Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.

On the web at theshmit.org.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston.

There was sound of celebratory gunfire in Lebanon today.

Thousands of people are traveling back to their homes after a ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hezbollah militants today.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says several steps are being taken to

ensure that the deal holds up. So over the next 60 days, the Lebanese armed forces, supported by

the United States and France and other of our allies, will actually go into southern Lebanon,

take up the positions that have previously been occupied by

Hezbollah, and ensure that no terrorist group returns to that region in force.

The Lebanese army says its deploying forces near the Israeli border as a U.S.-Bag truce between

Israel and Hezbollah militants begins to take effect. The State Department has revised its travel advisory for China for the first time since the pandemic.

NPR's John Ruich says the move comes after reports of a deal between Washington and Beijing

that secured the release of three Americans from a Chinese prison.

The travel advisory was lowered to

level two, which advises Americans to exercise increased caution when traveling to China. It had

been one notch higher at level three advising would-be travelers to reconsider trips to China.

The level three warning was put in place early in the pandemic when the virus was spreading

and China started imposing lockdowns. It was kept in place, though, after Beijing dropped

COVID controls in late 2022. The State Department cited arbitrary enforcement of laws and wrongful

detentions in China. The Level 2 advisory still says arbitrary enforcement of local laws is a problem,

including in relation to exit bans.

...