蜜芽传媒

Owen Bennett Jones introduces personal stories, insight and analysis from correspondents around the world.

In today's edition, Mark Lowen on the deepening economic gloom and grinding everyday austerity behind the ever-multiplying protests on the streets of Athens; Christine Finn takes a chilly journey to Norway's Lofoten Islands and learns how a trade in cod links the Arctic and Mediterranean seas.

To have and have not

In a Greek tragedy, the audience knows things are not going to work out well. It's fundamentally a question of how a tragic flaw leads to someone's inevitable downfall. In the real world, many economists say Greek default - in some form - is now certain, the only questions being how is the nation going to get there, who will suffer, who will take the blame and for which flaw? Greed, fecklessness or something yet to be revealed?

Mark Lowen in Athens has been watching events unfold - and found that while many people are struggling against austerity, there's a hidden, and mostly silent group who appear to be unaffected.

Love from the Lofoten Islands

Why have Italians beaten a trail to Norway's Arctic Circle ever since the 15th Century? Is it the Northern Lights? The midnight sun? The Viking heritage? Or the area's enduring natural beauty? A bit of all these things, no doubt, but there is another much bigger - and much chewier - reason. It's the desiccated fish.

Christine Finn visited Norway's Lofoten Islands to learn more about how this resilient snack won friends so far to the south.