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The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has condemned Rwanda for backing a rebel offensive in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and urged it to withdraw its forces and stop supporting the M23 armed group.

The UNSC unanimously adopted the resolution on Friday, and also extended the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, for a year. This came despite Rwanda’s repeated denials – contrary to overwhelming evidence – of involvement in a conflict that has intensified as a United States-brokered peace deal unravels.

The UNSC said M23’s seizure of the strategic city of Uvira “risks destabilizing the whole region, gravely endangers civilian populations and imperils ongoing peace efforts”.

“M23 must immediately withdraw at least 75km (47 miles) from Uvira and return to compliance with all of its obligations undertaken in the Framework Agreement,” said Jennifer Locetta, a US representative to the UN.

M23 captured Uvira in the South Kivu Province on December 10, less than a week after the DRC and Rwandan presidents met US President Donald Trump in Washington and committed to a peace agreement.

“It is an amazing day: great day for Africa, great day for the world and for these two countries. And they have so much to be proud of,” Trump crowed, as fighting quickly undermined the White House spectacle.

One Uvira resident, Feza Mariam, told Al Jazeera in recent days: “We don’t know anything about the political process they are talking about.

“The only thing we need is peace. Anyone able to provide us with peace is welcome here. For the rest, we as citizens, we don’t care about it.”

The M23 group claimed on Wednesday it was withdrawing from the city following international backlash, but the DRC government dismissed this as a “staged” pullback, saying M23 forces remain deployed there.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged on Friday that commitments under the Washington accord were “not being met” but said his government had now signed agreements it could “hold people to”.

The US earlier warned it would use available tools against those undermining the peace deal, with US officials estimating between 5,000 and 7,000 Rwandan soldiers were operating in eastern DRC as of early December.

The US had previously sanctioned Rwandan cabinet ministers earlier this year, and the DRC later led calls to expand those sanctions after the seizure of Uvira.

The fighting has triggered a major humanitarian emergency, with more than 84,000 people fleeing into Burundi since early December, according to the UN refugee agency, which said the country has reached a “critical point” as refugees arrive exhausted and traumatised. They join approximately 200,000 others who had already sought refuge in the country.

Regional officials say more than 400 civilians have been killed in recent violence in the city.

The seizure of Uvira, located directly across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s largest city, Bujumbura, has raised fears of broader regional spillover. The city was the last major foothold in South Kivu for the DRC government and the Wazalendo, which are DRC-allied militias, after M23 captured the provincial capital, Bukavu, in February.

Rwanda has consistently denied backing M23, despite assessments by UN experts and the international community. In a February interview with CNN, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he did not know whether his country’s troops were in the DRC, despite being commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

Rwanda implicitly acknowledged a presence in eastern DRC in February 2024, when it rejected a US call to withdraw troops and surface-to-air missile systems, saying it had adjusted its posture for self-defence.

Rwanda maintains that its security concerns are driven by the presence of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a militia composed largely of Hutus who fled to the DRC after participating in the 1994 genocide that killed approximately 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Kigali views the group as an existential threat and accuses the DRC government of supporting it.

The broader conflict in the mineral-rich eastern DRC, where more than 100 armed groups operate, has displaced more than seven million people, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The seventh Moscow Interior and Design Week has emerged as a major draw for entrepreneurs from the Middle East, underscoring shifting international interest in Russia’s design and creative industries.

Organizers and exhibitors said that while previous editions of the event were dominated by visitors from China and European countries, this year saw a notable increase in business delegations from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Attendees from the region praised the exhibition’s organization and the creative approach to showcasing design concepts.

“We had long heard that Moscow is becoming a global center for interior design, but the fact that this event is now in its seventh year convinced us to come as part of a large business mission,” said Mona Negm, chief executive officer of Masahat Interior & Architectural Design. Demand from clients for distinctive, one-of-a-kind interiors is growing, she said, adding that Moscow-based manufacturers demonstrated an ability to compete with leading international studios. Negm described the exhibition as “the most beautiful in the world.”

In addition to business visitors, the event also attracted a growing number of tourists from the Middle East, according to participants. Visitors frequently noted the distinctive aesthetic approach of Moscow designers, particularly in decorative elements.

Exhibitors said guests from the UAE showed strong interest in living room furniture, ceramics and floor lamps—items they view as versatile for both residential and office interiors. As a result, unique design pieces are finding buyers not only among professional procurement specialists but also individual tourists.

“In previous years, foreign visitors to our stand were mostly tourists from China and Western Europe,” said Semen Ivanov, founder of Burg&Glass. “This time, we were surprised by the strong interest from visitors from the Middle East. Many said they came to see Moscow ahead of the New Year holidays and decided to visit the city’s main furniture and décor exhibition as a priority.” Several visitors, he added, described the event as the most beautiful design week they had attended.

The seventh Moscow Interior and Design Week is being held from Dec. 11 to Dec. 14 in the Russian capital. Alongside the main exhibition, the event features an extensive business program with expert-led sessions. Speakers include Reem Bin Karam, chief executive officer of the UAE’s Irthi Contemporary Crafts Council, who is scheduled to speak on Dec. 13 about how professional designers combine styles, forms, textures and patterns to create cohesive interiors.

On a glorious September morning, a scientist emerged cheerfully from the depths of a corrugated metal tunnel under a remote stretch of Highway 395 north of the town of Bridgeport.

It wasn’t a planned encounter. I happened upon Ben Carter, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as I toured the area with a couple of Caltrans employees.

Carter was switching out the SD cards from cameras installed to document animals that might be using two wildlife crossings recently constructed under the highway near Sonora Junction.

“We’ve got some deer sign coming through here, which is great,” he said, referring to cloven hoof prints pressed into the soft earth. He’d looked through a few photos at the other culvert and saw deer there, too, and perhaps a coyote.

The effort comes at a critical moment. Mule deer in the region have declined in recent years, sparking concern among hunters. Getting hit by cars or trucks is the second biggest cause of deer death, not counting unknown causes.

Some hunters would like the state to control the population of mountain lions in the area to help the deer, which the cougars eat. But state wildlife officials aren’t allowed to do that.

The big, charismatic cats are a “specially protected species” in the Golden State. (Officials are permitted to kill mountain lions in limited circumstances, including to protect endangered bighorn sheep. They recently began doing that again after a long hiatus, which I wrote about in a story this week.)

So wildlife crossings could be a win-win solution. Both hunters and conservationists are especially keen to see one rise along a stretch of the 395 that runs past the Mammoth Yosemite Airport — the top roadkill hot spot in the Eastern Sierra.

There are plans to put one there, but getting it off the ground is estimated to cost more than $65 million, according to Caltrans, which is leading the project.

Brian Tillemans, a hunter and former watershed resource manager for the L.A. Department of Water and Power, who has called on the state to help deer, said the crossing can’t come too soon.

“If there’s ever a spot for a deer crossing, it’s up here,” he added, driving near the proposed site.

Ben Carter, of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, checks a trail camera at a wildlife undercrossing recently installed near the town of Bridgeport.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

At the other crossing, about 70 miles to the north, Carter expressed both hope and concern.

It’s among the top three roadkill hot spots in the region because deer migrate across the highway. But the project area didn’t perfectly align with their route, according to Carter. That’s because the undercrossings were put in opportunistically, as part of a shoulder-widening endeavor spearheaded by Caltrans.

Beth Pratt, of the National Wildlife Federation, who joined a tour of the crossing, was optimistic the animals would use it.

“I feel like word’s gonna get out,” she said. “I know they are really loyal to their migration sites. On the other hand, they can start being loyal to this.”

The trail cameras will determine if she’s right.

More recent animal news

It’s been a sad few weeks for real-life animal mascots in the northern part of the state.

Last week, Claude, a striking albino alligator living in San Francisco’s California Academy of the Sciences — where he served as unofficial mascot — passed away from liver cancer at the age of 30, my fellow Times reporter Hailey Branson-Potts reported. During his 17 years at the science museum, the ghostly white reptile became a cultural icon, appearing in children’s books, city advertisements and a 24/7 livestream. “Claude represented that core San Francisco value of seeing the beauty & value in everyone, including those who are a bit different from the norm. Rest in peace, buddy,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) tweeted.

A month earlier, a beloved bald eagle named Hope was fatally electrocuted on power lines near a Milpitas elementary school where she and her mate presided as mascots. The feathered local celebrity’s unceremonious end — covered by my colleague Susanne Rust — is not a one-off. Every year, as many as 11.6 million birds perish on wires that juice our TVs and blow dryers, according to a 2014 analysis. PG&E, which operates the power lines that killed Hope, said it took measures to make lines and poles around the eagle’s nesting area safe for raptors. (As for Hope’s widower, he may already have a new girlfriend.)

It’s not all doom and gloom for animals in the Golden State — and around the world.

The Los Angeles Zoo recently welcomed the birth of a baby gorilla, the fifth and latest addition in a baby boom of adorable great apes that includes three chimpanzees and an orangutan, writes Times staffer Andrea Flores.

Meanwhile, a global treaty has extended trade protections to more than 70 shark and ray species who have seen sharp declines, according to the New York Times’ Alexa Robles-Gil. She writes that the agreement includes a full international commercial trade ban for oceanic whitetip sharks, manta and devil rays, and whale sharks.

A few last things in climate news

Soon, the country’s largest all-electric hospital will open in Orange County, my editor Ingrid Lobet reports. It’s only the second facility of its kind in the U.S., and offers an alternative to the way that buildings contribute to climate change: burning natural gas.

Not far away, the city of Los Angeles is shifting away from the power source most harmful to the environment. Times staffer Hayley Smith writes that the L.A. Department of Water and Power has stopped receiving any coal-fired power. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called it a “defining moment” for the city.

There are plans by the Trump administration to pump more water to farmlands in the Central Valley from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, per my colleague Ian James. California officials said the move could threaten fish and reduce the amount of water available for millions of people in other parts of California.

A nonprofit is trying to create a 1.2 million-acre national monument centered on the Amargosa River, which runs through the bone-dry Mojave Desert, according to Kurtis Alexander of the San Francisco Chronicle. Early this year, former president Joe Biden designated two massive national monuments in the Golden State, including one covering a large swath of the desert.

This is the latest edition of Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment in the American West. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. And listen to our Boiling Point podcast here.

For more wildlife and outdoors news, follow Lila Seidman at @lilaseidman.bsky.social on Bluesky and @lila_seidman on X.

Due to the ongoing advance of M23/AFC rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), scores of displaced people have crossed into Bujumbura, the capital city of Burundi, on Dec. 9.

Burundi is facing a major surge in refugees as families escape ongoing conflict. The unexpected influx, which includes individuals with ties to armed groups, has raised fears of a security and humanitarian crisis in the country. The chaotic situation at the South Kivu border sees both civilians and armed personnel caught up in the turmoil.

Refugees from Luvungi, Katogota, Bwegera, Luberizi, Mutarule, and Sange of the DRC crossed the border en masse at the Kaburantwa bridge under construction, on the 6th avenue in the Buganda zone of Bukinanyana district. According to local Burundian media, the rout of armed groups and regular forces allowed armed fighters to blend into the crowd.

On Dec. 8, joint operations conducted by Burundian soldiers, Congolese Wazalendo militias, and Rwandan rebels resulted in the seizure of weapons and uniforms, and the arrest of men suspected of being infiltrated fighters. These operations took place in Kansega, in the border area of ​​Ndava, Bukinanyana district.

Burundi has also accused the M23 rebels of conducting a bombing attack within its territory, signalling an increase in regional tensions, despite several peace agreements. The militant actions by the rebels continue despite the ratification of the Washington peace accord signed between DR Congo, the M23/AFC rebels, and Rwanda under the Trump administration.

Despite facing strong resistance from the DR Congo national army, the M23/AFC rebels, with support from Rwanda, continue to advance on the ground toward the capture of the city of Uvira in South Kivu, which has become the province’s provisional capital.

The two main parties involved in the conflict in the eastern Congo, the Kinshasa government and the M23/AFC rebels, previously signed a framework agreement. This agreement aimed to initiate new discussions on the underlying causes of the conflict and, eventually, to reach a comprehensive peace accord to restore normalcy in North Kivu and South Kivu. 

Despite multiple meetings with the mediator and several signed documents, including mechanisms for prisoner exchange and cease-fire verification, the measures have not yet been implemented. 

Kinshasa officials accuse Kigali of continuing to support M23/AFC rebels, violating the Washington Accords.