Typhoon Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm this year, was downgraded to a tropical depression on Sunday, after wreaking havoc in northern Vietnam, China’s Hainan and the Philippines, claiming dozens of lives, according to preliminary reports.

Vietnam’s meteorological agency issued the downgrade on Sunday but cautioned about the ongoing risk of flooding and landslides as the storm, the strongest to hit the country in decades, moves westwards.

On Saturday, Yagi disrupted power supplies and telecommunications in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, causing extensive flooding, felling thousands of trees and damaging homes.

The government said the storm has led to at least three deaths in Hanoi, a city of 8.5 million, with these figures being preliminary. Fourteen people have died in Vietnam so far, according to reports, including four from a landslide in the province of Hoa Binh, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Hanoi.

A 53-year-old motorcyclist was killed after a tree fell on him in the northern Hai Duong province, state media reported. At least one body was recovered from the sea near the coastal city of Halong, where a dozen people were missing at sea, with rescue operations expected to start on Sunday when conditions allow.

Yagi has claimed the lives of four people on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, according to the latest update from local authorities. The civil defense office in the Philippines, the first country Yagi hit after forming last week, raised the death toll there on Sunday to 20 from 16 and said 22 people remained missing.

Risk of flash floods

After it made landfall in Vietnam on Saturday afternoon, Yagi triggered waves as high as 4 meters (13 feet) in coastal provinces, leading to extended power and telecommunication outages that have complicated damage assessment, the government said.

The meteorological agency warned of continued “risk of flash floods near small rivers and streams, and landslides on steep slopes in many places in the northern mountainous areas” and the coastal province of Thanh Hoa.

Relative calm returned on Sunday morning to Hanoi, where authorities rushed to clean up streets from toppled trees scattered across the city center and other neighborhoods.

“The storm has devastated the city. Trees fell down on top of people’s houses, cars and people on the street,” said 57-year-old Hanoi resident Hoang Ngoc Nhien.

Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport, the busiest in northern Vietnam, reopened on Sunday after closing on Saturday morning.

In Hainan, preliminary estimates suggested significant economic losses and widespread power outages, according to emergency response authorities cited by state-run Hainan Daily.

Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez has left the country en route to Spain, according to his lawyer and Venezuela’s vice president, after an arrest warrant was issued last week accusing him of terrorism, conspiracy and other crimes related to July’s disputed presidential election.

“Today, September 7, opposition citizen Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who has been a voluntary refugee in the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Caracas for several days, has left the country and requested political asylum from that government,” Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said in a statement.

Rodriguez said Venezuela allowed Gonzalez to leave “for the sake of the tranquility and political peace of the country.”

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Gonzalez was “at his own request” flying to Spain on a Spanish Air Force plane. “The Government of Spain is committed to the political rights and physical integrity of all Venezuelans,” he wrote on X.

Gonzalez had previously ignored at least three summons to appear before prosecutors as part of an investigation into claims he secured a resounding win in the presidential election.

Authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of the election with 51% of the vote by the country’s electoral authority – a body stacked with the president’s allies –- despite tens of thousands of election tallies published by the opposition that showed a convincing win for Gonzalez.

Venezuela’s opposition and multiple Latin American leaders refused to recognize Maduro’s victory, which sparked deadly protests during which thousands were arrested.

The United States recently placed pressure on the Venezuelan government to “immediately” release specific data regarding its presidential election, citing concerns about the credibility of Maduro’s claimed victory, as it also seized one of Maduro’s planes, saying it was bought in violation of US sanctions.

AMANPOUR: General Syrskyi, welcome to the program.

SYRSKYI: [In English] Thank you very much.

AMANPOUR: So it’s great to be able to talk to you. It’s the first time you’re doing an interview on television. And I want to know why you think there’s such an uptick in the war against this country right now. Russian ballistic missiles just in one week alone in Lviv killed, you know, nearly 10 people. In Poltava, more than 50 people. Strikes all across the country.

SYRSKYI: [In Ukrainian] I believe that Russia is trying to force us to give up and break our will to resist by hitting our civilian objects and damaging civilian infrastructure. By targeting our civilians in this way, they are trying to break our will to win.

AMANPOUR: I want to ask you about Kursk, because I know that you spend time there, near the frontlines. And I know that you and President Zelensky came up with this operation. Tell me from your words and your view, what was the strategic purpose of the Ukrainian operation into Russian Kursk?

SYRSKYI: First, the enemy, Russian troops, had previously intended to use the Kursk direction as a foothold for further operations against our troops. On May 10, they launched an offensive in the Kharkiv direction, and just a few days later they planned to strike and advance in the Sumy direction by using the Kursk direction and the territories of the Kursk region as a springboard for further actions against our state, against our armed forces there.

Having suffered losses in the Kharkiv sector, they literally got stuck in their offensive and actually moved to the defense in Vovchansk. They stopped in the area of Hlyboke, in the area of Lyptsi. And the troops that went on the offensive in the Kharkiv direction were no longer enough. Then they gradually began to redeploy those units that were located in the Kursk region, in the Sumy direction, to the Kharkiv direction.

Thus, the offensive in the Sumy direction did not take place. But they continued to consider this direction, this springboard for further actions of their own. In addition, they continued to shell our settlements daily, which caused us to suffer losses, primarily among the civilian population. This lasted until May, and in May there was a significant intensification. It was already clear then that this delay was temporary.

For us, this direction was always a threat. Therefore, in assessing our capabilities, we chose the weakest point in the enemy’s defense, in the enemy’s structure. And this direction was chosen. This reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to the enemy’s territory so that he could feel what we feel every day. And we created our own security zone in the Kursk region. In addition, we took a sufficient number of prisoners. We created an “exchange fund” in order to release our military personnel who are in captivity.

AMANPOUR: Some of your – for instance, your defense minister has said publicly that the reason was to divert Russian forces from other parts of the eastern front. But there are others on the eastern front, commanders, who say it hasn’t diverted enough forces, and there’s still a lot of pressure on your forces on the eastern front – that important logistical hub of Pokrovsk. So has it been strategically a success, and even tactically a success, what you’ve done in Kursk? And do you think you might lose Pokrovsk?

SYRSKYI: We are doing everything we can not to lose Pokrovsk. We are strengthening our defenses there. Over the past six days, the enemy has not advanced a single meter in the Pokrovsk direction. So our strategy is working. Of course, the enemy has concentrated the most trained of its units in the Pokrovsk sector. But we have deprived him of the ability to maneuver his units and the ability to redeploy his strengthening units from other areas.

So, in fact, it turns out that even though they did not move many troops from the Pokrovsk area except for one marine brigade, they are now unable to manoeuvre their reserves as they used to. And this weakening is actually felt in other areas. We note that the number of artillery attacks and the intensity of offensive actions have decreased. In fact, the Pokrovsk direction remains the most problematic for us. In other areas, the situation has become more stable. So I think this strategy was chosen correctly and it will bring us the desired result.

AMANPOUR: Can I ask you about the obvious imbalance, and that is, essentially Ukraine, while you’re fighting hard, you are outgunned by the Russians. They have much more air superiority, for instance, more drones, they have more missile capability, they have more artillery capability. How do you assess the difference between what you have and what they have? And how do you make up for that difference?

SYRSKYI: You are absolutely right, because the enemy does have an advantage in aviation, in missiles, in artillery, in the amount of ammunition they use, of course – in personnel, tanks, and infantry fighting vehicles. But this also motivates us. We cannot fight in the same way as they do, so we must use, first of all, the most effective approach, use our forces and means with maximum use of terrain features, engineering structures. And also to use technical superiority.

First of all, by focusing on high-tech weapons. These are primarily unmanned aerial systems for various purposes. You know that we have created the world’s first such kind of troops as the Unmanned Systems Forces. We have created a command, we have created units, we have created regiments, we have created battalions, which are now proving their effectiveness in various parts of the frontline. Our best unmanned systems units are concentrated in the Pokrovsk sector.

In addition, of course, we use maneuvers with force, reserves, and fire. Thanks to the actions of our government, the president of Ukraine, the minister of defense, we managed to reduce the difference between the ammunition used by us and the enemy. The proportion is actually one to two, one to two-and-a-half. A year ago, this figure was one to ten, one to six. We compensate for this difference with unmanned systems. We are constantly working on improving them, increasing their efficiency, improving the control system, ways and methods of usage. We are trying to maximize our technical superiority over the enemy to offset their superiority in terms of numbers.

AMANPOUR: You obviously have much, much less manpower than they do. The Russians have such a huge advantage of manpower over you. I think now they have something like more than half a million people under arms. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they had a hundred thousand. It’s thought that they may have 700,000 by the end of this year. And you said when you took this job that one of the issues that you have to do is make sure you can replenish your ranks – draft, whatever it is, get more, more, more Ukrainians to fight. How is that going? Are you satisfied, or not?

SYRSKYI: In general, we manage to maintain our mobilisation capabilities at the appropriate level and ensure both replenishment of losses and training of new units. That is, thanks to the coordinated work of all state authorities, military bodies, primarily territorial recruitment centres, we maintain these performance levels and ensure the replenishment of our military units.

SYRSKYI: You are right on this point. The issue of morale is a very important area of our work. And, of course, we are talking about the Kursk operation again. This was a factor that significantly improved the morale of not only the military but the entire Ukrainian population. That is, it was and still is an incentive that has boosted the morale of our servicemen, their desire to win. This is first of all.

Secondly, regarding training: of course, everyone wants the level of training to be the best, so we train highly qualified, professional military personnel. At the same time, the dynamics at the front require us to put conscripted servicemen into service as soon as possible. That is why we usually conduct basic military training for at least a month, and qualified training from half a month to a month. Thus, our soldiers are trained for a month and more – up to two months. In the long term, we are considering increasing this period and this will give us certain advantages.

And now we focus primarily on the professionalism of our instructors, on building up our training and material base, our training centers, and using training schools where servicemen acquire advanced skills in mastering weapons and related equipment. This is also probably the main activity of the ground forces, airborne assault forces and other types of troops, which are aimed at training qualified specialists who take part in combat operations.

AMANPOUR: I want to know – I mean, you as commander, do you go to the frontlines? Do you go to the trenches? Do you talk to soldiers there, and commanders? What do they say to you? Because I know some of them have been there for, you know, more than two years. They barely get rotation, they don’t get to see their family, there are these glide bombs, these terrifying things, I mean, drones, there’s just so much. I mean, it’s almost, it’s almost World War I kind of, you know, attacks on them in the trenches. And they’re there for a long time, with no real hope of rotation. What do they say to you when you go to see them and talk to them?

SYRSKYI: We speak the same language. We understand each other no matter who I am talking to, whether it is an ordinary soldier, a rifleman, for example, or a brigade commander or a battalion commander. You know that I have been in this war since 2014. Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, I have actually been participating in combat operations as the commander of the operational and strategic group. Now I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. That is, the frontline is my life. We understand each other, I know all the problems that our servicemen, soldiers, and officers experience.

Despite the difficult situation, we continue to carry out rotations. We didn’t stop this process even when Avdiivka was happening – when there were, perhaps, more difficult times. The issue of rotations remains a priority for us. Of course, people get exhausted and need rest. That is why the units are either withdrawn to the rear for rest or sent to training centers, where they spend a month or a month-and-a-half recuperating. In this way, people restore their combat capabilities, their moral and mental state, and get the opportunity to visit their families and friends.

AMANPOUR: You became the overall commander at about the time that the US Congress finally approved, you know, the tranche of weapons and help that they’d promised you. It was a delay of six to seven months. What material difference did that make to your fight – the fact that these weapons were delayed for so long?

SYRSKYI: Of course, this has had a negative impact. When there is nothing to shoot with, no one and nothing to hold back the enemy, first of all, it leads to an increase in the level of losses, an increase in our losses not only in material resources, but also in human resources. Because the highest value in the Ukrainian army is the life of a soldier. It is very painful for us and of course it is painful to see that the losses of soldiers are increasing.

Well, the effectiveness of the use of troops is also extremely reduced, because when you have nothing to shoot with, you cannot hit the enemy efficiently and effectively. And this leads to the loss of territory. So how can this affect us? Of course, negatively.

AMANPOUR: And has it made a significant difference that the weapons have started to come now?

SYRSKYI: Of course, this has led to significant changes. But we would like to see these weapons arrive sooner. Because, unfortunately, this process is happening, but it is happening with a delay. This is also a negative for us. Especially when it comes to the formation of new units or when a unit is formed and there is no equipment, no weapons, how should we perceive it? You plan to use a mechanized brigade, but in fact you use it as an infantry brigade. As a result, its combat capabilities and effectiveness are much lower.

AMANPOUR: And obviously your ministers, your president are really appealing to the United States especially to stop restrictions on how you can use the weapons that do get here. What would you do with these weapons, if there were no restrictions on them? How would you use them?

SYRSKYI: We have repeatedly declared how we are going to use them. Of course, we will use weapons only against military targets, primarily against missile systems that strike populated areas almost daily. This leads to the loss of civilian lives. You know how many schools and hospitals have been destroyed in Ukraine, including Okhmatdyt, a well-known hospital. In fact, it was destroyed in the center of Kyiv by Russian cruise missile strikes. We have such cases every day. Not only adults but also children are killed. And the latest strikes on Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy – in fact, there is not a single city in Ukraine that has not felt or suffered these losses. This horror of war, wherever you go, we have the results of these strikes, destroyed buildings, schools, and kindergartens.

So for us, first and foremost, it is a fight against the enemy’s missile weapons. Of course, it is the hitting of their warehouses, bases where weapons are stored, where fuel for the army is stored. Of course, this is all their logistics, which ensures the transfer of these weapons to the frontline.

Of course, these are the airfields from which the strike aircraft of the Russian army, their Aerospace Forces, use missile weapons, use their guided aircraft bombs with gliding modules, which they drop to 70 kilometres, even more. And again, they hit schools and populated areas. These are the targets. Of course, we will use [long-range weapons] against this [such targets]. We are not fighting against civilians, we are fighting against the Russian army.

AMANPOUR: You’ve been calling for a long time for fighter jets and F-16s to be able to not only take the fight to the targets, but also to intercept cruise missiles and others. There’s been an F-16 crash. Can you tell us what was the cause of that crash?

SYRSKYI: Firstly, I want to say that our pilots have been trained. They were trained in the educational institutions of our partner countries, and of course, the best pilots were selected who already had experience in effectively using the aircraft that are in service with the Ukrainian armed forces. Of course, they came highly trained, as our partners also confirmed, and received all the approvals to operate these aircraft.

Now a special commission of the Ministry of Defence is conducting an investigation to find out all the facts of the catastrophe, the crash of this aircraft. But before that, I want to say that the pilot who died, he shot down two missiles and he was just attacking, chasing the third cruise missile, using on-board weapons.

I think the results of the investigation will be known to everyone shortly. And on the one hand, we are not going to hide it, but on the other hand, the effectiveness of the use of these aircraft has been proven by the results – the destruction of four cruise missiles by a pair of F-16s, so this will certainly strengthen our defence capabilities, first of all in the fight against enemy cruise missiles.

AMANPOUR: There was word that it could be friendly fire. Do you think it was friendly fire?

SYRSKYI: You know, I can’t comment on something where there is no result yet.

AMANPOUR: Do you have restrictions on how you can use the F-16s that you have? And not many are in combat, right? I mean, one, two. How many are you using right now and do you have restrictions on them?

SYRSKYI: You know, I wouldn’t talk about quantity, I would talk about quality and how we use it. We use this modification of the F-16 as an interceptor and fighter aircraft. It is designed for this purpose and has the appropriate equipment and weapons. We, of course, train our pilots and they train every day, they are preparing to act against various types of enemy air attacks. Therefore, it is during these training sessions it’s been clarified this is its main purpose – to fight against enemy cruise missiles. And, of course, with enemy aircraft, if they can fly over the line of contact.

AMANPOUR: General Syrskyi, you were head of land forces during the initial part of the invasion in 2022. And you were created Hero of Ukraine by the president for successfully repelling the Russian attempt to take Kyiv and you lifted the siege. Do you think there was a moment then, in early April, where the dynamic – well, it did change, but could have changed? Was there a moment that, maybe a missed opportunity to really end this war then?

SYRSKYI: It is difficult to answer this question. It was an opportunity to push back the enemy, an opportunity to break the myth of the Russian army’s invincibility. Despite the fact that there were not many units in Kyiv and the bulk of these troops were consolidated units, these were units created from cadets, from training units, and training centers. It is precisely their competent and thoughtful use, the use of maneuver, the use of maximum artillery capabilities, tank fire capabilities, primarily maneuver and mobile operations, that have shown that even with small forces and the right tactics, victories can and do come, both small and more significant.

And most importantly, you should always look for the centre of gravity, i.e. the weakest point in the [enemy’s] defence. You may recall what one of the Georgian military theorists called the cascading destruction of the enemy’s defences. This is exactly what happened near Kyiv, and it also happened near Kharkiv, when, at what seemed to be the height of the enemy’s offensive, it was hit with a spot attack that caused its defences to crumble, which significantly affected the further course of the war.

AMANPOUR: And finally, after successfully pushing the Russians back from Kyiv, and then there was, you know, the success in Kharkiv, and success in Kherson – since then, it’s been much more difficult and you haven’t done as much as you perhaps were expected to do. What do you expect? How do you expect the war to go for Ukraine over the next six months, for instance?

SYRSKYI: It is difficult to predict for such a long period of time, but of course we plan combat operations, we plan campaigns, we make appropriate calculations of our capabilities, the capabilities of the armed forces, our needs. And of course, we are committed to victory. And the help of our partners, our allies, would help us a lot. It would help us a lot if all restrictions on the use of weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation against military targets – I repeat, not against the civilian population, against military targets – were lifted.

The planned deliveries of weapons and equipment would allow us to bring our new brigades, which have already been formed and are in the process of being formed, into service as soon as possible. Of course, this would have an impact on the overall level of our capabilities.

That’s how I see it. That is, only in the fight can we win. And we are all determined to win. And again, the Kursk operation showed that victory is the incentive that boosts the morale of our military and our entire population. That’s the only way to do it and no other way.

AMANPOUR: General Oleksandr Syrskyi, thank you so much for joining us.

SYRSKYI: I thank you as well, it was a very interesting conversation. Now, if we’re about to finish, then of course I would like to extend words of gratitude to all of our partners for the assistance, for the support, the political, the logistical, the material support that’s provided to us on a daily basis. We clearly understand that we’re not left alone, that only together we can be victorious, and I’m grateful to everyone, because together we’re stronger. [IN ENGLISH] Together we can win.

AMANPOUR: Together we can win. That’s really a good way to end. Thank you so much.

SYRSKYI: [In English] We have to win.

AMANPOUR: You have to win?

SYRSKYI: [In English] Yeah.

AMANPOUR: Thank you, General Syrskyi.

Dima never puts out a cigarette until he smokes it right down to the filter, risking burning his fingers to squeeze out one more drag. He spent years on the Ukrainian front lines. He knows the price of a good smoke.

As a battalion commander, Dima was in charge of around 800 men who fought in some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war – most recently near Pokrovsk, the strategic eastern town that is now on the brink of falling to Russia.

But with most of his troops now dead or severely injured, Dima decided he’d had enough. He quit and took another job with the military – in an office in Kyiv.

Two and half years of Russia’s grinding offensive have decimated many Ukrainian units. Reinforcements are few and far between, leaving some soldiers exhausted and demoralized. The situation is particularly dire among infantry units near Pokrovsk and elsewhere on the eastern front line, where Ukraine is struggling to stop Russia’s creeping advances.

Four of the six, including Dima, have asked for their names to be changed or withheld due to the sensitive nature of the topic and because they are not authorized to speak to the media.

“They go to the positions once and if they survive, they never return. They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army,” he added.

Unlike those who volunteered earlier in the war, many of the new recruits didn’t have a choice in entering the conflict. They were called up after Ukraine’s new mobilization law came into force in the spring and can’t leave legally until after the government introduces demobilization, unless they get special permission to do so.

Yet the discipline problems clearly began way before this. Ukraine went through an extremely difficult patch during last winter and spring. Months of delay in getting US military assistance into the country led to a critical ammunition shortage and a major slump in morale.

“The days are long, they live in a dugout, on duty around the clock and if they can’t shoot, the Russians have an advantage, they hear them advancing and they know that if they had fired it wouldn’t have happened,” said Andryi Horetskyi, a Ukrainian military officer whose unit is now fighting in Chasiv Yar, another eastern frontline hot spot.

As the battlefield situation deteriorated, an increasing number of troops started to give up. In just the first four months of 2024, prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against almost 19,000 soldiers who either abandoned their posts or deserted, according to the Ukrainian parliament. More than a million Ukrainians serve in the country’s defense and security forces, although this number includes everyone, including people working in offices far away from the front lines.

This approach became so common that Ukraine changed the law to decriminalize desertion and absence without leave, if committed for the first time.

Pokrovsk has become the epicenter of the fight for Ukraine’s east. Russian forces have been inching towards the city for months, but their advances have sped up in recent weeks as Ukrainian defenses begin to crumble.

‘Everything feels the same’

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made it clear his goal is to gain control over the entirety of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions and taking over Pokrovsk, an important military and supply hub, would be a major step towards that objective.

It sits on a key road that connects it to other military cities in the area and a railroad that links it with Dnipro. The last major coking coal mine still under Kyiv’s control is also just to the west of the city, supplying coke to make steel – an indispensable wartime resource.

Ukrainian soldiers in the area paint a grim picture of the situation. Kyiv’s forces are clearly outnumbered and outgunned, with some commanders estimating there are 10 Russian soldiers to each Ukrainian.

But they also appear to be struggling with problems of their own making.

There have even been cases of troops not disclosing the full battlefield picture to other units out of fear it would make them look bad, the officer said.

One battalion commander in northern Donetsk said his flank was recently left exposed to Russian attacks after soldiers from neighboring units abandoned their positions without reporting it.

The high number of different units that Kyiv has sent to the eastern front lines has caused communication problems, according to several rank-and-file soldiers who were until recently fighting in Pokrovsk.

One said it was not unheard of to have Ukrainian signal jammers affecting vital coordination and drone launches because units from different brigades didn’t communicate properly.

Kyiv launched its surprise incursion into Kursk last month, taking Moscow by surprise and quickly advancing some 30 kilometers (19 miles) into Russian territory.

Ukraine’s leaders, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, said one of the goals of the operation was to prevent further attacks on northern Ukraine, while also showing Kyiv’s Western allies that, with the right support, the Ukrainian military can fight back and eventually win the war.

The operation also gave a major boost to an exhausted nation. Ukraine has been on the backfoot for most of the past year, enduring relentless attacks, blackouts and heartbreaking losses.

But the sappers were not too sure about the strategy. Having just finished a long mission over the border, they were slumped around a table outside a closed restaurant near the frontier, waiting for their car to turn up.

Chain smoking and trying to stay awake, they questioned why they were sent to Kursk when the eastern front line is in disarray.

All four have been fighting for more than two-and-half years and theirs is a tough job. As sappers, they spend days on the front lines, clearing mine fields, preparing defenses and conducting controlled explosions. They can find themselves under attack, ahead of even the first line of infantry, dragging around some 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of kit and four anti-tank mines, each weighing about 10 kilograms (22 pounds).

“It depends on each commander. Some units receive rotations and have time off, while others are just fighting non-stop, the whole system is not very fair,” one of the soldiers said. Asked if the advances in Kursk gave them the same boost as the rest of the nation, they remained skeptical.

‘Rotten approach’

“The Kursk operation… significantly improved the morale of not only the military but the entire Ukrainian population,” he said.

He said he had been going to the front lines regularly to meet with the soldiers there and do what he could to make them feel better. “We understand each other no matter who I am talking to, whether it is an ordinary soldier, a rifleman, for example, or a brigade commander or a battalion commander… I know all the problems that our servicemen, soldiers, and officers experience. The front line is my life,” he said.

And Horetskyi – an officer specially trained to provide moral and psychological support to troops – is part of the plan to boost morale.

“They have this idea that I’m a shrink that will make them take thousands of tests and then tell them they are sick, so I try to break down the barriers,” he said, adding that little distractions can prevent a downward spiral.

In the monotony of war, any break from the routine can help, he said. This can include a wash in a real shower, a haircut or going for a swim in a lake. “It’s such a little thing, but it gets them out of the routine for half a day, it makes them happy, and they can return to their positions a bit more relaxed,”  Horetskyi explained.

Even officers with many years of experience are finding the situation in the east difficult.

Some, like Dima, are transferring to posts away from the front lines. He said his decision to leave the battlefield was mostly down to disagreements with a new commander.

The ranks of Dima’s battalion grew thinner and thinner, until the unit disappeared.

They never received enough reinforcements, Dima says, something he blames squarely on the government and its reluctance to recruit more people.

The battalion suffered painful losses in the past year, fighting on multiple front lines before being sent to Pokrovsk without any rest. Dima saw so many of his men killed and wounded, he became numb.

“I’ve now made the decision that I will stop getting attached to people emotionally. It’s a rotten approach, but it’s the most sensible one,” he said.

Everyone thought he was the professor. But the gray-haired older man was a freshman medical student, just like the rest of the class.

“My family and friends were surprised at first. Several of my friends thought I was crazy wanting to study medicine at this age,” Toh Hong Keng, a retired Malaysian executive, said over a coffee in Hong Kong, where he has been living for decades.

This July, at 70, Toh became one of the world’s oldest students to graduate from medical school.

“It wasn’t always easy,” said the freshly minted medical graduate of the Southwestern University PHINMA in Cebu, Philippines. “At 65 to 70 years old, my memory, eyesight, hearing and body are not as good as when I was younger.”

Toh spent most of his life working in tech sales. But, for him, retirement didn’t bring long lunches and games of golf. Instead, each day for five years, he immersed himself in anatomy textbooks, aided by flashcards, reading glasses and large mugs of coffee.

Even for someone with multiple degrees, the material wasn’t easy. He was held back a year after failing a pediatrics exam in his third year. And in his final year, he was required to complete a one-year placement at private and public hospitals, with some shifts lasting a grueling 30 hours.

“Actually, why do I have to do this? Maybe I should give up,” Toh recalled saying to himself many times during those years.

His family constantly checked on him, helping to dispel many waves of doubt. And his classmates, many decades younger than him, would remind him that giving up would be a waste.

But Toh said one word became his mantra, keeping him going.

“Sayang” — a phrase in the Tagalog language meaning it would be a shame not to see it through. “Sir Toh,” his classmates would affectionately tell him, “If you give up now, it will be sayang.”

During five years of intensive study, Toh never asked for any special consideration and had “a very strong resolve” to persevere, said Dr Marvi Dulnuan-Niog, dean of the medical school. “Mr Toh is already an accomplished businessman and professional, yet he is still very open to new things. He was very passionate and persevering.”

Too old?

Toh said he never had grand ambitions as a child to become a doctor. The idea came up when he met two young Indian medical students during a vacation in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan in 2018.

That encounter over lunch sparked an idea that he might one day be able to pursue a medical degree.

“The only reason why I decided to study medicine was because I wanted something useful to do,” he said. “I’ve done different courses. I’ve done economics, I’ve done chemistry, I’ve done electronic engineering – but I don’t want to do that again.”

To Toh, medicine meant taking an entirely different direction.

“If I can’t be a practicing doctor, at least I can look after myself somewhat,” he said.

After signing off from his last day in the corporate world in 2019, Toh spent weeks studying for entrance exams and applied to nearly a dozen universities across Asia.

“If I can’t be a practicing doctor, at least I can look after myself somewhat”

Toh Hong Keng

But he struggled to find a program without an age limit on applicants. Most were capped from 35 to 40.

Feeling a little dejected, he got in touch with his family’s former domestic worker whose daughter recently graduated from medical school in the Philippines.

After a few more exams and interviews, Toh eventually landed an offer at Southwestern University in Cebu. A week later, in 2019 he packed his bags, found a small apartment on the island and started his medical school journey.

He completed his first year in Cebu, which included a course with clinical labs and hands-on learning. But when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, he moved backed to Hong Kong and took all of his lectures online.

The average age of first-year medical students in the United States is 24, and most students are 28 years old when they graduate, according to data from the American Medical Association. It can take at least 10 years more to become a fully licensed and practicing physician with residency experience.

Dr Atomic Leow Chuan Tse obtained his medical degree in 2015 from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Romania when he was 66, according to Singapore’s Book of Records. The following year, he passed a licensing exam which allows him to practice medicine in Europe.

While its unclear whether Toh is the oldest person to ever complete a medical degree, there are many examples of doctors still practicing well into their later years.

That includes Dr Howard Tucker of Cleveland, Ohio, who was born on 10 July 1922. He was recognized in 2021 by Guinness World Records as the oldest practicing doctor. Dr. Tucker just celebrated his 102 birthday and is still teaching neurology.

‘A better life’

A self-described provincial kid, Toh grew up on his family’s rubber plantation in Malaysia. As a teen, he and his siblings would wake up at 4 a.m. to tap rubber from the trees before heading to school.

“In those days we didn’t have much idea about what our dreams are. We just hoped that we can have a better life.”

He worked hard on the farm and even harder on his studies, which landed him an offer to study chemistry and control engineering at the University of Bradford in Britain between 1974 and 1978. He supported himself working part time as a waiter, mainly taking shifts during summer breaks.

He moved to London to do a master’s degree. To cover his student loans, he worked as a garbage collector alongside his studies. He didn’t mind the stench or grueling hours, as Toh said: “It paid good money.”

Armed with an unshakeable work ethic, he had no problems landing a job back home in Malaysia and jetting around Asia on different stints before settling in Hong Kong, where he and his wife raised three children.

“If you have a dream to be a medical doctor, you can still do it at any age.”

Toh Hong Keng

But even after five years of intense study, Toh is not convinced he’ll take the extra steps needed to become a practicing doctor. That would require a year-long internship and more study for a medical board exam.

Instead, he plans to work as a consultant for a friend’s company dealing with allergy and immunology diagnostics in Hong Kong.

Toh’s years of study may be over, but they’ve inspired another challenge — to create a scholarship fund for medical students who struggle to pay for degrees as foreign students.

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the average tuition fee per year costs around $60,000 for in-state students at public medical schools and $95,000 for out-of-state students in the US. Private medical schools have an average tuition and fees cost upwards of $70,000. As for international students, the figures are much higher.

Tuition fees were nowhere as high in the Philippines. It cost about $4,000 to 5,000 per year at Southwestern University for Toh, which he said was still very expensive for prospective students from developing countries across Asia.

But for anyone with enough energy to follow Toh’s path, he has this advice: “If you have a dream to be a medical doctor, you can still do it at any age.”

“Studying medicine is intensive and extensive, but it’s not that hard, it’s just hard work.”

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has fired Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida following reports he engaged in sexual misconduct.

“The president considers keeping the minister in his position to be unsustainable considering the nature of the accusations,” the presidential palace said in a statement Friday evening. Almeida has denied any wrongdoing.

Local media outlets reported Thursday night that MeToo Brasil, an organization that defends women victims of sexual violence, had received complaints of sexual misconduct by Almeida. The organization confirmed that in a subsequent statement.

The minister for racial equality Anielle Franco – who the press named as one of the alleged victims – saluted Lula’s decision.

“Recognizing the seriousness of this practice and acting immediately is the right course of action, which is why I would like to highlight President Lula’s forceful action and thank him for all the expressions of support and solidarity,” Franco said in a statement on Instagram late on Friday.

She also shot back at attempts to “blame, disqualify, embarrass or pressure victims to speak out in moments of pain and vulnerability,” adding a request that her space and right to privacy be respected. Franco is the sister of slain councilwoman Marielle Franco.

Lula previously said on social media Friday that the public prosecutors’ office, comptroller general and the presidency’s ethics commission would investigate, while guaranteeing Almeida’s right to a defense.

In a statement on Friday, Almeida said he had asked Lula to dismiss him “in order to grant freedom and impartiality to the investigations, which must be carried out with the necessary rigor.”

Almeida said in a statement last night that he repudiates “with absolute vehemence the lies” claimed about his behavior, and denounced a “campaign to tarnish my image as a Black man in a prominent position in government.” He also warned that false accusations are a crime.

Brazil’s first lady Rosângela da Silva — known as Janja — is a prominent voice for the defense of women’s rights, and on Thursday posted a picture on her Instagram account of her kissing Franco on the forehead, in a sign of support.

“As often happens in cases of sexual violence involving aggressors in positions of power, these victims faced difficulties in obtaining institutional support to validate their complaints,” MeToo Brasil said in a statement Thursday. “As a result, they allowed the case to be confirmed to the press.”

Friday afternoon, Isabel Rodrigues, a professor and a city council candidate in a municipality of Sao Paulo state, posted a video Friday on Instagram with the aim of adding her testimonial to those of the yet-unnamed women. She said Almeida sexually assaulted her in 2019, putting his hand up her skirt and touching her private parts without her consent.

“It was horrible what Silvio did. My therapist knows. My friends know. I was Silvio’s victim. I am a voice for these women. For justice and for the truth,” she said.

Supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began flooding Sao Paulo’s main boulevard for an Independence Day rally Saturday, buoyed by the government’s blocking of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform, a ban they say is proof of their political persecution.

A few thousand demonstrators, clad in the yellow-and-green colors of Brazil’s flag, poured onto Av. Paulista. References to the ban on X and images of Musk abounded.

“Thank you for defending our freedom,” read one banner praising the tech entrepreneur.

Saturday’s march is a test of Bolsonaro’s capacity to mobilize turnout ahead of the October municipal elections, even though Brazil’s electoral court has barred him from running for office until 2030. It’s also something of a referendum on X, whose suspension has raised eyebrows even among some of Bolsonaro’s opponents all the while stoking the flames of Brazil’s deep-seated political polarization.

“A country without liberty can’t celebrate anything this day,” Bolsonaro wrote on his Instagram account Sept 4., urging Brazilians to stay away from official independence day parades and instead join him in Sao Paulo.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X’s nationwide ban on Aug. 30 after months of feuding with Musk over the limits of free speech. The powerful judge has spearheaded efforts to ban far-right users from spreading misinformation on social media, and he ramped up his clampdown after die-hard Bolsonaro supporters ransacked Congress and the presidential palace on Jan. 8, 2023, in an attempt to overturn Bolsonaro’s defeat in the presidential election.

The ban is red meat to Bolsonaro’s allies, who have accused the judiciary and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government of colluding to silence their movement.

“Elon Musk has been a warrior for freedom of speech,” staunch Bolsonaro ally and lawmaker Bia Kicis said in an interview. “The right is being oppressed, massacred, because the left doesn’t want the right to exist.”

“Our liberties are in danger, we need to make our voices heard. De Moraes is a tyrant, he should be impeached, and people on the streets is the only thing that will convince politicians to do it,” added retiree Amaro Santos as he walked down the thoroughfare Saturday,

Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” has also urged Brazilians to turn out in droves for the rally, resharing someone else’s post claiming that X’s ban had awakened people “to the fact that freedom isn’t free and needs to be fought for.” He’s also created an X account, named for the controversial jurist, to publish sealed court orders directing X to shut down accounts deemed unlawful.

But De Moraes’ decision to ban X was far from arbitrary, having been upheld by fellow Supreme Court justices. And while expression, online and elsewhere, is more easily censored under Brazil’s laws than it is in the US, Musk has emerged as both a cause célèbre and a mouthpiece for unrestricted free speech.

Since 2019, X has shut down 226 accounts of far-right activities accused of undermining Brazil’s democracy, including those of lawmakers affiliated with Bolsonaro’s party, according to court records.

But when it refused to take action on some accounts, de Moraes warned last month that its legal representative could be arrested, prompting X to disband its local office. The US-based company refused to name a new representative — as required in order to receive court notices — and de Moraes ordered its nationwide suspension until it did so.

A Supreme Court panel unanimously upheld de Moraes’ decision to block X days later, undermining Musk’s efforts to cast him as an authoritarian bent on censoring political speech.

The more controversial component of his ruling was the levy of a whopping $9,000 daily fine for regular Brazilians using virtual private networks (VPNs) to access X.

“Some of these measures that have been adopted by the Supreme Court appear to be quite onerous and abusive,” said Andrei Roman, CEO of Brazil-based pollster Atlas Intel.

In the lead-up to Saturday’s protest, some right-wing politicians defied de Moraes’ ban and brazenly used a VPN to publish posts on X, calling for people to partake in the protests.

The march in Sao Paulo is organized in parallel to official events to celebrate Brazil’s anniversary of independence from Portugal. Commemorations have been fraught with tension in recent years, as Bolsonaro used them while in office to rally supporters and show political strength.

Three years ago, he threatened to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis when he declared he would no longer abide de Moraes’ rulings. He has since toned down the attacks — a reflection of his own delicate legal situation.

Bolsonaro has been indicted twice since his term ended in 2022, most recently for alleged money laundering in connection with undeclared diamonds from Saudi Arabia. De Moraes is overseeing an investigation into the Jan. 8 riot, including whether Bolsonaro had a role in inciting it.

Three people have been killed and two wounded in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, authorities in the country said Saturday.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public health said three emergency workers were killed in the attack as they tried to contain a fire in the town of Froun, Nabatieh district. It said the attack was the second time an ambulance team had been targeted within 12 hours and was a violation of international law.

However, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the strike had “eliminated terrorists” from the Amal movement, a Hezbollah-allied Shia group. The Amal movement released a statement saying two of its members had been killed “while performing their humanitarian and national duty in defense of Lebanon and the South.”

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati characterized the strike as “a blatant violation of international laws and a blatant aggression against human values,” and called on Western ambassadors and other international representatives to attend an emergency meeting at his headquarters in Beirut on Monday.

He said the meeting aimed to demand accountability and “pressure the Israeli enemy that does not care about any law and continues to ignite the fire of its crimes against Lebanon and the Lebanese.”

Cross-border fire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has been an almost daily occurrence since the war in Gaza began.

Hezbollah said Saturday it had responded to the strike on Froun by launching “a squadron of suicide drones” on a newly established IDF headquarters in Ayelet, northern Israel, and a “salvo of Al-Falaq missiles” at the Kiryat Shmona settlement. The IDF said it had identified several UAVs crossing from Lebanese territory, but that no injuries had been reported.

Lebanon’s Civil Defense director Brigadier General Raymond Khattar extended his “deepest condolences” to the families of those affected.

He also wished a “speedy recovery” to one of the injured men, whom the Civil Defense identified as Mohammad Amasha. The injured man had been “transferred to Tebnin Governmental Hospital, where he is undergoing surgery due to a serious injury he sustained as a result of the raid,” the Civil Defense said.

This is a developing story. More to come.

Massive train disruptions in Germany left hundreds of passengers stranded on Saturday, as authorities worked to restore traffic following a technical malfunction. Some traffic has since resumed.

Train services in central Germany have been “massively affected” due to a technical fault, the German rail company Deutsche Bahn said.

There were widespread train cancellations in the greater Frankfurt area due to a radio communications failure, public broadcaster ARD’s news service Tagesschau reported.

Trains traveling to or departing from Frankfurt were affected, and traffic through the major travel and financial hub was halted, according to Tagesschau.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at Frankfurt’s Central Station on Saturday, without knowing when they could resume their journeys, Tagesschau reported.

One of the biggest transport associations in Germany, the Rhine/Main Regional Transport Association, or RMV, said in a post on social media on Saturday that due to a technical fault in radio communications, “train services in the RMV area have been suspended until further notice” and that neither S-Bahn trains nor regional trains could run.

“The duration of the disruption cannot currently be foreseen,” RMV said at the time.

It remains unclear what caused the technical fault.

Later on Saturday, Deutsche Bahn said the technical problem had been resolved. “Rail traffic in central Germany is starting up again. There may be disruptions until the end of the day,” it said.

Frankfurt is one of the most important European transport hubs with around 1,200 local and long-distance trains in regular service every day, according to Tagesschau.

Pope Francis emphasized the importance of a Catholic Church serving marginalized communities as he concluded his first full day in Papua New Guinea on Saturday, as part of a lengthy Asia tour.

Speaking to church leaders in the capital, Port Moresby, he told them to focus on the “peripheries of this country” and those in the most deprived urban areas.

He insisted the church was committed to helping those who are wounded “morally and physically” due to “prejudice and superstition.” According to rights group Human Rights Watch, Papua New Guinea is one of the most dangerous places in the world for women or girls, due to high rates of sexual violence.

Francis delivered his remarks at the Shrine of Mary Help of Christians church, where the Catholic community undertakes various charitable and educational works.

Beforehand he had visited the Caritas Technical Secondary School, a school for underprivileged girls, and those from the “street ministry” and “Callan services,” which work with the poorest and those with disabilities.

His decision to visit the school — which provides educational opportunities for girls — was significant given the discrimination and violence women suffer in Papua New Guinea. At the shrine, Francis also heard remarks from two women involved in church ministry.

The pope also spoke off-the-cuff during his talk, insisting twice that bishops and priests in Papua New Guinea follow the “style of God,” which is “closeness, tenderness and compassion.”

At the end, he greeted the crowd outside the church and, speaking in English, thanked them for their patience before offering them a blessing. He also joked with them to “pray for me, and not against me.”

Francis seemed in good spirits and everywhere he went was given a traditional welcome by groups from across Papua New Guinea in colourful tribal dress, singing and dancing.

The 87-year-old is currently on the longest trip of his pontificate – a marathon 12-day visit of four countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, which also includes East Timor and Singapore.