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Dr Dr Amani Ballour works as the director of the main hospital in a besieged suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus. She tells Outlook's Shaimaa Khalil about her life as a medic in a conflict zone.

Wes Modes has spent the last few summers sailing along the great rivers of north America, collecting stories from the people who live on their banks. Wes travels in his homemade houseboat - or shanty boat - called Dotty. He tells Outlook's Mariana Des Forges why he first wanted to go out onto the water.

Badiucao is one of China's most prolific and provocative political cartoonists. Much of his work champions human rights causes, for instance this year he drew a mural of his icon, the late activist Liu Xiaobo, just days before his death. Badiucao takes great pains to protect his identity, using an alias and wearing a mask at public exhibitions of his work. He tells Shaimaa Khalil why he became an artist, and the cost of keeping his personal life so secret.

(Photo: Man standing in wreckage of a bombed building in Eastern Ghouta. Credit: Hamza al-Ajweh/AFP)