Benji Hyer: US Correspondent on the pager and walkie talkie explosions of Hezbollah devices in Lebanon

The White House says it wasn't aware of the simultaneous pager explosions across Lebanon before the attacks. 

Thousands were injured and at least 12 killed when pagers, used by political group Hezbollah, detonated yesterday.  

Today —a day later— at least nine people are dead and 300 injured after walkie talkies exploded.  

Hezbollah believes Israel is responsible  

US correspondent Benji Hyer told Ryan Bridge there was a quick phone call between the defence secretaries of Israel and the US minutes before pagers started exploding. 

He says Israel told the United States they would be conducting an operation in Lebanon, but no further details were shared. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big story today. The US Vigual Reserve going to lower
interest rates inside the next half hour. Bingji higher as
with US our US correspondent Binji.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
What are they picking, Well, we don't know yet, but
it's going to be lower than what it was, which
has been a very high level, the highest in decades
five points three percent. It's been hovering around and it's
going to drop. And it's going to drop because the
inflation numbers have improved so drastically in the United States. Now,

(00:28):
this is a crucial announcement both in the United States
but also around the world. We'll take the US first.
It is the last time that America's Central Bank will
be able to make a change to the interest rate
to burring costs before November's election between Kamala Harris and
Donald Trump. And this of course an indication that the

(00:48):
economy from the inflation front, which has been a big
issue in this election, is improving. That is a boost
then for the vice president, but of course still a
few weeks to go to find out what sort of
it might have on growth, which of course could play
into the hands potentially of former President Donald Trump. The
reason this matter is beyond these shores even though of

(01:10):
course it is Americans who will be most affected by
the Church change, is that there are central banks the
world over that are tied to the dollar, and so
their economies will be impacted too. And lower interest rates,
which we think will be the outcome when the decision
is made very shortly, will also affect how investors across

(01:30):
the planet will invest in, you know, for example, stocks
over savings accounts. So this is a significant decision and
we think it will be lowered by probably quarter percent,
maybe even half a percent. And again, as I say
the last time that that would happen before Americans go
to the polls.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah, we're going to check in with Mike Jones, BE
and Z chief economists and just a stick and on
what that rate cut over in the States might mean
for us here. Very quickly though the White House were
they aware of it's allegedly is Rael behind the attack
on his the pages? Did the White House known advance?

Speaker 2 (02:04):
They said not, And that even more remarkable given the
fact that one of the Biden administration's senior advisors has
been in the Middle East trying to sort of cease
fire for Gaza. That is an addition to the U
S Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, who's in Egypt again,
holding tours, none talks, None of them were made aware.
There was a very brief phone call between Israel's defense

(02:27):
secretary and America's Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, literally minutes before
those pages started exploding, and in it Israel, we're told
explained to the United States that they will be conducting
an operation in Lebanon soon, but no details were shared.
And of course there had been developments in past hours
two where there had been even more explosions, this time

(02:48):
of walky talkies across the country. So clearly still not
the end of that.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Story, absolutely, Binji, thank you for that, Binji, Hi are
US correspondent just gone?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
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Speaker 1 (03:02):
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