In the small fjord settlement of Kapisillit, the disappearance of traditional Greenlandic life is slowly unfolding. As more Greenlanders move to cities such as the capital, Nuuk, a way of life shaped over generations begins to fade. Today, Kapisillit’s school is home to just three children, Maleraq, Viola, and William, and they, too, are preparing to leave.
Scenes from Kapisilitt and Nuuk for @devolkskrant . With words by Jeroen Visser @jeroenlvisser
@nytimes The Tug of War at the Top of the World
A great power competition is intensifying in the Arctic, and not only for Greenland. On a Norwegian archipelago called Svalbard, a century-old treaty has granted access to nearly all nations. The treaty has left the icebound islands vulnerable to meddling from Russia and China. So Norway is tightening its grip like never before. The era of international cooperation is closing.
With words by Jeffrey Gettleman, Sarah Hurtes and Louise Krüger
Photo editing by Adam Dean
The Tug of War at the Top of the World
A great power competition is intensifying in the Arctic, and not only for Greenland. On a Norwegian archipelago called Svalbard, a century-old treaty has granted access to nearly all nations. The treaty has left the icebound islands vulnerable to meddling from Russia and China. So Norway is tightening its grip like never before. The era of international cooperation is closing.
With words by Jeffrey Gettleman, Sarah Hurtes and Louise Krüger
Photo editing by Adam Dean
@nytimes The Tug of War at the Top of the World
A great power competition is intensifying in the Arctic, and not only for Greenland. On a Norwegian archipelago called Svalbard, a century-old treaty has granted access to nearly all nations. The treaty has left the icebound islands vulnerable to meddling from Russia and China. So Norway is tightening its grip like never before. The era of international cooperation is closing.
With words by Jeffrey Gettleman, Sarah Hurtes and Louise Krüger
Photo editing by Adam Dean
The sky above the wall that reduces Halima and her sister-in-law’s world to three rooms and a small courtyard is almost always blue. It is blue on nearly every day. Only rarely do sandstorms turn it beige. Very rarely do clouds pass over it. “Sometimes we can hardly bear it anymore,” Halima said. They look up at the sky above Herat, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, and see nothing but this blue. Lifeless blue.
For nearly 15 years, writer Wolfgang Bauer has been following their fate. When he first met Halima and her now-husband, Rafi, they were 17 years old. At the time, both were in the juvenile detention centre in Herat. According to the judge, they had been proven guilty of one sin: love.
Since then, they have married against all odds and built a family with three children. But their country has changed, too. The Taliban now rule.
Their story in this week’s @zeitmagazin with @wbauer7194
Thanks to @milena_carstens and @norahollstein
The skeleton of a Russian tank in eastern Ukraine, not far from Sulyhivka, many moons ago, when @tmgneff and I were reporting on how Ukrainians were battling the winter cold there, in a village destroyed by war. Thomas would never go east without making sure to stop by Sulyhivka, chronicling the fate of its very few remaining inhabitants through all those journeys.
Glad to see the frame made its way to the front page this week in the international edition. Heartbroken not much else has changed since then.
@nytimes Desperate Search for Missing Syrians Leads to Mass Graves
More than 100,000 people disappeared during the civil war. To bring closure to some of their families, the new government faces the challenging task of exhuming remains from scores of burial sites. With words by Raja Abdulrahim.
Captions:
A trench at the Najha cemetery near Damascus, Syria. The area is believed to hold a mass grave.
Khaled al-Mishtowli and his mother, Suria, holding a picture of his father, Qaseem. Several of his family members went missing during the Syrian civil war.
Mr. al-Mishtowli said he believes they ended up in that mass grave because they disappeared in the area, which is near their homes.
Blossoms, where there was once just dust
Our dispatch from life in the small village of Dah Warda, on the edge of the desert in northern Afghanistan in this week‘s @zeit with words by Wolfgang Bauer
In the Shadows of Victory
Two months after the fall of the Assad regime, writer Wolfgang Bauer and I traveled 2,000 kilometers across Syria—this week in @zeit
w/ @wbauer7194 photo editor @lara_huck
@nytimes Bathing in Oil at a Climate Summit? It Leaves a Stain.
In Azerbaijan, site of the COP29 climate talks and a petrostate, people aren’t only proud of their oil. They swear by its health benefits and visit resorts to soak in it.
Scenes from Azerbaijan, accompanying Anton Troianovski‘s dispatch
Captions:
BAKU - Between the Caspian Sea and newly built apartment towers, scores of green-and-red oil derricks whoosh, creak, rumble and bang in Baku, the U.N. climate summit site.
NAFTALAN - The landscape outside Naftalan, a city a four-hour drive from Baku. The chocolate-colored oil extracted there doesn’t burn. Instead, the locals and Azerbaijani scientists say, it heals. If you bathe in it.
NAFTALAN - Taslima Galieva, 70, from Russia, taking an oil bath.
NAFTALAN - Patients at a Naftalan health resort; people seek treatment here for a host of medical conditions, including arthritis, infertility and eczema.
NAFTALAN - The freshness of the oil can be judged by its color, according to bath veterans.
NAFTALAN - Guests at the resorts swear by the health benefits of soaking in oil, though it requires a lot of effort to clean off.
NAFTALAN - Naftalan has seen a surge in visitors since 2020, when Azerbaijan recaptured part of the nearby territory of Nagorno-Karabakh from Armenia.
NAFTALAN - A street scene in Naftalan.
BAKU - Workers try to contain a spill by an oil derrick in Baku.
BAKU - A site marked as the world’s first industrially drilled oil well, dating to 1846.
Where Asia Meets Europe, Allies Become Rivals in a Tangle of Interests
In the volatile Caucasus region, Russia and Iran, often seen as united in their aims, are vying to secure trade routes and influence.
Scenes from Armenia, accompanying Anton Troianovski‘s dispatch in today’s international edition
@nytimes Where Asia Meets Europe, Allies Become Rivals in a Tangle of Interests
In the volatile Caucasus region, Russia and Iran, often seen as united in their aims, are vying to secure trade routes and influence.
Scenes from Armenia, accompanying Anton Troianovski‘s dispatch
Captions:
Military equipment on display at a park overlooking Yerevan.
A Russian officer in Agarak, near the border with Iran in southern Armenia.
A military cemetery in Yerevan, where soldiers killed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are buried. When Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh last year, Russia did not intervene.
Armenia’s capital, Yerevan.
A Sunday church service at a monastery in the southern Armenian region of Syunik.
A shepherd tends his flock of sheep in the region of Syunik.
The village of Agarak, located near the Armenia-Iran border.
Rima Galstyan, 79, by the abandoned train station at Meghri, near her house, not far from the border with Iran. The rail line through southern Armenia is a symbol of a once interconnected Caucasus under Soviet rule.
Kapan, the regional capital of Syunik, has seen Iran and Russia jockey for influence. Tehran opened a consulate in the city in 2022, and Moscow is working to do the same.
