What It’s Like to Be Young in Ukraine Now

The years of young adulthood are often associated with opening horizons. Making friends. Having adventures. The first independent steps into work, or study, or love. For many young Ukrainians, though, war with Russia has upended that reality, replacing it with danger and death, depression and dislocation.

In these photographs and interviews, young people who live in and around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, explore the pressure of experiencing young adulthood at a time of conflict. A few have seen and felt the cost of war painfully close. Others say their daily lives are, for the most part, mundane. But all agreed that it has indelibly altered what should be their formative years as adults.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and me.

Tribute to Odesa

In June 2022, I worked for three weeks in Ukraine, focusing on Odesa region and city, a symbolic and strategic place. Almost six months after the war began, Odesa was resisting, not untouched, but unbowed.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Roger Cohen

Ukraine Reminds Georgia of Its Own War With Russia. That Creates a Dilemma.

A small, mountainous country of 3.7 million people at the southeastern extreme of the European continent, Georgia is perhaps running the narrowest gantlet. Russia invaded parts of Georgia 14 years ago, and Russian troops still protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two secessionist statelets that broke away from Georgia during the 1990s and then expanded in 2008. That has put Russia in de facto control of roughly a fifth of Georgian territory.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Patrick Kingsley

Whose Promised Land?

A Journey into a divided Israel

A roadtrip through the length of Israel to discover what it means to be Israeli today. We meet a kaleidoscope of people, searching for belonging but far apart on how to find it.

COVID  19  MUNICH

Visual Story of a pandemic

Splintered Isle: A Journey Through Brexit Britain

As Britain heads for an election, a Times reporter and a photographer spent two weeks driving from London to Glasgow. They found a country united only by its disunity.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Patrick Kingsley

Germany Has Been Unified for 30 Years. Its Identity Still Is Not.

East Germans, bio-Germans, passport Germans: In an increasingly diverse country, the legacy of a divided history has left many feeling like strangers in their own land.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Katrin Bennhold

And Then There Was One: Three People Lived in This Village Until Two Were Murdered.

Thirty years ago, 200 people lived in the Moldovan village of Dobrusa. But most have since left or died. After a twin killing in February, there’s only one survivor still standing.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Patrick Kingsley

‘Cold War’ Takes New Meaning for U.S. Marines at a NATO Exercise

Hovering over the Trident Juncture exercise in Norway and among the roughly 15,000 American troops — most of them Marines — who are participating, is a consuming narrative about the alliance’s next possible war. The next, more immediate adversary is closer to northern Europe: Russia.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Helene Cooper

As Austerity Helps Bankrupt an English County, Even Conservatives Mutiny

Usually, local government finance is a dull affair. But Northamptonshire has become a warning sign of the perilous state of Britain’s local governments. A Conservative Party bastion, Northamptonshire is leafy and affluent, littered with aristocratic estates — yet in February its local authority became the first in two decades to effectively run out of money.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by By Kimiko de Freytas-Tamurat

Uganda, Firewood Collection puts at risk Women and Children

Firewood collection is a household chore traditionally carried out by women and children, often associated with grave protection risks. Chasing and raping of women and children during collection was commonly reported. Moreover, firewood collection is a time-consuming endeavour, not only because distance to the supply source is increasing, but also because women often take the opportunity of being in the bush to search for wild foods and construction material. The longer the time spent in the bush, the higher the risk of being attacked.

Killer Slime, Dead Birds, an Expunged Map: The Dirty Secrets of European Farm Subsidies

In the spring of 2017, a European Union working group of environmentalists, academics and lobbyists was having a technical discussion on green farming practices when a map appeared on an overhead screen. In an instant, the room froze.A farm lobbyist objected. Officials murmured their disapproval.The map juxtaposed pollution in northern Italy with the European Union subsidies paid to farmers in the region. The overlap was undeniable and invited a fundamental question: Is the European Union financing the very environmental problems it is trying to solve?

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by By Matt Apuzzo, Selam Gebrekidan, Agustin Armendariz and Jin Wu

‘This Is All We Can Afford’: Shrinking Lives in the English Countryside

In Cumbria, a bucolic landscape masks growing poverty and isolation. As bus lines are cut and services dry up under austerity, older people are feeling new constraints.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Ceylan Yeginsu

On the Remote Faroe Islands, Love in the Time of Facebook

Filipinos and Thais now make up the largest ethnic minority in an insular Nordic community where nearly everyone had been related.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Bonnie Tsui

Syrian Children Saved a German Village. And a Village Saved Itself.

Four years after Germany took in over one million migrants, integration is quietly working, one village at a time.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Katrin Bennhold

Where Terrorism Is Rising in Africa and the U.S. Is Leaving

LOUMBILA, Burkina Faso — President Trump has ordered most American troops to withdraw from Syria. He wants to bring home thousands more from Afghanistan. Now hundreds of United States commandos and other forces are leaving West Africa — despite an onslaught of attacks from an increasingly deadly matrix of Islamist fighters.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Eric Schmitt

In Eastern Europe, U.S. Military Girds Against Russian Might and Manipulation

The military exercise, which involved 18,000 American and allied troops, offers a window into how Army commanders are countering not just Russian troops and tanks, but also twisted truths. The exercise occurred as President Trump is sidling up to Moscow by bad-mouthing NATO, calling for Russia to be readmitted into the Group of 7 industrialized nations, and planning a summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia next month.

For the NEW YORK TIMES. Text by Eric Schmitt