What happened
At least 20 people were killed in Lebanon yesterday and more than 450 injured after Hezbollah-issued walkie-talkies detonated, the government said. Lebanon was still reeling from thousands of exploding Hezbollah pagers that killed 12 people, including two young children, and wounded about 2,800 on Tuesday. The sophisticated remote blasts were widely attributed to Israel, which hasn't confirmed or denied its involvement.

Who said what
The scale of the sabotage "deeply unsettled" Hezbollah, The Wall Street Journal said. The explosions maimed hundreds of its fighters, revealed serious security breaches and "exposed the identities of thousands of Hezbollah operatives, many of whom worked covertly — a coup for Israeli intelligence and a likely surprise for some Hezbollah members' relatives and neighbors."

The explosives-laced pagers, from an Israeli intelligence front company in Hungary, "began shipping to Lebanon in the summer of 2022 in small numbers," The New York Times said, citing 12 officials briefed on the operation. Production ramped up after Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah ordered militants to ditch their phones and carry the low-tech communication devices in February. The exploding walkie-talkies had "new batteries that arrived in a recent shipment" and were "distributed to a narrower range of Hezbollah members," the Journal said.

The "potentially indiscriminate casualties" from exploding handheld devices in homes, shops, cars, cafes — "where the holder of the pager happened to be" — raised concerns, The Associated Press said. "Weaponizing an object used by civilians is strictly prohibited" under international law, said Mary Ellen O'Connell, a law professor at Notre Dame.

What next?
Nasrallah was expected to deliver a major speech today. The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the pager blasts, at Algeria's request.

What happened
The Federal Reserve yesterday cut its benchmark interest rate a larger-than-usual half-percentage point, to between 4.75% and 5%. It was the Fed's first cut since jacking up interest rates to 23-year highs two years ago to conquer soaring inflation.

Who said what
Cutting rates by an aggressive 50 basis points, rather than the typical 25, is a "clear signal" the central bankers think they are "winning their war against inflation" and are now "turning their attention to protecting the job market," The New York Times said. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell was careful not to declare total victory over inflation, which clocked in at 2.5% in August. "We're not saying, 'mission accomplished,'" he said, but the U.S. economy is "in a good place" and "our decision today is designed to keep it there."

The U.S. now appears to have "low inflation, low unemployment and solid economic growth," a "normal" economy where the only thing that "looked abnormal" was interest rates, Greg Ip said at The Wall Street Journal. In rectifying that "abnormality with its half-point rate cut," the Fed "vastly improve the odds of a soft landing," that rare stabilization of inflation and employment without tipping the economy into recession.

What next?
The Fed signaled it plans to cut rates another half-point by the end of the year and a full point in 2025. The next meeting is Nov. 6-7, "immediately after the presidential election," The Associated Press said.