The Netherlands will join next year's Eurovision despite the disqualification of this year's Dutch candidate and fan-favourite Joost Klein, who has declined an offer to take part in 2025, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS said late on Wednesday."Joost Klein was offered the chance to participate again. But in the end, he chose to decline this offer," the broadcaster said.AVROTROS had previously expressed doubts about participating in next year’s Eurovision after Klein was disqualified from the event, which was held in Sweden, following a complaint from a female crew member.Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in August, citing differing perceptions of Klein's hand movement.The Netherlands has decided to compete next year, as the organisers, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), have guaranteed they will make structural changes, AVROTROS said.

The United States said for the first time on Wednesday that it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that could mark a significant escalation in Russia's war against its neighbor.US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking in Rome, said it would be "very, very serious" if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged. But he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there."There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia," Austin told reporters, using North Korea's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.Speaking to reporters later on Wednesday White House spokesperson John Kirby said the United States believes at least 3,000 North Korean troops are undergoing training at three military bases in eastern Russia."If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they're fair game," he said. "They're fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they're defending themselves against Russian soldiers."

US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and believed that an agreement to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia could be reached before the end of the year.Graham, who is in Michigan campaigning for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told Reuters that Netanyahu supported work on a deal with Saudi Arabia, adding that the next US administration was unlikely to be able to secure enough votes in Congress after President Joe Biden leaves office on Jan. 20."I think the time to do this is on Biden's watch," said Graham, who had also met with Netanyahu earlier this month. He said Vice President Kamala Harris was "far more beholden to the left" and had not shown interest in working for such an agreement, but Biden was keen to see a deal get done and would be able to mobilize the needed Democratic votes.Morgan Finkelstein, National Security Spokeswoman for the Harris campaign said: “Vice President Harris has consistently supported efforts to ensure Israel is more deeply integrated in the Middle East region, including a potential historic normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. She believes such integration is critical to counter the threats posed by Iran.”

Three Lebanese soldiers were killed, including an officer, in an Israeli strike during the evacuation of wounded people on the outskirts of the village of Yater in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army claimed in a statement on Thursday.

Palestinian terrorist group Hamas wants Russia to push Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to begin negotiations on a national unity government for post-war Gaza, a senior Hamas official told the RIA state news agency after talks in Moscow.Mousa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas politburo member, met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow."We discussed issues related to Palestinian national unity and the creation of a government that should govern the Gaza Strip after the war," Marzouk was quoted as saying by RIA.Marzouk said that Hamas had asked Russia to encourage Abbas, who is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan, to start negotiations about a unity government, RIA reported.Abbas is head of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing body of the Palestinian territories.