Features

Human rights at sea by Vanessa Baird.

This area is a simmering cauldron for conflict between China and its neighbours – and the US. Mark J Valencia makes sense of the situation.

For Epeli Hau’ofa, by Karlo Mila.

The race is on to patent all marine life – and some have got a head start. Marine scientist Robert Blasiak explains to Vanessa Baird what it means.

Can fishers, coastguards and marine activists see off the thieves from powerful nations plundering the seas of West Africa? Aïda Grovestins reports.

Living sea; Fewer fish in the sea than ever before; Acid sea; Sea of plastic; Blue economy; Future prospects?; Marine protection.

Sea-bed mining promises many riches, but at great risk. Should we pause for thought? asks marine biologist Diva Amon.

Without the ocean, climate change would be happening much faster.

The coming months are critical if we are going to stop the damaging free-for-all that is the current status quo and save the world’s oceans for our common future. Vanessa Baird examines the prospects.

The world has never been better. From global poverty to inequality between nations, all the indicators are showing progress. This is a comforting narrative – popularized by the likes of Bill Gates and Steven Pinker. But is it true? Jason Hickel examines the rise of this so-called ‘New Optimism’, with its ‘battle cry for the status quo’.

Veronique Mistiaen speaks to environmental lawyer Alfred Brownell about the grave threat palm-oil corporations pose to the people of Sinoe County, Liberia, and the rich rainforests they depend upon.

In the refugee camps of Iraqi Kurdistan, Yazidi women are using boxing to overcome the traumas of war. Report by Monir Ghaedi, photos by Giacomo Sini.

The city can provide cover and anonymity to those who seek it, explains David Nnanna Ikpo.

Anne-Marie Broudehoux punctures the bombastic narrative of civic pride and prosperity that accompanies sporting mega-events to reveal how they actually remake the city upon the backs of the poor.

Architecture is never neutral, explains Laith Kharus Whitwham. But can it be made to truly serve the public?

India’s rapidly expanding cities attract young dreamers like magnets. Snigdha Poonam observes how the horizon of promise keeps receding in Ranchi.

The mushrooming trend of cashing in on fast returns from housing is devastating working people’s lives in cities across the world. UN expert Leilani Farha lays it on the line. Interview by Dinyar Godrej.

Density, location, economics, sustainability and inequality.

If the future of humanity lies in cities, says Dinyar Godrej, then it follows that inhabitants of every strata must have a right to it.

Jair Bolsonaro may be in power, but the Sateré indigenous people are not taking his hostility sitting down. Sue Branford reports from the Brazilian Amazon.