Friday morning news: September 20, 2024

Israel-Hezbollah » The leader of Hezbollah vowed to retaliate for this week’s deadly attacks on the group’s communications devices.

NASRALLAH: [Speaking Arabic]

Hassan Nasrallah called the attacks on the Iran-backed terror group’s devices a “severe blow” that crossed a “red line.”

And Israel and Hezbollah exchanged strikes on Thursday as he spoke.

Meantime, the Biden administration continues to call for calm. Secretary of State Tony Blinken spoke from Paris.

BLINKEN:  France and the United States are united, uh, in calling for restraint and urging de escalation.

Hundreds of pagers and walkie-talkies blew up at the same time in an operation widely believed to be carried out by Israel. At least 37 people were killed and thousands more were wounded … most are believed to have been Hezbollah members. Though, others nearby were caught in the blasts.

The FBI says Iran tried to send hacked files to Democrats » The FBI says Iran tried to send hacked Trump campaign files to Democrats.

U.S. intel agencies are now revealing that at sometime over the summer, Iranian hackers were able to hack into the Trump campaign and steal information. They then tried to pass that off to what was then the Biden-Harris campaign.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre the U.S. government is well aware that foreign adversaries like Iran …

PIERRE: … are actively, uh, seeking to influence in our elections. And that's why you've seen us take actions to hold accountable, uh, those who teach, who seek to undermine confidence, uh, in our democracy and we will continue to do so.

The FBI says there’s no evidence that Biden or Harris staffers responded to any of those illegal offerings.

Biden Quad meeting » Karine Jean-Pierre also spoke to reporters about President Biden’s plans to host several world leaders at his home in Delaware this weekend.

This will be his final summit of the so-called "Quad" as president. The heads of Australia, India, and Japan are visiting for a private event. The four-nation group formed to counter China’s growing ambitions in the Indo-Pacific region.

PIERRE:  This is a private dinner. This is continuing the personal relationships that he has, fostering those personal relationships that he has with the leaders of the Quad.

This will be the sixth meeting of the leaders since President Biden took office in 2021.

Lawmakers on Secret Service failures » In Washington, lawmakers continue to raise questions – and demand answers – about the competence of the Secret Service, just days after a second assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

GOP Senator Josh Hawley claims a whistleblower told him the Secret Service failed to follow protocols.

HAWLEY: It has been Secret Service protocol to station agents at these known sites before Trump would play the course. That apparently didn’t happen.

And Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz said he sees a common thread in the two attempts on Trump’s life.

MOSKOWITZ:  The circumstances are different, the failures are different, the one similarity for me at least seems to be that the perimeter they're setting up around the former president seems to be too small. You can get too close to him.

President Biden and Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer want to boost the Secret Service's budget, though some GOP lawmakers say the agency is broken and throwing more money at the problem won’t fix it.

Senator Hawley added that it seems that agents did not perform a standard perimeter sweep of the area before the assassination attempt at Trump’s south Florida golf resort on Sunday.

Federal judge/Biden injunction » A federal judge once again put a pause on President Biden’s sweeping plan to erase federal student debt. WORLD’s Christina Grube reports.

CHRISTINA GRUBE: The federal order extended an injunction blocking the plan for two more weeks.

A coalition of seven states sued Biden’s Department of Education alleging it had instructed federal loan servicers to start canceling billions in student loans while still under a court-ordered pause.

U.S. District Judge Randal Hall ordered the extension after hearing arguments from both sides this week.

Biden has continued a push to find a way around a Supreme Court ruling last year finding his plan to cancel billions of dollars in student debt unconstitutional.

For WORLD, I’m Christina Grube.

Jobs numbers » The number of Americans filing for jobless benefits dropped last week to the lowest number in four months.

The Labor Dept. says new claims ticked down by about 5 percent to 219,000, beating expectations. That’s the fewest since early June.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are thought to widely reflect the number of layoffs in the country.

When the Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week, it signaled it was shifting its focus from fighting inflation to bolstering a softening job market.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, shouting to the Lord in song.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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