17 May 2004

From the Editor…

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Cover story

America's gulag

Stephen Grey uncovers a secret global network of prisons and planes that allows the US to hand over its enemies for interrogation, and sometimes torture, by the agents of its more unsavoury allies

Features

Now even the Blairites talk about the PM's exit

Cabinet ministers are talking openly about when and how Blair will go, and what will happen afterwards. Some still want him to stay beyond the summer, but admit the chances are only 50-50

Facts that should change the world

Out of the 300 million people in the world who suffer from obesity, one in three lives in a developing country, and the numbers are rising

Born free, showing the way

What is the secret of the hugely successful Metro? Could it possibly be that it gives the news straight?

Kyoto prospects 2: America

A goat's eyes are so beautiful

Tanya Gold finds that love affairs with pets, as in the Edward Albee play, are not as unusual as you'd think

Essay

NS Essay - Global warming: is it already too late?

A forthcoming film that shows New York drowning may be based on dodgy science. But as the world gets hotter, climate change really could run out of control and we would be powerless to stop it

Regulars

Flaws in the American way of life

Darcus Howe sees blacks turn on each other

We failed to get justice for the murder of 14 youths and, in defeat, turned on each other

John Pilger pays tribute to his mother

My mother, aged 19, sold her books to pay the fare to her first teaching job in the bush. The currency of her generation was determination and courage

Competition

Win vouchers to spend at any Tesco store

Culture

The last primitivist

Sculpture 1 - Once Britain's most popular sculptor, Henry Moore has become deeply unfashionable. His iconic bronzes are overshadowed by inflatable ketchup bottles

Lost in space

Sculpture 2 - Richard Cork on how Antony Gormley continues to push the boundaries

Labour shortage

Museums month - Charles Saumarez Smith on why museums, large and small, deserve more funding

Retro appeal

Music - Stephanie Merritt on the new stars and old-stagers we'll be listening to this summer

Michael Portillo - Pass master

Theatre - David Mamet's PC satire has not lost its power to shock. By Michael Portillo Oleanna Garrick Theatre, London WC2

Mark Kermode - Foul play

Film - Two hard-hitting dramas about hacks and hooligans don't quite manage to score. By Mark Kermode Shattered Glass (12A) The Football Factory (18)

Andrew Billen - In the right

Television - Peter Hitchens's hatchet job doesn't pull its punches but inadvertently reveals a hero. By Andrew Billen Mandela: beneath the halo (Channel 4) Nelson Mandela: accused #1 (BBC2)

Books

Flawed hero

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Roy Jenkins Macmillan, 186pp, £15.99 ISBN 1405046325

Circle of friends

A Chance Meeting: intertwined lives of American writers and artists (1854-1967) Rachel Cohen Jonathan Cape, 363pp, £18.99 ISBN 0224072587

Spiritual struggle

The Dance of 17 Lives: the incredible true story of Tibet's 17th Karmapa Mick Brown Bloomsbury, 304pp, £16.99 ISBN 0747571619

No teeth

Molvania: a land untouched by modern dentistry Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch Atlantic Books, 296pp, £8.99 ISBN 1843542323

Fiction - Babel's tower

Lighthousekeeping Jeanette Winterson Fourth Estate, 232pp, £15 ISBN 0007181515

Observations

Men should celebrate, too

Observations on equality by Jack O'Sullivan

A funny kind of free market

Observations on the new EU

The great traffic light conspiracy

Observations on tricks of the newspaper trade

Rise of the veggie Hummer

Observations on America and the environment

They already know who you are

Observations on ID cards

Green heroes

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Heroes

Green villains

The top ten

20 green heroes and villains: Villains

Bjorn Lomborg

Cloud control

Cloud control

Interview

Omar Bin Laden

The NS Interview: Omar Bin Laden

James Macintyre

Brown at war

Like it or not, Brown’s a war leader

What if...

Hugh Gaitskell lived

What if... Hugh Gaitskell had lived

Will Self

On brands

We’re all with the brand

Film review

A Serious Man

A Serious Man (15)

Vote!

Will Baroness Ashton be an effective EU foreign minister?

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