Facing international isolation, accusations of war crimes and growing pressure to end a conflict he has continued to escalate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gets his chance to push back Friday on the international community's biggest platform.

Netanyahu's annual speech to the U.N. General Assembly is always closely watched, often protested, reliably emphatic and sometimes a venue for dramatic allegations. But this time, the stakes are higher than ever for the Israeli leader.

Eurovision Song Contest organizers said Friday that member broadcasters will vote in November on whether Israel can participate in the musical extravaganza next year, as calls have mounted for the country to be excluded over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

According to spokesperson Dave Goodman, the board of the European Broadcasting Union, which brings together public broadcasters and runs the event, has sent a letter to members indicating that the vote will take place at an extraordinary general meeting held online in early November.

Representatives from European countries with borders close to Russia and Ukraine are holding talks on Friday about building a "drone wall" to plug gaps in their defenses following several airspace violations.

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have been working on a drone wall project, but in March, the European Union's executive branch rejected a joint Estonia-Lithuania request for funds to set one up.

Intrusions into NATO's airspace blamed on Russia reached an unprecedented scale this month, raising questions about whether the Kremlin is trying to test the alliance's willingness and ability to respond to a direct attack or divert its attention and resources from the war in Ukraine.

Russia has been encroaching on its NATO neighbors' airspace for decades, then either denying it happened or brushing it off as unintentional. But since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, such incursions have carried a bigger threat, none more so than when drones swarmed into Poland two weeks ago and caused NATO to scramble jets to shoot them down.

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters gathered at a scenic overlook on Beirut's coast Thursday and projected images of the group's former longtime leader and his successor on the iconic arched Raouche rock to commemorate their deaths in Israeli airstrikes nearly a year ago.

The move came despite an attempt by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to halt the planned light show.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky have announced the birth of their third child, a girl.

Rihanna announced the birth of Rocki Irish Mayers in an Instagram post Wednesday. The post featured one photo of the multihyphenate, 37, with the baby and another photo of baby shoes. It was captioned simply with Rocki's name, a date — Sept. 13 — and an emoji ribbon.

Police conducted a large-scale security operation outside the stadium Wednesday ahead of Israeli team' Maccabi Tel Aviv's game against Greek club PAOK in the Europa League.

Two small protests took place earlier in Thessaloniki in northern Greece, calling for Israeli clubs to be expelled from European competition in response to mass casualties in the war in Gaza.

European football body UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza, people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A majority of UEFA's 20-member executive committee is expected to support any vote in favor of suspending Israeli teams from international play, two sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Typhoon Ragasa weakened into a tropical depression early Thursday as it entered northeastern Vietnam, but it is still expected to bring heavy rains across the country's northern provinces.

By Thursday afternoon, the typhoon's sustained winds had weakened to a maximum 55 kph (34 mph) and Ragasa was forecast to dissipate eventually while remaining a rain threat for Vietnam and other parts of Southeast Asia.

The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3.8% from April through June, the government reported in a dramatic upgrade of its previous estimate of second-quarter growth.

U.S. gross domestic product — the nation's output of goods and services — rebounded in the spring from a 0.6% first-quarter drop caused by fallout from President Donald Trump's trade wars, the Commerce Department said Thursday. The department had previously estimated second-quarter growth at 3.3%.