Laurence Wilkinson

When Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a University of Cambridge academic, tweeted ‘White lives don’t matter’ and ‘Abolish whiteness’ in response to a banner reading ‘White lives matter Burnley’ being flown over a Premier League match, it certainly provoked a response. Dr Gopal was quickly inundated with horrific personal and racial abuse, but she stuck to her position, arguing that she was appropriately addressing systemic racial inequality. It wasn’t long before the University of Cambridge weighed in with a strong statement defending Gopal, without explicitly mentioning her.

When Israel Folau settled his multi-million dollar grievance with Rugby Australia after he was sacked over a social media post that summarised a Bible passage, it looked to be an end to the matter. But now Folau's attempt to move on and play rugby again is under threat. Folau was unquestionably one of the best rugby players in the world at the time of his sacking. He remains a talent that most teams would dream of having. A month after the historic settlement was reached, the Catalan Dragons – a rugby league team based in Perpignan, France – announced they had signed Folau as part of a one-year deal.

A student midwife was in the news last week after her involvement with a pro-life student society led to her fitness to practise being investigated. After being suspended from her hospital placements for almost four months, Julia Rynkiewicz was cleared of any wrongdoing and has now lodged a formal complaint with the University of Nottingham about her treatment during the process. While you might have thought that a deep care for unborn children would be in a midwife’s job description, apparently such views can now imperil a career in delivering babies into the world.

Australian rugby player Israel Folau has lost his AUS$4m mega-contract for an Instagram post he published in April after a disciplinary tribunal found that his comments were grievous enough to end his rugby career. The three person panel had found that Folau had committed a ‘high level breach’ of the code of conduct, and has today upheld Rugby Australia’s decision to terminate his contract. Folau has serious rugby credentials; he is the joint-third highest try scorer of all time for Australia, and has won the Australian Rugby ‘Player of the Year’ award a record three times in 2014, 2015 and 2017. He is about as gifted as it gets on the rugby field – the Cristiano Ronaldo of world rugby if you will.

Australian rugby player Israel Folau’s disciplinary hearing, which is set to determine whether he will lose his AUS$4m mega-contract for an Instagram post he published in April, will drag into a second day after eight hours of legal argument failed to settle the issue on Saturday. It is expected that the three-person tribunal will decide at some point next week whether Folau’s comments on social media were grievous enough to end his rugby career. Folau has serious rugby credentials; he is the joint-third highest try scorer of all time for Australia, and has won the Australian Rugby ‘Player of the Year’ award a record three times in 2014, 2015 and 2017. He is about as gifted as it gets on the rugby field – the Cristiano Ronaldo of world rugby if you will.