SOAS – the London School of Oriental and African studies – has a well-deserved reputation for antisemitism. And here we go again: A prominent London university has been accused of breaking free speech rules by hosting a conference where Israeli academics must declare their institutions are built on land taken from Palestinians. Academic freedom campaign…

Kenwood this morning:

Jo Grady, head of the University and College Union (UCU) speaks up on that Sheffield Hallam debacle: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the biggest threat to academic freedom in the UK is the marketisation of higher education. The accusation here could not be more serious: that the university traded important research…

James Marriott in the Times on the return of superstition, and the end of the enlightenment: It is becoming clear we have drastically undervalued the rare and precious achievement of a civilisation founded on rational thought. Ironically, as the Dark Ages return, the Enlightenment philosophers and scientists who campaigned against zealotry and ignorance — and…

The old lie about trans people being central to the Stonewall riots and the whole gay lib movement is resurrected by NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. Fred Sargeant, who lived through it, sets him straight. According to the published reports of award winning Village Voice reporter Arthur Bell, Rae “Sylvia” Rivera pimped homeless gay street…

Some new information on the case of the Darlington nurses: A previously undisclosed internal email from a senior NHS executive has come to light in the ongoing legal case involving female nurses at Darlington Memorial Hospital, who allege their rights were violated by a policy allowing a biologically male staff member identifying as female to…

Earlier today I posted on Chinese pressure on Sheffield Hallam University, trying to stop a professor there from publishing her work on the ongoing repression of the Uighur in Xinjiang. Now, from Aaron Sarin at Quillette, we hear about Tibet, that other country so brutally absorbed into the absolutism of modern China. The article’s about…

From the JC: A concert hall in Amsterdam has called off its Chanukah show because the IDF’s chief cantor was due to perform. Shai Abramson, who represents the IDF at official events, was set to sing at the Concertgebouw for the annual event organised by Chanukah Concert Foundation. However, the decision was taken to cancel…

Some useful investigative reporting from the BBC for a change – China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show: China waged a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed at a UK university to get it to shut down sensitive research into alleged human rights abuses, documents seen by the BBC show. Sheffield…

More, in the Times, on the government’s procrastination over single-sex spaces: Ministers have been accused of falling for lobbying by trans activists, including a former Stonewall boss, over concern among big business about new rules on single-sex spaces. Women’s rights campaigners claimed the government had been “fooled” by a letter organised by the Trans+ Solidarity…