STEPHEN ARNELL on how US power politics is seeping into British broadcasting
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Is the answer really ‘in our genes’?
Behind the smoke clouds over Beirut lies a radical vision of a “Greater Israel.” The tactics from Gaza are now being deployed to depopulate south Lebanon, clearing the way for a permanent occupation and the reshaping of the Middle East, says MARC VANDEPITTE
Italians reject controversial judiciary reforms in a referendum that boosts the left, reports NICK WRIGHT
At this year’s TUC Young Workers Conference, delegates shared strategies, launched new initiatives and strengthened networks—laying the groundwork for a revitalised and more inclusive union movement, says FRASER McGUIRE
RAMZY BAROUD and ROMANA RUBEO analyse how the US has consistently negotiated in bad faith to secure the element of surprise in military attack
Coal-fired stoves in traditional homes are the primary source of extreme levels of air pollution in over-crowded Ulaanbaatar. As more people become climate-displaced, the situation is likely to worsen, write SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
RICHARD DAWKINS, author of one of the best known texts on human nature, The Selfish Gene, declares we are “machines created by our genes” – that “[w]e are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes.”
Less dramatically, and often without an appeal to evolutionary processes, how often have you heard an explanation involving the term “it’s human nature” used to justify or explain greed, competitiveness, aggression, inequality or any other (usually negative) aspect of human behaviour?
Arguments for – and against – a “fixed” human nature (or the relative importance of “nature” v “nurture”) go back to Aristotle.
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