A runaway penguin has been found safe in Japan nearly two weeks after she first went missing, having paddled 45 kilometers (28 miles) during a typhoon in a survival story her keeper called “miraculous.”

While taking a dip in the ocean to avoid heatstroke, Pen suddenly became agitated and swam through a hole in her enclosure out into open waters. Her escape left Imai wracked with worry and guilt.

African penguins can swim up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) a day, he said, but in captivity, their muscle mass decreases. Pen had never swum in the sea before visiting that beach.

A lucky break would keep Pen safe.

A powerful typhoon called Shanshan brought high winds and torrential rain to the country at the end of August, killing at least six people, displacing millions, knocking out power and disrupting air travel.

But, amid the destruction, the typhoon was a boon for little Pen, Imai said. With no boats able to operate, Pen avoided collisions and getting caught in fishing nets. The record rainfall provided a reliable source of hydration and cooling.

“She survived because of the typhoon,” Imai said. “It was almost miraculous timing.”

Because of the typhoon, Gekidan Penters wasn’t initially able to send out rescue boats to search for Pen, so it was even more surprising when on Sunday someone spotted her swimming near a beach about 8 miles from where she first went missing. It was just 10 minutes from the facility where she usually lives.

“When we first received the report, I couldn’t believe there was really a penguin,” Imai said. “It was a huge relief.”

Pen had no injuries and was in good physical shape.

She also passed “substantial droppings,” Imai said, which means she must’ve found something to snack on during her journey – likely fish or crab, her keeper guessed, though Pen had never eaten live fish before.

He added, “it’s nothing short of a miracle.”

Nearly 200 people have died in Vietnam in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi and more than 125 are missing as flash floods and landslides take their toll, state media reported Thursday.

Vietnam’s VNExpress newspaper reported that 197 people have died and 128 are still missing, while more than 800 have been injured.

The death toll spiked earlier in the week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province Tuesday. Hundreds of rescue personnel worked tirelessly Wednesday to search for survivors, but as of Thursday morning 53 villagers remained missing, VNExpress reported, while seven more bodies were found, bringing the death toll there to 42.

Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades. It made landfall Saturday with winds of up to 149 kph (92 mph). Despite weakening on Sunday, downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.

The heavy rains also damaged factories in export-focused northern Vietnam’s industrial hubs.

Olga is running around the intensive care unit, constantly checking her patients’ oxygen levels, adjusting their medication and noting their vitals. She’s working fast, but even at her busiest, the nurse anesthetist doesn’t hesitate to pause to adjust a pillow or blanket, and make sure the injured soldiers in her care are as comfortable as possible amid the constant rocking and rumbling.

A sergeant in the Ukrainian military, she is attending to some of its sickest patients. It’s a busy job – and she is doing it on a speeding train.

Most cities in eastern Ukraine are struggling to find enough hospital beds to accommodate the almost constant stream of casualties from the frontlines. But freeing up space requires that even the sickest patients, many of them unconscious, are transferred to far-flung places, often hundreds of miles away.

Long ambulance journeys are too risky for people in a critical condition, and flying a helicopter is too dangerous given Russia’s air superiority over Ukrainian skies.

The train is a lifesaver.

He explained that his field – combat medicine – mostly involves stabilizing and evacuating patients to safety, rather than carrying out treatment. His work on the train is just one part of a medical chain that starts the moment a soldier is wounded.

“The most difficult part is evacuation from the frontline,” he said. “Combat medics who work on the front are dying just like soldiers.”

Running an ICU unit on a moving train is a herculean task that involves dozens of people and presents a unique set of challenges.

Oleksandr said the vast majority of his patients, some 90%, have suffered multiple shrapnel injuries. Many have had amputations, and several are intubated, alive thanks to ventilators and other life-support machines. All have numbers written on their hands showing which car of the long evacuation train they need to travel on.

“We are very limited in our capabilities here… If something happens, I cannot call an outside consultant,” he said.

“There may be minor operations, to stop bleeding. We cannot perform abdominal… and chest surgeries. We have to be very careful when selecting the patients,” he added.

Yevgeniy was severely wounded in a drone attack just two days before he was selected for evacuation on the ICU unit of the train.

Ukraine’s most important train

The railway hospital is an example of the kind of Ukrainian ingenuity that impressed the world in the early months of this conflict.

To limit rocking, the vehicle travels at about 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, which is about half the speed of a regular train. It also has priority over everyone else – including any special VIP trains carrying foreign dignitaries.

Even so, the ICU unit is constantly shaking. Every piece of equipment, every bed and every beeping machine needs to be anchored to the floor and the staff must take extra care when working on the patients.

Ambulance trains were first used during the Crimean War in the 1850s, but they have come a long way since then. The modern Ukrainian versions come equipped with ventilators, life support machines, ultrasound scanners and portable air conditioners that help maintain stable temperatures even on the hottest days.

Each carriage is a self-sustained unit powered by generators – an important safety feature given the frequent Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Pertsovskyi said.

But it is the little touches that make these trains truly special.

Children’s drawings and Ukrainian flags are on display in every car, offering some comfort to the bruised and battered passengers. The blind brackets on every window are shaped as a trident, the country’s national symbol, placed deliberately in the eyeline of soldiers lying in their beds.

A tale of two deployments

The train provides a small window into the brutal cost of war. Experienced warriors and new recruits are traveling together, united by injury and pain.

“They dropped a grenade. I was stunned. I have shrapnel in my hands, on my shoulders and on my back,” he said, adding that the blast wave damaged his hearing.

An electrician and a father of two, the 35-year-old was mobilized 18 months ago and was serving as an anti-tank gunner in an infantry battalion in the Donetsk region. In all that time, he has spent just 45 days away from the frontlines.

“Morale is high, but people are very tired,” he said with a blank stare, as the train kept chugging along.

“At this point you realize that everything depends not on you, but on God. Or on luck. When the bombs fall, there is not much you can do about it.”

It was a sobering assessment from a man with the callsign “Positive.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has long admitted that the military is struggling to replenish its ranks, leaving exhausted soldiers without a chance to rest.

At a news conference last month, Zelensky said this effort to recruit more soldiers was gathering steam. “Some rotations have started. I can’t call it fundamental rotations yet, to be honest. But it’s a start, and that’s very important,” he said.

Sitting just a few beds away from Oleksandr was Stanislav, who enlisted voluntarily just three months ago. He was also wounded by a drone that dropped into his trench, leaving him with a punctured lung, broken ribs and other injuries.

Wearing a sports jersey and shorts, he was adamant Ukraine would win the war, despite being outnumbered and outgunned by Russia.

“They use quantity, and we use quality,” he said.

The incredible price of war

Nearly nine hours into its journey, the hospital train finally pulled into a railway station in one of Ukraine’s cities. In the darkness of the night, a long line of ambulances was awaiting the patients. The train’s voyage was over, but their road to recovery was only starting. Some will likely never fully recover.

Olga, the ICU nurse, was getting ready to hand her patients over to the medics on the platform. Her job was done for the day.

She joined the military as a civilian nurse in 2015, a year after the conflict between Russian-backed separatists and Ukraine started in the eastern parts of the country, and Crimea was illegally annexed by the Kremlin. She enlisted in the military in 2016 and – except for a short break in 2022 – has served ever since.

“But we have the opportunity to provide much-needed help to our defenders 24/7, and that’s the best part.”

When the ambulances departed and the train left the station, Pertsovskyi, the railway chief, was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief. The medical train is thought to be a major target for Moscow and there have recently been several strikes targeting the vicinity of railway stations and other infrastructure.

Standing on the platform, just hours after he saw a train full of new recruits headed in the opposite direction, he reflected on the brutality of the conflict.

“In the morning, I see these kids who are saying goodbye to their dads who are heading towards the frontlines,” he said. “So, seeing those same guys coming back… unconscious or with amputations, it feels like the price of the war is incredible. It’s a conveyor belt.”

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori has died at the age of 86 after a long battle with cancer, his daughter Keiko Fujimori said Wednesday night.

“After a long battle with cancer, our father, Alberto Fujimori, has just departed to meet the Lord. We ask those who loved him to accompany us with a prayer for the eternal rest of his soul,” Keiko Fujimori wrote on X.

Fujimori, who ruled Peru from 1990 to 2000, had been fighting for his health, his primary care physician Alejandro Aguinaga said earlier on Wednesday in brief statements to reporters outside the home of Keiko Fujimori.

Fujimori had previously revealed he had been diagnosed with a new malignant tumor in May.

A controversial figure in his country, Fujimori’s tenure in office brought the country back from the brink of economic collapse but was also plagued by allegations of human rights violations and corruption, which he was later convicted of decades later.

From political outsider to strongman

The son of Japanese immigrants, Fujimori studied at an agricultural university in the Peruvian capital of Lima before traveling overseas for his graduate education in the US and France.

Once back in Peru, he hosted a television show focused on environmental issues before launching a presidential bid in 1989 as the leader of a new party – Cambio 90 (“Change 90”) – eventually defeating future Nobel literature prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.

Fujimori inherited a country in economic crisis. Soon after taking office, he implemented austere economic policies known as “the Fujishock,” which reined in hyperinflation.

He also claimed victory over the Shining Path rebel movement, one of the oldest guerrilla groups in Latin America, after his government captured the group’s leader, Abimael Guzman, who was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. Years later, his handling of a months-long hostage siege by another rebel group at the Japanese ambassador’s residence garnered him international praise.

For some Peruvians, Fujimori’s domestic victories transformed him from a political outsider to the strongman the country needed. But the former president had an authoritarian streak, using security forces to repress opponents. Soon, abuse of power and corruption allegations emerged and cast a dark shadow over his national achievements.

In the early 90s, Fujimori’s then-wife, Susana Higuchi, publicly denounced him as corrupt and claimed his family had illegally sold clothing donated to Japan. After the pair divorced, Fujimori installed the couple’s eldest daughter Keiko as Peru’s first lady ahead of his second term.

In 2000, Fujimori stood for an unprecedented third term in office despite questions about the constitutionality of running yet again. He won, prompting his main opposition candidate to claim election fraud.

But his government crumbled spectacularly later that year, after videos of Vladimiro Montesinos – his powerful intelligence chief for over a decade – were leaked, showing Montesinos bribing an opposition congressman. The scandal quickly snowballed as numerous incriminating videos emerged.

Fujimori denied any wrongdoing, but his standing with the public began to shift. Many Peruvians were left unconvinced and insisted he must have been aware of his top aide’s abuse of power and embezzlement.

That November, during a trip to Japan, Fujimori tried to quit the Peruvian presidency by sending a fax home announcing his resignation. The move threw the country’s political landscape into chaos. Days later, Peru’s congress instead fired him and labeled him “morally unfit” to govern.

He remained in Japan for a number of years, defiant that he would one day return to the upper echelons of Peruvian politics. In the mid-2000s, he traveled to Chile while preparing to stage a political comeback but was promptly arrested and eventually extradited back to Peru to face human rights abuse charges, among other alleged violations.

Legal battles

Fujimori has been in and out of prison over the last few years as a result of his declining health, after being convicted in four different criminal trials.

In 2009, a special supreme court tribunal sentenced him to 25 years in prison for authorizing the operation of a death squad responsible for killing civilians.

In separate trials, the former president was also found guilty of breaking into Montesinos’ home to steal incriminating videos, taking money from the government treasury to pay the spy chief and authorizing illegal wiretaps and bribing lawmakers and journalists.

He received a medical pardon for his human rights abuses in December 2017 from then-Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Kuczynski’s office issued a statement at the time, saying Fujimori “suffers from a progressive, degenerative and incurable disease,” adding “prison conditions mean a serious risk to his life, health and integrity.”

“I am aware that what resulted during my administration, on one hand, was well-received but I recognize that on the other hand, I have also disappointed other compatriots. To them, I ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart,” Fujimori had said in a video filmed from his hospital bed and posted to Twitter in 2017.

But the pardon sparked violent protests in the capital of Lima and attracted widespread criticism from human rights organizations and lawmakers.

It was ultimately overturned and in January 2019 he was returned to prison. Separately in 2018, a Peruvian court ruled he could face trial for allegedly authorizing the 1992 kidnappings, torture and killings of six people in the central Peruvian town of Pativilca, according to state-run news agency Andina.

Even with multiple criminal convictions Fujimori always held his ground, arguing that any actions he took were for the good of the country. He maintained that position until the very end.

At least 18 people, including United Nations staff, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a UN school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Wednesday, according to the Gaza Civil Defense and hospital officials. At least 44 others were injured, they said.

UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian humanitarian relief, said on X that six of its employees were “killed today when two airstrikes hit a school and its surroundings in Nuseirat,” in what is “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that the Israeli Air Force had “conducted a precise strike on terrorists” operating inside the school compound. It claimed the school “was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF troops and the state of Israel.”

The IDF said “numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians,” saying this was “a further example of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law.”

The strike targeted the Al Jaouni UNRWA facility, which has not operated as a functioning school since October. An estimated 12,000 displaced people, including women and children, have been sheltering in the school, said UNRWA.

This is the fifth time that the school compound has been targeted since October 7, according to the UN agency and a Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson.

Mahmoud Basal, a Gaza Civil Defense spokesman, said search operations were ongoing amid the rubble, with children and women among the injured.

“Another school sheltering displaced people hit in Nuseirat today,” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X, adding that UN staff were working and “providing support to families who have sought refuge in the school.”

“Since the beginning of this war, at least 220 UNRWA staff have been killed in Gaza,” he added. “The longer impunity prevails, the more international humanitarian law and the Geneva conventions will become irrelevant.”

‘We are all civilians here’

Footage from the scene showed debris strewn around a compound and blood stains on the ground. A hole has punctured what appears to be a classroom and among the rubble is canned food and the dust-covered belongings of displaced Palestinians.

A man carrying human remains said: “Brutality, I don’t know what to say.”

Another man searches desperately for his wife and four children. “I don’t know where they are, my son, my three daughters are all missing,” Hani Haniya said from a classroom in the building. “They normally sit here, I don’t know where my wife is, she survived the last strike.”

Inside a wrecked room at the school, Fadel Abu Hdayyeh said it was used to store food for displaced Palestinians. “Those who were working here were providing aid. We don’t have any resistance fighters here, none of them enter the school. Look around, it’s all food aid,” he said.

“The people who were distributing the aid are the ones who died, civilians. We are all civilians here who are dying,” he added.

At Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, footage shows trucks and ambulances transferring injured people and bodies to the hospital. The emergency room floor is overcrowded with the injured while medical teams struggle to provide aid.

Nuseirat is one of Gaza’s most densely populated camps, and its population has swollen since the war began.

Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli bombardment killed one child and six other people in the Qizan Al-Najjar area, near Khan Younis, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense. That followed an overnight strike on a family home in the town of Khuza’a, east of Khan Younis, where at least 11 people were killed, according to the Civil Defense.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The vessel – the Port Olya 3 – was identified by Maxar Technologies in satellite imagery taken on September 4 at Port Olya in Astrakhan. The ship had previously been in the Iranian port of Amirabad on August 29, according to ship tracking data. It turned off its transponder at some point after.

The US Treasury department assessed Tuesday that the Russian Ministry of Defense had “used the vessel Port Olya-3 to transport CRBMs from Iran to Russia.”

“As of early September 2024, Russia received the first shipment of CBRMs (close-range ballistic missiles) from Iran,” the Treasury said, as it announced sanctions on the Port Olya 3 along with other vessels and several Iranian individuals.

The military relationship between Iran and Russia has grown closer since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. Iran has supplied thousands of “Shahed” attack drones to Russia, and according to US officials, built a drone factory in Russia.

The satellite imagery surfaced the day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in London on Tuesday that the US believed the Russian military had received shipments of Iranian Fatah-360 ballistic missiles and “will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians.”

The Fateh-360 has a range of up to 75 miles (120 kilometers) and can carry a payload of 330 pounds (150 kilograms). While the payload is less than that of many Russian aerial bombs, it would be useful in targeting Ukrainian frontline positions from a considerable distance, and as a ballistic missile would be much harder to intercept.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has assessed that “Russian forces will likely use the Iranian-supplied missiles to target Ukrainian energy, military, and civilian infrastructure in the coming months.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi denied that the Islamic Republic had supplied ballistic missiles to Russia, posting on X: “Once again, US and E3 (UK, France and Germany) act on faulty intelligence and flawed logic, Iran has NOT delivered ballistic missiles to Russia. Period.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires, Shahriar Amouzegar, this week following the reports of ballistic missiles being sent to Russia. Amouzegar was warned of “devastating and irreparable consequences” for Ukrainian-Iranian relations if the reports were true.

The ISW – a Washington-based think-tank – noted that Iran has previously transferred weapons from the ports of Amirabad and Anzali on the Caspian Sea to Astrakhan. The Port Olya 3 has itself made a dozen recorded visits to the two Iranian ports this year. By September 6, it had left the Russian port for another voyage.

Blinken noted Tuesday that Washington had “warned Iran privately that taking this step would constitute a dramatic escalation.”

He said that dozens of Russian military personnel had been trained in Iran to use the Fateh-360, the supply of which “enables Russia to use more of its arsenal for targets that are further from the front line, while dedicating the new missiles it’s receiving from Iran for closer range targets.”

“For its part, Russia is sharing technology that Iran seeks. This is a two-way street, including on nuclear issues, as well as some space information,” Blinken added Tuesday.

What is as yet unclear is whether Iran’s delivery of ballistic missiles that can be fired from within Russia against targets in Ukraine will persuade the United States and European allies to relax the restrictions on the Ukrainians’ use of their missiles on more targets in Russia.

US-made HIMARS missiles have been occasionally used by Ukraine against targets some 60 to 80 kilometers inside Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has frequently appealed to Kyiv’s allies for greater latitude in using Western missiles against targets inside Russia.

The topic is likely to come up at the meeting in Washington on Friday between US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Victoria Butenko, Natasha Bertrand and Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.

Dozens of people have been arrested after protesters clashed with police at a major defense expo in Australia on Wednesday, which saw some demonstrators set fire to bins and target police horses and officers respond with pepper spray, according to local media.

Police officers struggled to control the crowd of around 1,200 people who tried to block attendees from entering the Land Forces international exposition in downtown Melbourne.

The three-day event brings defense experts from around the world and showcases military equipment, heavy-duty trucks, semi-automatic guns and other weapons.

The protests come at a time when heightened tensions sparked by global conflicts have deepened public anger in many countries towards the arms industry and its profits.

Victoria Police said 33 people have been arrested for offenses including assault, arson, blocking roadways, and assault of a police officer.

Some of the protesters threw horse manure, rocks, and fruit at police, according to Victoria Police and media reports.

The organization behind the protests, Disrupt Land Forces, said in an open letter they “unequivocally oppose the glorification of death, destruction, and genocide being carried out with weapons developed on this continent and showcased at Land Forces.”

The group called for an end to funding “states engaged in genocide and militarized repression,” including Israel.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its war on Hamas, according to the health ministry in the enclave. The Israeli government has vowed to wipe out Hamas following the group’s attacks on October 7, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Attendees targeted

Protesters heckled attendees making their way into the expo Wednesday, 9 News reported.

“We have seen many delegates coming through and we want to make it uncomfortable for these (people) to go inside and make million-dollar contracts and buy more weapons or sell weapons that are going to be used to commit genocide in Palestine and other places in the world,” protester Natalie Farah told 9 News.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza is being investigated by the International Court of Justice, in a case lodged by South Africa which accused Israel of genocide against Palestinian people. Israel has denied that characterization as “grossly distorted.”

Jacinta Allan, Victoria state premier, strongly criticized any protesters making threats or using violence against police officers.

“They’re doing their job supporting community safety,” Allan told Australian public broadcaster, the ABC.

“They deserve to be treated absolutely with respect by people who are attending this protest.”

About 1,000 firms from 31 countries are expected to attend the expo, according to the event’s website.

The disruption has caused traffic chaos across downtown Melbourne. Police have closed several major roads and urged motorists to avoid parts of the city, Reuters reported.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said people had the right to protest but had to do so peacefully.

Speaking to ABC Radio National from Melbourne before the conference started on Wednesday, Bec Shrimpton, director of defense strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said “it’s very unfair to tarnish everybody with a genocide brush.”

“The world is not as we would all like it to be and it is not a peaceful and stable place at the moment. Things like this event are actually really, really important to help with the defense of our nation and our national interests,” Shrimpton said.

But some local politicians have voiced support for the protesters.

Gabrielle de Vietri, a member of the Victorian Greens who sits in the state parliament, said the state government “is turning our city into a display of war machines, spending millions to protect the profits of genocide.”

“We pleaded for them to cancel Land Forces, but they didn’t listen. Disruption is all we have left,” de Vietri wrote on X.

The Victorian Greens have called for an independent inquiry into Victoria Police’s use of force at the protests, according to a post by the leader to X.

Lurking in the bushes near Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine is a unit of men who have two things in common: The short amount of time they have served defending their nation and time spent behind bars.

The 15 infantry men of the 59th Brigade, part of the Shkval – or wind gust – battalion are former prisoners. Convicted of a variety of crimes, they see their service in defense of Ukraine as redemption and a chance at a new life without a criminal record.

The catch for prisoners is that they are contracted to the military until the end of the war. There is also a considerable financial incentive: Wages range from $500 to $4,000 per month, depending on time spent on the front line, according to the Ukrainian defense ministry.

Among the recruits is Vitaly, 41, a recovered addict and a father-of-five. He asked to be identified by first name only for security reasons.

Perched on a tree stump, Vitaly mumbles: “My life was crazy. I grew up with bandits, as did all of our guys (in the unit).”

But by joining the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, he saw an opportunity.

“I need to turn the page of my life. My life was a mess. It’s better to be useful here, to be around brothers … and a completely different social circle,” he said.

He’s been in the trenches for three months following a short, 21-day training period. Vitaly has no regrets about his choice to join the army, but he said he was naive about what to expect.

“Life is hard here, it’s fun … but I didn’t think it would be this hard,” he said.

Life as an infantry soldier is particularly dangerous with casualties higher than other members of the military. Infantry soldiers are often exposed to Russian drone attacks and storming trenches as they traverse large expanses of land by foot.

Vitaly recalls a particularly brutal drone attack on a comrade.

“He was taken apart. It is so hard to watch… but what can you do? You can’t help. You need to leave them behind because half of the man is already gone,” he said.

In June, the defense ministry launched an initiative that gives prisoners the chance to serve in the army, in exchange for freedom after the war.

With life on the front line more challenging than many expected, Vitaly now wishes that he’d paid closer attention during his short training. He thinks it may have better prepared him for what was to come.

“We were stupid and didn’t take it seriously. We were not responsible; it was a mistake not to listen or pay attention,” he said.

Keeping the peace

Ensuring there is no disruption to the peace in the unit is Oleksandr, the company commander.

Vitaly’s company commander Oleksandr is no stranger to convicts. He left his position as a prison guard in February 2022, when the war began. Now, despite his protestations, he is back in his old job – but this time, on the battlefield.

“They see me as a former prison guard, as a brother-in-arms, as a commander, everyone here lives as one family,” Oleksandr, who also asked to be identified only by his first name, said of the soldiers, adding, “I am a psychologist, father, mother, everything.”

Along with the 15 prisoners already in his unit, he’s expecting a further 25 from the prison where he used to work.

Oleksandr said that many convicts, like Vitaly, signed up with the aim of reforming themselves.

“Many of them have families in front of whom they were ashamed of what they did. They have children who are told that their father is a convict. When he joins the armed forces, he is no longer a convict – but a hero,” Oleksandr said.

Still, morale may be Ukraine’s only hope in Pokrovsk as Russian forces zero in on the town.

At sundown in the town, the streets empty and the artillery barrages begin.

Russian forces are only 8 kilometers (5 miles) away, according to a map dated September 10 from DeepState, a group that monitors the progress of Russian forces in Ukraine that has links to Ukraine’s security services.

Pokrovsk is a vital supply town for eastern Ukrainian forces fighting back the tides of Russian soldiers. Its capture would be a coup for Putin as he looks to take control of the entire region of Donetsk. It could result in a withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from Chasiv Yar and the line of contact moving closer to the much larger cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Oleksandr is aware of the unenviable task of holding the Russians at bay, but thinks his troops have a skill that others don’t.

“The convict sub-culture is used to surviving. This means physical endurance, moral endurance, plus cunning, logical thinking, much higher than those of ordinary civilians.”

The last captive orca in all of Latin America cuts a lonely figure.

“Kshamenk” has lived in the Mundo Marino oceanarium in the Argentine city of San Clemente del Tuyú since 1992 – the majority of that time, following the death of his female companion in 2000, as the lone representative of his species.

But in recent weeks, Kshamenk has amassed something of a following. One far beyond what might usually be expected at his oceanarium some 320 kilometers (200 miles) from Buenos Aires.

A campaign by the Canadian activist group UrgentSeas – which has been working to secure Kshamenk’s release – is building steam thanks to a series of clips on social media that allegedly show the orca in his tank, barely moving.

One of the group’s latest posts shows a timelapse video of what it says is a bird’s eye view of Mundo Marino in August and has the hashtag “FreeKshamenk.” It has already amassed more than 184,000 responses on TikTok.

Mundo Marino claims the images posted by UrgentSeas “have been maliciously manipulated as part of a disinformation campaign to suggest that Kshamenk is inactive and to make a negative diagnosis about his health, without any objective veterinary indicators.”

UrgentSeas insists its “videos are not edited or deceptive. They’re a real time look at Kshamenk’s cruel captivity without the music and spectacle of the show.”

Activists say the videos simply draw attention to the negative side of keeping these apex predators in captivity – a practice that not only in Latin America, but across the world has gone out of fashion in recent decades as the public’s awareness of animal rights issues has grown.

Globally, according to the International Marine Mammal Project, as of January 2024 there were just 54 orcas remaining in captivity out of the 166 that have been taken from the wild since 1961.

In Kshamenk’s case, controversy over his captivity has been brewing ever since he arrived at the oceanarium more than three decades ago.

According to Mundo Marino, “Kshamenk was rescued in November 1992 after stranding with a group of orcas.”

But animal rights activists have long questioned that account, alleging that he was deliberately captured to be used in its orca show and have launched legal action against Mundo Marino.

“They went out to look for a male orca for Belén, who was the female they had. What they wanted was reproduction to have more orcas and to have an orca show. That is the plain truth,” said María Rosa Golía, from the NGO Marine Animal Rights.

Last October several activist groups, including Marine Animal Rights, filed an injunction in court aimed at stopping the orca shows and forcing Mundo Marino to return Kshamenk to the wild.

Mundo Marino insists it is acting in Kshamenk’s best interests and that Kshamenk’s remaining years are best spent in captivity. It says that after the orca’s rehabilitation it received expert advice that reintroducing him to the wild would put his life at risk.

But some activists are skeptical about that claim and argue that, whatever the truth about his capture, three decades is too long for an animal of Kshamenk’s size – according to Mundo Marino, he is 19 foot long and weighs 4 tons – to be kept in captivity.

“Kshamenk has been locked up in that oceanarium, entertaining people (ever since his capture),” said animal rights lawyer Mauricio Trigo. “And since the year 2000, he has not seen another orca,” added activist Dalila Lewis.

Other activists point out that, while Kshamenk has spent most of his 35 years of life so far in captivity, he has the potential to live many more if given the right environment. Orcas can live up to 90 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

An Israeli official has floated the possibility of offering Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar safe passage out of Gaza, once all remaining hostages held in the Palestinian territory are released.

Hirsch said those conditions, along with Gaza being “demilitarized and deradicalized,” could help recover Gaza and end the war.

On Tuesday, Hirsch elaborated on the idea in an interview with Bloomberg, saying Israel has already proposed safe passage to Sinwar.

“I’m ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join him,” he told Bloomberg. “We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course — a new system that will manage Gaza.”

He told Bloomberg that the offer of safe passage was put on the table a day and a half ago, but did not say what the response was. Israel would be open to releasing prisoners it holds as part of any deal, he told Bloomberg.

Sinwar, one of Hamas’ most powerful figures, is accused by Israel of being the key architect of the October 7 massacre in Israel, when militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took more than 250 people hostages. He is also among the Hamas leaders charged by US prosecutors over the deadly attack.

Hamas announced Sinwar as the head of its political bureau last month, days after former political bureau head and top negotiator Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran.

He is believed to remain at large in the vast warren of tunnels trenched beneath Gaza, moving frequently and possibly surrounded by hostages as human shields, US officials believe. He has not been seen in public since October 7.