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Worldcrunch Staff Picks Its 10 Most Memorable Stories Of 2022

Worldcrunch Staff Picks Its 10 Most Memorable Stories Of 2022

Bye 2022!

Worldcrunch

Worldcrunch asked its staff to choose the articles published this year that made a particular impression on them. They largely cover the major events that marked the news in 2022, from the war in Ukraine to the protests in Iran and the overturning of Roe v Wade in the U.S.

Here are the 10 stories that we selected:

Sofiia’s Story: An Escape From Kyiv, A Springtime Dream

WORLDCRUNCH

This is how Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has looked to one 16-year-old high school senior from Kyiv, the daughter of Worldcrunch contributor Anna Akage.

Bucha Happened: Testimony Of A Siege, Witnesses To A Massacre

LA STAMPA

Adding evidence of war crimes against civilians emerging in Bucha, an Italian reporter gathers new details and chilling first-hand testimony of the past three weeks of Russian occupation and murder of innocent civilians.

Wroclaw Postcard: What We Learn About Ourselves In A Wartime Train Station

GAZETA WYBORCZA

The war in Ukraine has prompted a huge outpouring of compassion across the border in Poland. It is a positive reflection of the human condition, but also a reminder that we should care for others and outsiders even when there's no nearby conflict.

Gotland, The Swedish Island Standing Between Russia And NATO Vulnerability

DIE WELT

The Swedish island of Gotland is the last bastion between Russia and the entire Baltic region. Sweden has been busy fortifying the island, with the stakes even higher as Stockholm is set to join NATO, and life for locals makes it clear that something has changed.

How To Stop Thinking About Russia — A Message From Eastern Europe To The West

LIVY BEREG

David Stulik, senior research analyst at the Prague-based European Values Research Center, explains the risks of continuing to calculate all our choices according to hypothetical fears of and future compromises with Russia.

Adieu Roe, Watching From Paris As My Rights Are Stolen Away

WORLDCRUNCH

A young American takes in the most personal and political moments of her life far from home. What will it feel like when she lands back in Idaho?

Beyond The Hijab: Iran's Protests Now Seek Nothing Less Than Revolution

KAYHAN-LONDON

Iran's protests have quickly expanded to be "national and revolutionary" in scope, having surpassed the various class, region and gender-based barriers that might have reduced their significance. The Islamic regime has never faced a bigger challenge.

In Shanghai, A Brewing Expat Exodus As COVID Crackdown Shows "Real" China

THE INITIUM

Not only strict rules of freedom of movement as part of Zero-COVID policy but also an increase in censorship has raised many questions for the expat population in the megacity of 26 million that had long enjoyed a kind of special status in China as a place of freedom and openness. A recent survey of foreigners in the Chinese megacity found that 48% of respondents said they would leave Shanghai within the next year.

García Márquez And Truth: How Journalism Fed The Novelist's Fantasy

EL ESPECTADOR

In his early journalistic writings, the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez showed he had an eye for factual details, in which he found the absurdity and 'magic' that would in time be the stuff and style of his fiction.

In The Amazon, Retracing The Last Steps Of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

AGÊNCIA PÚBLICA

The murder of Brazil indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips is shocking. Still, once looking more closely, it is not necessarily a surprise considering both the violence in Brazil and the situation in the rain forest under President Jair Bolsonaro.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

That Man In Mariupol: Is Putin Using A Body Double To Avoid Public Appearances?

Putin really is meeting with Xi in Moscow — we know that. But there are credible experts saying that the person who showed up in Mariupol the day before was someone else — the latest report that the Russian president uses a doppelganger for meetings and appearances.

screen grab of Putin in a dark down jacket

During the visit to Mariupol, the Presidential office only released screen grabs of a video

Russian President Press Office/TASS via ZUMA
Anna Akage

Have no doubt, the Vladimir Putin we’re seeing alongside Xi Jinping this week is the real Vladimir Putin. But it’s a question that is being asked after a range of credible experts have accused the Russian president of sending a body double for a high-profile visit this past weekend in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

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Reports and conspiracy theories have circulated in the past about the Russian leader using a stand-in because of health or security issues. But the reaction to the Kremlin leader's trip to Mariupol is the first time that multiple credible sources — including those who’ve spent time with him in the past — have cast doubt on the identity of the man who showed up in the southeastern Ukrainian city that Russia took over last spring after a months-long siege.

Russian opposition politician Gennady Gudkov is among those who confidently claim that a Putin look-alike, or rather one of his look-alikes, was in the Ukrainian city.

"Now that there is a war going on, I don't rule out the possibility that someone strongly resembling or disguised as Putin is playing his role," Gudkov said.

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