Editorial - Global Insight, August/September 2021

Welcome to the August/September edition of Global Insight magazine. Across our features section, news analysis and three columns, we have writers tackling a remarkably diverse range of issues throughout international business, human rights and rule of law.

Our features section highlights: the ongoing rule of law crisis in Russia (Elections, extremism and extraordinary measures); the increasingly important role of litigation in driving much-needed action, by companies and governments, to address the climate crisis (The rising tide of climate litigation); and the changing landscape for trans rights in Latin America (Fighting transfemicide in the Americas). We also have reportage from the Middle East’s most populous country – Egypt – on the devasting human consequences of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s drive to modernise the country’s infrastructure (Demolishing Egypt). And, as some of the world’s more adventurous billionaires engage in their own 21st century space race, we have an in-depth assessment of the implications (The final frontier).

Our news analysis sections – covering legal and business issues and human rights, respectively – include an assessment of the impact on the energy sector over the recent period, during which Covid-19 has changed everything worldwide (Climate crisis drives change in energy sector amid pandemic). The pandemic also forms the backdrop for an assessment of the devastation unfolding across Latin America and growing unrest presenting serious rule of law, human rights and economic challenges (Covid-19: Latin America’s deepest crisis in a century foments major change). Our human rights news analysis covers the ongoing global migration crisis (Immigration: deterrence measures against asylum seekers threaten refugee protection regime) and the increasing use of the death penalty in Egypt (Egypt increases use of capital punishment to crush dissent).

Our three columns are similarly wide-ranging. One covers the lamentable response to Covid-19 in Africa, another takes on the implications of the major shift for the global tax regime and a third covers the curious world of cryptocurrencies. We hope you enjoy the edition.