1+ week, 1+ day ago (1128+ words) When Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levine posted complaints about their local primary school, they never expected six uniformed police officers to turn up at their door Before it catapulted a small school community in London's commuter belt into the centre of a global news story, the year-four class WhatsApp group at Cowley Hill school in Borehamwood was unremarkable " a place of snide comments, reminders about non-uniform day and flustered messages about being late for the school run. "It was mum gossip, you know?" said one member, Sarah. "A bit juicy, but it wasn't anything nasty." In its own " thoroughly improbable " way, it raised a question that might feel familiar to many whose phones get overtaken by the school group chat: what's the difference between a concerned parent, a busybody and someone who should face the full force of the law?...

2+ week, 4+ day ago (203+ words) How entangled are China and the UK universities sector? Amy Hawkins reports Laura Murphy is a professor of human rights and contemporary slavery at Sheffield Hallam University. She investigates how the Chinese government exploits the country's Uyghur community to mine rare minerals and make consumer goods for the west, something the Chinese state denies. Murphy describes to Helen Pidd how in 2024, strange things began to happen. "I started receiving emails " journalists, other researchers, and companies who relied on our research to help them do due diligence, were writing to me and calling and saying: hey, I noticed that your reports are down." Murphy outlines to Pidd the process by which her research was cancelled and her reports hidden away, and how Sheffield Hallam explained those decisions at the time. She describes the means by which the Chinese government was putting…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago (367+ words) Sensitive information relates to more than 100 individuals and their referees Personal details submitted by applicants for a job at Tate art galleries have been leaked online, exposing their addresses, salaries and the phone numbers of their referees, the Guardian has learned. The records, running to hundreds of pages, appeared on a website unrelated to the government-sponsored organisation that operates the Tate Modern and Tate Britain galleries in London, Tate St Ives in Cornwall and Tate Liverpool. The data includes details of applicants" current employers and education and relates to the Tate"s hunt for a website developer in October 2023. Information about 111 individuals is included. They are not named but their referees are, sometimes with mobile numbers and personal email addresses. It was not immediately clear how long the data had been circulating online. Max Kohler, a 29-year-old computer programmer, discovered…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago (983+ words) Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities A British university complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project being dropped, the Guardian can reveal. In February, Sheffield Hallam University, home to the Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice (HKC), a leading research institution focused on human rights, ordered one of its best-known professors, Laura Murphy, to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China. In February, Murphy was told that her work on China, described previously by the university as "groundbreaking, had to stop. The website for the Forced Labour Lab, Murphy's small team of researchers at the HKC, was taken down " although several of the reports remain available in…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (219+ words) Sara Rydkvist, the Hong Kong programme director of Amnesty International, and Francis Bown on the threat from China to academic freedom on British campuses Your report (UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China, 3 November) is deeply alarming. Amnesty International UK's own research shows that attempts by the Chinese state to intimidate and silence people extend far beyond its borders: a clear case of transnational repression, where governments reach across borders to stifle dissent. If political pressure from a foreign state can shut down legitimate inquiry in the UK, our campuses risk being bought and bullied into silence. Academic freedom cannot survive if truth is negotiable. Both universities and the UK government must act " loudly and publicly " to protect those at risk and resist interference.Sara RydkvistAmnesty International The case of Prof Laura Murphy at Sheffield Hallam University…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago (811+ words) Reliance on overseas students" tuition fees under scrutiny as scholars describe chilling effect of being targeted UK academics whose research is critical of China say they have been targeted and their universities subjected to "extremely heavy" pressure from Beijing, prompting calls for a fresh look at the sector"s dependence on tuition fee income from Chinese students. The academics spoke out after the Guardian revealed this week that Sheffield Hallam University had complied with a demand from Beijing to halt research about human rights abuses in China, which had led to a big project being dropped. One UK-based China scholar has since described being a victim of death threats and a smear campaign, while another was sanctioned for her work on human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and can no longer travel to China to conduct her research. Others described…...

5+ day, 18+ hour ago (1765+ words) Meanwhile Fatima Payman says government were "asleep at the wheel" when Pauline Hanson entered chamber wearing a burqa. Follow today"s news live Queensland teachers strike after rejecting pay offer Queensland"s education minister has warned teachers might get a worse industrial deal after arbitration, flagging that the government will look at "other elements" of their industrial agreement. Members of the Queensland Teachers" Union are going on strike today after rejecting a government pay offer last month made during conciliation at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission. The dispute will now go to a full bench of the commission for arbitration. The education minister, John-Paul Langbroek, said on Tuesday that the conciliation offer, which included an 8% pay rise was now "off the table". He told media this morning that the government wouldn"t be seeking to roll back class sizes "but…...

5+ day, 8+ hour ago (571+ words) Show at Cauldeen primary school in Inverness had included a scene explaining hardship faced by Syrian refugees A primary school in Scotland has cancelled its Christmas show after receiving "racist and abusive" messages because it featured sympathy towards Syrian refugees. The decision by Cauldeen primary school in Inverness follows rising tensions at other schools in Scotland over adult English classes being targeted by far-right demonstrators, which has also led to events being cancelled. Highland council said the play, called Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, would not go ahead after "negative feedback" on social media and abusive messages directed at the school and its staff. Made by Edgy Productions, which specialises in scripts and music for schools and youth theatre, the show featured a scene in which Santa shows two young people the hardships faced by Syrian refugees on the Turkish border. Andrew…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (1611+ words) Almost one in five school-leavers in the West Midlands town are not in education, employment or training as the chancellor faces pressure to deliver a promised "youth guarantee" It is a rainy day in Dudley, and Alex Jones and his friends are taking shelter under some trees in the car park of the local college of technology. Clad in blue overalls on a mid-morning break from class, the students are hopeful their automotive qualifications will stand them in good stead for finding work. Here in the heart of the Black Country, however, that is not always guaranteed. "Trying to find a part-time job is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," says the 17-year-old trainee mechanic. "They don't care what grades you have, they just want experience," chimes in Thomas, his course mate. Derek Fowkes agrees: "Teenagers end…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago (1532+ words) Almost one in five school-leavers in West Midlands town are not in education, employment or training and chancellor is under pressure to deliver promised "youth guarantee" It is a rainy day in Dudley and Alex Jones and his friends are taking shelter under some trees in the car park of the college of technology. Clad in blue overalls on a mid-morning break, the students are hopeful their automotive qualifications will stand them in good stead for finding work. Here in the heart of the Black Country, however, that is not always guaranteed. "Trying to find a part-time job is like trying to find a needle in a haystack," says the 17-year-old trainee mechanic. "They don"t care what grades you have, they just want experience," chimes in Thomas, his course mate. Derek Fowkes agrees: "Teenagers end up working in KFC…...