Latest Stories
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‘Let’s vote for who we put on a pedestal’
Should we vote for our statues? Memorials to public figures have been targeted by protesters in both America and Britain, raising vital questions about who we choose to put on a plinth.
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‘This struggle should matter to all of us’
Is protest against racism a duty for everyone? As Black Lives Matter protests swept across the world this weekend, the focus is turning to the role of white people in fighting injustice.
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Sick and on fire: the end of the American era
Will this be the week when it became clear the American era was over? As thousands take to the streets and a president threatens his own people, many predict a historic turning point.
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Thousands join march as protests spread to UK
Could the virus help kill racism? The high number of black victims of Covid-19, together with the murder of George Floyd, has focused people’s minds on a history of shameful injustice.
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Britain becoming ‘laughing stock of the world’
Is modern Britain a tragedy or a farce? In the world’s sixth-richest country, the virus response looks like a tragic failure – and, as for Parliament, many don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
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Put down your protest banners – or I shoot
Is using the army to quell civil unrest ever justified? Troops from the US 82nd Airborne Division were moved to Washington last night. Americans are terrified that Trump might use them.
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Protest, plague, and the year the world changed
Is this 1968 all over again? America is living through the worst civil unrest since the assassination of Martin Luther King. But the similarities with that momentous year don’t end there.
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Wave of violent fury erupts across USA
Is the United State’s crisis, our crisis? The media presents American racism as a uniquely US problem. But evidence shows anti-black racism is rapidly worsening in the UK and Europe too.
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Heated exchanges – and maybe another Cold War
Has a second Cold War begun? China has been busy flexing its muscles in Hong Kong and elsewhere, suggesting that it sees the Covid-19 pandemic as a chance to claim global leadership.
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‘No apologies, no regrets,’ says No 10 adviser
Will Dominic Cummings go? The raging media storm over Boris Johnson’s right-hand man exposes the yawning gap between the practice of politics and the role of trust in public life.
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Covid-19 is a ‘hinge in history’ expert says
Are we living through a turning point? The Covid-19 crisis is the third major shock to the global system in the 21st Century, following the 2001 terror attacks and the 2008 financial crisis.
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First baby bison born in the wild since 1876
Should this be the biggest news story of the day? These mighty beasts were driven to near-extinction 200 years ago. Conservationists are celebrating the birth as a historic turning point.
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Breaking news! Humans are basically good
Are people at their best in a crisis? Dutch historian Rutger Bregman thinks so, and he believes we have a persistent habit of ignoring the evidence that human nature is fundamentally good.
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Obama blasts Trump as ‘chaotic disaster’
Will there ever be another Barack Obama? A new row has exploded between the former US president and Donald Trump. It has left many yearning to find “a new Obama” to help heal the world.
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‘A strong-man world threatens global peace’
Has the world forgotten the lessons of VE Day? The “long peace” of the post-war era has given way to a new age of nationalism. We urgently need international co-operation, says Theresa May.