THE SHOW NOTES: Paging Hezbollah, Now The Walkie Talkies, & The Fed's Rate Cut Decision

Welcome! Hillary Clinton claims asking Kamala about her policy positions is a double standard.

25 OR 50: The highly anticipated Fed rate-cut decision happens at 2 PM.

IMPORTANT: Georgia’s abortion law was not responsible for young mom’s death - AJC (paywall)

HEADLINE: Trump, who signed SALT deduction cap into law, now vows to ‘get SALT back’ - CNBC

WATCH: CNN panel loses its mind when Scott Jennings points out the problems with Haitian migrants in Ohio.

NEW: Kamala Harris is running ads on the “human suffering” in Gaza.

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🚨 BREAKING BEFORE WE HIT SEND: MORE EXPLOSIONS

Nine people are dead and at least 300 are injured as walkie-talkies operated by Hezbollah fighters exploded on Wednesday afternoon across Beruit.

Details: According to Axios, thousands of two-way radios simultaneously exploded across Beruit suburbs that are known to house Hezbollah fighters. The AP reports that home solar energy systems exploded as well.

The walkie-talkies were booby-trapped in advance by Israeli intelligence services and then delivered to Hezbollah as part of the militia's emergency communications system, which was supposed to be used during a war with Israel.

Paging Hezbollah: Details on Israel’s Attack

Israel remotely detonated thousands of Hezbollah-owned pagers across Lebanon and Syria yesterday thanks to a complex operation that was months in the making.

Details: The Israeli spy agency Mossad intercepted a batch of pagers from Taiwan (or Budapest?) headed for Beruit and surreptitiously added roughly two ounces of liquid explosives that were detonated in unison when an external signal caused the batteries to overheat.

Biden: The pager attack is the latest Israeli operation that was not shared with the Biden-Harris White House ahead of time. In fact, Biden’s top adviser Amos Hochstein was kept in the dark while in Israel on Monday as final details of the operation were being finalized. Only minutes before the attack happened, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant warned US Defense Secretary Loyd Austin that an unspecified attack was underway.

Context: After Benjamin Netanyahu met with Kamala Harris earlier this summer, Israel assassinated the Hezbollah leader in Beruit and the Hamas leader in Tehran without warning the United States.

Why: After the attack, Israel claimed "It was a use it or lose it moment" as Israeli intelligence had credible information that two Hezbollah militants had raised concerns about such an attack in recent days.

Quote: “This operation is basically Hezbollah’s Oct. 7… It is a huge slap (in the face)” said a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

Bloomberg: ISIS Defeat Means US Troops No Longer Needed in Iraq, Says PM Al-Sudani

Iraq’s prime minister said US troops are no longer needed in his country because they have largely succeeded in vanquishing ISIS, and he plans to announce a timetable for their withdrawal soon.

The US has about 2,500 military personnel in Iraq, a legacy of an American-led coalition formed in 2014 to combat the Islamist group widely known as ISIS. While the organization is much weaker than a decade ago — when it held major cities and provinces in Iraq and Syria and shocked the world by posting beheadings online — its fighters still operate in both nations.

Full story at Bloomberg (paywall).

Uh-Oh

Seriously?

Kamala Harris is asked about Donald Trump’s assassination attempts and somehow lands on “Project 2025” and Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Presented Without Comment

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