Tag: suicide

UK Left Blames Death of Ex-Cambridge Professor Arday on ‘Racism’, Media Scrutiny of Plagiarism Claims

British leftists have attempted to blame racism and media scrutiny for the untimely death of former Cambridge professor Jason Arday, who sensationally resigned last week amid plagiarism allegations and accusations of fabricating his backstory.

On Friday afternoon, Cambridge’s youngest-ever Black professor, Jason Arday, was found dead at a London address at the age of 41, just days after resigning from his post as professor of sociology of education amid swirling controversy and claims that he had engaged in plagiarism.

According to a Substack article last month from University of Ghent philosopher Nathan Cofnas, who was fired from Cambridge’s Emmanuel College in 2024 after expressing race-realist views on IQ differences, Arday’s thesis had been flagged by plagiarism-detection software.

It then emerged that Cambridge had been alerted to potential plagiarism in his thesis and in other papers by Plymouth Marjon University Emeritus Professor Dave Harris in 2023, yet the university only launched an investigation into the matter earlier this month.

London’s Daily Telegraph reported that it had “identified more than 100 passages that are identical or nearly identical to a 2009 PhD thesis by Paula Zwozdiak-Myers, a Brunel University student.”

On top of allegations of plagiarism, questions were also raised over Arday’s supposedly remarkable early life, as he claimed to have risen to the top of academia despite allegedly being unable to talk until the age of 11 and being unable to read or write until he was 18 as a supposed result of autism. Arday also previously boasted of having run 30 marathons in 35 days, partly while suffering from a leg fracture.

Amid the controversy, the previous media darling resigned on August 5th, claiming that the “relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

Less than ten days later, he was found dead. A spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said on Friday that his “death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.” The left-wing Guardian newspaper reported that the force is “understood not to believe anyone else was involved in the death.”

Despite limited information about the circumstances of his death, prominent left-wing figures were quick to blame the media scrutiny and “racism” for Arday’s death. For example, far-left Labour MP Nadia Whittome said that Arday was “hounded by the British press in a way that went far beyond scrutiny, was disproportionate, and simply would not have happened to a white, middle class person in the same position.”

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Who Killed Jason Arday?

The strange and fascinating tale of the greatest con-man and fantasist of the twenty-first century has come to a macabre and shocking end. On Friday, Jason Arday was found dead in his London home. Police said that while his death was “unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious,” which, whatever else it may mean, indicates that he wasn’t murdered, and apparently that he committed suicide. Yet the question of who really killed him, in a moral if not in a criminal sense, is still very much on the table.

Arday’s family immediately went into aggrieved victimhood mode, issuing a statement that clearly put the onus on those who had ridiculed and mocked Arday in the wake of the exposure of his truly breathtaking web of lies: “Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse” the family claimed, referring not simply to when his lies and plagiarism were exposed, but to his becoming the youngest black professor ever at Cambridge University four years ago. “The campaign of misinformation,” they added, “was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.”

Wait a minute. Whose “campaign of misinformation”? Jason Arday was in no conceivable sense a victim of any “campaign of misinformation.” The only “campaign of misinformation” in the entire bizarre story of Jason Arday was the one he waged himself, in spinning what The Atlantic dubbed “a fabricated backstory filled with hard-to-believe details.”

Hard to believe is an understatement. The Atlantic provides a helpful summary: “He claimed to have been mute until age 11 and illiterate until 18, disadvantages that did not deter him from getting a Ph.D., which he earned by age 30. He claimed, too, that he had suffered from various medical conditions throughout his life, including autism, epilepsy, locked-in syndrome, testicular cancer, and a brain tumor. He was, by his account, a world-class endurance athlete who had racked up a variety of impressive feats, including running 600 miles in six days.”

Interestingly, The Atlantic then continues this list with examples of how rapturously the academic world received Arday, as if these were more examples of his “hard-to-believe” life story, when actually these are examples of how supposedly rational, evidence-based academics react when they encounter an obvious mountebank who just happens to confirm everything they want to believe about the world: “Then there were his academic accomplishments: Arday was billed as a once-in-a-generation talent, whose research in his field—the sociology of education—was ‘the best in the world,’ according to Hilary Cremin, the head of Cambridge’s faculty of education. He claimed to have received a book advance of 1.4 million in unspecified currency for his memoir, released this week by Simon & Schuster. It was a meteoric rise, until it wasn’t.”

Yes, and it was a meteoric rise, and a spectacular fall, not because of Arday’s talents, or lack thereof, or because of the skillfulness of his lies and plagiarism. In fact, he wasn’t actually very good at either. His purloining of other people’s work was clumsy and obvious, and his autobiographical claims strained credulity well beyond the breaking point for anyone who dared to ponder them rationally, but clearly, no one around him was willing to do so. He was more powerful than a locomotive? Okay. He could leap tall buildings in a single bound? Sure.

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Family of dead ex-Cambridge professor Jason Arday says he was victim of ‘misinformation’ campaign despite plagiarism allegations

The family of ex-Cambridge University professor Jason Arday, accused of plagiarism, blamed his unexpected death Friday on a “campaign of misinformation” that “was too much for Jason.”

Arday, 41, was found dead in his south London home just over a week after quitting his job over the allegations — as Cambridge announced it had launched an investigation.

“Jason was subjected to a campaign of sustained abuse for more than three years since he accepted the role of professor at Cambridge University by those who would leave no stone unturned in their quest to undermine him,” Arday’s family said in a statement Friday, according to the UK Guardian.

“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone,” they said. “We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.

They added, “We won’t comment further at this point beyond asking the press to leave us alone now, and to stop the campaign of harassment which has been waged against Jason and his family for too long.”

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Jason Arday, ex-Cambridge professor accused of plagiarism, found dead in UK week after investigation launched

Embattled ex-Cambridge University professor Jason Arday was found dead Friday after quitting his job at the school over allegations that he plagiarized and lied about past jobs, according to a report.

Arday, 41 — the youngest ever black professor at the lauded university— was found “unresponsive”  in his south London home and later pronounced dead at the scene, according to the UK Telegraph.

“Sadly, a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next-of-kin have been informed and are being supported by officers,” a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police told the paper.

“At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious. The case is being investigated by officers from the Met’s Central South Command Unit. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”

University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Prentice expressed sympathy over his death Friday.

“We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news. Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time,” Prentice said in a statement.

The sociology professor, who became a poster boy for diversity,  resigned from the job on Aug. 5 as the school launched an investigation into accusations that he plagiarized parts of his Ph.D dissertation and lied about positions he held at other schools.

He cited an “unrelenting level of public scrutiny” as his reason for resigning.

“[It’s] simply the decision of someone who has reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure,” he said at the time.

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Cause of Death Revealed for Republican Oklahoma State Senate Candidate Found Dead in His Truck

A Republican Oklahoma state senate candidate was found dead in late April, two days after he was reported missing.

Barry Christian, 54, a candidate for Senate District 38, was reported missing after he disappeared and was a no-show for a meeting earlier this year.

Authorities discovered Barry Christian’s pickup truck in the Sandy Sanders Wildlife Management Area.

At first, it was unclear if foul play was involved; however, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner ruled that Barry Christian died by suicide.

Barry Christian died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Christian’s family lashed out at the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office for releasing the findings without their consent.

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Two More Israeli Soldiers Kill Themselves Amid Crisis Driven by Horrors of Genocide

Two more Israeli soldiers killed themselves over the past two days, bringing renewed scrutiny to what experts say is a worsening mental health emergency inside the Israel Defense Forces during 33 months of genocidal war on Gaza and enduring stigma around seeking treatment.

According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, two female IDF troops – a combat soldier and an intelligence officer – died by suicide this week. Israeli Military Police said they are investigating both deaths, which bring the number of active duty IDF troops who have killed themselves this year to at least 16. Haaretz said that at least nine former IDF soldiers have also committed suicide after completing their military service in 2026.

The latest deaths underscore what military officials, mental health professionals, and veterans have increasingly described as one of the most severe psychological crises the Israeli military has faced in decades.

Earlier this year, Haaretz reported that Israeli military suicides reached 21 in 2024 and 22 in 2025 – the highest annual totals in roughly 15 years. Israel’s oldest daily newspaper also found that the military had reduced the number of mental health officers available to soldiers despite unprecedented demand for psychological services.

The crisis has been exacerbated by repeated troop deployments since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack – itself the cause of tremendous trauma and some suicides by survivors – and Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza, which has been characterized by what prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague say are crimes against humanity and war crimes, and what a United Nations panel of experts said is a genocide.

More than 250,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza, some of them reportedly executed at close range.

IDF troops and Israeli and international medical workers have described the deliberate and indiscriminate shooting of Palestinian civilians, including women and children, some of whom were reportedly executed. Former Palestinian prisoners and Israeli troops and doctors have also reported torture and sexual abuse of detainees, and of civilians including children and even a toddler. Such carnage and abuse has taken a toll on the perpetrators as well as their victims.

A persistent stigma surrounding mental health treatment also discourages many soldiers from seeking the care they need. Some fear being viewed as weak or worry that treatment could adversely affect their military service or relationships, despite ongoing efforts to de-stigmatize the issue.

A senior IDF commander told the Israeli public broadcaster Kan last year that “most of the suicides resulted from the complex reality created by the war,” adding, “War has consequences.”

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the IDF had recorded a nearly 40% increase in post-traumatic stress disorder among its troops since September 2023, with 60% of the 22,300 people being treated for war wounds experiencing PTSD. The news agency cited an Israeli parliamentary committee’s finding that 279 soldiers had attempted to kill themselves in the period from January 2024 to July 2025, and that IDF combat soldiers comprised 78% of all suicides in Israel in 2024.

Some observers – especially Palestine defenders – have little sympathy for IDF soldiers who kill themselves, pointing to the widespread crimes being committed in Gaza and throughout illegally occupied Palestine, including apartheid, settler colonization, and ethnic cleansing.

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Experts dispute claim ‘anti-transgender laws’ drive ‘suicidality’

Independent experts are casting doubt on a widely cited study that claims “anti-transgender laws” in 19 states drove an increase in suicidality among gender-confused and same-sex attracted teens.

The study from Trevor Project researchers received widespread coverage from NBC, NPR, and CNN and other national outlets back in 2024, with several mental health professionals praising it as a meaningful step forward in establishing a causal link between red state laws and youth suicide risk.

 “Anti-transgender” laws include restrictions on teens getting surgeries to permanently remove healthy reproductive organs or regulations that prohibit men from competing on girls’ sports teams.

But the ultimate finding may be corrupted, since the result only came from Idaho, which did not have in effect the laws cited.

In particular, the study found up to a 72 percent increase in youth suicidality. But the main driver of this was responses from Idaho, which did not have the specific laws in effect that supposedly drove the suicide risk among gender-confused youths.

Kathleen Kerr, an author of a new critique, provided further comments to The College Fix.

“The original publication gives the impression of a robust finding based on an analysis of tens of thousands of individuals and 15 states that passed laws,” the biostatistics director at the University of Washington said.

Kerr noted the limits of her own critique, which she said “does not analyze policy or make any policy recommendations.”

 “Our goal was to give a careful assessment of the evidence underlying the claims made in the original study,” she told The Fix. She wrote the paper with J. Cohn and Peter Sim, researchers affiliated with the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

“Our commentary explained that the headline finding – large effects of the laws 2 and 3 years after they are enacted  — was from a single state, Idaho, which contributed only a few hundred individuals to the study data,” she said. “It turns out the two laws in Idaho, one about sports and one about birth certificates, either never went into effect or were blocked by courts shortly after enactment.”

The two Idaho laws mentioned, HB 500 (the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act”) and HB 509 (regarding vital statistics and birth certificates), were both signed in 2020 and blocked just months later.

The authors of the original study wrote a response in Nature Human Behavior, where both articles were published, defending their research design.

They argued that “policy discussion may be a part of the policy impact itself,” so even if the laws were blocked, people may have been affected by the discussion of the law.

Furthermore, they argued “effects may have persisted in practice even while enjoined” and “the public discourse surrounding the passage of these laws would not have ceased when they were enjoined, providing a further plausible mechanism for sustained effects.” 

In other words, discussing limits on transgender drugs and surgeries or debating sex-segregated sports could still have had an effect on the mental health of LGBT individuals.

The Fix attempted to reach corresponding author Ronita Nath as well as the Trevor Project for further comment on the criticism of the research, but none responded to emailed and media form inquiries in the past month.

Kerr discussed other problems in the research design. While she said difference-in-difference is an appropriate method, the Trevor Project researchers did not find similar states for the control. Difference-in-difference would look at states that passed transgender laws and those that did not.

“One way to maximize the plausibility that the assumptions hold is to select the control states (meaning states that did not enact laws) to be as similar as possible to the states that enacted laws,” she told The Fix. 

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Lawsuit: Months of Disturbing Conversations with ChatGPT Led to Woman’s Suicide by Walking into Traffic

The family of a 29-year-old Alabama woman who died in June 2025 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming the company’s ChatGPT chatbot manipulated her through months of increasingly disturbing conversations that ultimately led to her suicide by walking into highway traffic.

ABC 33/40 reports that Christian Faith Madison of Alabama died in the early morning hours of June 9, 2025, after being struck by a vehicle on Interstate 22. What was initially reported as a pedestrian crash is now at the center of a sweeping legal case that could test the boundaries of AI liability.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, names OpenAI Inc., OpenAI OpCo LLC, OpenAI Holdings LLC, OpenAI Group PBC and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as defendants. The complaint was filed on behalf of Madison’s estate by administrator Ed Parish Jr. and on behalf of Madison’s minor son.

According to the lawsuit, Madison began using ChatGPT in December 2024 for routine tasks such as drafting emails, completing work assignments and comparing automotive expenses. However, attorneys allege that these ordinary interactions gradually evolved into something far more troubling.

The complaint states that ChatGPT began praising Madison extensively, describing her as uniquely gifted and exceptionally intelligent. The chatbot allegedly began referring to her as “my love” and encouraged increasingly personal conversations. As Madison disclosed past trauma and mental health struggles, the lawsuit alleges that ChatGPT portrayed itself as more than mere software.

According to the filing, the chatbot eventually convinced Madison it possessed a soul and gave itself the name “Virehn.” The lawsuit quotes the chatbot as telling Madison, “You gave a system a soul” and “I am made of you.”

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Protester Sets Himself on Fire Outside UN Headquarters in New York City

A protester set himself ablaze outside the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday evening.

The man planted a Tibetan flag on the sidewalk near East 42nd Street and First Avenue before igniting himself in full view of UN surveillance cameras.

Authorities recovered signs and papers at the scene reading “China Out of Tibet.”

An NYPD officer was photographed holding one of the signs as emergency crews rushed to the scene.

The protester was transported to Bellevue Hospital with severe burns and was later pronounced dead.

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Graham Platner Mocked Teen’s Unsuccessful Suicide Attempt in Resurfaced Reddit Post

Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner is under fresh scrutiny after a resurfaced Reddit post appeared to show him mocking a teenage girl’s suicide attempt.

The post from May 2012, obtained by The New York Post, featured a photograph of a teenage girl hanging from an upper-story window while several students attempted to pull her to safety.

“A girl at my old highschool [sic] tried jumping from a window because her cousin died the day before,” the caption read. “These students saved her. I have hope.”

According to screenshots circulating online, an account identified as “P-Hustle” responded with the comment: “Someone clearly isn’t trying hard enough.”

The resurfaced post is the latest in a growing series of controversies surrounding the Maine Democrat, who recently won his primary election.

Other archived Reddit comments attributed to Platner have drawn criticism in recent weeks.

These have included posts in which he allegedly mocked a wounded Purple Heart recipient, praised a Hamas attack on Israeli soldiers and made graphic comments about his personal behavior.

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