Author: Morgan

A group of Palestinian scholars who have been awaiting evacuation from Gaza to take up their places at universities across the UK finally arrived on Monday after “a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity”.

The 34 students, who all have fully funded scholarships, arrived in London and Manchester onboard three flights from Queen Alia International airport in Jordan. A number took onward flights to Northern Ireland and Scotland, where they will purse their studies.

Their arrival followed months of campaigning by politicians, academics, and others on behalf of more than 100 Palestinian students holding offers from UK universities this year. Supporters are hoping others will follow and a permanent pathway will be established to ensure more Palestinian scholars benefit.

The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, welcomed them, saying: “The flight time from Amman to England is only around six hours, but this was a journey that was months in the planning and years in the making.

“These students have lived through the most appalling ordeal. After almost two years of war, many have lost loved ones, and all have had their lives and their education thrown into chaos.

“Yet despite all the death and destruction they’ve witnessed, they’ve not given up. Instead, they’ve chosen to answer loss with learning, despair with determination, and war with hope.

“They are an inspiration to us all – and I am deeply relieved that they’ve arrived in the UK and can now continue their education in safety.”

Their arrival came shortly after the UK joined Canada and Australia in formally declaring recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Commenting after the students’ arrival, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “Our support … reflects the UK’s commitment to the future of postwar Gaza and its reconstruction, where educating the next generation will play a vital role.”

The cohort includes recipients of the Chevening scholarship, the government’s flagship international programme, which is aimed at the leaders of tomorrow and supports them to pursue one-year master’s degrees in the UK.

Not included in the cohort, however, were two women – bound for Glasgow, and the Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – who declined their initial invitations for evacuation when they were told their young children and spouses would not be permitted to exit the Gaza Strip with them.

Just days before the first bus of UK students was due to leave Gaza last week, the two PhD students were informed that while their families were eligible for UK visas, they were not eligible for the evacuation. Put in an “impossible situation”, according to supporters, they chose to stay.

Nora Parr, a University of Birmingham researcher who has been coordinating efforts to support the students, said she was thrilled to finally see the Palestinian scholars being welcomed at university campuses across the UK.

“They are beginning a new chapter of what has for all been a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity. Of course the logistics and parameters of the new UK scheme for students are still being worked out.

“We hope that mothers and fathers will not be asked to choose between education and family survival, that post-doctoral scholars will be included and that mechanisms toward a permanent pathway for education in the UK will be established, as a political solution is created for Palestine, allowing these scholars to use what they have learned in the UK to rebuild their communities.”

Multiple charities have severed ties with Sarah, Duchess of York, after it emerged she had described the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein as a “supreme friend”.

A spokesperson for the duchess has previously said the comments were made in a letter of apology to Epstein that was written in 2011 to head off threats of legal action after she had linked him to paedophilia in a newspaper interview.

On Monday, the Teenage Cancer Trust, one of the biggest charities Ferguson was involved with, confirmed it was ending her patronage.

The children’s hospice Julia’s House said the correspondence rendered Ferguson no longer suitable. The organisation said: “Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York’s correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia’s House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity. We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support.”

The founders of the food allergy charity The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation also dropped Ferguson as a patron, saying they were “disturbed” to read the comments. Prevent Breast Cancer and The Children’s Literacy Charity also said they had cut ties with the duchess, who had been a patron of both charities.

Nadim and Tanya Ednan-Laperouse, the founders of The Natasha Allergy Research Foundation, said: “We were disturbed to read of Sarah, Duchess of York’s, correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein.

“Sarah Ferguson has not been actively involved with the charity for some years. She was a patron but, in the light of the recent revelations, we have taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue to be associated with the charity. We would like to thank her for her kindness and support in the past.”

The Sun reported that the duchess had “humbly apologised” to Epstein for linking him to paedophilia in the media, and described him as “steadfast” and “generous”. Her spokesperson said it was sent “in the context of advice the duchess was given to try to assuage Epstein and his threats”.

The email stemmed from an interview with the Evening Standard on 7 March 2011, in which Ferguson apologised for accepting £15,000 from the sex offender. “I abhor paedophilia and any sexual abuse of children and know that this was a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf. I am just so contrite I cannot say,” she had told the paper. “Whenever I can, I will repay the money and have nothing ever to do with Jeffrey Epstein ever again.”

But, a little more than a month later, the duchess sent the message to Epstein. In it, she said: “I know you feel hellaciously let down by me. And I must humbly apologise to you and your heart for that. You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family.”

She continued: “I was advised in no uncertain terms, to have nothing to do with you and to not speak or email you. And, if I did, I would cause more problems to you, the duke and myself. I was broken and lost. So please understand. I didn’t want to hurt Andrew one more time. I was in overriding fear. I am sorry.”

The duchess’s spokesperson previously said Ferguson had spoken of her regret about her association with Epstein and “does not resile” from condemning him publicly.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, in the US, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.

A key debate between candidates in New Jersey’s governor’s race descended into acrimony Sunday in a reflection of the tense national political climate over issues including Donald Trump, taxes and energy rates, free speech, immigration, education – and political violence.

Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate and congresswoman who leads by eight points in polling, and Jack Ciattarelli, her Republican opponent, were asked if they would support legislation to label political violence as a hate crime.

Amid calls for greater security around political figures, the debate came hours after a large, public memorial in Arizona held for rightwing youth organizer Charlie Kirk 10 days after his shooting death. The memorial see-sawed between religious remembrance and politics.

Sherrill said she supported more money for security. “It’s why we continue to work to fight against political hatred, and so we need to do more,” she remarked.

“Because in this nation we should be able to have free speech. I vow to defend and fight for free speech my entire life, but it should never devolve into political violence – that is something I’ve always stood against my entire life.”

Ciattarelli said he would support a bill to make political violence a hate crime “and put some real legal teeth behind it”. But he accused his opponent of recently voting in favor of a resolution to celebrate Kirk’s life – “then within minutes sent out a statement that basically condemned him”.

Sherrill hit back: “That’s a neat trick to say you don’t want to divide people, and then in your answer bring up something that is very divisive.”

She accused her opponent of selective support of free speech.

“So, if you want to stand up that [slain civil rights activist] Martin Luther King [Jr] was a bad guy or that women should submit to their husbands, you, Jack, are welcome to do that, and I have the right to say that I disagree with it,” she said.

“I think it’s fair to have free speech, but I think it should go to everyone.””

Ciattarelli said Sherrill hadn’t answered the question that prompted those comments. “We see this time and time in the campaign, generalities, platitudes and ducking the direct questions by not giving a direct answer,” he said.

The exchange illustrates that political tensions in the wake of Kirk’s killing are unlikely to cool, despite calls for more measured exchanges of competing ideas and positions.

The New Jersey governor’s race, alongside a similar contest in Virginia, are offering an early test of public support for Trump’s second presidency. They come a year ahead of midterm elections that typically favor the party in opposition.

The first debate came six weeks before the 4 November election to decide who will succeed Phil Murphy, the outgoing Democratic governor.

Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, accused Ciattarelli, who is in his third bid for governor, of being a poodle for Trump. “He’ll do whatever Trump tells him to do,” she said.

“All he says is Trump’s right,” Sherrill said. Specifically, she said he supported tariffs championed by Trump as well as the budget legislation the president dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” – which she said “drives up your health care and utility costs”.

“Not on my watch,” she said.

Ciattarelli, a former Trump critic turned supporter who received the president’s endorsement, praised Trump for halting wind farms in the state.

The Republican candidate said he did not “necessarily have a problem with” the elimination of the department of education and would appoint a state attorney general who would “not be wasting your money suing the White House every single day”.

Matthew Platkin, New Jersey’s attorney general, has filed or joined two dozen lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies. Ciattarelli said his job was to represent 9.3 million residents of the state. “I will always do right by the citizens of this state, no matter who occupies the White House,” he said.

Ken Martin, the Democratic national committee chair, later said that “Sherrill wiped the floor with Jack Ciattarelli”. The New Jersey Republican party claimed Ciattarelli “CRUSHED that debate”.

The candidates also faced off over vaccines, with both voicing support in general.

But the central issue in November’s twin gubernatorial elections is likely to be taxes and the economy. New Jersey has high property taxes and has recent seen sharp increases in energy costs.

Sherrill blamed higher prices on tariffs and the economic legislation.

But Ciattarelli linked New Jersey’s high tax rates to his opponent’s party, which he said had controlled the state government for a quarter century. “Look where we are today,” he said.

The British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah will be released from jail after serving six years for liking a Facebook post, Egyptian state media have reported.

Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, granted him his freedom after intensive lobbying by the UK government and pressure from Egypt’s national human rights council.

Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, is known to have telephoned Sisi three times to lobby for Abd el-Fattah’s release. His national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, also called for his release as did the former foreign secretary David Lammy. It appears a growing warmth in British-Egyptian official relations – including over how to handle the Palestine question – may have played a role in the president’s decision.

Abd el-Fattah’s 69-year-old mother, Laila Soueif, has been admitted to hospital in London twice after going on hunger strikes to try to secure his release. The prominent activist and maths professor also held vigils outside the Foreign Office and Downing Street, saying she was prepared to die to achieve her son’s release.

The campaign has also been led by Abd el-Fattah’s two sisters, Mona and Sanaa, and other family members. They tried to keep a low profile once the possibility of his release became known, fearing that anything they might say could upset a delicate process. After hearing news of her brother’s release, Mona issued a short tweet in Arabic saying: “My heart will explode.”

Abd el-Fattah’s release was reported by al-Qahera News, which is linked to Egypt’s intelligence service. It said: “The Egyptian president issues a pardon for the remainder of the prison sentence for a number of convicted persons, after taking the constitutional and legal procedures in this regard. The pardon includes … Alaa Ahmed Seif El-Islam Abd el-Fattah.”

The human rights council had recommended seven prisoners for release but its recommendations are not always followed.

Supporters are reported to be heading to the Cairo prison where he is detained to welcome his release. He is expected to face an exit interview if that has not already happened, and his desire would eventually be to travel to the UK.

Members of the family said they were following the developments in real time.

A member of the family and spokesperson for the Free Alaa campaign said: “We learned about it through the news like anyone else. Family members are driving to the prison now to find out more. It’s hard to believe it might be happening after all these years.”

A writer and supporter of the Arab spring, Abd el-Fattah has been in jail since 2019. In 2021, he was sentenced to five years but the authorities claimed the two years he spent in pre-trial detention did not count toward his sentence. He was convicted of spreading false news and harming Egypt’s national interest. A UN panel found the allegation stemmed from Abd el-Fattah sharing a Facebook post about the death of a prison inmate.

The six words that Northern Ireland’s dog-lovers were waiting to hear came on Monday: “Bailey is now out of prison.”

A vocal campaign to free the cocker spaniel who committed no crime culminated in his release from Magilligan prison and transfer to an undisclosed location to begin a new life.

“Bailey is out of that environment, is now in a family home, with someone who is trained to look after him,” Jon Burrows, an Ulster Unionist party (UUP) assembly member, told the Belfast Telegraph.

Bailey had been placed in the medium-security prison in County Derry as a support dog for prisoners but reports in August about his condition – he was said to be limping and “quivering” at night because of alarms, shouts and fights – prompted an outcry.

Animal rights activists organised protests under the banners #alldogsmatter and #ProtectBailey and lobbied the Department of Justice to relocate the former family pet, who was reportedly kept in block H2 with violent prisoners, including sex offenders and animal abusers.

Causeway Coast Dog Rescue said: “After a reputable animal welfare charity declined to provide a therapy dog, Bailey was sourced informally and placed in a high-security environment with no certified training or therapy dog oversight.”

There was no risk assessment or accountability and instead of returning to a family home after each “shift”, Bailey was stuck in the prison 24 hours a day, the charity said.

Newspapers gave prominent coverage to a “free Bailey” campaign and politicians intervened. Burrows – whose UUP profile calls him a champion against those facing injustice – told the Stormont assembly that Bailey had been “incarcerated for life”.

He made the announcement on Monday that the dog was out. “The full circumstances of Bailey leaving prison will have to be examined,” he said. “There’s going to be an effort I hope made to try and find Bailey a permanent home to live in. This has been a disgraceful episode from start to finish.”

Burrows said prison officers lacked dog-handling training and that Bailey had lacked a primary handler and an opportunity to “recuperate” in a domestic setting.

The Department of Justice said there was no neglect. “Bailey is registered with a local veterinary practice and is in good health. Local council officials have recently visited Magilligan and confirmed that Bailey is in excellent condition, appropriately housed and safeguarded,” it said.

It said the prison service took its duty of care for animals seriously and worked with animal charities to offer a caring home and a purposeful life to many dogs. “For many years dogs have played a crucial role in the service, supporting staff in maintaining security and safety at establishments,” it added.

Causeway Coast Dog Rescue held a protest outside the razor wire-topped walls of Magilligan on Monday, saying Bailey might be free but there were inadequate regulations and safeguards for other dogs and animals in Northern Ireland’s prisons.

Zohran Mamdani has had to overcome a lot during his campaign to be New York City’s next mayor.

His age, relative lack of experience and his self-stated democratic socialism could have held him back. Yet the 33-year-old, a relative unknown 12 months ago, sailed through all challenges as he became the favorite to win the election in November.

One thing still looms over Mamdani, however: New York City’s billionaire class, and the not-unrelated real estate lobby.

Mamdani has terrified some traditional big-money Democratic donors and powerful real-estate tycoons by promising to freeze rent prices and raise taxes – slightly – on the wealthiest 1% of New Yorkers.

Such promises prompted elites to spend millions during the Democratic primary, which didn’t work. Mamdani coasted past Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor – but the rich aren’t done yet.

Some of New York’s wealthiest landlords and business people gathered with Cuomo this month to “plot his path to City Hall”, with the city’s biggest developer warning that they must unite to stop Mamdani, according to the New York Times.

Among the plotters were at least two billionaires and one of New York’s biggest building developers. Days after that meeting, Bill Ackman, a hedge fund manager and some-time activist who has a net worth of nearly $10bn, also weighed in.

Ackman, who has donated to Democrats, but supported Donald Trump in 2024, called for Eric Adams, the incumbent mayor who, like Cuomo, is running as an independent candidate, to drop out of the race to clear the path for the former governor.

Earlier, Ackman had claimed, as have other wealthy New Yorkers, that Mamdani’s proposal to place an additional 2% tax on New Yorkers earning more than $1m would cause rich people to flee the city. He pledged to invest huge amounts in blocking Mamdani, who more than 570,000 people voted for (including ranked choice voters) in the Democratic primary.

“There are hundreds of million[s] of dollars of capital available to back a competitor to Mamdani that can be put together overnight,” Ackman said in June – adding that he is “in the text strings and the WhatsApp groups”.

It was Cuomo who attracted the big money during the primary. An analysis by In These Times found that real estate donors spent $6m trying to get Cuomo elected. The New York Times reported that $250,000 alone came from the head of a Boston-based construction company planning to expand into New York.

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor, spent $8.3m supporting Cuomo over the summer, and the money is continuing to pour in: less than two weeks ago Ron Lauder, a billionaire Republican donor, gave $750,000 to a super Pac backing Cuomo, in August John B Hess, head of the Hess Corporation, gave his second $500,000 donation, the investigative outlet Sludge reported.

“Since the primary they’ve been panicking and scrambling, trying to figure out how they can defeat Mamdani to keep their bottom line,” said Sumathy Kumar, managing director of the NYS Tenant Bloc, an affordable housing advocacy group.

“They’ve been holding emergency meetings trying to cohere around Cuomo. In the primary they dropped millions of dollars into the Cuomo-aligned super Pac – they’ve been trying everything they can, throwing money, and it doesn’t seem to be working.”

That much is clear, given Mamdani continues to hold a commanding lead over Cuomo. This week, a Marist poll found him winning 45% of the vote; Cuomo had 24%, the Republican Curtis Sliwa, 17% and the embattled Adams was at just 9%.

It’s polling that reflects the urgency Cuomo-backers are feeling. In recent weeks, there have been repeated calls for Sliwa and Adams to drop out of the race to consolidate anti-Mamdani donors and voters, with Trump also reportedly weighing in – there have even been reports the president’s advisers had discussed offering a job to Adams if he steps down.

Even if that happens, however, there’s little hard evidence that Cuomo would win. The Marist poll asked New Yorkers how they would vote in a hypothetical match-up between just Mamdani and Cuomo: in that scenario 49% went for Mamdani compared with 39% for his opponent, suggesting the billionaire class’s efforts may be in vain.

“It’s just not working,” Kumar said. “They’ve spent millions of dollars warning New Yorkers against a Zohran Mamdani win, and it didn’t work, because tenants want a rent freeze, they want to be able to stay in New York City.”

With early voting in the election starting in just over a month – election day is Tuesday, 4 November – the richest New Yorkers may be finding out the hard way that money can’t buy you everything.

“Many power brokers and billionaires are frustrated, and scared, because their demands are not the center piece of Zohran’s agenda and they find themselves outside of ‘the room where it happens’,” said Ana María Archila, co-state director for New York Working Families party, a progressive political party which backs Democratic candidates who align with its platform.

“Zohran has tapped into a broadly shared sentiment that something has to change, and now. He is proposing concrete solutions and that is why so many people are enthusiastically supporting his campaign.”

Good morning. Last month Reform UK unveiled its “Operation Restoring Justice” plan for the mass deportation of people living in Britain without permission to be here. It was aimed at illegal immigrants, but Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, proposed deportation on an unprecedented scale , without being clear as to quite how many people would be affected. Today he is committing Reform (which is currently well ahead of other parties in national opinion polls) to an even more draconian approach. He says Reform would abolish indefinite leave to remain – the immigration status that allows people to remain in the UK for as long as they want, often the first step towards citizenship.

Crucially, this would not just be for new applicants; it would be retrospective, applying to people who already have indefinite leave to remain. Instead, people would have to apply for a five-year visa, with tougher conditions.

In an article for the Daily Mail, Farage says this policy is intended to reverse what he calls “the Boriswave” – the huge increase in legal migration that happened when Boris Johnson was prime minister.

The Johnson government allowed the number of people getting work visas to soar largely to compensate for the fact that EU workers were leaving because of Brexit, which was the policy that Farage arguably did more than anyone else to make happen. But he does not address this point in his article.

Instead, he says:

Today, I can announce that Reform will go even further.

We will abolish indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status, which grants migrants the right to live, work and study in the UK permanently with full access to Britain’s health and benefits system.

This threatens to bankrupt our bloated welfare state.

We will rescind ILR statuses that have already been granted. We will also restore the treasured status of British citizenship.

Why is this so urgent? Starting from January 2026, if nothing is done to stop it, those 3.8 million migrants will become eligible for ILR.

Let’s be clear, these migrants are not doctors, engineers or entrepreneurs. Many of those eligible for ILR never work and never will. Many are young and old dependants who followed family members here. They are now a burden on the welfare state …

Once we abolish ILR, foreign nationals who want to work here will have 180 days to apply for a tough, new five-year renewable visa. They will have no right to benefits or healthcare without insurance. And no right to bring dependants, unless they are high earners who can afford to keep them.

We are giving British business plenty of notice that the era of cheap foreign labour is over.

In a separate article for the Daily Express, Zia Yusuf, Reform’s head of government efficiency, is explicit about how this is intended to ensure hundreds of thousands of people leave the country.

These changes will lead to hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK, which will be done on a staggered and orderly basis to allow businesses to train British workers to replace them. Many of those who will lose their leave to remain are entirely dependent on the welfare state and will leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits. Those that don’t will be subject to immigration enforcement as part of our mass deportation programme – Operation Restoring Justice.

Reform currently only have five MPs but, given what the polls are saying, and the breakdown of support for the traditional parties the prospect of Farage being the next PM is being taken seriously. No British government in the modern era has contemplated a deportation policy on this scale, and what Farage is proposing is close to “remigration”, something that has been taboo in mainstream UK politics since Enoch Powell was sacked from the Tory shadow cabinet after his rivers of blood speech.

The Liberal Democrats are holding their conference this week and in interviews this morning Ed Davey, their leader, said his party was best placed to defeat Reform. Branding Reform a “threat to our democracy, to things we hold dear, British values – decency, tolerance, respect for the rule of law”, he said the Lib Dems were the only party beating them in local elections.

Morning: Liberal Democrats resume their conference debates in Bournemouth. Victoria Collins, the science spokesperson, is speaking at 11.05am, Calum Miller, the foreign affairs spokesperson, at 2.40pm, and at 2.55pm there is a “Reformwatch” session with councillors. There is a fuller agenda here.

Morning: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is on a visit to Gatwick to promote the government’s plan to allow the construction of a second runway there.

11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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