Yesterday Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. But as the storming of the Capitol on January 6 by supporters of Donald Trump showed, those 50 states are far from united.

Biden inherits a battered country that needs putting back together. Its political tribes need to...

Billionaires have more wealth than 60% of the world's population. So, as billionaires are jetting off to space, is it time to abolish them here on earth? Or is this a simplistic take. Making Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg poorer is not going to make the 99 per cent any richer. It might make the env...

It is time to call the tech companies to account. In the space of just ten years, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft have become the biggest companies on the planet and have accrued a level of power that threatens us all. They control our data, warp our democratic discourse, and exert ...

In many ways, the internet is still living up to its original promise to be a place where people can express themselves without judgment. Online anonymity also allows whistle blowers and activists to speak out without fear of harmful consequences to themselves.

Yet it is this very anonymity that...

Are Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies the answer to financial inclusion?

This debate is part of Intelligence Squared Crypto, a new series from Intelligence Squared debating the rise of cryptocurrency and future of money.

On the 9th of September, Peter McCormack and Yaya Fanusie deba...

On January 6 2020 Big Tech unplugged President Donald Trump. For years he had used social media to communicate with his supporters.

Liberal commentators in the US argued that deplatforming Trump was the right decision — in spite of their concerns about the power of Big Tech. Tech companies, they...

Join our first YouTube livestream debate on Cancel Culture on 22nd Sept at 6pm BST/ 1pm ET.
Ask your questions live and take part during the event by voting on the motion, ‘Cancel Culture is Threatening our Freedoms’.

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Should Donald Trump be prosecuted by the DOJ for crimes against the United States? Last week the FBI searched former President Donald J. Trump's home Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida with a warrant stating that he was under investigation for potential breaches of the Espionage Act. The move deep...

It used to be so easy. You left university, came to London and got yourself a flatshare in one of the cheaper areas: Notting Hill, Maida Vale or Highgate. Living was cheap and if it took you a while to find out what you really wanted to do with your life you could drift about a bit and get by. Ma...

Is China, with its unfair trade policies and shameless theft of intellectual property, an enemy that needs to be reined in? Or is it in the West’s best interests to view China as a strategic partner and aim for mutual respect and cooperation?

We were joined by Keyu Jin, Professor of Economics at...

Let’s be honest. It’s the political Left that has society’s best interests at heart, that works for the good of all. It has always been the Left that has struggled to protect the weak from the strong, that has fought for workers’ rights, for sexual and racial equality, for the welfare state. It i...

In Britain, the Rhodes Must Fall campaign hit the headlines when it demanded the removal of the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oxford’s Oriel College, of which he was a leading benefactor, because of his colonialism. In the US, violent protests in Charlottesville were sparked by a decision to remove...

In February 2019, Intelligence Squared brought together a panel of experts to argue the causes behind the rise of populism and to debate what should happen next. Should mainstream parties adopt the policies of the populists in an attempt to appeal to people who have hitherto felt unheard? Or shou...

It’s time we came to to our senses. Brexit is a disaster and must be stopped. Leave campaigners promised our exit from the European Union would herald a glorious new era – the sunlit uplands of ‘global Britain’, with new trade deals signed in a matter of months and an extra £350 million per week ...

What will it take for Labour to win again in Britain? Can the party capture the nation’s support again? Will previously loyal voters lost to the Brexit referendum return? Or has the party been redefined by identity politics, ignoring who they used to represent - older, working-class people, who l...

Lock them up. That’s the way we’ve always dealt with offenders. Criminals deserve to be put away for their crimes. Prison works because it keeps those criminals out of circulation, and acts as society’s most effective deterrent. Our prisons may be more crowded than ever – the prison population of...

“If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what citizenship means.”

When Theresa May uttered these words at the Tory party conference in 2016, there was uproar. May was targeting the liberal establishment, who flit business class from Mayfa...

Is there a country in the world that attracts so much criticism as Israel? Studies consistently show Israel to be one of the most disliked nations in the world (along with Iran and North Korea). But how much of this is to do with genuine concern about Israel’s actions, and how much is actually a ...

Is Vladimir Putin the most powerful – and dangerous – man in the world? With Putin in the Kremlin, we have returned to an era where former Russian spies are mysteriously poisoned on British soil and where Russia feels emboldened to roll its tanks into an eastern European state. The Kremlin uses d...

The battle between two of the greatest dystopian novels Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four is strikingly urgent in our world of Donald Trump, 'fake news', and technological advances. On the Intelligence Squared stage, we have Will Self arguing for Brave New World and Adam Gopnik arguing for...

The Battle Of The Great 19th-century Novelists with Professor John Mullan arguing for Dickens and historian Simon Schama arguing for Tolstoy. Bringing their arguments to life with readings we had Tom Hiddleston, star of Marvel's Thor and The Avengers, and Zawe Ashton, acclaimed for her roles in F...

Should assisted dying be viewed as a human right or as a danger to the most vulnerable people in our society? Our panel debate and discuss whether assisted dying should be legalised in the UK.

For the motion: A.C. Grayling and Henry Marsh
Against the motion: Anne Atkins and Katherine Sleeman
Cha...

Tom Tugendhat, Conservative MP and Chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee debates with Kishore Mahbubani, Singaporean civil servant, diplomat and academic on these questions: Do we need to prevent a Beijing-dominated world or is it only a matter of time before China usurps the US as the w...

Dan Snow’s History Hit and Intelligence Squared came together for this live in-person debate. Each of the kings and queens competing for the title left a distinctive stamp on their era – but who did most to shape the nation and the lives of its people? Who was the cleverest? Who was the bravest? ...