A historic Supreme Court nomination; a timeline of Ukraine’s 30-year struggle for independence; the face of a 4,000-year-old woman; a royal mystery revealed; the man who mailed himself to freedom
|  | Monday, February 28, 2022 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, we cover a historic Supreme Court nomination, a 30-year timeline of Ukraine’s independence, the face of a 4,000-year-old woman, a royal mystery revealed … and the man who mailed himself to freedom. | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY OLENA BILOUS
| | By David Beard, Executive Editor, Newsletters
Among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russian soldiers, bombs, and missiles, Olena Bilous has an “edge,” if you could call it that.
The Ukrainian photographer had to flee her home from Russian invasion once before.
On Friday, after explosions in Kyiv, she set off west in a caravan of seven cars. By Sunday she was safe, for now, near the western border. “I have no clothes, little money,” she told Nat Geo’s Whitney Johnson. “I grabbed only a camera and a bag with documents. I’m starting a new life from zero. There is me, a tracksuit on me, a camera, and my fiancé.” (Pictured above, the bag.)
Her wedding to her fiancé had been set for March 11. Not only is that in flux; he can’t follow her if she crosses the border, because men from 18 to 60 are required to right the Russian invaders. The couple is together, for the moment.
Bilous’s life reflects the nation’s struggle. She was uprooted from her home in Donetsk when Russia invaded the eastern region in 2014. A year later, at a Nat Geo Photo Camp for displaced people, she met Johnson. Bilous said then that displacement transformed her, and she sought for her images “to go straight to the heart.” The latest invasion has rocked her and her family.
“I don’t want to be a refugee,” she tells us. “I want to live in Ukraine. I love Ukraine.”
Here are a few of her photographs below, and here’s our collection of images from Ukraine under attack.
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| In the bomb shelter: A Ukrainian woman named Maria, a friend of the photographer‘s sister, is holding a baby while waiting for the missile threat to end.
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| Dismantled: This sign once had the name of a town in western Ukraine, Bilous says. Ukrainians have dismantled town and street signs and destroyed bridges to slow the Russian invaders.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY JACQUELYN MARTIN, AP | | | |
 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY OSCAR NILSSON | | The face of a 4,000-year-old woman: That image before you, of a woman who lived in northeastern Sweden, features the work of reconstructive archaeologist Oscar Nilsson. He meticulously uses clay to rebuild faces like this, using clues from the bones, migration data, 3D printing, and often DNA. “I need to bring the face alive, so you actually get the impression there’s someone looking at you within those eyes,” he tells Nat Geo’s Nina Strochlic.
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 | | PHOTOGRAPH BY LEROY WOODSON, NAT GEO IMAGE COLLECTION | | | |
 | | Growing up in Brooklyn as a young Ethiopian woman, I never heard my name called in public. Every time people talked about Ethiopia, it would be that craziness about poverty. But the one place where I felt seen was inside of hip-hop. … When Black Thought called out this 'Ethiopian queen from Philly taking classes abroad.' I felt like he was speaking to me and announcing my existence. | | | | Meklit Hadero | Vocalist, composer, Nat Geo Explorer
TED Talk: ‘The unexpected beauty of everyday sounds’
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 | COURTESY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
| | He mailed himself to freedom: Henry Brown spent 35 years enslaved to a Virginia property owner. In 1849, Brown got a box. He addressed it to a Philadelphia supporter of the Underground Railroad and got inside (illustrated above). The delivery succeeded. “His novel escape made him a folk hero, a wanted fugitive, and a public speaker,” Nina Strochlic writes.
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Today's newsletter was curated and edited by David Beard, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Have an idea or link to a story you think is right down our alley? Let us know at david.beard@natgeo.com.
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