Author: Reuters

The ceasefire deal for Lebanon will provide the conditions needed for a return to calm in the country, and France and the United States will both work to ensure the ceasefire is fully implemented, U.S President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal with Lebanon and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.

The ceasefire deal for Lebanon will provide the conditions needed for a return to calm in the country, and France and the United States will both work to ensure the ceasefire is fully implemented, U.S President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal with Lebanon and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.

The ceasefire deal for Lebanon will provide the conditions needed for a return to calm in the country, and France and the United States will both work to ensure the ceasefire is fully implemented, U.S President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a joint statement on Tuesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Tuesday that he was ready to implement a ceasefire deal with Lebanon and would respond forcefully to any violation by Hezbollah.

Ukrainian officials should consider lowering the age for its soldiers to 18 years old, a senior U.S. administration official said on Wednesday, noting that Ukraine is not mobilizing or training enough new soldiers for its ongoing war with Russia.

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador said on Wednesday any decision by President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration to cut support for Ukraine would be a “death sentence” for the Ukrainian army, while accusing Kyiv of trying to drag NATO countries into direct conflict with Russia in the meantime. Speaking to the U.N. Security Council, Dmitry Polyanskiy accused the outgoing Biden administration of trying through its increased support to Ukraine to create a “mess, both in Russia and with the new team in the White House.” Polyanskiy said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was terrified of the return of Trump in January, and had…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that took effect earlier on Wednesday was “the first ray of hope” in the regional conflict after months of escalation. “It is essential that those who signed the ceasefire commitment respect it in full,” he said in a short televised statement during a visit to his native Lisbon, adding that the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon was ready to monitor the ceasefire. He also reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “I received an auspicious sign yesterday, the first ray of hope for peace…

Russia is continuing work to put its Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile – part of its strategic nuclear arsenal – on combat duty, state news agency TASS said on Wednesday. The RS-28 Sarmat missile is designed to deliver nuclear warheads to strike targets thousands of miles away in the United States or Europe, but its development has been dogged by delays and testing setbacks. In September, arms experts said Russia appeared to have suffered a catastrophic failure in the missile’s latest test, leaving a deep crater at the launch silo.

A Russian drone attack on Kyiv wounded three people, two of whom were hospitalised, officials in the Ukrainian capital said on Wednesday. Falling debris from a destroyed drone damaged a non-residential building in Kyiv’s Dniprovskyi district, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram messaging channel. Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said that air defence units were operating in the city after midnight on Wednesday. The Ukrainian military said its air defences downed 36 of 89 Russian drones launched overnight. The military said it had lost track of 48 drones, and another five had left the territory of Ukraine…

The Biden administration is pushing ahead with a $680 million arms sales package to Israel, a U.S. official familiar with the plan said on Wednesday, even as a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah has come into effect. The package, which was first reported by the Financial Times, includes thousands of joint direct attack munition kits (JDAM) and hundreds of small-diameter bombs, according to the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The Foreign Ministry of the United Arab Emirates thanked Türkiye for arresting and extraditing suspects accused of killing an Israeli rabbi in the Emirates. In a statement carried by the state news agency, the ministry thanked Turkish authorities for “their cooperation in arresting the perpetrators,” without providing further details. The three suspects were caught in Istanbul in a secret operation at the weekend by the Turkish intelligence and police, a Turkish security source said on Tuesday. Emirati authorities have said they arrested three Uzbek men for the suspected murder of Zvi Kogan, a 28-year-old rabbi who had been living in…