It couldn’t happen again … could it? Reflections on last year’s 6 January Capitol riot in the US – amid a trenchantly divided political landscape between Democrats and Republicans – have led many observers to wonder whether the country could seriously be on the path to another civil war. Washington bureau chief David Smith asks the experts, while columnist Jonathan Freedland ponders the sinister influence of Donald Trump and a make-or-break year for democracy in the US.
Tennis’s Novak Djokovic found himself in the wrong sort of court this week as a row over vaccine requirements for his Australian visa rumbled on. Tumaini Carayol reports from Melbourne on a tough week for the world No 1, whose stance has earned him a dubious new fanbase of anti-vaxxers and far-right figures.
Startling unrest in Kazakhstan last week led to hundreds of people being killed and several thousand detained by authorities. An information blackout in the authoritarian central Asian nation meant that much remained unclear about the circumstances. But, as Shaun Walker and Peter Leonard write, it was probably born from frustrations felt by millions living in voiceless poverty while elites continue to siphon away profits from the country’s natural wealth.
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in 2010 resulted in one of the worst environmental disasters. Much of the focus since then has been on those responsible and the damage caused, but what of those workers who survived? Eyal Press follows one man’s quest for justice.
Olly Alexander was already a successful pop star before the award-winning TV drama It’s a Sin made his name as an actor. Rebecca Nicholson hears how he survived a difficult lockdown, and why his next career move will be a return to music.
