
Millions of unemployed South Africans, many of whom survive on a Social Relief of Distress Grant government grant of R370 (about US$21) per month, are not able to pay for electricity and still afford food and shelter. In...

By building the world’s biggest dam, China hopes to control more than just its water supply
Chinas already vast infrastructure programme has entered a new phase as building work starts on the Motuo hydropower project. The dam will consist of five cascade hydropower stations arranged from upstream to downstream...
Your dog can read your mind – sort of
Dmytro Zinkevych/Shutterstock.com Your dog tilts its head when you cry, paces when youre stressed, and somehow appears at your side during your worst moments. Coincidence? Not even close. Thousands of years of co-evolution...

Why some underwater earthquakes cause tsunamis – and others, just little ripples
After a massive earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka, a peninsula in the far east of Russia, on July 30 2025, the world watched as the resultant tsunami spread from the epicentre and across the Pacific Ocean at the speed...

A World of Water exhibition asks: ‘Can the seas survive us?’
Water is at the heart of the disruption wrought by climate change. The seas, once seen as vast and stable, are now unpredictable and restless. That tidy, looping diagram of the water cycle once pinned up in primary school...

Will the latest diplomatic moves to end the war in Gaza work?
It feels as if things are moving at completely different speeds in Gaza and in the outside world. From the embattled Gaza Strip the narrative is depressingly familiar. Dozens more Palestinian civilians have been killed in...

European gloom over the Trump deal is misplaced. It’s probably the best the EU could have achieved
The trade deal between the US and the European Union, squeezed in days before the re-introduction of Donald Trumps liberation day tariffs, is reflective of the new politics of global trade. Faced with the threat of 30%...