KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched missile strikes Thursday on the Kyiv area and the northern Chernihiv region for the first time in weeks, in what a Ukrainian official said was revenge for the fierce resistance the Kremlin has faced after it invaded its neighbor. The renewed strikes on the areas come a day after the leader of pro-Kremlin separatists in the east publicly called on the Russian forces to “liberate” a number of Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv and Chernihiv.

TOKYO (AP) — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools. The attacks are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s railway network has ground to a crawl after 40,000 staff walked off the job in a dispute over jobs, pay, and working conditions. Train companies say only about a fifth of services across the country are due to run on Wednesday. The 24-hour strike by cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers, and station staff comes a month after the country’s most disruptive rail walkout in three decades.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch farmers are protesting government plans to reduce nitrogen emissions. The farmers dumped manure and garbage on highways Wednesday and set fires alongside roads, creating traffic chaos on some roads in the central and eastern Netherlands. Fire services rushed to clear the debris as traffic built up. The latest demonstrations are part of a summer of discontent.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A strong earthquake has killed at least five people, injured dozens, and damaged buildings in the northern Philippines. Patients were briefly evacuated from two hospitals in the capital. Scientists say the 7-magnitude quake Wednesday morning was centered around Abra province in a mountainous area, where one person was killed and dozens of others injured.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military has used a U.S.-supplied precision rocket system to deliver a morale-lifting knockout punch to a bridge Russia used to supply its forces in an occupied region of southern Ukraine. The deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration in the Kherson region said Ukrainian artillery struck the Antonivskyi Bridge late Tuesday. He says previous Ukrainian attacks damaged the bridge last week but the span had to be closed to vehicles on Wednesday.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A big pink diamond of 170 carats has been discovered in Angola and is claimed to be the largest such gemstone found in 300 years. Called the “Lulo Rose,” the diamond was found at the Lulo alluvial diamond mine. The mine’s owner, the Lucapa Diamond Company, announced the discovery of the large pink diamond on its website.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's space chief says the country will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost. Yuri Borisov, who was appointed earlier this month to lead the state-controlled space corporation Roscosmos, said during Tuesday's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia will fulfill its obligations to other partners at the International Space Station before it leaves the project.

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union governments have agreed to ration natural gas this winter to protect against further supply cuts by Russia as it pursues its invasion of Ukraine. Energy ministers on Tuesday approved a draft European law meant to lower demand for gas by 15% from August through March.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia has targeted Ukraine’s Black Sea regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv with air strikes, hitting private buildings and port infrastructure. Ukraine’s military said that the Kremlin’s forces used air-launched missiles in Tuesday's attack. In the Odesa region, a number of private buildings in villages on the coast were hit and caught fire, the report said.

LONDON (AP) — The two candidates vying to be Britain’s next prime minister have sparred over how to help families struggling with the soaring cost of living in a testy televised debate. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak are battling to succeed Boris Johnson as head of Britain’s governing party.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Authorities in the Bahamas are combing shorelines and open waters in hopes of finding more survivors after a boat carrying up to an estimated 60 Haitian migrants apparently capsized. Divers have found the bodies of 15 women, one man, and a toddler, while another 20 men and five women have been rescued since Sunday, according to Bahamian officials.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Authorities say a man who targeted homeless people fatally shot two men in a Vancouver, British Columbia, suburb before being shot and killed by police. Police issued a cellphone alert early Monday saying they were at the scene of several shootings “involving transient victims.”

TOKYO (AP) — Dozens of people have evacuated two towns in southern Japan where a volcano spewed ash and large rocks into the nighttime sky. Large rocks fell as far as 1.5 miles from the Sakurajima volcano Sunday night, and dark smoke with ash billowed from the mountaintop. About 50 residents were advised to leave their homes, and the city of Kagoshima said 33 of them evacuated to a nursing care facility.

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Tens of thousands of people who evacuated from Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region are risking their lives by returning to homes close to the front line because they can’t afford to live in safer places. One woman was killed by a missile outside her home just two days after returning.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The death toll from a bus accident in central Kenya has risen to 30, police said Monday. The passenger bus carrying an unknown number of people on Sunday evening fell off a bridge and plunged into a river along a highway from Meru to the capital, Nairobi.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country’s unstable currency. The unprecedented move was announced Monday by the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, to boost confidence in the local currency.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisians are heading to the polls to vote on a new constitution. The controversial initiative has been spearheaded by Tunisian President Kais Saied that critics say will formalize his power grab in the North African nation. Supporters of the president believe the new constitution will solve Tunisia's political deadlock, while others warn it could pave the way back to the autocracy that Tunisians overthrew in 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending an additional $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a new package that will include additional medium-range rocket systems and tactical drones. The latest tranche announced by the White House Friday comes atop about $8 billion in security assistance provided since the war began in late February.

ISTANBUL (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian officials have signed deals to end a standoff over grain exports brought on by the war in Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the world's key breadbaskets but a Russian blockade of its ports has threatened food security around the world. The two countries signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations so that Ukraine could export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in its Black Sea ports by the war.

CAIRO (AP) — A powerful body headed by a militia leader accused of war crimes has been implicated in severe abuses against migrants in conflict-scarred Libya. Migrants say the government-funded Stability Support Authority detained them in abysmal conditions and tortured them. The accusations raise further questions over European support for Libyan authorities’ interception of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean.

FARNBOROUGH, England (AP) — Movie fighter pilots are depicted as highly trained military aviators with the skills and experience to defeat adversaries in thrilling aerial dogfights. New technologies, though, are set to redefine what it means to be a “Top Gun." Algorithms, data, and machines are taking on a bigger role in the cockpit.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Officials say Ukrainian emergency workers have recovered three bodies from a school hit by a Russian strike in the east of the country, as attacks continued in several parts of the nation. The reported casualties follow a barrage Thursday on a densely populated area of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, that killed at least three people and wounded 23 others.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A raid of Rio de Janeiro’s largest complex of favelas that left at least 18 people dead has sparked renewed complaints of excessive police violence and ignited debate over how to handle crime ahead of state and presidential elections. Rio authorities said 16 suspected criminals were killed in confrontations with police in Complexo do Alemao favela, or low-income community, along with a police officer and a woman.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish officials say a deal on a U.N. plan to unblock the shipment of Ukrainian grain and allow Russia to export grain and fertilizers will be signed in Istanbul on Friday. The Turkish president’s office said President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and officials from Russia and Ukraine will oversee the signing ceremony.