Christmas Specials
A thousand words
The year as told through illustrations
Our art department staff looked back to highlight some of their favourites from the past year
Show and tell
A year of our visual journalism
In 2024 we found new ways to cover a range of topics, from war to the future of energy—and, of course, elections.
Consider the monster
What a 70-year-old firebreathing lizard reveals about humanity
Each incarnation of Godzilla reflects the fears of its time
Bakersfield blues
The beginning of the end for oil in California
What happens to an oil town when the drilling stops?
The Japanese art of child-rearing
Why do small children in Japan ride the subway alone?
The pluses and pitfalls of the world’s most disciplined primary schools
Home for the holidays
A network of volunteers is rescuing dogs and cats by bringing them north
Tens of thousands of animals are moved to new states each year, so they can find homes
Chinese calligraphy
What a fourth-century drinking game tells you about contemporary China
China’s obsession with calligraphy colours its view of itself
Really cool jobs
The harsh economics of the Arctic
The world craves polar minerals. But who wants to work in a frozen wasteland?
The Ivy League rat race
Finance, consulting and tech are gobbling up top students
Are they abandoning their dreams—and does that matter?
The titanic Triassic
Of all the geological periods, the Triassic was the most fabulous
In 50m years it spawned dinosaurs, seafood, geopolitics—and our distant ancestors
How good are good Samaritans?
When doing the right thing goes wrong
How a car crash in Los Angeles rewrote the law on helping strangers