Spotlight
Israeli ground forces reached their deepest point in Lebanon since they invaded six weeks ago before pulling back Saturday after battles with Hezbollah militants, Lebanese state media reported.
The clashes and further Israeli bombardment came as Lebanese and Hezbollah officials study a draft proposal presented by the U.S. on ending the war.

The boos from a crowd wanting more action were growing again when Jake Paul dropped his gloves before the final bell, and bowed toward 58-year-old Mike Tyson.

An Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatieh, Lebanon’s state media said. The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn't provide their ages.
Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.

When Sara first arrived at her rescuers' home, she was sick, tired, and was covered in ringworms and signs of abuse all over her little furry body.
After spending two months in a small Beirut apartment with an animal rights group, the four-and-half-month-old lion cub arrived Friday at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa after a long journey on a yacht and planes, escaping both Israeli airstrikes and abusive owners.

Syrian state-run media said Israel struck the upscale Mazzeh district of Damascus on Friday, the second such attack in as many days to hit the neighborhood home to embassies, security headquarters and United Nations offices.
"Israeli aggression targets Mazzeh area in Damascus," the official SANA news agency said, after reporting a deadly Israeli strike on the district a day earlier.

The U.N. Security Council’s 10 elected members have circulated a draft resolution demanding “an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire” in Gaza.
The draft resolution, which was sent to the council’s five permanent members Thursday, reiterates the council’s demand “for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages” seized during Hamas’ surprise attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel says about 100 are still being held, though not all are believed to be alive.

A top Iranian official pledged his country's unwavering support for Lebanon after talks Friday with Lebanese leaders on the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the United States continued actively pushing both sides to agree to a new cease-fire deal.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that he hoped circumstances would soon improve in Lebanon so that displaced people could return home.

For the third straight year, efforts to fight climate change haven't lowered projections for how hot the world is likely to get — even as countries gather for another round of talks to curb warming, according to an analysis Thursday.
At the United Nations climate talks, hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, nations are trying to set new targets to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task.

Even when he is not there for France, the focus remains on Kylian Mbappé.
On the eve of a high-risk Nations League match against Israel in Paris, France coach Didier Deschamps was asked Wednesday if he had spoken with Mbappé about his decision to leave the Real Madrid forward out of his squad.

The United Nations and other international organizations are bracing for four more years of Donald Trump, who famously tweeted before becoming president the first time that the 193-member U.N. was "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time."
In his first term, Trump suspended funding for the U.N. health and family planning agencies, withdrew from its cultural organization and top human rights body, and jacked up tariffs on China and even longtime U.S. allies by flaunting the World Trade Organization's rulebook. The United States is the biggest single donor to the United Nations, paying 22% of its regular budget.
