Issue 531 of New Internationalist

Reader-owned global journalism

May-June 2021

Vaccine equality

Who gets it? Covid-19 vaccines are the world’s great hope but not everyone has the same access to jabs. Vaccine nationalism, corporate power and wealth inequality are a few of the things standing in the way. This Big Story makes the internationalist case for fair, global access to vaccination.

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In this issue

  • Tina Burrett on Central Asia’s only electoral democracy.

  • Louise Gray and Malcolm Lewis review sounds from Irish folk musician Rhiannon Giddens and experimentalist Laurie Anderson.

  •  Jo Lateu, Peter Whittaker, and Vanessa Baird on the latest releases in radical publishing.

  • Ethical and political dilemmas abound these days. Seems like we’re all in need of a New Internationalist perspective. Enter stage: Agony Uncle

  • Ugandan autocrat Yoweri Museveni digs his heels in yet again.
  • Artist Saif Osmani talks to Subi Shah about urban culture, gentrification and Brexit.

  • In Mexico, a new generation of young indigenous women are using art to fight racism and celebrate their native identity. Changiz M Varzi met three of them.

  • The vicious game of hounding asylum-seekers in Europe continues in defiance of international law, Katie Dancey-Downs reports.

  • Immunization expert Christopher Morgan is optimistic that the great push for Covid-19 vaccines will produce other global health benefits. He talks to Amy Hall.

  • Citizens’ groups are resisting gentrification, evictions and housing inequality in urban South Africa in a variety of creative ways. Ben Verghese and Ilham Rawoot report from Cape Town.

  • Want to restore and protect the world's forests? Then uphold the rights of the people who live in them, says Danny Chivers.

  • Women experiencing abuse from their partners need more than a helpline, writes Nilanjana Bhowmick

  • Nanjala Nyabola mourns the loss of Nairobi's canopy, and questions the expansion of cities. 

  • As Big Food spreads throughout the Global South using the tobacco playbook, Kabugi Mbae investigates the rise in obesity – and non-communicable diseases – in Kenya. 

  • Vanessa Baird imagines turning the tide on wage inequality.

  • It is thanks to scientists collaborating across borders that vaccines against Covid-19 have been developed so fast, argues Rajni George.

  • Pay attention. Thomas Abraham gives a quick lesson on how the Covid-19 vaccines work.

  • Rich nations vaccinate a citizen every second while the majority of the poorest nations are yet to give a single dose. How can we end vaccine apartheid? Experts and campaigners weigh in at a New Internationalist live event.

  • It’s been a long – and, at times, disgusting – story. Swagata Yadavar begins in 1000 CE.

  • Richard Swift warns against vaccine fantasy and kneejerk technophilia.

  • Chris Brazier looks back over a career as co-editor that stretches back to 1984, remembering highlights and dark moments from Nicaragua to Vietnam, South Africa to Western Sahara and Burkina Faso.

  • With less than 2 weeks to go, here are some of the top arguments for buying into our community share offer.

  • Nick Dowson investigates the oversized influence of Bill Gates on the global response to the pandemic 

  • Heidi Chow on how to roll out Covid-19 vaccines for all, equitably and at scale.

  • From his tea stall in rural Uttar Pradesh, Krishna Murari Yadav is supporting people to ask difficult questions of the Indian state, one hot drink at a time. Devyani Nighoskar reports.

  • Husna Ara probes co-editor Amy Hall on New Internationalist’s bold Covid-19 rescue plan.

  • After a court annulled all the sentences against him, Brazil’s ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is back in the running for the top job, writes Leonardo Sakamoto