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Democracy under threat

Funding hate

A shadowy network connects the US Christian right with reactionary politics across Europe, as Peter Geoghegan reports

The depiction of figures like Salvini and Abascal as grassroots insurgents storming the citadel with little more than an internet connection and a nativist dream is compelling …Their advance, however, is also undergirded by networks of dark money and hidden influence.

Watching the watchmen

Amid Covid-19 curfews, the return of Turkey’s brutal auxiliary police force is striking fear into civilians. Kaya Genç is in Istanbul.

Between March and May 2020, dozens of violent incidents were reported at the hands of the bekçi, Turkey’s new auxiliary police force … None of the offending officers were disciplined. Instead, once lockdowns and curfews lifted on 2 June, parliament approved a bill that granted the “watchmen” powers on a par with the police, including the right to use guns against civilians.

Fear and loathing in Hong Kong

As Beijing’s political dominance intensifies, so have tensions between ordinary citizens, as Ting Guo discovers

Am I a coloniser? I find myself increasingly asking this question, as a woman from mainland China living in Hong Kong.

The Q&A: Raymond Tallis

J.P. O'Malley talks to the philosopher, poet, novelist and patron of Humanists UK about mortality, free will and the “unfinished business” of humanism today.

It’s perfectly obvious that in order to be conscious as a human being you need to have a functioning body, nervous system and brain. But that is not the whole story. What is missing in that story is what humanists need to look at very carefully.

The autumn 2020 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! Subscribe here for as little as £10 a year.

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Also in this issue:

  • Samira Ahmed on the challenge of creativity in a time of crisis
  • Should trees have lawyers? Nicola Cutcher on the fight to radically expand legal rights
  • Cliff James, a survivor of clerical abuse, takes a secular pilgrimage, funded by compensation money from the Church
  • As many more of us self-diagnose, Peter Salmon interrogates sickness and health through the work of French philosopher Georges Canguilhem
  • Emma Warren on the long link between bicycles and moments of social change
  • When Covid-19 halted sport, Andrew Mueller realised he that what he loved was more than the game
  • David Wearing takes on Britain’s national myths
  • Cal Flyn on feminist dystopias
  • Caroline Crampton writes that I May Destroy You is pushing the boundaries of TV
  • PLUS: Columns from Laurie Taylor and Marcus Chown, book reviews, the latest developments in biology, chemistry and physics; cryptic crossword and Chris Maslanka's quiz

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