Harvard blocks role for former Human Rights Watch head over Israel criticism

Kennedy School allegedly bowed to donors unhappy with organisation accusing Israel of apartheid in occupied territories

The dean of one the US’s leading schools of government blocked a position for the former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) over his organisation’s criticism of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy offered Kenneth Roth a position as a senior fellow shortly after he retired as director of HRW in April after 29 years. Roth is highly regarded within the human rights community for the part his organisation played in advances such as the creation of the international criminal court and the prosecution of major human rights abusers.

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern wows Harvard with New Zealand’s lesson on gun control and democracy

In commencement address New Zealand PM warns against the ‘scourge of online disinformation’, and wins standing ovation for crackdown on weapons

Jacinda Ardern has spoken out against the online “scourge of disinformation” in an address at Harvard University, in which she also won standing ovations for her government’s gun control laws, diversity and decriminalisation of abortion.

The New Zealand prime minister was honoured by the American university , making the annual commencement address to more than a thousand students on Thursday from the same stage as figures such as Winston Churchill, Angela Merkel, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.

Continue reading...

Harvard professor sparks outrage with claims about Japan’s ‘comfort women’

Academics reject J Mark Ramseyer’s claim women were not forced into sexual slavery during second world war

A Harvard University professor has sparked outrage among fellow academics and campaigners after claiming that women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military had chosen to work in wartime brothels.

J Mark Ramseyer, a professor of Japanese legal studies at Harvard Law School, challenged the accepted narrative that as many as 200,000 “comfort women” – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – were coerced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Continue reading...

Balloon test flight plan under fire over solar geoengineering fears

Swedish environmental groups warn test flight could be first step towards the adoption of a potentially “dangerous, unpredictable, and unmanageable” technology

A proposed scientific balloon flight in northern Sweden has attracted opposition from environmental groups over fears it could lead to the use of solar geoengineering to cool the Earth and combat the climate crisis by mimicking the effect of a large volcanic eruption.

In June, a team of Harvard scientists is planning to launch a high-altitude balloon from Kiruna in Lapland to test whether it can carry equipment for a future small-scale experiment on radiation-reflecting particles in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Continue reading...

Surgisphere: mass audit of papers linked to firm behind hydroxychloroquine Lancet study scandal

Questions continue for Surgisphere and CEO Sapan Desai as universities deny knowledge of links to firm behind Lancet’s now-disputed blockbuster study

Dozens of scientific papers co-authored by the chief executive of the US tech company behind the Lancet hydroxychloroquine study scandal are now being audited, including one that a scientific integrity expert claims contains images that appear to have been digitally manipulated.

The audit follows a Guardian investigation that found the company, Surgisphere, used suspect data in major scientific studies that were published and then retracted by world-leading medical journals, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Continue reading...

Harvard to donate remainder of Jeffrey Epstein gift to victim groups

$200,000 that remained unspent from $9.1m donation will be given to groups focusing on victims of sex trafficking and assault

Harvard University announced on Friday that it will donate the remaining $210,000 of a $9.1m gift from the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to groups that support victims of sex trafficking and assault.

Lawrence Bacow, Harvard’s president, confirmed the decision in a statement, saying a full review of Epstein’s donations determined that money he gave between 1998 and 2008 was spent “to support a variety of research and faculty activities”.

Continue reading...

Harvard and Yale students disrupt football game for fossil fuel protest

Students began campaigning in 2012 for both universities to stop investing in oil and gas companies that contribute to climate crisis

Students and alumni from Harvard and Yale disrupted the annual football game between the two elite universities on Saturday, occupying the field in New Haven, Connecticut, at half-time and demanding the colleges divest from investment in fossil fuels.

More than 200 protesters stalled the high-profile game for around an hour, many chanting: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Fossil fuels have got to go!” The protest was briefly booed by some in a crowd of 44,989 and discussed widely on social media.

Continue reading...

Study of French postmen’s testicles is an Ig Nobel winner

Nappy-changing machine and saliva calculation also triumph in annual science prize

There comes a time in a scientist’s life when the surest route to global fame involves a bevy of naked French postmen with thermometers taped to their testicles.

At least that is the case for Roger Mieusset, a fertility specialist at the University of Toulouse, whose unlikely studies have earned him one of the most coveted awards in academia: an Ig Nobel prize.

Continue reading...

Thucydides Trap author says China and US must not take path to war

Harvard scholar Graham Allison says China's rising influence sets it at odds with the US' notion of itself as a superpower and both need to take a step back The scholar who warned that China and the US could be heading for war said the two powers needed to redefine their relationship with a "new strategic concept". Graham Allison, who said Beijing and Washington could fall into what he called the Thucydides Trap - where a rising power threatens to eclipse a rival and conflict may result - told the South China Morning Post that the two were "in a dangerous period".

Harvard’s gatekeeper reveals SAT cutoff scores based on race

A longtime Harvard University dean will return to the stand Wednesday in Boston federal court to defend the school's admission process against allegations that it discriminates against Asian Americans - in a case that could change affirmative action policies across the country. The Ivy League school was sued in 2014 by the group Students for Fair Admissions, which claims that Asian American applicants - who, despite top-notch academic records, had the lowest admission rate among any race.

Government no longer pushing schools to consider race in admissions

The Trump administration said the government would no longer encourage schools to use race as a factor in the admissions process, rescinding Obama-era guidance meant to promote diversity among students. The shift announced Tuesday gives colleges the federal government's blessing to leave race out of admissions and enrollment decisions and underscores the contentious politics that for decades have surrounded affirmation action policies, which have repeatedly been challenged before the Supreme Court.

Government allowing colleges to leave race out of decisions Source: AP

The Trump administration said the government would no longer encourage schools to use race as a factor in the admissions process, rescinding Obama-era guidance meant to promote diversity among students. The shift announced Tuesday gives colleges the federal government's blessing to leave race out of admissions and enrollment decisions and underscores the contentious politics that for decades have surrounded affirmation action policies, which have repeatedly been challenged before the Supreme Court.

US to stop encouraging race as factor in school admissions

The Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded Obama-era guidance that encouraged schools to take a student's race into account to promote diversity in admissions. The shift suggests schools will have the federal government's blessing to leave race out of admissions and enrollment decisions, and it underscores the contentious politics that continue to surround affirmative action policies, which have repeatedly been challenged before the Supreme Court.

These Harvard Kids Got the Lesson of Their Lives in the Heartland

On a blustery afternoon in April, I filed into a van along with 10 students from Harvard University. We had just spent the last two days in Chicopee, Massachusetts, where we had chatted with the police chief and his force, the mayor and his staff, small business owners, waitresses and firemen about their struggles living in small-town America.