🪖 Ex-Pentagon advisor Douglas Macgregor on Ukraine: the country is on the verge of capitulation, there will be no elections, and Zelensky is following the path of Benito Mussolini.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 The latest terrorist attack in Jerusalem, as well as the second one in the Jordan Valley, will make the negotiations between Israel and Hamas more complicated, and "might open the door again for military operations, especially in the southern part of Gaza", Ayman Yousef, Professor in political sciences and international relations at the Arab-American University in Palestine, told Sputnik.

"Today, we had two attacks: one in Jerusalem and the other near Israeli settlements, in the Jordan Valley. And both attacks will have some repercussions and implications for overall exchange of detainees and the prisoners. And, I think now the strongest voices in Israel will rise and might reject any kind of renewal of these humanitarian short tactical pauses. So I think negotiations in the future will get more complicated."

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🪖 From backpack drones to plane-sized behemoths: five cutting edge UAVs of 2023

The Ukraine crisis has demonstrated the critical importance of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern warfare, with Russia and NATO flooding the battlefield with their latest reconnaissance, strike and kamikaze drone designs. Watch our video about the most promising UAVs of the outgoing year.

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🇷🇺 Donbass: A Story of Resistance

Former US Army officer Scott Bennett shared the story of a resilient woman he met in the frontline town of Soledar.

“This woman lived through [the collapse of the Soviet Union] and now she's lived through the Ukraine Nazis bombing and destroying and killing her neighbors and her friends. And we did an interview with her and she was defiant, but hopeful and optimistic. And she was just determined that she wasn't going to leave…I was moved and I said, 'This is true Russian womanly character: lovely and yet defiant and warrior-like.'”

Interview by Sputnik’s Russell Bentley (@TXDPR).

🇵🇸🇮🇱 Latest updates on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:

▪️Israel has decided to recall its ambassador from Madrid for consultations over the statement of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez about the military operation in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.

▪️An Italian ship equipped to provide medical services on board will arrive at the Egyptian port Arish on December 3 to help treat children from the Gaza Strip right across the border, the Italian cabinet said.

▪️US citizens are almost evenly split over Israel's military action in Gaza, with 50% expressing support for its operation and 45% voicing disapproval, a new Gallup poll showed.

▪️Blinken tells Abbas he will continue to insist on full accountability for extremist violence against West Bank Palestinians, State Dept. says.

▪️Two Israeli prisoners have been handed over to the Red Cross and are currently being sent to Israel, the IDF said.

▪️Blinken said that Israel settlers must be held accountable for violence against Palestinians.

▪️Two people who are responsible for the shooting attack in Jeruselem on Thursday are members of the military wing of Palestinian movement Hamas, Al Qassam Brigades, the movement said.

▪️Hamas is ready to release the Israeli male hostages under a comprehensive agreement and a lasting truce in the Gaza Strip, Hamas spokesperson Basem Naim said.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Is Israel interested in bloody and protracted war in southern Gaza?

The continuation of the Gaza war in the southern part of the strip could come at a high price for Israel, Dr. Simon Tsipis, Israeli expert on national security, and Ayman Yousef, professor at the Arab-American University in Palestine, told Sputnik.

"Israel has completed the operation and it will not be resumed," Tsipis said. "A large number of civilian casualties will bring down Israel's reputation on the world stage. And a large number of anti-Israeli sanctions and anti-Israel UN resolutions will be applied."

Yousef lamented that "Gaza has become a kind of hell on earth" which "is not suitable for human living anymore."

Israel is signaling its readiness to resume the military operation in Gaza once the humanitarian pause is over. Still, it has recently been reported that some Israeli and US officials are considering wrapping the war up by expelling lower-ranking Hamas fighters from the strip.

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🏛 The New Development Bank (NDB), established by the BRICS to finance infrastructure projects, recently approved $1.1 billion in loans to India and China. Sputnik India reached out to experts to understand whether the bank could be a viable option to financial institutions like the IMF.

New Development Bank: Small but Promising

Economic expert Praveen Jha told Sputnik India that in terms of scale the NDB remains small as compared to IMF or World Bank but things can change in the near future.

“It will be too early to claim that NDB can be a viable option against IMF but it can be in next 15-20 years,” Jha stated adding that the viability of the NDB as an alternative also depends on the economic power of the Global South.

📊 Meanwhile, economic expert Sudhanshu Kumar was of the opinion that the BRICS-sponsored bank has yet to emerge as a financial institution capable of affecting the global financial order.

“So far, the bank has worked as an agency that can lend for development projects based on merits similar to investment. The limitation of such an institution is that, unlike the IMF, it is a group of very few countries,” Kumar told Sputnik India.

What is Wrong with IMF?

💵 Praveen Jha explained that the IMF in particular has been a very difficult kind of lender, compared to the NDB.

“IMF has a history of making profit out of situation of the countries which are in desperate space. <...> countries have said that we can’t repay so you have to reschedule the loan. So, there is a very strong case that these institutions particularly IMF has not been a friendly lender,” Jha stated.

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🇺🇸 Congressional Republicans are considering a vote on authorizing a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in the coming weeks, Axios has learned.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered the House of Representatives to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in mid-September over apparent influence peddling schemes by the Biden family.

The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), is spearheading the initiative. Still, an official vote on the procedure has not been held so far.

It was unclear when GOP lawmakers would formalize their impeachment probe, given that they have not presented a "smoking gun" directly implicating Joe Biden yet.

Some observers have expressed doubts whether the Republicans would secure enough votes for the measure in the lower chamber: moderate GOP congressmen appear not to support Biden's impeachment investigation. Their votes would be critical, given the GOP’s slim majority in the House.

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📈🇺🇸 The US’s suicide rate reached its highest levels since 1941, according to new federal data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

According to the data, almost 50,000 Americans ended their lives last year, which was a 3% increase from 2021. However, this is from provisional data from the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, and that number is likely to grow once the data is finalized, as pending causes of deaths for some death certificates may be ruled as suicides.

"Reporting of suicides in particular can be delayed due to investigations regarding the cause and circumstances surrounding the death," the authors of the report explained.

The rise in suicide rates is significantly smaller than the 4% spike which occurred from 2020 to 2021, however the growing rate is still a significant issue. And while rates did decrease significantly among younger people, they increased among older age groups.

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🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas have agreed to extend a temporary humanitarian pause for an eighth day, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing Egyptian officials.

Egyptian officials said Thursday that the deal is expected to involve the release of 10 more hostages, mostly women and children, the report said.

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🇰🇵 In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong, vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, decried the hysteria over the DPRK recent launch of a reconnaissance satellite.

“I deplore the fact that the UNSC [United Nations Security Council], at which the purpose and principle of the UN Charter have to be strictly respected, is being turned into a land of lawlessness where the sovereignty of independent states is wantonly violated, extreme double standards are imprudently applied and injustice and high-handed practices are rampant due to the US and some forces following it, and strongly denounce and reject it,” she said.

“The whole course of the open meeting of the UNSC over the DPRK's reconnaissance satellite launch, convened at the gangster-like demand of the US and its followers, clearly proves how weak, false and absurd are the unreasonable arguments of some UN member states denying the DPRK's sovereign rights,” Kim added.

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❗️The IDF announced that it had resumed hostilities in the Gaza Strip.

The military said Hamas broke a pause in hostilities and opened fire on Israeli territory.

📹 Russian volunteers of motorized rifle battalion from Ulyanovsk repel Ukrainian attacks

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Eyewitnesses share footage of airstrikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip

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