The Biden administration is determined in its final months to help ensure that Ukraine can keep fighting off Russia’s full-scale invasion next year, sending it as much aid as possible so that it might hold Russian forces at bay and possess a strong hand in any potential peace negotiations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.

“President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and Jan. 20,” when president-elect Donald Trump is due to be sworn in, Blinken said.

NATO countries must focus their efforts on “ensuring that Ukraine has the money, munitions and mobilized forces to fight effectively in 2025, or to be able to negotiate a peace from a position of strength,” Blinken said during a visit to Brussels.

The US will “adapt and adjust” with the latest equipment it is sending, Blinken said, without providing details.

The almost three-year war has shown no signs of winding down.

Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital Kyiv with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days on Wednesday. 

That came a day after the Pentagon said most of the North Korean troops sent to help Moscow’s war effort are fighting to drive Ukraine’s army off Russian soil in the Kursk border region.

Stealth fighter jets and attack drones took center stage on Monday at the official opening of Airshow China in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.

The airshow is an opportunity for Beijing to showcase its growing military might to potential customers and rivals alike.

Over the past few years, China has poured resources into modernizing and expanding its aviation capabilities as it faces off against the United States and others around regional flashpoints like Taiwan.

The star of Airshow China 2024, which showcases Beijing's civil and military aerospace sector every two years in the southern city of Zhuhai, is the new J-35A stealth fighter jet.

Its inclusion in the airshow suggests it is nearly ready to enter operation, which would make China the only country other than the United States to have two stealth fighters in action, experts said.

The J-35A is lighter than China's existing model, the J20, and looks more similar in design to a US F-35.

The airshow will feature a dedicated drone zone for the first time, reflecting their increased prominence in warzones, including Ukraine.

Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon over the last day have killed at least 40 people including several children, Lebanese authorities said on Saturday, after heavy Israeli bombardment pounded the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut overnight, Reuters reported.

At least seven people were killed in the coastal city of Tyre late on Friday, Lebanon's health ministry said. The Israeli military has previously ordered swathes of the city to evacuate but there were no orders published by the Israeli military spokesperson on social media platform X before Friday's strikes.

The ministry said two children were among the dead. Rescue operations were ongoing and other body parts retrieved in the aftermath of the attack would undergo DNA testing to identify them, the ministry added.

Strikes in nearby towns on Saturday killed 13 people, including seven medics from rescue groups affiliated to Hezbollah and its ally Amal, the health ministry said.

At least 20 more people were killed in Israeli strikes on Saturday across the eastern plains around the historic city of Baalbek, the health ministry said.

The Israeli military said it had struck Hezbollah infrastructure sites in the areas of Tyre and Baalbek, including fighters, "operational apartments," and weapons stores.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,136 people and wounded 13,979 in Lebanon over the last year. The toll includes 619 women and 194 children, read the report.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since October 2023, but fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year. Israel has intensified and expanded its bombing campaign, and Hezbollah has ramped up daily rocket and drone attacks against Israel.

The Iran-backed group announced more than 20 operations on Saturday, as well as one that it said fighters carried out the previous day against a military factory south of Tel Aviv.

More than a dozen Israeli strikes also hit the southern suburbs of Beirut overnight, once a bustling collection of neighbourhoods and a key stronghold of Hezbollah.

Now, many buildings have been almost entirely flattened, with Hezbollah's yellow flags jutting out from the ruins, according to Reuters reporters who were taken on a tour of the area by Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Some buildings were partially damaged by the strikes, leading some floors to collapse and sending furniture and other personal belongings spilling onto parked cars below.

Men and women were picking through the rubble for their belongings, shoving blankets and mats under their arms or into black plastic bags.

"We are trying to gather as many (of our possessions) as we can, so we can manage to live off them, nothing more," said Hassan Hannawi, one of the men looking for his belongings.