Committee for the Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights general secretary GAWAIN LITTLE discusses the impact of the US-Israeli war on the Iranian people and economy
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Trump and science
The new US administration’s policy decisions are already having seismic effects worldwide, argue ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
BIG BUSINESS AGENDA: Donald Trump
Capitalism has extracted itself from crisis before, argues PRABHAT PATNAIK – but through methods no longer available. So it is turning to authoritarianism, militarism and neocolonialism
The five young men killed in the A66 crash were responsible for a devastating tragedy — but the crash should force us to ask difficult questions about wider society, argues RENATA MEDEIROS MIRRA
Britain funds the policing of black culture 16 times better than the culture itself. The Diamond Jubilee is the moment to end that, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite Andy Burnham’s declaration defending the continued partition of the island, all major international and internal trends are converging to make Irish reunification inevitable
Humans are part of the ‘animal kingdom’ – and of nature in general – but also distinct from it and labour (work) is part of what makes us unique, declared Engels. His insights 150 years ago into how our species came to be and how we differ from the rest of nature, are as important today as they were then, says the MARX MEMORIAL LIBRARY
THE United States is the largest science funder in the world, remaining ahead of China in total spend on R&D. This funding is distributed through supporting universities and through funding agencies like Nasa, the US Air Force research programmes, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other agencies. This budget is now controlled by executive orders from Donald Trump.
The NIH has been particularly prominent in reports on the edicts that Trump has sent out over the last week. Trump ordered a halt on meetings, communications, travel and training for the around 20,000 scientists and administrators that are salaried by the funding agency. A short halt in this kind of spending is common for around a day during a change in administration in the US, as each government has its own priorities and gets to set its funding agenda. The current situation is unusual because of the length of the pause, which continues for 11 days.
The NIH is the largest biomedical research funder in the world, funding everything from genetic research to epidemiology, cancer, vaccination and public health. Similar to Britain, where the board of the national funding agency (UKRI) is appointed by the minister for science, innovation and technology, the heads of the funding agencies in the US are direct appointments by the US president. (The current board of the UKRI includes people with histories in nuclear power, financial investment, oil and gas, computer processors and university management).
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China’s investment and commitment to scientific research is already paying off, pushing the country to the centre stage of global technological advance, writes S Krishnaswamy
The Defence Universities Alliance is a bit to co-opt higher education into the wider drive to war — we should resist as earlier generations of scientists did, argue say ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT of SCIENCE AND SOCIETY
From summit to summit, imperialist companies and governments cut, delay or water down their commitments, warn the Communist Parties of Britain, France, Portugal and Spain and the Workers Party of Belgium in a joint statement on Cop30
Neutrinos are so abundant that 400 trillion pass through your body every second. ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT explain how scientists are seeking to know more about them