When a Norwegian freighter rescued 433 asylum seekers from a sinking vessel en route to Christmas Island, it sparked a crisis that led to hardline border policies and indelibly shifted the response to boat arrivalsEven to Abbas Nazari’s disoriented sev…
Raging Delta variant takes its toll as Philippines runs out of nurses
Bad pay and conditions at home and demand for Filipino nursing skills overseas have left the country with a soaring death rateCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe Covid Delta variant has swept across south-east Asia over rece…
The party’s over: China clamps down on its tech billionaires
The startling rise to wealth of the nation’s entrepreneurs has been an affront to Beijing’s political philosophy and increasingly, a threat to the communist partyIn a Politburo group study session on 23 November 2015, China’s president, Xi Jinping, rec…
‘We’re beating this together’: Jemaine Clement on Covid, crime and his friend Taika Waititi
The co-creator of Wellington Paranormal and Flight of the Conchords is busy with new projects and looking forward to bingeing friends’ workIt’s a blustery Wellington night and we’re on the brink of the second nationwide lockdown of the pandemic. There’…
‘No second chances’: Can New Zealand beat Delta?
Jacinda Ardern has led a global Covid success story, but other countries have come unstuck when facing the Delta variantSee all our coronavirus coverageAs epidemiologist Michael Baker scrolled through a growing list of New Zealand’s Covid-exposed locat…
‘No one wanted to come near us’: what it’s like being pregnant amid Fiji’s Covid outbreak
As Fiji battles to contain the coronavirus, pregnant women are having to give birth in isolationFor 34-year-old Jane, being told she had tested positive for Covid-19 just a few days before giving birth was an experience she would never forget.“There we…
Protests in Pakistan erupt against China’s belt and road plan
Demonstrations shut down Gwadar, where Chinese are blamed for lack of water and electricity and threat to local fishingProtests have erupted in Pakistan’s port city Gwadar against a severe shortage of water and electricity and threats to livelihoods, p…
‘Law and order collapsed’: Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong on finding freedom in Taiwan
A familiar face at pro-democracy rallies in the city, Wong felt forced to flee after being named in a hit list of cultural undesirablesFor much of the last year Kacey Wong was waking up in Hong Kong and checking social media to see if friends had been …
Sonny Chiba, martial arts master and Kill Bill star, dies aged 82
Chiba made his name with the 1970s Street Fighter trilogy, before Quentin Tarantino’s admiration brought him fame in the westSonny Chiba, the Japanese martial arts movie star who found late-career renown in Hollywood after outspoken admiration from Que…
Meng Wanzhou: ‘princess of Huawei’ who became the face of a high-stakes dispute
The executive’s case has sent China’s relations with the US and Canada plummeting with accusations of political arrests and ‘hostage diplomacy’Until she was detained at Vancouver airport in December 2018, Meng Wanzhou was not a household name. But the …