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.

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.”

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.

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.”