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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration this week warned North Korea against providing Russian President Vladimir Putin “a platform to promote his war of aggression” against Ukraine ahead of his possible trip to Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Putin to Pyongyang when he visited Russia in September, and preparations are being made for his trip, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry said without providing a specific date, Russian news agency Tass reported May 30. Tass quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying preparations for Putin's visit to North Korea as well as to Vietnam are at “an advanced stage." VOA contacted the Russian Embassy in Seoul, asking if dates are set for Putin's visit to Pyongyang, but did not receive a reply. There was speculation that Putin would visit North Korea after he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May. In response to Rudenko's remarks about Putin's trip to Pyongyang, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korean Service Tuesday, “As Russia continues to seek international support to sustain its illegal and brutal war against Ukraine, we reiterate that no country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities.” The spokesperson continued, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, that “deepening cooperation between Russia and the DPRK should be of great concern to anyone interested in maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.” The spokesperson added, “The DPRK has and continues to provide material support to the Russian Federation for their aggression in Ukraine.” Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister, denied on May 17 that North Korea was engaged in arms dealings with Russia. North Korean missiles have been turning up in Ukraine, indicating growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, according to a report released by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency on May 29. The report shows the pictures of what it says is debris from a North Korean short-range ballistic missile found in Kharkiv in January that Russia used against Ukraine. Pyongyang has been providing ballistic missiles to Moscow since November in addition to shipping hundreds of containers full of ammunition to Russia in August, the report said. About seven months after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia sought to purchase millions of artillery shells and rockets from North Korea, the report said. Experts said Putin’s trip to Pyongyang will allow him to boost military cooperation with North Korea that began when Kim visited Russia in September. “Putin, who in the past has openly broached the prospect of bolstering military collaboration with Pyongyang, could use his time in the North to move — or at least discuss moving — arms and military technology agreements toward the finish line,” Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities, said in an email. “North Korean munitions have given him critical time to reconstitute Russia’s own domestic military production so Putin will attempt to keep the North Korean arms spigot flowing,” he continued. Putin reportedly said Russia will continue to “develop” its relations with North Korea regardless of what others think when he met with the heads of international news agencies on the sidelines of theInternational Economic Forum held in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. He also said North Korea’s nuclear issue will “gradually be resolved” if Pyongyang does not feel threatened and thanked South Korea for not directly providing weapons to Ukraine, according to Tass. The same day, Putin warned that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to the West’s adversaries so they could strike Western countries in response to NATO allies, including the United States, allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack inside Russia. David Maxwell, vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, said during a phone interview that Pyongyang is more likely to “act on its own interest” than to heed Moscow if asked to cause provocations on the Korean Peninsula or elsewhere. Maxwell also said Putin’s possible visit to North Korea could be used as “a propaganda vehicle” for Moscow and Pyongyang. They will try to “reinforce the reputation of both, especially in terms of alliances” and portray their causes — Russia’s war in Ukraine and North Korea’s threats against South Korea — as somewhat “legitimate” despite causing massive human rights abuses, Maxwell said. Pyongyang described Putin’s war in Ukraine as “the sacred war of justice” by “the valiant Russian army” engaged in “the special military operation to annihilate neo-Nazis” in a statement released on May 16 by its state-run KCNA.

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WASHINGTON — America’s employers added a strong 272,000 jobs in May, accelerating from April and a sign that companies are still confident enough in the economy to keep hiring despite persistently high interest rates. Last month’s sizable job gain suggests that the economy is still growing steadily, propelled by consumer spending on travel, entertainment and other services. U.S. airports, for example, reported record traffic over the Memorial Day weekend. A healthy job market typically drives consumer spending, the economy’s principal fuel. Although some recent signs have raised concerns about economic weakness, May’s jobs report should help assuage those fears. Still, Friday's report from the government included some signs of a potential slowdown. The unemployment rate, for example, edged up for a second straight month, to a still-low 4%, from 3.9%, ending a 27-month streak of unemployment below 4%. That streak had matched the longest such run since the late 1960s. President Joe Biden is still likely to point to Friday's jobs report as a sign of the economy’s robust health under his administration. The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump has focused his criticism of Biden’s economic policies on the surge in inflation, which polls show still weighs heavily in voters’ assessment of the economy. Hourly paychecks accelerated last month, a welcome gain for workers although one that could contribute to stickier inflation. Hourly wages rose 4.1% from a year ago, faster than the rate of inflation and more quickly than in April. Some companies may raise their prices to offset their higher wage costs. The Federal Reserve’s inflation fighters would like to see the economy cool a bit as they consider when to begin cutting their benchmark rate. The Fed sharply raised interest rates in 2022 and 2023 after the vigorous recovery from the pandemic recession ignited the worst inflation in 40 years. Friday's report will likely underscore Fed officials' intention to delay any cuts to their benchmark interest rate while they monitor inflation and economic data. Although Chair Jerome Powell has said he expects inflation to continue to ease, he has stressed that the Fed's policymakers need “greater confidence” that inflation will fall back to their 2% target before they would reduce borrowing costs. Annual inflation has declined to 2.7% by the Fed’s preferred measure, from a peak above 7% in 2022. “This report is going to complicate the Fed’s job," said Julia Pollak, chief economist for ZipRecruiter. “No one’s getting those very clear signals that they were hoping for that a rate cut is appropriate in July or September.” Last month's hiring occurred broadly across most of the economy. But job growth was particularly robust in health care, which added 84,000 jobs, and restaurants, hotels and entertainment providers, which gained 42,000. Governments, particularly local governments, added 43,000 positions. Professional and business services, which includes managers, architects and information technology, grew by 33,000. One potential sign of weakness in the May employment report was a drop in the proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one; it fell from 62.7% to 62.5%. Most of that drop occurred among people 55 and over, many of whom are baby boomers who are retiring. A surge in immigration in the past three years has boosted the size of the U.S. workforce and has been a key driver of the healthy pace of job growth. (Economists have said it isn't clear whether the government's jobs report is picking up all those gains, particularly among unauthorized immigrants.) When the Fed began aggressively raising rates, most economists had expected the resulting jump in borrowing costs to drive unemployment to painfully high levels and cause a recession. Yet the job market has proved more durable than almost anyone had predicted. Even so, Americans remain generally frustrated by high prices, a continuing source of discontent that could imperil Biden’s reelection bid. The economy expanded at just a 1.3% annual rate in the first three months of this year, the government said last week, a sharp pullback from the 3.4% pace in last year’s final quarter. Much of the slowdown, though, reflected reduced stockpiling by businesses and other volatile factors, while consumer and business spending made clear that demand remained solid. In April, though, consumer spending, adjusted for inflation, declined. That raised concern among economists that elevated inflation and interest rates are increasingly pressuring some consumers, particularly younger and lower-income households. A key reason why the economy is still producing solid net job growth is that layoffs remain at historic lows. Just 1.5 million people lost jobs in April. That’s the lowest monthly figure on record — outside of the peak pandemic period — in data going back 24 years. After struggling to fill jobs for several years, most employers are reluctant to lay off workers.

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Taipei, Taiwan — China is pushing back against criticism by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week, denying claims it is pressuring countries not to attend next weekend’s peace conference in Switzerland and putting forward its own peace plan for the Ukraine war.    After Zelenskyy accused China of “working hard” to prevent countries from participating in the summit at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 2, Beijing denied the Ukrainian president’s allegation Monday, saying Beijing remains “firmly committed to promoting talks for peace” and hopes the summit would not be “used to create bloc confrontation.”   “Not attending it does not mean not supporting peace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters Monday.   “China has never sat idly by or fueled the flames, still less profiteered from the conflict. Instead, we have worked relentlessly for a cease-fire, and this has been highly commended by various parties, including Russia and Ukraine,” she added.    Apart from pushing back against Zelenskyy’s criticism, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi also put forward a Chinese peace plan Tuesday.  “China believes that the world now needs to make more objective, balanced, positive, and constructive voices on the Ukraine crisis,” he told a joint press conference Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.   Wang pointed to “the six common understandings on political settlement of the Ukraine Crisis,” a document jointly issued by China and Brazil last month, as Beijing’s plan to facilitate the peace process for the Ukraine war.   “In just one week, 45 countries from five continents have responded positively to the 'six common understandings' in different ways,” Wang said, noting that China will decide whether to join the “many summits” around the world independently.  Some analysts say Beijing’s reluctance to join the Switzerland session, which Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Singapore will be attended by 106 countries and at least 70 heads of state, is an attempt to avoid being attacked during the conference for supporting Russia.   “Beijing prefers to avoid this conference and instead, proposes its own vision to demonstrate that it is still committed to promoting peace,” Zhiqun Zhu, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at Bucknell University, told VOA in a written response.   Other experts say Beijing also sees many Western countries that plan to attend the conference in Switzerland, including the United States, as lacking the sincerity to resolve the Ukraine war peacefully.    “Beijing thinks Western countries that are attending the summit are not sincerely pro-peace,” said Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, adding that China says its vision for resolving the Ukraine conflict, which is through a peace process that should involve both Ukraine and Russia, is not compatible with that put forward by the West.  “Beijing claims that the West is not sincere [about resolving the Ukraine War] and that there is a dual agenda in the West’s peace conference,” he told VOA by phone.    Shift in Ukraine’s view of China    While Beijing continues to portray itself as a neutral actor in the Ukraine war, Zelenskyy’s rare public criticism of China reflects a shift in Ukraine’s view of China. During a press conference at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Zelenskyy said it is unfortunate that China “is an instrument in the hands of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin.”    Some analysts say Zelenskyy’s comments in Singapore show that Ukraine’s initial hope that China would be neutral in the war is diminishing.    “One might say that there were some hopes in Kyiv’s leadership that Beijing would be neutral with regard to the war, [but] these hopes are now gone,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, director of the Center for International Studies at the Odesa Mechnikov National University in Ukraine.   While the shift in Zelenskyy’s tone toward China is notable, Dubovyk told VOA it is unclear whether this will have a lasting impact on Ukraine-China relations.   “One might safely forecast that Beijing’s entanglement with Russia is only going to deepen, thus antagonizing Ukraine, yet China may still come [up] with a certain peace plan that would be less pro-Russian and more balanced,” he said.   Following the spat between Beijing and Kyiv, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong and Ukrainian First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha held political consultations in Beijing on Wednesday regarding the war and bilateral relations.  While Sun reiterated Beijing’s commitment to advance exchanges with Kyiv, Sybiha urged China to take part in the summit, arguing that Beijing could “make a practical contribution to achieving a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”    Umarov said Ukraine hopes to secure China’s participation in the summit because of Beijing’s influence in the world and over Russia.   “The way to legitimize the summit is to have as many participants as possible, [but] I doubt Beijing will change its position on the war in Ukraine,” he told VOA.    As Zelenskyy keeps urging countries to join the session, Zhu said he thinks China’s absence would reduce the importance of the conference.   “With the absence of Russia and China, the summit’s significance will be reduced,” he told VOA.   

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Presidents and finance ministers from eleven central African countries have failed to agree on merging three economic blocs. Analysts say breaking down economic barriers among member countries of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, the Economic Community of Central African States, ECCAS, and the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries CEPGL will boost trade and growth in a region that is said to be among the poorest and most conflict-ridden in the world.  But after a meeting in Cameroon’s capital, officials say combining the three economic blocs will take longer than the leaders of the regions expect. Gilberto Da Piedade Verissimo is the president of ECCAS. He says the process of merging the economic blocs is taking longer than planned because of a lack of political will, conflicting interests and bureaucratic duplication among 3 rival economic groups. He says each time there is a leadership change, ECCAS officials start explaining the importance of fusing the economic blocs for the general interest of the eleven central African states to new governments all over again because different leaders have different understandings of the combination. Verissimo said merging economic blocs will stop the duplication of regional projects such as airlines, roads, electricity, agriculture and aquaculture, making it easier for funding agencies to invest in such projects.  ECCAS consists of Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Sao Tome and Principe and was created in 1983. It is officially recognized by the African Union as central Africa's regional economic community.  In 1999 Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea launched CEMAC, but remained members of ECCAS. In 2003 Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda created CEPGL but also remained in ECCAS.  The three economic blocs claim that their mission is to facilitate the free movement of goods and persons across borders and promote regional integration, reduce inequality and poverty.  But the African Union, or AU, says the central African states remain among the poorest countries, although their economic and social potential is very strong. In 2006, the AU asked central African leaders to merge the three economic blocs.    Edouard Normand Bigendaka is the governor of the Bank of the Republic of Burundi. He says the participants in the Yaounde meeting created an organization to examine a new currency to replace the West African CFA Franc and the Central African CFA Franc. "This high monetary authority will be in charge of preparing the different steps towards a free trade zone and then a common market, so that's the rationale of having a common currency," Bigendaka said. "There are a number of steps that have to be put in place by member countries before we attain this particular objective." Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute represented President Paul Biya at the meeting. Ngute says despite the challenges, committed leaders of the region will continue advocating for a strong regional economic community that will improve business, encourage the free movement of people and reduce poverty. He says central African states cannot continue to think that they can single handedly solve their problems while other countries, including developed nations, are counting on economic blocs to tackle their problems. The AU says fusing the economic blocs will facilitate trade and growth among central Africa's 240 million inhabitants and allow member states to concentrate on infrastructure development and jointly combating climate shocks, terrorism and armed groups that are destabilizing the eleven countries.

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Paul Hughes, a former hockey coach from Canada, arrived in Kharkiv in March 2022. In the two years since, he and other volunteers — some local, some foreign — have been helping Ukrainians internally displaced by the war survive. Anna Kosstutschenko has his story. Videographer: Pavel Suhodolskiy.

JOHANNESBURG — South African opposition parties were meeting Friday and will continue crunch talks into next week to consider the ruling African National Congress’ offer to become part of a government of national unity. ANC failed to secure a majority in last week’s highly contested election, but some opposition parties are already rejecting the party’s offer because of deep-seated divisions.   Senior officials of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, or DA, will meet on Monday to discuss the centrist party’s approach to the negotiations. The top leadership of the the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, or EFF, party were holding talks on Friday.   Parties are under pressure to conclude negotiations and reach an agreement by June 16, because South Africa’s constitution requires them to do so within 14 days after the declaration of the election results.   South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is ANC leader, announced on Thursday that the party had decided to form a government of national unity and had invited all parties to join, a process that is expected to be complex considering vast divisions among the opposition parties themselves.   Most of the opposition parties don’t differ only with the ANC on various socioeconomic policies, but are also at extreme odds with each other on economic policies like land redistribution and affirmative action.   Opposition party ActionSA has already declared it won’t be part of the negotiations, saying that it refuses to work with the ANC.   In what looks likely to be a government of national unity reminiscent of a path taken by the Nelson Mandela-led ANC after the country’s first democratic election in 1994, the party has decided to invite a myriad of opposition parties to be part of the government.   While Mandela insisted on a unity government despite the ANC having won by an overwhelming majority with nearly 63% of the national vote, the ANC has been forced into the current situation by its worst electoral performance ever, dropping from the 57.5% it got in the 2019 election to 40% this year, a decline of 17.5%.   Shortly after Ramaphosa’s announcement, the EFF’s leader took to X to reject Ramaphosa’s proposal of a government of national unity and accused the ANC of arrogance despite failing to win a majority.   The EFF is among the top five parties after the election with just over 9% of the national vote, having declined from the 11% it garnered in 2019 but is expected to form a crucial part of the eventual outcome of the negotiations.   “The arrogance continues even after the South African voters issued warning signs. You can’t dictate the way forward as if you have won elections,” EFF leader Julius Malema said. “We are not desperate for anything, ours is a generational mission.   “We can’t share power with the enemy,” Malema said.   In 2023, DA declared the Economic Freedom Fighters as its No. 1 enemy.   DA, which got just over 21% of the national vote to remain the second-biggest party, said its highest decision-making body, the Federal Council, would meet on Monday to consider its options.   “I can’t say now what the position of the DA is, we have a whole negotiation team and we are meeting as the federal council on Monday. We will have a framework for negotiations that we will release this weekend,” Democratic Alliance federal chairperson Helen Zille said Friday.   The fifth-biggest party with nearly 4% of the national vote, the Inkatha Freedom Party, on Friday expressed willingness to be part of the government of national unity, but was also set to discuss the matter with its party structures over the next few days.   “In principle, the IFP is not averse to a GNU (government of national unity). However, the devil is in the details, which will become clearer in the coming days ... enabling the IFP to make a well-considered decision,” IFP spokesman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said.   The uMkhonto weSizwe Party led by former President Jacob Zuma, who left the ANC, was the latest to enter the negotiations, with the party confirming on Thursday that it had begun talks with the ANC after initially failing to respond to the party’s invitation.   The party has raised objections about the election results to the country’s electoral body, citing alleged voting irregularities and threatening to boycott the first sitting of Parliament to swear in the country’s new lawmakers.   Economists say that the markets are keenly awaiting the outcome of the negotiations to see the composition of the next government of Africa’s most developed economy, and the economic policies it will pursue.

Immigrants make up almost 14% of US population

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Cut off from the West, Russia is pitching its $2 trillion economy to giants like China and Saudi Arabia and longer-term prospects like Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at its premier investment forum in St. Petersburg, which was founded by the czars as a window to Europe. The war in Ukraine has led to the biggest upheaval in Russia's relations with the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and Western sanctions have forced a once-in-a-century revolution in Russia's economic relations. Since Peter the Great laid the foundations of the modern Russian state and made St. Petersburg the capital in the early 18th century, Russia's rulers have looked to the West as a source of technology, investment and ideas. The 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though, has forced President Vladimir Putin to pivot towards Asia and the rest of the non-Western world amid what the Kremlin says amounts to an economic blockade by the United States and its European allies. Western sanctions have not torpedoed Russia's economy, however, and Moscow has nurtured ties with China, major regional powers in the Middle East and across Africa and Latin America. It is less clear, though, how much cash these countries are prepared to invest in Russia's economy, and at what price. No blockbuster deals have been announced so far. But Russian officials say it is just beginning -- and that relations with the West are ruined for a generation. Bolivian President Luis Arce, who will join Putin at the main session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, said he wanted to share the experience of Bolivia's new economic model -- with a big state -- since 2006. "We have our own economic model, which we have been implementing since 2006, and we want to share this experience," Arce told Putin. Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa is attending, as are 45 other foreign officials including the Saudi energy minister, Oman's minister of trade and commerce, and a senior Taliban official. Russian trade with Zimbabwe is tiny though -- just $168 million in 2023 versus Russian-European Union trade of $300 billion in the year before Russia invaded Ukraine. Gone from the forum are the Western investors and investment bankers who once flocked to secure a slice of Russia's vast mineral wealth and one of Europe's biggest consumer markets. Reuters saw no major Western companies at the forum. Largely gone too are the 1990s oligarchs who made fortunes wheeling and dealing in the chaos of a collapsing superpower. In Putin's Russia the main arbiter is the state, controlled by the former Cold War spies and technocrats in his entourage. Chinese dragon State-controlled banks such as Sberbank, VTB and VEB have massive stands, as do Russian regions and ministries along with resource giants such as Gazprom Neft and Novatek. In a sign of the times, Alfa Bank's stand was a vast Chinese inflated dragon adorned with Chinese characters and an assertion that Alfa was "the best bank for business with China." Chinese luxury car brand Hongqi featured armored vehicles. A delegation from the Taliban, still officially banned in Russia, toured the stands. The Taliban originally drew members from fighters who, with U.S. support, repelled Soviet forces in the 1980s. The theme of the forum is the statement: "The foundation of a multipolar world is the formation of new points of growth." While Russia's economy has shown resilience in the face of stringent Western sanctions, prices are rising as defense spending balloons. In dollar terms, the economy is about the same size it was a decade ago, and Putin is locked into an economic war with the West, whose financial might is at least 25 times bigger than Russia's on a nominal GDP basis. From many foreign attendees there was praise for Russia. "This year's event has grown in size... There are a lot of opportunities," Nebeolisa Anako, an official from Nigeria, told Reuters. "The West may be actually isolating themselves as they are a minority in the world, although a very important part of the world. It is always better to cooperate with other parts of the world." Other officials from Africa and the Middle East echoed those words. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman met Putin's energy point man, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, at the forum. Novak said "friendly countries" took the vast majority of its oil exports and that about 70% of it was paid for in national currencies. "We already supply 95% of oil and petroleum products to friendly countries this year in four months," Novak said.

CAIRO — With no sign of progress in mediators' efforts to reach a cease-fire in the Gaza war, Israeli forces pounded Rafah from the air and ground overnight as tanks tried to advance further west, residents said. Fierce gun battles between Israeli troops and Hamas-led Palestinian fighters were also taking place. Residents said tanks that have taken control along the border with Egypt made several raids towards the west and the center of the southern city, wounding several residents who had been trapped inside their homes and were taken by surprise. "I think the occupation forces are trying to reach the beach area of Rafah, the raids and the bombing overnight were tactical, they entered under heavy fire before they retreated," said one Palestinian man. "It was one of the worst nights, some people were wounded inside their homes, before being evacuated this morning," he told Reuters via a chat app. Israeli forces have also operated inside the Al-Bureij camp in the central Gaza Strip on the ground, while it kept two other camps and a city nearby under heavy bombardment from planes and tanks, killing and wounding several Palestinians, medics said. The armed wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad, and smaller other groups reported their fighters carried out attacks against invading Israeli forces in several areas in central and southern the enclave. Qatari and Egyptian mediators, backed by the United States, have stepped up efforts to reach a cease-fire deal, that will halt hostilities and see the release of Israeli hostages and a number of Palestinians jailed by Israel, but sources close to the talks said there were no signs of a breakthrough. Since a brief weeklong truce in November, all attempts to arrange a cease-fire have failed, with Hamas insisting on its demand for a permanent end to the conflict. Israel says it is prepared to discuss only temporary pauses until the militant group is defeated. "We have shown all the flexibility needed to reach a deal, but the Israeli occupation continues to refuse any commitment to end the aggression and pull its forces from the Gaza Strip," a Hamas official told Reuters. "The occupation and the Americans are to blame for the absence of a deal so far because they don't want this war on our people to end," he said. Hamas precipitated the war by attacking Israeli territory last October 7, killing around 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. About half the hostages were freed in the November truce. Israel's military assault on Gaza has killed more than 36,000 people, according to health officials in the territory, who say thousands more dead are feared buried under the rubble. U.S. and Israeli officials have told Reuters about half of Hamas's forces have been killed in the conflict. Hamas does not disclose fatalities among its fighters and some officials say Israel exaggerated the figures. Israel's own military death toll is almost 300.