Germany embraced Israel to atone for its wartime guilt. But was this in part a way to avoid truly confronting its past? By Pankaj Mishra. Read by Mikhail Sen

The result of the US election unleashed a ferocious feminist backlash, he says, and makes his 40-year struggle to end violence against women more urgent than ever

‘If it takes a village to raise a child, it also takes a village to raise a rapist,” Jackson Katz says. “Perpetrators aren’t individual monsters; they are people reflecting a system. We need to address that system.”

For the past 40 years, the researcher and activist has been advocating that violence against women be treated as a men’s issue. He works across the US in universities, schools and the military to encourage men to speak up when they encounter misogynistic behaviour in their peer groups. Katz believes that it is only through boys and men holding themselves accountable for their behaviour that violence against women can end. Since the re-election of Donald Trump, he believes his work has become more urgent than ever.

Syria has a new leader, and for thousands it is a time of celebration and optimism. But old enmities and fears about what comes next haunt the country. Michael Safi reports

After more than a decade of war, and half a century of repressive rule under Bashar al-Assad and his father, Syrians have a new ruler and a new future. Michael Safi spent a week travelling around the country, speaking to people about their surging hopes and joy – but also their fears of how fragile this peace could prove to be.

Driving from Lebanon to Damascus with a family, he heard about the painful toll the years of war and repression had taken on them: a father killed, a brother disappeared, a sister jailed. But they also told him how optimistic they still were for this moment of history.