A14 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, JULY 28 , 2020
The World
IRAQ
Probe ordered after
2 protesters are killed
Iraq’s prime minister said
Monday that he had ordered an
investigation into the killing of
two anti-government
demonstrators, saying security
forces were not authorized to fire
“a single bullet” toward the
protesters. Twenty-one protesters
were also wounded in the
overnight clashes.
The violence comes after
months of quiet during the
coronavirus pandemic and was an
embarrassment to Prime Minister
Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who has
vowed to meet protester demands
by holding early elections and
investigating the deaths of
hundreds of protesters at the
hands of security forces in recent
months.
Tensions between the security
forces and the protesters soared
late Sunday when dozens of
demonstrators cut the road
linking two main intersections in
the capital, Baghdad.
Earlier, security officials said
protesters had hurled firebombs
and stones at riot police, while
rights monitors said security
forces set fire to protesters’ tents.
Since October, more than 600
demonstrators have been killed by
security forces during protests
over government corruption,
unemployment and poor services.
— Associated PressAFGHANISTANCivilian casualties drop
13% this year, U.N. saysAfghanistan saw a 13 percent
drop in the number of civilians
killed and wounded in violence in
the first six months of this year,
compared with the same periodlast year, according to a report
released by the United Nations on
Monday.
The report credited the drop in
casualties in part to the reduction
of operations by international
forces — which now act only when
called upon and in support of the
Afghan forces — and to a decrease
in the number of attacks by the
Islamic State militant group.
The report comes against the
backdrop of a peace deal signed
between the United States and
Taliban insurgents in February
and touted as the best hope for
peace in Afghanistan after nearly
two decades of war. The second
phase of the deal — which calls for
negotiations between the Taliban
and the Kabul government — has
been delayed.
The U.N. report said 1,
people were killed in violence in
the first six months of 2020 in
Afghanistan and 2,176 were
wounded. That represents anoverall 13 percent decrease from
the same period in 2019. The
report said the United Nations
had recorded 17 attacks by the
Islamic State causing civilian
casualties in the first six months of
2020, compared with 97 attacks in
the same period last year.
Afghan forces were responsible
for 23 percent of the civilian
casualties, while the Taliban was
responsible for 43 percent, the
report said.
— Associated PressYEMENTorrential rains wreak
havoc, kill dozensFlash floods have ravaged
swaths of war-torn Yemen, leaving
dozens dead and destroying
thousands of homes, officials and
an aid group said Monday.
At a time when Yemen is mired
in escalated fighting, widespreadhunger and a major coronavirus
outbreak, the spate of torrential
rains is exacerbating the world’s
worst humanitarian disaster.
In southern Yemen, 33,
displaced people sheltering in
camps lost their tents and
belongings in the floods, the
International Committee of the
Red Cross reported.
In the impoverished western
provinces of Hajjah and Hodeida,
security officials said 23 people
were killed or went missing over
the previous 24 hours and 187
homes were destroyed. With
torrents sweeping away roads and
cars, hundreds of newly displaced
families in the area have become
stranded without access to food.
In the central province of
Marib, a refuge for about 750,
Yemenis who have fled rebel
offensives since the start of the
war, days of abnormally intense
rains have hit 5,500 families,
submerging their tents in waterand mud and washing away their
food aid, the official SABA news
agency reported last week.
Yemen’s war, grinding into its
sixth year, has killed more than
100,000 people.
— Associated PressOpposition leader returns to
Tanzania 3 years after being
shot: Opposition politician and
presidential hopeful Tundu Lissu
has returned to Tanzania, three
years after being shot 16 times.
The gunmen have not been
found. His return from Belgium
comes as the top opposition
parties consider joining forces
behind a single candidate to
challenge President John
Magufuli, who is seeking a second
five-year term. Lissu, who has
announced his presidential run,
still faces six criminal charges,
including one related to his
calling Magufuli a dictator.
— From news servicesDIGESTSTORY AND PHOTOS BY JOHN HRYNIUK
IN TORONTOA
s my plane began its descent, I
peered out the window to make out
the overcast sky scattering its dark
foreboding shadows among the
towering skyscrapers of downtown
Toronto. If the weather was trying to comple-
ment the growing panic around the coronavi-
rus, it was doing a great job.
After a month in Ecuador, where I had
been buried deep in the tropical rainforest, I
worried about returning home. In the rain-
forest, each night before bed, I would peruse
my Instagram account, scrolling though im-
ages of dying patients and stacked coffins.
These images, by some of my favorite
photographers, were important and mesmer-
izing. But I found I couldn’t connect to them
personally. I thought there might be another
way to document the pandemic.
Back in Toronto, I ventured into the
streets. I was glad I had decided to get rid of
my car lease to save money before the
pandemic hit. Cycling and taking public
transit allowed me to view the city in a way I
had never seen it before.
On my first day out, I noticed the change.
An eerie calm had descended upon this, the
fourth-largest city in North America.
I was pedaling down the street with a
single camera and lens slung over my shoul-
der, when I jammed on the brakes. There, on
a mottled brick path, was a small, middle-
aged woman kneeling before a statue of Mary
holding the infant Jesus. The woman and the
statue were separated by a closed iron gate.
The Gothic Revival-style Catholic church was
closed because of the pandemic.
I seized my camera and advanced quietly
to capture the image before I missed the
opportunity. It was the first of what would
grow into hundreds of photos taken for my
series, “Life Under a Pandemic.”
Canada has flattened its coronavirus
curve, but there have been many casualties
here — most of them in long-term care
facilities. One such facility, the Camilla Care
Community outside Toronto, reported 67
deaths. I cycled out there on Mother’s Day to
photograph the field of crosses erected across
from the home.
It was there that I encountered a poignant
scene: unoccupied wheelchairs, covered in
plastic and left outside the home. I won’t
forget the sound of the wind rustling the
plastic. To me, it’s the most memorable of the
images in this project — and the saddest.
From then on, the project moved toward
portraits of people with masks.
My style combines the speed I’ve devel-
oped as a photojournalist with the composi-
tion I’ve learned as an advertising and
commercial photographer. In advertising,
you have to cast people for your photos. They
must have that extra something, whether it’s
what they’re wearing, how they’re wearing it,
or their character. When I see it, I approach
and ask to take a portrait.
Examples include my “covid couture” por-
trait of a woman I met in Chinatown. A drag
queen in the Gay Village. An acrobat, upside
down. A man waiting in line outside my local
grocery store, wearing a pink Panama hat and
shaggy jacket.
I choose my subjects as carefully as I
choose the photos I post online. That’s the
photojournalist still inside me. When I began
my career at 18, my Canadian Press boss Fred
Chartrand told me to edit tight and show only
my best work. I still live by those rules today.
[email protected]
Chronicling
an altered
Toronto
A photographer sees his city
i n a n ew light amid pandemic
TOP: A woman looks at a cross memorial outside the Camilla Care Community in Mississauga, Ontario. Her mother was one of
60 residents who died of covid-19 at the care facility located outside Toronto. ABOVE LEFT: Shannon, who asked to be
identified by her first name for privacy reasons, works as a nurse with covid-19 patients in the ICU at St. Michael’s Hospital in
Toronto. She said: “I haven’t seen people this sick in my 25 years on this job.” She was photographed on a break from her 12-
hour hospital shift and holding her “fuel.” ABOVE RIGHT: A man, who asked not to be identified, poses for a portrait in a
stylish mask in Toronto. For more photos in John Hryniuk’s “Life Under a Pandemic” series, go to wapo.st/torontophotos.