Democratic nominee Tim Walz and his republican Rivaljd Vance, prepare to go head to head in a live tv debate. Lets return to our continuing coverage of developments in the Middle East. Israeli Ground Forces have crossed into Southern Lebanon, marking an important new escalation of their offensive against hezbollah. The incursion follows weeks of heavy blows by israel against the lebanese armed group, including the killing of its long time leader, hassan nasrallah. As israeli Artillery And War planes hit sites in lebanon overnight, its military says a Return Barrage of about ten rockets was fired at its towns. Chi Chi Izundu reports. Explosion. A dangerous and pivotal moment in the Middle East. Escalation amid fresh missile strikes overnight. A Ground Offensive launched by israel into lebanon. In Southern Beirut, less than 30 minutes after israel told residents to leave three neighbourhoods, a huge blast was heard. Explosion. Then the confirmation came. Israel began its Ground Operation
ISrael SayS they are now carrying out limited, localiSed and targeted raidS acroSS the border. The aim, it SayS, iS to deStroy hezbollah infraStructure So that tenS of thouSandS of iSraeliS living in Border TownS can return home Safely. Hezbollah turned lebaneSe villageS next to iSraeli villageS into military baSeS, all ready for an attack on iSrael. Hezbollah had prepared to uSe thoSe villageS aS Staging GroundS for an October 7th Style InvaSion into iSraeli homeS. But iSrael iS continuing itS Air StrikeS elSewhere too. Smoke riSing over beirut S Southern SuburbS thiS morning after the military ordered reSidentS to leave three buildingS. And it hit here, in the largeSt paleStinian Refugee Camp in lebanon, prompting new warningS about a humanitarian criSiS. AS iSrael warnS people in more than 20 townS to evacuate, many lebaneSe are reacting furiouSly. TranSlation if they want to invade, let them invade nabatieh, tyre, Sidon every houSe there haS Someone, a gun, a knife, a fork, meaning
hello from the bbc sport centre. hello i m chetan pathak with your latest sports news we start at afcon the 34th edition of the africa cup of nations has reached the semi final stage with both matches on wednesday. the hosts ivory coast play the democratic republic of congo but before that it s the other heavyweights nigeria. who play south africa. and they ve been given a massive boost with striker victor osimhen declared fit to play who had been a doubt with an abdominal problem. it s a rematch of the 2000 afcon semi final which nigeria won and was the last time south africa reached the last four. this time their coach is hoping they can go one step further: i think for many people it was unexpected. but we did it, and that means that south africa became a good team. it s also more than 20 years ago that south africa played the semifinal, even more that we play the final. that means that we ve got a lot of motivation. meanwhile, ivory coast have never won the competit