They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.
05.03.2026 04:33
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They killed 180 children and their teachers in a double-tap strike on a school. The girls were 7 to 12 years old.
"One clause says that only the state has the right to promote “a system of symbols of Chinese civilisation”"
civilisational discourse in action: as I've been saying, it's about claiming difference internationally and erasing difference internally.
You’re not going to believe how dumb the origin story for this is
I had really thought that with a Labour government, I might be done hating Home Secretaries, but no. Here we are again. When did performative viciousness to the vulnerable become a part of the role description?
Claiming asylum is a right; getting a UK student visa is also both expensive and quite hard in the first place. This is punishing folks from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan for daring to dream of studying here, and daring to wish to be safe. This is, once again, so needlessly cruel.
I actually don't have words as to how angry I am.
Wonder what happened in these countries that people on student visas in the UK found themselves needing to apply for asylum instead of going home post 2021.
UK Labour are heartless bastards & apparently have bo idea whats happening in the world.
Benno Weiner, a historian of modern China, Tibet and Inner Asia at Carnegie Mellon University:
“such policies, if enforced, meant there was ‘no way’ that non-Han people would be able to safely express ‘any type of discontent without being accused of being essentially separatists or terrorists’.”
I have seen a lot of cursed stuff in my time in academia but this is among the *most* cursed.
Grammarly is generating miniature LLMs based on academic work so that users can have their writing ‘reviewed’ by experts like David Abulafia, who died less than two months ago.
'there is a demon that lives underneath Downing Street and possesses every Home Secretary' remains a pretty strong theory tbh
Reflecting on this and the fact that the UK is actually very good at economic and social outcomes for immigrants…
What if we built our immigration policy around the fact we’re GOOD at this stuff? And used the lessons of what has worked well to talk about national identity, welcome and integration?
Utterly cruel, pointless and harmful. It does not minimise how bad Conservatives were to say Labour are now the most anti-asylum government in most people's living memory. This prevents people feeling any sense of safety and security after fleeing persecution.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
I'm just returning to Luminous. Its wonderful, but so much about grief that I had to put it down for a couple of days following some happenings in my own life.
It feels like the sharks have had chainsaws attached to their dorsal fins and are swiming with purpose and determination toward my personal lifeboat. I am nevertheless very aware how fortunate I was to clamber aboard at all.
I'm not sure if ppl outside academia realise that if you quit a permanent post in this job market you will amost certainly never get another one, esp in arts & hums. All that post graduate training, the years of precarity, not being able to choose where you or your family live. Pffft. For nothing.
Didn't expect but Hell Yeah!
High court rules proscription of Palestine Action unlawful!
Shabana Mahmood, Starmer & the rest of the gov't can shove it.
"“a very significant interference” with the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association"
Only 24 hours left for people to fill in the consultation on the "Earned Settlement" proposals.
Join other 130k people and make your voices heard.
Settlement should be a right for everyone not a privilege for few high earners.
ukhomeoffice.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...
Did this yesterday. I was furious about the proposed changes to begin with; wasn't expecting to wind up quite so incoherently furious about the survey itself. Appallingly loaded design. I ranted in all the text boxes.
PS. Not too late to tell the government what you think about their proposed changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain - the public consultation is open until 12th Feb.
www.gov.uk/government/c...
Guan Heng takes a selfie with his mother, smiling.
Breaking: Guan Heng has just been released from detention and is now reunited with his mother, a long-awaited and joyful reunion. DHS has not yet decided whether to appeal his asylum. We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who stood by him and helped make today possible.
Former Party cadre Ma Ruilin speaks with @liyuan6.bsky.social about his work on surveillance systems in China: “I realized that the very systems I helped build in 2008 had become shackles for Muslims [...] I had handed a demon’s whip to the state to use against my own community.”
Its also on bookshop.org for 99p - I'm so glad they are finally doing UK e-books. And I've been looking forward to reading this for ages.
Thank you to everyone who has shared this. The hearing is over for today. DHS has filed a motion to pretermit (end Guan's asylum application in the US) and have him sent to Uganda - where he'd be at risk of being sent to China. The hearing to decide that will be held 12 January.
'There in the shadows [of the White Paper] lies the call for HE institutions to specialise, with the lurking threat that many will lose their research funding in some, but perhaps many, areas, in order to better fund those with more intensive research.'
It's official: 400 redundancies and a campus closure. At-risk staff will get a letter next week. Absolutely no serious consideration of any of the union's counterproposals.
Please share widely.
Oh damn. I'm so sorry. Even in pictures, she has so much character in one long nose - and who would deny those pleading eyes anything they wanted...
Some good news this morning - exports of Xinjiang tomatoes have collapsed. Last year I worked with the BBC to expose how XJ tomatoes produced with forced labour were making their way to UK supermarkets via Italy. 🧵
Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities.
It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/
Absolutely shocking that the Chinese govt pressured a UK university to shut down research about forced labour in Xinjiang and the links to global supply chains. The work of Laura Murphy and her team had been instrumental in getting Chinese companies sanctioned.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China
"In total, the documents show Sheffield [Hallam University] had earned £3.8m in 2021/22 from China and Hong Kong." That's how little was enough for them to sell out.