Military working in the area where the poisoning took place wear protective clothing to reduce risk to their own health.
Neil Hall/AAP
Even if they do eventually wake up, Sergei and Julia Skripal could suffer permanent damage as a result of their exposure to a Novichok nerve agent.
Investigating the possible scene of the crime in Salisbury.
EPA/Gerry Penny
Russia isn’t the only suspect when it comes to the practice known as ‘wetwork’.
Olympian Bradley Wiggins.
EPA
Doping controversy around British cycling and athletics is the latest sign that sports authorities need to do something drastic.
Syria is a battlefield for outsiders.
Naeblys via Shutterstock
Even if Syria’s armed conflict is somehow resolved, new proxy conflicts between regional actors are emerging on the country’s soil.
Until the jihadist rebel groups are wiped out, there will be more civilian casualties, like this man and young boy in Eastern Ghouta.
Reuters/Bassam Khabieh
Despite a devastating toll in the seven-year conflict, which has seen 400,000 people killed and six million displaced, there is no end in sight for the people of Syria.
The number of Guatemalan children adopted by foreign parents dropped from 4,100 in 2008 to 58 in 2010, after the country drastically curtailed the practice.
Reuters/Jorge Dan Lopez
In 2005, almost 46,000 children were adopted across borders. Ten years later, just 12,000 were. The foreign adoption system is imploding, potentially putting children’s lives in danger.
The vantage point from the Chinese icebreaker Xue Long in the Arctic in 2010.
(Timo Palo, Creative Commons)
With all eyes on China’s intentions in the Arctic, Singapore is flying under the radar. But the tiny Asian nation is also pursuing its own interests in the Arctic.
Russian curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii faces being stripped of his bronze medal from Pyeongchang.
EPA/Javier Etxezarreta
Athletes have, on occasion, mounted successful defences of sabotage in doping cases.
EPA/Alexander Ermochenko
Four peace agreements have been struck to try and keep Ukraine on an even keel, but none of them has resolved the conflict’s fundamental problems.
American skiier Gus Kenworthy is one of many openly gay athletes competing in Pyeongchang.
Head & Shoulders
A country with a questionable stance on LGBTI+ rights is again hosting the Winter Olympics.
Much of the interest in Russia centres around its experienced and skilled political leader in Vladimir Putin, speaking here with Donald Trump.
Reuters
Russia is a major global power in outlook and reach, locked in a values-based confrontation with the West. But it still lacks all elements of a developed superpower.
Is Donald Trump really the one setting the direction of US security policy?
Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Mounting evidence suggests we are so mesmerised by the theatre around Donald Trump that we have lost sight of how the US security establishment wields power.
Alexander Tretyakov, one of the Russian athletes whose lifetime ban was overturned in January.
CJ Gunther/EPA
The politics of Russia’s Olympic doping ban.
The Olympic Truce Mural in the athletes’ village in Pyeongchang shows just how infused the Games are with politics.
EPA/Diego Azubel
In these Olympics more than most, there is less global attention on the medal count than on who will win the politics.
Certain Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in Pyeongchang under the banner of ‘Olympic Athletes from Russia’.
Reuters/Fabrizio Bensch
Doping scandals have dominated the build-up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
The IOC has adopted the dove as an official Olympic symbol.
Reuters/Yannis Behrakis
History shows Olympic Games have only very limited ability to promote peace between warring nations.
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Russia’s Vladimir Putin meeting in 2015. Should South Africa be relying on Russia for nuclear energy?
Reuters/Ivan Sekretarev
South Africa’s obsession with nuclear energy under the leadership of President Zuma, is dangerous.
With artificial intelligence weapons on both sides, are we in a new cold war?
Dim Dimich/Shutterstock.com
As tensions between the US and Russia escalate, both sides are developing technological capabilities, including artificial intelligence that could be used in conflict.
The cancer Kaposi sarcoma. South Africa has large productivity losses because of deaths caused by it.
Shutterstock
Policies encouraging lifestyle changes that reduce the risk of cancer could have positive effects on the economies of BRICS countries.
Putin may find himself on thin ice if he crosses soldiers’ mothers.
Alexi Druzhinin/Sputnik
Vladimir Putin may not appear restricted by rules and legal norms abroad, but he is still judged in the court of public opinion at home.