"We often encourage human rights defenders, activists, and independent journalists to be heroes. Yet, we just as often fail to have their backs when they are inevitably pressed against the wall by their abusers in power."

Tis the season.

Getting my nails done at a salon in Odessa today, which feels so delightfully normal that I’m giddy. After a month with no major attack here, a lot of businesses in the city are reopening. The zoo will be open tomorrow.

Odessa: where the church bells join the air-raid siren alert.