The neighborhood consists of 27 wooden houses meandering along tree-lined&ensp;footpaths. Though diminished from its original proportions, it has withstood pressures from&ensp;developers and city officials for decades. One of the bigger battles was in the early 2010s when&ensp;plans to tear down the area led to protests that drew together residents, activists and the Finnish embassy next door. This has resulted in the formation of local organisation, Otwarty Jazd&oacute;w, who are actively working to safeguard the&ensp;districts cultural and social position in the city.
But we have still a fight ahead of us,&rdquo; says one&ensp;resident. City Hall floated the idea of&ensp;opening the area to restaurants early in 2024, arousing fears of gentrification. Neighbors fear that this would ruin the district&rsquo;s&ensp;ambience, which is unique and so far mostly peaceful. A September 2024 gathering with the city led to all rental&ensp;contracts expiring in February 2025 as well as a 50% rent hike. And even though city leaders&ensp;promised more discussions on the subject, activists say they have heard nothing further.
 From&ensp;a War-torn Birth to a Bohemian Mecca Jazd&oacute;w&rsquo;s history dates to 1945, when&ensp;World War II left Warsaw in ruins. The Warsaw Reconstruction Office constructed a temporary settlement that would serve as a refuge to&ensp;95 of Finlands prefabricated wooden houses, taken as war reparations from the Soviets. The 54 sq/m were small cabins which had all the necessary such as public bath, school,&ensp;well, store, and even winter sports areas. The compact provided respite in a city still suffering&ensp;from war.
 Originally planned to be&ensp;a temporary shelter, the suburb became a long-term community instead. In&ensp;the 1960s, it had become a destination for a creative set, the appeal of artists, actors and the like lending the district a Bohemian mood. In 1981&ensp;Beatles fans converged here to commemorate the first anniversary of John Lennon&rsquo;s death, informally christening a street &ldquo;Ulica Lennona&rdquo; &mdash; a name that was later adopted officially.
 Over the years, Jazd&oacute;w has lost little homes to urban&ensp;develop projects, such as the construction of embassies and highways. There are only seven families remaining&ensp;today. But&ensp;the neighborhood is anything but dead. It contains different types of cultural and educational institutions including an urban gardening school, a light therapy room, a traditional music center, and a&ensp;film institute. People&ensp;still flock to events like flea markets, yoga, dance parties and workshops.
 A Vision for the Future After years of not knowing, the resonance of Jazd&oacute;w&rsquo;s spirit&ensp;of resistance has never been more vibrant. The aim, as Otwarty Jazd&oacute;w members Lesya Kupar and Mateusz Potempski put it, are to: keep the houses in the commons of the city, give free space to the local NGOs and informal groups to be able to exist and to pay a fair&ensp;rent that will cover the bills and maintain the buildings. They also hope to restore the 26&ensp;house plots gradually lost over the years. The intention is to recover Jazd&oacute;w, dividing the space between new dwellers&ensp;and NGO-inspired projects. It&rsquo;s a&ensp;lofty goal, but it&rsquo;s one that the community feels attainable.
 Hope is not lost&ensp;for Kupar and Potempski. &ldquo;Jazd&oacute;w is unique,&rdquo; they say. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s also the reason why it&ensp;should be saved. Eventually, we think it will end&ensp;up that way.&rdquo;
&nbsp;

A Community Takes an Audacious Stand&ensp;for the Right to Preservation In a bizarre and symbolic gesture, Jazd&oacute;w, a small, green neighborhood of central Warsaw nicknamed a &ldquo;village within a city,&rdquo;&ensp;has declared itself an independent state. Famed for its wooden cabins and grass-roots spirit, the community is now taking online applications for&ensp;citizenship in languages ranging from Polish, English and Esperanto to pirate. The fossa was declared in response to the city&rsquo;s repeated aloofness to the concerns of residents and&ensp;attempts to make the area more commercial.

Jazdów Declares Independence to Resist City-Led Gentrification

Israel's withholding aid, coupled&ensp;with constant armed intervention has made the situation harder. He said that while some aid&ensp;was now being let through, food and essentials were still being held back at the border while people went hungry in Gaza. He called on Israeli officials to denounce remarks by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who&ensp;said Gaza&rsquo;s residents should find new places to live permanently.
 Global responses and humanitarian&ensp;considerations The latest relaxation of Israel&rsquo;s nearly three-month&ensp;blockade followed appeals to allow in aid, though the distributions have been disorderly. At one&ensp;aid center, 47 individuals were said to have been injured in a crowd-related incident. The&ensp;UN has refused to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation - supported by the US and Israel.
 Fletcher condemned statements of Israeli officials that appear to recommend employing pressure on&ensp;the civilian population as a tactic. He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also to reject any narrative that might justify forced&ensp;displacement and to respect international humanitarian law.
 World leaders have&ensp;sounded increasing alarm. Israel&rsquo;s military operations are going&ensp;beyond what is proportionate to stop Hamas, the EU&rsquo;s foreign policy chief has said. Heads of&ensp;government from countries such as the UK, France, and Canada have demanded an end to military operations and the opening of aid routes. Netanyahu&ensp;for his part never stopped blaming those countries for backing Hamas.
 Genocide&ensp;Warnings and Accountability On 14 May, Fletcher called on the UN Security Council to act to prevent genocide in Gaza based on reports of starvation, enforced&ensp;banditry, and high casualties. He cited past failures in Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Sri Lanka,&ensp;calling for immediate action by the world.
 Previously, Fletcher had incurred controversy after he claimed that 14,000 babies would die in 48 hours in the event aid did not come &ndash; something he retracted and said he realized he likewise had a requirement for&ensp;accurate reporting. Still, he said his mission is to argue for life-saving&ensp;humanitarian access.
 He also rejected claims that Hamas was proceeding to intercept aid, noting that the humanitarian institutions are working &ldquo;impartially,&rdquo; and with the aim&ensp;of delivering the supplies to the civilian population.
 According to Fletcher, political solutions, not military occupation, would be the key to ending&ensp;the crisis. He&ensp;also repeated his demand that Hamas free all captives. It has also been reported that there are 58 hostages still in Gaza, and 20 of them may be still&ensp;alive.
 Background context of&ensp;a longstanding conflict The Gaza military operation commenced after the October 7, 2023, attack across the border by Hamas that left&ensp;around 1,200 dead and 251 hostages. At least 54,249 people have died in Gaza since then, including 3,986 since the most recent Israeli strikes&ensp;began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas.
 Tom Fletcher, who&ensp;is also seeking to find ways to tackle crises in Ukraine, Sudan and Syria, said the world was in a deep state of danger. He cautioned that the UN&ensp;Security Council&rsquo;s divisions are making it increasingly difficult to solve conflicts and to protect civilians.
&nbsp;

A high-ranking UN humanitarian official has said the&ensp;people of Gaza are now the victims of forced starvation. Tom Fletcher called the situation&ensp;a war crime but said it is for the legal entities and history to judge.

UN Official Gaza Facing Forced Starvation, Possible War Crimes

The gathering, which will see the coming together of senior defense chiefs from across Asia, is a key opportunity for sideline meetings between major global players,&ensp;and this year is likely to also include rare face-to-face talks between heads of the American and Chinese militaries. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth&ensp;is heading from the United States. In his first trip as Defense Secretary last year, Lloyd Austin hosted former Chinese Defense&ensp;Minister Adm. Dong Jun, at the forum, and agreed to hold onto a dialogue even as military&ensp;tension was escalating, especially over Taiwan and the South China Sea.
 Tensions&ensp;Grow Even as Tariffs Are Paused The choice not to send Dong Jun this year&ensp;comes amid newly strained relations between Washington and Beijing. Tensions had eased earlier this&ensp;month when the two countries agreed to a temporary tariff truce after they had imposed duties of more than 100% on each other&rsquo;s goods. But that tranquillity&ensp;was quickly broken this week. Only two days before the&ensp;forum, the United States announced new rules to curb software exports to Chinese technology firms and said it would tighten visa rules for Chinese students. Those developments have revived questions about the precarious status quo in US-China relations, and&ensp;the fact that there will be no senior Chinese military presence has thrown the possibility of an encounter into doubt.
 China Ventures From Guardian Angel to&ensp;&lsquo;Garbage&rsquo;? China&rsquo;s Defense Ministry refused to provide a specific&ensp;explanation on why the defense minister was not sent at a press briefing, but said the country is open to communication. A US defense official saw China&rsquo;s decision as an expression of lack of satisfaction in the current rate of contacts and that Beijing may not be certain about the summit&rsquo;s usefulness&ensp;or direction. Though China has had little representation in the past at Shangri-La, its representatives in the past have been peppered with tough, unscripted questions from&ensp;regional leaders and analysts. Last year, the Filipino president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., chided aggressive actions in the South China Sea in remarks widely seen as&ensp;an admonishment of China.
 And China&rsquo;s 2023 purge of more than&ensp;a dozen senior military officials during a high-profile anti-corruption campaign further rattled the country&rsquo;s top brass. Some analysts believe that China&rsquo;s less visible role in the summit reflects a refocusing of attention on the importance of&ensp;maintaining stable economic connections, especially in light of concerns how tariffs will effect regional duties. Defense discussions are important, but at the moment China appears to be placing the focus on trade diplomacy,&ensp;instead of the military.
&nbsp;

China has announced that it is not going&ensp;to send its defence minister to this year&rsquo;s Shangri-La Dialogue, the Asia&rsquo;s biggest defence and security summit. Instead, a delegation from the People&rsquo;s Liberation Army National&ensp;Defense University will represent the country. The move is believed to be the first&ensp;time in at least five years that a top Chinese defense official has not attended a signature defense-related event.

China Skips Major Asia Defense Forum Amid US Tensions

As climate change accelerates, Athens &mdash; already the&ensp;hottest capital in mainland Europe &mdash; is enduring longer, more intense heatwaves. The city hit a record in 2024, in a broader trend around the&ensp;Mediterranean: the area is warming much more quickly than the global average. With tourism&ensp;deluging the country, they predict as many as 10 million visitors in 2024, and dangerous hot and crowded conditions in July and August, putting strain on infrastructure and resources.
 Conflict between&ensp;Tourism and Climate Change The mounting&ensp;temperatures have raised deep concerns about Greece&rsquo;s future. The burgeoning tourist economy is however, putting strain on local infrastructure, contributing&ensp;to inflation and water access problem. A few residents fear a singular focus on tourism may be eroding&ensp;the quality of life and the environment for future generations.
 City leaders are beginning&ensp;to respond. The mayor of Athens, Haris&ensp;Doukas, underscores that &ldquo;building resilience is a question of survival.&rdquo; Short-term options range from early warning about heatwaves to public fountains, shaded relaxation&ensp;zones and cooling centers. Ambulances now idle near major attractions like the Acropolis&ensp;to help overheated tourists, many of them unaware of the strength of the sun.
 Hot waves are the leading cause of climate-related deaths in Europe and pose a major threat to elderly populations &mdash; a factor that may be affecting Greece, where the population is among the oldest on the&ensp;continent.
 Urban Transforlmation&ensp;Urban Transformation for Survival To confront this long-term threat,&ensp;Athens is reinventing itself. In 2021, the city appointed Europe&rsquo;s first &ldquo;chief heat officer,&rdquo; tasked&ensp;with sustainable urban planning. Over the last year, 7,000 new trees have&ensp;been planted, and 28,000 more are to be planted in four years. New green corridors and the implementation of heat absorbing materials in urban design are both part&ensp;of efforts to reduce apparent temperatures and the urban heat island effect. Projects range from detailed heatwave mapping to better target responses, to&ensp;a plan for Greece&rsquo;s first microforest in Kypseli, Europe&rsquo;s most crowded neighborhood. The&ensp;city is hoping these targeted microclimates will cool temperatures by as much as 5&deg;C within five years.
 Another significant initiative is the reuse of a Roman aqueduct in Chalandri for irrigation of green&ensp;spaces and cooling of urban areas, with water savings estimated at 80,000-100,000 cubic metres per annum.
 Experts say Athens needs to undo decades of overdevelopment that filled in natural waterways&ensp;with concrete in the 1950s and 1960s. Inspired by Valencia,&ensp;the Spanish city&rsquo;s green makeove r, city planners say Athens can catch up by disassembling concrete areas and building more nature-based solutions.
 A big one involves incorporating&ensp;the city&rsquo;s coast into the city. Though many travelers spend their days aiming for the Acropolis, it is not widely known that Athens sits&ensp;close to a string of postcard-perfect beaches and coves that were once the focal point of the ancient city&rsquo;s identity.
 As the temperatures climb and tourists surge, Athens is scrambling to adapt &mdash; with&ensp;a view to safeguarding not just its people, but its heritage.
&nbsp;

Millions&ensp;of tourists are descending on Athens, the ancient capital of Greece, as the summer heat threatens to break all records. Greece&rsquo;s most crowded historical site, the Acropolis,&ensp;has been shut several times in the hottest hours because of scorching temperatures reaching over 40&deg;C (104&deg;F) in the past few years. Even&ensp;the iconic Parthenon, unshaded and sunbaked, is close to unbearable under such heat, particularly when wildfire smoke looms close by.
&nbsp;

Athens Battles Heatwaves Amid Record Summer Tourism Surge

Judges lauded the photo for its lush color, lighting and texture, and for being a poignant&ensp;image of intergenerational current and human warmth.
&nbsp;
Gorgeous Winners From&ensp;All Around the World
Cliffe&rsquo;s arresting picture&ensp;was selected from six strong category winners that encompassed people, wildlife, landscape, food, city life and portfolio. Among the winning submissions were an alluring geothermal pool in Iceland that looks like a giant eye, a dramatic moment between a Bonelli&rsquo;s eagle and&ensp;fox in Spain, a family-run eatery in Tibet and stunning scenery from Italy and Canada.
&nbsp;
The competition's 18 finalists showed off a combination of creativity and technical prowess, showcasing a vast array of different cultures, terrains and wildlife from&ensp;across the world.
&nbsp;
Get&ensp;Inspired to Travel (or Something) With These 20 Gorgeous Photos
This year&rsquo;s entries were hailed by organizers as some of&ensp;the strongest in the festival&rsquo;s history. The chosen photographs are not just beautiful images, they represent stories and subjects that are emotional, controversial, thought-provoking, exceptional and unique, and they give us a look at an interesting world through the&ensp;eyes of talented photographers. These images set a new standard in travel photography by showing breathtaking moments that ignite the viewer&rsquo;s curiosity and&ensp;admiration.

Family portrait of a Vietnamese woman and her great-granddaughter in a smoky room.IMITATION.Printed Book Page, 225 x 155 mm, 2026 An evocative photograph of a Vietnamese grandmother and her great-granddaughter in a dark, smoke-filled room has been awarded the&ensp;top prize in this year&rsquo;s National Geographic Traveller (UK) Photography Competition 2025. The winning photograph,&ensp;shot in L&agrave;o Cai province, Vietnam, by UK-based photographer Justin Cliffe, was chosen from thousands of entries. It perfectly captures the woman at work on her embroidery, a traditional craft handed down&ensp;through generations of the Red Dao minority.

Intimate Vietnam Portrait Wins Global Travel Photo Contest

These conclude that these settlements are aimed at entrenching Israeli control of the West Bank, thwarting&ensp;the establishment of a Palestinian state and creating room for future settlement expansion.
 Decisions Draw Fire from Peace&ensp;Advocates Peace advocacy groups have decried the move, saying the expansion reflects a push for de&ensp;facto annexation rather than a move toward peace. The government,&ensp;they announced, was demonstrating an overt preference for occupation and annexation over peace, at the hour of the war.
 The expansion is widely seen as a major blow to the goals articulated in the 1993 Oslo Accords to establish a Palestinian state&ensp;in the West Bank with the P.L.O. in Ramallah, based on a two-state solution.
 Continued Heightening of Tensions&ensp;through Military Operations Israel&rsquo;s military, though,&ensp;has been carrying out huge operations in the West Bank for months. Those have included deploying tanks to the region for the first time in years, the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians, and a series of arrests and raids&ensp;in recent weeks.
 Defense Minister Katz in February ordered the army to ready for long-term&ensp;stay in the territory, focusing attention on Palestinian refugee camps. Those moves, alongside settlement expansions, are considered further cementing Israeli control of the West Bank, an area of land still&ensp;highly disputed by international law.
&nbsp;

Israel has given a green light to the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank since the Oslo Accords were signed more than&ensp;30 years ago. In all, 22 new settlements are&ensp;to be created, some deep in the West Bank and in zones it had removed from in the past. The decision was jointly made by Defense Minister Israel&ensp;Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who stressed that it was part of a strategic, long-term plan.
&nbsp;

Israel Approves Largest West Bank Settlement Expansion in Decades

On the ground, Russian troops are flying under the enemy radar, probing a multisectioned 1,000-kilometer front with scattered infantry, motorcycles and light vehicles&ensp;that inch forward. Assaults have stepped up in Donetsk, and&ensp;Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk have been focal points. In the north, more than 50,000 Russian troops are said&ensp;to be massing near Sumy, an effort to push 10 kilometers into Ukrainian territory to create some form of buffer zone. Ukrainian President&ensp;Volodymyr Zelensky conceded that there is an increase in forces, but said his country is improving in the region. Russian progress in the&ensp;Sumy and Kharkiv regions comes as part of a Kremlin plan to gain control over the northern border zones. But experts say it is unlikely to be able to take the regional capital in&ensp;Sumy because of thick forests. Ukraine&rsquo;s Drones and&ensp;Russia&rsquo;s Air Tactics To try to fend&ensp;off these advances, Ukraine is also beefing up its drone abilities. The country is developing a &ldquo;drone wall,&rdquo; a multilayered defense along key front lines that could inflict severe losses on the invading Russian&ensp;troops. The reliance of&ensp;Ukraine&rsquo;s military on drones to strike Russian supply lines up to 30 kilometers from the battlefield has been steadily slowing enemy advances. These joint drone-artillery attacks have thwarted all manner&ensp;of attacks while suffering only a few Ukrainian casualties. Russia,&ensp;though, is ramping up production of drones and new missiles, including launching mass attacks designed to overwhelm Ukraine&rsquo;s air defenses. Zelensky cautioned that Russia may one day launch as many&ensp;as 1,000 drones in 24 hours. Russia has produced drones with higher altitude and improved resistance to jamming, including the Shahed, one&ensp;of which has flown at 4,900 meters recently. Zelensky added that Russia was now making 300 to 350 Shahed&ensp;drones daily. Ukraine&rsquo;s Problems&ensp;and Technological Battle Ukraine is moving F-16 and Mirage jets to protect its&ensp;own airspace, and is working on drone-to-drone interceptors. Yet, concerns remain. The previous military chief and current London ambassador, Valerii Zaluzhnyi,&ensp;has said Ukraine must fight a &ldquo;high-tech war of survival&rdquo;, while focusing on causing economic pain to Russia, via drone warfare. Ukraine lost its lead in technological&ensp;innovation, and now the enemy has advanced, he said. But Russia has&ensp;begun deploying short-range, fiber-optic drones that are impervious to jamming, as of now something the Ukrainians do not have at scale. These drones are controlled with thin optical fibers, rendering them harder to&ensp;break. Ukraine has not lost the drone&ensp;war, but the people still must face increased challenges as Russia continues to gain ground both technologically and strategically, according to Zelensky. Despite intensifying pressure, Ukraine is bolstering its&ensp;drone capabilities and reorganizing its defenses, seemingly resolved to prevent additional territorial losses.
&nbsp;

Ukraine is preparing for a massive&ensp;summer offensive by Russia, which has escalated missile, drone and ground attacks on multiple regions. Officials are reported as saying that Ukrainian troops are retreating from parts of Donetsk&ensp;and the north and from rural areas in the south. The Russian military now appears to be seizing about 14 square kilometers&ensp;of territory a day, with the ultimate goal of taking the four annexed territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Ukraine Builds 'Drone Wall' to Resist Russian Offensive

Drone images showed the devastation, as thick&ensp;mud and debris covered the entire village, its surrounding valley walls and the river that ran through it. &ldquo;We have lost our village,&rdquo;&ensp;Mayor Matthias Bellwald said at a news conference. The village is under rubble. We will rebuild.&rdquo;
 Authorities Assert&ensp;Widespread Destruction Some 90%&ensp;of Blatten was buried by a landslide, local official Stephane Ganzer said. An &ldquo;unbelievable amount of material dissolved&rdquo; into the valley, describing a massive landslide in German, said Matthias Ebener, an official in&ensp;the canton of Valais where the village is located.
 Blatten&rsquo;s 300 residents were evacuated on May 19 when geologists warned that failure seemed&ensp;imminent - because of the instability of the mountain and glacier above. Millions of&ensp;cubic metres of rock and soil have since lain crashed down. A video circulated widely online showed the instant of the glacier&rsquo;s partial collapse, with an enormous cloud of dust and&ensp;debris racing toward the village.
 Experts Blame Climate Change as&ensp;a Factor Although the tumbling mountainside directly caused the catastrophe, warmer temperatures appeared to&ensp;have had an effect, too, perhaps weakening the permafrost and stability of mountains, as Christian Huggel, a climate expert at the University of Zurich, said in an email. &ldquo;That is not known from anywhere in the Swiss Alps in at least two centuries,&rdquo; he&ensp;added.
 Images from the&ensp;aftermath depicted broken wooden homes covered by debris from the landslide. Officials closed down&ensp;the main road into the Loetschental valley and warned the general public to stay clear of the dangerous area. Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter&ensp;expressed her solidarity with the region following the tragedy.
&nbsp;

A major glacier collapse in the Swiss Alps on Wednesday set off a powerful landslide of mud, rock and debris that buried much of the mountain&ensp;village of Blatten, which had been evacuated earlier this month after authorities warned of a potential rockslide. One person is still missing as a result&ensp;of the incident, the officials said.
&nbsp;

Glacier Collapse Buries Swiss Village, One Person Missing

The regional governor of Stavropol confirmed that Gurtsiev had died, describing him as a &ldquo;hero," a veteran of Russia&rsquo;s ongoing military&ensp;campaign in Ukraine. The governor also said authorities were investigating all possibilities as to who might have been responsible, a theory that&ensp;Ukrainian nationalists might have been behind the blast, but that no evidence had been made public. There has been no response&ensp;from Ukrainian officials.
 Role in Mariupol Siege Gurtsiev was said to&ensp;have been heavily involved when Russia seized Mariupol in spring 2022. He was directing the Russian air raids on different parts of the city, where many civilians&ensp;were killed. Apartment&ensp;blocks, hospitals, and shelters were extensively bombed in the course of the operation, which Ukrainian officials have called a war crime.
 Military sources said Gurtsiev had introduced new technical systems that increased&ensp;accuracy in targeting missiles. These improvements were&ensp;supposedly to lend support for strikes against what Russian forces asserted were supply bases of the Azov Regiment. His participation in&ensp;the siege could have made him a focus.
 Russian Figures Under&ensp;Attack Series Gurtsiev&rsquo;s killing is the latest in a series of attacks on Russian military and&ensp;pro-war figures. In April, Deputy Chief Yaroslav Moskalik was fatally&ensp;shot by a car bomb in Balashikha, near Moscow. In February, a pro-Russian paramilitary leader was killed in&ensp;an explosion at a residential building in the city.
 Other recent incidents include the December 2023 slaying of General Igor Kirillov, who&ensp;was killed by a bomb hidden in a scooter, and the fatal shooting of the missile scientist Mikhail Shatsky in a wood near Moscow. Ex-Ukrainian MP Killed in Moscow Park; Blogger Murdered by Bomb Buried in Caf&eacute; Statue Both Illia Kyva, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament, was shot in a Moscow park,&ensp;and Vladimir Tatarsky, a blogger, was killed in a bomb attack buried in a statue during an event at a caf&eacute; in St. Petersburg. Authorities are still investigating the increase in attacks as tensions over the&ensp;conflict in Ukraine linger.
&nbsp;

High-ranking Russian serviceman and first deputy mayor of Stavropol, Zaur Gurtsiev, died of a grenade explosion on May&ensp;28. The episode unfolded near a residential building in the city of&ensp;Stavropol. Gurtsiev was accosted by 29-year-old Nikita Penkov, who then detonated the grenade, which killed&ensp;both.
&nbsp;

top

LATEST INSIGHTS