In an explosive interview to New Internationalist, the Kurdish female leader Bese Hozat opens up about peace, the party’s view on the region and the independence referendum in South Kurdistan, and accuses Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the West to have incubated Isis. By Karlos Zurutuza.

Emboldened by a recent study, The Guardian repeats the myth that becoming vegan is the ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth. Chris Saltmarsh and Harpreet Kaur Paul disagree.

The backlash against social media titans is in full swing. But are moves to bring them to heel, including new privacy laws, appropriate? Mike Morel investigates.

Hazel Healy investigates the challenges facing 21st century humanitarian action.

With house prices and rents soaring, can there be a remedy to homelessness? Wayne Ellwood investigates.

Hardliners are thriving on popular disenchantment with politics. Dinyar Godrej on the challenge they pose.

What makes people brave? Vanessa Baird takes a look at an under-examined quality that can change the world.

Another shock referendum result – this time in Colombia. Tatiana Garavito assesses the chances of ending the longest conflict in the western world.

The world's poor are still losing out. They need a better deal, argues Dinyar Godrej.

When Rashid first arrived in Cambodia, he warned other Nauru detainees not to come.

Report from the Ukraine.

Update on a large-scale dam in the AmazonTom Lawson.

Even When I Fall, co-directed by Kate McLarnon and Sky Neal; 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute), directed and co-written by Robin Campillo.

The Incendiaries; Betraying Big Brother; A Radical History of the World; Rupture.

What a year! We’re all in need of some light relief – here we pick out the top films, books and music reviewed by New Internationalist in 2017

The lines painted on his skin lead to the heartlands of identity, discovers Dan Baron Cohen.

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

Richard Swift takes aim at Sava Kiir Mayardit and Riek Machar, once friends but now foes at the pinnacle of violent South Sudanese politics.

This month's fact spread presents details about the internet and the corporate giants who monopolize it.

Civil war, ISIS invasions, mountains of rubbish. Never a dull day in Lebanon. The country’s constant turmoil is exhausting, says Reem Haddad, reporting from Beirut.

Cartoon by P J Polyp.