Pro-Palestine Jews destroy “antisemitism hate mob” lies

By

 RobCarter

 -

28th April 2024

Amid zionist calls to outlaw pro-Palestine demos in London over complaints of antisemitism and ‘no-go zones for British Jews’, 5Pillars attended spoke to some prominent anti-zionist Jewish activists about whether they feel scared or intimidated while marching for Gaza in London.

BBC Gaza reporter: My struggle to keep family safe while covering the war

By Adnan El-Bursh,

BBC Arabic

BBC

Adnan lived apart from his family for several weeks, visiting when he could

For about three months, Adnan El-Bursh reported on the war in Gaza while living in a tent, eating one meal a day, and struggling to keep his wife and five children safe. The BBC Arabic reporter shares the harrowing moments he faced covering a war that pushed him to his limits.

Warning: This report contains descriptions and images some readers may find distressing


One of the worst moments of the past six months was the night we all slept on the street. I looked at the faces of my wife and children, huddled in the bitter cold in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, and felt helpless.

My 19-year-old twins, Zakia and Batoul, lay on the pavement alongside my daughter, Yumna, who is 14, my son Mohamed, who is eight and my youngest girl, Razan, aged five, with their mother, Zaynab.


As we tried to rest outside the Palestinian Red Crescent Society's headquarters, the sounds of shelling echoed through the night and drones buzzed overhead.

We had managed to find an apartment to rent, but the landlord had called earlier that day, saying the Israeli military had warned him the building would be bombed. I was working at the time, but my family grabbed their bags and fled.

Adnan faced many difficult moments covering the war, including when 80 bodies were buried in a mass grave

We met up at the Red Crescent headquarters, which was already overflowing with displaced people.

My brother and I sat on cardboard boxes all night, discussing what we should do.


We had fled our homes in the town of Jabalia a few days earlier, on 13 October, leaving most of our possessions behind, after the Israeli military told everyone in northern Gaza to move south for safety.

And now we had just escaped being bombed in the area we had been told to move to. It was hard to think straight. I felt angry, humiliated and terrible that I could not provide any protection for my family.


Eventually, my family moved to an apartment in Nuseirat in central Gaza, while I stayed with the BBC team in a tent at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis. I visited every few days.

Communication was difficult, with internet and phone signals sometimes cut. Once I did not hear from my family for four or five days.


In Khan Younis, the BBC team - about seven of us - lived on one meal a day. Even when there was food, sometimes we did not eat it because there was hardly anywhere to go to the toilet.

The BBC team worked from a tent in the grounds of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis

During this time my friend, Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh, suffered a terrible loss.

The house his family had been staying in was hit in an Israeli air strike. His wife, teenage son, seven-year-old daughter and one-year-old grandson were killed.

The Israeli military says it takes "feasible precautions" to reduce civilian casualties, and in this case had "targeted Hamas terrorist infrastructure in the area".

Reporting Gaza: My War

In Gaza, Palestinian journalists document the war as they live it on a daily basis. In this BBC World Service film, we hear the story of BBC Arabic's Reporter in Gaza, Adnan El-Bursh who found himself reporting the news, as he was living through it.

I watched the footage of my friend, who I have known for 20 years, embracing his children's shroud-wrapped bodies in central Gaza. I wished I was there with him.

The news came amid a string of reports about the deaths of other friends, relatives and neighbours. My heart ached. I have now lost about 200 people in the war.

That day I wept live on air, as I was reporting. In the night, I woke up with tears covering my cheeks. Wael's image never left my mind.

Adnan cried while reporting live the day his friend Wael Al-Dahdouh's family members were killed

I have covered conflicts in Gaza for 15 years, but this war stands apart, from the unprecedented attack that triggered it, to the scale of the losses.


At 06:15 on 7 October I was woken by loud explosions and my children screaming. I went up to the rooftop and saw rockets being launched towards Israel from Gaza.

When we realised Hamas had breached the fence into Israel - in its assault that saw about 1,200 people killed and 250 taken hostage - we knew the response from Israel would be like nothing we had seen before.

More than 34,000 people have now been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The risk of injury and death has been ever-present.

Two days into the war, I hurried to our local market in Jabalia, to stock up with food. It was busy with others doing the same.

But the area was bombed heavily just 10 minutes after I left. The entire place was destroyed, including the large grocery store where I had shopped moments earlier.

I knew the faces of the shop owners. Many of them were among the dead.

Adnan escaped the bombing of his local market in Jabalia by about 10 minutes

Amnesty International says at least 69 people were killed in the attack and that it should be investigated as a war crime.

The Israeli military has not responded to the BBC's question about this incident.

Throughout the war it has said its operation is targeting Hamas, which it says operates from civilian locations.


It also says "strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law".

Before the war, Jabalia was a beautiful, tranquil town. I was born there and had been living a simple, contented life with my family, filled with love and plans for the future.

I had a farm east of the town, where I had planted olive, lemon, and orange trees with my own hands. It was peaceful and I loved to drink tea there after work.

Adnan El-BurshAdnan and his family were living a contented life in Jabalia before the war - but their home is now destroyed

The day we decided to flee northern Gaza for Khan Younis - leaving our homes and the BBC office in Gaza City behind - was a pivotal moment in my life.


With more than 10 people crammed into one car, my family and I crawled our way south, along a single road, with tens of thousands of other people, on foot and in vehicles, all loaded with belongings.

The journey was punctuated by air strikes on nearby areas on both sides of the road. Confusion, grief and uncertainty marked the faces of my family and the crowds.

Tens of thousands of people fled northern Gaza after Israel ordered them to evacuated

The children kept asking me: "Where are we going? Will we be back tomorrow?"

I really wish I had taken our photo album, full of pictures of me as a young child, my parents, and my wife and I when we got engaged. My dad was an Arabic teacher and I also wish I had taken some of his books that I kept after he died.


Later, I learned from a neighbour that my house had been completely destroyed, and my farm burned.

After that terrifying and surreal journey south, and our night outside the Red Crescent headquarters, I continued working from Khan Younis for several weeks. My family were still in Nuseirat and being separated from them took a toll emotionally.

Conditions were difficult for the BBC team in Khan Younis - here Adnan grabs a moment to rest by the broadcast truck

Then, in early December, Israel began telling Gazans to leave parts of Khan Younis and move to other areas, including Rafah, further south.

The Israeli military also closed the main road leading north, which connected me and my family. I did not know how I would get to them or where we should go if I did. Rafah was already overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of people, and there was barely anywhere to stay.


For days, I grappled with swirling emotions. News circulated about Israeli forces advancing towards the main roads, apparently aiming to divide the south from the central and northern regions. I was terrified that I - or my family - would be killed and we would never see each other again.

For the first time I felt like I had lost it. I did not even know what day it was. I considered stopping work and returning to my family. If we died, we would die together.

In the end, on 11 December, I drove with a colleague along a back road to Nuseirat. When I arrived, my youngest children rushed up to hug me, with Razan reaching round my neck and holding on tight.

We managed to move the family to Rafah. The BBC team had also relocated there, continuing to report. There were some awful moments.

Adnan, his brother and their families slept outside after a warning that their rented apartment would be bombed


In late December, I reported as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) handed about 80 bodies to the authorities in Gaza. The IDF said it had taken them from Gaza to Israel so they could be checked to see if there were any hostages among them.

A large lorry drove into the cemetery in the Rafah area. The stench was overwhelming when the container was opened. Men in aprons and masks placed the remains, wrapped in blue plastic, in a mass grave dug by an excavator in the sandy ground.

I had never seen a scene like that before. It is hard to describe how horrible it was.

Then, in January, I was reporting from a hospital in Rafah when several bodies were brought in, including another of Wael Al-Dahdouh's sons, Hamza, his eldest, who was also a journalist working for Al Jazeera.

Who would tell Wael? It just seemed impossible, after the tragedies he had already faced. I could not even listen as one of my colleagues called someone close to Wael to pass on the news.

Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh's lost family members in two separate air strikes

Hamza and his colleague, freelance videographer Mustafa Thuraya, were killed in an Israeli air strike on their car, after they had reported on the aftermath of another strike in the area.

The Israeli military alleges they were "were members of Gaza-based terrorist organisations". The families and Al Jazeera reject the claims as false.

The IDF says the two were operating drones "posing an imminent threat to IDF troops", but a Washington Post investigation "found no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day".

Adnan and the BBC team finally left Gaza in February, unsure when they would return

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, according to Reporters Without Borders - the vast majority are known to be Palestinian.

The IDF says it "has never, and will never, deliberately target journalists".

It says it "takes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians including journalists", but "remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks".

Eventually, the news came that the BBC team's families had permission to leave Gaza. Four weeks later, we too finally left through the Rafah crossing, facilitated by the Egyptian authorities.

I am writing this in Qatar. But I know that in Jabalia, they have been pulling up grass and grinding animal feed to eat, while I'm here having meals in a clean hotel. I find it hard to eat - it's like eating poison.


The future is a blur. Gaza is my life. I want to return one day, but for now, that seems impossible.

U$A

Our Unions Can Tip the Balance for the Campus Palestine Revolt


Unions are starting to join students in the fight for Palestine. Rank and filers can organize our unions to join the encampments, strike for Palestine — and push our leaders to throw their full support behind us.


Jason Koslowski 

LEFT VOICE

April 28, 2024

Guy Smallman

Right now, the biggest student revolt of this century is rocking the country, denouncing the genocide of Palestinians and calling for divestment from Israel and an end to the war on Gaza.

The repression has been bipartisan and savage. College administrators are calling in heavily armed police of Democrat-controlled cities to drag away hundreds of students and faculty, for the crime of sitting on a lawn on their own campus to oppose genocide. The Biden administration and other high-ranking Democrats have denounced the protestors as antisemitic, which gives the green light to further repression. The Republican Party is taking an incredibly harsh position on the protests with Republican governors mobilizing state troopers in Georgia and Texas to repress protesters and declaring, in the words of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, that “these protesters belong in jail.” And yet we’re also seeing more and more encampments and protests, from the City University of New York (CUNY) to Emory to Yale, from the University of Texas at Austin to the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) and California Poly.

But if the repression wins, and can stomp out the movement, it will be a devastating blow to democratic rights in this country. That would normalize the attack not just on the right to protest, but on unions’ strikes, pickets, and marches — the weapons workers and oppressed people use to fight back. We need all of us out to help protect these protests.

Workers and their unions are seeing this threat. They’re heading into the encampments like at Columbia, UPenn, and CUNY to stand with the student movement. In NYC, the UAW held a march in solidarity with its arrested members. Still, union leaders haven’t yet called us all out in large numbers to join the struggle.

Our unions have a special power in this battle. In the balance of the fight, we can be the thumb on the scale. Our strategic position in the economy ( for example, driving buses and teaching classes), our numbers, our power to paralyze city economies — these can shift this battle towards victory. And besides, many of those unions have already called for a ceasefire. It’s time to push and pull our unions fully into the fight for Palestinian liberation.
Unions Join the Fray

Many union members and unions are joining student protesters at their encampments and calling for their protection.

UAW 2710, which represents student workers at Columbia, released its call for solidarity against the repression. It’s been signed by dozens of unions — largely locals — as well as by over 800 individual union members. Union bus drivers recently refused to transport people arrested on campuses to jail.

And more: at CUNY, union faculty and staff joined hands surrounding the students, chanting: “To get to our students, you’ll have to go through us.” The national AAUP, to which many faculty at Columbia belong, denounced the mass arrest of peaceful students. The PSC, the union for 30,000 CUNY academic workers, also denounced the repression at Columbia and called for the protection of democratic rights at CUNY. Sarah Nelson, the head of the Association of Flight Attendants, tweeted from her personal account, “Hands off students! They’re going to save us.”

In other words: there’s a groundswell of support surging inside unions — mostly from below and in our locals— for the student revolt.

At the top of a lot of our unions, though, we’re not seeing the mobilizing of mass union support for the encampments. It’s true AFL-CIO, AFT, and the UAW — representing millions of us in unions — already demanded a ceasefire. Ceasefire statements, and statements denouncing repression, like the one from the PSC in New York, are important. They spread awareness, they help stir their members towards more action, and they show that there’s widespread worker support for the Palestinian cause.

But in the teeth of intense repression, we’ll need to turn fine words into real action: to mobilize our unions into the streets and to the encampments, to join arms to protect them, and to strike for Palestine, and for our leaders to call us all to that kind of support too.

All of that is so important because of the strategic power of our unions. They embrace millions of workers — 14 million, all told. 12.5 million of those are in the umbrella of the AFL-CIO (which includes unions like my AFT). There are about half a million active members of the UAW.

It’s not just our numbers. Unions in cities like New York stand at most of the chokepoints of the economy: shipping goods on trucks, transporting workers and people on buses, and beyond. Union teachers, too, and teachers in public K-12 schools, could be mobilized to join the struggle as well.
Our Unions Need to Go Much Further

There’s inertia in our unions though, especially at the top, moving against more active support from below. Although the UAW and AFL-CIO leaders have put out statements for a cease fire, they also promised full support for Biden and his regime who are arming and funding Israel. In fact, the AFL-CIO suppressed the inner push for a ceasefire call until its members forced the issue.

All of that support for the regime is part of a long strategy in these unions. The upper crust committed themselves long ago to appeal to Democratic Party politicians to win gains for workers. And that strategy has been an abject failure throughout the entire neoliberal era of union decline and dismantling, falling wages, and destroyed pensions. In line with this strategy, union bureaucracies in the U.S. have a long history of supporting imperialism abroad, standing shoulder to shoulder with the politicians of their own country.

When our unions embrace Democrats as their allies, that brings a very long train of other problems too. For example, it commits our unions to working inside the labor law that Democrats helped pass (in hopes of currying favor and winning better laws). But labor law is like a fixed carnival game. In Democrat-controlled New York, for example, the Taylor Law forbids public sector strikes. The Taft-Hartley law from 1947 was passed by Democrats and Republicans and outlaws solidarity strikes. Agreeing not to strike means we’re agreeing not to use our power as workers — and hope for the best.

But workers’ and unions’ support for Palestine shows something crucial. We — rank and filers — can organize from below to push and pull more of our unions to join, and protect, the student movement, even if that means breaking labor law.

In the 1930s and 1940s, workers in their locals organized strikes and then walked out. Since there was no turning back, that essentially dragged union leaders against their wills to support them (otherwise they’d look weak and ineffective). We can organize our own pro-student and pro-Palestine strikes. We can also bring more and more of our locals to the encampments, surround the students, lock arms, and protect them from the cops that also break our own strikes.

And we can build the pressure on our union leaders, in the UAW, AFL-CIO, and elsewhere, to put teeth to the words they already put out. When we do that, we can also demand our union leaders publicly and openly support us, and back us with the resources of our unions.

Their job now is to stand by their statements, and more. Call us all, by the millions, into the streets! Call us to the encampments on campuses across the country! Call us out on strike!

The battle for the student movement is raging. Let’s throw the full weight of our unions into the fray.


Jason Koslowski is a contingent college teacher and union organizer who lives in Philadelphia.

Five settlers arrested over deadly reprisals following teen’s murder DEATH in West Bank

Gallant signs administrative detention orders for Israelis suspected of violence against Palestinians after 14-year-old was found dead

By TOI STAFF

The Times of Israel

Today, 

File: Armed settlers gather on a hill overlooking the village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah in the West Bank on April 13, 2024 (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)


Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday signed administrative detention warrants for five Jewish settlers suspected of taking part in reprisals against Palestinians following the recent slaying of an Israeli teenager in the West Bank.

The arrest warrants were announced in a statement from Honenu, a far-right group providing legal representation to the suspects, which said five settlers were arrested Sunday morning by police in the West Bank.

There was no official police statement on the arrest warrants.

The body of 14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir was discovered on April 13, a day after he left a farm near the outpost Malachei Shalom to go shepherding, with security forces saying he was killed in a terror attack. Police last week arrested a Palestinian man suspected of killing Achimeir.

During the searches for the suspect, Jewish extremists attacked nearby Palestinian communities, including the village of al-Mughayyir, where settlers set fire to houses and cars, sparking clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces. A Palestinian man was killed and dozens of others were injured during the clashes, including an Israeli journalist.

The day after Achimeir’s body was found, there were reports of renewed clashes between settlers and Palestinians in the towns of Beitin and Duma, close to Ramallah.

14-year-old Benjamin Achimeir, who went missing in the West Bank on April 12, 2024 and was found murdered a day later. (Courtesy)

Clashes also ensued in al-Mughayyir, where six Palestinians were injured, one of them critically after being shot in the head, according to the Palestinian Authority official news outlet Wafa.

In a separate statement, which described some of the suspects as “married and fathers to children,” Honenu said the five were arrested for separate periods of six, four and three months.
Honenu shared a picture on social media of one of the arrest warrants, with the suspect’s name and identification number redacted. The document, signed by Gallant, ordered the arrest of an Israeli citizen for six months starting Sunday on grounds of “state security or public safety.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who used to work for Honenu, slammed Gallant for signing the warrants.

“Gallant’s persecution of the settlers is exactly what the antisemitic court in The Hague does to the Israeli government,” Ben Gvir, who chairs the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, claimed in a social media post.

“An irresponsible move by the Shin Bet [security agency] and Gallant that will only give more ammo to the haters of Israel,” he added.

The Haaretz daily identified one of the suspects as a minor and named the others as Boaz Shpitz, Elhai Carmeli, Tzadok Hacohen and Neria Zarog. According to the newspaper, Carmeli was jailed for 6 months, Hacohen for 4 months, and the others for 3 months each.

A Palestinian inspects the damage to a home in the village of al-Mughayyir near Ramallah in the West Bank on April 13, 2024, after an attack by Israeli settlers on the village. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP)

Carmeli and Hacohen were held in administrative detention last year for allegedly taking part in a deadly rampage through the Palestinian West Bank town of Huwara. Zarog has previously been ordered by the military to leave the West Bank for several months on at least two occasions.

Administrative detention is primarily used for Palestinian terror suspects but the orders have also been used with a handful of Jewish-Israeli terror suspects in recent years.

The tool is typically used when authorities have intelligence tying a suspect to a crime but do not have enough evidence for charges to stand up in a court of law.

Its use against settler extremists has become more common recently, as many of them maintain their right to silence and refuse to cooperate with investigations.

Settler violence spiked after the October 7 massacre carried out by the Hamas terror group in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 253 were taken hostage, but violence was already on the rise before then, according to watchdogs.

A Palestinian inspects the damage to his belongings in the village of Mughayir near Ramallah in the West Bank on April 13, 2024, after an alleged attack by Israeli settlers on the village. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP)

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 3,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,650 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 450 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time.

In the same period, at least 13 Israelis, among them two members of security forces, have been killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an Israeli tally.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Palestinian prisoner in Israel wins top fiction prize

Published: 29 Apr 2024 - 


Abu Dhabi: Palestinian writer Basim Khandaqji, jailed 20 years ago in Israel, won a prestigious prize for Arabic fiction on Sunday for his novel "A Mask, the Colour of the Sky".

The award of the 2024 International Prize for Arabic Fiction was announced at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi.

The prize was accepted on Khandaqji's behalf by Rana Idriss, owner of Dar al-Adab, the book's Lebanon-based publisher.

Khandaqji was born in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus in 1983, and wrote short stories until his arrest in 2004 at the age of 21.

He was convicted and jailed on charges relating to a deadly bombing in Tel Aviv, and completed his university education from inside jail via the internet.

The mask in the novel's title refers to the blue identity card that Nur, an archaeologist living in a refugee camp in Ramallah, finds in the pocket of an old coat belonging to an Israeli.

Khandaqji's book was chosen from 133 works submitted to the competition.

Nabil Suleiman, who chaired the jury, said the novel "dissects a complex, bitter reality of family fragmentation, displacement, genocide, and racism".

Since being jailed Khandaqji has written poetry collections including "Rituals of the First Time" and "The Breath of a Nocturnal Poem".

He has also written three earlier novels.

SINGAPORE

Bangladeshi migrant worker dies after forklift incident in Sungei Kadut

TODAY IS THE DAY OF MOURNING FOR INJURED AND KILLED WORKERS!

Mr Biswas Sanjay Kumar was struck in the neck by a forklift on April 16. He died on April 22. PHOTO: MR OJHA TAPAS

Andrew Wong
APR 29, 2024,

SINGAPORE – A migrant worker from Bangladesh working at a salvage yard in Sungei Kadut was struck in the neck by a forklift and later died of his wounds.

The Straits Times understands the forklift driver at Beng Cheng Metal did not call for an ambulance after the incident on April 16, which happened at around 10am.

He used his own car to rush Mr Biswas Sanjay Kumar, 37, to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital, where the worker succumbed to his injuries on April 22, said Mr Alvin Lim, one of the directors of the company.

“He (Mr Biswas) had been with the company for only one month, so it’s very unfortunate. It was an accident, and we are still in shock,” he added.

Mr Lim said that on the day of the accident, Mr Biswas, who was hired as a driver, was shouting out instructions to the forklift driver operating the machine.

The forklift driver only suspected something was amiss when Mr Biswas went quiet. He then found the Bangladeshi lying on the ground.

Mr Lim said: “The (forklift driver) had a car and when he saw what happened, he panicked. He thought the best and fastest way was to take him (Mr Biswas) to hospital himself.”

A spokesman for the police, who are investigating the incident, said they received a call for assistance from the hospital at 10.40am on April 16, around 40 minutes after the accident.

In response to queries from ST, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said Mr Biswas was guiding a forklift operator, who wanted to lift a bag of scrap metal, when one of the forks struck him on his neck.

The ministry said that as a general safety measure, forklift operators must check and ensure that nobody is within close proximity of the machine when it is in use.


MOM added that it has instructed Beng Cheng Metal to stop all work activities on the premises.

Mr Biswas leaves his wife, their 18-month-old daughter and his mother.

He came to Singapore 10 years ago, hoping to earn enough money to build a house for his family in Joydihi village, said his cousin, Mr Ojha Tapas, 36.

He heard about the tragedy from Mr Biswas’ family in Bangladesh. The hospital had contacted the family.

“When I got to the hospital, his heart (had) already stopped. He was not breathing, and I saw a very big injury on his head,” said Mr Ojha, who has also been working in Singapore for the past 10 years but for a different company.

He added that Mr Biswas had needed emergency procedures but never recovered.

“His wife and mother have been crying since they got the news. Everybody is in tears and feeling helpless.”

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Forklift stacker operator whose negligence caused surveyor to be crushed to death gets jail

Some manufacturing firms think workplace safety is a cost: WSH Council committee chair

Mr Ojha said Mr Biswas’ body was repatriated to his village on April 26.

“He wanted to make more money to help his family, and give his daughter a good education so she could become a doctor,” he added.

Mr Lim said Beng Cheng Metal is working out details of the compensation, from its insurance, to Mr Biswas’ family, adding that the firm will try to provide some financial assistance to them in the meantime.

Singapore’s workplace fatality rate had fallen to its lowest-ever level in 2023, MOM said on March 27 in its annual workplace safety and health report.

Statistics showed 36 workers died in 2023, a 21.7 per cent drop from the 46 deaths in 2022.

The construction sector saw the most number of deaths in 2023.

Eighteen workers died, including 20-year-old Vinoth Kumar, who was killed when a wall collapsed during demolition works at the Fuji Xerox Towers site in Tanjong Pagar on June 15, 2023.

"Vampire Facial" 

CDC Identifies First Cases of HIV Transmission Via Cosmetic Needles 

By Sathish Raman | 

Updated: Monday, April 29, 2024, 2:15 [IST] 

In a startling revelation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), three women have been diagnosed with HIV following "vampire facial" treatments at an unlicensed New Mexico medical spa. 

This marks the first documented instance where individuals have contracted the virus through a cosmetic needle procedure, as detailed in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Report last week. The investigation, spanning from 2018 to 2023, uncovered that the clinic reused disposable equipment meant for a single use, posing significant health risks to its clients. 

Representative image Vampire facials, or platelet-rich plasma microneedling, involve drawing a client's blood, processing it, and then injecting the plasma back into the face using fine needles.

 This procedure is designed to rejuvenate the skin by promoting collagen production. However, the improper handling and reuse of needles at this particular spa led to these unprecedented HIV transmissions. 

The New Mexico Department of Health initiated an investigation into the spa during the summer of 2018 after a woman in her 40s, with no prior risk factors for HIV, tested positive for the virus following her treatment at the facility. 

The spa was subsequently shut down in the fall of 2018 as the investigation progressed, and its owner faced legal action for practicing medicine without a license. 

This case has underscored the critical need for stringent infection control practices in establishments offering cosmetic services involving needles. 

The CDC's report also highlighted challenges in the investigation, such as poor record-keeping by the business, which hampered efforts to trace and inform potentially affected clients.

 This incident serves as a cautionary tale about the risks associated with cosmetic procedures performed under unsanitary conditions or by unlicensed practitioners.

 It emphasizes the importance of thorough research and vigilance on the part of consumers seeking cosmetic treatments that involve needle use. 

Furthermore, it calls for improved regulatory oversight and record-keeping standards within the cosmetic service industry to prevent such occurrences in the future.

Fields of filth: factory farms committing thousands of environmental breaches


The more than 3,000 violations affected water, air and land

Published April 29 2024
By Andrew Wasley , Lucie Heath
This story was published in partnership with:

The iFind out how to use the Bureau’s work


Intensive livestock farms in England have breached environmental regulations thousands of times in recent years, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism can reveal.

Among the more than 3,000 incidents were the “routine” discharge of slurry and dirty water, maggot-infested carcass bins and the illegal incineration of pigs.

Records obtained by TBIJ and the i of Environment Agency inspections at intensive poultry and pig units detailed violations affecting water, air and land. They included poorly maintained farm buildings and equipment, as well as other breaches of rules designed to minimise the environmental impact of the country’s largest livestock farms. They also included hundreds of cases involving substandard farm waste management.

Some farms were found to hold no records of poultry litter and dirty water transfers, including the dates, destinations and quantities of exported slurry and manure.

Many of the thousands of violations recorded over five years were relatively minor, resulting in farms being given “advice and guidance” by agency officials, records show. They issued formal cautions and warnings in more than 500 cases and recommended 48 prosecutions.

Farm waste is often used as fertiliser at third-party sites

Wayne Hutchinson/Farm Images/Universal Images Group/Getty

The revelations came as new evidence reported by the Guardian found that dairy farms in the UK broke environmental regulations more than a thousand times between 2020 and 2021, including by spilling waste into rivers.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We are clear that the agricultural sector must deliver improvements to our environment.” They added: “In 2023, around 80% of pig and poultry farm inspections resulted in advice and guidance, 16% resulted in a warning and around 2% resulted in a formal caution or prosecution.”

1,700 double-decker busload

the volume of animal waste produced daily by nine major UK meat and poultry firms

They said the pig and poultry sector accounted for a small number of serious pollution incidents compared to other agricultural sites.
Thousands of tonnes of waste a day

A report published today by the campaign groups Sustain and Friends of the Earth shows that nine major meat and poultry firms are producing more than 30,000 tonnes of livestock waste a day – some 1,700 double-decker busloads. The companies supply major supermarkets with poultry and pork and rear more than 100m farm animals at any one time. Among them are the UK subsidiaries of controversial meat giants Cargill and JBS, according to Sustain. The figures exclude waste from intensive beef farms, which are not regulated in the same way.

There is no suggestion that these companies were among those found to have committed the largest number or most egregious cases of environmental rule-breaking uncovered by TBIJ and the i.

Farm waste, including slurry, manure and poultry litter, is frequently spread on farmland as fertiliser but can wash into rivers and cause nutrient pollution. This affects water quality and can kill fish, plants and animals living in the waterways.

It also emits ammonia, an airborne pollutant that can harm human health and ecosystems. The government has pledged to reduce ammonia emissions across the UK by 16% by 2030.

‘The government [needs to] treat Big Ag businesses with the same level of scrutiny as sewage companies’


Sustain said only a few of the companies have effective policies for managing waste. It added that the issue is poorly regulated.
Filthy findings

Intensive poultry and pig farms above a certain size – 40,000 birds, 2,000 fattening pigs or 750 breeding pigs – require a licence to operate in England and are subject to inspection by the Environment Agency. Officials physically check livestock housing, slurry and manure storage, and drainage systems. They also inspect farm records relating to animal numbers, feed, energy and water use, and waste disposal.

The records obtained by TBIJ reveal 770 breaches relating to farm infrastructure regulations, including measures designed to minimise pollution, and 568 relating to records and monitoring, including on farm waste. More than 650 violations were linked to the substandard management of farms, and 346 concerned emissions affecting air, land and water.

‘The British public are getting a bum deal – big agribusinesses dump their waste on our countryside and slink off the profits’


In one case, inspectors noted: “Management failure [has led] to slurry discharge to water course.” In another, officials wrote: “The site is in a general state of disrepair, issues have been raised and these have not been actioned.”

Much of the waste identified by Sustain in its report originates from intensive livestock units. These have proliferated in recent years and can house up to a 1.4 million birds or more than 20,000 pigs.

“The British public are getting a bum deal – big agribusinesses dump their waste on our countryside and slink off the profits,” said Sam Hayward, a campaign officer at Sustain. “We need to hold these big businesses to account for the toxic waste they produce, and we need to stop this bloated industry from getting any bigger.”

Virendra Sharma, the MP for Ealing Southall, told Sustain as part of research for a report: “It’s time that we acknowledge the alarming reality of river pollution caused by intensive agriculture in England.

“The government [needs to] treat Big Ag businesses with the same level of scrutiny as sewage companies and stop the expansion of intensive livestock units in the most affected areas.”


The dirty truth+ Show


Among the findings detailed in the Environment Agency inspectors’ reports were:

Water contaminated with manure and slurry passing into a watercourse, causing pollution.


Dirty water and slurry routinely discharging to ground after escaping from a drainage system – the issue has been “ongoing for several years”.


Overflow from a contaminated water tank was tracked offsite and a carcass bin found leaking while full of dead birds, leading to a “spill of white liquid”.


Spent disinfectant being disposed of by pouring directly onto land – “not an acceptable practice”.


“Black, foul water” found in unlined ditches, bubbling with gases around farm buildings.


No poultry litter and dirty water transfer records being held by farms including dates, destinations and quantities of exported slurry and manure.


Chickens and pigs being “overstocked” on some farms – in some cases involving hundreds of additional animals confined without permission.


Excessive air pollution at farms, including in one case of “ongoing odour detected beyond a farm boundary, at a level likely to cause pollution”.


Ammonia sampling not being carried out.


No air scrubbers – devices that remove air pollution – to reduce ammonia emissions as required, resulting in a “potentially significant impact on nearby nature conservation sites”.


Livestock being incinerated on farms without a licence.


Maggots observed on the external areas of the carcass bin (not completely sealed).


Adult fly activity on one site with evidence of breeding (larvae eggs in litter) at a level likely to cause annoyance outside site boundaries. “Report of flies in the local area.”



Celine O’Donovan, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, which is mounting legal actions in relation to pollution in the River Wye, told TBIJ: “Sustainably disposing of waste produced by supply chains is part of the true cost of industrial operations.

“Many large meat and dairy companies have a business model that relies on a lack of accountability for the waste generated by their supply chain. This model outsources the rearing of livestock to hundreds of small third-party supply farms in a single region, while retaining complete ownership of every aspect of the process except the disposal of manure.”
Exporting excrement

In several poultry-producing hotspots, including in Northern Ireland and the Wye Valley, chicken firms are already “exporting” farm waste to other locations because of an over-saturation of waste and its associated water pollution and soil quality damage.

In January, as part of a “roadmap” for tackling the issue, Avara Foods, which is part-owned by Cargill, began trucking poultry waste from within the River Wye catchment, the epicentre of its poultry operations, to other destinations across the UK. Some locations were as far afield as East Anglia and north-east England.

‘Despite the attention focused on the River Wye, it is just one of the many UK rivers currently under threat from agricultural pollution’


After the exports began, the company contracted to transport the waste, Gamber Logistics, told the Times that the measure was “not sustainable” – at least in part owing to unnecessary transport emissions. The company claimed that when this was put to Avara, it responded by saying it needed “to draw a line in the sand” on river pollution.

TBIJ has learned that the export of Avara’s poultry litter out of the Wye catchment was discussed with the Environment Agency prior to starting.

Internal documents relating to meetings held between the regulator and the company in 2022 and 2023 list “export” as one possible solution, alongside processing litter in anaerobic digestion plants.

Environment Agency officials noted there had been “lost opportunities” in tackling the wider pollution issue due to a lack of data sharing and collaboration between Avara and the agency.

In Northern Ireland, documents first obtained by TBIJ revealed that poultry producer Moy Park had exported thousands of tonnes of bird litter across the border into Ireland and has sent waste consignments as far afield as Fife and Norfolk.

O’Donovan of Leigh Day warned that despite the attention focused on the River Wye, it was “just one of the many UK rivers currently under threat from agricultural pollution”.

Avara disputed Sustain and Friends of the Earth’s figures but did not comment further.

Moy Park also disputed the figures. A spokesperson said: “The poultry industry is highly regulated and we operate to exacting welfare, bio-security and environmental standards. We work closely with our supply chain and farming partners to deliver best practice against these standards.”

The company said it has a strategy for dealing with animal litter that meets all legal requirements. It added that it ensures waste is disposed of responsibly, including at sites in Fife and Norfolk, which it said were approved incinerators.


Main image: Slurry being spread by truck in Lancashire. Credit: Wayne Hutchinson/Farm Images/Universal Images Group via Getty


Reporters: Andrew Wasley
Environment editor: Robert Soutar
Deputy editors: Chrissie Giles and Katie Mark
Editor: Franz Wild
Production editors: Alex Hess and Emily Goddard
Fact checker: Ero Partsakoulaki
Impact producer: Grace Murray

Our Food and Farming project is partly funded by the Montpelier Foundation and partly by the Hollick Family Foundation. None of our funders have any influence over our editorial decisions or output

The silent casualty – how the Russian war is eroding Ukraine’s scientific potential

Dmytro Chumachenko shares his insights into research under fire in Ukraine, and the role the UK can play in supporting the sector

COMMENT 27/03/24

Dmytro Chumachenko
Dmytro Chumachenko is an Associate Professor at the National Aerospace University Kharkiv Aviation Institute



For two years now, Russia has been waging a bloody full-scale war in Ukraine. This has led to massive destruction; thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded, and millions have been forced to leave their homes.

Ukrainian science has also suffered. According to the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine, almost 3,500 educational institutions have been damaged, and 365 have been destroyed completely. Among the damaged institutions are 93 universities. The physical destruction of laboratories and scientific equipment affects the possibility of continuing scientific research in Ukraine. Still, it is not the only factor caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Many scientists have been compelled to flee their homes, either relocating within Ukraine or seeking refuge abroad. The brain drain abroad amounted to 18.5 per cent, and 17.6 per cent of scientists have completely changed their profession. Others have joined the military efforts or have been war casualties. The Russian war complicates the exchange of scientific knowledge with foreign colleagues, as well as attending conferences to discuss scientific results. The scientific community’s challenges are exacerbated by restrictions on crossing the border by males due to martial law and the difficulties associated with securing academic positions abroad on short notice.

These factors have directly affected the scientific community’s ability to maintain its research output, contributing to a reported 10 per cent decline in research papers published by Ukrainian scientists since the onset of the war. Moreover, considering the delay in the peer review of scientific publications, this figure cannot reflect the long-term consequences of Russia’s military invasion, which will be much more extensive.

The decrease in financial support for research within Ukraine has led to a notable decline in scientific output, threatening the country’s future contributions to global science. The United Kingdom, with its world-renowned academic and research institutions, is in a unique position to offer support. The UK has already launched the Ukraine Twinning Initiative, a bunch of individual grants for Ukrainian scholars, and we need continuation and expansion of support for the Ukrainian scientific community because Russia’s war in Ukraine has not stopped.
Vital steps

The vital step the UK can take is to provide remote internships and scholarships for Ukrainian researchers. The financial strain on Ukraine’s scientific research, exacerbated by the conflict, has significantly hampered the ability of researchers to produce impactful results. By offering these opportunities, the UK can ensure that Ukrainian researchers remain engaged in their fields, contributing valuable insights and advancements despite the challenges they face at home. At the same time, Ukraine needs people who will not only restore the country after victory but also produce innovations right now. Therefore, support for those scientists who remain in the country and continue their activities is critically important.

International collaboration is crucial for producing world-level scientific results. However, the current situation makes it nearly impossible for Ukrainian male scholars to leave their country. The UK can bridge this gap by providing joint grants that allow for remote participation. An excellent example is the joint grant program between the University of Cambridge and the National Research Foundation of Ukraine. Such initiatives would enable Ukrainian scientists to collaborate with their counterparts in the UK and beyond, ensuring the continuity of high-quality research and maintaining Ukraine’s presence in the global scientific community.

Another vital area of support is granting Ukrainian researchers free access to UK university libraries, virtual laboratories, and computational power. These resources are indispensable for conducting cutting-edge research. Access to such resources would significantly alleviate the constraints faced by Ukrainian scientists due to damaged infrastructure and limited access to physical resources within their country.

A critical point is that the UK can assist by removing article processing fees for publications in British scientific journals for corresponding authors from Ukraine. The financial challenges faced by Ukrainian institutions in wartime conditions mean that many researchers are unable to afford the costs associated with publishing their work in international journals. By waiving these fees, the UK would enable Ukrainian scientists to share their findings with the global community, ensuring that their contributions are recognised and can inform future research and policy.
Wider support

In addition to bolstering Ukrainian science through academic and research support, there’s an urgent and broader call to action that extends to the very heart of the war. The swift victory of Ukraine over the illegal Russian aggression it faces is paramount not just for national sovereignty but also as a critical factor in the prosperity of European research and science.

We urge individuals and organisations to consider supporting Ukraine’s defence efforts in this time of need. Donations to credible funds, such as United24 or Come Back Alive to aid the Ukrainian army can significantly accelerate Ukraine’s path to peace and stability. Such support contributes to the country’s immediate defence and the long-term revitalisation of its scientific community, ensuring that Ukraine can continue to contribute valuable knowledge and innovation to the world. Now more than ever, standing with Ukraine means supporting its present struggle and its future potential in advancing global science and research.

The support from the UK could play a pivotal role in safeguarding and promoting Ukrainian science during these turbulent times. By offering a helping hand, the UK would not only provide immediate assistance to Ukrainian researchers but also contribute to the resilience and continuity of global scientific progress. This is a call to action for the UK to stand in solidarity with Ukraine, demonstrating a commitment to science, international collaboration, and the shared pursuit of knowledge. Together, we can ensure that Ukrainian science not only survives but thrives, now and in the future.

Why does the UK have the worst student rights in Europe?

Fresh from their latest bus tour to the continent, Jim Dickinson and Livia Scott try to identify why students in the UK seem to depend on benevolence rather than rights and protections


JIM DICKINSON
COMMENT 29/04/24

Jim is an Associate Editor at Wonkhe


Livia Scott
Livia Scott is Wonkhe’s Community and Policy Officer



In Serbia, students have the right to nutrition, rest and cultural, artistic, sports and recreational activities.

In the Netherlands, when a university terminates a course, it has to do so in a way that allows existing students to complete it – as originally described.

And in Sweden, students have the right to study in a safe environment – and have pretty much the same rights as employees, given that right is in the Swedish Work Environment Act.

Over the past few years, we’ve been assembling groups of SU officers (and the staff that support them) onto bus tours of students’ unions, guilds, associations across countries in Europe – the latest one of which was to the Balkans and Austria.

And we’ve seen any number of fascinating projects, initiatives, buildings, services and schemes that students deliver in the student interest.

But on the long (and often winding) roads between university towns and cities across Europe, we’ve been researching what it is that underpins all of the impressive stuff that we’ve seen.

And having burned through SIM data at an alarming rate, we’ve come to a conclusion. Save for Scottish domiciled students studying in Scotland, students in the UK pay pretty much the highest tuition fees in Europe.

Yet in return, they enjoy pretty much the worst student rights in the continent.
What’s underneath?

In the Netherlands, if an institution’s management has become aware in any way that someone on the staff may have engaged in harassment or sexual misconduct involving a student, the university has to inform the country’s confidential inspector of education. And if any staff hear about an allegation, they have to report it into management.

In Spain, every university has to have its own ombudsperson – an independent and impartial figure with statutory reporting duties that is given the role of protecting the rights and freedoms of the university community – and they’re selected by students and staff.

And in Croatia, every time a business employs a student, a small amount of tax is taken from that business to fund student activities, projects and services. Students’ unions then organise public funding competitions amongst students to run everything from cultural events to induction activities.

Everywhere we go, we first start by looking at the legislation that underpins the higher education system in a given country. Some have multiple acts of Parliament and some have one. Some go into excruciating detail about the operation of faculties while others afford wise autonomy. Some define and guarantee academic freedom, albeit often with some funding constraints and priorities – and slowly most now ensure that quality assurance (and enhancement) is carried out in a co-regulatory way through a version of the QAA.

But what’s remarkable is that in pretty much every country we’ve been to, there is an entire section of their legislation on students and their rights.

Take Lithuania. There’s a minimum amount of space that has to be allocated, by law, on campus per student. Student reps have veto power in the senate, faculty councils and assembly on issues related to student interests – and if they use their veto, a special committee reviews the issues, and a two-thirds majority vote is required to override it.

In Latvia, students’ unions receive at least 0.05% of the annual university budget to run activities and representation in the student interest. And SUs have a legal right to request and receive information from any university department on matters affecting students to perform their accountability function.

In Austria, students from subject councils make up a decent proportion of every curriculum committee – ensuring that study options become more flexible, more interdisciplinary, meet their future career needs and offer the right balance of stretch and challenge.

In Poland, students have the right study programmes where at least 30 per cent of the credits are elective optionals – and when universities recruit anyone to a managerial position whose responsibilities include student affairs, there has to be consultation with the student government. Study regulations have to be agreed with the SU.

So important are the rights of students in Poland that their protests and strikes are specifically protected, with mediation rights. And in recognition that students are transitory and need assistance in enforcing their rights, every year its NUS organises a three day conference for student reps explaining both the legal frameworks and the mechanisms for using them – co-funded by the government and national regulatory bodies.
Big schools, little kids

We’ve never really been into rights for students in the UK. Pre-devolution, the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998 barely mentioned students. England’s Higher Education and Research Act 2017 offered little other than Student Protection Plans that are doing nothing of the sort. Scotland’s Higher Education Governance (Scotland) Act 2016 gives some limited rights to students to sit on key bodies. Pretty much all of the legislation and regulations have endless detail on how much home students can be charged, and almost nothing on what they get in return.

Probably the closest we have to rights for students is slowly emerging in Wales, where the under the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act 2022 the new regulator will determine the effectiveness of a provider’s arrangements for supporting and promoting the welfare of its students and staff, and will be able to mandate a learner engagement code. But that’s likely to be legislation that reflects, rather than drives up support – and is unlikely to be executed in a way that a student could rely on in a complaint.

Outside of HE-specific legislation, a complex and confusing patchwork of provisions exist in theory in the legal briefing notes of expensive law firms, but barely help students in practice when there’s a problem. UK consumer protection law is supposed to ensure that students get what they were promised, but nobody seems interested in enforcing it. Equality law seems more often challenged by politicians in a culture war than enthusiastically enforced in universities. And in student accommodation, to the extent to which there’s been any consideration of students at all by officials and politicians, it’s usually been to ignore the profit-gouging asset-class purpose-built sector, and sideline the concerns of students in the private rented sector.

What students do have in the UK is an ombuds – in the form of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIAHE) in England and Wales, and in the form of public services ombuds in Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the case of the latter, there are few in the SU community that have any confidence in the way their bodies work. And while the former is well-respected, it’s a distant and “last resort” body whose “good practice framework” is increasingly ignored – operating in a system that is strategically calculated to exhaust, ignore and pay off anyone not prepared to run the Indiana-Jones style gauntlet of the often 18-month process.

In the (often-subsidised) restaurants, cafes and dining halls of the countries we’ve visited, we’ve often speculated on why it is that students get so few rights and guarantees in the UK. Luck and chance will have played a part, sector resistance (where pride in “autonomy” was frequently translated into “freedom to treat students badly”) was always around when Jim worked at NUS for a decade, and the country has for a long time felt like one obsessed with nostalgia for an era when students were homogenous, young, and at a big school.

That’s perhaps why, if we look at legislation on student organisations, while almost every European country has positive provision on role, funding and participation rights, here the Education Act 1994 was borne out of a distaste for students’ unions in an era that preposterously defined SUs as “the last closed shop” – and both the Education (No.2) Act 1986 and the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023 funnel intergenerational fears about students into unworkable legislation rather than hope, pride and optimism in our young.

Some will say that any further definition of student rights is unnecessary, and that generally student surveys tell us that they are happy with their experience, and that students’ unions are afforded budgets for activities and participation rights in university governance that exceed those described above. And that may be true in the good times – but listening to SU officers describe how they’re being treated and consulted during this round of viscous cuts demonstrates the problem.

Universal rights aren’t about when there’s money around and everyone’s feeling benevolent. They’re about saying to citizens – especially those least likely to feel able to challenge others – here’s how we’re protecting you.
Best practice makes perfect

Sometimes it’s the little things. In Sweden, universities must provide students participating in, or who have completed, a module, with the opportunity to present their opinions about that module through an evaluation – which must then compile those evaluations and provide information to students about the results and actions prompted by those evaluations. It’s not “best practice” – it’s the law.

In Austria, students who are unable to study full time due to child care or similar care commitments are entitled to notify the university of the times at which they have special needs in respect of courses and examinations – and universities must take into account those needs in their course and examination timetabling, on the basis of the information supplied. And that’s a requirement – not the result of an access and participation project plan.

In Ukraine, students will soon be able to organise their study patterns to suit their specific circumstances, with the expectation that they achieve between 30 and 80 ECTS per year, allowing them to complete between three and six years, as demands of their personal lives permit. They will also be given the right to more curriculum flexibility, will be able to avoid specialising until their third year of study, and will be explicitly able to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to their study. By law, not as a result of a best practice project.

And sometimes it’s the principle. In Croatia, the country’s widely understood student standard covers basic needs like food, accommodation, work and cultural and sports activities. There’s always budget shenanigans and implementation detail to haggle over, but it at least sets out what students should be enjoying – allowing its reps to argue for programmes or allocations with confidence.

In the Netherlands, there’s a requirement that universities publish a decision-making participation scheme for students, a duty to provide financial support to student volunteers in student clubs and university bodies, and specific types of decision that have to be made with the consent of the student and staff councils that ensue. The world has not fallen in.

In Finland, students can obtain information on how assessment criteria have been applied to their grades, have the right to a safe learning environment, and have a right to a proper induction – leading to well established and sophisticated student tutoring schemes that we’ve looked at on the site before.

In Sweden, students have the right to representation whenever decisions are made or an inquiry undertaken that concerns them – and if such decisions are to be taken or inquiries conducted by one individual, a student representative must be informed and consulted in good time before the decision is made or the inquiry completed.

In Lithuania, universities must support an SU and and other organisations of students, provide premises and funds to finance their activities, and provide funds for cultural, sports and public activities of students. And in Croatia, univetrsities are obliged to provide the SU and the elected student ombudsman with a place to work, co-finance their activities and provide them with administrative and technical assistance.

In Belgium each university has to have a Student Services Council, which seperately governs student facilities (including the separate government budget line for) food, housing, social services, medical and psychological services, transport and student activities. Who would have thought that the governance and management of study programmes or estates schemes should be of a different character to governing the funding and programmes that meet students’ basic needs?
The frame game

We think it’s partly because of the way in which students are framed. Rather than the ugly idea of the institiution as “provider”, universities are routinely described as communities in other countries – of which students are seen as an integral part. And universities frequently have formal obligations not just to teach, qualify, assess and produce – but to develop the social responsibility of students.

Estonia frames student organisations as helping in universities’ missions to support the development of the students into enterprising and responsible citizens. France frames students as integral members of the educational community, demonstrated through their active participation in councils. Finland explicitly describes universities’ mission to educate students in part to prepare them to serve their country and humanity at large.

This is not just about universities. Most countries give formal participation rights to students in national bodies, government committees and councils. In Slovenia, purpose-built student accommodation is defined as a public service – and while it can be run by universities, commercial companies can run it too as long as they hit key standards and they ensure the representation of student interests in management.

Students in most countries get subsidised public transport (discounts on prices that in any case are vastly cheaper than we see in the UK). Some systems incorporate preventative systematic health check-ups for students. Most give students the right to good careers support. And in countries without an NHS, students are routinely given both personal and health insurance. Given how utterly useless the NHS is for the young in the UK, there are few of us arguing positively for our system abroad.

Funding and credit systems play a part. We’ve noted here before that the UK appears to have pretty much the youngest undergraduates and the fastest completion time – via an archaic student finance system and university cultures that demand bachelors completion in three years when almost everyone else in Europe can take longer, allowing for setbacks, voluntary work and student diversity where we just don’t.

And the relative lack of institutional elitism – at least when it comes to admissions rather than research – coupled with a concern for pan-European mobility, means that pretty much every country has significantly more sophisticated (and legally guaranteed) course and credit transfer schemes than are present in the UK. Once they’ve enrolled, nobody traps students like UK universities manage to.

It’s also clear that PhD students enjoy much better rights elsewhere. Some are treated as staff and salaried. Many have the right – not a vague idea in a policy document – to switch supervisor. Many have bespoke rights laid out in law to challenge decisions and get appropriate support. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you actually consider students in your HE law, rather than retro-bodging equality or consumer law onto a sector where whose power dynamics don’t suit doing so.
What are we like?

Of course, not all of the examples above are universal, and not all of the rights are easy to enforce. All countries find that financing the entitlements they want their citizens to enjoy is hard, and most SUs in countries we’ve met argue that students sometimes get treated badly or find themselves in sitiuations where they need the help of an SU officer.

But when we’ve been travelling around, we’ve often reflected that UK HE feels like it’s caught – between grand North American ambitions of scale, funding, and service provision, and European styles of regulation, bureaucracy and community. And we also think that even the mention of student “rights” in the UK can cause some to start muttering about merketisation and neoliberalism when what they really mean is “remember the old days when we had authority”.

In this Chronicle piece on the politics of campus protest over Israel/Palestine in the US, Gabriel Winant argues that student protest has always arisen from students’ inability to exercise meaningful sway over their institutions except through the “client” status that condemns them to a kind of conservatorship:


Meaningful deliberative participation in the governance of the campus community has been denied to students, faculty members, and staff, forcing them to shout if they wish to be heard. Then, when they do finally raise their voices, they are written off as shrill, fragile, and childish (a decade ago) or menacing, antisemitic, and terroristic (now).

When Winant argues that universities “do not compete to provide students the best possible education”, but rather to “keep their clients sufficiently satisfied”, we hear endless echoes – of those on our tours asking European counterparts whether they have data on how their volunteering schemes or committee positions or activities programmes improve the NSS or some other metric – and being met with blank faces. Because for the most part, student rights and citizenship isn’t something that has to prove its impact on recruitment or retention. It’s essential.

There are aspects of that that we think have infected our own students’ unions too. Democracy can be messy, having a wide breadth of representatives can be hard to maintain, and judging by the logos we see abroad, the need to “market” the professional “services” of the SU can sometimes feel more important than taking steps to ensure that students feel more connected their course, their community and their world – and able to argue out their interests democratically.

On each of the trips, we’ve discovered endless examples of the way in which giving students capacity, credits, responsibility and power generates positive change. We’ve seen astounding community volunteering projects, curriculum change initiatives that cause their experience to be more future-facing, and student support initiatives that start from the assumption that students want to, and can, support each other.

We’ve also asked the impressive student leaders that we meet whether the package of rights, protections and participation on display causes conflict, or encourages endless complaints. What they (and we) can say with clarity and confidence is that giving better, clearer and more enforcable rights to students is neither incompatible with academic excellelnce, and nor does it create an adversarial relationship between students and their university. Far from it.

Instead, treating students as assertive members of an academic community – with both obligations to others and reciprocal rights to take part, be heard, be treated well and to get what they promised – is not only an essential component of what students are supposed to get from higher education, it’s also the route to a healthier and more democratic society when they graduate, and one of the crucial ways in which higher education innovates and improves.

It’s not especially hard to do so, and wouldn’t cost the earth. On the assumption that it’s about to take office, Labour should develop a bespoke Student Rights Bill without delay.