Iran's Guards ban communications devices

And Israel tells Lebanon citizens to evacuate amid airstrikes.

Sign up for Reuters newsletters  Daily Briefing Daily Briefing By Kate Turton Hello. In the Middle East, Israel mounts airstrikes on Hezbollah, telling citizens in Lebanon to evacuate, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards ban communications devices. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Zelenskiy heads to the US with a 'victory plan' on a trip where he will also address the U.N. General Assembly. Plus, the Fed's rate cuts will put money in pockets, but a mood shift may take time. Today's Top News    Israel issues warnings. September 23, 2024. REUTERS/Aziz Taher Middle East Israel unleashed its most widespread wave of air strikes against Hezbollah and warned Lebanese citizens to evacuate areas where the armed group was storing weapons, moving closer to all-out war. Two strikes by Israeli forces killed at least 10 Palestinians, including four children, in the central Gaza Strip, medics said, as heavy rains flooded displaced residents' tent encampments. Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Corps has ordered all members to stop using any type of communication devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon blew up in deadly attacks last week, two senior Iranian security officials told Reuters. In other news US Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican rival Donald Trump by 5 percentage points in an NBC News poll that found respondents have come to see her more favorably since she emerged as the Democratic candidate for president. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy travels to the US to set out a "victory plan" to his closest ally this week, in an urgent attempt to influence White House policy on Ukraine's war with Russia no matter who wins the US elections in November. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats staved off the far-right in a regional election, likely providing him only a brief reprieve from growing criticism of his leadership within his own party. Correspondent Udita Jayasinghe joins the Reuters World News podcast with the latest from Sri Lanka as leftist Anura Kumara Dissanayake took office as president. The head of South Africa's flagship Black economic empowerment programme plans to introduce additional incentives and potential fines to improve corporate participation and curb exploitation of the system meant to tackle the country's gross inequality, he said. The United Nations General Assembly adopted a "Pact for the Future", which U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a landmark agreement that is a "step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism." Business & Markets   Even before the Federal Reserve approved its outsized half-percentage-point interest rate cut last week, financial markets had begun making credit cheaper for households and businesses, but recent surveys suggest the public's mood is still marred by nearly two years of high inflation. Investment firm Monroe Capital LLC said it plans to launch a fresh fund of up to $1 billion to provide loans for smaller auto suppliers as the industry shifts from gasoline-powered to electric vehicles. Sign up for the Reuters Auto File newsletter for more news from the fast-paced world of automotive technology. Mercedes-Benz said its cars equipped with its automated driving system will be upgraded to drive autonomously at up to 95 kilometers per hour on German motorways in certain conditions. China's Deep Blue Aerospace said its first-of-its-kind reusable kerosene-fueled rocket, Nebula-1, failed to complete a high-altitude vertical recovery test flight in the country's northern region of Inner Mongolia, crashing at the final stage. SpaceX plans to launch about five uncrewed Starship missions to Mars in two years, CEO Elon Musk said in a post on social media platform X. US election uncertainty clouds UN climate finance progress    Urgency in climate fight as global temperatures rise. September 20, 2024. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo Countries have a chance to use this week's U.N. meetings in New York to resolve big differences over boosting the world's annual goal for climate finance, but uncertainty over the US election could jeopardize progress ahead of the next U.N. climate summit in November. Negotiators told Reuters that countries were reluctant to stake out their positions before knowing who might win the Nov. 5 US presidential vote and be setting climate policy for the world's largest economy – and biggest historical polluter – for the next four years. Read more And Finally... Red Bull's Max Verstappen during a post race press conference after finishing second place in the Singapore Grand Prix REUTERS/Caroline Chia Max Verstappen suggested he could turn his back on Formula One sooner than expected if the sport's governing body stopped him having fun and being himself. Red Bull's triple world champion was ordered by stewards to do "work of public interest" with the FIA after he used a swear word in a press conference at the Singapore Grand Prix. Read more Sponsors are not involved in the creation of newsletters or other Reuters news content. Advertise in this newsletter or on Reuters.com Reuters Daily Briefing is sent 5 days a week. Think your friend or colleague should know about us? Forward this newsletter to them. They can also sign up here. Want to stop receiving this email? Unsubscribe here. To manage which newsletters you're signed up for, click here. Terms & Conditions and Privacy Statement © 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved. 3 Times Square, New York, NY 10036