Showing 1 - 10 of 17
Life and death on the Dnieper River
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 28/05/2023
» The thunder of artillery echoes night and day over the mighty Dnieper River as it winds its way through southern Ukraine. With Russian and Ukrainian forces squared off on opposite banks, fighters have replaced fishermen, surveillance drones circle overhead and mines line the marshy embankments.
Holdouts in a nuclear zone
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 07/05/2023
» The world's worst nuclear disaster, unfolding only a few kilometres away, did not force Halyna Voloshyna, 74, to abandon her home in Chernobyl in 1986.
A floating shelter for the displaced
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 19/03/2023
» The dinner theatre is now a day care centre, where children rifle through boxes of donated toys. The beauty salon has turned into a one-man barbershop.
Grandparents embrace digital age
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 11/12/2022
» The 65-year-old woman crouches in a field and holds up a head of cabbage. Behind her, two friends sway back and forth, cucumber and radish in their hands. "This rotten cabbage, let's pull it out, eat it, achieve some foodie freedom," Guo Yifen, the woman with the cabbage, raps in a low and creaky voice in the song Spicy Hot Pot Real Rap.
FTX saga shows not all ends justify means
Oped, Peter Singer, Published on 30/11/2022
» In the wake of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, and amid reports that FTX's founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, diverted billions of dollars of clients' funds, some observers have linked the alleged financial malpractice to ideas widely held within the "effective altruism" movement, which Mr Bankman-Fried says inspired him. More specifically, they point to the ethical view that the end justifies the means.
Fossilised fish a prequel of 'Jaws'
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 16/10/2022
» Mention the ocean, and it's hard not to think of jaws. The deep waters contain many tooth-lined mouths: the bear-trap maws of sharks and dolphins, the slack lips of shoaling and reef fish, the baleen-filter gape of enormous whales. Jawed fish eventually crawled out of the seas millions of years ago and gave rise to the jawboning vertebrates we are today.
Tears, anger on 'Joola' sinking anniversary
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 16/10/2022
» Up on the deck, dozens of university students played cards. In the first-class cabins below, passengers watched the movie Air Force One. In an overcrowded third-class compartment, a teenage football team on its way to a tournament belted out songs.
When the everyday looks special
Sunday Spotlight, Published on 09/10/2022
» Julie Blackmon grew up in Springfield, Missouri, a city of 165,000 people in the southern part of the state, and went to college there. She got married in Springfield and raised three children there.
Growth forecast cut, Iran cases surge by 50%: Virus update
Published on 02/03/2020
» Iran reported a 50% increase in coronavirus infections, while New York City, Brussels, Berlin and Indonesia all reported their first cases. New cases were reported in Thailand and across the US. Hard-hit South Korea saw its total climb past 4,200.
Asia's century, China's year
Asia focus, Published on 30/12/2019
» Way back when 1999 was winding down, pundits were telling us that the Asian Century was about to dawn. That prediction has not yet been fully realised, but few would disagree that 2019 belonged to China. Over the past 12 months, the top headlines have been about the bruising trade war with America, defiant protests in Hong Kong against Beijing's tightening grip, and the rise of a surveillance state that is herding hundreds of thousands into "re-education" camps on its western fringes. Below, the Asia Focus team looks back on a busy and sometimes troubling 2019.