Foreign Fighters from France after Izium’s counter-offensive, Ukraine, September 2022Source: Call_Sign_Vito, Instagram From Rojava to Kyiv, foreign volunteers redefine what it means to be a combatant in a war that was never meant to be theirs. By Yevheniia Yefymova It…
Decisions to leave
The story of every immigrant to the United States starts at home. Rosa Tabraj in Lima, Peru. 1996. Photo courtesy of Rosa Tabraj Fabian. By Valery Tabraj Huaccachi My relatives immigrated to the United States from Peru at different times.…
Germany Brings Back Military Service. Teenagers Are Skeptical.
Germany has approved a new military service system that could reintroduce draft by lottery. The plan is widely supported by older voters but questioned by the teenagers who would live with its consequences. A German military uniform. A new reform…
The Cost of History
An ancient town in Jordan wrestles with the fallout of USAID cuts and dwindling tourist June 6, 2025, Madaba, Jordan. Mosaic fragments from Hippolytus Hall in front of the Church of the Virgin Mary. Source: Elisabeth Schmeissner. By Elisabeth Schmeissner…
The shared scar of war
All over the US, millions of veterans such as Hollie Ratajczyk and Joseph Mazzocchi live with the experience of war. It shaped their personality, their choice of life, and ultimately brought them together as a couple. Combat Outpost Keating. (Photo…
Seeds of Resilience: A Bronx Farm grows food, community and belonging
In a borough where food insecurity runs deep, a half-acre farm in the Bronx is doing more than growing vegetables. At New Roots Community Farm, refugees and local residents cultivate tradition, community, and dignity. Sheryll Durant, Food and Nutrition Coordinator…
A Surgeon in Al Jalah Hospital
A doctor struggles to provide care in a public hospital in Benghazi. Dr. Hanan Al-Barasi is participating in an awareness campaign for breast cancer under the supervision of Ibn Sina Hospital – Benghazi. 31 Oct 2023. Photo: Ibn Sina Hospital…
Death From Above
Drone pilots are leading the fight in eastern Ukraine. How does remote-controlled war affect soldiers? Drop in a posed photo. Source: Drop. By Kenny Khoo The car sped down a straight road towards Pokrovsk. The town in eastern Ukraine is…
“We Are Not Safe”
A young Argentine fights a society that considers violence against women normal. 2025: Thousands of women took over the streets for ‘‘Woman’s Day (8M)’’. Photo by Sol Scannapieco By Federico González Chapur In early November, Sol’s neighborhood experienced a four-day…
The Road from Minsk
Memory, exile, and the long shadow of dictatorship. Nina Bahinskaya, a Belarusian human rights activist, holds an opposition flag in front of riot police during 2020 protests in Minsk. Photo: Jana Shnipelson, Flickr. By Matthew S. Gerson Aleksandr Lukashenko –…
Jeans
Denim, memory, and a vote cast far from home October 26, 2024. Outside of the Georgian Consulate in New York. Source: Author photo. By Lika Gegenava I own three pairs of jeans. One is from Levi’s, the second from Paige,…
The Long Wait in Brighton Beach
Immigrants from the former Soviet Union navigate Russia’s war in exile The intersection of Brighton Beach Avenue and Coney Island Avenue was co-named “Ukrainian Way” in 2022 to show solidarity with Ukrainians affected by the war. (Source: Yuri Fujita) In…
Across the Tumen
A North Korean defector on never fully leaving home The Tumen River bridge. Source: Wikimedia Commons By Olivia Choi The river still visits her in dreams. Sometimes the ice holds. Sometimes it cracks before she reaches the middle. She wakes…
“I remained silent”
Chinese students encounter prejudice at American universities Anderson at the University of Missouri By Civen Cao When a Chinese person arrives in the United States, he will be marked with the identity of a Chinese citizen just like his passport.…
“We just have to make it through this night”: Oral histories from Columbia University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment
Four Student organizers recount the events of Columbia University’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a protest that challenged institutional power, inspired campus activism globally, and eventually faced university crackdown. NYPD on the site of Gaza Solidarity Encampment minutes before the first arrests…
Ukraine’s Information War: The Race to Document War Crimes in Kramatorsk
How a missile attack on a train station came to emphasize the role of investigators tasked with combating disinformation about war crimes in Ukraine. Geolocated and authenticated locations of civilian harm in Ukraine, downloaded from Bellingcat’s “Civilian Harm In Ukraine”…
Vegetables of the war: A life of a Ukrainian amid never-ending conflict
A generation of young Ukrainians grew up with war being the only way of life they know. Darka Harnyk copes by moving in and out of the country Darka Harnyk. Photo: Barbora Chaloupková By Barbora Chaloupková I wanted to talk…
‘I don’t have a place to stay’: Catalina’s Journey
Catalina, an asylum seeker, embarks on a dangerous, transcontinental search for home. Painted fence outside Casa Juan Diego. Photograph: Meg Spasia By Jonathan Griffin The treacherous journey was not her first choice. At the age of 21, Catalina traversed the…
There’s room at this table
How a chef and a community fight food insecurity in Paterson’s Little Lima Chef Edgardo prepares a meal in the Oasis kitchen. Photo: Marco Gutierrez Rosales By Marco Gutierrez Rosales A little past 9 in the morning, the breakfast hustle…
Three Generations of Exile: A Tibetan Family’s Journey to Preserve Their Heritage
Photo: Tenzin Dekyi Through a chain of whispered warnings, passed from neighbor to acquaintance to friend, Tenzin Dekyi’s mother learned devastating news: her brother – a Buddhist monk in Tibet – had been taken away for questioning by Chinese authorities.…
From Financial Despair to Hope: An Under-The-Table Dogwalking Job Helps an International Student Stay Afloat at Columbia University
Alexandre’s story of navigating financial hardship during his studies highlights how one of the world’s elite institutions is unprepared to support underprivileged students. Alexandre’s first day walking dogs in the summer of 2024, taken by the friend that referred him…
After the Sky Fell: Two Afghan Women’s Remarkable Journeys, and the Men Who Champion Them.
Parween and Fahima’s lives changed when they left Afghanistan. Now they fight for gender equality. The men in their lives fight for them too. “I always dreamed of living abroad, meeting new people, learning different languages. My dream came true,…
The Day Democracy Stood Still: One Israeli Woman’s Fight Against Netanyahu’s “Judicial Coup”
Eden Cohen, an Israeli graduate student at Columbia University, participated in one of the large protests during the Israeli “Judicial Coup” of 2023. Eden, on the far left, and her friends, wearing hats that say “democracy” on the day of…
Do Not Cross This Line
Humanitarian Work under Gang Control in Haiti By Christine McNeill The truck pulled away through a throng of unknown faces. Faces of people who happened to live on the wrong side of an invisible line, recalled Pete Staffelbach. He could…
The Things We Don’t Carry: Samia Halaby’s Memories from Palestine
A Glimpse of the Life and Relocation of Palestinian Artist Samia Halaby Samia’s old Family Home in Jerusalem (taken 2017) By Sidney Kuri Poor In the Spring of 1948, Samia Halaby’s family fled their home. At age 11, Samia was…