The World Today

February & March 2021: EU deal with China makes waves

Lead articles

Picture of Joe Biden standing in front of a dragon wall-mural

Brussels is accused of putting business interests before democratic values and security realities at a time when the West and Beijing are competing to vaccinate the world against Covid, write Rosa Balfour and Lizza Bomassi

The Stanford University researcher into online conspiracies tells Alan Philps it is time for social media platforms to come clean about the business model that has encouraged polarization

A Beekeeper walking in the hills of Hong Kong with skyscrapers behind

Focus switches to domestic market as export growth falters, writes Yu Jie

Myra MacDonald reports on the growing threat from border clashes on India, Pakistan and China’s high mountain frontiers

The country fails to thrive under autocrats or democrats, writes Ezzedine Fishere

Britain’s wish to break free may be hard to achieve, warn Alice Billon-Galland and Pepijn Bergsen

Articles

A Syrian refugee family walks with large suitcases

Britain must choose a humane path in its handling of refugees, writes Rachel Taylor

Biden needs to end division at home before offering moral leadership to the world, writes Daniel Strieff

A crowd protests against the Myit Sone Dam project in Yangon, Myanmar

America could benefit from a loss of trust in China, writes Amitav Acharya

Luis Bettencourt praises the dynamic urban milieu but warns there are lessons that need to be learnt

The UK flag waves in front of the Big Ben

The historian of UK foreign policy discusses how the role of residual great power is being repackaged as Global Britain

Illustration of Joe Biden as a superhero

Julian Schmid explains a presidential obsession with Marvel comic characters

Digital-only

The co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy tells Mariana Vieira that for all the progress in feminizing some aspects of the international agenda no country has the right to call itself a ‘gender superpower’

Also in this issue

Nicolas Bouchet on a defensive prescription for democracies under threat

Vivienne Dovi’s eyes are opened by a series of essays on the politics of mobility

A decades-long struggle has gone digital

Aerial shot of the Pacific island of Tuvalu

Kamal Amakrane on protecting the millions who will be displaced as sea levels rise

March 17, 2011: Action broke consensus on need to protect civilians, says Dogachan Dagi

Protesters persuade president to legalize abortion, writes Mahi Shah

Five books and a film exploring the highs and lows of some notorious metropolises

Fourteen years on, Sophie Paterson revisits her winning essay on what Europe will look like in 50 years

2021-02-02-twt-feb-mar-fieschi-illustration

Catherine Fieschi looks at rituals enshrined in the handing over of power in the US, France and Britain

China and Facebook in race to be first to fill e-wallets

2021-02-03-twt-feb-mar-cover-illustration

Jargonbuster

Building on the success of the previous two years, The World Today and the Financial Times free schools access programme are pleased to announce their 2021 school writing competition for the best short article on a topical issue.