Mark Piesing

Oct 25, 2024 | thespectator.com | Peter Frankopan |Toby Young |Mark Piesing |Philip Womack

“Walking by the banks of the Chao Praya on a breezy evening after a day of intense heat,” writes Sunil Amrith at the start of his melancholic new book, “I struggled to connect the scene before me.” While the river that flows through Bangkok looked idyllic, “crowded with noisy pleasure boats festooned with lights,” Amrith was struck by the realization that half of the city “could be underwater by the end of this century.” This thought was the latest stage in a process that he says has taken...

Oct 23, 2024 | 24horas.cl | Mark Piesing

Es un día frío de inicios del verano boreal. Pero a 450 metros bajo las onduladas colinas de la región de Champaña, en el noreste de Francia, hace mucho más calor. Las luces fluorescentes de esta instalación son brillantes y el aire es seco. Puedo saborear el polvo de la atmósfera. Las pesadas mascarillas de emergencia que tengo que llevar conmigo me recuerdan los peligros a los que podría enfrentarme a esa profundidad.

Oct 21, 2024 | thespectator.com | Mark Piesing |Esme Bright |Philip Womack |Frank Lawton

In May 1942, Agent Zo was in the home stretch after a long and risky mission that had placed her in Berlin, at the heart of Nazi Germany. As usual, she picked up a small stone and threw it at the second-floor window of her sister’s apartment in a grimy industrial city in occupied Poland, south of Warsaw. But no one in the flat turned on a light, the agreed signal. She threw another. Nothing happened.

Oct 21, 2024 | thespectator.com | Mark Piesing |John Keiger |Jonathan Sumption |Michael Moorcock

In May 1942, Agent Zo was in the home stretch after a long and risky mission that had placed her in Berlin, at the heart of Nazi Germany. As usual, she picked up a small stone and threw it at the second-floor window of her sister’s apartment in a grimy industrial city in occupied Poland, south of Warsaw. But no one in the flat turned on a light, the agreed signal. She threw another. Nothing happened.

Oct 19, 2024 | bbc.com | Mark Piesing

How to build a nuclear tomb to last millenniaTapani Karjanlahti/ TVONuclear waste remains toxic for thousands of years. How do you build a storage facility that will keep it safely buried for millennia? It is a chilly day early in the summer. But 1,500ft (450m) beneath the rolling hills of the Champagne region in northeastern France, it feels much warmer. This facility's fluorescent lights are bright, and the air is dry. I can taste the dust in the atmosphere.