Israel strikes the heart of Beirut killing at least six people, according to Lebanese officials. A Reuters exclusive reveals that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon before he was killed in an Israeli strike. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been declared persona non grata in Israel. And North Carolina residents may be without clean running water for weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded the region and damaged water treatment systems.
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Today, Israel strikes the heart of Beirut, and our exclusive reporting shows how Iran warned Nasrallah before his death. The UN Secretary-General is persona non grata in Israel. What does that mean for international efforts to de-escalate the region? And in North Carolina, residents may be without clean water for weeks in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. It's Thursday, October 3rd. 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 Wolljesper in Chicago. A massive blast as Israel strikes the heart of Beirut. Sick blooms of smoke hanging over the horizon after what Israel describes as a precise airstrike on the Lebanese capital. And these six people were killed and seven wounded Lebanese health officials have said. Israel says it's escalated attacks to degrade Hezbollah's capabilities and make it safe for tens of thousands of displaced Israelis to return to their homes near the Lebanon border, which they fled when Hezbollah began firing rockets on October 8th last year. The assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month is a major blow to the movement and removes Iran's most powerful proxy in the Middle East. Exclusive Reuters reporting shows that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed. Khamenei sent a message with an envoy calling on the Hezbollah leader to leave for Iran. The message cited intelligence reports suggesting Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him. Iran's foreign ministry, Hezbollah's media office and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, which oversees the country's foreign intelligence agency Mossad, did not reply to requests for comment. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been declared persona non grata in Israel and is barred from entering the country. In an announcement on ex, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says it's because Guterres failed to unequivocally condemn Iran's missile attacks on Israel. Hours later, outside the UN Security Council meeting, Israel's ambassador Danny Danon speaks with reporters about the announcement. So where does Guterres stand? He says he already made it clear that he condemns the Iranian attack. Michelle Nichols is following the situation at the UN. Michelle has a secretary general ever been made persona non grata before by a member state. The UN traditionally, they don't recognize the concept of persona non grata as applying to UN diplomats, but obviously senior UN officials around the world have been PNG'd. One that springs to mind is the Sudan envoy, who was main PNG last year. So the UN spokesperson made a point of also saying they viewed the statements by the Israeli Foreign Minister as a political statement. It wasn't a formal kind of legal statement. Could this spat actually impact the international community's ability to de-escalate the situation in the Middle East? So the UN deals more with sort of eight deliveries in Gaza and also now in Lebanon because Israel helped us and viewed the UN as a kind of credible player, so to speak. They see them as biased, so there's not a lot they can do when it comes to actually mediating between Israel and Hezbollah and Iran and Hamas. You can read more on our exclusive reporting on Hezbollah's infiltration and follow live updates from the Middle East on Reuters.com and the Reuters app. In the US, dock workers continue striking at East Coast and Gulf ports with no negotiations currently scheduled. The lack of progress is raising concerns that the disruption could be prolonged. Shipments of automobiles, Guatemalan bananas, and Italian wine are just a few of the goods stuck in containers. A Russian guided bomb struck an apartment block in Ukraine's Kharkiv, injuring at least 10. The Iranian president Vladimir Zelensky says the attack underscores the need for more help from Khiv's Western backers and pointed to allies helping Israel fend off Iran's attack as an example of cooperation. It comes on the heels of Russian troops reaching the center of Foulidar, a bastion on strategic high ground in Ukraine's industrial Donbass region. A judge unseals a court filing that prosecutors say "show Donald Trump was acting outside the scope of his duties as president" when he pressured state officials and then Vice President Mike Pence to try and overturn his 2020 election defeat. The 165-page filing is likely the last chance for prosecutors to lay out their case against Trump before the November 5 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty and his campaign blasts the filing as "an unconstitutional witch hunt." Matthew Perry's doctor has pleaded guilty to a legally distributing ketamine. Dr Mark Chavez is one of two California doctors charged in the overdosed death of a friend star. Over on markets, OpenAI has completed a new funding round that has turbocharged its valuation. Common cremens has more. OpenAI has raised $6.6 billion from investors and that gives the artificial intelligence company a $157 billion valuation. To give you a sense of the buzz around this company, it was valued at just, and I say just, $14 billion, back in 2021. What's interesting about the timing of this funding right now is it's coming as the company is restructuring and it's seen a shake-up in its top ranks, but investors are clearly anticipating significant growth. It's projecting revenues to jump to nearly $12 billion next year from an estimated $3.6 billion this year. And if big numbers are your thing and I'm talking trillions here, not billions, do check out this week's episode of my podcast, Reuters Econ World. We're looking at the tax and spending plans of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris and what it all might mean for the US economy. You can catch it on Reuters.com, the Reuters app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tens of thousands of people in western North Carolina are still without running water after Hurricane Helene flooded the region, overwhelming water systems. Our reporter Carl Plume is in Asheville, North Carolina and is talking to people about how they're managing the situation. I stopped in at a water distribution site right downtown. There was a steady stream of people wandering in with every kind of container you can imagine. Hey, are you guys looking for water? Yes. So you're going to come right this way. Buckets, empty jugs, things like that to fill up with drinking water. The city has set up a tanker truck, made a bunch of volunteers pouring water for everyone that comes in and the same site, they're distributing MREs, those military meals ready to eat. So why do city officials think it will take so long to get running water back online? Well, my understanding is that there's a water treatment site which was damaged so severely that it's going to take probably weeks. People have told me that hundreds of feet of pipes that bring the water in and out of that site were completely destroyed so that would have to be replaced. Also, the access road to the plant has been completely washed away. So this process is going to take a while. How are the people handling this realization? It seems like everyone is just coming to terms with that this is going to be a long-term recovery. I met a man named Jordan Lance, owner of Buxton Chicken Palace. He's there with a couple of his chefs. They're working out of a food hall to cook hot meals for people three times a day. So we're getting water right here. We're going to be doing big batches of jambalaya coming up, steaming some rice, getting some hot food out for folks. Today's recommended read is another road to Zexclusive, this one about Elon Musk and how he funded a conservative political group for years to the tune of millions of dollars. The story delves into his support for right-wing causes even before the billionaire endorsed Donald Trump's bid for re-election back in July. We'll drop a link to the story 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. a lot of people are going to be watching this video. I'm going to be watching this video. I'm going to be watching this video.
