Major global concerns include the risk of further pandemics, nuclear conflict and AI/cyber going disastrously wrong. But by far the biggest challenge humanity faces remains an environmentally limited world leading to climate breakdown, grotesquely divided wealth distribution and governments addicted to preparing for war.
It is in this context that the Labour Party this month won a massive majority – at least in terms of seats – and presented itself as a reformist government determined to heal a broken Britain and restore a sense of national pride.
The economic and social disasters of the past 14 years and the failure to address environmental challenges set the bar for the incoming government so low that almost any change would have been noteworthy.
