welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm steve lai. the headlines... exploding walkie—talkies kill at least 20 people and injure hundreds more, in a fresh wave of attacks across lebanon. hospitals are again overwhelmed. in my past 25 years in practice, i never removed as many eyes as i did yesterday. meanwhile, israel's defence minister declares the start of a "new phase" of the war with a focus on the northern front against hezbollah. a ukrainian drone attack — is reported to have triggered an earthquake—sized blast, at a russian ammunition depot. we have a special report from somalia — one of the world's poorest countries — as it deals with climate change and conflict.

the entire country has emitted as much carbon dioxide since the 19505 as americans have in — wait for it — the last three days! and in the uk, conservationists declare an emergency, as butterfly numbers fall to their lowest on record. we start this hour in the middle east, where at least 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a new wave of attacks in lebanon — this time it's walkie talkies that have been detonated. the latest blasts come just 2a hours after pagers used by the armed group hezbollah exploded simultaneously across the country killing at least 12 people and leaving more than 3,000 in hospital. iran — which backs

hezbollah has described the attacks as "mass murder". hezbollah is blaming israel and has vowed to retaliate. israeli defence minister yoav gallant says the country is "opening a new phase in the gaza war" — and the "centre of gravity is shifting to the north. 0ur senior international correspondent 0rla guerin sent this report from beirut. hezbollah, coming to bury its dead in south beirut today. casualties of a new chapter in middle east warfare. killed not by air strikes, but by exploding pagers. apparently, a message from mossad. among the dead, an 11—year—old boy. but even the mourners weren't safe. explosion. suddenly, the sound of another blast. chaos and panic filling the street and a rush

to evacuate one of the wounded. the authorities say this time, walkie talkies exploded, not just in beirut. here, at a cell phone shop in the southern city of sidon. israel is being blamed for the past 2a hours of unprecedented attacks. sirens. well, one more ambulance there passing by. we've been seeing them in the last half an hour or so. also fire brigade trucks. people have been looking at the sky, worried there are drones. they're beginning to leave the area, to get off the streets. the attacks began yesterday afternoon with explosions in food markets, in homes, in restaurants. soon, casualties were streaming to hospitals — almost 3,000 wounded in an hour.

doctors say many lost fingers and many were blinded. it has been a nightmare. probably this is the worst day of my life as a physician. unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes. i can tell you that probably more than 60 to 70% of the patients ended up with eviscerating or removing at least one of their eyes. and we're talking about young population, about patients in their 20s. from israel, no admission of responsibility. but the defence minister, yoav galant, says a new phase of the war is starting. hezbollah, which is iranian—backed, has been waging war with israel since last october — the two sides trading fire across their shared border. over the past 2a hours, hezbollah has been shaken and humiliated, but it's still better armed

than many nations. israel, too, has plenty of firepower and today released this footage of its troops training near the lebanese border. a source told the bbc that a second division of the army has moved to the area. there are growing fears of all—out war. 0rla guerin, bbc news, beirut. these ongoing attacks have stunned people in lebanon and caused widespread fear. 0ur security correspondent, gordon corera has been looking at how the assaults have been carried out in the past 2a hours and who's orchestrating them. these have been extraordinary attacks — taking communications devices people carry around and turning them into weapons to be used against them. today, hand—held radios, walkie talkies, were exploding suddenly in lebanon. this was what was left of one of them. it follows yesterday afternoon when thousands were injured

by small explosions in people's hands and pockets. this was the culprit — a pager, which can receive text messages. pagers and walkie talkies are old school technology, but something hezbollah turned to recently because it feared its mobile phones could be tracked. this map details the locations of injuries sustained in yesterday's attack, the vast majority in the capital, beirut. but how was it done? today, washington said it didn't know. the united states did not know about, nor was it involved in these incidents. and we're still gathering the information and gathering the facts. so what do we know? if we look at the debris of this pager, you can see part of a brand name here. it's gold apollo. now, that's a company based all the way over here in taiwan. the owners today said they had not made the pagers involved, though.

instead, they had licensed making them to another company called bac consulting. now, bac consulting is based in budapest, the capital of hungary, and the bbc�*s nick thorpe went to visit today. this is the registered address of bac consulting here in budapest. and in fact there's very little sign that they're based here at all — just a piece of paper with their name alongside 12 other company names behind the geraniums. very few people have been coming in and out of this building all day. no—one seems to know anything about this company at all. so this is debris left from a pager after it exploded. so israel looks to have intercepted the supply this year of thousands of pagers to hezbollah, and hid tiny amounts of high explosive inside. a signal was then sent, which meant five seconds after a pager buzzed to say there was a message,

it blew up. something similar may have happened with the radios today. supposedlyjapanese—made, they also arrived a few months ago. but why now? one theory is that israel's spy agency, mossad, had put in place the capability to be used in the event of an all—out conflict in neighbouring lebanon. but hezbollah became suspicious about the pagers, and so mossad decided it was a case of "use it or lose it", triggering first the pagers and then today the radios. if that's right, then it's not quite clear whether there is a wider plan behind launching the attack. it has sown confusion and fear and inflicted many injuries, but it may also spark a response. hussein ibish is a senior resident scholar at the arab gulf states institute, he gave us his reaction to this walkie talkie attack coming so soon after the pager attack. but it's extremely alarming because it's another huge escalation in this border

tension, which could turn into an all—out war. israel has expanded the war in gaza to include pacifying its northern border, meaning all of southern lebanon as part of the gaza war, as a war aim in the ongoing conflict. in other words, they have formally linked the gaza war and tensions with hezbollah and lebanon. i think this is a very big mistake, because it makes it much harder to extricate the two parties and prevent a bigger conflict. and yoav galant has said that the country is opening a new phase in the gaza war, referencing events happening in the north. we've seen assassinations of top hezbollah leaders in recent months, and now their communications have been hit. is this only heading in one direction? i'm afraid so. i mean, it certainly does demonstrate how deeply israel has penetrated hezbollah�*s operations in the same way that they demonstrated that when they killed hamas leader ismail haniyeh in a safehouse

in tehran, and he was visiting iran for the inauguration of the new president, and they blew him up in an iranian intelligence safehouse. so they have thoroughly penetrated their enemy's intelligence. 0n the other hand, if they do embark on a new adventure in lebanon under the banner of, you know, security for their northern border, they may well encounter, once again, a more formidable enemy than they anticipated. that's what's happened every time they've tried to fight hezbollah since hezbollah drove them out of southern lebanon in may 2000. it's a dangerous game they're playing, no question about it. and what do you think hezbollah�*s response will be? well, so far hezbollah has been quite restrained. israel has established escalation dominance since the beginning of this round. it began after october 7th, when hamas demanded hezbollah join the fray and hezbollah said they would just limit themselves to activities on the border area and they

increased their rocket attacks. since then, virtually every escalation has been an israeli one. because israel is... israeli leaders are at very least ambivalent about the prospect of a war, whereas iran and hezbollah don't want one. so they've been very restrained in their reactions to israeli provocations thus far. but this may be something where they feel really the need to strike back and restore deterrence. 0n the other hand, there is very heavy pressure in lebanon, including from their own shi'ite constituency — at least until now — not to drag the country into a war on behalf of hamas or iran. now, though, it may give hezbollah the impetus and kind of force them to take action, you know, on their own terms and say lebanon was attacked with thousands of bombs and they simply have to do something. and what does this do to us efforts, then, to de—escalate tensions in the middle east?

this all points to the potential complete collapse of us policy. the policy towards the post—0ctober 7th environment was essentially to try to contain the war to gaza, to give the israelis a very broad remit in gaza, but on the condition that they wouldn't expand the war to lebanon. that, i think, was a policy that may be about to collapse. the only thing i can say is if israel launches a war in lebanon seven weeks before the election in the united states, many democrats will regard it as an intervention in us politics on behalf of donald trump. they really will see this as sabotaging american elections, and that could be very bad for relations with a potential harris regime in the us. staying with the middle east, the un general assembly has adopted a resolution demanding that israel end its illegal occupation of palestinian territories within a year. 100 and 2a countries

voted in favour. 124 countries voted in favour. 0ur correspondent nada tawfik has been following the proceedings from new york. the palestinians see this as an historic resolution. it's the first one, actually, that they've been able to bring forward themselves ever since they were given new rights and privileges in may. but they do remain an observer state, non—member observer state. so they weren't able to vote themselves in this resolution. but nevertheless, after the icj declared that israel's occupation of occupied palestinian territory was illegal, they wanted to move forward with this resolution. now, it is up to the security council to implement the findings of the icj, which is the un's highest court, as it is the principal judicial organ of the un. but we know that the security council has been paralysed, certainly because of the united states,

israel's strongest ally. so instead, the palestinians took this resolution to the general assembly, where, though the resolutions are not binding, they do hold kind of symbolic political weight, given all 193 members are able to express their positions. and so for the palestinians, this was a major victory for them, because you had 124 nations supporting this resolution, which called for israel to end its occupation within a year, called for them to withdraw their military forces, to cease new settlement building to evacuate settlers. it also called on states to impose sanctions on anyone who is seen to be trying to violate the international law set out by the icj, and to ban importation of products from israeli settlements, and also to seize the transfer of arms to israel. in cases where there's grounds to believe that it's being used in the settlements.

so for palestinians, a major movement here by the international community to say that international law has to be abided by, especially in a time where there is concern about the multilateral system and the international rules based order being violated. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

america's largest labour union, the international brotherhood of teamsters, has declined to issue a us presidential endorsement for the first time since 1996. the union, which boasts around 1.3 million members across the us and canada, — said its received "few commitments on top teamsters issues" from either democratic nominee kamala harris or republican nominee donald trump. the move is a major blow to the harris campaign's

efforts to win over working—class voters. republicans in the us house of representatives have failed to pass a funding bill, sparking fears of partial government shutdown. with democrats united in opposition, the bill failed by a vote of 202—220. it is unclear what next steps republican house speaker mike johnson will take to avoid a partial government shutdown beginning on first october, when money for many federal agencies would be depleted. a large overnight drone attack by ukraine has hit a huge russian arms depot, producing a minor earthquake. the attack was in the tver region of russia to the north west of moscow and some 460 kilometres from the ukrainian border. james waterhouse reports from kyiv. they were explosions which reflected the target. a russian weapons arsenal eviscerated in a single drone attack.

it caused a minor earthquake to be reported and satellites even detected the heat. missiles, artillery shells, explosives and fuel were stored on this site in toropets, and the ukrainians knew it. with the sound of booms in the background, local russian officials claim the drones had been shot down and that people were being evacuated. despite a lack of permission to do the same with western missiles, president zelensky seemed pleased. translation: there was - a significant outcome from last night in the territory of russia, and this is the type of action that weakens the enemy. i thank all those involved. such inspiring precision. ivan stupak used to be in ukraine's security service and thinks hitting russian ammunition depots will bring results, just not immediately.

destroying this object, it's not a short—term impact because russia has to replace it. where we have to replace it? from what side? iran, north korea? ok. but the next stage is money _ but what for? how much it will cost for russian federation to replace it? because every ballistic missile cost maybe $1.5 million. there was no mention of the ukrainian strike by vladimir putin as he spoke to officials in moscow today. it is a setback, but not enough to slow his invasion. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. peru's president has declared a state of emergency in three regions where huge forest fires are burning out of control. it will allow more resources to be directed towards the firefighting efforts. the blazes across the andes highlands and amazonian cropland have so far left 16 people dead. let's turn to somalia now.

the country has been torn apart by more than three decades of conflict. but now the country is facing a different kind of challenge. it's been hit hard by climate change. after its worst drought in a0 years came torrential rain and floods. 0ur climate editor, justin rowlatt, has travelled to somalia for this special report on? how climate change can fuel existing conflicts. got to stay safe and that means bringing some serious security. 0ut bringing some serious security. out in the dry scrub that covers most of the country, the climate challenge is clear.

somalia recently experienced its worst drought for a0 years, an event scientists estimate was made 100 times more likely by human caused climate change. the year after the drought, small hit with terrible floods, made twice as intense to buy human caused global warming. the floods killed hundreds and displaced a million people. the impact of climate change and conflict have driven more than 4 million somalis into vast refugee camps. there is little international help, residents here pay rent and for their food and water. it is why halima's husband and four of her five sons have taken up the only opportunities open to them — as fighters in a local militia.

translation: , ., ., translation: they are rural eo - le translation: they are rural peeple with _ translation: they are rural people with no _ translation: they are rural people with no skills, - translation: they are rural people with no skills, so - translation: they are rural people with no skills, so thel people with no skills, so the only work they could get was in the army. they were desperate and when you are without food long enough, and your children are looking at you, you will do anything. are looking at you, you will do an hina. ., , are looking at you, you will do anything-— anything. now, the people of somalia cannot _ anything. now, the people of somalia cannot be _ anything. now, the people of somalia cannot be held - somalia cannot be held responsible for climate change. i've just been doing the numbers on my phone and the entire country has admitted as much carbon dioxide since the 19505 as americans have in — wait for it — the last three days! but somalia i5 days! but somalia is taking action. this power station is moving over to wind and solar power. and training up a new generation of renewable energy engineers. ifound engineers. i found entrepreneurs setting engineers. ifound entrepreneurs setting up new businesses including this makeshift cafe in the refugee camp. i makeshift cafe in the refugee cam -. ., �* makeshift cafe in the refugee cam. , , ., camp. i don't subscribe to the notion that — camp. i don't subscribe to the notion that smalley _

camp. i don't subscribe to the notion that smalley is - notion that smalley is unfixable, i think it's fixable and — unfixable, i think it's fixable and it's_ unfixable, i think it's fixable and it's showing significant progress on pretty much every front _ progress on pretty much every front that — progress on pretty much every front that he can look into. 30 front that he can look into. so there is front that he can look into. 5r there is hope, but with climate change turbo—charging the conflict in somalia, the country will need continued international help in the effort to find peace and to build resilience against our changing climate. just in roll—out, bbc news, somalia. some x users in brazil say they can once again acce55 the social media website after the company owned by elon mu5k moved its service to a different cloud provider. the platform, formerly known as twitter, was banned in brazil at the end of august. the country's association of internet providers 5aid the return of x was due to an update of the app to software that uses constantly changing ip addresses, which makes it much harder to block. a wildlife charity in the uk is declaring a national "butterfly emergency" after its annual count recorded the lowest numbers in its 1a—year history.

butterfly conservation says this summer's wet weather is partly to blame, but long—term trends are also causing concern. our environment correspondent jonah fisher has more. over the summer, thousands of people went out to record the number and type of butterflies they saw during a 15 minute period, and the results confirm what many have suspected. there seemed to be fewer in5ect5 this year. a third of butterfly species had their worst year on record, including the common blue, which was not seen in some places at all. and while the wet weather was partly to blame, scientists say the long term trend towards fewer butterflies is a sign that nature's in trouble. declines in butterflies means declines in pretty much everything. and ok, this year might be particularly bad because of the weather. but over the long term, even when the weather is good, these species aren't able to do as well as they might be able

to because we've not got the habitat available for them. butterflies have been hit by a host of pressures, including climate change, habitat loss and the use of pesticides. butterfly conservation is calling for a total ban on pesticides known to harm butterflies and bees. neonicotinoids were banned in the uk several years ago, but exceptions have been made for emergency use on crop5. and while the government says it intends to change this policy, it's not yet laid out a timeline for when that's going to happen. youtuber mr beast has been named in court documents from participants on his upcoming series "beast games". they allege they weren't paid, were subjected to unsafe conditions and experienced sexual harassment, and now they're suing the show�*s production companies. the bbc has contacted mr beast for comment.

thanks forjoining me here on bbc news, i'll see you again soon on business today. hello there. thursday promises to be another unusually warm september day for large parts of the uk, although in the north of scotland it may not be quite as warm as it was on wednesday when aviemore got above 25 degrees celsius — some nine or ten degrees above the seasonal average. but notice — lake vyrnwy languished at 1a degrees because in those parts of mid wales we saw a bit nmore cloud lingering for a good part of the day. some of that cloud returning from the east as well, so england and wales seeing a pretty cloudy start, actually, in some places. but that cloud tending to retreat by the afternoon towards the east coast, some cloud rolling onto the coast of eastern scotland. elsewhere, though, some good spells of sunshine, just a very, very small chance of seeing a shower across southern counties of england. but it really is only a very small chance. now where you're exposed to

the breeze along the north sea, temperatures may only get to 17—18 degrees. compare that with 25 in parts of south—east england. and then through thursday night, we do it all again, we bring more cloud back in from the east, may turn a little bit misty and murky in places. that cloud will hold the temperatures up — 15 degrees in london as we start friday morning, maybe 8—9 in aberdeen and glasgow, a little bit cooler, where we start with clear skies overhead. but the focus of our weather does start to shift as we go through friday. we start to turn our eyes to the south with this developing area of low pressure, and that will start to bring some showers and some thunderstorms across parts of southern england, perhaps getting into the midlands, perhaps into the southern half of wales as we go on through the day. eastern scotland, north—east england holding on to a lot of mist and murk and low cloud that will peg the temperatures back. conversely, western scotland and northern ireland should see plenty of sunshine. now into saturday, those showers and thunderstorms in the south perhaps becoming more frequent, pushing a little

bit further northwards. still rather cloudy for coasts of eastern scotland and north—east england, western scotland and northern ireland seeing plenty of sunshine. but those temperatures generally down just a little bit by this stage. and then by sunday, our area of low pressure really makes its move, bringing showers or longer spells of rain, particularly across england and wales. the odd shower and some extra cloud in eastern scotland, but generally in the north of the uk it will stay largely dry.

the fed goes big, with a 50 basis—point interest rate cut — the outsized move sending wall street lower. and boeing furloughs thousands of its us staff, amid the ongoing strike by its largest union. hello, and welcome to business today, i'm steve lai. to our top story today — the us federal reserve has finally pulled the trigger, cutting interest rates by half a percentage point. this marks an aggressive start to its first—rate cutting cycle since the pandemic. the move sparked some volatility on wall street. 0ur north america business correspondent ritika gupta has the details. the federal reserve has

delivered a