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We get an update from Beirut, after at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded in Lebanon on Wednesday when walkie-talkie radios across the country exploded without warning, the second day of an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah members by booby-trapping handheld communication devices. A day earlier, at least 12 people were killed and thousands more left with gruesome injuries when pagers began exploding across the country. Lebanon has banned pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights, while Lebanese citizens say they now live in fear that everyday household electronics could suddenly explode. Among those killed in the attacks are children, medics and other civilians. "This has been widely reported in the Western press as a sophisticated campaign that targeted alleged Hezbollah operatives, but the reality is that, for the most part, these explosions were occuring in civilian areas," says journalist Lara Bitar, editor-in-chief of the Beirut-based independent media organization The Public Source. Bitar warns that Israel's "terrorist attacks" could be a prelude to a larger assault. "The Israeli government has already taken a decision to escalate, to wage full-scale war on all of Lebanon."
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 Kevin Dietsch/Getty ImagesHouse Speaker Mike Johnson's spending bill was rejected by Congress on Wednesday after 14 Republicans joined Democrats in voting against the stopgap measures—even after the speaker attached a Trump-endorsed voter registration act to the legislation.
The House now has until Sept. 30 to pass a spending bill or face a government shutdown.
Johnson previously scrapped a vote on the bill last week to spend the weekend rounding up support from hesitant members of his caucus. He also attached the SAVE Act to the legislation, which would prohibit states from registering non-citizens as voters—something Johnson himself has admitted is already illegal under federal law.
Read more at The Daily Beast.
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Both Republicans and Democrats opposed the stopgap funding bill, which was tied to new rules requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote.
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