PRESS REVIEW – Tuesday, September 8: Papers discuss UK sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Also, could AI change what it means to be human? Finally, “pheromone maxxing” is in; showers are out.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham‘s government is set to ban trade with some Israeli settlements in the West Bank, The Times reports. The sanctions come as a response to Israeli plans to construct more than 1,000 settler homes in a key area of the West Bank. Burnham also promised to take a tougher stance in support of Gaza and against the destruction of the two-state solution there.
Fox News reports that Burnham risks clashing with Trump, saying the move could “create an early point of friction” between the two leaders. The Jerusalem Post notes that Israel‘s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the expulsion of the British ambassador. Smotrich wrote on X that Israel would not be a “doormat trampled by an antisemitic government” and called the UK a “country conquered by radical Islam” that’s trying to save itself by attacking Israel.
Next, The Atlantic writes that “AI is already changing what it means to be human”. The author warns that the normalisation of AI bots will come at human expense – the actual dehumanisation of humans. The author argues that this could gradually reshape human moral thinking: humans could move away from love, care and relationships towards cold calculation and robot-like decisions.
Another article in The Washington Post looks into something very human: gut feelings. The author of the piece researches gut feelings and walks us through when to trust them. What we call gut feelings are simply neurochemical signals from the brain that lead to a change in the stomach’s electrical rhythms. She says that statistically speaking, gut feelings “aren’t necessarily right”. They are a bit like the butterflies we feel on a first date – rather inconclusive. She adds that we need to treat gut feelings as stop signs – it doesn’t necessarily mean we are doing something wrong; it just means we should slow down and look around before we continue.
Finally, The Indian Express writes about “pheromone maxxing”. This latest trend encourages men to embrace their natural body smell and simply skip showering and putting on perfume or deodorant before a date. It stems from the masculinist “looksmaxxing culture” and is built around the idea that stronger and smellier pheromones could attract women more easily. The paper spoke to a psychologist who said that when someone feels insecure, simple and fast hacks like this are used to address deeper issues of “self-esteem, social anxiety or relationship patterns”.
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