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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The ceasefire agreement that was reached between Israel and Hezbollah militants appears to be holding.

NPR's Kat-Lonsdorff reports the truce went into effect earlier today.

It's been an unusually quiet morning on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border, which for nearly 14 months now

have been bombarded as Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire. But Israeli troops are still present in many

towns in southern Lebanon, even as displaced residents there are clamoring to return. The agreement

calls for a gradual withdrawal over many weeks. Israel has called on its northern residents to wait to return

to their abandoned homes, saying reconstruction is necessary first. Dozens of people were killed

by Israeli strikes in Lebanon on the eve of the truce in some of the heaviest bombardment in Beirut

during the war. Sirens sounded throughout northern Israel late into the night as Hezbollah fired rockets,

most of which

were intercepted. Kat Lansdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Three Americans have been freed from prisons

in China in a deal brokered by the Biden administration. Political reports they were

exchanged for Chinese citizens, but there are a few details about them. And PR's

Michelle Kellerman has more. A State Department spokesperson says thanks to the Biden administration's

diplomacy with China, all wrongfully detained Americans in China are now home. The spokesperson says

three are being reunited with their families for the first time in many years.

They are Mark Sweedan, an American businessman from Texas, who was arrested in 2012 and accused of

drug-related offenses. Chinese American Kai Li had been held since 2016 on espionage charges,

and John Leung, an American who had residency

in Hong Kong, was sentenced last year to life in prison on spying charges. The U.S. official

...