President Joseph Aoun has said the next round of talks with Israel will begin on December 19, calling the reaction to initial negotiations this week "positive".

"It is natural that the first session would not be highly productive, but it paved the way for upcoming sessions that will begin on the 19th of this month," he said, according to information minister Paul Morcos at the end of a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Israeli raids hit south Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military issued an evacuation warning and said it would strike what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure.

Israeli warplanes launched a strike on the town of Mahrouna while other raids targeted houses in Jbaa, Baraashit and Majadel, the official National News Agency said, while the Israeli army said it "began conducting strikes on Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon".

Tunisian opposition veteran Ahmed Nejib Chebbi was arrested at his home Thursday, his daughter said, following his sentencing to 12 years in jail for plotting against the state in a trial denounced by rights groups as politically motivated.

Chebbi, 81, is the co-founder of the National Salvation Front (FSN), Tunisia's main opposition coalition.

Iraq's central bank on Thursday said the appearance of Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis on a frozen assets list was a mistake, and ordered the correction of the official announcement, according to a document seen by AFP.

An official gazette issue dated November 17 published a decision about Iraq freezing the assets of Iran-backed armed groups due to acts of "terrorism".

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday a reset of Joe Biden's fuel-economy standards, arguing it will lower U.S. car prices -- but critics warned it would worsen climate change and leave drivers paying more at the pump.

Trump was flanked in the Oval Office by the CEOs of Ford and Stellantis and a senior General Motors official, a show of buy-in from Detroit's "Big Three."

President Donald Trump has said he believes Russia's Vladimir Putin wants to end the Ukraine war despite inconclusive talks in Moscow, as U.S. officials prepared for a follow-up meeting with Kyiv's top negotiator.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner huddled into the early hours with Putin in the Kremlin but reached no breakthrough on halting Europe's worst conflict since World War II.

A United Nations Security Council delegation will visit Lebanon on Friday and Saturday after visiting Syria in the first-ever visit to the country.

Slovenian U.N. ambassador Samuel Zbogar told a press conference on Monday that "the visit to Lebanon is the first official visit of the Security Council to the Middle East in six years".

A United Nations Security Council delegation arrived in Syria on Thursday, state media reported, the first-ever visit to the country just days before the anniversary of the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Israel said it launched an airstrike on a Hamas militant in southern Gaza late Wednesday in retaliation for an attack earlier in the day that wounded five Israeli soldiers.

The strike was the latest test for a fragile ceasefire that has mostly held up since early October, despite claims of violations by both Israel and Hamas. Hamas put out a statement condemning the Israeli strike in Khan Younis.

Israel's army said Thursday the remains of the second-to-last Gaza hostage -- a Thai national -- to be handed over had been identified.

It comes as a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, with both sides accusing each other of violating the terms.