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The first ship transporting Ukrainian grain left a port in Odessa on Monday under a United Nations-negotiated deal between Ukraine and Russia. A coordination center instituted in Istanbul said the vessel is carrying 26,000 tons of corn. According to the Ukrainian minister of infrastructure, there are 16 other ships ready to move grain, and the planned shipments could result in a minimum of $1 billion in currency reserves for Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the remaining Ukrainians in Donetsk to evacuate the region amid intense military conflict. “The more people leave Donetsk region now, the fewer people the Russian army will have time to kill,” he said. According to Ukrainian officials, there are over 200,000 civilians still in the areas of Donetsk that are unoccupied by Russian forces.

Taiwan news organizations reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit the island on Tuesday. The news comes as White House aides say they expect Pelosi will make the trip, which has been at the center of rising tensions between China and the United States. Chinese officials have said that the country will “not sit idly by” if the speaker visits Taiwan, adding that such a move would “lead to egregious political impact.”

United Nations peacekeepers opened fire in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing two people and injuring 15 others on Sunday. The incident occurred near the Ugandan border amid local protests that have demanded that peacekeeping units leave the region. According to Reuters, it is not clear why the peacekeepers opened fire. Protests in Goma and Butembo last week resulted in 19 deaths, including three peacekeepers, and left 60 others with injuries.

Thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Khartoum, Sudan’s capital city, protesting the country’s military rule on Sunday. Police fired tear gas at protestors as they tried to make their way toward the president’s office. Protests have been ongoing since the military took control of the country in October. Medics estimate that at least 116 people have died in the protests, and thousands more have been injured.

Protests and shooting occurred along the Kosovo-Serbian border as tensions rise around a new law in Kosovo mandating that ethnic Serbs use Kosovar license plates. The conflict prompted the Kosovar authorities to announce that they will hold off on instituting the requirement for a month, after discussing the measure with U.S. and European officials.

ICYMI: This Weekend on Lawfare

Antonio Calcara, Andrea Gilli, Mauro Gilli, and Ivan Zaccagnini argued that assessments of drone technology efficacy often neglect the consideration that drones are incredibly vulnerable to air defenses.

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