In Mount Olive, North Carolina, they relish the opportunity to ring in the New Year a bit earlier than most of the nation, and on Coney Island, it's a good time for a dip in the surf.
Children are among the hundreds of thousands displaced by fighting on the Lebanon-Israel border. In south Lebanon, an arts program is trying to restore some normalcy to their lives.
NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Masoud Mostajabi, deputy director of the Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council, about Iran's military strategy with its proxies in the region as well as Israel.