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👋 Good morning! It’s Saturday 15 August 2026. I’m Neil McIntosh, editor of The Early Line, and it’s great to have you here.
📣 You’re reading the weekend edition of The Early Line. For the many new readers joining The Early Line this week: the Saturday edition is a (mostly) lighter read, rounding up the week with some interesting talking points, TV and sporting recommendations.
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Have a wonderful weekend, all!
☀️ The weekend’s weather: Only Edinburgh is likely to be especially settled this weekend: cloudy for much of it, but mild and dry. Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness will also be overcast, with occasional showers today and tomorrow. London will remain dry, but less oppressively hot than of late. (Here’s the UK forecast).
SIX THINGS TO TALK ABOUT
Former professor found dead | Music booms in Scotland’s schools | The joy of a morning roll | Billion-dollar cinema is back | But billions can’t buy you a card to this club | Swap a terrace for a stunning castle
🍸 Jason Arday, the former Cambridge professor at the centre of a plagiarism row, has been found dead. The 41-year-old was found “unresponsive” at an address in south London yesterday afternoon, and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are treating the death as unexpected, but not suspicious.
Arday’s death comes after a summer in which much of his professional work, and increasingly his greatest personal achievements, had wilted under forensic scrutiny. He resigned from the University of Cambridge over the accusations of plagiarism, which had grown in volume and detail since first being raised in 2023.
Yesterday, through his publisher Simon & Schuster, Arday’s family said they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”
They also attacked a “campaign of misinformation [which] was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.
“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.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan also claimed Arday had “faced an unacceptable public hounding” and “a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn’t have faced”. (Guardian)
Times obituary: Jason Arday, youngest ever black Cambridge professor
Upgrade to read the full Party Line, including
Why music is booming again in Scotland’s schools
The academic pushing to have the Scottish morning roll recognised
Big cinema finally recovers from Covid
How even billions can’t buy you a card to this club
Swap a terrace for a stunning castle
PLUS: find top TV, film and sporting picks for the weekend, including reviews of the new Anthony Bourdain biopic.
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