This month's big story

Who owns the skies?

A new space race is set to worsen global inequality and extend conflict. We need to return to seeing space as a place for all humankind, argues Nick Dowson.

In November 1572 a brilliant new star appeared in the sky – initially bright enough to be seen during daylight. Its appearance was recorded worldwide and it stayed v...

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A note from the editor

Nick Dowson

Nick Dowson

Starstruck

As we edited this magazine a rocket exploded on its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. This was not owned by NASA but by Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company, which announced they had ‘experienced an anomaly’. Some euphemism: footage shows a gigantic ball of flame and something that looks very mu...

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Magazine archive

Here are the most recent magazines we've published.

NI 562 - The new space race - July, 2026 The new space race Nick Dowson 1 July 2026 NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026 Trade Unions Henry Fowler 1 May 2026 NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026 AI: the people behind the machine Decca Muldowney 1 March 2026

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NI 557 - The global far right - September, 2025 The global far right Bethany Rielly 1 September 2025

Recent feature articles

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

The world’s first hydrogen bomb, codenamed ‘Mike’ is detonated by the US during ‘Operation Ivy’ in the Marshall Islands. Nuclear weapons testing conducted at Bikini and Enewetak atolls in the Pacific Ocean during 1946–1958 exposed local people to radioactive fallout. Photo: Science History Images/Photo Researchers

Flashpoints to fallout

Could the threat of nuclear war be closer than ever? Amy Hall explores how we got here and the pathways out of the crisis.

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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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A woman plays the cello amid riot police at a demonstration for safe and legal abortion to mark International Safe Abortion Day in Mexico City, on 28 September 2023. Earlier that month Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized the procedure. Photo: Raquel Cunya/Reuters

Freeing abortion

The global trend towards liberalizing abortion is being overshadowed by a newly emboldened anti-rights movement that wants to erode bodily autonomy. Bethany Rielly learns how feminist movements are organizing to put abortion back in the hands of the people – and keep it there.

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A protester faces off with riot police at an attempted eviction of an occupied building in the Poble Sec neighbourhood of Barcelona. In recent years it’s been revealed that undercover officers in the Spanish National Corps infiltrated several activist groups in the city, including housing rights. One took part in at least four anti-eviction protests during his deployment. Photo: Pau de la Calle/NurPhoto/Alamy

Spies, damned spies

Bethany Rielly explores the chilling impact of the Spanish state’s intrusive surveillance tactics against Catalan civil society. Is there a chance of justice?

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A woman crosses the Qalandiya check point, the biggest in the occupied West Bank, in 2014. Photo: Roger Garfield/Alamy

From accord to apartheid

A new far-right Israeli government’s meddling with the supreme court has Jewish citizens up in arms. But the shredded freedoms of the Palestinian people under Israel’s thumb are still off the table. Zoe Holman looks at how the so-called ‘peace process’ has allowed Israel to deepen its colonial project and regime of control over Palestinian lives.

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A group of women tend to vegetables in Koyli Alpha, Senegal, in March 2019. They were taking part in the Great Green Wall project which has the ambition of restoring 100 million hectares of degraded land across the African continent by 2030. Photo: Simon Townsley/Panos Pictures

The land is ours

We depend on it for food, shelter and work, it’s a cultural marker and a source of identity – but also a site of violence and anguish. It’s time for a reckoning, writes Amy Hall.

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From the archives

A selection of articles from the New Internationalist magazine archives.

 Photo: GovernmentZA/Flickr

Introducing... Abiy Ahmed

Richard Swift on Ethiopia's new reforming PM.

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Sand dredgers now banned from the Peam Krosaob forests, Koh Kong province. Photo: Mother Nature

Sand dredgers defeated

In Koh Kong province, Cambodia a band of Mother Nature activists have scored a victory in the battle against environmentally destructive sand dredging writes Fran Lambrick.

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Reasons to be cheerful

Reasons to be cheerful

A highland welcome; Rhino forensics; Good sex in Rwanda.

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Mixed Media: Books

Mixed Media: Books

The Future of Travel; Joyful Revolution; Benbecula; The Taste of Lightning.

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 Illustration: Sarah John

A life cut short

The murder of Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has shone a spotlight on Uganda’s domestic abuse crisis. Sophie Neiman pays tribute to the determined runner.

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Environmental campaigner Claire Nouvian. Photo: Courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize

Making Waves

The untiring campaigner and guardian of the deep, Claire Nouvian, speaks with Veronique Mistiaen about the transformative experience that led to her choosing her path – on to eventual victory.

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United Nations - The Facts

United Nations - The Facts

Components, budget, and the peacekeepers of the United Nations.

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Country Profile: Indonesia

Country Profile: Indonesia

The photos, facts, and politics of Indonesia.

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