Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 873
As the war enters its 873rd day, these are the main developments. This is where the war stands on Wednesday, July 17, 2024: Fighting: Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia’s Kursk region triggered a fire at a factory producing electrical devices and wounded at least six people, according to local governors. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces destroyed 13 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine. Russian authorities announced plans to restrict civilian access to 14 villages in the southern Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, due to relentless Ukrainian shelling. The chief of Russia’s general staff, Valery Gerasimov, thanked Russian forces for capturing the village of Urozhaine in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and “set new tasks for further activity”, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. Russian investigators said they were looking into the shooting of a wounded Russian soldier by Ukrainian forces in a video published online by Ukraine’s Azov Brigade. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said it is providing its under-resourced military with munitions that had been sent to be scrapped before the Russian invasion. The rounds would undergo thorough quality checks before they are distributed to Ukrainian forces on the front, it said. Politics and diplomacy The Kremlin responded cautiously to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s apparent invitation to a future peace summit, saying Moscow needs to understand what Kyiv means before attending talks. The Ukrainian president had said that Russia “should be” represented at a second summit on the war, following high-level talks last month in Switzerland that Moscow did not attend. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a member of the country’s security council, said the accession of Ukraine to NATO would be a declaration of war against Moscow and only “prudence” on behalf of the alliance could prevent the planet from being shattered into pieces. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a letter to leaders of the European Union, saying that US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is ready to act “immediately” as a peace broker in the Russia-Ukraine war if he is elected in November. The president of the European Council Charles Michel responded to Orban’s letter telling the Hungarian leader that he had no EU mandate for talks on the war. Michel also rejected Orban’s assertion that the EU had pursued a “pro-war” policy in Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formally notified Russia and Belarus that they would exit a 2001 agreement that kept the three Baltic countries connected to an electricity transmission system controlled by Moscow. The move is part of an effort to sever ties with Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. At the United Nations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the US of demanding “unquestioning obedience” from allies and threatening multilateralism The Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan has dismissed a priest who opposed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Hieromonk Lakov had advocated for the creation of a breakaway Orthodox Church, free of Moscow’s influence. Japan meanwhile is making final arrangements to loan $3.3bn to Ukraine using interest from frozen Russian assets, about 6 percent of the G7’s total $50bn package, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing diplomatic sources. Economy Ukraine’s parliament voted to scrap taxes and duties on imports of energy equipment – including for wind and solar generation – as the country battles a severe energy crisis due to Russian bombardments. Ukraine’s state company Ukroboronservice and Czech ammunition maker, Sellier and Bellot, have signed an agreement to to build an ammunition factory in Ukraine, the two countries announced. Russia-based global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky announced it would wind down US operations after Washington sanctioned its senior officials and banned the sale of its popular antivirus software. Russia’s communications regulator meanwhile demanded Google reinstate more than 200 Russian YouTube channels that the US company blocked for spreading pro-Kremlin content, including over the conflict in Ukraine. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump’s former rivals Haley, DeSantis put on show of unity at RNC
Donald Trump has received emphatic endorsements from former rivals at the Republican National Convention (RNC), a display of party unity days after he narrowly escaped being killed by a would-be assassin’s bullet. On the second day of the convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis feted their former rival as they urged Republicans to come together to defeat US President Joe Biden in November. Haley, who previously called Trump unelectable, unqualified and “unhinged”, said that Republicans should back Trump for the “sake of our nation”, taking aim at Biden’s handling of foreign policy and immigration, the key theme of the evening. “You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him,” Haley told delegates on the second day of the convention. “Take it from me. I haven’t always agreed with President Trump. But we agree more often than we disagree.” Stressing the need for Republicans and Americans alike to come together, Haley said the US’s enemies benefit when the country is divided. “No president can fix all of our problems alone. We have to do this together. America has an amazing ability to self-correct,” Haley said. “In this moment, we have a chance to put aside our differences and focus on what unites us and strengthens our country. Let us join together as a party, let us come together as a people, as one country strong and proud. Let us show our children and the world that even on our worst day, we are blessed to live in America.” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks on the second day of the RNC at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 16 [Mike Segar/Reuters] DeSantis, who finished a distant third to Trump in the primaries, struck a more combative tone, latching onto concerns about Biden’s mental acuity and calling on Republicans to send him “back to the basement”. “As a citizen, as husband and as a father, I am alarmed that the current president of the United States lacks the capability to discharge the duties of his office. Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10am and 4pm,” DeSantis said. “We need a commander in chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’ presidency,” DeSantis added, referring to the 1989 comedy film about two employees who spend a weekend passing off their dead boss as alive. DeSantis said Trump deserved Republicans’ support after being demonised, sued, prosecuted and nearly killed. “We cannot let him down. And we cannot let America down,” he said. In keeping with his reputation as a cultural conservative warrior, DeSantis blasted the Democrats on hot-button issues ranging from undocumented migration across the southern border, to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and “gender ideology”. “They can’t even define what a woman is. Now Donald Trump stands in their way, and he stands up for America,” he said. Our enemies do not confine their designs to between 10AM and 4PM. We need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. America cannot afford four more years of a Weekend at Bernie’s presidency. Let’s send Joe Biden back to his basement, and let’s send… pic.twitter.com/Px7h0YE5Pv — Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) July 17, 2024 US Senator Ted Cruz, who ran unsuccessfully against Trump in 2016, also hailed Trump’s candidacy, telling the crowd: “God bless Donald J Trump!” As he did on the first day of the convention, Trump again received a hero’s welcome as he entered the Fiserv Forum, receiving a standing ovation from a jubilant party faithful. Trump did not address the convention but is scheduled to deliver his keynote speech on Thursday. Trump has indicated unity will be a key theme of his address, saying that the attempt on his life inspired him to rewrite the speech he had originally planned. Republican presidential candidate and former US president, Donald Trump, arrives during the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Tuesday [Evan Vucci/AP Photo] Donald Trump Jr, Donald Trump’s eldest son, told Axios on Tuesday that his father intends to tone down his rhetoric, saying there are “events that change you for a couple of minutes and there are events that change you permanently”. While it is not yet clear how Trump’s close brush with death will affect the presidential race, some political analysts have suggested that it increases his chances of victory, especially as it happened in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that is considered crucial to Biden’s re-election chances. Trump has for months been ahead of Biden in most opinion polls, both nationwide and in swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan – all three of which flipped from Trump to Biden in 2020. An average of polls on the FiveThirtyEight website shows Trump ahead by 2.2 percent nationally. Adblock test (Why?)
Three Syrian children killed in ‘horrific’ Israeli attack on Lebanon
UN condemns Israeli attack that killed children who were reportedly playing outside their home in south Lebanon. Israeli air attacks in southern Lebanon have killed at least five Syrians, including three children, Lebanese media reported, as Israel’s military and the Hezbollah armed group continued to trade fire across the border. Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) said on Tuesday that the three children were killed in an Israeli air raid “that targeted farmland in the village of Umm Toot”, while two others were killed in an Israeli drone attack on the Kfar Tebnit road, which is also in south Lebanon. The UN children’s agency (UNICEF) condemned the deadly attacks. “The killing of 3 more children by an airstrike today as they were reportedly playing in front of their home in South Lebanon is horrific,” the agency said in a post on X. It added that “more children are at risk as long as the violence continues”. The AFP news agency, citing a Lebanese security source, reported that the other two Syrians killed on Tuesday were “civilians” who worked in the area and had been swimming there. The NNA said that “eyewitnesses reported that the motorbike was carrying two people and that when a number of citizens tried to approach the bike … it was subjected to a second strike”. The killings come as Israeli forces continued to trade fire with Hezbollah, which launched attacks on Israel in support of Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip. The Lebanese armed group has said it will cease hostilities as soon as Israeli authorities and Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, agree on a ceasefire deal to end the brutal war which has killed at least 38,713 Palestinians in Gaza and 1,139 people in Israel. Data from the the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), show that Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon have carried out at least 7,400 attacks across the border since the war on Gaza began in October last year. Israel conducted about 83 percent of these attacks, totalling 6,142 incidents, and killing at least 543 people in Lebanon. Hezbollah and other armed groups were responsible for 1,258 attacks that killed at least 21 Israelis. Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its air force launched attacks on parts of south Lebanon after detecting more than 50 projectiles from the neighbouring country. The military said it attacked Hezbollah sites, including a “terrorist cell” in the Yarin area, which is close to Umm Toot. The Lebanese armed group issued a statement afterwards saying that it launched rounds of “Katyusha rockets” at northern Israel in response. The group in separate statements mentioned both “the death of two civilians” in Kfar Tebnit and “the horrible massacre in Umm Toot village” as reasons for the retaliatory fire. The violence, largely restricted to the border area, has raised fears of all-out conflict between the foes, who last went to war in the summer of 2006. Adblock test (Why?)
‘My brothers, my brothers!’: Survivors recall chaos after al-Mawasi attacks
Deir el-Balah, Gaza – On Saturday morning, Waad Abu Zaher was standing on a crowded street in al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip trying to find a donkey cart, minibus or some other transport so she could go to work. The 30-year-old journalist works out of a media tent at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis and commutes east from a tent camp in al-Mawasi. She lives there with her parents and four brothers, who have been displaced eight times since Israel first issued an evacuation order soon after the war on Gaza began on October 7. That morning she watched as her father left for work and her brothers went off to collect water and buy groceries. It was around 10am as she stood in a lively part of the camp for displaced people, with vendors, water filling points and a community kitchen distributing food to children who had lined up to collect free meals. “Suddenly, the first missile hit, then the second. I found myself flying and landing a short distance away. The sky turned white with dust. The third missile. I started running and screaming, ‘My brothers, my brothers!’” she recounted, choking up as she spoke over WhatsApp. “Israel not only forced us to live in tents unsuitable for human life, but also pursued us here with bombs and missiles,” she said. A child walks amid damage following an Israeli strike on displaced Palestinians’ tent homes in al-Mawasi [Hatem Khaled/Reuters] ‘I checked my body as I ran’ Waad says she started running, searching for her brothers. “I checked my body as I ran — ‘Are my eyes in place? Is my head OK? My legs, my hands, my face?’” she recalled thinking. “I was running around, surrounded by corpses, blood, [scattered] pots of [the] children who had lined up at the food kitchen, and gallons of water,” she said. “I saw people carrying a young man with a shattered leg, and another young man running behind them with an amputated leg, screaming, ‘I found his leg,’” she said quietly, at some points crying as she recalled the attack. “I saw a pregnant woman lying on the ground, bleeding from between her legs, next to an injured child whose arm was gone.” Around her, people had started running towards the area that had been struck to help. She recalls the mothers arriving, screaming and searching for their children. “Every mother knows her child will be here because it’s where we fill water, receive food, or charge internet cards,” she said. “This area is the heart of life in Mawasi Khan Younis.” Amidst the chaos, Waad found her brothers, and ran to them, hugging them. They were covered in dust but unharmed. Israel’s attack on Saturday — in an area designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military and where thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering — killed at least 90 people and wounded 300 others, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Israeli warplanes struck tents and a water distillation area. Waad says she may have survived the attack, but she is in shock. “Every time I think about what happened, I burst into tears.” Waad says she still cannot believe that their homes were attacked and says that many in the camp are thinking about moving elsewhere. “[But] here the question remains: ‘Where can we go?’” she asked. The July 13 attack killed at least 90 people and injured hundreds more [Mohammed Salem/Reuters] ‘Surviving here is a matter of luck’ Badee’ Daaour, 36, lives with his wife and four children in al-Mawasi. “We had just finished breakfast and were preparing for the day,” he recalled of the morning of the July 13 attack. Suddenly, huge explosions hit the area. “I didn’t comprehend what was going on. My wife and I were screaming and shouting for our children. We couldn’t see anything through the dust.” “The plumes of fire were only 50 metres (165 feet) away,” he recalled. “My tent was destroyed, and several nearby tents were set on fire.” Badee’ remembers dragging his youngest child from the tent and running with his wife past other tents, seeking safety. “Everyone was screaming. The sounds of bombing were horrific.” As they arrived near an area that had been hit, Badee’ was shocked by what he saw. “Blood was everywhere, shreds of dead bodies were on the ground, kids covered in blood,” he recalled in a quiet voice. “I saw people who were buried alive under the sand due to the intensity of the bombing. People gathered to pull them out. Some were alive, some were killed or injured.” He frantically searched for his three other children who had been outside when the attacks happened. “I saw many mothers and fathers running and screaming desperately for their lost children. Many of them found their kids shattered into pieces in the attack. They were about to lose their minds,” he added. He was relieved to find his remaining children were safe and then, when he was a bit calmer, Badee’ noticed his leg had been slightly injured and so he headed to the hospital for treatment. Badee’ arrived at Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza’s second-largest hospital, which has barely returned to service after ground and air assaults by the Israeli military rendered it nonoperational. “My neighbour in the next tent was injured in the back, then he found his little daughter was killed and the other one was severally injured in her spine,” he said. Badee’ has been trying to comfort and help his neighbour. “He was sitting inside his tent, two metres away from me, but the shrapnel pierced into his tent, not mine,” he explained while sitting in his family’s tent that was brought down in the attacks and has now been put up again. “Surviving here is a matter of luck. Every one of us waits for his turn in this ongoing genocide,” Badee’ said. “Bombing tents in which thousands of displaced people were crowded with several heavy missiles? How does
Trump’s hardline immigration policies in spotlight on day two of RNC
Republicans rally around former president’s agenda at National Convention in Milwaukee, days after rally shooting. Donald Trump’s hardline stance on immigration will be in the spotlight on the second day of the Republican National Convention (RNC), after the former United States president made his first public appearance since surviving an assassination attempt at the weekend. Republicans are expected to hit out at their Democratic rivals on Tuesday at the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the day’s theme is “Make America Safe Once Again”. The GOP has rallied around the ex-president’s tough-on-immigration policies, which have been a central part of Trump’s political brand as well as his 2024 election campaign. Republicans also have used immigration – one of the top issues of concern for American voters – to criticise US President Joe Biden before November’s election, which is set to be a close race between Biden and Trump. They have accused the Democratic president of not doing enough to stem the flow of asylum seekers crossing the country’s southern border with Mexico, and the GOP’s platform pledges to seal the border and “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history”. In an interview with FOX News on Monday, JD Vance – who was selected hours earlier as Trump’s running mate – said “we have to deport” undocumented immigrants in the US. “We have to deport people who broke our laws, who came in here. And I think we start with the violent criminals,” Vance said. Republicans also have sought to tie immigration to crime, promising in their party platform that they will stop an alleged “migrant crime epidemic”. “Once iconic American cities and communities have become hollowed out, dystopian nightmares thanks to Joe Biden and Democrats’ ‘woke’ soft-on-crime and open border policies,” the Republican National Committee said as it unveiled the convention programme last week. Violent crime has been falling across the US in recent years, however. Research at Stanford University in California last year also showed that “immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are US-born individuals who are white”. “From Henry Cabot Lodge in the late 19th century to Donald Trump, anti-immigration politicians have repeatedly tried to link immigrants to crime, but our research confirms that this is a myth and not based on fact,” said Ran Abramitzky, a Stanford professor and the study author. Migration rights advocates have also slammed the GOP for advancing “anti-immigrant rhetoric”. Still, Trump and Republicans are hoping their hardline policies will appeal to voters as November’s presidential election nears. Reporting from the RNC in Milwaukee, Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane said it remains unclear who will be speaking on Tuesday evening at the event. Members of Trump’s family as well as US business leaders, minor celebrities and Republican lawmakers are expected to address the crowd over the course of the four-day event, Culhane said. Trump, who was formally confirmed as the Republican presidential nominee on Monday and received a hero’s welcome on the floor of the RNC, will deliver a speech on the convention’s closing night on Thursday. Meanwhile, Biden continues to field questions about the viability of his re-election campaign after several Democrats called on him to drop out of the race in the aftermath of a confused and concerning debate performance last month. Speaking to NBC News on Monday evening, the US president reiterated that he intends to stay on to challenge Trump in November. Adblock test (Why?)
Taala: Leather craft in Mali
Artist Ousmane Sarre learns the traditionally female-crafted Taala leatherwork to connect to his own art. Taala is a centuries-old form of patterned leather craft, usually created by women only across parts of Africa. But artist Ousmane Sarre wants to learn this trade himself to incorporate its originality into his own art. He returns to his village in Nioro du Sahel, Mali, and meticulously learns each step of the process from his grandmother and aunts in this authored film. Ousmane Sarre is a young artist and filmmaker from a family of traditional blacksmiths in Mali. Between painting and cinema, he develops his art with a special touch, expressing a philosophical dimension of traditional art. Adblock test (Why?)
Who is JD Vance, Trump’s pick for US vice president?
Donald Trump has chosen Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate as the former US president looks to return to the White House. Vance, 39, rose to national fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, which was published as Trump was first running for president. Vance was elected to the United States Senate in 2022 and has become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, particularly on trade, foreign policy and immigration. But he is largely untested in national politics and is joining the Trump ticket at an extraordinary moment. An attempted assassination of Trump at a rally on Saturday has shaken the campaign, bringing new attention to the nation’s coarse political rhetoric, and reinforcing the importance of those who are one heartbeat away from the presidency. From rural Ohio to the Marine Corps Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, served in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq, and graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. From there, he joined a Silicon Valley investment firm before returning to Ohio to launch a non-profit that he said would aim to develop opioid addiction treatments that might be “scaled nationally”. Ultimately, Our Ohio Renewal failed at that mission and was shuttered. Vance with his wife Usha during the 2022 US midterm elections in Ohio [File: Gaelen Morse/Reuters] Bestselling author Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy earned him a reputation as someone who could help explain Trump’s appeal in middle America, and especially among the working-class, rural white voters who helped Trump win the presidency in 2016. The book detailed life in Appalachian communities that drifted from a Democratic Party many residents found disconnected from their daily travails. While the book was a bestseller, it was also criticised for sometimes oversimplifying rural life and ignoring the role of racism in modern politics. Trump critic-turned-stanch supporter During the early stages of Trump’s political career, Vance cast him as “a total fraud,” “a moral disaster” and “America’s Hitler”. But like many Republicans who sought relevance in the Trump era, Vance eventually shifted his tone. He said he was proved wrong by Trump’s performance in office and evolved into one of his most steadfast defenders. Vance was rewarded for his turnaround during his bid for an open Senate seat in 2022, during which he landed Trump’s coveted endorsement and rode it to victory in a crowded Republican primary and a general election hard fought by Democrats. He was elected to the Senate in 2022 and has since become one of the staunchest champions of the former president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda. As a senator, Vance has shown some willingness to work across the aisle. He and Ohio’s senior Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, have teamed up on a number of issues important to the state, including fighting for funding for a $20bn chip facility Intel is building in central Ohio and introducing rail safety legislation in response to the fiery 2023 freight-train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Views on Israel-Palestine conflict Vance is a staunch supporter of Israel, offering an “America First with an Israel exception” worldview. “America is not good at micromanaging wars in the Middle East… I think that our attitude vis-a-vis the Israelis should be look, we’re not good at micromanaging Middle Eastern wars, the Israelis are our allies, let them prosecute this war the way they see fit,” he told the CNN network in an interview in May. Vance was among the first to blame the Biden administration for allegedly empowering Hamas to commit the October 7 attack. Hours after the attack, he said the “Americans must face a stark truth: our tax dollars funded this”, according to media reports. “Money is fungible, and many of the dollars we sent to Iran are being used to now kill innocent people. This must stop. Israel has every right to defend itself. I wish our friends well, but most of all I wish they weren’t fighting against weapons bought with our money,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Biden says ‘bulls-eye’ remark about Trump a mistake, defends mental fitness
United States President Joe Biden has said it was wrong to say Donald Trump should be put “in a bull’s-eye” but defended his portrayal of his Republican rival as a threat to democracy. In his first television interview since Trump narrowly survived an attempted assassination, Biden said the comments he made in a private call with donors were intended to put the focus on his challenger’s policies and character. “It was a mistake to use the word. I didn’t say ‘crosshairs’. I meant bulls-eye, focus on him, focus on what he is doing,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt on Monday. “Focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate.” Asked if he had done any “soul searching” about his rhetoric since the attempt on Trump’s life, Biden said it was appropriate to highlight the dangers posed by Trump and denied using inflammatory language like his rival. “Look, how do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything because it may incite somebody?” Biden said. “Look, I have not engaged in that rhetoric. Now, my opponent has engaged in that rhetoric. He talks about, there’ll be a bloodbath if he loses.” Biden’s comments came after several prominent Republicans, including Trump’s vice-presidential running mate DJ Vance, accused the president and his allies of creating the conditions for violence through their rhetoric casting Trump as an existential threat to democracy. Biden, who has made the preservation of US democracy a key message of his re-election campaign, temporarily suspended television advertisements and an appearance in Texas following the attack, but will pick up his campaign with several events this week in the swing state of Nevada. Trump came within centimetres of death on Saturday after a gunman opened fire on a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking the former president in his right ear. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief, was killed and several others were injured in the attack. Authorities have yet to identify a motive for the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was shot dead shortly after he opened fire. The assassination attempt has prompted widespread calls for a reset of the US’s acrimonious politics, with both Biden and Trump calling on Americans to put political divisions aside and come together. Biden on Sunday called on Americans to “lower the temperature in our politics,” while Trump said in a newspaper interview that he would rewrite his speech for the Republican National Committee to stress the need for unity. Republican Party Chairman Michael Whatley on Monday continued the theme of unity at the opening of the RNC, telling supporters: “We must unite as a party, and we must unite as a nation.” Trump made his first public appearance since the attack at the RNC later on Monday, receiving a rapturous reception from supporters as he entered the Fiserv Forum stadium to the tune of “God Bless the USA.” While the effect of the attack on Trump on the race is not yet clear, some analysts have suggested that it is likely to bolster his standing in the polls, which already show Biden behind, both nationwide and in key battleground states. In his NBC News interview, Biden, 81, reiterated his determination to stay in the race despite concerns about his age and fitness, which came to the fore after his poor debate performance against Trump last month. In response to a question about whether he believed he had weathered calls for him to step down from within his own party, Biden said that 14 million Democratic voters had chosen him as their candidate. “I listen to them,” Biden said. Asked who he would listen to about the decision to stay in the race, Biden said himself. “The idea I am the old guy – I am, I’m old. But I’m only three years older than Trump, number one,” he said. “And number two, my mental acuity has been pretty damn good. I have gotten more done than any president has in a long, long time in three and a half years.” Adblock test (Why?)
At least four killed as fighting in DRC continues despite truce: Report
The US had announced a humanitarian truce between Kinshasa and the M23 rebel group on July 5. Two children and two teenagers have been killed in a bombardment in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local sources have told AFP news agency. The United States announced a humanitarian truce on July 5 between Kinshasa and the M23 rebel group operating in eastern DRC. It was supposed to last until July 19, but fighting erupted on Friday. A spokesman for one of the armed groups backing the DRC forces said the fighting occurred 70km (43 miles) northwest of the North Kivu provincial capital, Goma. By Monday, the fighting had reached the town of Bweremana, around 15km (9.3 miles) west of Goma, where the deadly bombardment struck. The dead included two children from the same family, according to Innocent Mwitehofu Mumbara, a local civil society leader. The four victims were aged two, three, 16 and 18, Mumbara added. A mother and her four-year-old child were among the wounded, said Bweremana Police Commissioner Paulin Ilunga, claiming that the shell had “come from the hills where the M23 is”. Confirming the deaths of four people in the attack, a hospital source told AFP that five more had been admitted with serious injuries. The DRC has been facing political instability and armed violence since 1996, with an estimated six million people killed since the conflict began. Since the end of 2021, the M23, supported by units of the Rwandan army, had seized vast swathes of territory in North Kivu, going so far as to almost completely encircle Goma. According to a Human Rights Watch report, M23 allegedly executed scores of villagers and militia members between November 2022 and April 2023, burying them in mass graves in the village of Kishishe, North Kivu. The report says that M23 has committed unlawful killings, rape, and other war crimes since late 2022, exacerbating the dire humanitarian crisis in the country. A total 171 civilians were executed in the last 10 days of November alone, according to the UN Human Rights Office. At the end of June, the M23 and the Rwandan army seized several towns in Lubero territory, in the north of North Kivu, following the collapse of the Congolese army and its auxiliary militias. Nearly 50 soldiers were sentenced to death in the following days for “fleeing the enemy”. Adblock test (Why?)
Video: Israel keeps attacking UN school shelters in Gaza
NewsFeed Palestinians say at least 17 people have been killed in a new Israeli attack on a UN school shelter in Gaza. It’s the fifth bombing of a school packed with displaced people in only eight days. Published On 15 Jul 202415 Jul 2024 Adblock test (Why?)