Features

The global free trade system is being battered like never before. Can any good come of it, asks Vanessa Baird in the first of an eight-article exploration?

In 1987, the British government contracted a passenger ferry to act as a floating immigration detention centre for Tamil refugees. Later that year a storm set the ship loose from its moorings. Felix Bazalgette reports on the the little-known story of exodus and empire that paved the way for the Windrush scandal.

As 25 November marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, Joni Seager maps the stark reality faced by women in every corner of the world – from Belarus to Brazil.

Art and story by ILYA, with Yohann Koshy.

As growth-driven consumer culture spurs on planetary destruction, why don’t we spring into action? Psychologist John F Schumaker situates a frightening erosion of human personality at the heart of the problem.

An indigenous movement in Jharkhand is reminding the Indian authorities of their constitutional duty to protect tribal lands. But the government is persecuting tribespeople for standing up. Rohini Mohan reports.

Attempts to solve Cairo’s garbage problems come up against a community whose livelihoods depend on refuse. Hisham Allam reports.

The mismanagement of Lebanon’s trash has brought citizens onto the streets – and the latest plans are also stoking outrage. But, as Fiona Broom discovers, there are also optimists.

By supermarkets, that is. Timothy Baster and Isabelle Merminod on the progress of a much-lauded French law.

Around the world, 15 million people – including children – have little choice but to earn a living from the waste polluting their surroundings. They often work in dangerous conditions, risking their health, sometimes their lives; and are usually relegated to the bottom of the social pecking order, struggling to improve their working conditions.

Dinyar Godrej explains why the packing industry loves shunting the blame on individual consumers.

Last year, China announced a ban on imports of ‘foreign garbage’. The result? Western stockpiles of used paper and plastic have reached crisis proportions. Adam Liebman on why we need a less rosy notion of what actually happens to our recycling.

By Bill Posters.

How much; disposal; food; plastic; electronic waste; the facts and figures.

The dirt on waste. Dinyar Godrej argues that the problems with our throwaway society add up to much more than the sum of individual actions.

Politicians of both Left and Right continue to march behind the banners of meritocracy and equality of opportunity as if this were all that is needed to achieve a fair society. But rewarding people for their ‘merit’ may be creating a new class system based on arrogant, insensitive winners and angry, desperate losers, writes Peter Adamson.

Some 70,000 Palestinian workers pass through Israeli checkpoints every day. The process, which can take several hours, is disorganized and conditions overcrowded. Those without proper permits often attempt the crossing via gaps in the Israeli wall and mountain routes along the Green Line and run the risk of being arrested or even shot at by Israeli forces. Words & photography by Anne Paq / Active Stills

According to the UN, most surgeries on intersex babies amount to torture. And yet that is the practice in almost every country in the world today. Valentino Vecchietti calls for urgent change.

The brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in 2012 shone a blistering light on sexual violence as a staggeringly common occurrence in India. Author Sohaila Abdulali explains how, despite the case’s global coverage, the conversation about rape has only just begun.

Frances Guy makes a plea for traditional diplomacy in the age of the Trumpian tweet.