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.

The current clampdown on popular rights mirrors a profound malaise with our system of top-down political representation, argues Richard Swift.

Vanessa Baird sets out to see how dictatorship is being rebranded in Latin America’s most populous nation.

Chris Brazier returns to the village in Burkina Faso that he has visited every 10 years since helping to make a film there in 1985.

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

Jo Lateu considers the state of the unions, and argues that a revival has already begun.

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

Update from France by Claire Fauset.

Shell companies are aggravating some of the world’s worst conflicts, writes Steven Shaw.

Inside the deeply-rooted economy of cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia, and how it might undermine Colombia’s peace. Bram Ebus reports.

The Ciambra directed and written by Jonas Carpignano;
In the Fade directed and co-written by Fatih Akin.

This month we review The Growth Delusion, by David Pilling; The White City, by Roma Tearne; The Unmapped Country, by Ann Quin; and Old Demons, New Deities, edited by Tenzin Dickie.

Swedish artist Fever Ray’s Plunge, and transnational trio Toto Bona Lokua’s feel-good album Bondeko.

Why does ‘accelerated development’ spell disaster in the Brazilian Amazon? Dan Baron Cohen begins his column from the Afro-indigenous community of Cabalo Seco.

Sian Griffiths meets a 10-year-old who is already a veteran transgender activist.

The president of the Philippines he may be, but his reputation is as a Dirty Harry of vigilante politics.

We turn the focus inwards to mark our 500th edition.

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.