.
@realDonaldTrump on North Korea:" They will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen." Per Pooler @tarapalmieri: image via Fin Gomez @finnygo, 8 August 2017
Threatening war without really meaning it, without allies, without Congress, and having convinced 60% of US public your every word is a lie?:tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
There are many ways to communicate a threat to North Korea. Booming rash threats from the golf links = if not the very worst, then close: tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
Loud empty threats ill become a great power - and could well trigger the very crisis they are thoughtlessly intended to deter:tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
North Korea says seriously considering plan to strike Guam: KCNA.: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 8 August 2017
Halloween and party supplies sit in crates at Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China, on May 25, 2016: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 25 May 2016
During the week-long trip, I also got a sense of a post-war Syria, slowly being built atop the remnants of thousands of shattered lives.
A picture taken on July 3, 2016 from the UNESCO-listed citadel in the government-controlled side of the divided northern Syrian city of Aleppo shows damaged buildings, including the ancient Great Umayyad Mosque (L) at the foot of the medieval fortress.: photo by George Ourfalian/AFP, 3 July 2016
Open-air war museum
At the gates of Aleppo city, the scene is bucolic: olive trees, sheep, an open plain. But as we get closer, the vista is brutally replaced by one of charred cars and pancaked concrete shops.
A picture shows a destroyed factory in Aleppo's northwest Layramoun industrial district on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
Displaced Syrians who fled with their families Islamic State controlled areas in Raqa, Deir Ezzor and Mayadeen gather at Aleppo's bus station of Ramussa on July 4, 2017.: photo by oseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
A picture taken on March 9, 2017 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which was recaptured by government forces in December 2016, shows people purchasing vegetables in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
Return to Life?
A Syrian artisan sews a handmade rug at his workshop in the capital Damascus on July 9, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 July 2017
Syrians carry a body of a fighter during a funeral after Friday prayer in the northeastern city of Aleppo on February 15, 2013.: photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP, 15 February 2013)
Syrians from Aleppo's Armenian community have dinner at a cafe in the al-Midan neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
A picture taken 17 March 2006 shows a general view of the historic Syrian city of Aleppo, 350 kms north of Damascus, with its landmark citadel in the background.: photo by Ramzi Haidar/AFP, 17 March 2006
A Mutilated Roadmap
Syrian pro-government forces walk on a road through the town of Khanasser, which is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country, after they reportedly recaptured it from Islamic State (IS) group fighters, on February 29, 2016.: photo by Georges Ourfalian/AFP, 29 February 2016)
Syrians spend time on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Wadi Qandil north of the seaside city of Latakia on July 6, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 6 July 2017
Hardcore Supporters
Syrians spend time on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Wadi Qandil north of the seaside city of Latakia on July 6, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 6 July 2017
An oil painting depicting a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez al-Assad are seen at an art gallery in the capital Damascus on July 3, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 3 July 2017
At the entrance to Latakia, portraits of soldiers killed in battle are more imposing than anywhere else.
Security is also different. While we traveled between Damascus and Aleppo without a minder, we were followed virtually everywhere in Latakia by an armed military policeman. Interviews were conducted at a distance from him.
But even among the most pro-regime communities, there are discreet criticisms of the so-called shabbiha, the armed regime enforcers who gained infamy for helping put down the demonstrations that kicked off Syria's 2011 uprising. They impose their will by force when they want something. Even when they want a woman.
"They can kill you just for looking at them the wrong way," one Syrian murmurs apprehensively.
Their acts are so egregious that it's rumoured even state security forces in Aleppo chase the shabbiha through the streets to arrest them.
A Syrian boy carries a bag filled with bread while on his way home, in the Kallaseh district of the northern city of Aleppo, on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
A picture taken on March 9, 2017 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which was recaptured by government forces in December 2016, shows a view from inside the old bazaar in the old city.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
Amid the many regrets is a personal one: that I am unable to make a trip to Yabroud, my maternal grandmother's hometown near the border with Lebanon. I had hoped to photograph the balcony of her childhood home, and another of the cathedral she holds dear. Perhaps one day.
A picture taken on April 1, 2017 shows a view of a field near the town of Qumhanah in the countryside of the central province of Hama through a hole in a concrete wall.: photo by AFP/Stringer, 1 April 2017
Rana Moussaui is AFP Beirut deputy bureau chief. This blog was translated by Sara Hussein in Beirut.
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
#Syria A Free Syrian Army fighter photographed at night in a rebel-held area of the town of Dael. By Alaa Al-Faqir @reuterspictures: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 8 August 2017
Venezuelan authorities quell an attack on a military base near Valencia by soldiers and armed civilians: photo by Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
The silhouette of an anti-government protester is seen through a Venezuelan flag during a call by the opposition to block roads for 10 hours in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 10, 2017.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 10 July 2017
A protester taking part in an anti-government march to the Supreme Court is detained and driven away by Bolivarian National Guard soldiers in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, July 6, 2017.: photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP, 6 July 2017
An anti-government protester screams at security forces blocking a march to the Supreme Court to oppose President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, July 22, 2017.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 22 July 2017
Residents of Petare neighborhood walk near a barricade made by anti-government demonstrators to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Ariana Cubillos, 29 July 2017
#Venezuela An anti-government activist shows bullet cases during a protest in Valencia. Photo @rschemidt #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
A TV cameraman films Kenyans checking if their names are on electoral lists at a polling station in Nairobi, Kenya. #APTOPIX @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 7 July 2017
#Kenya Kenya on a knife edge ahead of high-stakes elections Photo @Lerneryd #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
Kenya gears up for tomorrow's presidential election, which many fear could descend into violence: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Kenya gears up for tomorrow's presidential election, which many fear could descend into violence: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Scenes from today's election in Kenya that pits Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta against challenger Raila Odinga. Photos Ben Curtis and @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 8 August 2017
Attendance. Rwanda, 2017. Hiding in plain sight. The make of democracy.: image via Marco Longari @marcolongari, 4 August 2017
An Indian man sits and watches kids play in the rain in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. India gets its monsoon rains from June to September.: photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP, 7 August 2017
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Kolkata 2017: photo by Pau Buscató, 31 January 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Nakarin Teerapenun, 31 May 2017
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
London, 2014: photo by Dmitry Stepanenko, 6 July 2017
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Barcelona street photography. Malevo in Poble Sec.: photo by Sergi Escribano, 21 April 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Untitled [Queen St. W., Toronto]: photo by Dominic Bugatto, 5 August 2017
Untitled [Jamuna Future Park, Basundhara, Dhaka]: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 15 September 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Untitled [cloudmen, Flour War, Galaxidi]: photo by kostas kroustallis, 23 February 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul.: photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul. photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul.: photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
young punk [Blackpool] : photo by Dawn Mander Blackpool Photographer, 5 August 2017
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
[Tokyo]: photo by Kristin Van den Eede, 21 May 2017
Taken 4-2-17 [NYC]: photo by daina-iza, 20 April 2017
Taken 4-2-17 [NYC]: photo by daina-iza, 20 April 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
Untitled. "Secrets are the truth -- reveal a hidden secret" -- Matt Obrey.: photo by Maria Kappatou, 27 September 2014
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015
Trump promises North Korea "the fire and the fury the world has never seen" from his golf course in NJ: image via Tara Palmieri @tarapalmieri, 8 August 2017
@realDonaldTrump on North Korea:" They will be met with the fire and the fury like the world has never seen." Per Pooler @tarapalmieri: image via Fin Gomez @finnygo, 8 August 2017
Trump promises North Korea "the fire and the fury the world has never seen" from his golf course in NJ: image via Tara Palmieri @tarapalmieri, 8 August 2017
Donald J. TrumpVerified account @realDonaldTrump
David Frum Retweeted Donald J. Trump
David Frum added,
Is this like from another dimension???
tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
David Frum added,
Is this like from another dimension???
tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
Threatening war without really meaning it, without allies, without Congress, and having convinced 60% of US public your every word is a lie?:tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
There are many ways to communicate a threat to North Korea. Booming rash threats from the golf links = if not the very worst, then close: tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
Loud empty threats ill become a great power - and could well trigger the very crisis they are thoughtlessly intended to deter:tweet via David FrumVerified account @davidfrum, 8 August 2017
Carl Sagan predicted 2017 on page 40 of The Demon Haunted World. Published in 1996.: image via KStreetHipster @KStreetHipster, 7 August 2017
North Korea says seriously considering plan to strike Guam: KCNA.: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 8 August 2017
Edward Sanders: Remembering Hiroshima Day
young black bear
on our roof
as I try to write
a poem
remembering
Hiroshima Day
on our roof
as I try to write
a poem
remembering
Hiroshima Day
8-6-17 Sunday morning
Halloween and party supplies sit in crates at Jinhua Partytime Latex Art and Crafts Factory in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China, on May 25, 2016: photo by Aly Song/Reuters, 25 May 2016
Saying Goodbye to Their Homeland. Two generations are pried from their homeland, as a mother and daughter take a final look out an evacuation bus window at the town of Barzeh. Caught in the Syrian Regime’s strategy of forced displacement, they are forced to leave to Idlib and empty their homes, which will be occupied by sectarian allies of the Regime to maintain their power in the region. The people of Barzeh looked up to skies scattered with bombs for years until they were forced to leave, and will face no better future in Idlib as the Regime continues its tactic of genocide in every liberated, rebel-held area.Barzeh, Damascus 20\5\2017
Saying Goodbye to Their Homeland. Two generations are pried from their homeland, as a mother and daughter take a final look out an evacuation bus window at the town of Barzeh. Caught in the Syrian Regime’s strategy of forced displacement, they are forced to leave to Idlib and empty their homes, which will be occupied by sectarian allies of the Regime to maintain their power in the region. The people of Barzeh looked up to skies scattered with bombs for years until they were forced to leave, and will face no better future in Idlib as the Regime continues its tactic of genocide in every liberated, rebel-held area.Barzeh, Damascus 20\5\2017
Saying Goodbye to Their Homeland. Two generations are pried from their homeland, as a mother and daughter take a final look out an evacuation bus window at the town of Barzeh. Caught in the Syrian Regime’s strategy of forced displacement, they are forced to leave to Idlib and empty their homes, which will be occupied by sectarian allies of the Regime to maintain their power in the region. The people of Barzeh looked up to skies scattered with bombs for years until they were forced to leave, and will face no better future in Idlib as the Regime continues its tactic of genocide in every liberated, rebel-held area.Barzeh, Damascus 20\5\2017 : photo by Dimashqi Lens, 20 May 2017
Pilgrimage through a Syria at war: Rana Moussaoui, AFP, 7 August 2017
Aleppo -- My last journey to Syria will remain etched in my memory, more like a pilgrimage than a reporting assignment. I went to Damascus, Hama, Latakia, Aleppo -- places whose suffering and destruction I have been covering from AFP’s bureau in Beirut. For years I and my colleagues in the bureau have been talking to reporters on the ground in Syria on a daily basis. I have talked to them as they huddled through bombings, as they cried over loved ones killed, as they held back tears and madness after witnessing the death, suffering and destruction again, and again, and again. And now I was seeing for myself these places that I have gotten to know so intimately from a distance.
During the week-long trip, I also got a sense of a post-war Syria, slowly being built atop the remnants of thousands of shattered lives.
A picture taken on July 3, 2016 from the UNESCO-listed citadel in the government-controlled side of the divided northern Syrian city of Aleppo shows damaged buildings, including the ancient Great Umayyad Mosque (L) at the foot of the medieval fortress.: photo by George Ourfalian/AFP, 3 July 2016
Open-air war museum
At the gates of Aleppo city, the scene is bucolic: olive trees, sheep, an open plain. But as we get closer, the vista is brutally replaced by one of charred cars and pancaked concrete shops.
Our team, including photographer Joseph Eid and videographer Youssef Karwashan, drives into Ramussa, a neighborhood on Aleppo's southern outskirts and the scene of fierce fighting between government forces and rebels.
The stories we wrote about this place come back to me in vivid flashbacks. Just six months ago, the area was a warzone, as the army battled to seize eastern Aleppo from rebels. Some of the most violent clashes centred around the military academies in the neighbourhood and the Sheikh Saeed cement factory, which is miraculously still intact, though shuttered.
A picture shows a destroyed factory in Aleppo's northwest Layramoun industrial district on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
The silence is deafening, the streets are deserted, and we feel as though we are in an open-air war museum. But it is only a taste of what awaits inside the city.
Our first story practically falls into our laps: the recent reopening of the Ramussa bus station. This was the crossing point for thousands of rebels and civilians being evacuated from the city in December 2016, before Syria's army announced its full recapture. Among them was our correspondent Karam al-Masri, the only reporter for an international news organisation still inside the besieged east at the time.
Six months later, it is crisscrossed with a new set of tragedies. Ramussa now shelters families fleeing the latest battle in Syria to make international headlines: the fight to dislodge the Islamic State group from its bastion of Raqa. Even for them, the devastation is jarring. A woman from Raqa who had visited Aleppo in her youth told me she couldn't believe her eyes when she saw the destruction in the city.
Displaced Syrians who fled with their families Islamic State controlled areas in Raqa, Deir Ezzor and Mayadeen gather at Aleppo's bus station of Ramussa on July 4, 2017.: photo by oseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
Like her, I had visited Aleppo as a teenager, but I have retained little more than vague memories of the place, and the eternal regret that I never explored the city's full splendour before it was disfigured.
In what was rebel-held Aleppo, life is making a cautious comeback. I make my way through a maze of buildings whose floors have collapsed like houses of cards. I spot a baker, then a butcher shop. Further on, surrounded by ravaged homes, wooden carts are overflowing with fruit and vegetables. The same stalls had been barren when Karam, hungry and dreaming of being able to eat a kiwi or a cherry, photographed them for us during the worst days of Aleppo's siege.
A picture taken on March 9, 2017 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which was recaptured by government forces in December 2016, shows people purchasing vegetables in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighbourhood.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
Like all journalists in Syria on government visas, we are accompanied by a representative from the information ministry. She was in Aleppo just after the army had recaptured it and says that today's open, drivable streets had then been filled with debris.
But some parts of the east have been frozen in time since December. I find myself confronted by a scene of devastation on hold, enveloped in an eerie silence. In these parts of east Aleppo, there are ghosts that speak to you: the ghosts of thousands of Aleppans who demonstrated against the regime, the Aleppans buried beneath the rubble, and the Aleppans who left these destroyed streets behind.
You can find them in the living room exposed to the elements by a gaping hole blown through a building. You can find them in the lonely mattresses perched on mounds of rubble, and the dislodged fans hanging off balconies in scenes worthy of a Dali painting.
In the streets of Kalasseh, Shaar, Inshaat and Bab al-Faraj -- names that appeared unrelentingly in our AFP dispatches -- I can't stop snapping pictures. I feel a compulsive need to immortalise what will disappear in a few months, or perhaps a few years, forever erasing the aftermath of a horrifying war.
As I walk the streets, I remember my trip to the Old City of Homs in 2014, after a similar evacuation of rebels and civilians to opposition territory elsewhere in the country. I also feel a distant echo of my own city Beirut, whose downtown I crossed on foot in the early 1990s just after Lebanon's 15-year civil war came to a close.
But in Aleppo, the scale of the destruction is so massive, the skeletal remnants of the buildings make the scene surreal.
Return to Life?
But amid the rubble blossom stories that inspire hope. In a half-deserted street in the Kalasseh neighbourhood, I see two men lifting equipment into an apartment via a pulley.
A Syrian artisan sews a handmade rug at his workshop in the capital Damascus on July 9, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 July 2017
We go up to the second floor and find a business owner who has managed to restart a small workshop making plastic products.
In a nearby building, another entrepreneur has restarted his weaving machines. It's a hive of activity, but still a long way from the massive textile production that gave Aleppo its reputation as the capital of the industry -- not only in Syria but across the broader Arab world.
In the industrial district of Layramun, on Aleppo's northwestern outskirts, the devastation is breathtaking. It's a graveyard of factories, full of melancholic, dust-covered machines.
I notice sandbags to my right, and a military outpost.
"They're on the other side, don't come too close," a soldier tells us.
“They" refers to the rebels, still stationed on the western outskirts of the city. The war is still here.
Syrians carry a body of a fighter during a funeral after Friday prayer in the northeastern city of Aleppo on February 15, 2013.: photo by Bulent Kilic/AFP, 15 February 2013)
Aleppo's government-held west has also been affected by the war, even if the damage is not comparable.
In the Armenian district of Midan, we find a cafe that has just reopened after four years of rebel fire on the frontline neighbourhood.
Now, the roar of rockets has been replaced by the sound of children laughing and customers clinking glasses of arak, a Levantine liquor. It is a small glimpse of the pre-war Aleppo I never knew.
Syrians from Aleppo's Armenian community have dinner at a cafe in the al-Midan neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
Some of the city's most famed icons are now but a shadow of their former selves: the celebrated Baron hotel, where former French president Charles De Gaulle and writer Agatha Christie once stayed, is a desolate place. One entrance to the city's ancient covered market, the oldest in the world, is still blocked by debris.
Saadallah al-Jabiri place and the Aleppo citadel, both longtime symbols of the city, are now lit for the first time in four years. But the square is now dominated by a giant portrait of President Bashar al-Assad that reminds locals who the victor here is. The citadel remains a military position.
A picture taken 17 March 2006 shows a general view of the historic Syrian city of Aleppo, 350 kms north of Damascus, with its landmark citadel in the background.: photo by Ramzi Haidar/AFP, 17 March 2006
Even the nightlife is marked by the legacy of war. Russian soldiers are regular customers at Aleppo's once-renown restaurants. Business at cafes and hotels is dictated by the rhythm of consecutive power cuts, leaving air conditioning units virtually useless against the heat wave.
Before the war, Aleppo -- like many Arab cities -- never slept. Now, it feels the way Damascus has since early on in Syria's war. Not a single cat can be seen roaming the streets, except in the Mogambo neighbourhood, where young people crowd into fast-food restaurants.
A Mutilated Roadmap
The routes from Damascus to Aleppo, then Aleppo to Lattakia, are dotted with detours because of the continuing rebel presence that slices through loyalist territory. Along the way are names that we in AFP's Beirut bureau have memorised after six years of poring over maps to cover the conflict.
The trip starts out from Damascus and leads us first through the central province of Homs, looping around rebel-held towns like Harasta. We pass Homs city, and enter Hama province to take the famed Khanasser road. The beginning of the highway is marked by checkpoints manned by pro-government foreign fighters taking selfies with Iraqi and Afghan flags behind them.
Syrian pro-government forces walk on a road through the town of Khanasser, which is the sole link between government-held areas in and around Aleppo and those in the rest of the country, after they reportedly recaptured it from Islamic State (IS) group fighters, on February 29, 2016.: photo by Georges Ourfalian/AFP, 29 February 2016)
This thoroughfare, also known as the Damascus-Aleppo highway, faces regular albeit short attacks by the Islamic State group. The attacks are so frequent that they don't make news -- instead, they've almost become a joke.
But when I find myself physically on the road, I have no desire to laugh whatsoever. For an hour or more I see burned-out vehicles belonging to the Syrian army or their Russian allies on either side of the road, obviously the remnants of recent IS attacks. Not funny at all.
We take the Khanasser road again on our way out of Aleppo in order to reach the coastal province of Latakia in the west. It's a bizarre detour made necessary by the fact that between the two areas lies Idlib, the last province in the country that remains entirely outside regime control.
Syrians spend time on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Wadi Qandil north of the seaside city of Latakia on July 6, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 6 July 2017
A trip that in the past would have taken two hours, now takes five. In Aleppo's Ramussah station, I am astonished to meet a driver from Idlib who still travels once a week from the rebel-held province all the way to Damascus. Before the war he used to make the trip twice a day.
"It's not simple," he says.
As we pass through Hama city, nervous soldiers conduct a particularly robust inspection of our car -- a suicide attack has just hit the city. To continue on to Latakia, our driver turns onto the Mehardeh road. Mehardeh! We know the name very well because it, too, is regularly attacked by rebels and jihadists. I see sandbags on either side of the highway to protect passing vehicles from sniper fire. The road is deserted, as are the houses along it. We fume at the driver, but he insists the route is safe. I send my GPS location by Whatsapp to my colleagues in Beirut. Just in case.
At one crossroads I see a sign pointing drivers towards areas in Idlib province, an area to which I have no access. We use Whatsapp to communicate with our correspondent there. So close, but still so far.
Hardcore Supporters
I even find traces of Aleppo in Latakia, interviewing families from the city who have sought refuge in this seaside stronghold of the Assad clan.
In nearby Wadi Kandil, on the endless beach bathed in the orange of the setting sun, it's hard to believe this peaceful landscape could belong to such a devastated country. Here, people smoking shisha in the shade are not particularly eager to discuss politics and war. "It's true that our area has not been affected in the same way as the rest of the country," says one relaxed smoker. "But we have given the blood of our young men for the army."
Syrians spend time on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Wadi Qandil north of the seaside city of Latakia on July 6, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 6 July 2017
Through snippets of conversation, you realise that the residents of pro-government areas like Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia are not a single bloc.
There are those who oppose the government, but stay silent out of fear or peer pressure. And there are those who support the government but freely criticise their politicians -- except the president -- for rampant corruption and new wealth that have somehow built sleek shopping centres and villas in the middle of a war.
And then there are the hardcore loyalists, most of them from the same Alawite minority as Assad, who view defending the regime as a life-or-death matter.
An oil painting depicting a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his late father Hafez al-Assad are seen at an art gallery in the capital Damascus on July 3, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 3 July 2017
At the entrance to Latakia, portraits of soldiers killed in battle are more imposing than anywhere else.
Security is also different. While we traveled between Damascus and Aleppo without a minder, we were followed virtually everywhere in Latakia by an armed military policeman. Interviews were conducted at a distance from him.
But even among the most pro-regime communities, there are discreet criticisms of the so-called shabbiha, the armed regime enforcers who gained infamy for helping put down the demonstrations that kicked off Syria's 2011 uprising. They impose their will by force when they want something. Even when they want a woman.
"They can kill you just for looking at them the wrong way," one Syrian murmurs apprehensively.
Their acts are so egregious that it's rumoured even state security forces in Aleppo chase the shabbiha through the streets to arrest them.
A Syrian boy carries a bag filled with bread while on his way home, in the Kallaseh district of the northern city of Aleppo, on July 5, 2017.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 5 July 2017
As we leave Latakia, we see another nod to the news. We're thrilled to see a roadside vendor with a small fridge in this heatwave. Inside are chilled bottles of Russian Baltika beer. After all, we're not too far from Hmeimim, the Russian base and headquarters for coordination between the regime and its key ally.
Back in Damascus, life continues under the crushing heat. There is grumbling about the checkpoints that dot the city and contribute to grinding traffic jams, as well as the exorbitant prices: $20 for a restaurant meal is far beyond the means of most Syrians now.
But there are still glimpses of the Damascus of the past so loved by Syrians and tourists alike.
A picture taken on March 9, 2017 in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, which was recaptured by government forces in December 2016, shows a view from inside the old bazaar in the old city.: photo by Joseph Eid/AFP, 9 March 2017
The craftsmen hammering copper, the Tekkiyeh Sulimaniyeh market, an exhibition of handicrafts in the Khan Assad Basha. And above all the hammam: Malek al-Zahir for the men, Ammouna for the women. I call at the latter for a moment of relaxation. A magical moment in an empty hammam, a glimpse of a missed rendezvous with the Syria that has ceased to exist.
Amid the many regrets is a personal one: that I am unable to make a trip to Yabroud, my maternal grandmother's hometown near the border with Lebanon. I had hoped to photograph the balcony of her childhood home, and another of the cathedral she holds dear. Perhaps one day.
A picture taken on April 1, 2017 shows a view of a field near the town of Qumhanah in the countryside of the central province of Hama through a hole in a concrete wall.: photo by AFP/Stringer, 1 April 2017
Rana Moussaui is AFP Beirut deputy bureau chief. This blog was translated by Sara Hussein in Beirut.
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
A Russian air strike. After a Russian air strike on Saqba which caused the death of one civilian and many injuries. [Saqba -- Gouta -- near Damascus]: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 November 2015
"Poverty is the worst form of violence."A homeless man selling lighters on the sidewalk in Damascus breaks for lunch. Gandhi once said, "Poverty is the worst form of violence." More than 80 percent of Syrians currently live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is an estimated 58 percent. Many poor people living under Assad's rule are debilitated from becoming successful due to the economic corruption in the country. This man is one of the many examples of Assad's violence against his own people.Marjeh, Damascus on 05/15/2017: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 15 May 2017
Bombing and Jobar Unstoppable Story. Bombs pummel Jobar, a Damascus suburb that has suffered at the hands of the Syrian Regime and its allies for more than five years. When the skies are clear of aircraft, its residents flood the streets calling for the fall of the Regime. Despite "deescalation zones", towns are demolished and surrounding populations continue to be forcibly displaced. Destruction makes it impossible for the displaced to return, as their homes which were once filled with memory and life are reduced to rubble. Chlorine, incendiary, and other weapons have been used against the people in this town, and has resulted in thousands dead.29/4/2016 Jobar, Damascus: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 April 2017
Bombing and Jobar Unstoppable Story. Bombs pummel Jobar, a Damascus suburb that has suffered at the hands of the Syrian Regime and its allies for more than five years. When the skies are clear of aircraft, its residents flood the streets calling for the fall of the Regime. Despite "deescalation zones", towns are demolished and surrounding populations continue to be forcibly displaced. Destruction makes it impossible for the displaced to return, as their homes which were once filled with memory and life are reduced to rubble. Chlorine, incendiary, and other weapons have been used against the people in this town, and has resulted in thousands dead.29/4/2016 Jobar, Damascus: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 April 2017
Bombing and Jobar Unstoppable Story. Bombs pummel Jobar, a Damascus suburb that has suffered at the hands of the Syrian Regime and its allies for more than five years. When the skies are clear of aircraft, its residents flood the streets calling for the fall of the Regime. Despite "deescalation zones", towns are demolished and surrounding populations continue to be forcibly displaced. Destruction makes it impossible for the displaced to return, as their homes which were once filled with memory and life are reduced to rubble. Chlorine, incendiary, and other weapons have been used against the people in this town, and has resulted in thousands dead.29/4/2016 Jobar, Damascus: photo by Dimashqi Lens, 29 April 2017
SYRIA - Injured children wait to receive treatment at a makeshift hospital in Jobar following a reported gov. airstrike. Photo Ammar Suleiman: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
Venezuelan authorities quell an attack on a military base near Valencia by soldiers and armed civilians: photo by Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Venezuelan authorities quell an attack on a military base near Valencia by soldiers and armed civilians: photo by Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Venezuelan authorities quell an attack on a military base near Valencia by soldiers and armed civilians: photo by Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
The silhouette of an anti-government protester is seen through a Venezuelan flag during a call by the opposition to block roads for 10 hours in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, July 10, 2017.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 10 July 2017
A protester taking part in an anti-government march to the Supreme Court is detained and driven away by Bolivarian National Guard soldiers in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, July 6, 2017.: photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP, 6 July 2017
An anti-government protester screams at security forces blocking a march to the Supreme Court to oppose President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution, in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, July 22, 2017.: photo by Fernando Llano/AP, 22 July 2017
Residents of Petare neighborhood walk near a barricade made by anti-government demonstrators to protest against President Nicolas Maduro's plan to rewrite the constitution in Caracas, Venezuela, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Ariana Cubillos, 29 July 2017
#Venezuela An anti-government activist shows bullet cases during a protest in Valencia. Photo @rschemidt #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
A TV cameraman films Kenyans checking if their names are on electoral lists at a polling station in Nairobi, Kenya. #APTOPIX @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 7 July 2017
#Kenya Voters search for their names on the voters-roll strewn before they can identify their respective voting centres in Nairobi. Photo @tkarumba: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Kenya Maasai women and men queue at a polling station in Ewaso Kendo, Kajiado West County Photo @CarldeSouza1 #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Kenya Kenyans flock to vote in high-stakes elections Photo @Lerneryd #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Kenya Kenya on a knife edge ahead of high-stakes elections Photo @Lerneryd #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
Kenya gears up for tomorrow's presidential election, which many fear could descend into violence: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Kenya gears up for tomorrow's presidential election, which many fear could descend into violence: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 7 August 2017
Kenyans wait in long lines to vote in an election shrouded in fears of violence: image via Reuters Pictures @reuterspictures, 8 August 2017
Scenes from today's election in Kenya that pits Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta against challenger Raila Odinga. Photos Ben Curtis and @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 8 August 2017
Scenes from today's election in Kenya that pits Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta against challenger Raila Odinga. Photos Ben Curtis and @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 8 August 2017
Scenes from today's election in Kenya that pits Pres. Uhuru Kenyatta against challenger Raila Odinga. Photos Ben Curtis and @jeromedelay: image via AP Images @AP_Images, 8 August 2017
#Kenya Supporters of presidential candidate Odinga wave as he departs in a helicopter in Kisumu. By Fredrik Lerneryd @AFPphoto: image via Photojournalism @photojournalink, 8 August 2017
Attendance. Rwanda, 2017. Hiding in plain sight. The make of democracy.: image via Marco Longari @marcolongari, 4 August 2017
#Indonesia a man riding a bicycle past an oil palm plantation in Aceh. Photo @mirroreye #AFP.: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#India An Indian woman covers her baby under her saree during heavy rain at Rajpath in New Delhi. Photo @PrakashAFPLive: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Nepal Hindu devotees bathe and collect water in the Bagmati river to offer prayers to Lord Shiva during Shravan festivities. Photo @PrakashMathema: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Bangladesh A Bangladeshi woman walks through a vegetable market at Karwan Bazar in Dhaka. Photo @uz_munir #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Vietnam Men collect wood from a lake filled with timber brought down from the mountains by floods in the district of Mu Cang Chai Photo @AFPphoto: image via Frédérique Geffard, 7 August 2017
#Guatemala Catholic devotees burn incense during the Jesus de La Merced procession in Guatemala City @johanordonez: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Canada Refugees who crossed the Canada/US border illegally near Hemmingford are processed in a tent after being arrested. Photo @geoffrobins #afpl: image via Frédérique Geffard, 7 August 2017
#Indian Occupied Kashmir Kashmiri woman watch the funeral procession of slain rebel Abid Ahmed in the village of Hajinar. Photo @Tauseef MUSTAFA #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 6 August 2017
#Pakistan Truck bomb injures 34 in Pakistan's Lahore. Photo @ArifAli #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
#Russia Employees process salmon at a plant in the Arctic Circle port city of Murmansk. Photo Maxim Zmeyev: image via Frédérique Geffard, 8 August 2017
A member of the traditional cavalry regiment known as the Husares de Junin tends to his horse who inexplicably fell during a military parade that was part of the Independence Day celebrations, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 29 July 2017
A member of the traditional cavalry regiment known as the Husares de Junin tends to his horse who inexplicably fell during a military parade that was part of the Independence Day celebrations, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 29 July 2017
Bills of U.S. dollars are placed over the body of a tourist after they were found in pockets of her clothes as rescue workers and policemen work the scene of a deadly bus accident in Lima, Peru, Sunday, July 9, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 9 July 2017
Bills of U.S. dollars are placed over the body of a tourist after they were found in pockets of her clothes as rescue workers and policemen work the scene of a deadly bus accident in Lima, Peru, Sunday, July 9, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 9 July 2017
An Indian man sits and watches kids play in the rain in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. India gets its monsoon rains from June to September.: photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP, 7 August 2017
A member of the traditional cavalry regiment known as the Husares de Junin tends to his horse who inexplicably fell during a military parade that was part of the Independence Day celebrations, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 29 July 2017
A member of the traditional cavalry regiment known as the Husares de Junin tends to his horse who inexplicably fell during a military parade that was part of the Independence Day celebrations, in Lima, Peru, Saturday, July 29, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 29 July 2017
Bills of U.S. dollars are placed over the body of a tourist after they were found in pockets of her clothes as rescue workers and policemen work the scene of a deadly bus accident in Lima, Peru, Sunday, July 9, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 9 July 2017
Bills of U.S. dollars are placed over the body of a tourist after they were found in pockets of her clothes as rescue workers and policemen work the scene of a deadly bus accident in Lima, Peru, Sunday, July 9, 2017.: photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP, 9 July 2017
An Indian man sits and watches kids play in the rain in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. India gets its monsoon rains from June to September.: photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP, 7 August 2017
An Indian man sits and watches kids play in the rain in New Delhi, India, Monday, Aug. 7, 2017. India gets its monsoon rains from June to September.: photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP, 7 August 2017
Nation building
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Singapore (2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 30 July 2017
Kolkata 2017: photo by Pau Buscató, 31 January 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Aliioss E, 16 July 2017
Untitled: photo by Nakarin Teerapenun, 31 May 2017
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
Untitled [Aegean Sea]: photo by Apostolis Hon, sometime in 2010
London, 2014: photo by Dmitry Stepanenko, 6 July 2017
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
_MG_0074: photo by Lajos Csapó, 20 April 2012
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Barcelona street photography. Malevo in Poble Sec.: photo by Sergi Escribano, 21 April 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Sapa by night: photo by: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 6 August 2017
Untitled [Queen St. W., Toronto]: photo by Dominic Bugatto, 5 August 2017
Untitled [Jamuna Future Park, Basundhara, Dhaka]: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 15 September 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Summer. Hastings, August 2015: photo by Nic Miles, 16 August 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
Crash Landing: photo by Arsenio Jr Nidoy, 18 December 2015
Dog Days
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
humzzzz [hanoi]: photo by Chu Việt Hà, 23 March 2015
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
untitled [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 12 June 2014
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
in august [istanbul]: photo by mosuner, 6 August 2017
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul.: photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul. photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
the dead end streets. ayvansaray, istanbul.: photo by mosuner, 6 December 2015
young punk [Blackpool] : photo by Dawn Mander Blackpool Photographer, 5 August 2017
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
Wrecked ship breaking worker. "Danger zone" -- One year on from Super typhoon Haiyan, a wrecked ship is being separated into pieces. Tacloban, Philippines.: photo by SungsooLee dotcom, 14 December 2014
[Tokyo]: photo by Kristin Van den Eede, 21 May 2017
Taken 4-2-17 [NYC]: photo by daina-iza, 20 April 2017
Taken 4-2-17 [NYC]: photo by daina-iza, 20 April 2017
Taken 4-2-17 [NYC]: photo by daina-iza, 20 April 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
VERY WILDLIFE [zoo, Amsterdam]: photo by Julie Hrudova, 7 June 2017
Untitled. "Secrets are the truth -- reveal a hidden secret" -- Matt Obrey.: photo by Maria Kappatou, 27 September 2014
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
7285. May 2017.: photo by daina-iza, 3 August 2017
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015
[Ataturk airport, Istanbul]: photo by Giacomo Vesprini, 11 December 2015