New security screenings have begun for all passengers onboard U.S.-bound flights, including airlines interviewing travelers about their trip and luggage.

The new measures began on Thursday.

President Michel Temer may have saved his job by convincing a small majority in Brazil's Congress not to suspend him and put him on trial for corruption, but his scandal-rocked government appears more weakened than ever.

The vote late Wednesday marked the second time in three months that Temer survived a legislative vote that could have suspended him for a trial, but analysts said he has spent so much political capital it raises the specter of a lame duck administration unable to enact a proposed overhaul of pensions and work rules aimed at reviving Brazil's economy.

Vice President Mike Pence announced Wednesday that he will travel to Israel and Egypt in late December, and said the U.S. will redirect funds aimed at helping persecuted Christians and other minorities away from the United Nations.

Pence discussed his plans at a religious dinner in Washington, where he stressed the Trump administration's commitment to helping Christian minority groups across the Middle East.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved bipartisan legislation Wednesday to block the flow of money to Hizbullah and to sanction the Iran-backed group for allegedly using civilians as "human shields" during the 2006 war with Israel, describing Hizbullah as Tehran's "leading terrorist proxy."

The measures were approved by voice vote.

A police raid against unlicensed street vendors in Beirut's southern suburbs has caused a rare public expression of anger in a stronghold of Hizbullah.

The raid early Wednesday in the Hay el-Sellom neighborhood was carried out by the Internal Security Forces, which used bulldozers to take down shacks where vendors mainly sold coffee and mobile phones.

The U.N. children's agency said Tue that Australia has granted it 30 million Australian dollars, or about $23 million, to boost access to education for vulnerable children in Lebanon over the next three years.

A UNICEF statement said the announcement was made during Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove's visit to a Lebanese public school.

A non-partisan federal watchdog says climate change is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars each year, with those costs expected to rise as devastating storms, floods, wildfires and droughts become more frequent in the coming decades.

A Government Accountability Office report released Monday said the federal government has spent more than $350 billion over the last decade on disaster assistance programs and losses from flood and crop insurance. That tally does not include the massive toll from this year's wildfires and three major hurricanes, expected to be among the most costly in the nation's history.

Vice President Mike Pence on Monday honored the memory of 241 U.S. service members killed in the 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, calling the three-decade-old attack the "opening salvo" in the war against terrorism.

Pence and White House National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster paid tribute to the service members, including 220 Marines, on the anniversary of the deadly truck bombing during President Ronald Reagan's first term.

New U.S. sanctions against Hizbullah expected to be released in the near future are not likely to affect the country's banking sector that is the backbone of the tiny Arab country's economy, a top Lebanese banker said.

A Palestinian film festival on Sunday canceled the screening of a movie by a Lebanese-French director following pressure by activists who opposed his previous work in Israel.

"The Insult," the latest movie by director Ziad Doueiri, was set to close the Palestinian Days of Cinema festival on Monday and was competing for the festival's top award.