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Mediterranean

Man taking photo of self in mirror with a desert background

Out of Eden Walk: Cyprus

Out of Eden Walk

National Geographic Explorer Paul Salopek tells host Carolyn Beeler about his first stop after having walked through the Middle East. On Cyprus he found beaches slathered with baking Russians and Brits, a busy port city and a checkerboard of olive groves and yellow hay fields. But he also found the vestigial border line that divides the island’s Greek and Turkish communities.

Mussel growers harvest mussels by passing beneath the docks on small barges, pulling up the ropes and cutting the harvest loose.

Unusually warm seas kill off mussel harvests in Spain, leaving restaurant owners with limited options

Environment
Italian Americans celebrating during a Christopher Columbus Day parade.

How Columbus Day contributes to the cultural erasure of Italian Americans

Culture
The shoreline of a village on the Greek island of Evia is shown with massive plumes of dark smoke rising in the distance.

Discussion: Climate change and a deepening global health crisis

Climate Change
Huseyin Kara shows off his lush green olive trees, like a proud grandfather.

Seed keepers in Turkey revive old farming methods to confront new climate threats

Climate Change
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Migrants wearing face masks to curb the spread of COVID-19 sit at a pier as Italian police officers stand by.

Some migrants crossing the Mediterranean say they prefer death to being returned

Migration

At least five migrants have drowned off the coast of Libya, including a woman and child. The journey to a better life is often harrowing.
Some migrants crossing the Mediterranean say they prefer death to being returned

A man wearing a blue shirt leans his body over a coffin draped with the Algerian flag in a room full of coffins.

French report reignites debate about colonialism in Algeria

History

Like the US, France is navigating political disagreements about its history and their relationship to modern issues of race.

Venice’s Grand Canal was for centuries a thoroughfare for the global shipping trade on the ancient Silk Road.

Italy is caught in the middle of the EU’s tussle with its ‘systemic rival,’ China

On China's New Silk Road

Italian populists—skeptical of the value of EU membership—drove Italy to become the first G7 country to join China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Then the pandemic brought generous EU aid, leaving Italy to reassess who its real friends are and how best to help its economy.

A Turkish ship with a flag sails in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

Greece and Turkey sail toward a crisis of sea borders 

Borders

Greece’s and Turkey’s land borders are fairly clear these days — but claims over the sea are not. When you add recent, underwater gas discoveries to the mix, the decision about who has the right to drill — and where — becomes tangled and complex. 

A view of the Grand Canal following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Venice, Italy, May 24, 2020.

The canals are clear thanks to the coronavirus, but Venice’s existential threat Is climate change

Flooding in November has left experts wondering whether the massive retractable gates the city is constructing will ever keep all of the water out.

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