Muslim pilgrims, donning face masks and moving in small groups after days in isolation, began arriving at Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Wednesday for the start of a historically unique and scaled-down hajj experience reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic.
Many Russians in the far north have been waiting for more than two decades to be resettled in lower latitudes. They are caught between Moscow’s grand plans for Arctic development and an exodus of aging Soviet workers longing to see flowers rather than blizzards in the springtime.