California is beginning 2025 with a solid start to the winter snowpack, officials said Thursday, but they cautioned that more storms are needed to keep the state's water supplies on track.

Officials at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state, recorded a snow depth of 24 inches (61 centimeters), said Andy Reising, manager of the Department of Water Resources' snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit. The water content of the snowpack at the station is currently at 91% of the average for this time of year and 37% of the average for April 1, when the Sierra snowpack is typically at its peak, he said.

As president, Jimmy Carter brokered the watershed peace agreement that removed Israel's most powerful enemy from the battlefield. But he incurred the Israeli government's wrath decades later when he said its military rule over the Palestinians amounted to apartheid.

The Camp David peace accords, signed by Israel and Egypt in 1978, remain the biggest achievement from decades of mostly failed U.S. peacemaking in the Middle East.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is "strong and unpredictable," and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

However, Zelensky said it won't be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day, as Trump claimed during his election campaign he could do.

Italy summoned Iran's ambassador on Thursday to demand the release of an Italian journalist while Tehran demanded Italy free an Iranian citizen arrested on a U.S. warrant over a drone attack in Jordan that killed three Americans a year ago.

The developments reflected an escalation in a sensitive, three-nation diplomatic tangle marked by a series of public barbs.

France and Germany's top diplomats met Syria's new ruler in Damascus on Friday, in the highest-level visit by major Western powers since the country's new Islamist authorities seized power last month.

AFPTV footage showed French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock sitting down at the presidential palace with leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says he has authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The statement had no further details, but Israeli media said the delegation would depart Friday.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least 50 people across central and southern Gaza, including an attack on a sprawling tent camp that Israel has repeatedly bombed despite designating it a humanitarian safe zone. Israel said the strike targeted a high-ranking police officer, and blames Hamas for civilian deaths.

The airstrikes took place Thursday and continued into Friday. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he authorized a delegation from the country's intelligence services and military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes Thursday evening on two mountainous areas in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region, deep in south Lebanon.

"Warplanes raided and destroyed a short while ago, with intelligence guidance from the intelligence authority, medium-range rocket launchers used by ... Hezbollah inside a military site of the organization. In addition, other rocket launchers were targeted next to another military site in the Nabatieh area," the Israeli army said

Russian officials have warned of severe environmental damage as thousands of people came out to clean up tons of fuel oil that spilled out of two storm-stricken tankers more than two weeks ago in the Kerch Strait, near Moscow-occupied Crimea.

Arsenal is back into second place in the Premier League and in no rush to add players in the transfer window.

Mikel Arteta's team beat Brentford 3-1 on Wednesday to leapfrog Nottingham Forest and close the gap on league leader Liverpool to six points.