hello and a warm welcome to focus on europe. it's great to have you with us. in ukraine, the counteroffensive against russian occupation is moving forward slowly. heavy fighting is reported especially around the city of bakhmut in the country's east. ukrainian president zelenskyy visited the troops there in late july. the city had been destroyed and captured by russian forces earlier in may. both sides are currently suffering heavy casualties in the fight for bakhmut.

to absorb the losses, new soldiers must be recruited and trained constantly, some are even being trained directly behind the front lines. one of the ukrainian training camps is located near bakhmut, where russian resistance is particularly strong. here, company commanders must work to integrate new arrivals into their units. every day, they are faced with extremely dangerous situations, not only for themselves, but also for the new recruits. our reporter and his crew experienced this firsthand when they attended a training unit. it's the moment the attack subsides. we have been struck by russian cluster bombs. everybody took cover wherever possible. as the situation calms down, we try to make our exit. we arrived shortly before to film a drill for soldiers joining a reconnaissance platoon. most are new recruits, some are soldiers who have been transferred from other units.

among the platoon's job is providing fire cover attacks and sorties. the most active soldiers unfortunately get wounded or killed. they drop out of the unit. that's why we constantly have to recruit new soldiers to fill our ranks and preserve combat readiness. we constantly have to train those that are available at the moment, so that our unit can continue its fight. while there is no official figure it is clear that losses so far have been high. just a few kilometers further infantry soldiers are learning to storm enemy trenches. as the wave of volunteers joining the army has ebbed, more and more conscripts are being drafted. pressure to resupply the units is high. the mobilized get rudimentary training and are then hastily

prepared for their duty. nightingale - that's his callsign - was called in two months ago. of course, i don't think we are well trained. there is a reason why regular service in the army last more than two months, so more training would be necessary. but we are in a situation where a lot has broken down. we need to be fast to replenish. there is no time. it's just forward, forward, forward. storming enemy positions is one of the most dangerous operations in trench warfare. the word among the troops is that a soldier's first attack is the most dangerous. but that barely anybody survives more than three unharmed.

i have already been at the front. it's terrifying. you try to hide among the trees, while you are just being shelled constantly with mortars. nobody knows how much training they will get before being sent to the frontlines. the unit is fighting near bakhmut - just over 20 km from this training ground near the town of druzhkivka. soldiers are constantly rotating in and out of their positions. some of these instructors have just been rotated in from the front. some veterans shift to training new recruit because they were so badly wounded in fighting that they could not return. of course, there are differences between mobilized recruits and

soldiers who serve five, six or even three years. it was easier then, we did not have to use as much time for the basics. but i still don't think the level of preparedness has dropped. we have more experienced commanders know who can prepare the recruits. back at the training area where the reconnaissance platoon is being drilled, the company commander is getting used to the challenge training new soldiers instead of experienced troops. guru - that's his callsign - has seen many of his fellow soldiers being wounded or killed. it's hard to say how many. let's put it that way. of those who started together with me, many are gone.

officers die as well as platoon commanders, sergeants or privates - i don't want to count them. honestly, that would be hard to bear. i myself was wounded twice. it's impossible to predict who is going to be hit when. our cameraman was injured in the shelling. as we speed to the hospital, we see soldiers rushing to help their wounded comrades. wounded before they even reach the frontlines. with russia's invasion of ukraine, the mood in latvia is tense. the neighboring country was once part of the soviet union before declaring independence. but - latvian culture has always helped the people to preserve their identity and heritage, especially through song and dance. every five years, latvians come together to celebrate in a song

and dance festival. this year, latvian-born armands and russian-born alina are taking part. it's a difficult time, especially for the russian minority in latvia, but the festival is bringing everyone together. how does a country express its freedom, unity, and independence? the latvian people do it with song and dance. for the last one hundred and fifty years, this country on the baltic sea has held a traditional song and dance festival every five years. there are people who simply can't live without this festival. i'm crazy about music. it sustains me. it's in my blood. alina's from russia, and armands from latvia. two cultures in one country.

politically, it's an uneasy pairing, but at this festival it's irrelevant. here they are all one people. but before the show can begin, the performers need lots of practice twice a week, for five years. for russian singer alina igosheva, these melodies paved her way to latvia. in 1998, she took part in the festival for the first time, when she was still living in moscow. but alina's ancestral roots are in latvia. it was important to my mother. when i was seven, she took me to the latvian embassy in moscow once a week, where there was a latvian sunday school. that was the introduction to my latvian heritage.

years later, on a trip to riga to sing with her choir, alina fell in love with the latvian capital. in 2014, the moscow native started a new life here. today, alina teaches at a latvian-russian elementary school. while alina expresses her latvian identity through song, armands expresses his through dance. armands priedols grows sea buckthorn in western latvia. it is his second passion - right after dancing. when my sister and i were little, our parents took us to liepja for dancing lessons. back then, we had to drive ten kilometers to rehearsals. dancing has been an integral part of my life ever since. no matter how much the festival brings people together, russia's

war against ukraine has still put a strain on relations between latvians and russians. a small percentage of the russian-born population supports the putin regime. but many latvians don't blame the russian people for the war. the people there are not to blame for the war. russia's not the problem; it's the leadership. the civilians can't influence much at the moment. they lack the courage to stand up and say something. but for us latvians, it also took years to get this far and regain freedom with the singing revolution. alina, too, says she doesn't harbor resentment towards the russian people for the war. nor is she indifferent about the fate of

her old homeland, russia. i've always felt sorry for the country - the country, not the state - i always liked the people better than the state. when i lived in russia, i was actively involved in the opposition protests. at some point, i realized it was hopeless. unfortunately. nothing changes at the state level. when i understood that, it made me want to move even more. to latvia, where singing and dancing aren't just hobbies, but the foundation of latvian identity. for one whole week, the song and dance festival captivates the nation. it begins with traditional parades through riga's old town and ends with a grand finale concert. just before their joint performance, alina and armands get to know each other in person. hello!

hello! they sing into the early hours of the next day, a ten-hour celebration of hope, confidence, and support. animal welfare and traditions are both valued highly. but when it comes to whaling, these values clash against each other. many people have no sympathy for hunting and slaughtering these intelligent marine mammals. on the faroe islands on the other hand, people see things differently. here, the drive hunting on whales has a centuries-old tradition. that's also the case in the small village of gota. for resident jon roi högnesen, whaling is a key part of his life. and he is not thinking about giving it up. towering above the north atlantic, the faroe islands are the very definition of rugged. they were formed by volcanic activity some 50

million years ago. its people live with and from the sea, still their principal source of food. 18 -year-old jón rói høgnesen grew up in the fishing village of gøta. he trains all summer in old rowboats before going off to work in a local museum. the museum deals with one of the faroes' most controversial traditions: the pilot whale hunt. so, this was a whale knife, and it's a bit longer than a normal fishing knife. but it's not very effective, so when the whales would come up to the shore, you'd just stab it in the head, and you would hope for the best. the whale-hunting tradition has a serious history. the land on the islands is scarce and barely fertile. so, for many centuries, the inhabitants of the islands had to go out to sea.

using only simple rowboats, they drove the mammals into their fjords and slaughtered them in the shallow water. the faroese still hunt this way. only today, the weapons they use have changed. so, these are used to kill the whale, and it is very simple. it's way more humane than the knife. i hope the tradition lives on a couple hundred years. international animal rights activists hope for the opposite. members of the sea shepherd society have arrived on the islands to stop the pilot whale hunt. among them is aleksandra lechwar, a marine biologist from poland. what's happening here is just sad - something that i personally think shouldn't be happening any more. they've been doing it for so many years, it's the tradition for them. that's what they've been doing to survive, as well. the problem, in our view, is that it is not

necessary any more. there's unnecessary suffering for the animals. the activists try to document the hunt using drones. like one of the maybe worst things is the chase before the actual hunt can take hours. you can see the way they're swimming now, it isn't casual any more. at this point, they're running away, right? they're in fear. pilot whales are in the dolphin family. they are social and live in groups called pods. the faroese say dolphin populations are not endangered. once a pod of whales is sighted by the faroese, the alarm is sounded. the villagers set out in motorboats to drive the mammals into a dead-end. the entire village stands waiting at the beach: men, women and children. everyone joins in. together, they pull the whales on land.

only those with hunting licenses are allowed to kill them. then, the six-meter-long animals are cut up. the hunt is not commercial - the whale meat is distributed free of charge. this is one of our few foods that we can get locally. we have potatoes, fish, sheep, and whale. and everything else is imported. to this day, the faroese consume the whales' meat and blubber. they preserve it and serve it on special occasions. the høgnesen family has cooked it up as a kind of goulash - an everyday meal here. there are millions of pigs being killed every day. we kill a few yeah, maybe 500 a year or something.

there are maybe 500,000 pilot whales or the food is good; this food is tasty. is the traditional faroese hunt any more cruel than factory farming in many other countries? the animal rights activists from sea shepherd can understand the logic in this standpoint. and those animals, they had a good life before that. a lot of the animals we eat as a society - a lot of people eat, they didn't. they were just raised to be killed. we don't think that what they do is correct, either. we think it's very wrong. their mission on the faroe islands is likely to go on for quite some time. there are no plans to put an end to the whale and dolphin hunt. so far this year, some 500 animals have already been killed here. one of germany's most popular tourist destinations is the spreewald. not only for foreign visitors, but also for residents of the nearby capital berlin.

it's a wide-ranging waterscape where visitors love to drift on boats through idyllic canals and tiny rivers. if there is enough water. the place is at risk of drying up soon. the reason, however, is not quite related to climate change. it has more to do with political decisions made in berlin. they are causing residents like dirk meier a severe headache. dirk meier is in his element - water, that is. here, in northern germany's spreewald, mr. meier makes his living running hotels and a harbor for boats. the area attracts many tourists. but mr. meier knows: the spreewald is changing. we can't forget that for the past fifty, sixty years, we've been lucky. there were no water shortages. if anything, we had too much. those times are over. in 2019, water levels receded in the spreewald.

canals and rivers dried up. at the time, it was an exception - caused by the heat and lack of rain. but experts like ingolf arnold warn: this could be the future of the spreewald. if we don't do anything, the entire system will collapse, majorly impacting the spreewald. the reason lies in the brown coalfield right next door. open-pit mining here involves digging out huge pits and pumping out enormous volumes of groundwater. this used to end up in the spree. but germany is putting an end to brown coal, meaning no more pumping. and - no more groundwater to feed the spree. once we stop mining coal and stop pumping out groundwater, we will just have to live with the natural water level. if we don't get much rain in the summer, small rivers could dry up. the spreewald could end up looking like it did before coal

mining - when the forest sometimes overflowed and sometimes dried up. bringing consequences for tourism and causing other problems. the pessimistic scenario for 25 years from now is that dry summers will see very limited water tourism and berlin will actually have to ration water. after all, the spree also flows through berlin and isn't just for boating. 40 percent of the german capital's drinking water comes from the spree. if levels fall significantly, water could run short. environmentalists are demanding that drastic steps be taken immediately. we must take action in the spreewald to keep the water in the landscape. we need to protect bogs and fill back in canals that were expanded to accommodate the extra water from coal mines. and that'll cost money.

restoring the canals could spell the end for many spreewald boat tours that are popular with tourists. that would be terrible. that's what makes the spreewald so great: the rivers, the water, and the nature. other cities use tourism revenue. i hope that'll work here, too. venice now charges visitors. we should do that with day tourists here. we should conserve the spreewald's unique character. so we should come up with a joint solution together with engineers, landscape architects, and environmentalists. it would certainly take a lot of money. all the ideas for saving the spreewald are costly and controversial: one suggestion is to flood the abandoned mining pits. that would create huge lakes like the cottbusser ostsee. the water could then be diverted into the spree as needed.

the lake's surface area spans about 2,000 hectares. and if you keep just one meter's depth as a reserve, you can store 20 million cubic meters of water and release it into the spreewald in the summer. but then these lakes would have to look completely different. the cottbusser ostsee can't have a vast surface area that leads to more evaporation. the surface area has to be small and the depth very deep. another idea is to divert water into the spree from adjacent rivers - like the oder. but the oder is also impacted by water shortages, especially in the summer. not to mention the costs. environmentalists demand that the mining companies shoulder most of the burden and not the state. to our request for comment, the brown coal company leag responded they were aware of the experts' study.

the state of brandenburg said it was too early to initiate specific measures. and the berlin government has yet to assess the situation. but mr. meier says the clock is ticking. it's already too late. it'll take another 20 years to implement such planning. we've known about this for 100 years, and have to get our act together. the people of the spreewald know: the days are numbered for the idyllic forest they call home and change is sure to come now i would like to introduce you to the british musician anna lapwood the young woman is a passionate organist and plays regularly at the magnificent royal albert hall, london's most iconic music venue. but when anna plays here, she doesn't hear applause or roars of bravo. it's strange as her musical recordings have reached a wide

audience all over the world. hello, i'm anna lapwood, i'm an organist, and i'm sitting here at the organ of the royal albert hall. now, i spend quite a lot of time filming little videos here to try and bring this amazing instrument to as many people as possible. the 9,999 pipes shake the concert hall to its foundations and give anna lapwood a child-like thrill when playing her instrument from midnight to 6 a.m. every few weeks. what i'm trying to do is sort of to explore this instrument for myself and figure out what other people seem to respond well to anna was 15 when she fell in love with the organ, traditionally an instrument played by old men with their backs to a church congregation. but for two years now, anna's been proving it can be popular on her tiktok channel @annalapwoodorgan.

her videos have up to 16 million likes. - nearly 600,000 followers have made anna the world's most famous face behind the organ. it certainly didn't hurt that musician bonobo integrated anna's sound into one of his concerts. - before that i think i was still just mostly playing like all classical music. it was the most fun i've ever had on stage. and i think it just made me realize: start more risks. young, female and classical seeks - and finds success with the organ. her first album comes out in autumn. much like the soundtrack to interstellar, one of her biggest online hits - it's out of this world. well, clearly, for anna, the sky is the limit! that's all from this issue of focus on europe. thank you for watching, take care and bye for now.

08/24/23 08/24/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> former president trump is convicted in a court of law, would you still support him as your party's choice? please raise your hand if you would. [cheers] amy: republican presidential candidates faced off in their first debate wednesday, but

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