Protesters have stormed a United Nations base in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, demanding the departure of peacekeepers from the region.

Hundreds of people blocked roads and chanted anti-UN slogans before storming the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Goma on Monday, an AFP journalist said.

The protesters smashed windows and looted computers, furniture and other valuables from the headquarters while UN police officers fired tear gas in a bid to push them back, the journalist reported.

A logistical base on the outskirts of the city was also stormed, and a student was shot in the leg, they added.

The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, has come under regular local criticism for its perceived inability to stop fighting in the conflict-torn east.

Over 120 armed groups roam the volatile region, where conflict has displaced millions of people and civilian massacres are common.

'Incapacity' to protect

Ahead of Monday's protest, the Goma youth branch of the ruling UDPS party released a statement demanding MONUSCO "withdraw from Congolese soil without conditions".

The statement added that MONUSCO "has already proved its incapacity to provide us with protection".

Khassim Diagne, the deputy special representative of the UN secretary general to MONUSCO, said the UN is not opposed to protests but that violence is unacceptable.

"These are looters," he said. "We condemn them in the strongest terms".

The latest protest comes after the president of the Congolese senate, Modeste Bahati, told supporters in Goma on July 15 that MONUSCO should "pack its bags".

Source: AFP

The first ships to export Ukraine grain from the country's Black Sea ports may move within a few days under a deal agreed on Friday by Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye and the United Nations, a UN spokesperson said.

A Joint Coordination Center will liaise with the shipping industry and will publish detailed procedures for ships in the near future, said deputy UN spokesperson Farhan Haq.

UN World Food Programme optimistic on Ukraine grain export deal

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was optimistic about a UN-brokered deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports but warned the agreement alone will not solve the global food crisis even if it is implemented effectively.

The WFP itself has had to cut aid this year in key hunger hotspots like Yemen and South Sudan due to global inflation and critical funding gaps, both exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.

The current global food crisis is not a price crisis alone, and that man-made conflict, climate shocks and the Covid-19 pandemic will continue to drive up global food insecurity even if Friday's deal holds, a WFP spokesperson said.

Ukraine claims it has destroyed 50 Russian ammunition depots

Ukraine said its forces had used US-supplied HIMARS rocket systems to destroy 50 Russian ammunition depots since receiving the weapons last month.

Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov underlined the growing impact that the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) are having as Ukraine tries to repel Russia's attack.

Reznikov also said Ukraine had received three Gepard anti-aircraft armoured fighting vehicles, the first of 15 expected, and that Kiev was expecting to take delivery of several dozen Leopard tanks.

This cuts their (Russian) logistical chains and takes away their ability to conduct active fighting and cover our armed forces with heavy shelling

Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine's Defence Minister

Russia wants to end Ukraine's “unacceptable regime” - Lavrov

Russia’s top diplomat said Moscow’s overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its “unacceptable regime,” expressing the Kremlin’s military aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.

Lavrov said Moscow is determined to help Ukrainians “liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime.”

Lavrov accused Kiev and its Western allies of spouting propaganda intended to ensure that Ukraine “becomes the eternal enemy of Russia."

Russian and Ukrainian people would continue to live together. We will certainly help Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical

Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister

Kremlin says Odessa strike should not hamper grain exports

The Kremlin has said that Russian strikes on Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa "should not affect" a Türkiye-brokered and UN-backed deal between Moscow and Kiev to unblock grain exports.

"This cannot and should not affect the start of shipment," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, two days after Moscow hit the port.

He said Moscow's strikes targeted "exclusively" military infrastructure and were "not connected with the agreement on the export of grain". The weekend strikes on Odessa came less than a day after Moscow and Kiev signed the landmark deal.

Russia says it destroyed HIMARS ammo depot in Ukraine

Russia's Defence Ministry says its forces have destroyed an ammunition depot for US-made HIMARS rocket systems in Bogdanovtsy, in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi region.

The reports were not independently verified. 

Russia has previously said it destroyed several of the HIMARS systems supplied to Ukraine by the West, in claims denied by Kiev.

Britain says fighting continues in Ukraine’s Donbass and Kherson

Inconclusive fighting has continued in both Donbass and Kherson regions in eastern and southern Ukraine, British military intelligence has said.

Russian commanders continue to face a dilemma - whether to resource Russia's offensive in the east, or to bolster the defence in the west, Britain's defence ministry said on Twitter.

The ministry added in its regular bulletin that on July 18, the British intelligence identified a Russian military vehicle refit and refurbishment facility near Barvinok, in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, which is 10 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

"At least 300 damaged vehicles were present, including main battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers, and general support trucks," the update added.

Putin will not attend Japanese ex-PM Abe's funeral, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the state funeral of Japanese former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Kremlin has said.

"No, Putin has no plans to visit Japan and attend the funeral," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding that Russia was yet to decide the country's presence at the funeral.

The Japanese government has notified all the countries it has diplomatic ties with, including Russia, of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state funeral, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yos hihiko Isozaki said.

Zelenskyy says Ukrainians won't be 'cowed'

After five months of Russian attacks, Ukraine will continue to do all it can to inflict as much damage on its enemy as possible, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

"Even the occupiers admit we will win," he said as he hailed the upcoming day of Ukrainian statehood, July 28, a new annual holiday that Zelenskyy announced in August last year. "We hear it in their conversations all the time. In what they are telling their relatives when they call them."

Like every day in the last months, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was not letting up. "We do everything to inflict the highest possible damage on the enemy and to gather for Ukraine as much support as possible."

He said Ukraine had an important week ahead, with the holiday approaching in the midst of what he called a "cruel war." "But we will celebrate against all odds. Because Ukrainians won't be cowed."

Russian investigator seeks new tribunal for Ukraine

The head of Russia's investigative committee has said Moscow had charged 92 members of Ukrainian armed forces with "crimes against humanity" and proposed an international tribunal backed by countries including Bolivia, Iran and Syria.

The government's Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted committee head Alexander Bastrykin as accusing "more than 220 persons, including representatives of the high command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as commanders of military units that shelled the civilian population."

The Ukrainians were involved in "crimes against the peace and security of humanity, which have no statute of limitations," he said.

Source: Reuters

Gazprom, the Russian energy giant, has said it is cutting daily deliveries of gas to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline to 33 million cubic metres a day –– about 20 percent of the pipeline's capacity –– from Wednesday, leading Ukraine to call the West to action over the "gas war".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the cuts showed that Europe should bolster sanctions against Russia. "This is an open gas war that Russia is waging against a united Europe," Zelensky said.

"They don't care what will happen to the people, how they will suffer –– from hunger due to blocked ports, from winter cold and poverty... or the occupation. These are just different forms of terror," he said in his daily video message.

"That is why you have to hit back. Do not think about how to bring back the turbine, but strengthen the sanctions," he said.

US: Russian strike on Odesa port casts doubt on grain deal

Russia's attack on the Ukrainian port of Odessa casts doubt on a grain deal, the White House has said, adding that the United States would continue to explore options with the international community to increase Ukraine exports through overland routes.

The announcement comes after the Kremlin said it did not expect the Saturday missile strike targeting military infrastructure in Ukraine would affect a plan to restart exports from the country.

"We are going to be watching this closely to see if Russia meets their commitments under this arrangement since this attack casts serious doubt on Russia’s credibility," a National Security Council spokesperson said in a statement./agencies

At least three people, including a former Philippine town mayor, have been killed and others wounded in a brazen attack by a gunman in a university campus in the capital region.

The gunman, who was armed with two pistols, was captured after the shooting near the gate of the Ateneo de Manila University in suburban Quezon city on Sunday. 

The university was put under lockdown and the graduation rite at a law school was canceled, police said.

Officials said those killed in the attack were Rosita Furigay, a former mayor of Lamitan town in southern Basilan province, her aide and a university guard.

Furigay’s daughter, who was supposed to attend the graduation ceremony, was wounded and taken to a hospital, a police report said, adding she was in a "stable condition."

Investigation underway

Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, who was supposed to be a speaker at the ceremony, was en route to the university when the attack happened and was advised to turn back, officials said.

Quezon city Mayor Joy Belmonte condemned the attack. “This kind of incident has no place in our society and must be condemned to the highest level,” she said in a statement.

Investigators were trying to determine a motive for the attack.

School and university shootings are rare in the Philippines despite its lax gun rules. But targeted killings of politicians are fairly common, particularly during elections.

The shooting happened despite heavy security and a gun ban imposed by police and other government forces in Quezon city.

Newly elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is to deliver his first state of the nation address in the city on Monday before a joint session of Congress at the House of Representatives./agencies

Seventeen suspected Haitian migrants have died in a boat accident off the coast of the Bahamas.

"Rescue teams recovered 17 bodies from the water" –– 15 women, one man and one infant –– a government statement tweeted by Prime Minister Philip Davis said on Sunday.

Another 25 people were rescued and placed in the care of health officials, the statement said. At least one person is still missing, with search missions under way.

Preliminary investigations indicate that a speed boat left New Providence, the most populous island in the Bahamian archipelago, around 1:00 am on Sunday with about 60 people on board. Officials believe the boat was destined for Miami, Florida.

The vessel is believed to have capsized in the rough water, 11 kilometres off the coast of the island.

A multi-agency investigation involving the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defense Force is under way "to determine the full circumstances surrounding a suspected human smuggling operation which has resulted in" the migrant deaths, the statement said.

Human-smuggling operations

Human smugglers are known to use the Bahamas –– a group of islands near the Florida coast –– as a jumping-off point for getting people into the United States, in what can often be a treacherous journey.

In March, the US Coast Guard intercepted 123 people on board a small vessel off Anguilla Cay, in the western Bahamas, and just a few days before, it detained more than 140 people off the coast of Andros, the largest island in the Bahamas.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is facing an acute political, economic and security crisis.

Source: AFP

Muhammad Ali's championship belt from his 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" heavyweight title fight has been sold at an auction for $6.18 million.

The winner of the heated competition for the belt on Sunday was Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay, according to Heritage Auctions in Dallas.

In a tweet, Irsay confirmed he acquired the belt for his collection of rock music, American history and pop culture memorabilia that is currently touring the country.

Memorable title-belt

The belt will be displayed on August 2 at Chicago's Navy Pier and on September 9 in Indianapolis.

"Proud to be the steward!" Irsay tweeted.

"After several hours of watching two bidders go back and forth over this belt, this proved to be a battle worthy of the Rumble itself," Chris Ivy, Heritage's director of sports auctions, said in a statement.

The 1974 fight was one of boxing's most memorable moments. 

Ali stopped the fearsome George Foreman to recapture the heavyweight title in the African nation of Zaire. Ali won the fight in a knockout in the eighth round.

Source: AP