Singapore, Michigan, was a thriving lumber town in the late 1800s, until erosion from mass deforestation caused the surrounding sand dunes to shift and swallow it whole. Yet just as quickly as the town disappeared under sand, its namesake in the East emerged from it: Around the world, Singapore is renowned for its use of land reclamation - importing sand to increase landmass and spur urban development.
Here's something you don't expect to sit on: surgical masks. Nearly 10,000 of them, to be exact. But that's exactly what Design PY created in Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui neighborhood with Tidal Stories, a spiraling urban installation that quite literally traces where the ocean used to be. The concept is brilliant in its simplicity. Tai Kok Tsui was once a coastal area, but over a century of land reclamation pushed the shoreline further and further away.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
A self-proclaimed tribe who have set up camp in a Scottish forest say they have been attacked by locals throwing rocks and shouting abuse. The so-called Kubala Kingdom established itself earlier this year in woodland near Jedburgh, about 41 miles south of Edinburgh, saying they were reclaiming land supposedly taken from their ancestors in the Highlands 400 years ago. Jean Gasho, 43, who styles herself as Queen Nandi, posted footage online this week showing members of the public confronting her group.
Aween Bin Terawin submerges himself in the mangrove swamp to reach a crab cage on the riverbed below. After a moment of suspense, he lifts the cage above the water's surface and inspects its interior. Empty. After stowing the collapsible cage away in his boat, he continues his journey through the vast swamp to retrieve the 40 cages he set early that morning, each marked by a floating bottle tied to string.