Australia
After months of anguish for couples separated by international border closures, long-term Prospective Marriage visa holders are now eligible for a travel exemption to enter Australia. But Adelaide woman Bibi fears the rule change may have come too late for her fiancé amid the crisis in Afghanistan.
David, 23, admits that he felt a twinge of relief when the first wave of Covid-19 shut down his Arlington, Virginia, office. A recent college graduate, he was new to the job and struggled to click with his teammates. Maybe, he thought, this would be a nice break from "the face-to-face stuff": the office politics and small talk.
Speaking to me via Zoom from his flat in Amsterdam, Ali al-Sadr pauses to take a sip from a clear glass of water. The irony dawning on him, he lets out a laugh. "Before I left Iraq, I struggled every day to find clean drinking water."
Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter. This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Malaysia's Kinabalu Park, which surrounds Mount Kinabalu, the 20th-largest peak in the world, is home to a nickel mine like none other.
Malaysia's Kinabalu Park, which surrounds Mount Kinabalu, the 20th-largest peak in the world, is home to a nickel mine like none other. In lieu of heavy machinery, plumes of sulfur dioxide, or rivers red with runoff, you'll find four acres of a leafy-green shrub, tended to since 2015 by local villagers.
When Victor Martinovich published his debut novel, Paranoia , in 2013, it sat in Belarusian bookshops for less than 48 hours before being pulled by censors. "The banning was like a medal, a sign of quality," the 44-year-old tells The Calvert Journal from Minsk.
The protesters who took to the streets of Jakarta, Bandung and other Indonesian cities in October 2020 were diverse to say the least. Islamic leaders, dressed in white jalabbiyah, stood with scantily clad Instagram influencers. Trade unionists, indigenous leaders and environmentalists rubbed shoulders with the National Anti-Communist Alliance.
"The jungle is growing back. As leaders of some of the world's largest liberal democracies and advanced economies, we must tend to the gardening with renewed clarity, unity and purpose." It's an odd analogy, one used by Prime Minister Scott Morrison ahead of the Cornwall G7 "Plus" summit tomorrow.
LOS ANGELES -- At first glance, Saudi Arabian filmmaker Haifaa al-Mansour seems just like any other L.A. soccer mom. But in an industry where guile and chicanery are as essential to the filmmaker's craft as cameras and actors, the unassuming mother of two earned her stripes in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where she made her first feature film, "Wadjda," out the back of an unmarked Toyota Hiace van.
"Nothing awaits you. Just a broken radio, loneliness, and endless snow." That's how Ilia Mazo, the brains behind It's Winter, introduces potential players to his game on Steam. That's pretty blunt, even for a Muscovite-but he also isn't far off the mark.