Old Damascus - incredible (and still surreal) to be able to now hop on a two hour flight from Istanbul

We covered the announcement yesterday on @channel4news.bsky.social on new chickenpox vaccines www.channel4.com/news/nhs-to-... but with vaccine uptake at a 15 year low we spoke to Dr. Okorocha about how social media is fuelling hesitancy.

Huge thanks to ‪@rorypecktrust.bsky.social‬ for making sure freelance & independent journalists (like we three!) receive the safety training we need to work in high risk envir. Many of us work as freelancers without the security of big newsrooms, this is one org making sure we are looked after.

The hastily erected polling station that we’ve come to is outside the local pastry shop. People are signing their names and placing one name in the symbolic ballot box:

This is the line in one small neighborhood in Istanbul as people queue up to vote for the jailed Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu - in an unofficial ballot called to show support for him. CHP members are also voting (around 1.7 mil) for him to be their presidential candidate.

Unexpected item in the bagging area

Worth reading this message from a young Syrian I first met 10 years ago describing his feelings on the astonishing events inside his country over the last week...

Autumn adventures in eastern Anatolia