We’re looking for a writer We’re hiring a writer who can make the world’s largest problems understandable to our large Our World in Data audience.

Please help share what must be one of the best jobs ever. We are looking for a writer to join @ourworldindata.org to work with our fantastic team including @maxroser.bsky.social and @hannahritchie.bsky.social. £80k - £120k / ideally full time / location flexible
ourworldindata.org/hiring-write...

It's not as high profile as all the other failings of the last government, but the total collapse of the court system thanks to Chris Grayling is one of the most damning.

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

The recruitment and treatment of some international University students in the UK is a scandal worthy of far more attention.

This is vital reporting from @samirashackle.bsky.social - shining a light on appalling exploitation.

www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

Thanks so much Nicola!

Thank you so much Sian!

From Isis recruit to influencer: ‘People think: you’re that evil girl who ran away’ As a young mother, Tareena Shakil fled with her toddler from the UK to Syria and joined Islamic State. Now she’s giving dating advice on TikTok. How did she get here?

In 2014, Tareena Shakil ran away to Syria with her toddler. Realising she had made a terrible mistake, she escaped within a few months. After time in prison and a long process of rehabilitation, she is now reinventing herself as a TikTok agony aunt www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Leaflet of three candidates, white blokes with limited hair, all in glasses. --- **GATESHEAD IS BROKEN. VOTE REFORM UK TO FIX IT** Introducing your Reform UK candidates for Low Fell leaflet text: **ATKINSON, John** Reform UK John has lived in Low Fell for 30+ years. His background is in civil engineering, policing, teaching and transport. He wants to bring back a sense of community, listen to residents' concerns and focus on local issues such as crime, roads and streets, and better services. --- **HENDERSON, Iain** Reform UK Iain has lived and worked in Gateshead all his life. Now retired, he wants to give something back to the borough. With a positive outlook, Iain is looking forward to making a real difference to the lives of the residents of Low Fell and to working closely with them. --- **MURRAY, Arthur** Reform UK Arthur has owned several businesses for many years. He has lived locally for 50 years and employs local staff, servicing the northeast and Scotland. His priorities are to see the ward and area prospering once again, caring for the old and infirm and maintaining our parks and open spaces. ---

This Reform leaflet from three Gateshead candidates looks like a timelapse of the same person

From Isis recruit to influencer: ‘People think: you’re that evil girl who ran away’ As a young mother, Tareena Shakil fled with her toddler from the UK to Syria and joined Islamic State. Now she’s giving dating advice on TikTok. How did she get here?

In 2014, Tareena Shakil ran away to Syria with her toddler. Realising she had made a terrible mistake, she escaped within a few months. After time in prison and a long process of rehabilitation, she is now reinventing herself as a TikTok agony aunt www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Hall of fame FT correction

Analysis Finds That Google's AI Overviews Are Providing Misinformation at a Scale Possibly Unprecedented in the History of Human Civilization A new analysis commissioned by The New York Times suggests that Google's AI Overviews are wrong an astonishing percentage of the time.

This is catastrophic.

Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives | Hettie O'Brien These companies now own everything from nurseries to care homes, squeezing vital services for profit while we foot the bill, says Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned C...

"Even if people are forced to cut back on all other forms of spending, they’ll always need water, energy and somewhere to live." Such a good piece by @hettieobrien.bsky.social, who has an astonishing ability to make clear the human stakes of abstract economics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Thanks for reading/sharing Charlotte!

Pretty much everyone involved in overseas student recruitment in the UK — from government officials making the policy down to universities setting targets for students — should read this and feel deeply ashamed.

"Sam needed extra work, and he found shifts at a vegetable packing factory on Dundee’s outskirts, washing and packaging vegetables for Tesco and Aldi. He worked 10-hour shifts at minimum wage. 'By that time, my ego had died, so I had accepted: OK, we can do this,' he told me."

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

Heartbreaking, maddening, unjust, unwise, cruel, enraging.

www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

This is great insight. It chimes a lot with my own experience of students and graduates looking for work in the UK. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

Extraordinary story about British universities' use of unethical student recruitment agencies in India. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

There is finally some excellent reporting on the role of agents in recruiting overseas students to Higher Education. As anyone who works in HE will already know, it is a relentlessly grim situation, but the detail and stories is still shocking to read.

www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

Disturbing account of misinformation and exploitation.

"In 2023, UK universities spent a total of £500m on education agents – but there is very little oversight of how these agents operate."

And word is clearly getting out
www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

Armageddon is terrible, but our only other option was diversity trainings at work.

‘I see it as trafficking’: the brutal reality of life as a foreign student in the UK The long read: Universities in Britain rely on overseas applicants paying full fees, which has given rise to some unscrupulous recruiters and left many hopefuls and their families deep in debt

For my latest Guardian Long Read, I looked at a part of the university funding crisis that doesn't get so much attention: the foreign students stacking up monumental debt to prop the sector up and the sometimes unscrupulous recruitment system that draws them in
www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

I can send you a gift link! Which one do you need?

Invented quotes! Yikes!

Oh yeah, I leave no load of laundry unwashed, no snack uneaten in my quest to avoid sitting down and doing the thing.

A huge proportion of people with desk-based jobs are now using some form of AI in their daily work. We might have opinions about whether or not that's a good thing but it is happening.

Totally agree with this - the main function of criticism is for someone to engage critically with the work and give their informed opinions/analysis. More broadly, I wonder what the point is in being a writer if you don't want to do the writing? We're definitely not in it for the money.

FAQs - Human Authored FAQs Who we are and how to join Who is behind the Human Authored scheme? The UK Society of Authors, in partnership with the US Authors Guild, launched the UK’s first professional Human Authored Scheme...

It's inevitable AI tools are being used in journalism as in other sectors. How can that be done without compromising standards/trust? The Society of Authors draws the line at text generation (but deems AI-use acceptable for research, outlining, grammar checks humanauthored.co.uk/faqs/)

The New York Times drops freelance journalist who used AI to write book review Writer and author Alex Preston said he “made a serious mistake” after a reader spotted similarities between his review and one that appeared in the Guardian

This is a real cautionary tale for journalists thinking of using AI for editing/amending/adding text to their work www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

This will be great.

On 8 April, to celebrate the publication of the new Guardian Long Read magazine, I'll be talking to the extremely brilliant @samanthsubramanian.bsky.social, Sirin Kale and @samirashackle.bsky.social at the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town. Tickets here! owlbookshop.co.uk/product/the-...