Ukrainian authorities on Monday ordered families with children to urgently evacuate the eastern city of Pokrovsk, where the Russian army is bearing down after a six-month slog across Ukraine's Donetsk region following the capture of Avdiivka.

Local authorities said Russian forces are advancing so quickly that families must leave the city and other nearby towns and villages. Some 53,000 people still live in Pokrovsk, officials say.

A record number of aid workers were killed in conflicts around the world last year, and this year may be on course to be even deadlier, the United Nations said Monday.

The U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that 280 aid workers were killed in 33 countries in 2023 — more than double the previous year’s figure of 118. It said that more than half of last year’s deaths were registered in the first three months of the Israel-Hamas war that started in October, mostly as a result of airstrikes.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday the daring military incursion into Russia's Kursk region aims to create a buffer zone to prevent further attacks by Moscow across the border.

It was the first time Zelensky clearly stated the aim of the operation that began Aug. 6. Previously, he had said the operation aimed to protect communities in the bordering Sumy region from constant shelling.

Police in Istanbul have launched a "large-scale investigation" after a Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded in a shooting as they sat in a car, officials and media said Monday.

The killer dropped a handgun fitted with a silencer at the scene, the Istanbul Governor's Office said in a brief statement.

A former Saudi official alleged in a report that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman forged the signature of his father on the royal decree that launched the kingdom's yearslong, stalemated war against Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Saudi Arabia did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the allegations made without supporting evidence by Saad al-Jabri in an interview published Monday by the BBC, though the kingdom has described him as "a discredited former government official." Al-Jabri, a former Saudi intelligence official who lives in exile in Canada, has been a yearslong dispute with the kingdom as his two children have been imprisoned in case he describes as trying to lure him back to Saudi Arabia.

A Lebanese sailor is thanking his lucky stars for being rescued unharmed from the dark waters of the east Mediterranean early Sunday, nearly five hours after falling 18 meters (60 feet) off a commercial ship.

Cypriot authorities say 24-year-old Lebanese national needed no medical attention after the Panamanian-flagged vehicles carrier NIVIN plucked him from the sea.

The state-run Zahrani Oil Installations overnight started pumping five million liters of fuel oil on loan to the Zahrani power plant through the supply line that connects them, a day after Lebanon’s state utility Electricité du Liban announced that its power plants had exhausted their supply of fuel oil and would stop producing electricity.

In a statement, the Installations director general said the process started after “completing all the administrative, technical and legal files,” adding that EDL’s board of directors would meet Sunday and issue a statement announcing when the power plant would become functional.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli air strike overnight in southern Lebanon killed 10 Syrians, as the Israeli military reported hitting "weapons stores" of Hezbollah.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is promoting a broad set of economic proposals that would offer new tax breaks and lower the cost of living for Americans, aiming to address the financial concerns that are at the top of the mind for voters and that Republican Donald Trump is trying to lay at her doorstep.

Harris will be in the battleground state of North Carolina on Friday to lay out her plans, including a proposal for a federal ban on price gouging on groceries. She also is proposing $25,000 in down payment help for certain first-time homebuyers and tax incentives for builders of starter homes, among other things.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot revealed the club failed with a bid to bring in Spain midfielder Martín Zubimendi, as he played down concerns about the Reds being the only team in the Premier League to not sign a player this transfer window.