‘A Labour Oxford Chancellor could be transformative for the university sector’

Tom Taborn    

14th August, 2024

Photo: 4kclips/Shutterstock

Chris Patten, the former Conservative minister, has retired as Chancellor of Oxford University, triggering an election for the post. The post has never been won by a Labour figure, although the once Labour minister Roy Jenkins held the post as a Liberal Democrat when there were two Tory contestants and he came through the middle. 

This will be the first year that the Chancellor will be elected online, rather than electors having to come to the University to vote. This means that this year the electorate will increase from the 6,000 who have participated in person to the potentially 250,000-strong graduate population of Oxford.

The deadline for Oxford graduates to register to vote is this Sunday, sparking fears that Conservative campaigns, with long-standing alumni networks, will pull ahead in registrations. Graduates may register online and do not need their alumni number to do so.

READ MORE: Sign up to our must-read daily briefing email on all things Labour

The election is traditionally fought between competing public figures – in the past Conservative vs Liberal – although one internal ‘University’ candidate normally puts their name forward.

Sky News has reported that Peter Mandelson and William Hague have made their interest known along with Elish Angiolini, principal of St Hugh’s College. Other possible candidates include Imran Khan, the former Pakistan Prime Minister, and Reverend Matthew Firth, a member of the Free Church of England standing on an ‘anti-woke’ platform. 

A Labour Chancellor could promote higher education reform

Although Conservative candidates have been successful in seven out of the nine contests since the beginning of the last century, this year may be different. The significantly widened electorate means that old assumptions are not so strong.

The Labour Party’s dominance of the under-40 vote, combined with the anger of recent graduates over tuition fee and student loan rises, and the previous government’s attacks on universities, mean that Conservative candidates may face a tougher battle. 

The contest is likely to focus on the sector’s financial sustainability, maintenance grants and student support, admissions processes and regional inequality. Mandelson’s recent column in The Times hit back at right-wing attacks on universities and argued that Keir Starmer’s growth mission requires a thriving university sector. Fringe candidates are likely to focus on ‘culture war’ issues, seeking to turn the contest into a battle about freedom of speech. 

READ MORE: ‘Water firms are failing us. But Labour is already working to turn things around’

While the Chancellorship is largely a symbolic, ceremonial role, a Labour Chancellor could argue in favour of reform. Funding for the sector, which has been tightly squeezed in recent years, needs to change as does a fresh influx of cash from the philanthropic sector and industrial sponsorship of research.

The combination of a Labour Oxford Chancellor and a Labour government could also change the tone of the wider debate around universities. While the previous government took a broadly hostile approach to the sector, the shelving of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act is an indication of the new government’s increasingly rational stance. A new Chancellor, alongside a new government, could promote higher education reform for the first time in 14 years. 

The new Chancellor could be a powerful advocate for students

The New Labour years saw a dramatic increase in university participation as part of the shift to a service-led economy. In his Times column, Mandelson made the argument for more, rather than fewer, people in tertiary education in which universities play an important part.

In the climate of attacks on ‘mickey mouse’ degrees and ‘hyper-liberal’ universities, it is a brave argument to make. If he takes up the role, the country could see a new voice for the further expansion and quality of university education, changing the debate in a positive direction. 

READ MORE: Party seeks £105k policy and comms chief but slims down following victory

The Chancellorship also has a representative purpose. Student interests, which have been frequently sidelined by culture-war clamour, could gain a powerful advocate. A Chancellor focused on representing students, academic staff and alumni, unencumbered by ideological gripes and preoccupations, could act as a voice for a sector which has often had difficulty defending itself from external attacks. 

Any Oxford graduates who wish to participate in the election have until Sunday using this link.

NEW HUMANIST

Britain's new era: our Autumn 2024 edition asks, what now?


It's time to take stock of where the country is, and where we'd like to be. What's happening with discipline in our schools? How do we heal the "toxic culture" in our NHS? And will refugee rights be restored under the new government?

By Editorial Staff , Thursday, 15th August 2024



The Autumn 2024 issue of New Humanist is on sale now! This issue we're delving in to Britain's new era – from schools to the NHS to refugee policy.

Spare the rod

Cherry Casey explores the rise of super strict schools across England. Some are achieving impressive results – but at what cost?


"The ultra-disciplined approach – often referred to as championing “high behavioural standards,” “strong leadership” and a “no excuses” mantra – is spreading ... Yet many pupils, parents and teachers feel it comes with heavy costs to children’s mental health, wellbeing and educational outcomes. And they are speaking out."
Crisis of compassion

Following the revelations of the Birth Trauma Inquiry, journalist and former midwife Pavan Amara looks at persistent reports of a "toxic culture" within the NHS, the institutional failures that have led to it – and what can be done to fix it.


“If you talk to people who have never worked in the health service, they have no idea that it’s a lot like the army. It’s a tough place, everyone is in survival mode."
Ken Loach

Director Ken Loach – renowned for his films documenting the lives of working people in Britain – talks to us about reclaiming solidarity in British politics.

"Human values have political implications … If someone falls down in your street, you would help ... And yet we elect people to represent us who do the opposite."
In this together

Writer and feminist Natasha Walter talks to us about refugee rights, climate activism, and what humanism means today.


"For a few years we got policy wins [on refugee rights] ... But then came this unbelievable backlash. I felt we won certain battles but we lost a war in the last few years."

Credit: Alamy

Also in the Autumn 2024 issue:Michael Rosen follows the history and meaning of the word "landslide"
Peter Salmon explores why political defections feel so wrong
Kunal Purohit meets the Indian communities fighting back against religious hate
Jody García looks at where the battle for Guatemala's democracy could lead
Jody Ray tracks one of the world's first malaria vaccine rollouts in Sierra Leone
Shaparak Khorsandi offers tips on the lost art of eavesdropping
Samira Ahmed issues a call to remember the Pacific War, before it's too late
Jessa Crispin has a hot take on what's really driving Swiftmania
A brush with cancer gets comedian Richard Herring laughing about death
Dan McCarthy thinks it's no bad thing if adults are acting like kids
Briley Lewis takes an astronomer's eye to a Hollywood blockbuster about Apollo 11
Bethany Elliott describes how Ukraine's national identity was put to the ultimate test

Plus more fascinating features on the biggest topics shaping our world today, and all our regular science columns, book reviews, original poetry, the cryptic crossword and brainteaser.

To celebrate the launch, we're offering six months of New Humanist for just £1! Subscribe now using code AUGUST24 (offer valid until the end of the month) or buy a single issue online and in all good newsagents. Read on for a peek inside the magazine.

UK

‘What happened last night was not funny’ – Liz Truss responds to lettuce prank

The former prime minister was not amused.


Former prime minister Liz Truss, as a banner featuring a picture of a lettuce unfurled behind her on the stage at an event in Suffolk (Led By Donkeys/PA)

PA Media
Max McLean

Liz Truss has said a banner proclaiming “I crashed the economy” with a picture of a lettuce which appeared behind her during a talk was “not funny” and an attempt to “suppress free speech”.

Speaking at Beccles Public Hall and Theatre to promote her book Ten Years To Save The West, the former prime minister was discussing her support for Donald Trump when the banner unfurled behind her.

Led By Donkeys confirmed the event was genuine, but refused to explain how they pulled the stunt off.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Ms Truss wrote: “What happened last night was not funny. Far-left activists disrupted the event, which then had to be stopped for security reasons.

“This is done to intimidate people and suppress free speech. I won’t stand for it.
“Would we see the same reaction if the activists were far-right?”

A statement from Led By Donkeys read: “Liz Truss appears to be a huge supporter of free speech up to the point she encounters it”.

Led By Donkeys co-founder Ben Stewart earlier told the PA news agency that the stunt was “all about Liz Truss aligning herself with Trump and the far right in America”.

Ms Truss lasted only 44 days as leader of the country – she was famously outlasted by a lettuce that was recorded on a live stream, created by the Daily Star, which asked: “Which wet lettuce will last longer?” referring to the then prime minister and an actual lettuce.

Once she had been alerted to the sign behind her, the former prime minister was clearly unhappy and left the stage.

UK

Why eco-protesters are serving more time than rioters

Stephen Armstrong

TORTISE
Thursday 15 August 2024

It’s the law, and the law turns out to be political.


About 40 people have been sentenced so far in connection with the UK riots at the start of August. Sentences range from two months for criminal damage to three years for violent disorder. By contrast, five Just Stop Oil protestors were jailed in July for between four and five years for conspiring on a Zoom call to shut down the M25.

So what? If the scales of justice don’t seem fairly balanced, that’s because they aren’t. The discrepancy between relatively light sentences for race rioters and relatively heavy ones for eco-protesters is a function of process – most of the rioters have been swiftly dealt with and pled guilty while the JSO five had a jury trial;
personality – judges are human, after all; and
politics – the history of police and public order acts in the UK is a history of the British state bringing in laws to deal with temporal problems it finds infuriating.

The law. The maximum sentence available to judges for violent disorder, the most severe of the rioters’ offences so far tried, is three years. The maximum sentence for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance is ten years. The rioters are on trial for violent disorder as defined in the Public Order Act 1986. This was created to deal with the Miners’ Strike in 1984. The JSO protesters were on trial for public nuisance as defined by the Police, Crime and Sentencing Act of 2022 and the Public Order Act of 2023. These were created to deal with climate change protests, specifically naming Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.

Public enemy number one. The first ever UK Public Order Act in 1936 banned political uniforms and required police consent before political marches went ahead. This was created to deal with Oswald Mosely’s British Union of Fascists.

Judge dread. Judge Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the JSO five, noted thatprotesters’ actions had caused people to miss flights, funerals, mock exams, medication, cancer clinic appointments, work and an appearance at the All Party Parliamentary Group for Water;
a police motorcyclist was knocked off his bike; and
the defendants had form in previous protests.

Hehir also dismissed their lack of violence and conscientious motives as non-mitigating.

Harsh, no? During the riots, around 150 police officers were injured and almost half of them hospitalised. Business, hotels and police stations were set alight. Shops were looted. Cars were burned. A number of people were beaten by mobs.

Yes, but. In the case of the rioters, the judiciary has moved with almost unprecedented speed in bringing the cases to court. Currently the average length of time from offence committed to sentencing in the UK is around a year. In Liverpool, rioters were in court and sentenced within a week. It’s a judicial choice at a time when the legal system is under strain, so the judges are either reflecting the state or society’s views.

Soft touch. So far, none of the rioters has been charged with riot under the Public Order Act 1986 which carries a maximum sentence of ten years, although the Director of Public Prosecutions has said that is still a possibility.

Time to fold? Last week Liberty met with the Home Office to discuss dropping the Serious Disruption Regulations 2023, a set of amendments to the Police and Public Order Acts introduced by the former home secretary Suella Braverman that lowered the bar for disruption to be considered criminal.

The amendments were aimed specifically at environmental protesters, and they seem to have pleased Braverman more than the public.The High Court has since ruled them unlawful.
Over the past five years juries have been acquitting environmental protestors who justified their crimes by explaining their beliefs.

The JSO five are appealing against their sentences. The question is whether the legal system can do better than politicians at reflecting the wishes of society.

 

The Riots: A Classic Fascist Mobilisation

Labour Hub Editors

By John McDonnell MP

August 14, 2024

To understand why the riots have taken place and how to respond to them, you have to start by looking at who has been involved.

Drawing on other historical examples, it looks like a classic fascist mobilisation. 

At the top are leading demagogues, the political provocateurs, willing to exploit any issue for their political advantage no matter what the consequences for the people or communities involved.

Beneath them are a relatively small phalanx of hardline foot-soldiers, who have been trained and involved in fascist groups like the English Defence League over the years. These are the true-believing fascist muscle behind the riots.

Then there is a larger group: the disgruntled, the dispossessed and the disillusioned. This is the combustible material that the fascists target to set alight: people who are so discontented with their lives – with so little hope, with so little understanding of the real forces that drive our society – that they are prey to the simple, beguiling message that someone else is to blame for how they feel.

All the leaders have to do is point the finger at whichever group is the scapegoat this time round and wait for a spark, an incident, to set the tinder alight. The truth of any incident doesn’t matter. It’s what they can convince people of.

Just as in the 1930s the advent of radio and cinema facilitated the spread of propaganda by the fascists then, so social media has been effectively used in spreading the lies now.

Decade after decade of recent racist and Islamophobic propaganda constructed on centuries-old racism embedded in society makes it so much easier to make race, colour or religion the identifying features of the scapegoat. 

When the fire is lit there are always new joiners, often young people, who can’t resist the excitement or the opportunity to exploit the situation generally with mindless vandalism or looting.

Overcoming the threat of continuing division and violent attacks requires action that is focused on each of these groups.

The demagogues have to be called out and confronted for what they say and what they do. The situation has been exacerbated by mainstream politics; instead of standing up to the far right, many politicians have opportunistically adopted its language and political positioning. 

The lesson is: don’t get into the gutter with them; take them on.

Doing that requires a unity of purpose across progressives in our society. History has taught us that fascism succeeds when the centre and left of politics are divided.

In times of crisis the state has a critical role to play. So it’s not just right that the justice system is used to take out of circulation the demagogues and the foot soldiers of fascism. It is vital to the security of our democracy.

Just as importantly, or even more so, it’s the disgruntled and disillusioned that warrant society’s attention.

It’s interesting how many of the men and women now being prosecuted are breaking down in the dock when they realise the consequences of their actions during the riots.

Many are older without any past convictions. Their sense of anger, whipped up by the demagogues, some mainstream politicians and, of course, by sections of the right-wing media, has left many of them bewildered, facing jail and future lives seemingly beyond repair. 

The election campaign provided the ideal environment for far right politicians to bring the anger to boiling-over point. 

Behind those being prosecuted are many more who didn’t participate in rioting, but who in interview after interview still express, if not sympathy for the rioters, then some appreciation of their motives. 

That’s the challenge society faces.

These riots may have been suppressed, but unless we can come up with a new approach to understanding what allowed the fascists to get a grip on so many in our communities then we will be back here in many years to come.

It doesn’t require high political theory. It does come down to some basic political nous.

Fourteen years of austerity have produced 14 million of our people living in poverty, including four million children, as well as a housing crisis, public services on their knees and a grotesque visible level of inequality generating a sense of unfairness overall.

The low turnout and low percentage level of support for the incoming Labour government should have sounded a warning on just how disillusioned with the political establishment people are. When politics appears to fail them some will turn to rioting and violence. 

People can’t take another wave of austerity and need to see a political movement, maybe beyond political parties, that gives them some hope.

The mobilisation of thousands on our streets has shown what mass action can do to deter the far right. There is a need in the short term for a fresh initiative to continue to discredit and isolate fascists, especially amongst the younger generation, just as the Anti-Nazi League did in the past and Stand up to Racism is doing now, building this grassroots reaction. 

For the longer term we need a movement that can organise in each of our communities to listen to the cares, concerns and, yes, the grievances people have, but this has to be accompanied by cutting through the penetration of the racist and Islamophobic propaganda of the far right and right wing media.

There are well-grounded progressive organisations across our society like the trade union movement, anti-racist campaigns, the women’s movement, anti-poverty campaigns, disability groups and many, many others that could be the foundation stones of such a movement to restore some optimism to us all.

The question for the government is whether they have the political will to provide the powers and resources to make this happen.

John McDonnell MP was Labour’s Shadow Chancellor from 2015 to 2020.

Image: John McDonnell MP. Author: Sophie Brown, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

 

Scientists make remarkable discovery about Stonehenge altar origins

The finding upends a century-held belief that the monument's largest Altar Stone came from Wales 

The Neolithic monument Stonehenge at Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire (Photo: Will Dunham/Reuters)

By Jessica Rawnsley

August 14, 2024 7:24 pm

The largest Altar Stone at the heart of Stonehenge is actually from Scotland and not Wales as has been thought for the past century, research has suggested.

Scientists believe the stone at the centre of the megalithic structure in Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire was transported over 435 miles from Scotland – and have described the discovery as “remarkable”.

According to analysis of the altar stone’s chemical composition and mineral crystals, there is a 95 percent chance it comes from north-east Scotland.

It is unclear when the stone arrived at the site, but the team said it may have been placed in the central horseshoe of stones during its second construction phase around 2620 to 2480 BC.

The sandstone at the heart of the ancient site was believed to have come from Wales, as the majority of Stonehenge’s bluestones came from the Preseli Hills area in west Wales and are believed to have been the first stones erected at the site.

The findings suggests Neolithic Britain, an age when human technology was far more limited than today, was a more connected and advanced society than previously thought.

Co-author of the research, Professor Richard Bevins, of Aberystwyth University, said: “These findings are truly remarkable – they overturn what had been thought for the past century.

“It’s thrilling to know that our chemical analysis and dating work has finally unlocked this great mystery.

A team of scientists tested the chemical composition and the age of minerals within the altar stone, pictured (Photo: Nick Pearce/Aberystwyth University/AP)

“We can now say that this iconic rock is Scottish and not Welsh.”

The Altar Stone is classed as a bluestone, but is very different from the other ones at Stonehenge, as it is about twice the size of some, and weighs six tonnes and is about five metres long, while others are about a maximum of three tonnes.

The stone lies flat and semi-buried at the heart of the prehistoric monument, and is encircled by the famous standing trilithons.

The research was conducted by scientists at Aberystwyth University, University College London and, Curtin University and the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Researchers analysed the age and chemistry of minerals from fragments of the Altar Stone and found it had a remarkable similarity to red sandstone found at the Orcadian Basin in northeast Scotland.

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Anthony Clarke, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin University, who led the study, said the “findings raise fascinating questions about how such a massive stone was able to be transported over the vast distance”.

Mr Clarke believes the altar may have been transported from Scotland via “marine transport” due to “major overland barriers”.

Professor Nick Pearce, from Aberystwyth University, said: “The distance travelled is astonishing for the time.”

Mr Pearce also said the findings had significant implications for our understanding of the Neolithic communities of the British Isles.

He added: “There’s no doubt that this Scottish source shows a high level of societal organisation in the British Isles during the period.

“These findings will have huge ramifications for understanding communities in Neolithic times, their levels of connectivity and their transport systems.

“Hopefully, people will now start to look at the Altar Stone in a slightly different context in terms of how and when it got to Stonehenge, and where it came from.

“I am sure this will lead to some new thinking about the development of Stonehenge and its links to the rest of Neolithic Britain.”

Cigarette smoking hits 80-year low in U.S.


Cigarette smoking in the United States tied an historic low this year with 11% of U.S. adults saying they smoked cigarettes last month, according to Gallup's annual Consumption Habits poll. The survey found perceptions that cigarettes are "harmful" combined with young adults smoking less contributed to the decline. 

Photo by collegewebpro/Pixabay https://pixabay.com/images/id-1673212/

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Cigarette smoking in the United States hit an historic low this year, according to Gallup, which has been monitoring smoking trends for eight decades.

The latest survey, based on Gallup's annual Consumption Habits poll conducted in July, shows 11% of U.S. adults said they smoked cigarettes in the past week. That matches Gallup's other lowest outcome in 2022, and comes close to the 12% smoking trend in 2023.

In 1944, when Gallup first questioned Americans about cigarettes, 41% of adults said they had smoked. Smoking peaked in 1954 with 45% of respondents admitting they had recently lit-up a cigarette. By the late 1980s, the smoking rate had declined but was still more than three times what it is today.

In its recent poll, Gallup found fewer people smoke due to perceptions that cigarettes are "very harmful." This year's survey shows 79% of Americans view cigarettes as "very harmful," while 57% view e-cigarettes or vaping in the same way.

"Medical experts have long warned of the health dangers of smoking, and those educational efforts may be a factor in explaining why cigarette smoking is at an 80-year low," according to Gallup.

Gallup also attributes the large drop in cigarette smoking to young adults, who are less likely to smoke cigarettes and more likely to smoke e-cigarettes, according to 2022-2024 data, which says 18% of adults aged 18 to 29 vape.

"The most recent cohort of young adults are responsible for much of the change. They have bucked the historical trends where young adults have been most likely to smoke cigarettes," according to Gallup.

"Today's young adults have substituted e-cigarettes for tobacco cigarettes, as roughly three times as many young adults vape as smoke cigarettes," Gallup added. "While vaping presents fewer health risks than tobacco smoking, public health officials would still prefer U.S. adults not do either."

Federal judge approves disputed Chicago DNC protest route for thousands

By Mike Heuer

An aerial photo shows the United Center in Chicago where the 2024 Democratic National Convention starts Monday and ends on Aug. 22. 

Photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A planned protest expected to draw thousands of participants during the Democratic National Convention will have to use the current route provided Chicago officials, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. Northern Illinois District Judge Andrea Wood ruled the current route near the convention's site at the United Center enables protesters to "speak near their intended audience" and does not violate their First Amendment rights.

Wood said the lawsuit ultimately regards the protest organizers not getting the "exact route" they wanted during the DNC event that runs from Monday through Aug. 22.

"This falls well short of a First Amendment violation," Wood wrote in a 24-page ruling.

She said Chicago officials have a significant interest in keeping the protesters under control to ensure event security and safety for its participants.

"The need to maintain an accessible route to and from the United Center in case of emergency constitutes a separate significant governmental interest," Wood wrote.

Wood also cited the potential for injury to protesters as a factor in maintaining a reasonable distance from the United Center.

Workers are erecting an iron fence around the United Center and McCormick Place complex in Chicago to help thwart any potential political violence.

"Allowing a crowd of that size ... to march directly alongside an unyielding barrier -- no matter how much of the street is available for pedestrian use -- poses an obvious risk of injury," Wood wrote.

Chicago Police Superintended Larry Snelling on Monday said the police won't allow protesters to come to Chicago and "destroy the city."

Protest organizers filed the federal lawsuit seeking to amend the route so they could get closer to the United Center and to enable potentially thousands of protesters to participate.

The current route running from Chicago's Union Park to the city's Park 578 is too short and winds too much, which would create a "log jam" for tens of thousands of protesters, U.S.-Palestinian Community Network chair Hatem Abudayyeh said.

Protest organizers estimate 25,000 protesters will converge on the event and said the approved route would cause congestion problems, but Wood cited safety as a significant factor in her ruling.

City officials initially offered a protest route in Grant Park that is located 3 miles from the United Center but in June changed the route to make it adjacent to the United Center.

The approved route enables protesters to gather at Union Park on Chicago's near-west side and proceed on a route that takes them along Washington Boulevard to Hermitage Avenue and past a small park near the United Center before turning east onto Lake Street and heading back to Union Park.
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The protest organizers want a wider and longer route that would enable them to stay on Washington Boulevard longer and hold a rally close to the United Center

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Report: Instagram failed to remove 93% of abusive comments against women politicians


| According to a Wednesday report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, Instagram failed to remove 93% of abusive comments against both Democratic and Republican women politicians. The posts allowed by Instagram included racist and gender-based abuse against Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. 

Photo  by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 14 (UPI) -- The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported Wednesday that Instagram failed to act on 93% of the abusive comments, including death and rape threats, targeting U.S. women politicians.

After using Instagram's own reporting tool to report 1,000 abusive comments, no action was taken against 926 of them, according to the CCDH report.

"When our researchers reported 1,000 of the worst of these comments -- sexist and racist abuse, death and rape threats, and rule-breaking offenses -- Instagram allowed 93% to remain on the platform," the CCDH said in a Wednesday statement. "Instagram's failure to uphold and enforce its community guidelines means the platform is failing women and, by extension, our society's desire for equal opportunity and treatment for women."

Both Democratic and Republican women politicians are being targeted with abusive Instagram comments, including Vice President Kamala Harris, now set to be the Democratic nominee for president. In Harris's case, the CCDH said, 92% of abusive comments remained after being reported.

The CCDH said that the hate speech, threats, and gendered abuse are aimed at pushing women out of political life.

The abusive comments included comments like "death to her and her supporters" and "Make rape legal." Racist abusive comments included "we don't want blacks around us no matter who they are."

According to the CCDH, Instagram replied that the comment about Black people "doesn't go against our Community Guidelines."

Instagram failed to remove a post about Harris that said, "You and your entire family deserve to die a horrible death."

A comment against Rep. Greene, R-Ga., Instagram failed to remove also called for "death to her and her supporters."

"In our study we found that the hate in Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments reflected both the type of abuse we see all women politicians in the sample endure, but also her own incitement of hate against colleagues in Congress," CCDH's statement said.

No action was taken on a post against former House Speaker Pelosi that referenced the hammer attack on her husband Paul Pelosi in their home.

That post said, "Why weren't you home when old hammer head got attacked? It would have been awesome to see your knees in pieces."

A post against Rep. Boebert, R-Colo., allowed to remain on Instagram said, "Personally I wish that blood clot had killed her."

Harris has been targeted by both racist and sexually derogatory comments including racial slurs.

The organization said Instagram must enforce its existing rules against "violent threats and abuse and work with experts in gender-based violence to ensure its current policies align with the lived reality of women and marginalized people in public life."

According to the CCDH, of 560,000 comments on Instagram collected on five Democrat and five Republican female incumbents, over 20,000 were identified as likely to be "toxic" by Google's Perspective AI tool.

The CCDH said in the 2020 U.S. congressional race "it was found that women of color candidates were more likely to receive sexist, racist, and violent abuse online."

In its report the CCDH implored Instagram to transparently enforce its community guidelines against gender-based abuse and violent threats. The report also urged lawmakers to act "to hold social media companies accountable for failing to address abuse."

AMERIKAN EXCEPTIONALISM

United States remains last for life expectancy among English-speaking countries

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News


Americans continue to rank dead last in life expectancy among English-speaking countries, a new study finds. Photo by Adobe Stock/HealthDay News

Americans continue to rank dead last in life expectancy among English-speaking countries, a new study finds.

People in the United States more often fall prey at younger ages to accidental deaths, homicides and chronic diseases, researchers reported Tuesday in the BMJ Open journal.

On the other hand, Australians had the longest life expectancy of any English speakers, despite their country teeming with deadly sharks, spiders and snakes.

Australian life expectancy is nearly four more years longer than the United States for women and five more years longer for men.

The United States also trails Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand in life expectancy, researchers found.

However, they said the findings should be seen as an incentive for goal-setting for Americans.

"Yes, we're doing badly, but this study shows what can we aim for," said senior researcher Jessica Ho, an associate professor of sociology and demography at Penn State. "We know these gains in life expectancy are actually achievable because other large countries have already done it."

For the study, researchers compared life expectancy between English-speaking nations using data from the World Health Organization and the international Human Mortality Database.

The data showed that the United States has had the worst life expectancy among these countries since the early 1990s.

U.S. women live an average of 81.5 years, and men 76.5 years, researchers reported.

The Irish have experienced the largest gains in life expectancy, with men's lifespans increasing by about eight years and women's by more than 6.5 years.

Results show that life expectancy varies widely within the United States, depending on where a person lives.

California and Hawaii had some of the highest life expectancies, with women living 83 to 84 years and men living 77.5 to 78.4 years, researchers said.

But states in the American South had some of the lowest life expectancies observed among all the nations, with women averaging 72.6 to 80 years and men averaging 69.3 to 74.4 years.

"One of the main drivers of why American longevity is so much shorter than in other high-income countries is our younger people die at higher rates from largely preventable causes of death, like drug overdose, car accidents and homicide," Ho said in a Penn State news release.

Middle-aged Americans ages 45 to 64 also have higher rates of death from drugs, alcohol and chronic illnesses like heart disease, Ho added.

"Some of the latter could be related to sedentary lifestyle, high rates of obesity, unhealthy diet, stress and a history of smoking," Ho said. "It's likely that these patterns of unhealthy behaviors put Americans at a disadvantage in terms of their health and vitality."

Australia is a large country, and many people there use cars for transportation and own firearms, Ho noted. However, recent policies like gun control laws have helped vault Australia to the top of the life expectancy ratings, Ho said.

"What the study shows is that a peer country like Australia far outperforms the U.S. and was able to get its young adult mortality under control," Ho said. "It has really low levels of gun deaths and homicides, lower levels of drug and alcohol use and better performance on chronic diseases, the latter of which points to lifestyle factors, health behaviors and health care performance."

"Australia is a model for how Americans can do better and achieve not only a higher life expectancy but also lower geographic inequality in life expectancy," Ho concluded.