🇵🇸🇮🇱 Latest updates on the Palestine-Israel conflict:

▪️Release of 10-15 hostages of Hamas in exchange for 1-2 days of humanitarian pause in Gaza discussed as part of Qatar-mediated talks;

▪️Israeli airstrikes kill 18 people in Nuseirat refugee camp in central part of Gaza Strip, according to reports;

▪️Israel's refusal to cease fire for several hours prevented Russian hostages from being released, the Hamas' spokesperson told Sputnik;

▪️Death toll among UNRWA staff in Gaza Strip increases to 92, according to UNRWA.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣 Ukraine is a lost case for the West

"How are you going to win this war? Because the soldiers are not there anymore. And recently they also made a campaign in France for new mercenaries. So they are desperate. They're really desperate", independent journalist, writer Sonja Van Den Ende told Sputnik.

🎧 Listen to more of Sonja’s analysis in our podcast The Backstory

👉 You can watch every episode of the podcast on Rumble

📻 Catch us at 105.5FM, 1390AM (Washington DC) and 104.7FM, 102.9FM, 1140АМ (Kansas City)

❗The US Defense Department has confirmed its MQ-9 Reaper drone was shot down in the international airspace off the Yemen coast, media reported, citing a senior US defense official.

🇩🇪 Less than a fifth of several hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians who fled to Germany since February 2022 have found a job at their new host country, with the rest being seemingly content to live off unemployment benefits provided by Berlin.

The upkeep of each of the Ukrainian refugees may cost German taxpayers up to 45,000 euros annually, said Gunnar Beck, member of the European Parliament for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

He also warned that “many Ukrainians are abusing the German system” by busing into some town in Germany “every fortnight to register for benefits” and then promptly returning back to Ukraine.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🧐 Does Team Biden have something to hide?

The Biden administration acknowledges that it is taking care not to provide "too much detail" about its military deliveries to Israel, whereas it used to be very vocal about its Ukrainian weapon supplies.

🗣 "The difference is there is much more directly at stake for the US both militarily and politically in the Middle East," retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, told Sputnik.

While militarily US forces are operating in close proximity to Israel's adversaries – Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon – politically, Washington is on thin ice with erstwhile allies in the Saudi, Kuwaiti and Qatari elites as well as with the Turkiye leadership.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇿🇦 South Africa proposes plan to resolve Israeli - Palestinian conflict

The plan includes an immediate comprehensive ceasefire and complete opening of humanitarian corridors, according to South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Naledi Pandor.

Apart from that, Pandor said a zone free of nuclear weapons should be established in the Middle East, and Palestine and Israel should resume dialog, adding that a rapid reaction force of the United Nations should be deployed in Palestine to observe the ceasefire and protect civilians.

Subscribe to @sputnik_africa

🔸 Sputnik Africa | TikTok | Odysee | Twitter 🔸

📹 A Russian mobile group of paratroopers destroys a Ukrainian armored vehicle close to Artyomovsk

By launching a guided missile from the Kornet anti-tank missile system, the Ukrainian armored vehicle was destroyed.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 A Russian Uragan MLRS crew destroys a Ukrainian stronghold in South Donetsk direction

The power of MLRS is sufficient to destroy not only heavy hardware, but also fortified command posts, and even fortifications with concrete walls.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The United States intends to kill Russia’s Arctic LNG 2 project through sanctions coordinated with the Group of Seven (G7) partners and others, US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt said.

"Our objective is to kill that project, and we are doing that through our sanctions, working with our partners in the Group of Seven and beyond," Pyatt stated during a US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Earlier this month, the United States sanctioned the Arctic LNG 2, which is the second-largest liquified natural gas production project and is owned by the Russian energy company Novatek.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Fierce clashes between US forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on one side and the Syrian army and its allies on the other have broken out in Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria, Lebanese broadcaster reported Thursday, citing a source.

"Fierce clashes between American forces and the SDF on one side and the Syrian army and its allies on the other are underway, and various medium-caliber weapons, heavy artillery and rockets are being used," the source told the broadcaster.

The source added that US forces and SDF units are fighting from east of the Euphrates, while the Syrian army and its allies are engaged in clashes from their positions west of the Euphrates.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇰🇿 This morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Kazakhstan for talks, where he was met by his Kazakh counterpart

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy: “Ukraine is not a paragon of democracy. This is a country that has banned 11 opposition parties. It has consolidated all media into one state TV media arm. That’s not democratic. It has threatened not to hold elections this year unless the U.S. forks over more money. That is not democratic.”

“It celebrated a Nazi in its ranks — the comedian in cargo pants, a man called Zelensky — doing it in their own ranks. That is not democratic."

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

The Houthis showed a video in which they allegedly shoot down an American MQ-9 Reaper UAV over Yemeni territorial waters. A few hours later, the Pentagon confirmed the report.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt

An American military base near the Al-Omar oil field east of the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor came under fire several times last night, an Arab TV channel reported.

According to the channel, at least 15 rockets were fired at the base.

Subscribe to @SputnikInt