The Biden administration will begin sending US military contractors to Ukraine. This policy reversal was first reported late last week, and signals a shift in US willingness to support Ukraine’s military effort. Contractors will play a limited but significant role on the ground in Ukraine.
Armenian Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem say their centuries-old community is facing an existential threat. It stems from an ongoing legal dispute over a real estate deal signed three years ago. Members of the small minority community of Armenians in Jerusalem say they are fearful about their future in the holy city.
Sanctions on Russian diamonds, imposed in response to the war in Ukraine, have damaged business in Surat, India’s diamond polishing hub. Many of the city’s diamond artisans from lower-income communities have become collateral damage in a tussle between the West and Russia.
An affluent neighborhood of Seoul is the latest stretch of National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek’s worldwide walking journey. He tells Host Carolyn Beeler about the Gangnam entertainment district, its important links to K-pop, and the hyper-competitive career paths young people have pursued to stardom.
Sheds, or wooden buildings at the bottom of a garden, are important to British culture, or at least to many men of a certain age in the country. But now, sheds are playing a far greater role in the UK — bringing older men together to help soothe loneliness.