Chinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week, both countries announced Friday, in what will be his first visit in nearly seven years.

His trip will be the latest in a series of steps by China to reinforce its close ties with its nuclear-armed neighbor. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reached out to Russia in recent years, notably by sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine.

Drone alert sirens sounded in several border communities in northern Israel on Thursday shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials wrapped up a visit to the area, Israeli media reports said.

The Israeli military later said the sirens were triggered by attempts to intercept several drones that hit near soldiers in southern Lebanon. No injuries were reported.

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to renew their shaky ceasefire, with an aim to continue talks later this month for a comprehensive peace deal.

The U.S.-brokered agreement, announced in a joint statement by the U.S., Israel and Lebanon Wednesday, comes after Israeli forces made their deepest incursion into Lebanon in more than a quarter century.

Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and the Lebanese government, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a written statement read on TV, said the agreement's demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean "surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals."

Hezbollah resumed its rocket fire days after Israel and the United States launched their surprise attack on Iran on Feb. 28. Before then, Israel had regularly carried out strikes in Lebanon against what it said were militant targets, often killing civilians, despite an earlier truce reached in 2024.

In the southern city of Sidon, many residents reacted to the ceasefire announcement with skepticism, saying previous agreements had failed to stop the violence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday as New Delhi seeks to deepen ties with the oil-rich South American nation following disruptions in global energy supplies.

Rudrendra Tandon, a senior official in India's foreign ministry, said the talks held in New Delhi focused on strengthening energy cooperation. He said Venezuela had become India's third-largest crude oil supplier in recent weeks.

At least nine Palestinians were killed overnight in strikes in Gaza, according to local hospitals, even as much of the world's attention was focused on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The nine people were killed in at least four separate strikes in Gaza City, according to Shifa Hospital, which received the bodies.

Every week, Mirvet Makki sets aside earnings from her catering business to help people in Lebanon displaced by the war.

Makki, 47, who cooks Lebanese dishes like couscous stews and traditional kibbeh balls in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn Heights, immigrated to Michigan in 1990. But her heart never left her childhood village of Bint Jbeil, now one of the hardest-hit areas in southern Lebanon.

The House for the first time Wednesday approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying President Donald Trump as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long conflict that has reordered politics at home and abroad.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had tried to prevent an outcome that would show the mounting opposition to the war, abruptly shutting down floor action two weeks ago when the resolution was on the verge of approval. But displeasure has only grown as the conflict drags on and as Trump struggles to negotiate a plan for peace.

The Israeli army carried out airstrikes in south Lebanon on Thursday, hours after Israel and Lebanon agreed to implement a ceasefire.

An Israeli airstrike targeted a vehicle on the Zefta road, while other strikes targeted Kfartebnit, Shehour, Bestat, Kfar Remman, Tebnine, Maaroub, Zawtar, Shoukin, Kafra, Zebdine, Baraashit, Srifa, Harees, Qana, Toul, Harouf, Mayfadoun, Dweir, Deir al-Zahrani, Beit Yahoun, Maarakeh, Adshit, Kfarjoz and al-Mansouri.