The disruption of the Trump administration has kicked into high gear. A remarkable combination of incompetence, lies, bullying and other less than virtuous traits have been unleashed on the world to disorientating effect. One of many challenges this presents is staying focused on the issues that matter. So, on the cover of this edition, we convey what undeniably ranks among the most pressing issues the world must avoid being distracted from – the climate crisis.

Our cover feature, ‘Climate justice at a tipping point’, highlights the progress that’s being made while recognising the dangers of Trump-related regression. In our news pages, too, we keep the focus on the climate crisis, with a piece covering its devastating impact and the consequent major losses for insurance companies. We also cover the threat to global cooperation presented by the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, while quoting Laurence Tubiana, Chief Executive Officer of the European Climate Foundation: ‘multilateral climate action has proven resilient and is stronger than any single country’s politics and policies.'

This is not to diminish the very real and detrimental effects that the Trump administration is having on addressing the climate crisis and a vast range of other important issues: freedom of expression, women’s rights, the global fight against corruption, world trade and so on. Our feature ‘Fighting American autocracy’ covers in some depth the efforts being made to constrain the worst excesses of the US President, and to protect democracy and the rule of law, largely through the courts. But there isn’t enough space in this edition to do justice to the extent of our coverage of the Trump administration, or indeed the many other major developments we cover. So I urge you to visit our homepage, where some of the issues mentioned above and many others are covered on an ongoing basis, and you can now follow the IBA on Bluesky, too (@ibanews.bsky.social).

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