Israel has stepped up its military presence in Lebanon to keep the pressure on Hezbollah as it prepares to retaliate against a barrage of Iranian missile strikes. Donald Trump seeks to boost his presidential bid in the wake of Hurricane Helene. And how fentanyl traffickers are exploiting a U.S. trade law to kill Americans.
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Today, Israel and the United States promised to hit back after Iran launches a missile attack on Israel. As rescuers searched for the missing after Hurricane Helene, the natural disaster could have broader implications on the US presidential election. And the surprising route that drug traffickers are using to transport fentanyl chemicals. It's Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 Wahljasper in Chicago. Alarms across Israel on Tuesday night as rockets lit up the skies over Jerusalem, as Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. Iran, describing the operation as defensive, aiming at military infrastructure and in response to Israel's operation against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Despite international calls for a ceasefire, fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues. The Israeli military says that regular infantry and armoured units are joining ground operations in southern Lebanon, calling those operations limited and localised, and largely aimed at destroying tunnels and other infrastructure on the border. Israel says there are no plans for a wider ground operation targeting Beirut or other major cities. But Israel has renewed airstrikes against what it said would targets belonging to Hezbollah in Beirut's southern suburbs. Iran says its attack is over, barring further provocation, while Israel and the US have promised to retaliate against Iran as fears grow of a wider regional war. But based on what we know now, the attack peers have been defeated and ineffective. US President Joe Biden, saying the US had anticipated the attack and coordinated a response with Israel. Idris Ali covers foreign policy and has been following the US response in Washington. Idris, how did the US respond to this attack, compared to the Iranian strike against Israel last April? After April 14th, we saw the United States and President Joe Biden essentially tell Israel look, take the win. You don't need to respond. The tone I think is different from April 14th. It's not the urging restraint that we saw previously. There will be consequences, severe consequences for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case. White House spokesperson Jake Sullivan there. Could this be a tipping point for a broader regional war to erupt? Look, I think behind closed doors what we're probably seeing is a flurry of calls across the United States government. And really they have one message, deescalate the situation. Do not let this get out of hand. Taiwan has effectively shut down, grounding hundreds of flights and closing schools, offices and financial markets as it braces for typhoon craython. Although the typhoon has weakened, it's still forecast to lash the coast with storm surges and torrential rain. A mostly cordial exchange between Democrat Tim Walls and Republican JD Vance on the CBS News presidential debate. The rivals stayed away from personal attacks, focusing more on defending their running mates and attacking their opponents. Walls highlighting what he characterizes as Trump's instability. "A nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment." While Vance jabbed at Harris's record on immigration and the economy. "You have got housing that is totally unaffordable because we've brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes. As for their own records, Walls admitted that he misspoke about visiting Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. And Vance says he disagrees with Trump at times, but says he was wrong when he compared Trump to Adolf Hitler. The White House is siding with U.S. dock workers as their strike on the Eastern Gulf coasts enters its second day. Kamal Kremens has more, President Biden called on port employers to raise their offer in a post on X late on Tuesday. They've offered a 50% wage hike, but the union is pushing for more, including an end to port automation projects that threaten union jobs. The strike is choking off half the country's ocean shipping and analysts have warned it could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars a day. And if you're interested in the U.S. economy and its pressure points, do check out this week's episode of my podcast, Reuters econ world. We're looking at the tax challenge facing the next U.S. president. It's out later today on the Reuters app Reuters.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Rescuers are scouring the mountains of North Carolina, searching for people cut off by washed out roads and downed electrical lines in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. More than 160 people have died across six states, with survivors facing an uncertain future. That's Aaron Smith, whose home was destroyed in Western North Carolina. This disaster, striking just over a month before the presidential election, has the potential to impact the outcome of the race. Tim Reed has been looking into how the candidates are approaching the aftermath of the storm. Well, Kamala Harris is playing it straight down the line, getting briefings from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Trump flew into southern Georgia Valdosta on Saturday and said that the federal government was not doing enough. Now, Tim, one of the more unorthodox measures that Donald Trump has taken this week includes authorizing a GoFundMe fundraising campaign for the hurricane victims. The campaign has already raised more than $3.6 million. What does that tell us about how Trump is approaching the recovery? We don't know what is going to happen with the funds that flow into Trump's GoFundMe campaign. Most of the money is from small-dollar donors, but whether that money goes to federal efforts or whether Trump will send money directly to families affected by the hurricane, we just don't know. But it gives us a glimpse into how Trump might govern in a second term. The illicit fentanyl that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year is largely produced from Chinese chemicals cooked up in clandestine Mexican laboratories. This requires drug traffickers to transport the chemicals halfway around the world. But cartels have found a clever way to smuggle them from China to Mexico by first importing them into the United States. Drazin Jorgic is in Mexico City and has been reporting on why a route that seems so convoluted is being exploited by the cartels. One of the reasons that the drug cartels are using the securities route to move precursor chemicals from China via the United States of Mexico is down to a little-known trade legislation that was loosened and that is known as the Minimus. Since 2016, individual parcels, clothing, gadgets, up to $800, now enter the United States duty-free and with minimal paperwork and inspections. We're now seeing about 10 times as many packages today as we were seeing in 2016. And among that mountain of words, the Sanfentanyl precursors are hidden inside. Just how much of the U.S. supply of fentanyl is coming through this path? It's not 100% clear, but we can have an example of an Arizona man who basically unwittingly became a cog in the fentanyl supply chain. Over a period of two years, he moved across the border about £15,000 of fentanyl precursors. That's enough to produce about five and a half billion fentanyl pills, and that's just one person. Just to reiterate, he didn't seem to know what he was doing. He just had a job that was basically taking goods that arrived in his home in the United States, such as tractor parts, fertilizer, seeds. He would take them on the back of his truck, drive down to Mexico, and then re-mail them using local Mexican career companies. Check out Reuters.com and the Reuters app for more, including an amazing graphic on how the de minimis shipments are being used by smugglers for fentanyl precursors. It's part of our series on fentanyl, and in our pod description today, we'll link back to a special episode we did on just how easy it is to procure the materials to make fentanyl tablets. Now, were you ever going to climb Mount Everest? Yeah, me neither. And now, I've got an extra reason why. For today's recommended read, we take you 5.5 miles above sea level to the top of the Earth's tallest mountain. And Mount Everest is still getting taller. While it and the rest of its Himalayan peers have been growing for the last 50 million years or so, Mount Everest's growth spurt outpaces that. There's a link to the story in the pod description if you want to find out why. 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. (upbeat music) (dramatic music)
