The government has announced that payouts to victims of the contaminated blood scandal will begin before the end of the year. More than 3,000 people died after being infected with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C from blood infusions between the 1970s and 1990s. Some individuals will be entitled to more than £2.5m in compensation. Sweden has confirmed the first case of a fast-spreading new mpox variant outside Africa, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. On Thursday, the World Health Organisation declared the deadly disease a global public health emergency for the second time in two years. A zoo in Hong Kong is celebrating the long-awaited birth of twin giant pandas. The happy mother, Ying Ying, is the oldest of her species on record to give birth for the first time: aged 19, she’s the equivalent of a 57-year-old human.

Rowan Atkinson is right about free speech

It’s fairly obvious that “something big” happened in the UK over the past fortnight, says Marina Hyde in The Guardian. How disappointing, then, that our politicians seem to have decided that their top priority is fixing… the Online Safety Act. Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer have both suggested that the legislation is “not fit for purpose”, after X and other platforms were used to stoke the riots. The PM pointedly reminded social media companies that whipping up violent disorder online is a crime, warning them: “the law must be upheld everywhere”. There have even been calls for X to be banned in the UK – as it is in freedom-loving places like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Sorry, but this is insane. Whatever the driving force behind these riots, curbing free speech is not the solution.

My problem is that it’s always the great unwashed who are made to suffer, says Douglas Murray in The Spectator. So, for example, the 55-year-old mother of three who allegedly first shared the false rumours about the Southport knife attack on X – even with the caveat “if this is true” – has been arrested and is on bail. Yet the high-profile anti-racism campaigner Nick Lowles doesn’t appear to have “had his collar felt”, despite sharing the false and incendiary claim that someone had thrown acid at a Muslim woman. It was Rowan Atkinson who put this best, in a 2012 speech about a different free speech law. He noted that he was “personally highly unlikely to be arrested” because of his high public profile, but that those without his “privileged position” weren’t so lucky. “Like the man arrested in Oxford for calling a police horse gay. Or the teenager arrested for calling the Church of Scientology a cult. Or the café owner [given a police caution] for displaying passages from the Bible on a TV screen.” Looking at the current crack-down on social media users, Atkinson’s warning seems “especially pertinent”.

The exam system finally appears to have recovered from lockdown, says Fraser Nelson in The Telegraph, but education as a whole is still suffering. A staggering 1.4 million pupils last year were “persistently absent” – ie skipping at least one in 10 classes – which is about twice what it was before the pandemic. The number being home-schooled (“or, at least, claiming to be”) has doubled. And the tally for “ghost children”, who miss the majority of classes, is a “scandalous” 142,000 – almost three times the pre-lockdown figure. “Where are they going? What are they doing? It’s a mystery that no one has cared to properly investigate.”

This video of increasingly elaborate remote-controlled Lego machines destroying ever-larger Lego towers has racked up five million views on YouTube, says The Hustle. It starts with a basic car, then moves on to a battering ram, a giant hammer, a metal ball-firing tank, a grappling hook puller, and finally a spider-like “climber” that crawls up the sides and shakes the tower until it collapses. Watch the full clip here.

Tom Daley should turn down a knighthood

“I like Tom Daley as much as the next person,” says Matthew Syed in The Times. I love his back story; how he came back from disappointment at the Rio Olympics; the way he “knits to keep himself calm”. But that doesn’t mean the newly retired diver should get a knighthood. Nor should any sport star. Honours are meant for those who do something for the community “in a way that transcends self-interest”. Daley and the like, “if we are being honest”, are the precise opposite. They work incredibly hard, yes, but they do it for personal glory and the riches that come with that – not as some benevolent gift to the nation. This is not to criticise their attitude; sport couldn’t exist without it. But these people are “recipients” of public services, not “providers”.

Many of those who receive gongs are even less deserving: political donors, for example. Thankfully, some public figures are sufficiently self-aware to turn them down. David Bowie rejected a knighthood, saying “I seriously don’t know what it’s for”. Jennifer Saunders said she didn’t feel she could accept a damehood because she was “being paid very well to have a lot of fun”. John Cleese refused a CBE on the basis that it was “silly” for highly paid figures to be given them. “He’s right, isn’t he?” If Daley is given the chance to become Sir Tom, he could do the whole nation a favour by telling them thanks, but no thanks. Who knows, his example might just help “bring the whole, toxic edifice crashing down”.

George Clooney is in a huff with Quentin Tarantino for saying he no longer qualifies as a movie star, says Tim Robey in The Telegraph. But Tarantino has a point. Sure, Clooney has had a few hits – namely Ocean’s 11 (2001) and its two sequels – but it’s slim pickings. It’s been 18 years since he won an Oscar for best supporting actor in Syriana, and his last leading role, in the “entirely bland” Ticket to Paradise alongside Julia Roberts in 2022, was “a beach holiday disguised as a gift to their fans”. Clooney has still been busy: he has produced loads of movies, earned a reported $500m from his tequila business, and been a prominent Democratic fundraiser. But his days as a “matinee idol” appear to be behind him.

The first time computer gaming was organised as a spectator event, at Stanford in 1972, the winner received a year’s subscription to Rolling Stone magazine. Things have rather moved on since then, says Matt Turner in MUBI. The current prize record for an esports tournament is $40m, and next year Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural esports Olympics.

It’s an enormous sculpture of Mark Zuckerberg’s wife, Priscilla Chan. The Facebook billionaire commissioned renowned sculptor Daniel Arsham to create the 7ft statue, which is thought to be crafted from crystal and volcanic ash. Zuckerberg unveiled the giant tribute in an Instagram post, adding the caption: “Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife.”