This month's big story

Who owns the skies?

A new space race is set to worsen global inequality and extend conflict. We need to return to seeing space as a place for all humankind, argues Nick Dowson.

In November 1572 a brilliant new star appeared in the sky – initially bright enough to be seen during daylight. Its appearance was recorded worldwide and it stayed v...

Read preview

A note from the editor

Nick Dowson

Nick Dowson

Starstruck

As we edited this magazine a rocket exploded on its launchpad at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. This was not owned by NASA but by Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ company, which announced they had ‘experienced an anomaly’. Some euphemism: footage shows a gigantic ball of flame and something that looks very mu...

Read more...





Magazine archive

Here are the most recent magazines we've published.

NI 562 - The new space race - July, 2026 The new space race Nick Dowson 1 July 2026 NI 561 - Trade Unions - May, 2026 Trade Unions Henry Fowler 1 May 2026 NI 560 - AI: the people behind the machine - March, 2026 AI: the people behind the machine Decca Muldowney 1 March 2026

Try it first

Read a full sample magazine..

NI 557 - The global far right - September, 2025 The global far right Bethany Rielly 1 September 2025

Recent feature articles

A selection of feature articles from each of the latest New Internationalist magazines.

This year, on the first day of Ramadan in Rafah people gathered around a large table for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, as the sun set. Photo: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo

The Long War for Meaning

Gaza-born journalist Ramzy Baroud traces how Palestinians have turned survival into a struggle for dignity, history and freedom, with Gaza at the heart of the resistance.

Read preview

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at UN headquarters. While the UN General Assembly has consistently condemned Israel, the all-powerful Security Council has blocked international action. Photo: Sopa/Alamy

Global leadership vetoed

The modern failures of the United Nations are not an aberration – but a product of its imperial roots, argues Conrad Landin. So how can we create a functioning system for global co-operation?

Read preview

London transport users engage with their devices – and indium, terbium, lithium, cobalt, copper and numerous other critical minerals. Photo: PjrTransport/Alamy

Can mining save the world?

They are touted as our way out of climate chaos and essential for making the things we use, from mobile phones to electric vehicles. Vanessa Baird sets out to investigate critical minerals – and the rush to get them.

Read preview

A woman plays the cello amid riot police at a demonstration for safe and legal abortion to mark International Safe Abortion Day in Mexico City, on 28 September 2023. Earlier that month Mexico's Supreme Court decriminalized the procedure. Photo: Raquel Cunya/Reuters

Freeing abortion

The global trend towards liberalizing abortion is being overshadowed by a newly emboldened anti-rights movement that wants to erode bodily autonomy. Bethany Rielly learns how feminist movements are organizing to put abortion back in the hands of the people – and keep it there.

Read preview

Seth Mazibuko, left, served time in Robben Island for his role in leading the 1976 Soweto uprising. He says South Africa’s current president Cyril Ramaphosa, right, and much of the ANC leadership has been ‘found wanting’. Photo: Jacob Mawela

Africa’s pandora’s box

Can South Africa ever fully shake off the shackles of apartheid? Conrad Landin asks whether the country’s historic genocide case against Israel could lead to a reckoning at home.

Read preview

A protester faces off with riot police at an attempted eviction of an occupied building in the Poble Sec neighbourhood of Barcelona. In recent years it’s been revealed that undercover officers in the Spanish National Corps infiltrated several activist groups in the city, including housing rights. One took part in at least four anti-eviction protests during his deployment. Photo: Pau de la Calle/NurPhoto/Alamy

Spies, damned spies

Bethany Rielly explores the chilling impact of the Spanish state’s intrusive surveillance tactics against Catalan civil society. Is there a chance of justice?

Read preview


From the archives

A selection of articles from the New Internationalist magazine archives.

Grief and guilt post-mudslide

Grief and guilt post-mudslide

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.

Read preview

Indonesian flight-path farmers pushed out

After five years of resistance, Indonesia began the construction of an international airport set to destroy the sand-dune ecosystem and houses of residents already forced out of the area, writes Pramilla Deva

Read preview

Mixed Media: Film

Mixed Media: Film

No Other Choice; My Father’s Shadow.

Read preview

Books Essay: Balls of wax

Books Essay: Balls of wax

A collection of short stories and vignettes from a feminist pioneer pinpoints the absurd details of the normalizing state, writes Caitlín Doherty.

Read preview

 Illustration: Sarah John

War symphony

Mariam Barghouti explores how the Israeli occupation is transforming the landscapes and soundscapes of the West Bank, and the silence left in its wake.

Read preview

Jamila Afghani

Making Waves: Jamila Afghani

A profile of Afghan campaigner for women’s education and rights Jamila Afghani, who started by persuading the imams. Beena Nadeem talks to the unassuming trailblazer

Read preview

The arms trade - The Facts

The arms trade - The Facts

State of the industry; Deadly business; At the border; Who’s supplying whom?

Read preview

Country Profile: Senegal

Country Profile: Senegal

The photos, facts, and politics of Senegal.

Read preview


Social media

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram


 Illustration: Marc Roberts

Only Planet

Trust, by Marc Roberts.

Read preview