In your briefing today:

📣 Nigel Farage won the Clacton by-election with 22,239 votes, with Count Binface second on 9,455 votes, and a 44.4% turnout, in an election he caused and that mainstream parties shunned as a stunt.

The Reform UK leader did not turn up for the announcement of the results, which took place just after 6am this morning, claiming police had warned him of a “threat” to his personal security. Police said they had offered no warning.

Farage also cancelled a “major speech” planned for later today, but did speak to supporters earlier in the morning, long before the results were announced, telling a crowd he had won “fairly convincingly” in an “overwhelming endorsement of me”.

📣 There is “extensive devastation” in the West Midlands after multiple fires across the region, which firefighters continue to tackle this morning. Among the most serious incidents yesterday: a huge grass fire in Stourbridge spread to several homes, injuring a child and three firefighters; four homes were destroyed in Stoke-on-Trent; a major incident was declared in Warwickshire; and a woman was seriously injured by a fire in Birmingham.

📣 A train derailed in East Sussex, seriously injuring two and leaving 18 others hurt. Investigations into the incident continue, although speculation immediately focused on the high temperatures and apparently buckled rails. (BBC)

You don't have to read everything — just the right thing. 1440's daily newsletter distills the day's biggest stories from 100+ sources into one quick, 5-minute read. It's the fastest way to stay sharp, sound informed, and actually understand what's happening in the world. Join 4.5 million readers who start their day the smart way.

Join for free today!

📣 Targets for social and affordable homes will not be met by the Scottish Government, according to research from the Fraser of Allander Institute. (STV)

📣 The father of a nine-year-old girl who died after being found seriously injured in Arbroath is to stand trial accused of her murder. (BBC)

📣 The charity that appointed a mysterious trustee who resigned after claims that he was a fantasist has been cleared of wrongdoing. (Times)

📣 A delivery driver filmed being hit by a traffic cone and racially abused during an anti-immigration demo says he’s too scared to return to work, but has urged others to “raise their voices” against the far-right. (Daily Record)

📣 UK universities face a “financial crisis” because of a collapse in the number of international students, their leaders are warning. (Guardian)

📣 An engine part was to blame for smashing the window on a Ryanair plane, which led to a man being partially sucked out. (BBC)

📣 A siege of three Palestinian homes by Israeli settlers has been sharply criticised by the US, with US Ambassador Mike Huckabee calling the settlers “terrorists”. (AP)

📣 The Trump administration is encouraging US companies to conduct their own cyberattacks against cybercriminals, a move some security experts warn could lead to chaos. (New York Times)

⚽️ Rangers were dumped out of the Europa League after a 1-1 draw with Jagiellonia Białystok at Ibrox. Nik Prelec’s equaliser gave the Polish side a 3-2 lead on aggregate, and condemned Derek McInnes’s side to Europa Conference League football - if they can overcome Czech side Jablonec in that competition’s play-off round. On last night’s evidence, before an increasingly angry crowd, that may be a struggle. (BBC)

⚽️ Hearts restored some pride but couldn’t avoid being dumped out the Europa League with a 1-1 draw against Benfica at Tynecastle, for a 2-7 aggregate defeat. They now have a tricky play-off tie against Rapid Vienna in the Conference League. (BBC)

⚽️ Outstanding Motherwell eased past HJK Helsinki 2-0 at home thanks to two brilliant Ibrahim Said solo goals. The 3-1 aggregate win sets up a mouth-watering double header against last season’s Europa League runners-up, Freiburg. (Sun) (🎥 Highlights)

⚽️ Hibs also had a terrific night in Skopje, managing a gritty 0-0 in Macedonia to win 2-1 on aggregate and set up a play-off match against Gent. (Daily Record)

⚽️ Celtic have signed German youth international Mika Baur, their fourth new face of the summer. (Sun)

🗣️The Spectator, going to press without certainty on the Clacton by-election result, nevertheless offers Nigel Farage some advice in its leading article: the Reform UK leader has to decide if he wants to govern, or just campaign.

His likely victory in Clacton will, it says, be a hollow one. “The major parties boycotted the contest: of the Reform leader’s 33 opponents, the most prominent was a screenwriter with a bin on his head,” it notes. His resignation gambit has failed.

Meanwhile, Reform is being outflanked, and has failed in its mission to become the main party on the right. “As a man who likes a flutter, Farage may have noticed that Kemi Badenoch last week became the 3/1 favourite to be the next prime minister,” says the column. “Badenoch’s improved personal standing has come from an increasing confidence and a command over her party.”

Farage needs to decide if he has the energy to achieve the same with his own party. “Even if he did make it to Downing Street, is there more to Farage’s ambition than standing outside No. 10, declaring ‘you’re not laughing now’ to his critics, and decamping to the Westminster Arms when Sir Humphrey makes clear just how difficult reforming Britain will be?” (The Spectator)

🗣️ What does the fall of Jason Arday tell us about Britain? Pratinav Anil, a historian at the University of Oxford, offers a long reflection on the scandal involving the Cambridge academic, finding many of the “defining neuroses of our age” woven throughout the episode.

One of his most interesting passages is when he reflects on the “rather pretzelled” defence mounted on Arday’s behalf by progressives. “One version held that Arday was an interloper, and that the establishment had finally closed ranks to keep him, and his sort, out,” he writes.

“But this does not quite ring true. As Perry Anderson observed in the pages of the New Left Review some 60 years ago, Britain’s governing class has, in fact, proved remarkably adept at incorporating outsiders. Indeed, few national elites have proved so porous; all the better to entrench itself through multiple historical periods.

“Time and again, Britain has preferred absorption to exclusion. [Arday’s] progress through higher education was extraordinarily rapid. Publishers, broadcasters, universities and agents competed for his attention. Far from being put off by his unconventional background, they were drawn to it.” (The New Statesman)

🗣️Andy Burnham’s government could decide to look abroad for ideas in an effort to solve Britain’s toughest challenges, notes John Kampfner in The New World.

His piece opens with a startling, and rather depressing anecdote: “In late 2024, a series of brainstorms were arranged for Keir Starmer’s team. Experts in different fields were brought over from various countries to swap ideas. The discussions were planned for lunchtimes, and kept short, to ensure that they didn’t impinge too much on the day-to-day work of ministers, advisers and officials.

“According to one of the organisers of these seminars, on one day only three people turned up. There wasn’t a big crisis keeping them away. They just couldn’t be bothered.”

Kampfer, who has a book out on ideas we could learn from abroad, suggests the Burnham government could be a little more curious than its predecessors, though offers scant evidence that it is. (The New World)

🗣️ The Economist wonders why sexually transmitted diseases are surging across Europe. Are people bed-hopping because of dating apps? This may be one area where social media is not to blame. “Dr Henry de Vries, a specialist in the Netherlands, notes that dating apps long predate the rise in STI prevalence. ‘I would be cautious,’” he tells the magazine.

A more convincing hypothesis is that a medical breakthrough lies behind greater… abandon. “Using pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a pill that fights the spread of HIV, leads more men (especially gay men) to dispense with condoms,” it reports.

But that doesn’t do away with the dangers of STIs, which can cause terrible infections, infertility in women, and be passed by mothers to their babies. Cases of the latter have risen.

In the end, awareness may be the best weapon, suggests the Economist: the terrible toll of diseases will encourage people to take precautions. “Sometimes fear is the best medicine,” the newspaper concludes. (Economist)

Sent this by a friend?