The World Today: August & September 2020: Filling in British History's Blanks

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An etching showing the humanitarian lawyer Granville Sharp in action in a courtroom

Kimberly McIntosh on why children need to learn about slavery, migration and empire

Black youths in Brixton suffered disproportionately following the introduction of the ‘sus’ laws

Champa Patel warns that Britain should not feel complacent about institutional discrimination.

Graham Campbell, a political campaigner elected as Glasgow’s first Afro-Caribbean councillor in 2017, discusses empire and race in the UK.

Employees of Hyundai Card, the credit card company, sit behind protective screens as they eat in the canteen of their Seoul office

Geun Lee sets out a plan for countries to prosper under the threat of pandemic.

A DFID worker moves flat-pack kitchen sets at a UK Aid Disaster Response Centre

Alistair Burt on the need to maintain DFID’s values as it is absorbed by the Foreign Office

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping toast each other with vodka

Russia and China are undermining western-led anti-corruption efforts, warns Robert Barrington.

Video of the death of George Floyd, with a policeman kneeling on his neck for more than eight agonizing minutes, lit a fire which spread around the world. In this issue, we look at how the global Black Lives Matter movement has forced Britain to question its colonial history and the racism experienced by its minorities.

Articles

Russia and China are undermining western-led anti-corruption efforts, warns Robert Barrington.

A member of the clinical team at the Royal Papworth Hospital, in Cambridge, is dressed in protective clothing

ICUs are leading the battle against the coronavirus. Sarah Whitehead examines their role.

Rize Jacobs, 63, a Johannesburg teacher, has been a volunteer cook providing food for the needy during the coronavirus pandemic

Women in South Africa are losing their jobs at twice the rate of men, according to one of the first studies of the social and economic impact of COVID-19 on a developing country.

William Dalrymple in the ruins of the last Mughal Emperor's, Bahadur Zafar, summer palace, New Delhi

William Dalrymple, best-selling author of ‘The Anarchy’ which chronicles the rise of the East India Company, talks to Alan Philps.

Barbara Castle was the kind of minister civil servants like: one who knows their own mind

Lisa Martineau on the forceful politician who brought overseas development into being.

A woman walks past the poster of Hisham al-Hashemi, who was shot outside his house on July 6

Renad Mansour pays tribute to his friend and colleague, the security expert killed in Baghdad.

Digital-only series

A woman prays during a protest against the Romanian government

Pandemic is a battleground over gender studies, writes Dr Ana Alecsandru

Love can conquer borders even under COVID-19

You can never be over-prepared for a pandemic, writes Steve Ka Lok Wong

Also in this issue

A statue of King Leopold II of Belgium is smothered in red paint by protesters

Tony Barber discusses how differing societies cope with controversial statues

Catherine Fieschi on the viral spread of new social movements.

A man walks among the ashes of the Greenwood commercial district

Trump rally is a reminder of the city’s deadly night, writes Mariana Vieira

President Bolsonaro wears a surgical mask after contracting the coronavirus

Elena Lazarou on how the pandemic has exposed Brazil’s structural weaknesses.

"During the essay writing process, I thought about how to ground the hot topic of social media in my own context to provide a unique perspective to the discussion that is important to me personally. Overall, I believe in the power of social media to create change, especially among the teenage generation."

In December, The World Today and the Financial Times invited school students aged 16-18 to write a short article to answer the question: ‘Does social media make your life better or worse?’

Police clash with Black Lives Matter protesters in Chicago on May 30, 2020

Racism is now an electoral issue for young people, writes Terrance Woodbury.

Since October 2017, a group of insurgents have been active in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado, a rich source of natural gas and precious minerals.