasts after a request by Arab states. Iran will follow up on an attack targeting its ambassador in Lebanon, the Iranian envoy to the United Nations said in a letter, saying it “reserves its rights under international law to take required measures deemed necessary to respond”.

Hezbollah launches rockets

Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel. It said on Wednesday it attacked Israeli artillery positions with rockets, the first strike at its arch-foe since the blasts. The Israeli military said there were no reports of any damage or casualties.

The two sides have been fighting across the Lebanese border since the Gaza conflict erupted in October, fuelling fears of a wider Middle East war that could drag in the United States and Iran.

“Hezbollah wants to avoid an all-out war. It still wants to avoid one. But given the scale, the impact on families, on civilians, there will be pressure for a stronger response,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, deputy director of research at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Gallant said Israel, which has vowed to return evacuated residents to their homes in the north, was transferring troops and resources to the Lebanon border region. Israeli sources said this included the army’s 98th Division, which has commando and paratrooper formations, moving from Gaza to the north.

“The ‘centre of gravity’ is moving north, meaning that we are allocating forces, resources and energy for the northern arena,” Gallant said in remarks released by his office.

A full-blown war with Israel could devastate Lebanon, which has lurched from one crisis to another, including a 2019 financial collapse and the 2020 Beirut port blast.

Rising tensions may also complicate so far unsuccessful efforts by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the U.S. to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally also backed by Iran.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday it was too soon to assess the impact of the blasts on ceasefire talks.

Hezbollah, Iran’s most powerful proxy in the Middle East, said in a statement it would continue to support Hamas in Gaza and Israel should await a response to the pager “massacre.”

A Hamas delegation visited people wounded in the blasts in Lebanese hospitals on Wednesday, Lebanese state news agency NNA said.

The explosions followed a series of assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas commanders and leaders ascribed to Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced that it would not be endorsing any candidate for president for the first time since 1988.

The union made the decision after revealing polling of union members had overwhelmingly rejected the Democratic ticket.

In an electronic member poll after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, 59.6% of union members said the union should back Trump while only 34% said they should support Harris. In a research phone poll after the two conventions, 58% said the union should support Trump while only 31% said they should support Harris.

“We strongly encourage all our members to vote in the upcoming election, and to remain engaged in the political process,” read a statement from Teamsters president Sean O’Brien. “But this year, no candidate for President has earned the endorsement of the Teamsters’ International Union.”

The astounding decision is seen as a victory for former President Donald Trump’s efforts to pull away unions from the Democratic Party.

The former president met with union leaders in January in a bid to obtain their endorsement, and in July, the Teamsters president gave a stirring speech at the Republican National Convention.

“Usually a Republican wouldn’t get that endorsement,” said Trump in January. “But in my case it’s different because I’ve employed thousands of Teamsters, and I thought we should come over and pay our respects.”

Trump choosing U.S. Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate was also seen as a gesture toward gaining the favor of unions because of Vance’s support of tariffs and protectionist economic policies.

“For the short time we’ve worked together, he’s been great on Teamster issues,” said O’Brien on Fox News. “He’s been right there on all our issues.”

The union had also made campaign donations of $45,000 to each of the party’s conventions, the first time the Teamsters had done so in 24 years.

A spokesperson for the Harris campaign released a statement about the Teamsters decision.

“As the Vice President told the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file no matter what – because they always have been and always will be the people she fights for,” said Lauren Hitt.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas used the decision to hit Democrats on the issue of illegal immigration.

“The Teamsters—and all workers—know that President Kamala would invite tens of millions more illegal aliens to lower wages for Americans. A vote for President Trump is a vote for a bigger paycheck,” he wrote on X.

Hundreds of U.S. border officers are under investigation for alleged misconduct including trafficking, bribery and sexual assault, Newsweek reported.

Official figures seen by Newsweek show that 211 officers of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) face accusations ranging from serious crime such as drug smuggling, to non-criminal misconduct.

The documents show 17 alleged cases of domestic violence, 11 cases of sexual assault, and 10 cases of smuggling migrants across the border.

Another 11 agents are being investigated for physical abuse of a detainee, while 13 stand accused of association with criminal gangs.

The true picture of the alleged misconduct could be significantly worse, however, as Newsweek understands that the CBP is also probing allegations of crimes against children.

Those cases, which were not broken down in the data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are categorized by the CBP as “other criminal” because they do not match the general criminal categories listed in the agency’s case management system.

All of the cases are being looked at by the CBP’s own Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and concern serving officers.

The findings, pertaining to alleged wrongdoing in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, have prompted calls for an FBI investigation.

Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva told Newsweek: “The number of CBP agents under investigation for a large variety of transgressions is extremely concerning. If the reports are true that the investigations are being led by the CBP Office of Professional Responsibility, I worry the integrity of the investigations is at risk.

“CBP’s OPR is not an independent investigatory unit; it is made up of fellow CBP agents, many of whom have abused their positions of trust and been rehired or reassigned to OPR. It is well known for its history of coverups. I would urge Secretary Mayorkas and the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security to have these agents investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.”

A CBP spokesperson told Newsweek: “CBP does not tolerate misconduct within our ranks. When we discover any alleged or potential misconduct, we immediately refer it for investigation and cooperate fully with any criminal or administrative investigations.

“This is the case whether the alleged misconduct occurs on or off duty. Investigations are conducted thoroughly and with proper oversight, ensuring that appropriate action can be taken if and as needed, including working with law enforcement authorities.”

The revelations come against a backdrop of heightened political tensions over immigration and asylum as the U.S. heads into the 2024 election.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are both seeking to convince voters they can control the U.S.-Mexico border, with recent Gallup polling showing a majority of Americans now favoring greater immigration curbs for the first time since 2005. The poll showed a 15-point surge among Republicans, an 11-point increase among independents and a 10-point increase among Democrats compared to a year ago.

Responding to Newsweek’s report, Nicole Elizabeth Ramos, director of Al Otro Lado’s border rights project, said: “The real danger is not asylum seekers; it is the culture of impunity that allows human rights violators and criminals to police the border.”

“The agency cannot be salvaged,” she added.

The OPR, which was established with the authority to investigate corruption and misconduct, is headed by an Assistant Commissioner who reports directly to the Commissioner of CBP.

Amy Fisher, Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights at Amnesty International, told Newsweek the figures were “not surprising” and called for Congress to investigate the allegations.

“Over the last 20 years, Congress has tripled CBP’s budget and nearly doubled the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents with minimal oversight over the agency’s misuse of federal funds, verbal and physical abuse by its agents, history of racism and misogyny, or even the agency’s tactic of seizing religious items from people in its custody.

“Congress must take its oversight responsibility seriously and take a serious look at the systemic nature of the abuses and the ineffective accountability mechanisms that allow this systemic issue to persist,” she said.

The findings follow a recent report by a coalition of immigration and human rights organizations documenting claims from LGBTQ+ and HIV-positive migrants of abuse while in the custody of CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Of the 41 asylum seekers surveyed, a third alleged incidents of sexual abuse, physical violence, or harassment during their detention.

In August, a CBP agent was found guilty of abducting a teenage girl before sexually abusing her, while in June an officer was convicted after accepting bribes to permit drug-filled vehicles to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Some 63,000 officers serve in the CBP, making it one of the world’s largest law enforcement agencies, responsible for border management and ensuring safe international travel.

Vivek Ramaswamy has come off the campaign trail and will soon be taking part in the streaming wars.

The former Republican presidential candidate will lead “Truths with Vivek Ramaswamy,” a limited-series roundtable program that will debut on the Fox Nation streaming service on Sunday, September 22, and then air in a shorter version at 10 p.m. the same evening on Fox News Channel.

Ramaswamy aims to depict “a positive alternative to the left’s vision for the future” by discussing issues such as American national identity, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel and the protests on US college campuses, and religion, among others.

“We are excited to launch this new series showcasing Mr. Ramaswamy’s thoughtful and unique perspective on the state of American politics after his meteoric rise over the last year,” said Lauren Petterson, president of Fox Nation, in a statement. Fox Nation will show five episodes of the program.

The panel will include Apoorva Ramaswamy, the host’s wife; Matt Taibbi, a journalist; American theoretical physicist Steven Koonin; Ben Zimmer, CEO of Priovant Therapeutics; and Rabbi Shmully Hecht.

Ramaswamy, a telegenic pharmaceutical and finance entrepreneur, gained traction during the Republican primaries, trying to position himself as an heir to former President Donald Trump, whose candidacy he eventually supported. Ramaswamy has come out against abortion and pledged to raise the voting age in the United States.

“Today conservatives know what we’re against. But what exactly do we stand for? To answer that question, we need to talk to every American, not just those who agree with us,” Ramswamy said in a statement.

“That’s the subject of my new book ‘Truths: The Future of America-First,’ and I enjoyed partnering with Fox Nation to host provocative dinner table conversations that we rarely have in our country anymore.”

Fox Nation will also release “Just Ask: Vivek Ramaswamy” on Friday, September 20, a one hour forum in which Ramaswamy takes questions from an audience. The show, taped in Philadelphia, will be moderated by Pete Hegseth, the weekend co-host of “Fox & Friends.”

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday enacted its first interest rate cut since the early days of the Covid pandemic, slicing half a percentage point off benchmark rates in an effort to head off a slowdown in the labor market.

With both the jobs picture and inflation softening, the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee chose to lower its key overnight borrowing rate by a half percentage point, or 50 basis points, affirming market expectations that had recently shifted from an outlook for a cut half that size.

Outside of the emergency rate reductions during Covid, the last time the FOMC cut by half a point was in 2008 during the global financial crisis.

The decision lowers the federal funds rate to a range between 4.75%-5%. While the rate sets short-term borrowing costs for banks, it spills over into multiple consumer products such as mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

In addition to this reduction, the committee indicated through its “dot plot” the equivalent of 50 more basis points of cuts by the end of the year, close to market pricing. The matrix of individual officials’ expectations pointed to another full percentage point in cuts by the end of 2025 and a half point in 2026. In all, the dot plot shows the benchmark rate coming down about 2 percentage points beyond Wednesday’s move.

“The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2 percent, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance,” the post-meeting statement said.

The decision to ease came “in light of progress on inflation and the balance of risks.” Notably, the FOMC vote was 11-1, with Governor Michelle Bowman preferring a quarter-point move. Bowman’s dissent was the first by a Fed governor since 2005, though a number of regional presidents have cast “no” votes during the period.

“We’re trying to achieve a situation where we restore price stability without the kind of painful increase in unemployment that has come sometimes with this inflation. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think you could take today’s action as a sign of our strong commitment to achieve that goal,” Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference following the decision.

Trading was volatile after the decision with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping as much as 375 points after it was released, before easing somewhat as investors digested the news and considered what it suggests about the state of the economy.

Stocks ended slightly lower on the day while Treasury yields bounced higher.

“This is not the beginning of a series of 50 basis point cuts. The market was thinking to itself, if you go 50, another 50 has a high likelihood. But I think [Powell] really dashed that idea to some extent,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “It’s not that he thinks that’s not going to happen, it’s that he’s not he’s not pre-committing to that to happen. That is the right call.”

The committee noted that “job gains have slowed and the unemployment rate has moved up but remains low.” FOMC officials raised their expected unemployment rate this year to 4.4%, from the 4% projection at the last update in June, and lowered the inflation outlook to 2.3% from 2.6% previous. On core inflation, the committee took down its projection to 2.6%, a 0.2 percentage point reduction from June.

The committee expects the long-run neutral rate to be around 2.9%, a level that has drifted higher as the Fed has struggled to get inflation down to 2%.

The decision comes despite most economic indicators looking fairly solid.

Gross domestic product has been rising steadily, and the Atlanta Fed is tracking 3% growth in the third quarter based on continuing strength in consumer spending. Moreover, the Fed chose to cut even though most gauges indicate inflation well ahead of the central bank’s 2% target. The Fed’s preferred measure shows inflation running around 2.5%, well below its peak but still higher than policymakers would like.

However, Powell and other policymakers in recent days have expressed concern about the labor market. While layoffs have shown little sign of rebounding, hiring has slowed significantly. In fact, the last time the monthly hiring rate was this low – 3.5% as a share of the labor force – the unemployment rate was above 6%.

At his news conference following the July meeting, Powell remarked that a 50 basis point cut was “not something we’re thinking about right now.”

For the moment, at least, the move helps settle a contentious debate over how forceful the Fed should have been with the initial move.

However, it sets the stage for future questions over how far the central bank should go before it stops cutting. There was a wide dispersion among members for where they see rates heading in future years.

Investors’ conviction on the move vacillated in the days leading up to the meeting. Over the past week, the odds had shifted to a half-point cut, with the probability for 50 basis points at 63% just before the decision coming down, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch gauge.

The Fed last reduced rates on March 16, 2020, part of an emergency response to an economic shutdown brought about by the spread of Covid-19. It began hiking in March 2022 as inflation was climbing to its highest level in more than 40 years, and last raised rates in July 2023. During the tightening campaign, the Fed raised rates 75 basis points four consecutive times.

The current jobless level is 4.2%, drifting higher over the past year though still at a level that would be considered full employment.

“This was an atypical big cut,” Porceli said. “We’re not knocking on recessions’ door. This easing and this bit cut is about recalibrating policy for the fact that inflation has slowed so much.”

With the Fed at the center of the global financial universe, Wednesday’s decision likely will reverberate among other central banks, several of whom already have started cutting. The factors that drove global inflation higher were related mainly to the pandemic – crippled international supply chains, outsized demand for goods over services, and an unprecedented influx of monetary and fiscal stimulus.

The Bank of England, European Central Bank and Canada’s central bank all have cut rates recently, though others awaited the Fed’s cue.

While the Fed approved the rate cut, it left in place a program in which it is slowly reducing the size of its bond holdings. The process, nicknamed “quantitative tightening,” has brought the Fed’s balance sheet down to $7.2 trillion, a reduction of about $1.7 trillion from its peak. The Fed is allowing up to $50 billion a month in maturing Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities to roll off each month, down from the initial $95 billion when QT started.

Former first lady Melania Trump said she “stands proudly behind her nude modeling work,” in a video posted Wednesday on social media promoting her upcoming memoir.

The 45-second clip, posted on X (formerly Twitter), opens with a voice-over by Trump defending the modeling. She then asks, “Why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot?”

She continued, “Are we no longer able to appreciate the beauty of the human body?”

The video does not feature her modeling photos but instead shows well-known nude statues and artworks.

Trump had a modeling career dating back to her teen years. She was discovered by a Slovenian photographer at 16 and signed with a modeling agency in Milan a couple of years later.

She modeled in Paris and Milan for some years before moving to New York in 1996. Over the years, she has appeared on several major magazine covers, including posing nude for the cover of GQ in 2000.

“We should honor our bodies and embrace the timeless tradition of using art as a powerful means of self-expression,” Trump said in the video, which then cuts to an image of her forthcoming memoir, Melania. The video ends with a link to purchase the book.

https://t.co/ZCTwZSqZND pic.twitter.com/FH9SRFQeUR

— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) September 18, 2024

The memoir, which Trump’s website says will include “stories and images never before shared with the public,” is scheduled to be released October 8. It will cover important childhood moments, meeting Donald Trump and her time as first lady.

Trump was born and raised in Slovenia. She started dating the former president in 1998, and they were married in 2005. The following year, she became a naturalized American citizen.

She has been more active on social media recently, largely in connection with the memoir.

Four days ago, Trump posted a different video promoting her memoir that called out the FBI for its 2022 raid on the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago estate in connection with classified documents her husband possessed.

“I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here in America,” the former first lady said. “The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched through my personal belongings. This is not just my story, it serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.”

She previously shared a video discussing the failed assassination attempt on her husband during a Pennsylvania campaign rally in July, urging viewers to “uncover the truth.” The clip ended with the release date of her book.

Faced with increasing crime and economic pressures from its migrant crisis, Sweden plans to significantly increase financial incentives for migrants to leave the country.

Beginning in 2026, Migration Minister Johan Forssell says Sweden will offer $34,000 to migrants willing to return to their nation of origin.

Presently, the Swedish government’s program offers $976 per adult and $488 per child, with a cap of $3,903 per family. This program saw minimal uptake in 2023, with just one participant.

The proposed increase aims to make the offer more attractive, especially for the several hundred thousand migrants in Sweden who are unemployed or reliant on state benefits, according to Sweden Democrats (SD) spokesman Ludvig Aspling.

Over the past two years, the Swedish government has tightened its asylum and immigration policies.

The Swedish government acknowledges a “paradigm shift” in migration policy and the need to address labor immigration fraud and the challenges of the “shadow society.”

The National Pulse reported in August that data released by the Swedish government suggests the country—with a population of 10.6 million—has recently achieved historically low levels of new asylum claims. Despite this, the Nordic nation has still received over 250,000 asylum seekers since mid-2023.

Recent migrants primarily originate from Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Iraq.

Many of these migrants are young men of military age and have played a large part in the country’s increasing rate of sexual assaults, robberies, and fraud.

The U.S. military has moved about 130 soldiers along with mobile rocket launchers to a desolate island in the Aleutian chain of western Alaska amid a recent increase in Russian military planes and vessels approaching American territory.

Eight Russian military planes and four navy vessels, including two submarines, have come close to Alaska in the past week as Russia and China conducted joint military drills. None of the planes breached U.S. airspace and a Pentagon spokesperson said Tuesday there was no cause for alarm.

“It’s not the first time that we’ve seen the Russians and the Chinese flying, you know, in the vicinity, and that’s something that we obviously closely monitor, and it’s also something that we’re prepared to respond to,” Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said at a news conference.

As part of a “force projection operation,” the Army on Sept. 12 sent the soldiers to Shemya Island, some 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) southwest of Anchorage, where the U.S. Air Force maintains an air station that dates to World War II. The soldiers brought two High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, with them.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said the U.S. military also deployed a guided missile destroyer and a Coast Guard vessel to the western region of Alaska as Russia and China began the “Ocean-24” military exercises in the Pacific and Arctic oceans Sept. 10.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command said it detected and tracked Russian military planes operating off Alaska over a four-day span. There were two planes each on Sept. 11, Sept. 13, Sept. 14 and Sept. 15.

The planes operated in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, a zone beyond U.S. sovereign airspace, but within which the U.S. expects aircraft to identify themselves, NORAD said.

NORAD has said the number of such incursions has fluctuated yearly. The average was six to seven intercepts a year. Last year, 26 Russian planes came into the Alaska zone, and so far this year, there have been 25.

Often in such encounters, the military provides photos of the Russian warplanes being escorted by either U.S. or Canadian planes, such as during a July 24 intercept of two Russian and two Chinese planes. However, none was released in the past week and a NORAD spokeswoman, Canadian Maj. Jennie Derenzis, declined to say whether jets were scrambled to intercept the Russian planes.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday its homeland security vessel, the 418-foot (127-meter) Stratton, was on routine patrol in the Chukchi Sea when it tracked four Russian Federation Navy vessels about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northwest of Point Hope, Alaska.

The Russian vessels, which included two submarines, a frigate and a tugboat, had crossed the maritime boundary into U.S. waters to avoid sea ice, which is permitted under international rules and customs.

Two years ago, a U.S. Coast Guard ship about 85 miles (137 kilometers) north of Alaska’s Kiska Island in the Bering Sea came across three Chinese and four Russian naval vessels sailing in single formation.

Ryder, the Pentagon spokesperson, said the recent spike is “something that we’ll continue to keep an eye on, but doesn’t pose a threat from our perspective.”

Sullivan called for a larger military presence in the Aleutians while advocating for the U.S. to respond with strength to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“In the past two years, we’ve seen joint Russian-Chinese air and naval exercises off our shores and a Chinese spy balloon floating over our communities,” Sullivan said in a statement Tuesday.

“These escalating incidents demonstrate the critical role the Arctic plays in great power competition between the U.S., Russia, and China.”

Sullivan said the U.S. Navy should reopen its shuttered base at Adak, located in the Aleutians. Naval Air Facility Adak was closed in 1997.

A pager bomb attack that left roughly 4,000 Hezbollah members injured and 12 dead in Lebanon and Syria yesterday was authored by Israel’s Mossad spy agency and the IDF, several security sources claim.

The Lebanese group earlier this year ordered thousands of pagers to conduct communications after leader Hassan Nasrallah declared smartphones would be more susceptible to cyber attacks by Israeli forces.

Israeli military and intelligence personnel managed to access 5,000 pagers ‘at the production level’ and insert a small amount of high explosives months before they were imported to Lebanon, according to several security sources who spoke to Reuters.

‘The Mossad injected a board inside of the device that has explosive material that receives a code. It’s very hard to detect it through any means. Even with any device or scanner,’ a Lebanese security source said.

The source claimed Hezbollah ordered the pagers from a Taiwanese company called Gold Apollo, but executives there said the devices were actually manufactured and sold under licence by BAC Consulting in Budapest, Hungary.

Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, later said he spoke with Hezbollah members who had examined pagers that failed to explode.

The pagers appeared to receive a coded error message sent to all the devices that caused them to vibrate and beep for some 10 seconds.

When the user pressed the pager’s button to cancel the alert, the explosives were detonated – a design that would ensure the pager was being held by the user at the time of the blast to inflict maximum damage.

The months-long operation by Mossad and the IDF represents an unprecedented security breach for Hezbollah, which vowed to exact revenge on Israel and continue its support for ally Hamas amid the ongoing war in Gaza.

‘The resistance will continue today, like any other day, its operations to support Gaza, its people and its resistance which is a separate path from the harsh punishment that the criminal enemy (Israel) should await in response to Tuesday’s massacre,’ a statement read.

A US security official today said that the attack was planned for a later date as part of an ‘all-out offensive’ against Hezbollah, but Israel chose to detonate the devices early amid concerns the Lebanese group had become aware of the plan.

‘It was a use it or lose it moment,’ the source told Axios on condition of anonymity.

The string of detonations, which began around 3:30pm local time yesterday and continued for roughly an hour, gave way to widespread panic and chaos across Beirut’s southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and even in neighbouring Syria.

Shocking video footage showed how unsuspecting targets reached for their pagers, only to be blown off their feet by an unexpected and violent explosion.

Victims were seen writhing in agony with hideous injuries to their faces, abdomens and even their groins in harrowing images and videos shared to social media and published on Lebanese networks.

Among the 12 people reportedly killed were two girls, aged eight and ten, and several Hezbollah fighters, as well as the son of a Lebanese MP.

Iran later confirmed its ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, sustained injuries to his face and hand.

More than 4,000 people were ultimately injured in the blasts, 400 of whom were rushed to hospital in critical condition.

Early speculation in the wake of the blasts suggested an Israeli hack could have overloaded the lithium ion batteries powering the pagers, which can burn up to 590 degrees celsius (1,100 F) when ignited.

But a slew of security sources and experts have since determined the detonations were caused by an Israeli operation that disrupted the supply chain and inserted explosives into the pagers that were subsequently remotely activated by the coded error message.

A former British Army bomb disposal officer explained that an explosive device has five main components: A container, a battery, a triggering device, a detonator and an explosive charge.

‘A pager has three of those already,’ explained the ex-officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he now works as a consultant with clients on the Middle East.

‘You would only need to add the detonator and the charge.’

By the time of the attack, ‘the battery was probably half-explosive and half-actual battery,’ said Carlos Perez, director of security intelligence at TrustedSec.

The Federal Reserve is poised to cut its key interest rate Wednesday, the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic that it has pushed it lower.

A reduction to the central bank’s federal funds rate serves as a benchmark for other borrowing costs throughout the economy. And while that move has been widely anticipated, investors have been unable to predict how large the cut will be.

On Tuesday, a survey by CNBC correspondent Steve Liesman showed a majority of respondents forecasting a 0.25% cut from the current 5.3% level, even as Wall Street traders said it was more likely that the central bank would issue a 0.5% cut.

The Fed tends to move in 0.25% increments — and until recently, there was general agreement that it was likely to lower the rate by that amount. But a series of data points showing worsening economic conditions has made some analysts believe a 0.5% cut is more likely — and perhaps even necessary.

While the unemployment rate, at 4.2%, remains relatively low by historical standards, it has climbed in four of the last five months — a pace that tends to occur before recessions. And while layoff activity remains subdued, hiring rates have ground to a halt, making life miserable for many people looking for a job.

In a recent research paper, economists at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve argued the U.S. labor market may be even worse off than it appears, noting that by one measure, every open position now has 1.5 job applicants — well below the pre-pandemic average.

“We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions,” Fed Chair Jay Powell said in a speech last month.

Among those in favor of a 0.5% cut is Bill Dudley, the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now a columnist for Bloomberg News.

“When the labor market deteriorates beyond a certain point, the process tends to be self-reinforcing,” Dudley warned Monday, adding that investors increasingly see signs of weakness that the Fed could be missing.

In a blog post the same day, Preston Mui, senior economist at Employ America, a research group that advocates for full employment, said a large “up front” cut would signal that the Fed wants to get ahead of labor market deterioration.

If, instead, the Fed opts for a 0.25% cut even as the central bank indicates it will do another 0.25% cut at its next meeting in November, it will signal to markets that it does not have the appetite for being proactive, Mui said.

“If the Fed waits for layoffs to rise, they will probably be too late; fire prevention is more effective than fire fighting,” he wrote.

The counterargument: Markets could interpret a 0.5% cut as a sign the Fed thinks the economy is in worse shape than even the more alarming recent data suggests.

“A (0.5%) cut is usually done in emergencies,” like the Covid-19 pandemic, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s financial group. “Some could interpret that as the economy going off the rails.”

Whatever the outcome, some consumers have already begun to benefit merely from the anticipation that the Fed will lower rates. Mortgage interest rates have hit their lowest level since February 2023, while auto loan rates are also falling.

A 0.5% cut would more directly affect rates tied to the fed funds rate, including credit cards, home equity lines of credit and small-business loans.

However, substantial relief in the short term from either a 0.25% or 0.5% cut is unlikely, according to Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

“By itself, one rate cut isn’t a panacea for borrowers grappling with high financing costs and has a minimal impact on the overall household budget,” McBride wrote in a note released Monday. “What will be more significant is the cumulative effect of a series of interest rate cuts over time.”

Consumers should continue aggressively paying down high-cost credit card debt or home equity lines of credit carrying double-digit interest rates, he said.

“Interest rates won’t fall fast enough to bail you out of a tight situation,” McBride wrote.

Nearly 100,000 Arizonans who registered to vote over the past 20 years were mistakenly considered to have provided proof of citizenship due to a quirk in the Motor Vehicle Department’s system.

Arizona voters who can’t provide proof of citizenship are only permitted to vote in federal races under a system created by a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

There are currently more than 41,000 “federal-only” voters on the books.

Arizona voters in 2004 approved a law requiring people to show proof of citizenship to register to vote.

Because the MVD began requiring proof of citizenship for driver’s licenses in October 1996, election officials accepted those licenses as proof for voter registration purposes.

Non-citizens receive a different type of driver’s license that can’t be used as proof of citizenship.

People who registered to vote before the law went into effect in January 2005 were exempted from the new requirement.

Due to an error in the MVD system, people with pre-1996 licenses who received replacements that showed post-1996 dates were mistakenly able to use them as proof of citizenship, Votebeat first reported Tuesday.

About 98,000 of those people are still registered to vote statewide, with nearly 88,000 listed as active voters.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office informed the Secretary of State’s Office of the issue on Sept. 6 after discovering someone who hadn’t provided proof of citizenship was registered as a full-ballot voter.

That person turned out to be a non-citizen who has never voted.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, announced on X Tuesday that he believes those voters should only be permitted to vote in federal races.

Most of those voters are likely U.S. citizens, he said, but they haven’t met Arizona’s proof-of-citizenship requirement.

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, says he believes those voters should be able to cast full ballots in November’s election.

Richer filed a petition with the Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday asking that the 98,000 be permitted to cast federal-only ballots.

Fontes characterized it as friendly litigation intended to sort out the issue in court.

Saturday is the deadline for Arizona counties to mail ballots to military and overseas voters, and early voting begins Oct. 9.

If the affected voters are required to cast federal-only ballots, Fontes said at a press conference Tuesday, they’ll be able to show proof of citizenship to vote a full ballot any time through 7pm on Election Day.

Election officials will notify anyone who’s being switched to federal-only status, but Fontes said that won’t happen until the the Arizona Supreme Court decides the case.

The group of 98,000 voters has more Republicans than Democrats or independents, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

If they’re only permitted to vote in federal races, they’ll still be able to cast ballots in Arizona’s closely watched races for president and U.S. Senate, but not for the Legislature, ballot propositions, or county and local races.

Arizona Republican Party chair Gina Swoboda told Axios the 98,000 voters should be allowed to cast full ballots because the change would be too close to the election.

She added there isn’t enough time for many voters to provide proof of citizenship.

Swoboda also noted we’re within the 90-day window before the election in which federal law prohibits states from removing ineligible voters from their lists.

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Kate Hobbs announced that her administration fixed the MVD glitch after Richer brought it to her attention.