GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) – Gunfire rang out early on Monday across parts of Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, hours after Rwanda-backed rebels said they had seized the city despite the United Nations Security Council’s calling for an end to the offensive.

The recent advance by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel alliance has forced thousands in Congo’s mineral-rich east from their homes and triggered fears that a decades-old simmering conflict risks reigniting a broader regional war.

“There is confusion in the city; here near the airport, we see soldiers. I have not seen the M23 yet,” one resident told Reuters. “There are also some cases of looting of stores.”

Another resident of the city said there was heavy shooting in the centre of Goma.

Residents said gunfire could also be heard near the airport and near the border with Rwanda.

It was not immediately possible to determine who was responsible for the shooting, but one resident said they were likely to be warning shots, not fighting.

The rebels had ordered government soldiers to surrender by 0300 on Monday (0100 GMT) and 100 Congolese soldiers had handed their weapons in to Uruguayan troops in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUSCO), Uruguay’s military said.

MONUSCO staff and their families were evacuating across the border to Rwanda on Monday morning, where 10 buses were waiting to pick them up.

Kenya’s President William Ruto, chairman of the East African Community bloc, will hold an emergency meeting for heads of state on the situation, said Korir Sing’Oei, principal secretary at Kenya’s foreign ministry.

The eastern borderlands of Democratic Republic of Congo, a country roughly the size of Western Europe, remain a tinder-box of rebel zones and militia fiefdoms in the wake of two successive regional wars stemming from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.

Well-trained and professionally armed, M23 – the latest in a long line of Tutsi-led rebel movements – says it exists to protect Congo’s ethnic Tutsi population.

The U.N. Security Council held crisis talks on Sunday over the situation in conflict, which has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

U.N. experts say that Rwanda has deployed 3,000 – 4,000 troops and provided significant firepower, including missiles and snipers, to support the M23 in fighting in Congo.

The United States, France and Britain on Sunday condemned what they said was Rwanda’s backing of the rebel advance.

Kigali dismissed statements that “did not provide any solutions” and blamed Kinshasa for triggering the recent escalation.

“The fighting close to the Rwandan border continues to present a serious threat to Rwanda’s security and territorial integrity, and necessitates Rwanda’s sustained defensive posture,” Rwanda’s foreign ministry said.

By Nandita Bose, Kanishka Singh and Nidal al-Mughrabi

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/Cairo (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, a suggestion rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs the enclave, and apparently rebuffed by the Jordanian foreign minister.

Asked if this was a temporary or long-term solution for Gaza, where Israel’s military assault has caused a dire humanitarian situation and killed tens of thousands, Trump said on Saturday: “Could be either.”

Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. Both countries and other Arab nations reject the idea of Palestinians in Gaza being moved to their countries. Gaza is land that Palestinians would want as part of a future Palestinian state.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has repeatedly called for the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza, welcomed Trump’s call as “an excellent idea” and said he would work to develop a plan to implement it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected such notions, advocated by Smotrich.

A Hamas official echoed long-standing Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes.

Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if (such offers) appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Reuters.

Another Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, urged Trump not to repeat “failed” ideas tried by his predecessor Joe Biden.

“The people of Gaza have endured death and refused to leave their homeland and they will not leave it regardless of any other reasons,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Jordan also appeared to reject Trump’s suggestion, with its Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi telling reporters that the country’s stance against any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza remains “firm and unwavering”.

Egypt has yet to comment but has said on numerous occasions that it rejects any displacement of Palestinians.

Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the remarks. “Our people will remain steadfast and will not leave their homeland,” said a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Jordanians and Egyptians, would reject Trump’s plan: “I don’t think that there is a place in reality for such an idea.”

‘IT’S A REAL MESS’

Referring to a call he had on Saturday with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump told reporters: “I said to him I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people.”

He added, “I’d like Egypt to take people,” and said he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.

“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said.

The population in the Palestinian enclave prior to the start of the Israel-Gaza war was around 2.3 million.

Washington had said last year it opposed the forcible displacement of Palestinians. Rights groups and humanitarian agencies have for months raised concerns over the situation in Gaza, with the war displacing nearly the entire population and leading to a hunger crisis.

Washington has also faced criticism for backing Israel but has maintained support for its ally, saying it is helping Israel defend itself against Iranian-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

“It’s literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump said on Saturday.

‘NEW AND BETTER LIVES’

Smotrich, who said only “out-of-the-box thinking” could achieve peace, said Trump’s plan would give Palestinians “the opportunity to build new and better lives elsewhere”.

“With God’s help, I will work with the prime minister and cabinet to develop an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible,” he said.

In a post on X, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “Ethnic cleansing is anything but an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, no matter how one packages it. It is illegal, immoral and irresponsible.”

Most of Gaza’s population has been internally displaced by the war. On Sunday, many of them rejected Trump’s suggestion.

“If he thinks he will forcibly displace the Palestinian people (then) this is impossible, impossible, impossible. The Palestinian people firmly believe that this land is theirs, this soil is their soil,” said Magdy Seidam.

“No matter how much Israel tries to destroy, break, and to show people that it had won, in reality it did not win.”

The current Gaza conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. The fighting has currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire.

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE (Reuters) -Two historic statues were damaged in Melbourne ahead of Australia Day celebrations on Sunday, with tens of thousands of people across the country joining protests in support of Aboriginal groups who say the date is not one to cheer.

A statue of colonist John Batman, a founder of the country’s second-largest city and who was involved in the killing of Indigenous people, was sawn in half, while a monument commemorating Australian soldiers in World War One was daubed in red paint and the words “land back”, according to police and local media reports.

Australia’s national day on Jan. 26 is a date of morning for many Indigenous Australians because it marks the day that Captain James Cook landed in Sydney Cove and the beginning of the country’s colonisation by the British.

Protesters were also carrying Palestinian flags, and speakers spoke of similarities between Aboriginal and Palestinian experiences.

“Invasion day. It’s just about the survival of our people. We’re still here. We ain’t going nowhere. Like you know, you can try to assimilate all you want, but we’re still here,” Indigenous Australian Amanda Hill said.

In Sydney, the artwork of Wiradjuri-Biripi artist James P. Simon was projected on the sails of the Opera (NASDAQ:) House at one of many dawn reflection events around the country.

Police estimated that 15,000 people took part in protests and music events in Sydney throughout the day.

In Melbourne’s central business district, police estimated some 25,000 people had taken to the streets.

Speakers at the protests talked about issues important to Aboriginal Australians, including the high numbers of Aboriginal deaths in police custody, missing and murdered Aboriginal women, land rights, and the push to establish a treaty to support Indigenous people.

Efforts by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to establish a constitutional voice for Aboriginal people to parliament was soundly defeated in a 2023 referendum.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said in a post on social media that Australians “shouldn’t be afraid of celebrating” their country on Australia Day.

Dutton has said the country must unite under one flag, and that he will remove Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags from government press conferences if he becomes prime minister in an election that must take place by mid-May.

By Steve Holland, Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump has instructed the U.S. military to release a hold imposed by former President Joe Biden on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, a White House source told Reuters on Saturday.

The move was widely expected. Biden put the hold on the delivery of those bombs due to concern over the impact they could have on the civilian population, particularly in Gaza’s Rafah, during Israel’s war in the Palestinian enclave.

“A lot of things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent by Biden, are now on their way!” Trump said on the Truth Social media platform without providing further details.

Trump and Biden have been strong supporters of U.S. ally Israel, even as Washington has come under criticism from human rights advocates over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza from Israel’s military assault against the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Protesters have unsuccessfully demanded an arms embargo.

A ceasefire went into effect a week ago and has led to the release of some Israeli hostages held in Gaza by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Before his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump had warned there would be “hell to pay” if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were not released.

Hamas took around 250 hostages during an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies. It sparked the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. It also displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.

Washington says it is helping Israel defend against Iran-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta

CAIRO/Ramallah (Reuters) -Thousands of Palestinians chanted praise of Hamas on Saturday as they welcomed prisoners freed under a ceasefire deal between the militant group and Israel that saw four Israeli hostages also return home.

In Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, many carried freed detainees on their shoulders through jubilant crowds that had waited hours for the buses carrying the prisoners to arrive.

Some waved Palestinian flags or the flags of Palestinian factions including Hamas, the group ruling Gaza, its ally the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, and the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Inside Gaza European Hospital in the south of the enclave, where 16 freed detainees arrived for medical checks, thousands flocked in to welcome them, chanting Allahu Akbar “God is greatest” and “Greeting to Qassam Brigades (Hamas armed wing).”

Ikhlas Balousha, a Gazan woman, said her brother’s release had brought happiness despite what she called the destruction, suffering, starvation and genocide experienced in the enclave.

“A feeling of dignity, joy, a feeling of victory despite the pain – a moment when you could have been a martyr, but praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, who allowed us to see him,” she told Reuters.

The 200 Palestinians freed on Saturday include militants, some serving life sentences for involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, according to a list published by Hamas.

GAZANS AWAIT TO GO BACK HOME NORTH

Some were released in the West Bank, while others returned to a Gaza now in ruins after 15 months of war. Those considered the most dangerous by Israel were taken to Egypt before being exiled to a third country.

“I had no doubt that I would be liberated one day. I was confident of that,” said Mohammad Al-Arda, sentenced to life imprisonment plus 15 years over his membership in Islamic Jihad. He was recaptured in 2021 after digging his way out of jail through an improvised tunnel with three other inmates.

“We were in solitary confinement, under pressure and pain. I swear to God that when I saw the happiness of my people I became happy too, a happiness that words can’t describe,” he said, after returning to Ramallah.

Israel says those convicted of killing Israelis will not be permitted to return home. Around 70 will be deported to Egypt, Palestinian officials said, and from there to another country, possibly Turkey, Qatar or Algeria. Palestinians call prisoners “heroes” and “freedom fighters.”

Naser Dawoud, a Hamas militant who spent 21 years in prison serving two life sentences for taking part in attacks on Israel, said he couldn’t believe his name was among those to be freed.

“I am a human being and was sentenced for life, I didn’t expect this to happen, there were some efforts before, but this time God blessed us,” he told Reuters.

In the Gaza Strip, medics at the European Gaza hospital in Khan Younis started checking the health of the newly-released prisoners.

In a statement after the release of the Israeli hostages, Hamas said it had preserved the wellbeing of the hostages while “the enemy tried to kill them (hostages).”

Some freed prisoners from northern Gaza will have to stay in the south of the enclave for some time until Israel allows hundreds of thousands of north Gaza residents to return home, under the terms of the ceasefire deal.

Hamas said that it was expecting Israel to honour the agreement by immediately pulling forces from roads dividing the north and south of the enclave to allow around 650,000 people to return to their homes in the northern areas.

Witnesses said there was a stampede on a road leading to the north, blocked by Israeli troops who opened fire.

Medics said one person was killed there by suspected Israeli fire, one of only a handful of fatalities reported since the truce began. Two others were injured.

In a statement, the Israeli military said that in the central Gaza Strip, IDF troops identified several gatherings of dozens of suspects that posed a threat and troops fired warning shots to address the threat. It said that as yet it was unaware of any harm caused to the suspects as a result of the shooting.

U.Today – Samson Mow, maximalist and the chief executive officer at JAN3 and a few other companies, has addressed the debate of whether the cryptocurrency stockpile that the U.S. government may hold in the future should include any other cryptos except Bitcoin. He definitely believes it should hold nothing but BTC.

In particular, the JAN3 boss took aim at and the XRP cryptocurrency affiliated with this blockchain company. He also commented on multiple X posts criticizing Ripple and XRP and added fuel to that issue.

“There are still way more reasons” to hate XRP: Mow

Samson Mow is a renowned Bitcoin maxi who is often spotted criticizing major altcoins, like ETH and XRP, while calling altcoins “s-coins.” This time he has poured criticism on the Ripple-affiliated crypto.

In a recent tweet, Mow wrote that he has been seeing a lot of posts that list out reasons “why you should hate Ripple/XRP” and stated he wanted to add some perspective. His “perspective,” expectedly, was to solidify those reasons for hating the company and the token it works with.

The JAN3 boss tweeted: “You still don’t hate them enough and there are still way more reasons why you should hate them.”

Mow’s key argument against XRP in potential U.S. reserve

Samson Mow also touched on the debate that has recently emerged on the X platform on whether or not any cryptocurrencies apart from Bitcoin, such as XRP, should be added to the potential U.S. strategic crypto reserve.

Mow believes that adding anything else except Bitcoin to it means giving taxpayers’ money to companies and individuals that “printed their own token out of thin air.” Mow used Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E. rhetoric here since Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency are trying to reduce the excessive and wrongful spending of money paid into the budget by U.S. taxpayers.

As an example of such a company that prints tokens, Mow gave Ripple, saying that at the start of their career its founders “just pushed a button to make 100B tokens.”

On Friday, the founder Charles Hoskinson also stated that nothing except Bitcoin will be added to the U.S. strategic crypto reserve. He did not criticize Ripple or XRP, though. Lately, Hoskinson has been working with the Ripple team closely to launch their RLUSD stablecoin on Cardano.

This article was originally published on U.Today

By Siddharth Cavale

(Reuters) – Target (NYSE:) is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion program this year, the retailer said on Friday, the latest U.S. corporation to step away from such policies in the face of severe scrutiny from conservative groups.

Over the last year, several major companies, including Walmart (NYSE:), Amazon (NASDAQ:), and Meta (NASDAQ:), have rolled back their DEI policies, and earlier this week, President Donald Trump directing federal agencies to terminate DEI programs and urged private companies to end “illegal DEI discrimination and preferences.”

But the Minneapolis-based retailer’s decision met with notable criticism, with some noting the company’s reputation for inclusiveness has helped it attract a younger, more diverse consumer base.

“For Target, with an inclusive audience, this is their version of brand suicide,” said Eric Schiffer of Los Angeles-based Reputation Management Consultants, which advises U.S. corporates and Hollywood celebrities.

Target also said it was ending its Racial Equity Action (WA:) and Change (REACH) initiatives this year, under which it had pledged to invest over $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by the end of 2025. The initiative included plans to add more than 500 Black-owned brands and a funding program from its in-house media company, Roundel, to increase exposure of diverse-owned brands through paid media.

The retailer added that it was changing its “Supplier Diversity” team to “Supplier Engagement” in a bid to better reflect “its inclusive global procurement process.”

“Target is making a mistake by ending its DEI goals with its customer base being highly diverse,” said Sylvester Turner, Congressman for Texas’ 18th Congressional District, on X.

DEI programs, designed to promote opportunities for women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people and other traditionally underrepresented groups, gained traction after nationwide protests in 2020 over police shootings of unarmed Black people. However, they have been criticized by Trump and conservative groups as being discriminatory against other Americans and for undermining merit in hiring and promotion.

“Many years of data, insights, listening and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy,” Target’s chief community impact and equity officer Kiera Fernandez said in a memo, adding that it was important to stay in step with the “evolving” external landscape. The company did not comment outside of its statement.

According to Target’s 2023 workforce diversity report, the retailer’s workforce comprised 56% female employees and 43% male employees. The racial and ethnic distribution was similarly balanced, with 56% of employees being people of color and 43% being white.

Target’s stores host LGBTQ-related goods during Pride month, attracting a more diverse customer base than bigger rival Walmart, which announced cuts to some of its DEI initiatives late last year. However, in 2023, Target pulled some LGBTQ-themed merchandise from stores, citing increased confrontations between shoppers and employees and incidents of products being thrown on the floor.

In 2016, Target said that transgender employees and customers could use bathrooms corresponding to their gender identity, at a time when a heated national debate had sprung up on the issue. It was the first big retailer to address the matter.

At a retail conference in New York this month, Target’s CEO Brian Cornell said the company’s growth over the past years came down to investing in people and creating a culture of care and growth.

On Thursday, Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:) shareholders voted overwhelmingly against a proposal requesting a report on the risks of maintaining its diversity and inclusion initiatives.