17 May 2004
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
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?
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
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
Theatre
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
Film
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)
Television
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
The heart of the matter. Christopher Meyer, British ambassador to Washington during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, reveals for the first time his insider's view on why Bush and Blair went to war, and whether they were right to defy the United Nations and the world
Plan of Attack Bob Woodward Simon & Schuster, 467pp, £18.99 ISBN 0007142471
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
