In one of Gaza’s last standing hospitals, Tamara Al-Maarouf’s eyes well up with tears as she stands helplessly by her baby boy’s hospital bed. A tumor, now removed, has been compressing the 4-month-old’s tiny heart and he desperately needs treatment abroad.

Meanwhile, 84-year-old Oded Lifschitz, who was kidnapped from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7 last year by Hamas militants, is still being held hostage in the enclave. His family is still desperately trying to bring him home.

The stories of two lives, those of a Palestinian infant and an elderly Israeli man, tell the tragic tale of the countless innocent lives trapped in a war they did not choose. Their fates are now tied up in politics and negotiations that have all but failed.

The baby, Jihad, can barely breathe or feed. His mother, Tamara, struggles to find ways to comfort him as he cries and wriggles around, with tubes sticking out of his mouth and nose.

Like thousands of other patients in Gaza, he is in urgent need of foreign medical treatment, but these evacuations have all but ceased since May, when Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing.

Israeli authorities have only allowed a fraction of the estimated 12,000 Palestinians awaiting transfer – many of whom are children – to leave Gaza for treatment.

More than a year of devastating Israeli strikes and the accompanying siege of the enclave have decimated the health sector, leaving medical workers with very little with which to save lives. Hospitals are not only overwhelmed with those injured in the conflict, but they’re now dealing with preventable diseases that are spreading at an alarming rate.

In August, an 11-month-old boy became the first person in Gaza in 25 years to be diagnosed with polio after Israel’s military campaign destroyed water and sanitation systems, leading to a resurgence of the deadly disease.

In September, the World Health Organization administered the first of two doses of the polio vaccine to more than half a million children aged below 10 in Gaza, with the second round of the emergency vaccination drive now under way, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF. The UN said it cancelled vaccinations at one school being used as a displacement shelter after it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike.

And there are many like Jihad who are suffering from serious conditions, chronic illnesses and cancer who cannot be appropriately treated in Gaza.

Her parents were longtime advocates for peace. In recent years, the elderly couple were part of a volunteer group of Israelis who would drive Gazans from the border to hospitals in East Jerusalem and the West Bank for treatment. Her father, Oded Lifschitz, kept his driving license so he could continue these missions, she said.

On the morning of October 7 last year, Oded and Yocheved were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, the site of one of the worst massacres of the Hamas attack on that day.

Yocheved, now 86, was abducted while still in her nightgown, thrown onto the back of a motorbike and taken to Gaza. At the end of October, she was released by Hamas on humanitarian grounds.

The last time Yocheved saw her husband of more than 60 years was last October 7. He was lying on the ground injured, after he was shot in the hand by the militants who stormed their home.

It is that kindness and generosity, as well as his ability to speak Arabic, that the family hopes will have helped a frail, elderly man with medical conditions survive in captivity.

They have now been waiting for his return for over a year. In May, Oded turned 84 in Hamas captivity.

Lifschitz wears a dog tag around her neck with a photo of her father and “84” engraved on it, along with the message, “Waiting for you at home.”

“Hamas took elderly, elderly people; they did not need them, and they could have returned them without a deal,” Lifschitz said. “There is no deal needed to return an 84-year-old man. There is no deal needed to return a 1-year-old baby. The fact that Hamas is using them to reach a deal is horrific.”

But Lifshitz, like many Israelis, still believes the only way out of this nightmare is a deal between Israel and Hamas that would stop the war and secure the release of the hostages.

She fears they are losing what feels like a race against time to bring them home alive.

“We are so exhausted and so heartbroken again and again,” Sharone said. “We are not giving up. We do not have the luxury of giving up.”

Hopes for a ceasefire deal and hostage release deal have been shattered repeatedly by failing negotiations. Both Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for derailing the efforts, leaving mediators from the United States, Qatar and Egypt scrambling to save talks that have stalled for months.

Hanging in the balance are the lives of more than 100 Israeli hostages and Gaza’s population of 2.2 million, all trapped in a besieged enclave that has become a “hell on Earth,” according to aid agencies which have been pleading for a ceasefire to save lives.

Those who survive Israel’s bombardment, which has killed more than 42,000 people, according to Palestinian authorities, face what Gaza residents like al-Maarouf describe as a slow death under siege, with conditions growing more catastrophic by the day.

Lifschitz said she thinks the mediators could do more to get a deal done. She wants Egypt and Qatar to put more pressure on Hamas but, for her, it is US President Joe Biden who could make this deal happen.

“I believe it is President Biden at this very moment that must do what it takes to bring them back home… I believe he is our best hope,” she said.

Lifschitz refuses to compare her own government’s position to that of a militant group like Hamas, but said: “Anybody who is interested in history sees people that are caught in the tide of time and political and military fanatical regimes that are putting their own agenda above human lives… Both nations are incredibly unlucky in the leaders that are guiding them at the moment.

For Israelis like Lifschitz, the race to save the lives of their loved ones took a more urgent turn in early September after the Israeli military retrieved the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had been “brutally” murdered “a short while” before Israeli troops were able to reach them. Hamas, meanwhile, issued a chilling threat that more hostages would return in coffins if Israeli forces tried to rescue them.

These were young people who had every chance of survival, and they survived for almost a year,” said an emotional Lifschitz. “It is a failure; we have failed them.”

The families of hostages fear for the safety of their loved ones, not only in relation to their captors, but also Israeli military operations, not least the relentless bombardment that has flattened much of Gaza.

Last month, the IDF confirmed that three hostages whose bodies were recovered in December were “most likely” killed in an Israeli strike. The military had previously admitted mistakenly shooting and killing three other hostages last year and said it was investigating the circumstances of the deaths of six hostages whose bodies were recovered in June.

While prospects of an agreement appear bleak, Lifschitz said she would not stop fighting for the release of her father and the other hostages.

Asked what she would tell her father if he could hear her, Lifschitz said, choking back tears: “Forgive us. Forgive us. We have tried so hard. And know that we hear your voice in our heads… You know, we tried the way he tried all his life. He tried for many years to avert this disaster.

“I hear him now saying, ‘work for peace, work for the possibility of humans in this region to live together,’” she added.

The spluttering roar of a propeller punctuates the perfect silence. Car headlights flick on, splitting the darkness. Their beams reveal not just a section of tarmac ahead, but one of Ukraine’s most top-secret weapons, controlled by its most clandestine agency.

Stuck to the nose of the gray machine is a yellow emblem of an owl, wings spread and grasping a sword – the unmistakable logo of Ukraine’s defense intelligence, the GUR.

Two pilots sporting the same owl patches on their fatigues make their final checks inside the car before a thumbs up: “Let’s go!”

A high-speed, 50-second chase ensues, before the 13-foot long, 23-foot wingspan AN-196 Liutyi drone disappears in an instant into the inky-black Ukrainian night.

The drone’s destination is a target deep inside Russian territory.

Only two people were authorized to speak on the record, and then only using their callsigns: Serge, the long-range drone operations commander of GUR, and Vector, unit commander. Serge said he had personally overseen more than 500 long-range drone attacks into Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Their target: an ammunition facility, specifically train carriages sitting inside the depot loaded with recently delivered Iranian missiles, according to the Ukrainians.

The facility sits on the outskirts of the tiny village of Kotluban, in the Volgograd region of southwestern Russia.

Long-range drone attacks have become an increasingly prominent part of the Russia-Ukraine war. As the land war has become more attritional, the air war has gathered speed, with the major development being in drone warfare.

In September, the unit’s drones hit a Russian ammunition depot between Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Tver region. The attack on Toropets, the Ukrainians claimed, resulted in the destruction of a depot storing Iskander tactical missiles, as well as aerial glide bombs and artillery munition. The strike caused massive explosions, visible for miles.

And in July the Ukrainians say they hit an oil refinery on Russia’s Black Sea coast, causing a major fire there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned, however, that Moscow would consider any assault on it supported by a nuclear power to be a joint attack, singling out a mass launching of drones as one potential example.

Vector said many of Russia’s airfields, the origin-point of many of the air raids it conducts against Ukraine, are out of range. His drones, while highly effective, are not always that efficient – swarms of them are required to ensure their targets are hit. “Of course, we can send the UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and we destroyed many places. But it’s not enough,” Vector says.

“We’re not asking only about the permission to send the missiles anywhere in Russia, we speak about the weapons which can help us to move this war from our territory,” Vector adds.

Inside the mission

Serge and Vector have been leading their unit’s attempts to hurt Putin at home.

Regardless of targets, their missions follow a rigid set of operating procedures that include meetings at various locations across Ukraine.

In an underground office with dark brown, seemingly never-ending Soviet corridors, Serge sits across from Vector in a white-walled room. No pictures hang on the wall, even the whiteboard remains blank. The meeting is to the point.

“There will be about 12 drones,” Serge says to Vector, who has a map in front of him detailing the target and range of the Russian air defense and electronic warfare systems.  They then agree the target approach time of around 3 am and the launch intervals for the drones.

Vector scribbles two notes before standing abruptly and saying, “Everything is clear. Ready to complete the task.”

As dusk draws in, the convoy pulls into a compound, articulated lorries lined up. A tiny room with a desk and two sets of bunk beds serves as the only light source for miles around.

Men dressed in black, balaclavas over their faces, wait to hear their orders. Vector delivers a short brief, adding that this mission will also involve other units. He orders his men to start preparing the routes and hands over a small USB key containing the information for the mission ahead.

“Any questions?” he asks. “None? Okay. Let’s get working.”

He points to the quality of Russia’s air defenses, especially over the past 12 months. “We’re successful guys and we find the windows,” he says, but it’s a challenge.

Each drone will be programmed with more than 1,000 different waypoints, to evade Russia’s comprehensive air defense systems. There is tacit acceptance from Vector that some of this resembles a video game.

“It looks like we play with them,” Vector says jokingly, “but it’s not a game. It’s a war.”

Serge adds that not all men in his unit are career soldiers like him. He has served more than 20 years in the Ukrainian army and began flying drone missions in 2014 as Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions split away from Kyiv.

Decoy machines

In a warehouse, a Liutyi drone, produced predominantly in Ukraine, wingless for the time being, stands surrounded by green camouflage-painted crates containing multiple Rubaka kamikaze drones.

Vector explains that these smaller drones are crucial to the success of any mission. The aim is simple: to overwhelm the air defenses and draw Russian fire away from the Liutyi, which often carries a payload as great as 250 kilograms (550 pounds).

“They’re very simple, and we can use them with and without payloads,” he says of the smaller drones.

Cracking open one of the crates, he pulls out one of the decoy machines. Strips of metal foil have been added to the wings to fool Russian radar.

“We try to mix them, and we try to send them from different distances, different launch places… they try to destroy them. They send helicopters and missiles, they turn on the radio electronic warfare,” Vector explains.

Their targets are only military targets, Vector states. “Russia came inside our country. They destroyed a lot of electricity, a lot of houses, cities, villages.” But, he adds, “not all of them are stupid, and when they understand that war can come to them like they come to us, they will change something in their country. They will change the politics.”

One of the many articulated lorries has backed up for loading. In near darkness, drone bodies, followed by wings, are loaded three per truck by men whose faces are totally covered by balaclavas, and strapped down, ready to be taken to their launch sites.

Across other parts of Ukraine roughly 80 other GUR operatives are preparing 90 other drones, not all the Liutyi, for flight.

Some 30% of all the drones being launched will be on decoy missions, Serge says. The drones have been programmed to fly anywhere between 450 and 550 miles, with the Liutyis being the spearhead, destined for the small town-turned-ammunition hub of Kotluban.

The men load the warheads carefully into the bodies of the drones. Each compartment is then sealed with the squeal of a drill.

Serge and Vector, now in full combat uniform, observe the final preparations. This launch is one of the largest Serge has ever conducted, he says.

“Maybe (the Russian people) don’t understand what’s going on in Ukraine, but when these UAVs arrive, they understand clearly what we have been living (with) for the past 10 years,” Vector chimes in.

Tracking the drones’ flight

In total darkness, the drones are pushed into position. The car with the pilots moves in behind. The propeller spurts into life and the pilots ensuring a smooth takeoff begin their high-speed chase down the tarmac. Once airborne the fully autonomous drone starts ticking off the myriad waypoints.

Vector hurtles after the drone before slamming on the brakes and proclaiming “perfect.” He turns the car around and blasts a patriotic song from his radio.

Back at the planning base, the hours tick by and Vector, Serge and others keep tabs on the drones via trackers.

The success of the mission is monitored in three ways, they say: through human intelligence on the ground, the messages seen on Russian Telegram groups and, later, analysis using satellite technology. Only once all three have been assessed can a mission be deemed a success or not.

As the 3 am arrival window nears, Serge starts reading out messages he is seeing from Telegram channels across Russia. The widespread nature of this attack starts to become clearer. Various cities in southern Russia – Voronezh, Yesk, Rostov and Volgograd – all start reporting drones arriving in their airspace.

One video from Voronezh shows one of the decoy drones whizzing overhead. An audio clip of a woman in clear distress at what is happening above her head leaves Vector laughing.

Through these Telegram channels, he says, “we understand that we are having some success.”

Initial satellite imagery of the ammunition depot in Kotluban shows scorched fields, a result of burning grass, but seemingly little evidence of major explosions within – apparent signs of a near miss.

The video, sped up, shows 11 explosions all occurring in a 56-minute timeframe between 2:22 and 3:18 am – exactly the period during which the drones arriving from Ukraine were expected to land.

The image shows a number of objects scattered around the building and a building badly damaged.

The mission to destroy Iranian-delivered missiles was a total success, the Ukrainians insist.

Chinese and Russian defense officials vowed to strengthen their cooperation during meetings in Beijing this week – in the latest sign of deepening alignment between the neighbors that’s been closely watched by the US and its allies.

The two countries have “common views, a common assessment of the situation, and a common understanding of what we need to do together,” defense chief Andrey Belousov told Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, according to Russian state media Tass.

Their task is to “strengthen and develop” their strategic partnership, the Russian defense chief added.

The visit has been cited by Russian state media as Belousov’s first to China since his appointment in May and comes days ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Russia.

Russia and China have been bolstering their security coordination in the face of shared frictions with the West. That’s included ramping up joint military drills in recent months – part of what experts say is an effort to signal to Washington that, while the two are not allies, neither stands alone.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Zhang repeated rhetoric voiced by Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for the two militaries to “deepen and expand military-to-military relations, safeguard their respective national sovereignty, security and development interests, and jointly safeguard international and regional peace and stability,” according to a readout from China’s Defense Ministry.

Belousov also held talks a day earlier with Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun, who ranks below Zhang in China’s military hierarchy.

The Russian defense chief’s trip comes ahead of an expected visit by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to Kazan, Russia next week for a summit of BRICS, an economic grouping Moscow and Beijing see as their answer to the US-backed Group of Seven (G7).

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not confirmed Xi’s travel plans, but the Kremlin last month quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi as confirming the leader’s attendance. The trip would be Xi’s second to Russia since Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the fifth face-to-face with Putin in the same period.

Regular high-level diplomacy and increased security coordination between China and Russia have come under close scrutiny from the US and its allies, who have accused Beijing of enabling Russia’s war through the provision of dual-use goods like machine tools and microelectronics.

Joint patrols

Beijing has defended what it calls its “normal trade” with Russia and claims neutrality in the conflict. The two countries reached record levels of trade last year as China emerged as a key economic lifeline for Russia, which is strapped by war-related international sanctions.

In recent weeks, Chinese and Russian coast guards conducted what Beijing described as their first joint patrol in the Arctic Ocean, while their navies separately practiced anti-submarine warfare in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, Russian state media said.

The patrol followed a raft of joint exercises over the summer, including near Alaska – where US and Canadian forces intercepted Russian and Chinese bombers together for the first time – and in the South China Sea, a vital waterway claimed almost entirely by Beijing in which geopolitical tensions are rapidly rising.

Belousov’s arrival in Beijing Monday coincided with China’s military flying a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around Taiwan during large-scale military drills.

China said the drills were intended as a “stern warning” to what it described as pro-independence forces in Taiwan. The drills came days after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, gave a speech vowing to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of challenges from Beijing, which claims the self-ruling democracy as its own.

Twin bomb threats hit Indian airliners on opposite sides of the globe on Tuesday, forcing an emergency landing in the Arctic and fighter jets to scramble in Asia – the latest in a series of similar hoax scares for the country’s airlines.

Indian airlines have faced “a number of threats in recent days,” all of which have been found to be hoaxes, flag carrier Air India said in a statement Tuesday, as authorities in New Delhi and around the world investigate the string of false bomb warnings.

On Tuesday, an Air India flight from New Delhi to Chicago made an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Canada’s northernmost city. All 211 passengers and crew were relocated to the airport, Canadian police said.

Air India flight 127 was the “subject of a security threat posted online” and diverted “as a precautionary measure,” the airline said.

In a separate incident Tuesday, Singapore scrambled two Air Force F-15 fighter jets to escort an Air India Express passenger plane away from populated areas before landing at the city state’s Changi Airport, the Singaporean defense minister said on social platform X.

Flight AXB684 was enroute to Singapore from the southern Indian city of Madurai when the airline received an email that there was a bomb onboard, minister Ng Eng Hen said.

The threat prompted Singapore to activate its ground-based air defense systems and explosive ordnance disposal, and the plane was handed to airport police upon arrival, Ng said, adding that investigations are ongoing.

Multiple flights by Indian carriers have been delayed or diverted due to false bomb threats since Monday. They include domestic flights on low-cost airlines as well as international flights. The threats have appeared to come from emails or social media posts.

Low-cost carrier SpiceJet also said it received a bomb threat to a flight to Mumbai from the northern city of Darbhanga on Tuesday.

“The aircraft landed safely at Mumbai Airport and was directed to an isolation bay as a precautionary measure,” SpiceJet said in a statement, adding that after security checks the flight was cleared for further operations.

Though it remains unclear whether the threats are connected, or what the motive may be, Air India said they could not be dismissed.

“As a responsible airline operator all threats are taken seriously,” the airline said, adding it was working with authorities to ensure the perpetrators are “held accountable for the disruption and inconvenience caused to passengers.”

The Air India emergency landing in Canada comes as tensions rise between the two countries after Canada expelled six Indian diplomats, including the high commissioner, on Monday.

Canada has accused agents of the Indian government of being linked to homicides, harassment and other “acts of violence” against Sikh separatists in the country. India called the accusations “preposterous” and in turn expelled six Canadian diplomats.

While there is no indication that the bomb hoaxes are linked to the diplomatic spat, threats to Air India flights in Canada have revived painful memories of the 1985 bombing of Air India flight 182 by Sikh extremists, the worst terrorist attack in Canada’s history. The flight from Montreal to New Delhi exploded off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, including more than 250 Canadians.

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As a child growing up in northern Nigeria, Dr. Funmi Adewara experienced a severe hand injury that required multiple surgeries and frequent hospital visits.

These visits exposed her to the harsh realities of the country’s healthcare system. “I remember sitting in overcrowded waiting rooms, watching doctors stretched thin, unable to meet the needs of so many patients,” Adewara recalls.

This formative experience ignited her passion for transforming healthcare in Africa.

Growing up with a mother who worked as a nurse, Adewara’s understanding of healthcare challenges deepened through her mother’s stories.

“I knew early on that healthcare wasn’t a privilege — it was a necessity, and I wanted to be part of changing the system,” she explains.

After training as a physician, Adewara worked for 15 years in the UK’s National Health Service before founding the telemedicine platform Mobihealth in 2017.

Since its launch, Mobihealth has impacted thousands of lives, connecting patients with doctors and healthcare professionals across Nigeria and beyond.

The platform has 20 integrated telehealth clinics that offer remote consultations, diagnostics, and access to specialist care via digital health tools. Located primarily in Nigeria, these clinics are accessible to patients through various subscription plans, and are often financed through partnerships with global donor organizations and private donors.

In addition to the clinics, Mobihealth has partnerships with over 200 hospitals, labs, and pharmacies, Adewara says.

The company has earned global recognition, including a $1 million grant from the US Trade and Development Agency in 2022. Adewara was also one of the World Bank’s seven 2020 SDGs & Her award winners, selected from over 2,400 entries worldwide.

Connecting rural patients

Across sub-Saharan Africa, millions struggle to access basic healthcare. According to the World Health Organization, the region bears 25% of the global disease burden but has only 3% of the world’s healthcare workers.

“In rural Africa, a trip to the nearest hospital can mean the difference between life and death,” says Adewara.

Mobihealth’s latest initiative offers healthcare for $1 a month for rural and underserved populations. It allows Africans in the diaspora — and global supporters — to sponsor essential services like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and access to telemedicine clinics. The scheme is not solely based on donations; individuals can also subscribe to the service for themselves.

“Healthcare systems across Africa are under immense pressure,” Adewara explains. “Our initiative is a direct response, using technology to connect rural patients with doctors thousands of miles away.”

For Adewara, Mobihealth’s telemedicine platform is not a temporary fix; it represents the future of healthcare in Africa.

“This is about creating a resilient, sustainable and inclusive system, where people, no matter where they are, can access the care they need,” she says.

“Telemedicine brings doctors to people, wherever they may be. By integrating AI and remote monitoring, we are improving the speed and accuracy of care, saving lives in the process,” she adds.

A number of African companies provide telemedicine services, but researchers have pointed out that there are obstacles that could hinder the growth of telemedicine in the continent. Rural areas can have an unreliable electricity supply and poor internet connectivity, and there is often a lack of government policies and funding around virtual healthcare.

“A healthcare system for the future”

Adewara envisions scaling her company’s model to reach millions more across Africa, particularly in countries like Ghana, Kenya and Ivory Coast.

“Our work is just beginning,” she says. “We are building a healthcare system for the future — one that is resilient, inclusive and capable of meeting Africa’s growing population’s needs.”

However, partnerships are crucial to achieving this vision. “We can’t do this alone. Our collaborations with the African diaspora, hospitals, governments, and international organizations allow us to reach more people and ensure that healthcare is affordable, efficient and accessible,” Adewara adds.

A Russian man has been rescued after 67 days adrift on a small boat in the bitterly cold Sea of Okhotsk, Russian authorities said Tuesday.

The man’s brother and his teenage son died in the ordeal, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti, who named the survivor as 46-year-old Mikhail Pichugin.

Video of the rescue released by Russian prosecutors shows a bearded man in an orange lifejacket floating on a small catamaran-type vessel with a red flag raised on a pole, as emergency responders work to reach him.

The Sea of Okhotsk is mostly enclosed by Russia’s eastern Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula. It usually freezes over between October and March, and it ranks as the coldest sea in East Asia.

Two adult men and the 15-year-old son of one of them set off on the catamaran on August 9, prosecutors said.

“After some time, contact with them was lost, their location remained unknown,” a spokesperson for Russia’s far eastern transport prosecutor’s office, Elena Krasnoyarova, said.

“On October 14, around 22:00 the catamaran was spotted by a fishing boat passing in the Sea of Okhotsk near the Ust-Khayryuzovo settlement in the Kamchatka region,” she added.

Prosecutors said they are still working to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident and investigating charges of water traffic safety violations, resulting in the death of two or more people through negligence.

The rescued man’s wife told Russian state media that his weight could have played a role in his survival, given he weighed about 220lbs (100 kg). She told RIA that Pichugin and his late brother and nephew had enough food to last for about two weeks.

Pichugin will be taken to a hospital for medical treatment in the town of Magadan, in Russia’s far east, RIA reported.

He is “in serious condition, emaciated, but conscious,” the director of the fishing company that stumbled upon the adrift boat told RIA.

North Korea blew up parts of two major roads connected to the southern part of the peninsula on Tuesday, South Korean authorities said, after Pyongyang warned it would take steps to completely cut off its territory from the South.

Parts of the Gyeongui line on the West coast and Donghae line on the East coast, two major road and railway links connecting the North and South, were destroyed by explosives at around 12 p.m. Korean local time, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

In practical terms, the destruction of the travel routes makes little difference – the two Koreas remain divided by one of the world’s most heavily fortified borders and the roads were not in use for years. But its symbolism comes at a time of particularly fiery rhetoric between the two Korean leaders.

Video shared by the South Korean Defense Ministry showed several explosions on roads on the north side of the military demarcation line that separates two Koreas. Heavy machinery including trucks and excavators were then deployed to at least one of the roads, which was partially blocked by a black barrier, according to the video. The JCS said the North was conducting “additional works with heavy machinery” at the scene, but didn’t specify further.

In response to the explosions, the South Korean military fired artillery within the area south of the military demarcation line and is closely monitoring the North Korean military’s movements, maintaining “fully readiness posture under cooperation with the US,” the JCS said.

On Monday, South Korea said it had detected signs that North Korea was preparing to demolish roads that connect the two countries, warning that the explosions could occur imminently. Its military had implemented countermeasures, the Defense Ministry said, but did not provide specifics.

A spokesman for the JCS, Lee Sung-joon, said the South Korean military detected people working behind barriers installed on the roads on the North’s side of the border.

The blasts come a few days after North Korea accused South Korea of flying propaganda-filled drones over its capital Pyongyang and threatened “retaliation,” in the latest tit-for-tat exchange following months of Pyongyang sending trash-laden balloons to the South.

Last week, North Korea’s army warned that it would take the “substantial military step” of completely cutting off its territory from South Korea, after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification with the South earlier this year.

North and South Korea have been separated since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice agreement. The two sides are still technically at war, but both governments had long sought the goal of one day reunifying.

In January, Kim said North Korea would no longer seek reconciliation and reunification with South Korea, calling inter-Korean relations “a relationship between two hostile countries and two belligerents at war,” KCNA reported at the time.

An ‘acute military situation’

In a statement carried by state-run news agency KCNA on October 9, the general staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) declared that remaining roads and railways connected to the South would be completely cut, blocking access along the border.

“The acute military situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula requires the armed forces of the DPRK to take a more resolute and stronger measure in order to more creditably defend the national security,” he said in the KCNA notice that referred to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The general staff said the measures were a response to recent “war exercises” held in South Korea and visits by what it claims were US strategic nuclear assets in the region. Over the past year, a US aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships, long-range bombers and submarines have visited South Korea, drawing angry rebukes from Pyongyang.

Since January, Pyongyang has fortified its border defenses, laying land mines, building anti-tank traps and removing railway infrastructure, according to the South Korean military.

The North and South Korean leaders have also ramped up the use of fiery rhetoric.

Earlier this month, Kim threatened to use nuclear weapons to destroy South Korea if attacked, after South Korea’s president warned that if the North used nuclear weapons it would “face the end of its regime.”

The comments came as North Korea appears to have intensified its nuclear production efforts and strengthened ties with Russia, deepening widespread concern in the West over the isolated nation’s direction.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, suggests North Korea’s move to cut its territory off from the South could be a way for Kim to “shift blame for its economic failures and legitimize its costly buildup of missiles and nuclear weapons” by exaggerating external threats.

“Kim Jong Un wants domestic and international audiences to believe he is acting out of military strength, but he may actually be motivated by political weakness,” he said. “North Korea’s threats, both real and rhetorical, reflect the regime survival strategy of a hereditary dictatorship.”

She appeared to be a beautiful woman and in the minds of men across Asia, the video calls they spoke on confirmed their newfound love was real.

But Hong Kong police say the men had fallen prey to a romance scam that used deepfake artificial intelligence to lure its victims into parting with more than $46 million.

In a news conference Monday, police in the Asian financial hub announced the arrests of more than two dozen members of the alleged scam ring, which they say targeted men from Taiwan to Singapore and as far away as India.

Police said the 21 men and six women were held on charges including conspiracy to defraud following a raid on the gang’s alleged operating center at a 4,000-square-foot industrial unit in the city’s Hung Hom district.

Aged 21 to 34, the suspects were mostly well-educated, with many of them digital media and technology graduates allegedly recruited by the gang after attending local universities, police said. The suspects allegedly worked with IT specialists overseas to build a fake cryptocurrency platform, where the victims were coerced to make investments, police added.

Deepfakes are comprised of realistic fake video, audio and other content created with the help of AI. The technology is being increasingly adopted by a variety of bad actors, from people wishing to spread convincing disinformation to online scammers.

“Pig-butchering” scams – named for the “fattening up” of victims before taking everything they have – are a multibillion-dollar illicit industry in which the con artists take on false online identities and spend months grooming their targets to get them to invest on bogus crypto sites. Deepfakes are one more weapon in their arsenal to try and convince unsuspecting marks to part with money.

Typically run by Chinese gangs out of Southeast Asia, it is unclear how widespread the crime is in Hong Kong, a wealthy city where police have long campaigned to raise awareness of telephone scams following several high-profile cases in which the victims –often elderly people – reported staggeringly high losses.

But increasingly realistic deepfake technology has raised the stakes and put authorities on high alert.

Earlier this year, a British multinational design and engineering company in Hong Kong lost $25 million to fraudsters after an employee was duped by scammers using deepfake tech to pose as its chief financial officer and other staff.

According to Hong Kong police, the romance gang’s deepfake scam typically began with a text message, in which the sender – posing as an attractive woman – said they had mistakenly added the wrong number.

The alleged scammers then struck up online romances with their victims, fostering a sense of intimacy until they began planning a future together.

The group was highly organized, divided into departments responsible for different stages of the scam, police said. They even used a training manual to teach members how to carry out the con by taking advantage of “the victim’s sincerity and emotion,” said police, who posted parts of the manual on Facebook.

Among the steps: learning about the victim’s worldview to create a “tailor-made” persona; inventing difficulties such as failed relationships or businesses to “deepen the other person’s trust”; and finally, painting a “beautiful vision” including travel plans together to push the victim into investing.

The scam ran for about a year before police received intelligence about it around August, police said. More than 100 cell phones, the equivalent of nearly $26,000 in cash and a number of luxury watches were recovered in the raid, police said.

China flew a record number of fighter jets and other warplanes around Taiwan during its large-scale military drills on Monday, the island’s Defense Ministry said.

The one-day military exercises, which involved Chinese fighter jets, drones, warships and Coast Guard vessels simulating a blockade of the self-governing island, was condemned by Taiwan as an “unreasonable provocation” and is the latest in a series of recent war games conducted by Beijing against its neighbor.

According to the ministry, 153 Chinese aircraft were detected around Taiwan in a 25-hour period between Monday and Tuesday.

Of those, 111 warplanes crossed the Median Line – an informal demarcation point in the Taiwan Strait that Beijing does not recognize, but until recent years had largely respected – and entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

An ADIZ is unilaterally imposed and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined under international law as extending 12 nautical miles from a territory’s shoreline. No Chinese warplanes were spotted entering Taiwan’s sovereign airspace, a step that would be considered a major escalation.

While not directly comparable, the spike in Chinese warplanes on Monday superseded the previous daily record in September 2023, when 103 Chinese military aircraft were detected operating around Taiwan in a 24-hour span.

In response to the latest incursions, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it employed its own aircraft, navy vessels and coastal missile systems to monitor the activity.

China said its military drills were intended as a “stern waning” to independence forces in Taiwan and came days after the island’s new president, Lai Ching-te, gave a speech vowing to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of challenges from Beijing.

Taiwan “is not subordinate” to China, Lai said on Taiwan’s National Day Thursday, and Beijing “does not have the right to represent Taiwan.”

China’s military exercises around Taiwan, a democracy of 24 million people, have become increasingly frequent in recent years and have tended to coincide with events that have angered Beijing.

Those drills allow China to monitor Taiwan’s responses and also tax the island’s own military resources including its aging and outgunned fleet of fighter jets.

Analysts said Monday’s drills were part of a general strategy of both keeping Taiwan under pressure and normalizing regular war games.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it. It has long vowed that the island must be “unified” with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary, while the Taiwanese authorities strongly reject China’s territorial claims over it. Many people on the island view themselves as distinctly Taiwanese.

The People’s Liberation Army said the drills were a joint operation of the army, navy, air force and rocket force, and were conducted in the Taiwan Strait – a narrow body of water separating the island from mainland China – as well as encircling Taiwan.

A map released by the Eastern Theater Command showed drills taking place in nine areas surrounding Taiwan as well as its outlying islands that are closer to mainland China.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry added that 14 warships were detected around Taiwan over the same 25-hour period. Among them was the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, which moved into a location to the east of the island.

During the military exercise, none of China’s naval vessels successfully entered Taiwan’s contiguous zone, which is defined under international law as extending 24 nautical miles from a territory’s shoreline, the ministry said in a press conference on Monday evening.

Analysts, however, said the drills were “highly dangerous,” and because they are “approaching, closer and closer,” will “leave us [with] a very short response time.”

The Chinese military said it kicked off the Joint Sword 2024-B drills at 5 a.m. local time Monday. By 6 p.m. an updated statement announced that it had “successfully” completed the exercises.

According to a flight map provided by Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, Chinese jets were detected around the island after China’s announcement that it had wrapped up its war games.