Israel has launched a ground incursion in Lebanon after devastating airstrikes against Hezbollah's leadership. Emergency operations gather pace in areas hit by Helene, with the death toll expected to rise. And what to expect from JD Vance and Tim Walz in today's vice presidential debate.
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Today, Israel says its launch ground raids into Lebanon targeting Hezbollah. A massive search and rescue effort is underway in North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, as officials fear the death toll could soar. And, JD Vance and Tim Walz face off tonight in the vice presidential debate. It's Tuesday, October 1st. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Tara Oakes in Liverpool. And I'm Christopher Waljespert in Chicago. Israel says intense fighting has erupted with Hezbollah in south Lebanon after its paratroops and commandos launched raids there. At the start of a ground incursion and after devastating airstrikes against Hezbollah's leadership. In Reuters footage filmed early Tuesday morning, tanks could be seen being transported near the border in northern Israel. The Israeli military said the operations in Lebanon began on Monday night and involved the elite 98th division, which was deployed to the northern front two weeks ago from Gaza where they had been fighting against Hamas for months. Over the past year, Hezbollah has been attacking Israel in solidarity with Hamas, and Israel wants to bring back thousands of Israelis who have fled the cross-border hostilities. It says its air force and artillery are supporting ground troops engaged in limited raids against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon villages that pose an immediate threat to Israeli communities. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing that Israel had informed them about a number of operations. They have at this time told us that those are limited operations focused on Hezbollah infrastructure near the border. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a warning to Hezbollah's main backer, Iran, in a video clip released by his office. There is nowhere in the Middle East, Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country. He accused the Iranian government of plunging the Middle East deeper into war at the expense of its own people. As intense bombing continues across the country, Lebanese people fleeing ongoing strikes have been arriving at airports across Europe in the Middle East. This is 26-year-old Mohammed Shabhan who landed in Cyprus. The situation there is very bad, they are bombing every day in Beirut. Twenty-five-year-old Joya Cooley landed in Athens. I'm in Spain, my country is in Spain and I haven't felt this way before. You can follow our live coverage of this developing story on Reuters.com and the Reuters app. The rising geopolitical risks in the Middle East are keeping the oil price steady. Common Crements has more. That's right, oil prices are steady today in the wake of those Israeli ground raids inside Lebanon. But it hasn't been a steady few months for oil. In fact, Brent crude futures ended September down 9%, the third month of declines. And that's because the outlook for demand from China, a major consumer, isn't great. Plus, there's the prospect of plenty of supply. OPEC Plus is expected to raise output in December. And if you want to hear more about future demand for oil and what it means for the global economy and the planet, check out this week's episode of my podcast, Reuters Econ World. You can catch it on Reuters.com, the Reuters app, or wherever you get your podcasts. This has been an unprecedented storm that is hit Western North Carolina. It's requiring an unprecedented response. North Carolina governor Roy Cooper says rescue teams are still searching for survivors in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. More than 100 people are confirmed dead across six states since the storm made landfall on Friday. But Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood Randall expects that number to rise. The current data we have is that it looks like there could be as many as 600 lost lives. President Biden is promising aid to the region and plans to visit later this week. More than 2 million homes and businesses are still without power and communication outages are widespread. One of our photographers, Jonathan Drake, was in Boone, North Carolina, near the border with Tennessee and Virginia. There was a lot of water on the roads, sometimes flowing at ridiculous levels, like almost like a river or a waterfall over bridges and over stretches of road. So much rain fell so quickly that it just wiped out places and completely flooded people's homes. So getting around is really challenging and quite unsafe. It's rising up to levels that they haven't seen there in lifetimes and they're comparing it to Katrina. VP Kamala Harris attended a FEMA briefing in Washington on Monday and says she plans to visit the region soon. East and Gulf Coast port workers are on strike and it could cost the U.S. economy $5 billion a day. Some 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen's Association union failed to reach an agreement with the U.S. Maritime Alliance overpay. The strike could stop the flow of everything from food to automobiles at major ports, potentially jeopardizing jobs and stoking inflation weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election. Taiwan has mobilized nearly 40,000 troops to be on standby for rescue efforts. As powerful typhoon craython approaches its populous southwest coast, which is bracing for a storm surge. Mexico's new president, Claudia Shinebaum, takes office today in Mexico City. She was elected this summer to succeed on Dresmanuel Lopez-Obrador and steps into office amid diplomatic challenges, a strained economy, and is tasked with implementing her predecessors controversial judicial reforms in her early days in office. Now if you want to hear more about Claudia Shinebaum, listen to our weekend special about Mexico's new president. There's a link in the show notes. A state court judge has blocked a Georgia law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, finding it violated the rights to privacy and liberty guaranteed by the state constitution. The order from Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney allows abortions to resume for now, though the state can appeal to have the law reinstated. Vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz step on stage tonight in New York City for what looks to be the last debate before the November 5th election. But as these VP picks compare military records and try to relate to rural Americans and independent voters across the U.S., our political reporter Jim Olifand will be watching tonight's debate to see how it might actually move the needle for voters. Jim, what should we expect from Walz and Vance tonight? We can expect Vance to go after Walz on the 2020 protests in Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. Walz was governor of Minnesota and his critics said that he was too slow to react to the violence and the turmoil going on in the city. That's something Walz is going to have to defend himself on. Now Walz is going to probably go after Vance on issues like abortion. Vance has always taken a harder line than Donald Trump on the issue. He supports the national abortion ban and that he'd like to see abortion made illegal across the country. And in the end, how much will this debate actually change things? I mean, the real thing to keep in mind when you watch this debate is that it really doesn't matter how many points Vance scores on Walz or Walz scores on Vance because voters aren't going to be electing either one of them president. It's all about the primary person at the top of the ticket, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. So the real measure of success on either side is whether they can change somebody's mind out there or persuade someone to vote for the top of the ticket. Today's recommended read is all about birds of a feather flocking together and one town in Argentina being sick of it. Thousands of parrots have descended on Hilario Askasubi due to deforestation on the nearby hills according to biologists. You can hear all about their parrot problem in the link in today's pod description. And for more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters App. To never miss an episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show. [MUSIC]
