Dozens of protesters broke through a security fence near the site of the Democratic National Convention on its opening day Monday as thousands took to the streets to voice their opposition to the war in Gaza.

Families with babies in strollers, students, elected leaders and others holding signs and flags joined the march to the United Center, where the convention is being held, to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. As the larger group marched peacefully, a few dozen who broke away tore down pieces of the security fence.

Russia kept up its assault on Ukraine Saturday even as Ukrainian forces pushed into Russia's Kursk border region.

A Russian missile sparked a blaze in the city of Sumy that injured two people and also damaged cars and nearby buildings, said Ukraine's State Emergency Service. It said that the hit had involved an Iskander-K cruise missile and an aerial bomb.

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.

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.

Ukrainian drones attacked an oil storage facility in Russia's southern Rostov region early Sunday morning, sparking a large fuel fire, the local governor said.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made an upbeat show of unity Thursday as they held their first joint public event since Harris replaced the president as the Democratic Party's candidate in November's election.

Chants of "Thank you Joe!" rang out from the audience at a community college in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington.

Russia said Friday that it had repelled a night-time attack using 12 U.S.-made missiles on the landmark Crimea bridge built on the orders of President Vladimir Putin after Moscow annexed the peninsula.

A daring Ukrainian military push into Russia's Kursk region has seen Kyiv's forces seize scores of villages, take hundreds of prisoners and force the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians in what has become the largest attack on the country since World War II.

In more than a week of fighting, Russian troops are still struggling to drive out the invaders.

Ukraine has claimed fresh advances in its offensive into Russia, saying on Thursday it seized over 1,100 square kilometers in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II.

Ukraine said it now controlled dozens of settlements and Sudzha, a town eight kilometers (five miles) from the border.