Will Bangkok fall out of love with skyscrapers after earthquake rocks city?
Bangkok, Thailand – In the teeming metropolis that is central Bangkok, Methinee Phoovatis monitored a small computer screen, hoping to find signs of survivors. Surrounding Methinee, other members of Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) coordinated the dozens of rescue workers shuttling along a path that led to an enormous mound of debris. The rescue teams worked in shifts, searching for any indications of life under the hill of cement and steel that loomed over them. “We are just hoping for a miracle that some of the people are still alive,” Methinee, a plan and policy analyst in the DDPM, told Al Jazeera. It was four days after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake jolted Bangkok on March 28, and as the hours and days passed, the chances of Methinee and her colleagues finding survivors were increasingly slim. “We are trying our best for the people. Hopefully, they are still alive,” she said, standing next to a whiteboard showing the tally of 73 people that were still missing under the rubble of the unfinished 30-storey building, which was designed to house Thailand’s National Audit Office. Advertisement The earthquake that rocked the Thai capital was particularly shallow, just 10km (6.2 miles) deep, which intensified the shock waves on the earth’s surface. Though situated more than 1,200km (750 miles) from the epicentre in Myanmar where thousands died, the earthquake brought Bangkok to a standstill. Panicked residents of this city of more than 11 million people rushed out into the streets in search of safety as buildings swayed and shuddered. A month on, life in the Thai capital has returned to normal. But the dozens of deaths – most of which were at the site of the collapsed audit office building – and the shock of the events of March 28 have prompted concerns for some in Bangkok about the safety of high-rise living in the world’s 12th tallest city. Methinee Phoovatis, of Thailand’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, outside the building collapse site in Bangkok [Jan Camenzind Broomby /Al Jazeera] ‘People were screaming’ A sudden feeling of nausea and the swaying of lamps inside his apartment on the ninth floor of a 41-storey building told Harry Yang he was in danger. “I ran out onto my balcony and everything was shaking,” said the 29-year-old, who has called Bangkok his home since birth. “People were screaming,” he said. Dashing down the fire escape stairs, Yang immediately thought of his ageing father who lives on the 32nd floor in another high-rise building in Bangkok and who has issues with mobility. Although his father, who works as an antique dealer, made it out of the ordeal unscathed, the quake destroyed many of his antiques and left him terrified. Advertisement “My dad is 68 years old, he has leg problems, and he needed to climb down” stairs to reach the ground floor, Yang said. People had good reason to be scared. Video clips on social media showed Bangkok shaking, with debris falling to the ground and water pouring in torrents from skyscraper infinity swimming pools. Lapaphutch Lertsachanant was in her condominium on the 27th floor when the quake struck. “The building was literally moving side to side. I really felt at that moment that the building could be cut in half,” Lapaphutch said. “I really thought that I wouldn’t survive,” she added, recalling her desire to speak to her partner one final time by phone. “I thought I could have my last words with him. He would be with me in my last moments alive.” Although seismic events in the wider Southeast Asia region are common, the scale of the quake that hit Myanmar – where more than 3,700 people were killed – and shook Bangkok took many by surprise. Wang Yu, associate professor in the department of geosciences at the National Taiwan University, said Myanmar lies directly on a tectonic fault line, the Sagaing Fault, and the March 28 quake occurred after a strike-slip fault between the India and Eurasian plates. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a strike-slip refers to a tectonic fault where two plates move horizontally past each other. Since 1900, the USGS reports that six other large earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.0 or more have occurred within 250km (155 miles) of the epicentre in Myanmar of the March 28 quake. Advertisement Bangkok is built on a basin of unstable soil that can increase the effect of these quakes, Wang Yu explained. “When a seismic wave transmits from the outside into the basin, the amplitude of the seismic wave will be enlarged,” he said. But the precise reason why the building in central Bangkok collapsed remains under investigation. No other building in Bangkok suffered such a catastrophic failure, although many sustained structural damage. Officials in Thailand have launched an investigation to assess whether proper building protocols were followed. Cranes work to remove the debris at the site of the building collapse in Bangkok, Thailand [Jan Camenzind Broomby/Al Jazeera] ‘Earthquake Resistant Design’ Thailand first introduced seismic regulations on buildings in 1997. In 2007, new legislation specified that buildings higher than 15 metres (49ft) in high-risk areas like Bangkok must be built to withstand quakes of up to magnitude 7.0. Two years later, in 2009, the Thai Department of Public Works and Town and Country Planning introduced a comprehensive “Standard for Earthquake Resistant Design of Buildings”. Given these building and engineering regulations, questions have been raised over how the almost-constructed building in Bangkok could collapse. “I think we need to find the root cause so at least we can learn some lessons and improve building regulations,” Bangkok Governor Chadchart Sittipunt said shortly after the quake, as local authorities fanned out across Thailand to test buildings and assess whether they were still structurally sound. Advertisement So far, the majority have been deemed to meet safety standards. On April 3, just six days after the earthquake, Bangkok’s Metropolitan Authority declared an end to the “disaster situation” in Bangkok, except for the
Will Vatican City sit-down between Trump and Zelenskyy turn into peace?
The United States president says a deal is ‘very close ‘as he criticises Russia’s leader. Donald Trump promised to end the Ukraine war on day one of his US presidency. Then his special envoy promised to end it within the first 100 days. The second self-imposed deadline is days away, with no deal in sight. But Trump’s first face-to-face meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy since an Oval Office blow-up in February seems to have brought Washington and Kyiv a step closer. So, how close is peace in Ukraine? Presenter: Elizabeth Puranam Guests: Oleksiy Goncharenko – Ukrainian member of parliament and opposition politician Rachel Rizzo – Senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center Alexander Bratersky – an independent journalist focusing on foreign policy Adblock test (Why?)
Assefa sets women’s record in London Marathon; Sawe wins men’s race
Tigst Assefa sets a record time for a women’s-only race while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe wins his first London Marathon. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in winning the 45th London Marathon, while Kenyan Sabastian Sawe made a brilliant tactical decision to demolish a stacked men’s field en route to victory. The 28-year-old Assefa, silver medallist in the event at last year’s Paris Olympics, pulled away from Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya over the final couple of kilometres after the two had set a blistering early pace on Sunday morning. She crossed the finish line in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds, beating the previous women’s-only record of 2:16:16 set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir, and said the blazing London sun helped, with temperatures approaching 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the race. “Last year, I did have some problems with the cold,” said Assefa, who was second in the 2024 London race. “My hamstring tightened up towards the end of the race. This year, the weather suited me really well, and that’s why I’m really pleased with the way the race went. Advertisement “I was second here last year, and to win here this year is very special.” Jepkosgei, 31, crossed second in 2:18:44. The sizzling early pace was too much for reigning Olympic marathon champion and 2024 London winner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who fell back off the leaders around the halfway mark en route to finishing third in 2:19:00. Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe crosses the line to win the men’s race at the 2025 London Marathon on April 27, 2025 [Justin Tallis/AFP] The 29-year-old Sawe, who made a stunning marathon debut by winning in Valencia in December, pulled away from the lead pack when the others reached for bottles to refuel with about 10km to go, on his way to crossing in 2:02:27. “So happy, this is my first time to win a major marathon. I was well prepared for this race, and that’s why it has become easy for me to win,” Sawe said. “It does now give me hope that my marathoning future will be so important to me, and it will be so easy to me.” Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who shattered the world half-marathon record in February, was second in his marathon debut in 2:03:37, while last year’s winner, Alexander Mutiso Munyao of Kenya, was third in a photo finish with Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, both crossing in 2:04:20. It was a Swiss double in the wheelchair events, with Marcel Hug racing to his sixth London Marathon title in 1:25:25 and Catherine Debrunner winning her third women’s title in four years in 1:34:18, missing her own world record by two seconds. A world record 56,000 runners were expected to participate in the 42.195km race that started at Greenwich Park, snaked along the River Thames before finishing on The Mall. Among them were Britain’s Alex Yee, Olympic gold medallist last year in the triathlon, who was a respectable 14th in his marathon debut, and Eilish McColgan, who set a Scottish record of 2:24:25 to finish eighth in her debut at the distance. Women’s first placed Tigst Assefa of Team Ethiopia, left, and men’s first placed Sabastian Sawe of Kenya pose for a photo with the Chris Brasher Sporting Life Trophy during the medal ceremony after the 2025 TCS London Marathon on April 27, 2025 [Alex Davidson/Getty Images] Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy describes Vatican meeting with Trump as ‘productive’
NewsFeed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described his one-on-one encounter with US President Donald Trump at the Vatican, their first meeting since February’s fiery Oval Office exchange, as ‘productive’. They met on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral. Published On 27 Apr 202527 Apr 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
India-Pakistan troops exchange fire as diaspora clashes over Kashmir attack
NewsFeed Protests between Indian and Pakistani diaspora communities have erupted in London as tensions soar between both countries in the wake of a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for the shooting in Pahalgam which killed 26 tourists, sparking renewed fighting over the disputed region. Published On 27 Apr 202527 Apr 2025 Adblock test (Why?)
What will the next chapter look like for the Roman Catholic Church?
Pope Francis leaves behind a legacy of reform – so how will his successor wield power? With Pope Francis’s funeral, the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics are turning the page on an era of reform and liberalism. The Vatican now faces several questions. Among them, what will its next chapter look like? And how will the next pope wield the power of the Church? Presenter: Imran Khan Guests: Kayode Akintola – Head of Africa region, Catholic Agency for Overseas Development Glenda Miro Antonio – Founder and president of Spring Rain Global, a philanthropy consultancy Marco Politi – Pope biographer and Vatican expert Adblock test (Why?)
Chris Eubank Jr beats Conor Benn on unanimous points decision
Fierce rivals go the distance in middleweight bout as their famous fathers watch on at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Chris Eubank Jr dealt fellow Briton Conor Benn a first career defeat after going the distance to win their middleweight grudge match on a unanimous points decision. All three judges scored the fight 116-112 after a pulsating 12-round slugfest, with both fighters coming out hard from the start and going toe-to-toe in front of 65,000 spectators at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The fight between the sons of former world champions and archrivals Chris Eubank Sr and Nigel Benn, who met twice in the 1990s, was called off in 2022 when Benn tested positive for trace amounts of fertility drug clomifene. “I knew I was capable of that, and I just needed someone to bring that out of me. I did not expect him to be the guy to do that,” Eubank told DAZN. “The fact our fathers did it before brings out the soul in you. “I did not know he [Benn] had what he had in him. I thought I’d break him early. I didn’t train for a fight like that.” Chris Eubank Jr lands a right hook in his middleweight fight against Conor Benn Action [Andrew Couldridge/Reuters] Both fathers were present, 32 years on from their last clash, and embraced in the ring before the opening bell. Advertisement The fight itself rolled back the years from the scraps that their fathers produced with sheer aggression and energy dominating. “It was close,” Benn said after. “I need to watch it back. I thought I won. Maybe I stayed on the ropes for too long. I enjoyed it, and it was a massive homecoming. “We always knew Chris was a good fighter, and has good fighting talk.” Benn had made a step up in weight to face someone who had been a fierce rival outside the ring. “I believe I can go back down a weight and win a title,” Benn said on reflection. Conor Benn looks dejected alongside his father Nigel Benn after the fight [Richard Pelham/Getty Images] A rematch between the pair is in the contract, and promoter Eddie Hearn was clear that it needs to happen, in his opinion. “I couldn’t split them. I thought Benn was winning the fight and then lost the last two rounds,” Hearn told DAZN. “It is what it is, but I didn’t see Eubank winning that by four rounds. “Benn became the people’s champion. He rose up to fight a middleweight, and he took the kitchen sink. He never stopped trying to win the fight. “It was one of the most dramatic fights I’ve seen. “Those two warriors should respect each other after that.” Adblock test (Why?)
Barcelona edge Real Madrid in extra time to win Copa del Rey
Barcelona defender Jules Kounde struck deep in extra time to decide a gripping Copa del Rey Clasico final in Seville, earning his side a 3-2 win over rivals Real Madrid. The Catalans, aiming for a quadruple this season, won the first major trophy of Hansi Flick’s reign as coach and a record-extending 32nd Spanish cup in dramatic fashion on Saturday. Pedri sent Barcelona ahead at La Cartuja, but two Real Madrid goals in seven second-half minutes, from Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni, pulled the Spanish and European champions level. However, Ferran Torres struck in the 84th minute to take the game to extra time and Kounde drilled home to win it for the LaLiga leaders. Substituted Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger was sent off in the final seconds for appearing to throw an object onto the pitch towards the referee. Madrid, who started with top scorer Mbappe on the bench after an ankle injury, suffered an early setback when left-back Ferland Mendy, playing his first game for six weeks, suffered a thigh injury. Advertisement Carlo Ancelotti sent on Fran Garcia in his place, with the job of shackling Barcelona’s dazzling teenage winger Lamine Yamal. The 17-year-old Spain star, who dyed his hair blond for the game, burst past him with ease as Barca increasingly threatened Thibaut Courtois’s goal. The Catalans, who won the first two Clasicos this season in LaLiga and the Spanish Super Cup, scoring nine goals in the process, controlled the ball. They took the lead after 28 minutes, Pedri placing the ball into the top corner with precision and power from the edge of the box. It was a sensational goal, starting with a smart Pau Cubarsi interception in his own half. Pedri spread the play out to Yamal on the right, who cut inside and held the ball up until the Canary Islander reached the box and had a sight of goal. Madrid had been focused on defending, but Barcelona’s opener brought them out of their shell – and also brought Mbappe off the bench to warm up. Jude Bellingham started and finished a superb move but was offside, and Vinicius Junior would have won a penalty as Inigo Martinez hacked him down, but had also strayed off in the build-up. Barcelona could have doubled their lead, with Dani Olmo’s corner evading several players and bouncing off the far post, with Cubarsi unable to get there as Dani Ceballos held him back. Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea was lenient with some heated Madrid tackles, perhaps cowed by Friday’s drama as the Spanish champions seethed at his pre-match comments denouncing attacks on officials by the club’s television channel. Advertisement Madrid sent Mbappe on for Rodrygo Goes at half-time and soon they began to work Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with Vinicius and Mbappe coming close. Mbappe pulled Madrid level almost on his own in the 70th minute. The striker surged forward and was brought down on the edge of the box by Frenkie de Jong. Mbappe took the free-kick himself and fired a low effort in off the post. Seven minutes later, Madrid took the lead, Tchouameni finding space to head home Arda Guler’s corner past the helpless Szczesny. Barcelona responded when Yamal played a delicious pass over the top for Torres, which drew both Rudiger and Courtois, but the Spaniard got there first and rolled home. Real Madrid’s French forward Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring an equalising goal in the second half [Josep Lago/AFP] Tensions boil over Controversy unsurprisingly reared its head before the match headed to extra time. Barcelona clamoured for a penalty when Rudiger appeared to bring down Torres, and then were awarded one deep in stoppage time as Raphinha tumbled under pressure from Raul Asencio. However, the referee, called to review the incident by VAR, overturned his decision and booked the Brazilian for diving. In extra time, Barcelona were ascendant and probed for a potential winner. They eventually found it when Kounde intercepted an uncharacteristically loose Luka Modric pass and beat Courtois with a powerful low effort from outside the box, sparking wild celebrations. Rudiger’s dismissal and Madrid’s pre-match histrionics regarding the refereeing team will ensure the repercussions continue, and the teams meet again in LaLiga in May, in a match that could decide the title race. Players of FC Barcelona celebrate after the team’s victory in the Copa del Rey Final match between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid at Estadio de La Cartuja on April 26, 2025, in Seville, Spain [Fran Santiago/Getty Images] Adblock test (Why?)
How technocracy has become our reality
As tech billionaires infiltrate the White House, the question looms, “Who really rules us, the government or Silicon Valley?” This film examines the influence and ideology of technocrats over the last century, and asks whether they pose a threat to democracy. Contributors: Gil Duran – Tech journalistSiva Vaidhyanathan – Professor of Media Studies, University of VirginiaPayal Arora – Digital anthropologistCori Crider – Senior Fellow, Open Markets and the Future of Tech Institute Adblock test (Why?)
Have scientists discovered a new colour called ‘olo’?
A team of scientists claims to have discovered a new colour that humans cannot see without the help of technology. The researchers based in the United States said they were able to “experience” the colour, which they named “olo”, by firing laser pulses into their eyes using a device named after the Wizard of Oz. Olo cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the five people who have seen it describe it as being similar to teal. What has the study found? Professors from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington School of Medicine published an article in the journal, Science Advances, on April 18 in which they put forth their discovery of a hue beyond the gamut of human vision. They explained that they had devised a technique called Oz, which can “trick” the human eye into seeing olo. The technique is named after the Wizard of Oz. In the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900, Frank Baum wrote about a man who uses tricks to fool the residents of the fictional land of Oz into thinking he’s a wizard. For instance, it is believed that the Emerald City, the capital of Oz, is so bright and vibrant that visitors have to wear special glasses to protect their eyes. The glasses are one of the wizard’s tricks, since they make the city appear greener and grander. Advertisement How do humans perceive colour? The human eye perceives colour via three types of photoreceptor or “cone cells” in the retina. S cones pick up shorter, blue wavelengths of light; M cones detect medium, green wavelengths; and L cones detect longer, red wavelengths. “The signals from these cones are then sent through a complex series of cells in the retina that act to clean up and integrate the signal before passing it down the optic nerve through parts of the brain,” Francis Windram, a research associate at the department of life sciences at Imperial College London, told Al Jazeera. The part of the brain that the visual information is passed to is the visual cortex. A doctor demonstrates a model of the human eye [Shutterstock] How did scientists find the ‘new’ colour? In normal vision, the function of M cones overlaps with the neighbouring S and L cones, so any light that stimulates M cones also activates the other two cones. The M cones don’t function alone. “There’s no wavelength in the world that can stimulate only the M cone,” Ren Ng, a professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley, explained in an article published on its website. “I began wondering what it would look like if you could just stimulate all the M cone cells. Would it be like the greenest green you’ve ever seen?” So Ng teamed up with Austin Roorda, one of the creators of the Oz technology and a professor of optometry and vision science at UC Berkeley. Oz, which Roorda described as “a microscope for looking at the retina”, uses tiny microdoses of laser light to target individual photoreceptors in the eye. The equipment, which must be highly stabilised during use, is already being used to study eye disease. Advertisement The work using Oz began in 2018 by James Carl Fong, a doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer sciences at UC Berkeley. Hannah Doyle, another doctoral student at Berkeley, ran the experiments through which human subjects were able to see the new colour, olo. Is olo really a new colour? The shade of olo has always existed, it just falls beyond the spectrum of shades visible to the human eye. There are other such shades that we cannot see. Hence, olo is not a new colour that has come into existence, from a physical or scientific perspective. However, “from a sociolinguistic perspective, if people give new names to colours which previously were indistinguishable thanks to this technology, then maybe! It all depends on how you say it,” Windram said. A palette shows some of the colours humans can normally see [Shutterstock] How many people have seen olo? Five people have seen the “new” colour – four men and one woman. All had normal colour vision. Three of the subjects, including Roorda and Ng, are the co-authors of the research paper while the other two are members of the participating lab at the University of Washington and were unaware of the purpose of the study before they took part. What does olo look like? Those who have seen olo describe it as a teal or green-blue colour – but one they had never seen before. In the article by UC Berkeley, it is described as a “blue-green colour of unparalleled saturation”. “It was like a profoundly saturated teal … the most saturated natural colour was just pale by comparison,” Roorda said. Advertisement “I wasn’t a subject for this paper, but I’ve seen olo since, and it’s very striking. You know you’re looking at something very blue-green,” Doyle said. The researchers said an image of a teal square is the closest colour match to olo. However, this square is not an olo-coloured square. The naked human eye simply cannot see the shade. “We’re not going to see olo on any smartphone displays or any TVs any time soon. And this is very, very far beyond VR headset technology,” Ng said, according to a report in the UK’s Guardian newspaper. What if some colors are invisible not because they’re rare, but because we physically can’t see them? UC Berkeley scientists discovered Olo – a hue that can’t be rendered, only experienced. Olo may never join the Pantone Color System… or will it?https://t.co/sBRGVhw85g pic.twitter.com/rxmbutd7y2 — PANTONE (@pantone) April 23, 2025 Could this technology help people with colour blindness? Berkeley researchers are exploring whether the Oz technology could help people with colour blindness. Windram said success would depend on the cause of colourblindness in individuals. Deuteranomaly, which causes decreased sensitivity to green light, is the most common form of colour blindness. “In