Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz raised eyebrows on Friday when he said Israel would expect international partners such as the United Kingdom and France to join Israel in responding to a potential strike from Iran, “not only in defense, but also in attacking significant targets in Iran.”

Katz made the claim during a meeting to discuss “preventing regional escalation and promoting a hostage deal,” with his British and Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem, according to a readout from the Israeli foreign office.

Both France and the UK, however, have downplayed such a prospect, with the UK emphasizing the need to break the “current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence” in the Middle East.

French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné told a press conference in Jerusalem that it would be “inappropriate” to speak of “a retaliation or preparation for an Israeli retaliation” whilst diplomatic talks are underway.

Katz’s declaration comes amid heightened fears of a reprisal attack from Iran, following the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death but Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility.

When asked about Katz’s statement, a UK foreign office spokesperson stressed that the UK is “working in lockstep with our allies to deescalate tensions,” adding that they “urge all parties to refrain from perpetuating the current destructive cycle of retaliatory violence.”

“We call on Iran and its allies to refrain from attacks that would further escalate regional tensions and jeopardise the opportunity to agree a ceasefire and the release of hostages. No country or nation stands to gain from a further escalation in the Middle East,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, a senior United States administration official struck a harsher tone, warning on Friday there could be “cataclysmic” consequences and “particularly for Iran” if Tehran decides to strike Israel and escalate the conflict in the Middle East.

The official added that the US has encouraged Iran, through intermediaries, to not attack as there is a “path” to achieve a ceasefire and hostage deal on the table. The de-escalation and potential for a ceasefire deal are “separate,” the official said, but they are happening in “parallel.”

“We have deployed the military resources to the region that are needed for every possible contingency, and we’re working in very close coordination with partners and allies,” the official added.

“We are ready for any possible contingency, and we’re going to help defend Israel, and not going to get ahead of anything else that. I just say this, this attack from Iran has been predicted now, I think every day over the last two and a half weeks. So you know, let’s see. I’ll just say we are prepared,” they added.

Bodies decomposing in the street. Bullet-marked civilian cars lining the road. Half of Lenin’s face blown away from the statue on the square. Streets littered with shrapnel. Locals huddling in a bomb shelter.

The smell of death, in buildings torn open.

It is a scene achingly familiar to Ukraine, yet until now alien to Russia. But the border town of Sudzha was assaulted by Ukraine eleven days ago and claimed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday as under their control. When Russian President Vladimir Putin began his war of choice two years ago, Russia did not expect to get invaded back.

The turnoff into Sudzha was marked with a huge Orthodox Christian cross, upon which was written “God save and protect us.” Yards away lay the wreckage of two tanks and other armor from the intense fighting days earlier.

The town’s streets were mostly vacant, yet echoed with the storm raging around them. Small arms fire and outgoing artillery broke the silence, but at a distance.

Our Ukrainian escort said the Russian attack drones that had blighted Ukraine’s progress on the front lines in the past months were simply too busy at the frontline battles to harass Kyiv’s forces at the border and in Sudzha. Their conspicuous absence, and that of Russian air power, suggested a possible improvement in Ukraine’s capabilities for this surprise assault. The ubiquity of Western-supplied armored vehicles on the roads into Russia showed Ukraine was throwing resources it had long claimed it lacked into this fight.

Sudzha was not completely deserted. At one large building, outside the basement entrance, a large cardboard hand-written sign announced, “Here are peaceful people in the basement, no military.” Inna, 68, sat outside. There were 60 other civilians downstairs, she said.

“They brought a lot of boxes, their food,” she said of the Ukrainian forces.

In the basement was a scene we have witnessed in dozens of Ukrainian towns over the past two years, and still as saddening in Russia.

At the entrance to the shelter was Stanislav, who stroked his gray beard when asked how life was. “See, this is not life. It is existing. It is not life.”

In the dark, subterranean dank were the infirm, isolated, and confused. One elderly woman, still in her wig and bright red summer dress, rocked slightly as she intoned: “And now I don’t know how it will end. At least a truce so we can live peacefully. We don’t need anything. It’s my crutch, I can’t walk. It’s very hard.” Flies buzzed around her face, in humid gloom.

In the next room, the light flickered on a family of six. The man said, “A week. No news. We don’t know what’s happening around us.” His son sat silent next to him, his white face stony.

At the end of the corridor, talking to one of our Ukrainian escorts was Yefimov, who said he was in his 90s. His daughter, niece and grandchildren are married to Ukrainian men and live in Ukraine, yet he cannot reach them.

“To Ukraine,” he said, when asked where he wanted to flee. “You are the first to mention it. People talked about it but you are the first to come.” The idea of evacuation would be arduous for many here in peacetime.

On the street outside is Nina, 74, searching for her medication. The shops are shredded and pharmacies closed. She insists she does not want to leave, with the same passionate defense of her right to live where she always has as so many Ukrainian women of her age, in similar scarred towns.

“If I wanted to I would. Why would I leave where I lived 50 years? My daughter and mother are in the graveyard and my son was born (here), my grandkids…  I live on my land. I don’t know where I live. I don’t know whose land this is, I don’t understand anything.”

It is unclear how and where this fast, successful and surprise assault ends, or when Russian forces arrive. Yet they will be too late to reverse another dent in Russia’s pride since it began an invasion meant to take only a matter of days in February 2022.

International mediators are making an urgent push for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal next week after high-stakes negotiations in Qatar saw them put a fresh proposal to the warring parties.

The “bridging proposal” presented on Friday was intended to close the remaining gaps of disagreement between both sides, a joint statement from the US, Qatar and Egypt said.

US President Joe Biden expressed optimism about the state of ceasefire and hostage release talks that are expected to resume in Cairo next week. “We are closer than we’ve ever been,” he said, adding that the talks had brought the chances of a deal “much, much closer than it was three days ago.”

The two days of discussions took place amid tensions across the region about a potential Iranian attack against Israel, which carries the risk of scuppering already fragile negotiations.

The statement said the proposal “builds on the areas of agreement over the past week,” and “bridges remaining gaps in a manner that allows for a swift implementation of the deal.”

Senior officials from the US, Qatar and Egypt will meet again in Cairo before the end of next week, “with the aim to “conclude the deal under the terms put forward” Friday, the statement said.

The talks were “serious and constructive,” the statement added, though it did not elaborate on what points of agreement were achieved over the past week.

The death toll in Gaza since Israel launched its war against Hamas reached 40,000 people earlier this week, a bleak figure that underscores the desperation in the enclave for a reprieve from ten months of bloody conflict.

But discussions to bring about a pause have been shrouded in uncertainty since Israeli strikes in late July killed Hamas’ former political leader and senior figures in Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Hamas reiterated on Thursday its stance that there will be no hostage deal or ceasefire agreement without a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

“Any agreement must achieve a comprehensive ceasefire, a complete withdrawal from Gaza, the return of displaced persons, reconstruction, in addition to a prisoner exchange deal,” Hussam Badran, a member of Hamas Political Bureau, said in a statement on Thursday.

Mediators in talks for a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel are making a last-ditch effort this week to revive stalled negotiations, with high-stakes discussions continuing Friday against a backdrop of tension and desperation in the region.

The meeting in Doha started on Thursday and is taking place as the Middle East braces for a possible Iranian attack on Israel, and after the death toll since October in Gaza reached 40,000 people, a bleak figure that underscores 10 months of suffering, malnutrition and despair in the enclave.

The fear of an Iranian attack poses a further serious threat to negotiations that have already appeared tenuous in recent weeks, after a string of Israeli strikes took out Hamas’ former political leader and senior figures in Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

In the meeting, Qatar, Egypt and the United States are expected to present a plan to implement a deal that could bring about a ceasefire in the war in Gaza and free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The deal was proposed by US President Joe Biden in May – but unresolved differences have left the path forward unclear.

Here’s what we know about the status of the talks so far.

What has happened in the talks?

While inconclusive so far, Thursday’s talks marked “a promising start,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said as they got underway in Doha.

On Thursday, the militant group reiterated that there will be no hostage deal or ceasefire agreement without a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Al Thani, a key mediator in the talks, has updated the Iranian foreign minister Ali Bagheri Kani on the ongoing mediation efforts, according to a statement by the Qatari foreign ministry on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said during a Thursday speech to Turkey’s parliament that he would visit Gaza soon, in an effort to help bring about a pause to the “barbaric aggression.”

What is Biden’s proposal?

In May, Biden laid out a three-phase proposal the administration said was submitted by Israel that would pair a release of hostages from Gaza with a “full and complete ceasefire” and a release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The first phase would last six weeks and include the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza” and the “release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners” and the implementation of a temporary truce.

Phase 2 would allow for the “exchange for the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers” and a permanent end to the fighting.

In Phase 3, a “major reconstruction plan for Gaza would commence and any final remains of hostages who’ve been killed will be returned to their families,” the US president said.

Israel launched its war against Hamas after the group’s cross-border October 7 attacks, in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. More than 100 of those hostages remain in Gaza, their families back home pleading for a breakthrough to secure their safe return. It is unclear how many of the original hostages set for release are still alive.

Hamas and Israel have been engaged in tedious negotiations for months. Officials from Qatar and Egypt act as intermediaries, delivering messages to Israeli and Hamas representatives in shuttle-style diplomacy since representatives from the warring parties are not present at the same location. Technical teams have flown in and out of Doha and Cairo to iron out details for a potential agreement.

What are the key remaining sticking points?

Despite an initial positive reaction from Hamas and Israel, both sides failed to agree on the implementation of the finer details of the proposal including the sequencing of the hostage-prisoner exchange, the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released and how far back Israeli forces should withdraw in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of undermining the deal as far-right members of his ruling coalition threaten to collapse the government despite pressure from the US and families of hostages.

Throughout the war, the prime minister has been caught between two potent political forces: the far-right members of his governing coalition who have been opposed to any suggestion that Israeli troops should leave Gaza, and the relatives of hostages held by Hamas, who have formed a powerful pressure group and have implored Netanyahu to reach a deal.

Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday rejected claims that the prime minister had changed positions, saying his most recent stance “does not introduce extra conditions and certainly does not contradict or undermine” the May proposal. Netanyahu’s office instead accused Hamas of adding unrealistic demands to its position.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

What is Hamas’ position on Thursday’s talks?

US officials had said that talks had reached an advanced stage until Hamas’ political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, was killed in Tehran in late July in an assassination Iran blamed on Israel. Israel hasn’t confirmed or denied responsibility, but Iran has vowed vengeance.

There were concerns that the assassination would throw a wrench in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The militant group replaced Haniyeh with Yahya Sinwar, the hardline Hamas leader in Gaza who is one of Israel’s most wanted men. While Haniyeh, a relative moderate, lived in Qatar and was susceptible to pressure from his host country, Sinwar is believed to be deep underground in a tunnel in Gaza and is hard to reach.

Hamas on Thursday denied it was having difficulty communicating with its leader Sinwar, after one of its top officials Osama Hamdan reportedly acknowledged in an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday that there are “some difficulties” and delays in communicating with him.

Hamas hasn’t ruled out an agreement with Israel, but said that it won’t engage in further negotiations. It instead asked mediators for a plan to implement a ceasefire proposal put forward by Biden.

Asked why Hamas has been unclear about whether it will attend the ceasefire talks, the source said: “This ambiguity is the movement’s position, which was announced in its latest statement, is intentional and did not come by chance. It comes as a result of Netanyahu’s behavior.”

Why are this week’s talks so important?

This latest round of ceasefire talks were the result of a major diplomatic effort by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the US to push for a last-ditch effort to end the war and free the hostages as Iran prepares to attack Israel.

The urgency of the talks was highlighted by the three mediators, who issued a rare joint statement last week calling on the warring parties to return to negotiations and offered what they called a “final bridge proposal” to overcome the remaining sticking points. The details of that proposal have not been made public.

In parallel, US and Middle East diplomats have been mobilizing to dissuade Iran from launching an attack on Israel that could lead to a wider regional war. Both Iran and the US have said that that lines of communication between them are open through intermediaries.

There have been some indications that Iran may abandon plans to attack Israel if a ceasefire deal is reached. But the country’s mission to the United Nations said on Saturday that Tehran’s retaliation is “totally unrelated to the Gaza ceasefire.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, US officials didn’t believe that Iran has decided on a course of retaliatory action against Israel, according to two US administration officials. Furious diplomatic backchannel efforts are ongoing to try to deter a wide-scale attack and de-escalate the volatile situation, one of those officials said.

The second official added that the Biden administration does believe that the US’s public warnings in recent days have affected Iran’s calculus.

The conversation between Al Thani and Kani was “positive,” a diplomat familiar with the call said.

Biden acknowledged the challenges facing a ceasefire deal Tuesday, telling reporters traveling with him to New Orleans he’s “concerned” about negotiations between the two parties amid the looming threat of an attack on Israel from Iran.

The president rebuffed questions on what he’s doing to pressure Israel and Hamas to come to the bargaining table for proposed ceasefire deal talks Thursday, telling reporters, “If I told you what pressure that I’m putting on it, it wouldn’t be very much pressure would it?”

The lack of clarity on whether the Israeli prime minister will adhere to Biden’s May proposal, the source added, suggests time is running out to strike a deal before an Iranian attack. Qatar and Egypt, the source said, may not have enough influence to push Hamas to compromise.

This story has been updated.

Every Saturday, at a church in Gothenburg, Sweden, hundreds of people of all ages and backgrounds gather. There are more than 20 languages spoken among them, and they come not to worship, but to play music.

As they chat and tune their instruments, a smiling man sweeps in and the energy level rises. He greets everyone, steps onto the podium, and raises his baton. On his command, music fills the room.

It’s an ensemble known as the Dream Orchestra – the vision of Ron Davis Alvarez, an accomplished violinist, conductor, and teacher. Since 2016, his free program has given hundreds of refugees, immigrants, vulnerable young people, and native Swedes the chance to learn an instrument, connect with others, and enrich their lives.

To Alvarez, 38, the work is about far more than music.

“An orchestra, it’s like a community – different people, different voices, different melodies. Everybody (has) their own role and they all connect to each other,” he said. “Imagine if the world worked more like an orchestra. We would have a better world for sure.”

New life through music

Alvarez grew up in the favelas of Caracas, Venezuela – dangerous slums plagued by drugs and violence. To help his family make ends meet, in grade school he started selling ice cream alongside his grandmother at her home. Across the street was a chapter of El Sistema, a globally acclaimed program that provides free classical music training to children from under-resourced communities. Seeing students carrying their instruments interested him; then, he heard the music.

“You always (could) hear one of the students playing the violin (from) the balcony,” he said. “I said, ‘I want to play that. … That instrument has a voice.’”

At 10, he joined the group, and the experience changed his life.

“I fell in love with music from my first class,” he said. “For me, to play the violin – it’s electricity.”

He also appreciated the school’s inclusive philosophy.

“It (didn’t) matter if I was the guy who was selling ice cream in front of the school or I was the son or the daughter of the mayor,” he said. “Everyone was important in the classroom.”

By 14, he was teaching classes; by 16, he was conducting. His love of music kept him focused on his goals and out of trouble.

Eventually, Alvarez studied conducting at university and later worked for El Sistema to help spread the group’s innovative teaching methods worldwide – even near the Arctic Circle, where he started Greenland’s first youth orchestra. It was this work that led him to first visit Sweden in 2015.

Seeking light in the darkness

Alvarez was in Stockholm just as unprecedented numbers of refugees were arriving in the country, most from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was stunned by the crowds he saw in the city’s central train station.

“For me, it was a shocking moment. They were, like, completely lost,” he said. “I was just thinking, ‘What are they gonna do?’ Everything was really dark. And I see in their eyes they were looking for light.”

He knew he could help. The following year, he was hired by El Sistema Sweden and moved to Gothenburg where in his free time he offered a music group for refugees. He started with 13 students. Most had no background in music and didn’t speak English – nor Alvarez’s native Spanish – but he loaned them instruments and began teaching them. He knew playing music together would help them make friends, express themselves, and rebuild their self-esteem. He named the group the Dream Orchestra to emphasize their potential.

“For me, that’s what a music education is about,” he said. “It’s about giving you new opportunities (for) learning about life, about challenges, about dreaming, about … connecting you to your soul.”

Eight years later, the program has more than 300 members, from 3 to 56 years old, of more than 25 nationalities, Alvarez said. While many are immigrants and refugees, the group also includes many second-generation immigrants as well as native Swedes, including some who are nonbinary or trans. Connecting people of different backgrounds is central to Alvarez’s mission.

“You cannot have an orchestra only for refugees because that’s segregation. You really need to include people from Sweden … We all need to learn from each other,” he said. “We are an orchestra for everyone.”

The group now offers weekly large ensemble rehearsals, as well as beginner classes at three different locations around Gothenburg. Alvarez teaches in English, but since it’s not spoken by everyone, he also communicates using numbers, colors, games and movement.

“Some of the kids, I know that they don’t understand what I say. But they do understand what I show,” he said. “It’s an orchestra where the main language is music.”

Alvarez also realizes that it can be scary to try something new, especially for those who are adjusting to life in a new country. His upbeat attitude helps encourage everyone to take risks.

“Something that I believe that you need to learn (in) music is to believe in yourself,” he said. “To believe in yourself and to develop through music, you have to make mistakes. Mistakes … make you strong.”

Most rehearsals include people of varying levels of experience, so Alvarez encourages everyone to help each other.

“Tolerance, respect, compassion. All of that is what we learn when we play an instrument,” he said. “For us, it’s one goal … to care about the others.”

Connecting beyond the music

Community is an essential part of what Alvarez is trying to create, especially for those who have recently arrived in Sweden and have no social network. While playing together helps students bond, the Swedish tradition of “fika” – basically, a coffee break – also plays a crucial role.

“It’s a moment where we socialize, so that also helps us to connect with everyone in the orchestra,” he said. “It’s a very important part of what we do. … We are a family.”

Alvarez strives to build an appreciation for different cultures by having students learn a wide range of works from around the world, including from many of their homelands. He also teaches Swedish compositions so students can learn about their new home.

“The best way to learn the culture of people is through music,” he said. “Everyone is bringing a bag with so much experience from their own country … bringing stuff to share, but also to learn.”

When students struggle to make ends meet or with immigration issues, they often turn to Alvarez and other members of the orchestra for help. Alvarez and some members of his group help with housing, food, and connection to outside resources and support. This isn’t a formal part of Dream Orchestra’s work, just a result of the friendships formed.

“When someone comes and says, ‘I have this problem,’ then we all have the problem,” Alvarez said.

For many members, Dream Orchestra truly is a family and home where they can learn, grow, connect, and find comfort.

One of those members is Olga Hushchyna. After fleeing Ukraine, she was excited to have her 8-year old son, Andrii, join the Dream Orchestra and was thrilled to realize she could also join and learn the violin. She says the group has helped rebuild their lives through friendship and music.

“After having such great stress, this makes us alive once again. We really heal and receive medicine (from) this,” she said. “Life is not stopped. Life is going on.”

Mushtaq Hansson-Khorsand arrived from Afghanistan without any family when he was just 16. As a fan of hip hop, he had no interest in joining Alvarez’s group, but when he saw how happy the musicians were, he changed his mind. Now 25, he still comes to play the flute every week and says that Dream Orchestra is where he feels most at home.

“You are welcome, who you are, no matter where you came from,” he said. “That’s why you feel safe. You can be yourself.”

Hansson-Khorsand says he couldn’t have adjusted to life in Sweden without the financial and emotional support he received from the group. Today, he’s married with a young son and has a job helping refugees find work. Alvarez is helping him prepare to study music at university.

“Right now, my only goal is to teach music to other people – teach them what I have learned, “he said. “We are going to change the world with music. … That’s what I learned from Ron.”

Alvarez wants others to replicate his work. He’s supported programs at refugee camps in the West Bank and Greece and is working to do the same in Ukraine. Ultimately, his hope is for groups like Dream Orchestra to help people overcome hardships and find joy in life and connection with others.

“This orchestra offers more than just notes. This orchestra offers something for your soul,” he said. “Music connects us. Dream Orchestra, it’s a dream, but it’s a dream (that’s) come true.”

Want to get involved? Check out the Dream Orchestra website and see how to help.

To donate to Dream Orchestra via GoFundMe, click here

Thailand’s parliament voted on Friday for Paetongtarn Shinawatra to be the country’s next prime minister, thrusting another member of the kingdom’s most famed and divisive political dynasty into the top job.

The vote came two days after Thailand’s Constitutional Court removed former Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office, in a surprise decision that plunged the kingdom into further political uncertainty and raised fresh concern over the erosion of democratic rights.

Paetongtarn, 37, won 319 votes in the House of Representatives, after being nominated as the sole candidate by her Pheu Thai party’s ruling coalition to replace Srettha. She still needs to be endorsed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn before she can officially take office and appoint a Cabinet.

Paetongtarn will be Thailand’s second female prime minister, after her aunt Yingluck Shinawatra – and the youngest to hold the position.

A political newcomer, Paetongtarn was one of three prime ministerial candidates for Pheu Thai ahead of national elections in May last year and made international headlines when she gave birth just two weeks before the vote.

Her appointment adds another twist to a years-long saga that has shaken up Thailand’s already-turbulent political landscape.

Paetongtarn is the youngest daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup. Thaksin is one of Thailand’s most influential figures, whose economic and populist policies enabled him to build up a political machine that has dominated Thai politics for the past two decades.

Challenges ahead

Srettha’s dismissal on Wednesday was the latest blow to the Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai, which has frequently run afoul of Thailand’s conservative establishment – a small but powerful clique of military, royalist and business elites.

Political parties allied to Thaksin have struggled to hold on to power, having been forced out due to coups or court decisions.

Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck was removed from office before the military seized power in a 2014 coup, and her father Thaksin went into self-imposed exile in 2006 for more than 15 years to escape corruption charges after the military toppled his government.

Thaksin, a telecoms billionaire and former owner of Manchester City Football Club, returned to Thailand from exile in August last year.

He has retained an outsized grip on Thai politics and many saw him as continuing to influence the Pheu Thai party – firstly through his sister Yingluck and now through his daughter.

Thaksin’s dramatic return coincided with the Senate’s vote to appoint Srettha as the country’s 30th prime minister. Experts believe Thaksin struck a deal with the Thai establishment for his return and Srettha’s appointment, a claim he denies.

In a stunning about-face to win that vote, Pheu Thai joined with its former military rivals and became head of a multi-party governing coalition. The progressive Move Forward Party, which pulled off a stunning election victory last year with its hugely popular reform agenda, was prevented from forming a government and forced into opposition.

Last week, the Constitutional Court accused Move Forward of “undermining the monarchy” and ordered it to be disbanded, in a blow to the vibrant progressive movement and effectively disenfranchising 14 million people.

The former members have since reconstituted the party under a new name.

On Wednesday, the same court ruled Srettha breached ethics rules set in the constitution by appointing a lawyer – and Thaksin aide – who had served prison time to the Cabinet.

The two decisions were widely seen by observers as judicial overreach that sent a chilling message to those pushing for meaningful reform.

“In light of recent rulings, Thailand should be seen as semi-autocratic at best because people’s votes practically don’t matter.  The conservative establishment has the power to veto and manipulate to get preferred outcomes,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a big promise when he launched his war on Ukraine: conscripts would not be involved in combat. But as Moscow struggles to contain Ukrainian advances deeper into its territory, families of young soldiers deployed in the area are raising the alarm about their loved ones.

Messages shared in Russian Telegram channels and other social media over the past few days have revealed how unprepared Moscow was for this kind of attack, including the fact that its military had left poorly trained conscripts in charge of defending the border with Ukraine – the country Russia has been waging war on for more than 10 years.

“When the border was attacked at 3 a.m. by tanks, there were only conscripts defending themselves,” said one such message shared on Telegram by a woman who said she was a mother of a conscript soldier in Kursk, the border region that Ukrainian troops crossed into last week.

“They didn’t see a single soldier, not a single contract soldier — they didn’t see anyone at all. My son called later and said, ‘Mom, we’re in shock;,” the woman, identified only as Olga, said.

The deployment of conscripts is a thorny issue in Russia. That’s partly because of Putin’s repeated promises that they would not be sent to fight, but also due to fact that the mothers and wives of soldiers have traditionally been an influential voice inside the country where dissent is now almost nonexistent – and many are expressing their anger.

The independent Russian news outlet Verstka published an interview with Natalia Appel, the grandmother of one Russian conscript who was serving in Kursk and is now considered missing.

She said her grandson Vladislav had been stationed – without any weapons – in a village some 500 meters from the border. “What could the boys do? Go against (the Ukrainian soldiers) with a shovel?,” she was quoted as saying.

A petition calling on Putin to remove conscripts from the area has been shared online and dozens of messages from people who claimed to be family members of Russian conscripts who have gone missing in Kursk region have been posted on various social media, including the Russian network VKotante.

The fact that Russia was relying on conscripts to defend the border is likely why Ukrainian troops managed to advance into Russian territory with such apparent ease when they first launched the incursion last Tuesday.

Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has said that Ukrainian troops have advanced 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) through Russian defenses since the incursion started.

“We have taken control of 1,150 square kilometers of territory and 82 settlements,” Syrskyi told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an on-camera staff meeting Thursday.

Limited training, no weapons

All healthy men in Russia are subject to conscription and, if drafted, required to serve one year in the military.

The country’s military usually runs two drafts a year, one in the spring and one in the fall, conscripting well over 100,000 young men each time. Draft avoidance is a crime and can be punished with a prison term.

The treatment of conscripts has been a political third rail in the past for Russia. During the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and Russia’s war in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, the mothers of conscripts mobilized to campaign against the abuse of conscripts.

While Russian civil society has largely been defanged under Putin, the treatment of conscripts is still a sensitive issue for families. Avoiding the draft is easier for the sons of the wealthier and politically privileged.

Last year, Putin ordered the conscription age to increase by three years to 30, so that anyone between the ages of 18 and 30 could be drafted.

Unlike professional soldiers, conscripts receive only limited training before they are sent to their posts, as the law prohibits their deployment overseas and they are not meant to participate in combat operations.

Instead, the Russia has often stationed conscripts along its long borders, not expecting them to ever come under attack. But when Ukraine launched its recent surprise incursion, these conscripts suddenly found themselves on the frontline, completely unprepared to defend themselves.

The deployment of conscripts to the border was also criticized by Russian opposition leaders.

The Anti-War Committee of Russia, a group formed by exiled Russians, issued a statement on Wednesday criticizing the Russian president. It said “the absence of any significant military units of the Russian Federation on the border at the time of the attack and the simultaneous continuous conduct of aggressive military operations for more than 900 days on the territory of sovereign Ukraine is the best proof that Putin is lying again about ‘protecting Russia.’ He doesn’t care about Russia, he is only protecting himself.”

At least some of the conscripts appear to have been taken as prisoners and brought to Ukraine.

Zelensky confirmed earlier this week that Kyiv’s forces were taking prisoners of war as they continued to advance into Kursk. The Ukrainian military also released several videos and photos of men they claimed were Russian prisoners of war – some of whom appeared to be very young men.

On Thursday, the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a government department, said a company of Russian soldiers surrendered in the Kursk region and was taken prisoners after being abandoned by reinforcements.

A video captured by Agence France-Presse near the border showed a Ukrainian military truck carrying a group of blindfolded men wearing what appear to be Russian military uniforms.

But while there seems to be outrage over their deployment, this is not the first time Russian conscripts were found to be fighting in Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Russia’s Ministry of Defense admitted that conscripts were “discovered” in Ukraine after Kyiv announced that some of the prisoners of war it took were not professional soldiers.

The Russian military then claimed the conscripts had been withdrawn and returned to Russia. It said the commanding officer responsible for the deployments had been punished.

A giant panda has given birth to twins after more than a decade of trying to mate successfully, becoming the oldest known first-time panda mother.

Ying Ying delivered the cubs in the early hours of Thursday on the eve of her 19th birthday – equivalent to age 57 in human years, a spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Ocean Park said.

Photos released by the theme park showed Ying Ying just before she went into five hours of labor, and her palm-sized, pink-colored twins – the first giant pandas born in Hong Kong.

The cubs, a female weighing 122 grams (4.2 ounces) and a male at 112 grams (nearly 4 ounces), finally arrived following years of unsuccessful efforts by Ying Ying to mate with her partner Le Le after they were gifted to the city in 2007 by the Chinese government.

“This birth is a true rarity, especially considering Ying Ying is the oldest giant panda on record to have successfully given birth for the first time,” said Paulo Pong, chairman of Ocean Park Corporation, in a statement.

But visitors will have to wait a few months for the cubs’ official debut as the newborns receive round-the-clock intensive care.

“Both cubs are currently very fragile and need time to stabilize, especially the female cub who has a lower body temperature, weaker cries, and lower food intake after birth,” the park said.

Ying Ying had previously suffered a series of miscarriages – and her five-month pregnancy wasn’t easy, the park added.

“Giant pandas have a notoriously difficult time reproducing, especially as they age,” the statement said. “As a first-time mother, Ying Ying was understandably nervous throughout the process. She spent much of her time lying on the ground and twisting.”

Giant pandas have one fertile period throughout the year, lasting just one to three days, and their preference to live alone in their natural habitats means they rarely mate.

Native to southwest China, Beijing has spent decades attempting to boost the population of the iconic bears, creating sprawling reserves across mountain ranges in an effort to save them from extinction.

Giant pandas are infamously hard to breed in captivity, but after years of decline, their numbers in the wild have increased in recent years.

In 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) upgraded the species from “endangered” to “vulnerable” after their population grew nearly 17% over the previous decade.

It is estimated that around 1,800 pandas remain in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, western China. There are around 600 pandas in captivity and Beijing loans some of them to about 20 countries.

An assault by dozens of Israeli settlers has devastated a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank, drawing blistering condemnation from top Israeli officials.

More than 70 armed settlers invaded the town of Jit on Thursday, firing live bullets and tear gas at residents and setting several homes, cars and other property on fire, according to the head of Jit’s village council, Nasser Sedda.

Sedda said his cousin, Rashid Sedda, was killed in the attack. The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health confirmed the 23-year-old Palestinian died after sustaining a chest injury.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also said that dozens of Israeli citizens, some masked, set fires and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails before being dispersed by Israeli security forces.

One person has been apprehended for questioning over the rioting, and authorities are looking into the death of the Palestinian resident, IDF said, without naming the resident.

It is launching a joint investigation into the attack with security agency ISA and Israeli Police.

‘A serious nationalist crime’

Videos of the attack on Jit showed vehicles on fire and flames on the ground floor of a two-story building. Another video shows three medics performing CPR on Rashid Sedda.

Residents of the town can be seen running toward the burning vehicles and putting out the flames with a fire extinguisher, while someone shouts, “The settlers attacked us and set fire to the cars.”

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it treated three injuries from settler attacks in the town, including an elderly woman affected by gas inhalation and two young men injured by stones.

Disavowal and condemnation came quickly from top Israeli officials.

A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the attack, warning that he views the incident with “utmost severity.”

“Those responsible for any offense will be apprehended and tried,” it read.

Moshe Arbel, Israeli interior minister, called the attacks a “serious nationalist crime” that runs “contrary to the values of Judaism.”

And Defense Minister Yoav Gallant slammed the “violent, radical riots” as “the opposite of every code and value upheld by the State of Israel.”

Some West Bank settlement leaders also condemned the attacks, seeking to distance themselves from the rioters whom they said were “outsiders.”

For years, Israeli settlers have attacked Palestinian communities in the occupied territory.

From October 7, 2023 to August 5, 2024 alone, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has recorded at least 1,143 settler attacks against Palestinians.

Of those, at least 114 attacks “led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries,” according to OCHA.

The US imposed a series of sanctions this year on Israeli settlers accused of violence in the West Bank, blocking their financial assets and barring them from entering into the US.

“The United States remains deeply concerned about extremist violence and instability in the West Bank, which undermines Israel’s own security,” the State Department said in a statement last month.

Israeli settlements, primarily inhabited by Jewish Israeli citizens, are built on lands controlled by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War. While the international community deems these settlements illegal under international law, Israel disputes this classification.

The controversial settler movement has grown in power over the years and is seen by the outside world as a major impediment to peace in the region.

Khawar was preparing to start medical school in Afghanistan when Taliban fighters swept into the capital Kabul, seizing power and imposing the world’s only ban on educating girls over 12.

Khawar had already bought a pile of textbooks, with dreams of becoming a cardiologist. But three years on, her days start at 4 a.m. for prayers and a long list of household chores.

But during her lunch break, she pivots to something different.

For a few hours before resuming her chores, the 22-year-old studies in secret for a degree in health sciences through the University of the People, a non-profit online university based in the United States that allows refugees worldwide, and women like Khawar, to study for free.

Alongside online schools, international efforts are ramping up to educate teenage girls and women, who are all but confined to their homes by a regime that sees them as a subservient underclass.

Some lessons occur in secret locations inside Afghanistan; others are online, on phones and on television and radio. They’re run by different people, but are all designed to reach as many Afghan girls and women as possible.

For the educators, sharing knowledge is a matter of urgency – an uneducated population is much easier to manipulate than one with a secret network of women and girls with the skills and conviction to one day lead the country.

‘A hope center’

Erfanullah Abidi was among the crush of people trying to flee Afghanistan in August 2021, in a chaotic evacuation after the United States and its allies ended their 20-year occupation of the country.

A former government employee and translator and cultural advisor for NATO, he and his family flew to Australia, where he became frustrated by the failure of online campaigns to push the Taliban to reopen schools for girls.

So, he contacted friends and recruited teachers. By February 2023, they held the first of what are now around 15 regular classes in secret locations around Afghanistan.

“It’s a face-to-face class, but each student [is] representing a group of four or five other students that we think should not attend” due to security concerns, he said.

He said it’s easy to find female teachers who are out of work due to the Taliban ban on women teaching boys, but it can be difficult to recruit ones in the right place who meet strict security requirements.

If a potential security breach is detected, classes are canceled – safety is their top priority.

Abidi says the secret classes offer more than education. “This is a hope center. This is a resilience center. This is a place where they see their future, or where they shape or form their future,” he said.

“[The Taliban] keep people uneducated, especially girls, because they will become mothers in the future. They will become parents in the future. Their ideology is to keep them uneducated so they can manipulate the children of the next generation for their terrorist ideology.”

1.4 million out of school

Three years after the Taliban takeover, UNESCO estimates 1.4 million girls are being deliberately deprived of a secondary school education.

The number of primary school students is also falling, due to a shortage of male teachers. Struggling families are also opting to send their children to work instead of school.

The Begum Organization for Women (BOW) hopes to reach girls and women inside their homes, with lessons on radio, online and on TV.

Afghan entrepreneur Hamida Aman founded BOW at the end of 2020 to defend the rights of Afghan women, but it’s become so much more than that.

From Kabul, Radio Begum broadcasts six hours of radio lessons a day, along with health, psychology and spiritual programs to women across most parts of Afghanistan.

“Our radio station is not tolerated in some provinces in the south, because they are very, very conservative. They even don’t want to hear women’s voices on the radio,” said Aman.

Every day between 10 and 20 women phone in to the station to seek advice from on-air doctors and psychologists about how to cope with life in Afghanistan, Aman said.

“Mothers are calling us to complain that their daughters are not eating anymore …. They seem depressed, they don’t talk, or they keep crying.”

Begum Academy also offers lessons online filmed in its studios thousands of miles away in Paris. The televised classes cover a wider array of subjects, presented by women for women – something that’s not allowed in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

“Right now, if you switch on the television in Afghanistan, when you pass from one channel to another, you see only men, mostly men, very few women, especially on the prime time on the evening program, only men, men, men,” Aman said.

Begum TV is also working to expand its programming to provide more light entertainment. “Our audience is asking us to have some entertainment because life is so sad, the situation is so sad, and there is nothing light and joyful,” Aman said.

Lessons from Rwanda

On August 15, 2021, Shabana Basij-Rasik, founder of the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), locked the school’s doors, burned its records and rushed her students to the airport to relocate to Rwanda.

Each year they offer a limited number of scholarships to Afghan girls to board and study, but applications far exceed available places – and they had to find a way to reach more students.

Nearly 20 years later, as the founder of the only all-girls boarding school in Afghanistan, I’m burning my students’ records not to erase them, but to protect them and their families.
2/6 pic.twitter.com/JErbZCSPuC

— Shabana Basij-Rasikh (@sbasijrasikh) August 20, 2021

An online version of the school – SOLAx – started in March, taking a revamped Afghan curriculum to around 8,000 students spread across 41 countries.

“It’s so sad, because Afghans are now everywhere,” said SOLAx co-founder Mati Amin. “But the majority (89%) still come from inside Afghanistan, from all 34 provinces.”

Thirty-minute lessons are delivered in English, Pashto and Dari via WhatsApp, with the support of tech company Meta, which is allowing SOLAx to use its application programming interface (API) for free.

“WhatsApp is the best way to reach these girls. And we see the traction when we get students coming back, requesting up to over 1,000 lessons in recent days,” said Amin.

Work is underway to add the full Afghan curriculum for grades 7 to 12, with some modifications to encourage critical thinking and to sustain the interest of the social media generation.

“There are educated Afghan women teaching English,” he said. “And I think that’s super important. That’s another way of giving them that hope that someday they could also be in this position.”

Khawar doesn’t speak to her old school friends anymore. All of them have left Afghanistan, some of them before the Taliban takeover to take up offers at universities elsewhere.

After they graduated from high school, five of her fellow students left to study medicine in Turkey. Her school principal had implored her to go with them, but she refused, preferring to attend Kabul University, like her relatives.

“Many times, the principal of the school told me that I would regret this decision. I didn’t believe it at the time, but now I truly do regret it,” she said.

Even if she passes health sciences, she knows Taliban restrictions mean she won’t be able to work in the health sector in Kabul, so she’ll have to move elsewhere.

“I wish [the Taliban] could experience the effort I’ve put in, studying day and night, dedicating my life to this,” she said.

“They may never understand us now, but one day, they will regret it.”