There are few empty lots along the coast of Lake Mavrovo, part of one of North Macedonia’s oldest national parks. Over the past two decades, weekend villas, highrises, and luxury hotels have sprung up across the park, threatening the natural treasures within. In an attempt to find new land on which to build, the country’s political and business elites stumbled across a small village hidden in the mountainous terrain —…
by Aubrey Belford, Sarunas Cerniauskas, Matteo Civillini and Ola Westerberg As COVID-19 swept through Europe in March, the director of Lithuania’s Central Prison Hospital was relieved to receive 3,000 FFP2 respirator masks, the gold standard for filtering out tiny airborne particles, like the coronavirus that causes the disease. The masks arrived in boxes plastered with the CE mark, the immediately recognizable symbol showing that products have been verified as meeting European standards.…