麻豆社

Pascale Harter introduces correspondents' and writers' dispatches from China, Ukraine, Tonga and India.

Managing the immense forces of China's rivers has been the key to state power throughout Chinese history. In modern times, the challenge of dealing with floods has only grown as extreme weather events grow more frequent, and the cities which need protection get far larger. Laura Bicker meets Professor Yu Konglian, who reckons that his concept of "sponge cities", planned to soak up floodwater rather than channel it away, could be the answer to a global problem.

The past few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for many Ukrainians, as the morale boost given by Ukraine's military incursion into Russia's border regions was soon followed by horror over a fresh wave of Russian missile and drone strikes on cities including Poltava and Lviv. Nick Beake recently spent a week travelling through Ukraine's northeast and found there was danger almost constantly hovering overhead.

Nuku'alofa, the capital city of the island nation of Tonga, might look like a relaxed, informal, rather idyllic setting. But when the Pacific Forum Leaders' Meeting came to town recently, the international politics of the summit were harder-edged. Katy Watson describes how global superpowers jockeyed for influence - and why the island nations had their own pressing concerns.

The Bengal Famine of 1943 is one of the most controversial chapters of Britain's colonial history in India. Although millions of people died, the causes of the starvation are still much argued over, and there is still no monument to those lost to the hunger. Ant Adeane travelled to a village south of Kolkata to hear the memories of a 99-year-old survivor.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Morrison

IMAGE: Rescue workers ride on a boat following heavy rain that flooded the city of Zhengzhou, in China's Henan province, in July 2021.(Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images)