LONDON (AP) — Britain's prime minister called for reflection on Saturday after a Black professor who faced a storm of plagiarism accusations died suddenly, days after resigning from a prestigious role at the University of Cambridge.
Jason Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor in 2023, was found dead inside an address in south London on Friday. He resigned last week as professor of sociology of education after coming under intense media scrutiny, with weeks of news headlines alleging plagiarism in his academic work and questions surrounding claims about his athletic and fundraising accomplishments.
His death has prompted outcries that the allegations against Arday, 41, were magnified into a cruel public takedown motivated by racism and longstanding hostility to diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, policies at universities and other institutions.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Arday's death was “a tragedy on so many levels.”
“It’s not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It’s a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how things came to this,” Burnham told reporters.
Police said the death was being treated as “unexpected” but not suspicious. They said officers were called to an address in south London on Friday afternoon and a 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. They did not name Arday, in accordance with police policy.
A friend said Arday had told him that he “felt he couldn't go on” in a voice note earlier Friday.
“He was being subjected to relentless scrutiny, including ridicule, discrediting absolutely every detail of his life, and he wasn’t coping with the loss of his career, the loss of his reputation,” Cambridge professor and director of the Autism Research Centre, Simon Baron-Cohen, told the BBC.
Arday's family said in a statement that he had been subjected to a “campaign of harassment” and “sustained abuse” ever since he took up his post as professor at Cambridge.
“The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason,” the family said in a statement issued through his publisher Simon & Schuster U.K. “We are in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son.”
Cambridge vice chancellor Deborah Prentice, who earlier announced that the university will investigate the circumstances around Arday’s employment, said she was “desperately saddened” by the news.
Questions about Arday’s qualifications were raised publicly last month by Nathan Cofnas, a one-time Cambridge philosophy researcher who left the university after his critique of diversity, equity and inclusion programs sparked widespread protests. Cofnas previously argued that in a meritocracy, Black people “would disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment.”
Newspapers soon published stories alleging that more than 100 passages from Arday’s 2015 Ph.D. thesis were “identical or near-identical” to an earlier paper written by another researcher.
British media then raised wider questions about many of Arday’s claims about his life, including statements he had raised 5.5 million pounds ($7.4 million) for charity through feats such as running 30 marathons in 35 days and 600 miles in six days. Arday later revised those claims.
Some also questioned his claim that he had overcome developmental delays that left him non-verbal until the age of 11. Arday said he was diagnosed with autism at a young age and didn't read or write at 18 years old.
Arday resigned from Cambridge on Aug. 5. He denied plagiarism, but admitted to some mistakes when working on his doctorate.
Dozens of Cambridge academics signed a letter calling for an independent inquiry into how Arday was appointed. Cambridge initially stood by Arday, saying that the plagiarism allegations had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University, which awarded Arday’s doctorate.
The university then changed its stance and said it had opened an investigation “following new information about Professor Arday’s qualifications and honorary appointments.”
Prentice, the university’s vice chancellor, said this week she shared concerns regarding his appointment and that Cambridge will run a review of how it hires senior staff.
While some believe Arday was a victim of media “hounding” and racism, others say there are more complex issues at play — including whether Cambridge made the right call when it appointed Arday to such a high-profile position.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said questions about Arday's credibility “unleashed a tirade of racism.”
“There is a profound difference between scrutiny and a sustained public campaign that turns an individual into a symbol of everything the right believes is wrong with DEI,” he said. “The effect has been chilling. It tells Black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target.”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said Arday had been “the victim of a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn’t have faced.”
Former Conservative home secretary James Cleverly, who is Black, wrote on X that academic institutions “have serious questions to answer.”
“They put him into positions he was clearly not qualified for so they could have a Black wunderkind to show off; they pushed him into the spotlight for their own benefit,” he said.
Torchbearer Jason Arday carries the Olympic Flame on the Torch Relay leg between Sutton and Merton, in London, July 23, 2012. (Joe Giddens/LOCOG/PA via AP)
HONOLULU (AP) — Tropical Storm Lala was already whipping and soaking Hawaii’s Big Island early Saturday, with forecasts saying it could strengthen into a hurricane or at the least, bring hurricane-force winds as it approaches land.
The National Hurricane Center issued a rare hurricane warning for the island, which hasn't experienced a direct hurricane landfall in 155 years.
Forecasters said higher elevations could get as much as 25 inches (63.5 centimeters) of rain. That could cause life-threatening mudslides in a mountainous area where people live off the grid in improvised housing, and authorities urged them to find safe shelters quickly.
“This is an enormous storm,” Gov. Josh Green said. Tropical storm force winds extended outward for as much as 220 miles (350 km), and were expected to hit the islands of Oahu and Kauai by Sunday morning.
Destructive flooding and even wildfires kicked up by the strong winds were possible in the islands.
A hurricane warning was issued for the Big Island, and a tropical storm warning was in effect for Maui County, which includes the islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe. A tropical storm warming was also in effect for Oahu and Kauai County, including Kauai and Niihau islands.
Even if the storm remains just shy of a hurricane as it approaches land, the NHC said wind speeds atop mountains and on the windward and leeward slopes “are often up to 30 percent stronger than the near-surface winds” indicated in its advisory, suggesting nearly hurricane-force winds in Hawaii's higher-altitude communities.
According to a University of Hawaii atmospheric scientist's research of newspaper accounts, a Category 3 hurricane hit the northeast corner of the island in 1871. The latest forecast has Lala striking "very close to the southern tip of the Big Island,” said Vanessa Almanza, a weather service meteorologist in Honolulu.
Officials and residents braced for Lala regardless of whether Hawaii takes a direct hit. Shelters were scheduled to open, and various events were canceled.
“It doesn’t take landfall to create destruction,” Almanza said, noting that a lot of the impacts are felt outside the hurricane's center.
The hurricane center predicted 8 to 12 inches (20.3 to 30.5 centimeters) of rainfall totals across Maui and lower elevations of the Big Island, and 4 to 6 inches (10.2 to 15.2 centimeters) across the island chain.
The center also warned that the storm could cause “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain,” along with a dangerous storm surge and ocean swells “likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.”
As of 5 a.m. in Hawaii, Tropical Storm Lala was located about 110 miles (175 kilometers) southeast of South Point, Hawaii, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and was moving toward the west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), the hurricane center said.
State Rep. Jeanné Kapela traveled from Honolulu to be closer to her constituents on the Big Island and urged people to remain alert.
The southern end of the island is remote and rural, with agriculture including coffee and cattle, but it's growing in population because of its affordability. Kapela said she was especially worried about people who live off the grid in unpermitted structures.
“If you feel now that your house doesn’t have a great roof or might not be able to withstand hurricane force winds, then first things first you go to a family or friend’s house and you kind of hunker down there,” she texted to The Associated Press as her flight took off Friday. “We're hopeful the storm moves through quickly, but we're preparing for whatever comes.”
Many parts of Hawaii are still dealing with the aftermath of devastating flooding in March, Kapela said. “We know how quickly heavy rain and flooding can impact our rural communities.”
Growers still recovering from the spring floods, including on Oahu’s North Shore, were worried about suffering more damage, according to Brian Miyamoto, executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.
Coffee farmer Bruce Corker said it was “sunny and beautiful” Friday in Holualoa, on the west side of the Big Island, and the island's only Costco seemed normal a day earlier, but the prospect of “streams overflowing and high winds” was worrisome.
As winds ramped up across the islands, Almanza said dry and breezy conditions outside the storm would elevate fire concerns.
In 2023 the Maui town of Lahaina burned during extreme winds as a hurricane passed far to the south.
“Since the fire, everybody is way more aware of weather in general and our environment and things that are happening,” said Archie Kalepa of Lahaina, who is well known in the area for his surfing, paddling and other ocean skills and has been watching the storm closely.
Kauai, which is several islands northwest up the archipelago from the Big Island, saw Hurricane Iniki make landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in 1992. That, like this year, was an El Nino year, when a warming of the Pacific near the equator increases Pacific hurricane activity and affects weather patterns across the globe.
“It did $3 billion worth of damage. It destroyed thousands of homes, and it did kill six people,” said Steven Businger, the University of Hawaii professor who researched the 1871 hurricane. “We just can never know if a storm is going to turn.”
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Associated Press reporter Alexa St. John contributed from Detroit.
Sandbags are seen at a Hawaii County Department of Public Works sand pile ahead of Tropical Storm Lala in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. The tropical storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches Hawaii, with up to 25 inches of rain possible on the island of Hawaii, also commonly known as the Big Island. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Casey Delaries makes a sandbag in preparation for Tropical Storm Lala in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. The tropical storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane as it approaches Hawaii, with up to 25 inches of rain possible on the island of Hawaii, also commonly known as the Big Island. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Shaheer Faltas, left, and his father-in-law, Joe Brosnan, fill sandbags in preparation for the arrival of Tropical Storm Lala in Captain Cook, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
This satellite image released by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Lala over the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (NOAA via AP)
