Greenland’s Indigenous peoples once wore bold face tattoos that carried deep spiritual and cultural significance. But during the centuries of Denmark’s colonial rule, the Inuit tradition of getting face and hand tattoos disappeared. One Inuk tattoo artist is now reviving a piece of Inuit heritage for community members living in Denmark.
Nearly a year and a half into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its impact has been felt most acutely in lost lives, flattened cities and destroyed infrastructure. But the environmental damage from combat has also contaminated Ukraine’s soil, water and air, at a cost the government is estimating to be $56 billion. This impact is likely to be one of the longest-lasting legacies of the war, persisting for decades after the fighting stops.
This past week, girls in the province of Paktia in eastern Afghanistan went to the streets to protest. The Taliban had reopened their schools but ordered them shut again. Girls’ education in Afghanistan has become a sensitive topic since the Taliban came to power last year. They have closed down nearly all secondary schools for girls in the country.
For much of the pandemic, West African countries have lacked the vaccines needed to protect their populations against COVID-19. Now, supply in the region has finally caught up with demand for the vaccine. Still, too few people are vaccinated.
In Moscow on Thursday, WNBA star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on drug charges. Griner was detained at the airport in Moscow in February, after security found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. Last month, Griner pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs, but said she packed them by mistake.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says he plans to establish an 18-mile “safe zone” in northern Syria to counter a US-backed Kurdish group. Erdoğan considers the People’s Protection Units, or the YPG, a threat to the security of his country.
The German public has been reluctant to become involved in Ukraine’s war. But the government in Berlin plans to deliver on a promise that Chancellor Olaf Scholz made in February to supply military assistance, citing a “turning point” for Europe.