Today is Friday, May 21, and you're listening to The Morning Announcements Presented by

Betches Media.

I'm Sammy Sage.

Israel and Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire that started this morning at 2am local time.

The two parties did not directly negotiate, as Hamas does not recognize Israel as a legitimate

country, and Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

So the truth was mediated by diplomats from Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations.

These Israeli military campaign has killed more than 230 people in Gaza, and badly damaged

the infrastructure, including the sewer system and the electrical grid.

However, they claim that they were successful in destroying Hamas's underground tunnel

structure, as well as killing a number of its leaders and fighters.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov

met in Iceland, and no, they didn't take any Instagrams at the Blue Lagoon, but they

did basically set the stage for a future possible meeting between President Biden and Vladimir

Putin.

But it's fair to say that Russia was in a pretty good mood, because this meeting came

just as the United States announced it would not be levying sanctions on the Russian company

Gazprom, which is responsible for building the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

between Russia and Germany.

The reason the gas line is controversial is because diplomats believe the project would

threaten European energy security.

We have yet another update on the scandal that is Donald Trump's financial situation.

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