In The News

Exploring Palestinian Identity in Jordan’s Baqa’a Refugee Camp

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STORY BY HEATHER M. SURLS

ARTWORK BY HAIFA ABU KHDAIR

In Jordan’s Baqa’a camp for Palestinian refugees, I sat with several women and piles of their cross-stitch embroidery. A fan blew the late May heat through a simple but neat room, where we sat on brown couches drinking small goblets of juice, followed by Turkish coffee and tea. Zahieh Ahmad Saeed Abu Rases and her relatives showed me embellished pillowcases, a mirror framed in a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns, clocks stitched on white Aida cloth, and sections of unfinished thobes, traditional Palestinian dresses.

Meeting Azerbaijan’s New Ambassador to France

STORY BY BILL DIEM

A byproduct of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and media focus on the war’s developments is that growing tensions between other former Soviet republics wanting their place in the world are largely obscured. The rumblings that have serious local effects aren’t reaching the world’s eyes and ears while the louder conflict drowns out these smaller ones.
Thirty-one years after claiming its independence, Azerbaijan is trying to move through a slippery world of history and judgments and war with its neighbor Armenia to become recognized as a neutral, non-aligned country, a friend of both NATO and Russia.

Afghanistan, Land of Invincible Women Resolute in the Face of Tragedy

PUBLISHED IN DARI AND PASHTO

ARTICLE BY W.H.

If you’re a woman born and raised in Afghanistan, you live in war against nearly everything in life. Too often, even from your very first breath outside the womb, you are not really welcomed by your own family—or if you’re blessed with good parents, society and certain people’s mindsets work to steal the smile from your face.

Aliakbar Sakhi Pursued His Dreams for His Country to the End

Aliakbar turned 34 years old in June 2022. He was a loving father to three boys and a devoted husband to his supportive wife, Karima. Originally from Dushi, Baghlan, he was an IT expert and CEO of his IT consultation company. Aliakbar was heavily involved in charitable and humanitarian projects throughout his adult life. He founded HikeVentures Afghanistan in 2017 to help others develop skills in mountaineering, climbing, and trekking, and to enable people to safely enjoy Afghanistan’s unparalleled natural beauty. He was at the forefront of raising funds for underprivileged communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and collected and distributed aid to victims of natural and manmade disasters.

France’s Gas Shortage: A Look Into the Latest French Strike Affecting Daily Life

ARTICLE BY KRISTEN VONNOH

After waves of COVID-19 and the impending effects of war in Ukraine for the upcoming winter, France has been facing a pénurie d’essence—a gas shortage—for much of October.

Strikes that began in late September continued across the country last week. France’s second largest trade union, CGT, had called for employees in all public sectors to defend “wage increases and the defense of the right to strike.”

The French government reacted with sweeping measures in mid-October as the gas crisis worsened, forcing employees of the two ExxonMobil refineries to return to work or risk fines or jail time.

Losing Naïveté While Advocating for Afghans on Capitol Hill

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAMI L. RICE

I spent a May afternoon rushing through the wide halls of the U.S. Senate office buildings. It wasn’t the first time I was on Capitol Hill this past spring, but this time I chanced being late for an important flight because the clock was ticking on this issue that kept me coming back to the Hill. The next morning, I learned that day’s meetings had seemingly been for naught.

The French Caught Up in the Ukraine War

ARTICLE BY BILL DIEM

Some of the Ukrainians fighting Vladimir Putin’s Russian army are also French.

When Putin’s threats toward Ukraine increased in seriousness in mid-February, France encouraged its citizens there to leave. As war damage increased after Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24, there was a second wave of emigrants, said Sen. Hélène Conway-Mouret, the senator for French citizens living in other countries. But some French, she said, usually with dual Ukrainian citizenship, “made the choice to stay … and fight.”

Clashing Conceptions of Statehood Mean Civilians Suffer

ARTICLE BY KAMI L. RICE
PHOTO BY JOEL CARILLET

Hours after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, Douglas Webber, emeritus professor of political science and a Europe specialist at the prestigious business school INSEAD, framed the conflict starkly.

“It’s really a decisive turning point we’re looking at here, and for me certainly I think that it’s the most dangerous moment in international politics if not since the end of World War II, at least since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962,” said Webber to an online meeting of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

View From a Pandemic: Observed in Nashville, No. 5

TEXT AND PHOTOS BY DAWN MAJORS, BILL STEBER, JOON POWELL, AND JOHN PARTIPILO

Illustrating their divergent perspectives and practices, four photographers from Nashville, Tennessee, USA, each with a solid foundation in newspapers, have prepared a pandemic-era exhibit that is slated to be presented in 2021 at the Scarritt Bennett Center and at Vanderbilt University, both in Nashville. In the months leading up to the exhibit we’re featuring their work in an ongoing Anthrow Circus series, a project that is as much a study of photographic styles as a record of the pandemic.

Togo : La vaccination contre le Covid-19, un mal nécessaire ?

ARTICLE ET PHOTOGRAPHIES PAR AJ JOHNSON
TRADUCTION ANGLAISE PAR KAMI L. RICE

Au Togo, la campagne de vaccination contre la Covid-19 a commencé le 11 mars 2021, grâce à l’initiative Covax, qui a délivré un premier lot de 156.000 doses du vaccin AstraZeneca. Covax est une initiative de l’Organisation mondiale de la Santé (OMS) qui, parmi ses plusieurs objectifs, assure un accès équitable aux produits de diagnostic, de traitements et de vaccins contre la Covid-19.

Les doses reçues étant en nombre limité, le gouvernement togolais a mis en place un plan de vaccination en plusieurs phases. Ce plan préconise l’administration des premières doses du vaccin au personnel du corps médical, ensuite aux personnes âgées de 50 ans et plus, puis aux personnes plus jeunes souffrant d’une maladie chronique, et enfin au reste de la population de plus de 20 ans. Un site web officiel a ainsi été mis en place pour gérer la campagne de vaccination.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY AJ JOHNSON
ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY KAMI L. RICE

In Togo, thanks to the Covax Initiative, the COVID-19 vaccination campaign began on March 11, 2021, following the receipt of a first batch of 156,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. Covax is a World Health Organization initiative that among its several objectives, ensures equitable access to diagnostic products, treatments, and vaccines against COVID-19.
Since a limited number of doses were received, the Togolese government implemented a multi-phase vaccination plan. This plan calls for the first doses to be administered to medical personnel, then to people aged 50 and older, next to people under 50 suffering from a chronic disease, and finally to anyone 20 years old and up. An official website was set up to manage the vaccination campaign