Regulars

p. 3 Editor’s Note

p. 8 The Q&A Rania Abouzeid, reporter and Middle East expert

p. 11 Witness News and comment, compiled by Samira Shackle

p. 71 Crossword Set by Chaliapin

p. 73 Quiz Set by Chris Maslanka

p. 74 Endgame Why Pope Benedict is growing on me By Laurie Taylor Contents Summer 2018

columns

p. 7 Cosmos On the mysteries of the neutrino By Marcus Chown

p. 18 Soapbox How elite networks shape our society By Samira Ahmed

p. 70 In a Word On the meaning of “affordable” By Michael Rosen

Richard Smyth on nature writing, page 54

“A hundred billion neutrinos are flying through your thumbnail” Marcus Chown, page 7

Features

p. 20 Interview The revolutionary science of ancient DNA By Peter Forbes

p. 24 Pakistan The perilous fight against blasphemy law By Rahila Gupta

p. 28 Cover story If we want to protect human rights, we need to turn our attention to economic inequality By Samuel Moyn

p. 34 Russia What happened after Russia decriminalised domestic abuse By Madeline Roache

4

p. 38 Britain How is Brexit going to affect our rights? By Richard Scorer

p. 42 Ideas Why sci-fi and the “dismal science” have more in common than you think By Ha-Joon Chang Culture

p. 48 Routes Can an atheist find fulfilment in riding a motorbike? By Josh Raymond

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New Humanist | Summer 2018