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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It remains unclear what caused the technical fault.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is a developing story. More to come.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Too old?

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

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

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

To Toh, medicine meant taking an entirely different direction.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘A better life’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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