Human Interest

Debate around reparations is threatening because it upends the usual narrative of development. The impact of colonialism cannot be ignored

On the slopes of Nicaragua’s mountainous Matagalpa region, two small coffee-producing co-operatives put grassroots sustainability into practice

Sometimes a single unlikely idea can have massive impact across the world. Sir Harold Evans, the author of They Made America, describes how frustration drove Malcom McLean, a small-town truck driver, to invent the shipping container. Containerization was born, and it transformed the modern global economy.

With
modern technology, a global exchange of goods and ideas can happen at
the click of a button. But what about 2,000 years ago? Shannon Harris
Castelo unfolds the history of the 5,000-mile Silk Road, a network of
multiple routes that used the common language of commerce to connect the
world's major settlements, thread by thread.

Parag Khanna argues that these five maps are critical to understand the world we live in.

Climate has changed since WTO round began in 2001, with extreme nationalism rising again on back of economic hardship triggered by system failure

A trip to the supermarket can be a treacherous affair. We are bombarded with branding and whacked over the head with weasel words as we hunt for bargains on our weekly shop. We know what we should be wary of: the dreaded E numbers, hidden sugars, battery-farm eggs, unnecessary packaging. All the while trying to buy local and seasonal. And what about organic? It’s understandable that buying Fairtrade might fall further down the list of priorities.

The world’s biggest container ships, longer than the Eiffel Tower is high, are a symbol of an increasingly global marketplace. But they also face strong economic headwinds.