The Yamuna River in Delhi is so devastatingly polluted that it is covered in a toxic foam of industrial waste and sewage. Yet this year, like every other year, thousands of worshippers entered the water for a four-day festival to the sun god Surya. nyti.ms/3DbvY3P
The chance to swim with the world’s biggest fish drew tourists to a Philippines town, but conservation groups denounce the hand-feeding that keeps the gentle creatures around. nyti.ms/3EBfRNn
What does it take to scare the candy corn out of someone? Performers at two of New York’s hallowed haunted attractions explain the secrets behind the shocks. nyti.ms/3CvDPsC
Rucker Park, the basketball mecca in Harlem, has been a proving ground for amateurs and NBA legends for generations. "We don’t come there giving you roses," one player said. "You got to earn it." nyti.ms/2YJlHgl
Selma Blair can't resist a joke as she explains how she hopes a film about her life with M.S. can help: "What a relief to know even adorable people like me are troubled by their own brains and bodies at times. That’s the comfort I wish I could give.” nyti.ms/3FIOT7A
Outdoor sculptures provide some of our most accessible encounters with art, and that's even more true this summer for art viewers who are hesitant to re-enter galleries and museums. Here are some of the new outdoor additions to the New York cityscape. nyti.ms/3xjqoJN
Mobile Covid-19 vaccine clinics are bringing shots to overlooked and often out of reach neighborhoods across the U.S., helping to inoculate people who are homeless, living in poverty or have no internet access. nyti.ms/3bKvdTC
Mariachi bands are fixtures at joyous events like weddings and quinceañeras, but the pandemic has erased many of those occasions, leaving behind only the funerals, the mounting number of funerals, that stand between some mariachis and financial ruin. nyti.ms/3tWhDmL
After months of lockdown, we asked some of New York City's burlesque performers to get back on stage. They are still "waiting to be a live again." nyti.ms/3rla1bM
Amid the rocky outcrops on the Turkish side of the border with Syria, an endangered species of wild gazelle is recovering its stocks and multiplying. nyti.ms/3c0W0LS
Nathan Myhrvold oversaw the early development of Microsoft Office. He's also studied dinosaurs, cooking and asteroids. Now he's taking pictures of snowflakes. nyti.ms/3qBYnZN by @kchangnyt
Alaska Natives have been infected with the coronavirus at four times the rate of the state's white residents. Now a massive effort is underway to deliver vaccines to the state's remote villages, a race against time reminiscent of past pandemics. nyti.ms/3qEQOBl
Among the Kazakh people of western Mongolia, the ancient custom of hunting with eagles on horseback is traditionally passed down from father to son at a young age and is considered a great source of pride.
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In a military that is increasingly dependent on women, and particularly Black women, strict regulations on hairstyles are now changing. nyti.ms/3uzNKKb
Five Black singer-songwriters — Mickey Guyton, Miko Marks, Rissi Palmer, Reyna Roberts and Brittney Spencer — discuss the challenges of becoming the change they want to see in country music. nyti.ms/3u9fyER
Every day in towns across Cuba, a vast array of workers takes to the streets to help provide their fellow citizens with the most basic of necessities. nyti.ms/37mVnJZ
The Arctic is rapidly changing, warming much faster than any other region, and researchers want to understand how wolverines will adapt. nyti.ms/3tR9CAh
For nearly 20 years, the photographer Matthew D. White has documented the landscapes and communities in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, where, in its southern stretches, the muddy Mississippi meets the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico. nyti.ms/3d90wZG
Across the city, amateur and professional dancers are donning sneakers, masks and lots of layers to carry on with a familiar ritual that, for many, is essential to maintaining physical and mental health nyti.ms/39UNblX
In the small Greek village of Lagadas, the annual celebrations for Saint Constantine and Saint Helen last for three days and include a spectacular fire-walking ritual called Anastenaria nyti.ms/39TSPoe
In the waning days of the Trump presidency, Doug Mills, who took tens of thousands of photographs over the last four years, talked about what it was like working inside the White House. nyti.ms/39H6BcF
At the Whitney Museum, the enduring legacy of the Kamoinge photography collective — 14 distinctive talents finally coming into the spotlight, nine of them still at work. nyti.ms/38NtuM7
Flags along an empty sidewalk in Tennessee. A polka-dotted awning on a vacant street in Arkansas. The charred wreckage from a wildfire in Oregon. These images by @sahiltner evoke an America cloaked in solitude — and a country on edge. trib.al/zMBjDlu
We asked photographers across the country to capture how things look different this holiday season. From Detroit to midtown Manhattan, the rituals go on. But much is missing. nyti.ms/2KxhvJ8
A mochi shop in Kyoto is 1,020 years old. It and many of Japan’s other centuries-old businesses have endured by putting tradition and stability over profit and growth. nyti.ms/3g6h6c3
Theaters are using every contagion-reduction strategy they have honed during the coronavirus pandemic to keep "A Christmas Carol" alive this year nyti.ms/2I6lY4r
“They’re a mishmash of all these different things I love,” Mark Kanemura said of his popular Instagram and TikTok videos “Obviously dance, but also theater and drag and costuming.” nyti.ms/38Gzfvx
These photos taken during the holiday of Arbaeen in 2019 offer an intimate look inside and outside the shrines in the Iraqi city of Karbala nyti.ms/3nl2at8
For years, churches have closed nationwide as attendance rates drop and populations age. But the buildings can still serve as sanctuaries, even after the congregation moves out. nyti.ms/3jpDyND
The history of the East Village, and its punks, poets, artists and protestors. Luc Sante, author of 'Low Life,' chats about CBGB, Warhol, the Tompkins Square Park riots, the Strand bookstore and more nyti.ms/34gMAYM
After an extraordinary, decade-long travel boom, Iceland, like many countries, is dealing with faltering tourism. It is using the pause to reimagine what tourism might look like when the pandemic is over. nyti.ms/37ve8Mi
Once the birds become regular guests, you can enjoy hours of entertainment watching the beauties, identifying them and, if you wish, photographing them nyti.ms/3jabrla
A stroll of 42nd Street reveals the legislative battles behind Times Square, Grand Central and more. Our critic chats with Jerold S. Kayden of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, who doesn’t seem to mind being referred to as "the Pops of POPS." nyti.ms/3kYCHEJ
"Injuries to my leg and head left me barely able to walk without further hurting myself. It took a drastic decision to get my life back." nyti.ms/3kefq14
A stroll through Jackson Heights, New York's most global neighborhood with the author Suketu Mehta, featuring Diversity Plaza, Roosevelt Avenue and the birth of Scrabble nyti.ms/3b7S0Ht