While lockdowns were arguably necessary, Adam Wagner warns that when governments give themselves drastic powers, they don’t always give them back. Stephen Buranyi uncovers how Big Pharma is using its vaccine success to double down on profit rather than protect us. Gabriel Scally and Sunetra Gupta debate whether it's worth trying to eliminate Covid altogether. Plus: an interview with Carlo Rovelli, master of the universe, while Julia Bell explains how her ex-student got radicalised online.
Faced with creeping authoritarianism, liberals need to craft a new agenda—learning from their serious mistakes, and shaking shibboleths of both right and left
The great liberal promise is that power must always be held to account. Agreed political rules and formal institutions are the means to honour it. But they are under assault by a populist right—and a misguided left