大象传媒

Pascale Harter introduces correspondents' and writers' dispatches from Russia, Australia, Ecuador and Nigeria.

Ukraine's surprise attack on Russia's western border region of Kursk is now in its second week. Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow on how ordinary Russians are reacting to the incursion - and whether their concern shows that Ukraine really has 'brought the war home' to them.

Finding a place to live in Australia is not easy: at any level of the housing market, there's fierce competition for a limited number of properties, and fast-rising prices are edging many people out of their homes. On the streets of Perth, in Western Australia, Katy Watson found some pensioners and professionals among those who've ended up living precariously in short-term lets - or even in their cars.

After an explosion of gang violence earlier this year, Ecuador is still in a state of emergency, with 20 cities across the country under a night-time curfew. President Daniel Noboa is cracking down hard on organised crime, but even teachers and firefighters complain they're often threatened and menaced by gangs. Danny Wiser heard how a climate of fear pervades daily life in the city of Guayaquil.

The cost of living is spiralling in Nigeria - and food price inflation is the biggest worry for many families. In the past month there's been a wave of "hunger protests" where demonstrators denounced rising prices and the government's economic policies. In Lagos, Simi Jolaoso talked to protest leaders and market traders about the crisis.

Producer: Polly Hope
Editor: Tom Bigwood
Production co-ordinator: Katie Morrison
Image: Medics help a local resident in a field hospital in the Kursk region (Photo by ANATOLIY ZHDANOV/Kommersant Photo/AFP via Getty Images)