New Internationalist

The Trump administration first started to tear children from their parents at the Mexican border in April 2018. As photographs spread of distraught toddlers in wire-mesh cages, outraged activists and the general public mounted protests and legal chal

Thank you for your considered Big Story on China (NI 522). I read with interest ‘Living in a ghost world’ which outlines the persecution and privations suffered by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang. I feel that news and reportage from the region cannot e

Thousands of African refugees and migrants heading for the US and Canada have been left in a state of limbo in Mexico. While shifting US immigration policy on its southern border is aimed at Central American travellers, it has also interrupted the jo

The world’s newest movement against climate degradation uses the ominous symbol of an hourglass inside a circle. For anyone paying attention to the series of alarming reports issuing from the UN and virtually every reputable scientific body, the poin

Landmines laid during Zimbabwe’s colonial wars are still claiming lives almost 40 years later and have become a serious concern for the affected communities, especially along the northeast border with Mozambique in Mudzi district. International landm

Self-styled ‘liberal autocracies’ have largely fallen out of fashion. Not so in Qatar, where the governing Al-Thani family continue to dress from an outdated political wardrobe, directing the desert nation as an unelected monarchy. No-one was surpris

The first same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland are expected to take place in February. Gay weddings have been allowed in England, Scotland and Wales since 2014, but Northern Ireland only legalized them in October 2019. Gary, a Northern Irish gay ma

‘Is it fair that Europe walks as it wants in Africa but not the opposite?’ Like the trailblazing Sans Papiers before them, undocumented migrants in France have recently come out of the shadows to demand citizenship (‘regularization’). ‘We want to be

The Mediterranean is the world’s most dangerous border, claiming over 14,700 lives since 2015. While the duty to rescue persons in distress is a fundamental rule of international law, in the past two years Search and Rescue (SAR) has become highly po

In Denmark, caseworkers can demand Facebook log-ins to verify asylum-seekers’ identities, while in the UK, refugees’ social media accounts can be legally checked if they claim to be fleeing persecution for being gay. The US already collects public so

LEADER: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Head of State King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) ECONOMY: GNI per capita $6,610 (Cambodia $1,380, Australia $53,190) Monetary unit: Baht Main exports: Machinery and electronic equipment, vehicles, rubber and plasti

Thailand has been highly successful in reducing poverty rates in recent years. Yet recent environmental change and economic downturns have underscored vulnerabilities. 93%. Thailand achieved its Millennium Development Goal of universal primary educat

CHAY: Our tactics are controversial. Our weapon of choice is disruption and it is not something we deploy lightly. People may be surprised to hear that I find protesting an extremely uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden experience. I hate inconveniencing

Old Indian homes from the country’s colonial past – often raved about in style glossies – usually have elegant, long, spiralling iron stairs at the back. These were meant for the sweepers or the waste pickers, mostly from the lower castes (the dalits

Lately it feels like the world is constantly on fire. Every time you switch on the television, radio or log on to the internet there is a new protest, another latent revolution, another explosive expression of civil discontent. On one hand, it’s a th

Peter was three years old when his mother gave him to a poor family in the Amazon. When I met him, in a raid to release enslaved workers, he was 14 and illiterate. He had to work to buy his own shoes, clothes and medicine – he’d already had dengue fe

by Tim Etchells (And Other Stories, ISBN 9781911508700) andotherstories.org Endland (sic) is not a country – or a book – for the fainthearted. Readers would be well advised to gird their loins before tackling its short stories, packed full as they ar

Q: Given that I’m in regular Skype contact with my family in Australia, and given the fossil-fuelled climate crisis we are already experiencing, should I succumb to my brother’s entreaties that I go and visit them? He’s even offering to pay for the f