内容摘要：Organisers said the use of xenon had made such a fast ascent possible. But the science around using the gas remains disputed and many in the mountaineering industry have criticised it.

Organisers said the use of xenon had made such a fast ascent possible. But the science around using the gas remains disputed and many in the mountaineering industry have criticised it.

He shows me video taken with a phone of their very last trip, as Ukrainian forces retreated from Russia's Kursk region. It shows them making their way past dozens of burnt out military and civilian vehicles.A soldier armed with a shotgun, their last line of defence, scans the horizon for Russian drones. Out of nowhere, one flies towards the back of their truck. Sparks fly, but they keep on going.

Artem says they were lucky - the explosive charge was not big enough to stop them.Another truck nearby was less fortunate. It was already in flames.Artem admits Ukraine's retreat from Sudzha, the largest town Ukraine held in Kursk, was "not well organised".

"It was pretty chaotic," he tells me. "Many units left in disarray. I think the problem was the order to withdraw came too late."It wasn't helped, he says, because units were operating without proper communications. The Starlink satellite systems they normally rely on didn't work inside Russia.

The 27-year-old soldier still views the Kursk offensive as broadly successful. Artem says it forced Russia to divert its forces from the east. Most of Ukraine's troops still managed to escape in time – even if for many it was on foot.

But he believes Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russian territory, launched last August, was too deep and too narrow - relying on just one main road for supplies and reinforcements.Even if it doesn't, it's clear that Israel's supporters are increasingly exasperated, and fearful that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest military operation, dubbed "Gideon's Chariots" is poised to heap misery on Gaza just as the area's two million civilians face the very real prospect of starvation.

Even US President Donald Trump has expressed impatience, warning that "a lot of people are starving" as he concluded his regional tour last week.Netanyahu's government is losing support, even among some of Israel's staunchest allies.

At a World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, the organisation's president Ronald Lauder challenged Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar."All the best things Israel does are being destroyed by Smotrich because his statement about starving the Gazans and causing destruction is broadcast all over the world," Lauder said, asking why Netanyahu does nothing to stop him.