Covid-19 has exposed the myth of neoliberal free-market economic model Herald Report The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the world is at breaking point, and the coronavirus pandemic has exposed the free market and deep divisions in society, calling for a new global deal to combat climate change, forced migration, diseases, patriarchy and racism. Inequality, an issue …

‘We squandered a decade’ says UN’s outgoing special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. Goal to eradicate poverty by 2030 ‘completely off track’,  with Covid-19 likely to impoverish millions more, Australian academic Philip Alston says in his report published in the Guardians International institutions are losing the fight against global poverty despite “self-congratulatory” messages to the contrary, according to the UN’s …

When Kainat Naz joined a women-friendly technology boot camp a year ago, she had no idea it would completely change her life and her views on how women can work in conservative Pakistan. Naz, 22, had never ventured far from her home in Orangi Town in Karachi, one of the five largest slums of the world, but was feeling dissatisfied …

Swiss activist Loukina Tille, Swedish climate change activists Greta Thunberg and Isabelle Axelsson attend the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters The individuals leading change, and making the largest sacrifices, are all too often the people most threatened by inequality   by Darren Walker   As we enter 2020 and survey the state of the …

A new kind of left-wing doctrine is emerging. It is not the answer to capitalism’s problems AFTER THE collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the 20th century’s ideological contest seemed over. Capitalism had won and socialism became a byword for economic failure and political oppression. It limped on in fringe meetings, failing states and the turgid liturgy of the …

Today’s titans of tech and finance want to solve the world’s problems, as long as the solutions never, ever threaten their own wealth and power. By Anand Giridharadas A successful society is a progress machine. It takes in the raw material of innovations and produces broad human advancement. America’s machine is broken. The same could be said of others around …