This month's big story

Can mining save the world?

They are touted as our way out of climate chaos and essential for making the things we use, from mobile phones to electric vehicles. Vanessa Baird sets out to investigate critical minerals – and the rush to get them.

You may not know them by name, but by the time you get up, turn on a device or have your first cup of tea, you will have engaged with multiple critical minerals.

...

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A note from the editor

Vanessa Baird

Vanessa Baird

Dig, baby, dig! Can critical minerals save the world?

We have Donald Trump to ‘thank’ for putting critical minerals so vividly on the world map of naked greed and ruthless opportunism.

Anyone who had not heard of them before – and rare earth elements, a sub-section of said minerals – may well associate them forever more with the...

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Magazine archive

Here are the most recent magazines we've published.

NI 555 - Critical minerals - May, 2025 Critical minerals Vanessa Baird 1 May 2025 NI 554 - Indigenous sovereignty in Australia - March, 2025 Indigenous sovereignty in Australia Zoe Holman 1 March 2025 NI 553 - Guns and power - January, 2025 Guns and power Amy hall 1 January 2025

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NI 508 - Clampdown! Criminalizing dissent - December, 2017 Clampdown! Criminalizing dissent Richard Swift 1 December 2017

Recent feature articles

A selection of feature articles from each of the latest New Internationalist magazines.

Making sense of the world in an age of doubt: people are reflected in mirrors on the 91st floor of The Summit near Grand Central Terminal, New York City. Photo: Gordon Donovan/Alamy

Entering the Matrix

Although far from a modern phenomenon, the potency and complexity of misinformation has increased in the digital age. To tackle it, we need a systemic response that goes further than debunking one lie at a time, argues Nanjala Nyabola.

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Seth Mazibuko, left, served time in Robben Island for his role in leading the 1976 Soweto uprising. He says South Africa’s current president Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and much of the ANC leadership has been ‘found wanting’. Photo: Jacob Mawela

Africa’s pandora’s box

Can South Africa ever fully shake off the shackles of apartheid? Conrad Landin asks whether the country’s historic genocide case against Israel could lead to a reckoning at home.

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Activists from Debt for Climate and Extinction Rebellion shut down traffic in front of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Washington DC on 13 October 2022. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The long goodbye

Confronting the impact of empire is not about getting stuck in the past, writes Amy Hall. It’s vital to how we build a better future.

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A study of 10,000 young people across 10 countries found 45 per cent said climate change ‘negatively affected their daily life and functioning’. The impact was significantly higher in the four Global South countries surveyed: Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines and India. Photo: Media Lens King/shutterstock

A world to win

We don’t just need solutions – we need the courage to imagine they will succeed. Conrad Landin makes the case for collective action to secure a just future.

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Wind and solar generation at Phan Rang, Ninh Thuan province, Vietnam. Photo: Quang Ngoc Nguyen/Alamy

Beyond big oil

We cannot let the ever-expanding oil and gas industry stand in the way of urgently needed climate action. Nick Dowson lays out a path to change.

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 Economic migrants from rural areas at work on a construction site in Nairobi, Kenya. Such jobs are usually temporary, sometimes just a day’s labour. Photo: Nature Picture/Alamy

The squeeze on workers

Starting from the revelations of a global pandemic, Dinyar Godrej looks into the possible futures of work.

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From the archives

A selection of articles from the New Internationalist magazine archives.

A Muslim boy inspects a broken window after a mosque was vandalized in Kandy, Sri Lanka on 10 March 2018. Photo: CrowdSpark/Alamy Live News

Fears for Muslim communities

Phil Miller on fearing for Muslim communities in Sri Lanka.

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‘Curing’ homosexuality

‘Curing’ homosexuality

LGBT+ people are still subjected to forced confinement, medication and even electric shocks to try to change their sexual orientation, writes Alessio Perrone.

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Happy feet for Chilean penguin campaigners

After concerted campaigning, the Chilean government has turned down a proposal for two open-pit copper and iron mines – that would have sat right next to the nature reserve sheltering the endangered Humboldt penguin. Lydia Noon reports.

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Mixed Media: Film

Mixed Media: Film

All We Imagine As Light; Black Box Diaries.

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Books Essay: Auditioning for empathy

Books Essay: Auditioning for empathy

Poet and polemicist Mohammed El-Kurd chronicles the erasure of Palestinians – in voice as well as body. By Hamza Yusuf.

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 Illustration: Sarah John

In the balance

Sophie Neiman reports from a stifling court in Kampala, where activists are waging a bitter legal battle to overturn Uganda’s harsh anti-gay law.

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 Photo courtesy of WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education)

Making Waves: Sakena Yacoobi

Veronique Mistiaen meets Afghanistan’s ‘mother of education’, who for more than two decades has been transforming lives through community-based learning.

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 Photo: Elvis Barukcic / AFP / Getty

Hall of infamy: Milorad Dodik

Bosnian Co-President from Republika Srpska.

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Debt - The Facts

Debt - The Facts

Know your debt; Twin powers; Where the money flows; Household debt.

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Country Profile: Mexico

Country Profile: Mexico

The photos, facts, and politics of Mexico.

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 Illustration: P J Polyp

Big Bad World

Free speech, by P J Polyp.

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