The food market in Mongla in October 2019: it was shut during the COVID-19 lockdown. Hanna Ruszczyk, Author provided The COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as far more than a health crisis for the world’s poor and marginalised, exposing faultlines in food systems around the world. The UN’s World Food ProgrammeContinue Reading
Black Lives Matter doesn't believe in hierarchal structures allowing anyone to take on leadership tasks. Nikal Hallen/EPA In the UK, one of the leading Black Lives Matter groups is BlackLivesMatterUK. But while it is a leading voice, it is at pains to stress that it is not the movement’s “leader”.Continue Reading
Uighurs protest outside the Chinese embassy in London in 2019. Karl Nesh/Shutterstock Uighur women in China’s Xinjiang province who have more than the approved number of children are being forcibly sterilised, forced to have abortions or having intra-uterine contraceptive devices (IUDs) inserted without their consent, according to reports that haveContinue Reading
Boys at Crumpsall Workhouse, Manchester, circa 1895-1897. Manchester Archives/Wikimedia Commons Food insecurity has become a major issue in the UK. It is estimated that more than 200,000 children have had to skip meals during the coronavirus pandemic. The Trussell Trust has reported an 81% increase in the use of foodContinue Reading
China’s enforcement of a new security law in Hong Kong marks the de facto end of the “one country, two systems” model that came into effect following the British handover in 1997. This has repercussions that go far beyond Hong Kong. The Sino-British Joint Declaration, signed by both China andContinue Reading
Industrial premises being disinfected in Kazakhstan's capital, Nur-Sultan city. Turar Kazangapov Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to enter a second nationwide lockdown on July 5 following a spike in coronavirus cases. The two-week lockdown, which could be extended if the spread of the virus continues, restricts publicContinue Reading
Springhill Cohousing Community, Stroud. United Diversity/Flickr, CC BY-SA Frankie lives in a six-bedroom house on the outskirts of Leeds. She is her own landlord, but doesn’t own the house. Instead she is part of a co-operative housing group: together, they have been able to buy the house and then rentContinue Reading
As COVID-19 becomes the most intensely covered virus in history, there are important lessons to be drawn from the media’s reporting of another global pandemic: HIV/Aids. Whose lives the world deems worthy of saving depends, at least partly, on the stories that journalists tell. This was one of the findingsContinue Reading
Army soldiers digging mass graves to try and show that the state wasn’t responsible for the dead. A historian who vehemently disagrees behind bars on charges that many believe are false. Organisations that support him being attacked by an omnipotent power. It might sound like some movie, but this isContinue Reading
BasPhoto/Shutterstock There are nearly seven million 16-24 years olds in the UK. As many of this group finish school, college or university, they face the real prospect of long-term unemployment. Young people who were already in work at the start of the coronavirus pandemic have been one of the groupsContinue Reading
