A civil liberties group that advocates for free speech is cautioning against letting concerns over former Cambridge professor Jason Arday's death turn into media censorship.

In an interview with Fox News Digital Thursday, Senior Scholar for Global Expression at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) Sarah McLaughlin detailed how there has been a major push for censorship in the United Kingdom in the wake of Arday's death. 

"And there's a few different avenues this is coming from," she said. "There are some activist groups and nonprofits who are pushing for a government inquiry into the press and into what kind of process media outlets engaged in that led them to producing all this coverage about him and about the allegations, about plagiarism and other things about his life. 

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"But it's also been picked up by a number of politicians who have signed on to petitions about media inquiries."

Last week, the former university professor was found dead at a south London address. Though his death was treated as "unexpected," Metropolitan Police informed BBC News that it was "not believed to be suspicious," leading some to suspect Arday died by his own hand.

This came just days after Arday announced that he would be resigning from the University of Cambridge after the school announced an investigation into his academic qualifications and honorary appointments amid plagiarism accusations. In a statement, he suggested "public scrutiny" of him was a factor in his resignation.

"Sadly, the years since my appointment have also been marked by an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack. While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement. The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love," Arday wrote.

After his reported death, some have suggested that the press was partially to blame for Arday's death, and members of the U.K.'s Green Party have pushed for measures to reform "media power" in response.

Arday's resignation was covered extensively in the media, in the U.K., the U.S. and other countries. There were also open questions about his biography, which included claims that critics and media reports alleged ranged from exaggerated to fabricated.

Now, more than 133,000 people as of Friday afternoon have signed a petition from the U.K. nonprofit the Good Law Project, which demands a public inquiry to "ensure a responsible press" after Arday's death. It cited the coverage it felt happened after his resignation "when the reasonable public interest in the story had diminished or evaporated."

"His tragic death did not result from the allegations of plagiarism but from the press coverage," the petition states. "There cannot be any doubt that racism lay at the heart of this story."

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McLaughlin, who covered the topic in an essay for FIRE Thursday, emphasized that while it was "reasonable" to criticize and push back on media for inaccurate reporting, censorship was not the solution.

"The U.K. already does censor quite a lot of speech. So, you know, there's a certain point where people might say, ‘OK, well, we already censor this. What more could we be censoring to stop this from happening again?’ And I think that's really the wrong lesson to learn from this," McLaughlin told Fox News Digital.

"I don't see how that would work at all, if I'm being honest. But also imagine what kind of tool that could be for bad actors who want to silence their critics, who want to silence people talking about bad conduct or even crimes. 

"And, so, I think people just need to remember that there are ways that we can approach this. There are ways we can challenge coverage that we think is wrong, but giving the government power to censor speech, to censure the press, it won't fix this. But it will just create more problems."

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Media critics after Arday's death included controversial author and anti-racism activist Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote in an essay for The Emancipator last week that the "White-owned, mainstream media" had "lynched" Arday.

"To be a prominent antiracist Black scholar is to know you are a target, almost totally surrounded by resentments. You know that at any point, the attacks can come like a lynch mob. And if you die from all the attacks, the media still calls the attacks on you ‘accusations’ to wash their hands of the blood. Your lynchers announce your death as if they had no role in your lynching," Kendi wrote.

McLaughlin said people are still free to criticize and challenge media with their own freedom of speech.

"The press has rights, and so do their critics. And, so, people who don't like what these outlets have been writing, they can unsubscribe," she said. 

"They can challenge them. If they don't like what media commentators have been saying or writing about Arday, I think they can point it out and say, 'You're wrong, you're being cruel.' That's their right. 

"But I do not think people have thought through what it would look [like] to get the kind of censorship they're asking for."

Rep. Jared Moskowitz hit back Thursday after Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., claimed the Florida Democrat is "scared to death" of his party's socialist wing and would take marching orders from far-left streamer Hasan Piker if re-elected.

"Rick doesn't know what he's talking about there," Moskowitz said Thursday on "Fox & Friends."

"Nobody in my district believes that I'm a Hasan Piker guy. Hasan would want nothing to do with me. I want nothing to do with Hasan, so, at the end of the day, Rick just doesn't know what he's talking about."

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Scott made the remark during a FOX Business appearance Monday, arguing that whichever Democrat won the primary would do Piker's bidding.

"Moskowitz has been in there. He was in the House before. I assume he's going to win," Scott said on "Varney & Co."

"But just remember, whoever wins that seat, they’re going to vote the way Piker tells them to vote. .... They all support the platform of the Democrat socialists, because they’re scared to death of them."

Moskowitz has been described as a more "centrist" Democrat who is outspoken in his support of Israel and critical of many aligned with his party's more progressive flank, including Piker.

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After defeating Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)-backed challenger Oliver Larkin, Moskowitz took a victory lap on X, sending mocking "condolences" to Piker.

Piker responded to Moskowitz's callout, writing, "its pretty wild that his first thought was a prominent critic of israel, before even thanking his constituents lmao. really worried about his genocidal emotional support apartheid state."

Moskowitz has continued to oppose the DSA agenda and its candidates, arguing that they are "anti-American at their core" and reiterating that Democratic leadership should "speak out" against the DSA agenda.

At the same time, he acknowledged an issue he believes mainstream Democrats cannot afford to ignore.

"There is an economic populist movement to the DSA, and we've got to recognize that we've got to talk about how people are struggling to afford the American way of life," he said.

Fox News' Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.

Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida, facing a pair of controversies, is the latest in a growing list of congressional incumbents sent packing in party primaries this year.

Twelve House members and two senators have been ousted in the 2026 midterms as they bid for renomination, according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

"It’s one of the highest numbers in decades in a non-national redistricting year," Center for Politics Communications Director Kyle Kondik told Fox News Digital.

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Kondik noted that "the years that the number was higher are years that end in the number two, which are full national redistricting years. This was a partial redistricting year, but it’s a very high number historically."

While the rare but not unheard of redistricting push over the past year contributed to some of the losses by incumbents, there were plenty of other factors. Those include incumbents wounded by scandals, President Donald Trump's moves to oust some GOP lawmakers, the increasing push by Democrats for generational change and the successful movement by the far left to target more moderate, establishment-backed Democrats in nomination showdowns.

Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar of Michigan was defeated earlier this month by a left-wing challenger, state Rep. Donavan McKinney, who is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York was ousted in the state's June primary by progressive challenger Brad Lander, a former New York City comptroller who was backed by socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

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Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, a Democrat who serves as Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair, was defeated by community organizer and activist Darializa Avila Chevalier, a DSA member who was also supported by Mamdani. Age was also a factor in the race, as the 32-year-old Chevalier ousted the 71-year-old Espaillat.

Ideology and age were also key ingredients in DSA member Melat Kiros' victory over more moderate Democratic Rep. Diana Degette of Colorado, who has served in the House for nearly three decades.

Age and the push for fresh faces fueled a victory by 38-year-old Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee, who won a special congressional election earlier this year, over Rep. Al Green, a fellow Democrat who turns 79 next month. The two incumbents faced off for a House seat redrawn through a Texas Republican redistricting push.

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Redistricting in Texas also forced Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson into a showdown in the state's 33rd Congressional District against her predecessor, former Rep. Colin Allred, which Allred won in a runoff election.

Generational change was the key factor as 47-year-old former Mayor Luke Bronin of Hartford, Connecticut, scored a victory in the Democratic primary over nearly 30-year congressional veteran Rep. John Larson, who is 78.

Trump played a key role in the ouster of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana earlier this year. Cassidy was one of a handful of Republicans who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial five years ago.

Meanwhile, longtime Republican Sen. John Cornyn was defeated in the Texas GOP Senate nomination runoff election in late May by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a MAGA firebrand and major supporter of the president. Trump stayed neutral during the year-long bitter battle but endorsed Paxton at the last minute ahead of the runoff.

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Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a vocal Republican Trump critic, lost his renomination bid to former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein, who was backed by the president.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas went down in defeat to a more conservative challenger, state Rep. Steve Toth, who cast the incumbent as anti-Trump. While the president remained neutral in the race, Toth was supported by conservative firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz.

Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee lost in his bid for renomination despite having Trump's endorsement.

Ogles, saddled by controversial comments and social media posts in recent years, was defeated by former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher, who was backed by Gov. Bill Lee, former Gov. Bill Haslam and other prominent Republicans including former Trump Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

In Florida, Mills was topped by Ryan Elijah, a former local television news and sports reporter, in a four-way GOP primary in the right-leaning 7th Congressional District.

Elijah repeatedly targeted Mills over a House Ethics Committee investigation into the congressman and the restraining order placed against Mills by a judge last year after a former girlfriend said the two-term lawmaker threatened to release sexually explicit videos of her.

Mills, an Army veteran and former military contractor, denied the allegations but faced bipartisan calls to resign. An endorsement earlier this year from President Donald Trump wasn't enough to save him in Tuesday's primary.

Earlier this year, GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who had advanced to a runoff election, quit his race after admitting to an affair with a former staffer who died by suicide.

Facing heavy pressure from House leaders, he resigned from Congress entirely weeks later.

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The mayor of a northern Massachusetts town went viral on social media in recent days after his lawyer told reporters the mayor doesn’t speak English when they pressed him about being arrested for COVID-19 pandemic relief fraud.

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña, 61, was arrested Friday morning after an investigation into his alleged misuse of more than $1.5 million of Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), a program administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) under the CARES Act to assist struggling businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"He doesn’t speak English. No comment," DePeña's lawyer said in the clip as DePeña repeatedly smiles and says, "God bless you," to the reporters.

The clip of the exchange quickly spread on social media, prompting criticism from users wondering aloud why the mayor wouldn’t be able to answer questions in English.

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"OMG," conservative influencer account LibsofTikTok wrote on X in a post viewed over 1 million times. "How is this real."

"‘He doesn’t speak English, no comment’ says the assistant of the mayor of an American city," conservative radio host Mike Gallagher posted on X. "Our melting pot has completely melted."

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"English fluency should be a basic prerequisite for holding public office," journalist Miranda Devine posted on X.

"This is what happens when we not only import the third world, but elect the third world," Texas Republican congressional candidate Jace Yarbrough posted on X. "Why is an unassimilated foreigner a mayor in America?"

Shortly after the exchange with reporters, users on social media posted video appearing to show the car DePeña left in after crashing into another parked car while attempting to drive away.

Fox News Digital reached out to DePeña's office for comment.

DePeña, who was born in the Dominican Republic, was elected mayor of Lawrence in November 2021 and won re-election in November 2025. He previously served on the Lawrence City Council from 2016 to 2021. DePeña has previously acknowledged that he was once an "undocumented immigrant," saying he came to the United States "without papers," and later became a U.S. citizen.

"Mayor DePeña was elected to be a leader for the City of Lawrence," U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley said. "He was looked up to and trusted by his constituents, but he betrayed that trust through his alleged corruption and lies. Today’s arrest is just another example of our determination to root out fraud by anyone, even public officials, and hold elected officials accountable."

If convicted, DePeña faces up to 30 years in prison.

Fox News Digital reached out to DePeña's lawyer, Carlos Apostle, for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

The Department of Homeland Security called out a "depraved freak" sex offender and illegal immigrant whom the agency said it recently deported after he abused his own daughter in Democrat-run Virginia

Records from the Albemarle County Circuit Criminal Division show Mexican national Marcelo Vasquez Reyna was convicted in March after pleading guilty to a charge involving a parent violating a child between the ages of 15 and 17. The incident took place in 2018. He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, with five years of the sentence suspended.

Local outlet ABC 7 reported that Vasquez Reyna was arrested in March following his conviction. The outlet said he was also charged with attempted rape and abduction.

In an X post, DHS wrote that "ICE has DEPORTED Marcelo Vasquez-Reyna, a depraved freak who sexually abused HIS OWN DAUGHTER."

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The agency added that "criminals like this sicko have NO sanctuary in our nation."

The Daily Progress reported that Vasquez Reyna was repeatedly arrested on charges of groping his teenage daughter and attempting to rape her using force, causing her to live in fear of further attacks.

The deportation comes as parts of Virginia have seen a series of violent and sexual crimes involving illegal immigrants. Fairfax County, north of Albemarle County, has seen several high-profile cases.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer in July asking Fairfax County officials not to release Nehemia Noel Fuentes-Banegas after DHS said he ambushed a Fairfax County police officer Tuesday.

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DHS said officers responded to a report of a man who left a home in Annandale following an argument while armed with two knives. As officers searched a wooded area, DHS said Fuentes-Banegas emerged from the brush, grabbed an officer's gun and attempted to disarm him. Fairfax County police said one officer fired his service weapon while a second officer simultaneously deployed a department-issued Taser. Police said the bullet grazed Fuentes-Banegas' shoulder.

Another high-profile case involved Israel Flores Ortiz, an illegal immigrant who was 18 at the time and was accused of groping several underage girls at a Fairfax County high school.

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Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger has faced criticism for her handling of illegal immigrant crime. On her first day in office, Spanberger rescinded an executive order by her predecessor, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, directing state law enforcement agencies to assist federal immigration enforcement authorities. She also ordered state and local law enforcement agencies to terminate all 287(g) agreements with ICE and signed an order prohibiting ICE from using state property as a staging area, processing location or operations base for federal civil immigration enforcement activities.

Fox News Digital reached out to Spanberger’s office, the Albemarle County Police Department and the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for comment.

A Berkeley mathematics professor is sounding the alarm that many students are woefully unprepared when they arrive at college because the University of California system's progressive "test-blind" policies have proven disastrous.

"Three days a week, I stand in front of lecture halls with 500 to 1,400 students. By the second week of the semester, I already know who is in trouble," professor Zvezdelina Stankova wrote in a San Francisco Standard op-ed published Saturday. 

"Some students are five to eight years behind in mathematics. Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school," he said.

Stankova and thousands of faculty members across the 10 UC campuses have signed open letters urging the university system to reinstate the SAT and ACT in admissions. Former UC president Janet Napolitano, who also served in the Obama administration, led the way in 2020 to phase out the standardized testing, in part out of "equity" concerns.

"Since then, admissions officers have been forbidden from considering the one standardized measure that provided a common academic benchmark across California’s thousands of high schools," Stankova wrote.

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"After UC adopted test-blind admissions, the picture changed dramatically," she wrote.

Stankova laid out brutal data showing a sharp decline in student math readiness after UC stopped considering standardized tests. From 2018 to 2020, 71% of roughly 2,200 tested Calculus I students were deemed ready or nearly ready, while just 0.14% tested below basic algebra. 

Among roughly 2,800 students tested from 2021 to 2023 using a different diagnostic, only 51% were ready or nearly ready. That fell to 44% in 2023, and a whopping 17% answered none of eight tested topics correctly.

"Those of us teaching such courses don’t experience the consequences as abstractions. We watch students struggle through material they were expected to master years earlier. We pause lectures to reteach linear equations instead of expanding students’ understanding of differential equations," Stankova wrote.

In an open letter from UC STEM faculty written in June, instructors specifically rejected the notion that "equity" was affected by the math requirement.

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"The SAT/ACT mathematics requirement is not an obstacle to equity; rather, it is a prerequisite for it," they wrote. "Failing to measure preparation gaps does not remove barriers; it moves them into the classroom, where they become harder to overcome. An admissions process that ignores foundational readiness does a disservice to the most vulnerable students. True access requires an honest assessment of the support students need and where, within California’s public higher education system, they can best receive it."

The UC announced that month it was launching a review of its standardized testing policy.

"The Board of Regents and University leadership take very seriously the critical issue of college preparedness, and the UC Academic Senate has proposed a comprehensive, data-driven review to support its recommendations to strengthen student readiness and success at UC," University of California President James B. Milliken said at the time. "There are few things more important on our agenda."

The op-ed comes as more elite universities are moving away from the test-optional policies that were in vogue during what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., might call the "Woke 1" era around 2020.

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Columbia University in June joined seven other Ivy League institutions in going away from test-optional policies, announcing it would reinstate standardized testing requirements for undergraduate applicants starting next year, according to HigherEdDive. 

Berkeley did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Concerns about coddled or underprepared students at elite schools are hardly exclusive to California.

Fox News Digital reported last week that freshmen at the University of Michigan next year will get a semester-long break from having letter grades appear on their transcripts as school officials look for new ways to combat the "mental health crisis" affecting higher education.

A simple daily habit may be linked to a dramatically lower risk of premature death, particularly from heart disease — no gym membership required.

People who climbed stairs had a 39% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a 24% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who didn’t, according to an analysis led by researchers at the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

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People who climbed the stairs were less likely to develop major cardiovascular conditions such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure, UEA further reported.

"Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide — with cases nearly doubling between 1990 and 2019," Vassilios Vassiliou, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said in a news release.

After reviewing nearly 1,900 studies, the researchers analyzed data from more than 480,000 people across nine studies, which had a median follow-up period of 14 years. The participants included healthy people and those with a history of heart problems, between the ages of 35 and 84.

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The findings show an association between stair climbing and lower mortality risk, but do not prove that taking the stairs directly causes people to live longer.

Stair climbing is a simple but powerful form of exercise because it requires the body to repeatedly work against gravity. The generally low-impact activity engages multiple muscle groups while providing both cardiovascular and strength-building benefits.

One large study included in the analysis suggested that climbing about six flights of stairs per day may offer the greatest benefit, though researchers said more work is needed to determine the optimal amount.

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"Some of the studies we looked at showed that the more stairs climbed, the greater the health benefits," said UEA’s Norwich Medical School researcher Sophie Paddock. "But even small changes had a measurable impact."

According to Vassiliou, more than a quarter of adults worldwide fail to meet recommended activity levels. A sedentary lifestyle, smoking, poor dietary habits and obesity all contribute to cardiovascular disease.

Climbing stairs is a cost-free form of exercise people can fit into their day at home, work and in public places and is a good option for people who don't have much time or easy access to exercise, the researchers said.

"Even brief bursts of physical activity have beneficial health impacts, and short bouts of stair climbing should be an achievable target to integrate into daily routines," Paddock said.

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The researchers cautioned that stair climbing may not be appropriate for everyone, particularly people with mobility issues or joint conditions.

They published their findings in the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs.