TV News LIES

French photojournalist Antoni Lallican has been killed in a Russian drone strike in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has said.

Grigoriy Ivanchenko, a Ukrainian photojournalist working alongside Mr Lallican, was injured in the same attack on the outskirts of Komyshuvakha, a village in the Donetsk region.

The European and International Federations of Journalists (EFJ and IFJ) said this was the first instance of a journalist being killed by a drone in Ukraine.

Mr Lallican, a Paris-based photojournalist, had been documenting the war since March 2022 - a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion - earning him the prestigious Victor Hugo Prize for photography in 2024.

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Hamas says that it accepts several parts of US President Donald Trump’s plan for a ceasefire in Israel’s nearly two-year war on Gaza, but that some elements of the proposal require further negotiations.

The armed group handed over its response to Trump’s 20-point plan to halt the war on Friday, an informed source told Al Jazeera, hours after Trump gave the group until Sunday to respond to the proposal.

Trump’s 20-point plan included demands for an immediate ceasefire, an exchange of all remaining 48 Israeli captives – 20 are believed to be alive – for Palestinian prisoners, the introduction of a transitional government led by an international body, and the disarmament of Hamas.

The group’s response, which did not address the issue of disarmament, stated that it had agreed “to release all occupation captives – both living and the remains – according to the exchange formula outlined in President Trump’s proposal, with the provision of field conditions necessary for the exchange”.

It added that it was ready to “immediately enter negotiations through mediators to discuss the details” of the exchange.

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US Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a veteran voice in Republican foreign policy, has seized on the government shutdown crisis – now in its fourth day – to demand that Congress pass a serious, full-year defense appropriations bill, arguing that failure to unlock a sweeping “Trump buildup” of the military would undermine deterrence against global adversaries and jeopardize sustained support for Ukraine.

Speaking from the Senate floor on Friday, McConnell, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, delivered a sharp critique of the ongoing funding deadlock – which he squarely blamed on Democrats – warning that repeated stopgap funding measures were “devastating to US military readiness”.

Prioritizing the war in Ukraine, McConnell stressed that continued security cooperation was being monitored closely by US rivals. He directly challenged officials within the administration he suggested were seeking to curtail assistance to Kyiv.

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At least 53 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since dawn across Gaza as Israel threatened tens of thousands remaining in Gaza City with a forced order to leave, saying it was their “last opportunity” to flee or face the “full force” of Israel’s assault.

Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday that anyone who stayed would be considered “terrorists and terror supporters”.

The continuous bombardment of Gaza City has razed the territory’s largest urban centre, killing dozens of people daily, destroying numerous residential buildings and schools, and forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee to an unknown fate to the south, often targeted on the way.

Reporting from the al-Rashid Street on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli military was ordering people to leave, then chasing them on the coastal route south with military choppers, drones and tanks, creating “mayhem and panic”.

“A big part of the reason that people are not now leaving Gaza City is because of the fear and the intimidation created by the Israeli military,” he said.

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Mediators have made contact with the head of Hamas's military wing in Gaza, who has indicated he does not agree to the new US ceasefire plan, the BBC understands.

Izz al-Din al-Haddad is thought to believe the plan was designed to finish Hamas, whether the group accepts it or not, and so is determined to fight on.

US President Donald Trump's 20-point framework to end the war - which has already been accepted by Israel - stipulates that Hamas disarm and have no future role in governing Gaza.

It is thought that some of Hamas's political leadership in Qatar are open to accepting it with adjustments - but have found their influence limited as they do not have control of the hostages held by the group.

There are believed to be 48 hostages still being held in the Palestinian territory by the armed group, only 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

Another stumbling block for some in Hamas is that the plan requires them to hand over all of the hostages over the first 72 hours of the ceasefire - giving away their only bargaining chip.

Even with Trump's guarantee that Israel would abide by the terms, there is a lack of trust within the group that Israel would not resume its military operations once it had received the hostages - particularly after it attempted to assassinate the Hamas leadership in Doha in an air strike last month, in defiance of the US.

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Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that supplying US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would lead to a “whole new level of escalation”, including in relations between Moscow and Washington. Responding to questions at a forum in Sochi, Putin said it would not change the situation on the battlefield, where the Russian army is making slow but steady advances.

The Trump administration’s desire to send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine may not be viable because current inventories are committed to the US navy and other uses, Reuters reported a US official and three sources as saying. The US may look into allowing European allies to buy other long-range weapons and supply them to Ukraine but Tomahawks were unlikely, the official said, questioning the feasibility of providing the cruise missiles with a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles) and suggesting other shorter-distance options could be supplied to Kyiv.

The US will provide Ukraine with intelligence on long-range energy infrastructure targets deep inside Russia, according to several media reports, a move that would signal a significant shift in White House support for Kyiv. Dan Sabbagh and Andrew Roth report that the decision would be the first example of a change in policy by Donald Trump since his comments on social media towards the end of September that Ukraine could win back all of the territory occupied by Russia.

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