Fairytales and Memorable Meetings

Winter’s majestic carpet may transform Karabash into a fairytale land that seems sprinkled with icing sugar, says Steve Rosenberg, but the reality is far from magical. There he meets a man who might just be a Russian spy.

Kate Adie introduces some of the many memorable meetings our correspondents have shared in 2018.

Mathew Charles spends a twitchy night out in the company of a drug cartel killer and dealer who explains how Colombia’s narco trade is changing.

Helen Nianias has coffee with a man who left Kosovo to fight jihad in Syria, but who was back less than two weeks later - before his mum even realised he'd gone.

Aisha Gani stumbles across a rave in a refugee camp in Bangladesh – home to some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who’ve fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar.

And Gabriel Gatehouse has a strange and mysterious encounter with a troll in Sweden.