The United Nations chief has proposed three options to help end the decades-old conflict between Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants and Israel when the 8,100-member U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon ends on Dec. 31.

All of the options presented to the U.N. Security Council by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would continue U.N. military monitoring of the boundary between Israel and Lebanon, support Lebanese forces in deploying throughout the country and strengthen political efforts to end the fighting, which has persisted despite a nominal ceasefire.

Israeli weapons exports reached a record high of more than $19 billion last year, a 30% increase from 2024, Israel's Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

More than half of 2025's sales were "mega-deals" valued at $100 million or more, the ministry said, adding that sales have more than doubled in the last five years, despite widespread criticism of Israel's conduct in its wars in Gaza, with Hezbollah and with Iran.

Year-on-year inflation in Iran reached a level in May unseen since World War II, underlining the economic pain average Iranians face as the Islamic Republic worries about the war with Israel and the United States restarting.

A report Monday by Iran's Central Bank represents the first official acknowledgment of what Iranians shopping, paying for a taxi or visiting a medical clinic already know: The rial currency is battered by the war and uncertainty around it resuming.

Ceasefires have been announced, often to great fanfare, in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. So why is there still so much fighting?

In just the last few weeks, Israeli forces have captured more territory in Gaza and killed two top Hamas militants there, as well as more than a dozen other people. In Lebanon, Israeli troops captured a Crusader fortress over the weekend in their deepest incursion in 26 years, as Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into northern Israel.

Hezbollah said Tuesday its fighters fired anti-tank missiles on Israeli troops who were pushing into the southern village of Hadatha, about 7 kilometers from the Israeli border.

Sirens sounded in several areas in northern Israel, the military said in a statement, adding that "a suspicious aerial target" was identified in the area in which Israeli soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon, and that no injuries were reported.

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 14 civilians and wounding more than 100 others, authorities said Tuesday.

Some people were trapped under the rubble of apartment buildings, including a 3-year-old child whose body was pulled out by emergency crews in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said, as the attack stretched from night into day and the boom of explosions reverberated across cities.

A strike on a car on the Khardali road in south Lebanon killed a man, his son and his daughter, who were students, as he drove them back from university exams in Beirut to the southern border village Qlayaa, where some residents were still holding out despite Israeli evacuation orders.

Theodosia Karam, the daughter, had exams at the Lebanese University in Hadath and left with her father and brother after Israel threatened Beirut's southern suburbs. They drove to their hometown, Qlayaa.

The United Nations on Monday expressed its alarm and called for all sides to respect the ceasefire as Israel expanded its offensive into Lebanon, while negotiations to end the U.S.-Iran war appeared in peril.

"We are deeply alarmed by the escalation in military activities across southern Lebanon and beyond," Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said.

Israeli forces are making their deepest incursion inside Lebanon since they withdrew from the country over a quarter-century ago, despite a nominal U.S.-brokered ceasefire and the first direct talks between the countries in decades.

The Israeli advance presents a challenge in the emerging deal to extend the Iran war ceasefire as Tehran wants any agreement to end fighting in Lebanon, too. Qatar called it a "dangerous escalation." Germany's foreign minister said it was cause for serious concern, according to German press agency dpa. There was no comment by the United States.

Israeli troops have captured a strategic mountain topped with a Crusader-built castle in southern Lebanon in the deepest incursion into the country in more than a quarter-century, the military said Sunday, while U.S. Secretary of State spoke to Lebanese and Israeli leaders in an effort to keep negotiations going.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to propose a fresh path to continue ongoing negotiations, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations. Under the proposal, Hezbollah would halt all attacks on Israel and Israel would refrain from escalating military operations in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, according to the official.