By Francesca Hangeior.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Iran on Friday that Israel will strike if it is hit first and warned that his country can reach any part of the cleric-run state as he vowed to fight on in Gaza.

“I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran. If you strike us, we will strike you,” Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly.

“There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach, and that’s true of the entire Middle East.”

Delegates, including from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, exited the room as Netanyahu took the rostrum for his address amid a mix of cheers and angry yells.

“After I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight,” Netanyahu said at the start of his speech.

Ahead of his speech, protesters gathered outside Netanyahu’s hotel in New York to demand an end to the violence in Gaza and Lebanon.

On Wednesday, the United States, France and other allies unveiled a 21-day truce proposal, after President Joe Biden and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The White House has said that the call for a ceasefire had been “coordinated” with Israel, but Netanyahu’s office on Thursday said that the prime minister has not responded to the proposal.

“It is an American-French proposal, which the prime minister has not even responded to,” said a statement from Netanyahu’s office, adding that he had ordered the army “to continue the fighting with full force.”

Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in a deadly exchange of cross-border fire since the Iran-backed group’s Palestinian ally, Hamas, attacked Israel on October 7.

Netanyahu vowed Friday that “Hamas has got to go” and would have no role in the reconstruction of Gaza as he vowed to fight until “total victory.”

Since Monday, Israel has shifted its focus from Gaza to its northern front with Lebanon where heavy bombing has killed 700 people and sparked an exodus of around 118,000 people.

Netanyahu said Israel would continue Lebanon strikes “until we meet our objectives.”

The UN said Friday that a “catastrophic” intensification of Israeli attacks targeting Hezbollah militants had left Lebanon facing its “deadliest period… in a generation.”

The Israeli strikes have brought the overall death toll in Lebanon to more than 1,500 people killed in nearly a year of clashes, according to Lebanese authorities.

That toll surpasses the 1,200 mostly civilians killed during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which also killed around 160 people in Israel, most of them soldiers.

Just six weeks to the United States election day, Vice President Kamala Harris holds a 5-point lead over former President Donald Trump among registered voters, 49% to 44%.

This is a significant shift from July, when Trump led by 2 points before President Joe Biden exited the race.

Harris’ favorability has surged 16 points since July, marking the largest increase for any politician in NBC polling since George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks.

According to a fresh national NBC News poll, she is now viewed more positively than Trump in terms of competence and physical and mental health to serve as president, reversing Trump’s earlier lead in these areas.

In a country where voters overwhelmingly believe the U.S. is on the wrong track, Harris has gained an edge as the candidate more likely to represent change and guide the nation in a better direction.

“Today, the winds have turned in Kamala Harris’ favor,” said Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.

However, Trump still holds advantages on economic issues like inflation, although these leads are smaller than during Biden’s candidacy.

Two-thirds of voters report that their family income is falling behind the cost of living, which is their top election concern.

Some of Trump’s declining support comes from Republicans who aren’t die-hard Trump loyalists but may return to him by Election Day, as they did in 2016 and 2020.

“They can get squishy on Trump, and then in the end they come back,” said Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies.

Both pollsters agree that the 2024 race mirrors dynamics from 2020, with a deeply polarized electorate and the Democratic nominee more popular.

“All of this movement to Harris essentially returns the race to where it was in 2020,” Horwitt said.

The NBC poll, conducted from September 13-17, comes after two months of political turbulence, including Biden’s withdrawal, two party conventions, and an assassination attempt on Trump.

Harris also leads in a head-to-head matchup with 49% to Trump’s 44%, and her lead expands to 6 points in a three-way race including third-party candidates.

Harris’ advantages are stronger than Biden’s, particularly among Black voters (85%-7%), voters aged 18-34 (57%-34%), and women (58%-37%).

Her support among independents mirrors Biden’s lead from July, with Harris holding a 43%-35% edge.

By Francesca Hangeior

Sales of previously owned US homes fell in August, according to industry data released Thursday, but lower mortgage rates and growing supply were likely to boost the industry.

Existing home sales dropped 2.5 percent last month from July to an annual rate of 3.86 million, seasonally adjusted, said the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

This was largely in line with the 3.90 million consensus that analysts expected.

“Home sales were disappointing again in August, but the recent development of lower mortgage rates coupled with increasing inventory is a powerful combination that will provide the environment for sales to move higher in future months,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

Homebuyers in the United States have been grappling with a sharp rise in mortgage rates after the US central bank rapidly lifted the benchmark lending rate in 2022 to tackle inflation.

But with growing expectations that the Federal Reserve was going to pivot to rate cuts after holding rates at a decades-high level for months, mortgage rates have also shifted lower.

The popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.2 percent as of September 12, according to mortgage finance firm Freddie Mac — reaching the lowest level since February 2023.

A year ago, the rate was around 7.2 percent.

On Wednesday, the Fed kicked off a process of easing monetary policy with a bold half-percentage-point rate reduction, adding to expectations that mortgage rates would fall further.

“Existing home sales fell to a 10-month low in August, but forward looking indicators like mortgage applications point to a pickup in sales in September and October,” said economist Nancy Vanden Houten of Oxford Economics.

But Oliver Allen of Pantheon Macroeconomics cautioned that a mortgage rate of six percent remains “well above the average rate of about four percent on the stock of existing mortgages.”

“So moving home and taking out a new mortgage still requires a prohibitive jump in monthly payments for most current homeowners,” he said in a note.

“As such, a constrained supply of existing homes for sale will continue to hold back sales,” Allen added.

Compared with a year ago, NAR data showed that existing home sales were 4.2 percent down in August.

The median price increased 3.1 percent from August 2023 to $416,700, with all four US regions seeing price jumps.

Yun told a media call on Thursday that although home sales are struggling, home prices remained high.