Humans vs robots

Think of computer code as a new and powerful accomplice to legal code – the rules by which society finds itself governed. Who gets to enforce it? asks Audrey Watters.

We urgently need to slam the brakes on automated violence. Noel Sharkey dispels some myths about the newest arms race. Illustrations by Simon Kneebone.

Robots aren’t likely to replace postal workers in Japan, but they may soon be looking after grandma – or sharing the bed. Christopher Simons explores some of their unique impacts.

Industrial robots are being put to work on a massive scale in China. Taking the case of electronics giant Foxconn, Jenny Chan considers what an automated future holds in store for human workers.

Self-driving tractors and the internet of cows – welcome to the world of precision agriculture. Jim Thomas lays out the vision driving corporate giants into a merger frenzy.

If job-killing robots will play a big role in our future, inequality could get turbo-charged. The counter-proposals on the table barely scratch the surface, argues Nick Dowson.

The patented breakthrough drugs for hepatitis C are so expensive that even the wealthiest of nations strictly ration them. Now desperate patients are going where their governments will not, by defying the system to get their meds from India. Sophie Cousins reports.

A lack of legal protection combined with toxic prejudice leaves migrant workers in Lebanon between a rock and a hard place. But the struggle for rights is under way and, as Fiona Broom reports, it’s coming from the ground up.

Meet the Rastafarian lawyer fighting for cannabis freedom in South Africa. Interview by Alice McCool.

Revealing Malawi's untold health and environmental crisis. Ingrid Gercama and Nathalie Bertrams for New Internationalist.

To collect firewood, Malawian women are travelling farther from home by the day as deforestation escalates – and this makes things harder at home, too.

Household Air Pollution causes over 13,000 deaths a year in Malawi – but it still can’t get on the country’s health agenda.

Meeting the people trying to have an impact on Malawi’s health and environmental crisis.

Producing more efficient cookstoves has proved lucrative business for some, like Ken Chilewe.

The illegal charcoal business is driving deforestation - but also providing a source of income to thousands of Malawians in poverty.

Jokes may have more power to make people think than facts – but is mainstream comedy doing enough to open people’s minds? Kate Smurthwaite jabs back at the comedians with only easy targets in their sights.

Mark Engler asks why it only takes a bit of a bomb-dropping and sabre-rattling to rally the reporters and bestow a presidential aura on our leaders.

Is Palau's marine reserve as good as it sounds – or a route to luxury tourism?

After concerted campaigning, the Chilean government has turned down a proposal for two open-pit copper and iron mines – that would have sat right next to the nature reserve sheltering the endangered Humboldt penguin. Lydia Noon reports.

Meat without ‘murder’ might seem a worthy goal, but even if most vegans did want to eat a convincing replica of the real thing, is it safe? Yohann Koshy reports on a new vegan food product from Silicon Valley.

Will Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s new, gay Taoiseach, live up to high expectations? Richard Swift reports.

Seven students are now studying at SOAS university in London thanks to ‘sanctuary scholarships’, reports Hazel Healy. These scholarships have enabled them to take up their degrees despite the British government’s efforts to create a ‘hostile environment’ for migrants. Hazel Healy reports.

Downtrodden workers have been ignored in France’s rush to a cultural partnership with the building of the UAE’s new Louvre gallery. Yohann Koshy reports.

In August hundreds died in a landslide in Sierra Leone. Dumbuya Mustapha reports on the arguing over who was responsible that has followed – and the efforts to hold the government responsible to ensure the tragedy is not repeated.

East-African campaigners are warning Brexit may hit some Global South economies by harming their ability to export to Britain – a key market for some. Nick Dowson reports

SIM cards loaded with cash handed out across the country have been credited with staving off a Somali famine after warnings of an impending crisis in February. Roshni Majumdar reports.

It’s always sunny; Find me a river; No more puppy mills.

Praise, blame and all points in between? Your feedback published in the November 2017 magazine.

Not a sign of progress but a cause for alarm. Amy Booth reports from Cochabamba’s overlong dry season.

Payam Boromand from Iran with ‘European Art’

A cartoon by P J Polyp

Last December, in a ballot described as ‘a sham’ by international observers, the country elected Mirziyoyev as successor of its first post-independence president and long-time dictator Karimov. But things might not get that much better, writes Tina Burrett.

Highlighting the work of artists and photographers from the Majority World.

Cartoon by Marc Roberts

The Mexican author and political scientist talks drugs, racism and masculinity with Graeme Green

We review TootArd, from the Golan Heights, with their second album Laissez Passer, and Live at Ronnie Scott’s, by Nitin Sawhney.

I Am Not a Witch, directed and written by Rungano Nyoni; Menashe, directed and co-written by Joshua Z Weinstein

This month, we review The White Book, by Han Kang; Red Famine, by Anne Applebaum; The Rage, by Julia Ebner and The City Always Wins by Omar Robert Hamilton.