Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will nominate U.S. President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, the White House said Tuesday.

Trump has become increasingly focused on the Nobel since his return to power in January, and claims to have ended several conflicts around the world, a role that experts, however, downplay.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky urged U.S. President Donald Trump to pressure Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cut his support for Russia when the two leaders meet later this week.

"I think this may be one of (Trump's) strong moves, especially if, following this decisive sanctions step, China is ready to reduce imports" from Russia, Zelensky told journalists, including AFP, at a briefing released Tuesday.

The United Nations and France have condemned Israeli fire near U.N. peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon, after an incident during which peacekeepers neutralized an Israeli reconnaissance drone.

"We are very concerned about the incident that occurred on Sunday in which an Israeli drone dropped a grenade in the vicinity of a UNIFIL patrol, and subsequently an Israeli tank fired a shot at the peacekeepers in Kfar Kila in the UNIFIL area of operations," said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, referring to the incident in southern Lebanon.

Israel said on Monday it had allowed a team including Red Cross staff, Egyptian rescuers, and a Hamas member to search for the bodies of deceased hostages in Gaza.

"The Red Cross, the Egyptian technical team, and a Hamas person have been permitted to enter beyond the (Israeli army) Yellow Line position in Gaza under close (Israeli army) supervision to identify the location of our hostages," Israel government spokeswoman Shosh Bedrosian told journalists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his country's ties with North Korea were developing "as planned" as he hosted North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin.

A video posted on the Kremlin's Telegram account showed Putin greet and shake hands with Choe, before remarking: "Everything is going as planned."

Israel has lifted the state of emergency for areas near the border with Gaza for the first time since Hamas's October 2023 attack, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Monday.

"I have decided to adopt the (Israeli military's) recommendation and to lift, for the first time since October 7, the special state on the home front," a statement from Katz's office said.

The families of Israeli hostages on Monday demanded that the next steps in the U.S.-brokered Gaza ceasefire be put on hold until Hamas returns the remaining bodies of dead captives.

"Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held. Two weeks have passed since the deadline set in the agreement for the return of all 48 hostages, yet 13 remain in Hamas captivity," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Israel would seek no approval to strike targets in Lebanon or Gaza, despite agreeing to ceasefires.

"Israel is an independent state. We will defend ourselves by our own means and we will continue to determine our fate," Netanyahu told a meeting of government ministers Sunday.

The health ministry has said that Israeli strikes on the country's south and east had killed three people Sunday, despite an ongoing ceasefire deal, as Israel claimed it had targeted two members of Hezbollah.

Officials said one person had been killed in an "Israeli enemy strike" on a car in Naqoura, in Tyre province, while another strike on a vehicle in Nabi Sheet, in the country's eastern Baalbek region, resulted in another fatality.

The Israeli military on Monday accused U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon of shooting down one of its drones a day earlier during an intelligence-gathering mission.

"Yesterday, an IDF intelligence-gathering drone was downed in the area of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon during a routine intelligence-gathering activity in the area," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on X.