‘If truth is killed, the whole world will suffer.’
Category: Latest News
Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.
We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.
A note about links
Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.
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Egypt Celebrates World Press Freedom Day
By jailing Al-Jazeera producer for filming a documentary accusing Egyptian police of torturing prisoners.
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Index on Censorship on Press Freedom Day
Padraig Reidy on Johnston, Politkovskaya, Dink, Edward Chikomba, Joey Estriber; the list keeps growing.
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Committee to Protect Journalists Report
The ten worst: Ethiopia, Gambia, DRC, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Thailand.
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Vatican Calls Pope-criticism ‘Terrorism’
A presenter at a rock concert spoke out against some of Ratzinger’s views. That’s terrorism?
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Forced to Carry Anencephalic Foetus to Term
Irish teenager’s baby will die days after birth, but health service has blocked her going to UK.
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Women in Iran
Women are owned by fathers or husbands, and that’s that.
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Andrew Brown Disavows ‘Religion Bashing’ But
The secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has some odd beliefs.
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Tragic Regression in US Universities
Catastrophic decline in reason reported as students turn to ‘spirituality’ with alarming fervor.
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Ben Goldacre on Taking on the Drug Companies
If you charge people’s entire annual income for a lifesaving drug, then your customers will die.
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Inayat Bunglawala Speaks Up for Sharia
Shariah courts deal with civil matters such as marriage and divorce. The arrangement is entirely voluntary.
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Appreciate Your Secularism
‘It’s a luxury to be able to take it for granted here – and worth remembering that we shouldn’t.’
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Turkish Court Annuls Presidency Vote
Secularist opposition parties accuse Gul of a hidden Islamist agenda.
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Jeff Weintraub Writes to Andrew Sullivan
About taking one’s own point of view to be the only or universal point of view.
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A C Grayling on Rowan Williams on Morality
Disappointing but unsurprising that former custodians of moral authority say morality has gone to pot.
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How Multiculturalism is Betraying Women
Women’s rights or multiculturalism? You can’t have both, Johann Hari notes; you have to choose.
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Pill for Women Raises Libido, Lowers Appetite
Next up: a pill that increases housework, reduces talk. The ideal woman is on the way.
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Review of A C Grayling’s ‘Against All Gods’
‘To believe something in the face of evidence and against reason is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant.’
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Huge Rally for Turkish Secularism
‘We want neither Sharia, nor a coup, but a fully democratic Turkey,’ demonstrators said.
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Thought and Feeling Intimately Connected
The top journals are now filled with research on the connections between emotion and cognition.