Features

Bloomberg Everyone is a food photographer these days. So where does that leave Martin Parr, who has been snapping food portraits for 25 years? His new book “Real Food” features more than 200 slates of everyday meals and snacks from 36 countries. Why focus on food when everybody else is doing it and he is known for capturing ordinary people ...

AFP The serenity of Cui Ruzhuo’s ink landscapes is a far cry from the turmoil of China’s contemporary art market. But he can bank on his own status as the country’s best-selling living artist. Cui’s works reflect traditional Chinese forms and subjects, replete with largely monochrome mountains, lakes and trees. Little known in the West, his works fetched a total ...

AFP Stroll around the office or neighborhood six times a day, and earn $1.50 toward your health insurance. Step up activity a bit more and bring the total to $1,400 annually. The catch: you need to wear a special activity tracker that monitors steps taken, “intensity” levels and other physical indicators. That’s the offer in a new insurance product marketed ...

Margaret Zhou / The Diplomat The Mekong Delta is facing its worst drought in recent history, causing food and water shortages for over half a million people. The Chinese government has made headlines amidst the disaster for its decision to release water from upstream dams within China’s borders. Chinese ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in a news briefing that China ...

DPA The last few minutes of Oetzi’s life were brutal: he was hit in the back with an arrow, he fell bleeding, and also suffered a head injury. As the Iceman lay dying, it’s possible he gave a final cry of pain. But despite being one of the most thoroughly examined murder victims in the world, no one knows how ...

AFP A luxury safari is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when potential tourists think of Nigeria but that’s exactly what Yankari Game Reserve is hoping to change. In Africa’s largest economy, suffering from the collapse in global oil prices, tourism is being touted as a panacea to slow growth and a depreciating naira. Leading the charge ...

Justin Fox / bloomberg Read a history that spans times ancient and modern, as I’ve been doing lately, and you encounter a striking shift in the late Middle Ages. Until that point, documentary information is scarce, and narratives must be pieced together from smatterings of written matter and archaeological evidence. Afterward, historians face a growing surfeit of information, and their ...

Bloomberg The corn that is a food staple for much of southern Africa is now so expensive it has become something many can’t afford, after the worst drought in three decades damaged crops from Ethiopia to South Africa. In Malawi, one of a dozen nations affected by the dry spell, Meleniya Mateyu says she has to forage for wild water-lily ...

DPA Bicycle rental services are expanding and becoming easier with the introduction of such conveniences as reservations by smartphone, delivery of a bike to a user’s desired location, and payment via prepaid IC cards. In the past, bike rental services mainly targeted tourists, and most were based in well-known sightseeing areas. In recent years, however, bicycle rentals have become more ...

DPA The coach carrying tourists passes its third tractor, then a cyclist and horse-drawn cart on the six-lane highway running from Havana towards Vinales some 180 kilometres to the west. The driver brakes to give way to four cows crossing the wide strip of asphalt. “What a highway!” grins John Johnson, one of a party of tourists from California and ...