Cambridge fails to clear protests Ultra-processed meats linked as Sunak warns of anti-semitism to greater risk of early death
THE University of Cambridge will not move pro-palestinian protesters from a college lawn, its vice-chancellor has said as Rishi Sunak prepares to warn university leaders that they must not tolerate anti-semitism.
Discussing the spread of pro-palestinian camps at UK universities today, the Prime Minister will tell vice-chancellors in Downing Street not to allow “outright harassment” of Jewish students. His intervention will come as demonstrations at Britain’s leading universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, enter their fourth day.
Yesterday, Prof Deborah Prentice, the Cambridge vice-chancellor, said the encampment on the lawn of King’s College would remain because the university was “fully committed to freedom of speech within the law”. “We will not tolerate anti-semitism, Islamophobia, or any other form of racial or religious hatred in our community,” she said.
The trend of setting up pro-gaza camps on university grounds has spread from the US. President Joe Biden has described the protests as part of a “ferocious surge” in anti-semitism, in comments that have been seen by many as a call for action to shut down camps.
Mr Sunak is not expected to go as far, and is understood to think that protests can continue as long as there is zero-tolerance for anti-semitism.
Speaking yesterday, he said: “A vocal minority on our campuses are disrupting the lives and studies of their fellow students and, in some cases, propagating outright harassment and antisemitic abuse. That has to stop.”
Jewish students have said they feel “cut off ” from university life by protests that have gone on since Israel’s war with Hamas began in October.
Earlier this week, a spokesman for the University of Cambridge Jewish Society warned that the creation of the King’s College encampment risked contributing to “a toxic and hostile atmosphere for Jewish students”.
In Oxford, protesters have set up tents on the lawn of the university’s Pitt Rivers Museum and say they will not leave until the university meets their demands. To join the camp, demonstrators must sign up to a demand that millions of Palestinians be allowed to take back their ancestral land in Israel.
A spokesman for Oxford said: “We respect our students and staff members’ right to freedom of expression in the form of peaceful protests.”
EATING ultra-processed meat is linked to an increased risk of early death, a Harvard study over 30 years has found.
Scientists tracked more than 114,000 adults in one of the most extensive studies into the long-term consequences of modern diets. The highest risks were associated with the most processed meats such as sausages and ham.
Regular consumers of such products had a 13 per cent higher chance of dying over the 34 years that were tracked.
Diets high in sugary and artificially sweetened drinks had a 9 per cent increased risk, the study found.
Overall, those eating diets with a high proportion of packaged goods and snacks were found to have a 4 per cent higher risk of death over the period.
Such foods have already been linked with obesity, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer. However, few studies have tracked participants for such a long time, or examined overall deaths.
Dairy desserts – such as cheesecake and fromage frais – were linked to a 6 per cent increased risk, while breads and breakfast cereals were linked to a 4 per cent increase.
Researchers tracked the long-term health of 74,563 female nurses and 39,501 male health professionals between 1984 and 2018. Female participants were aged between 30 and 55 at the start of the research, while men were between 40 and 75.
Their diets were analysed and split into four groups. Overall, those with the highest intake of ultra-processed foods – an average of seven servings daily – had a 4 per cent higher risk than those in the lowest group, which consumed an average of three daily servings. The strongest links were found between meat, poultry and seafood ready-to-eat products, such as sausages, ham, ready meals and processed snacks.
Wholegrain foods were not counted as ultra-processed, with researchers saying they were excluded because of their established benefits in lowering mortality. The study, published in the BMJ, was observational, meaning no firm conclusions could be drawn about cause and effect.
Dr Duane Mellor, a spokesman for the British Dietetic Association, said: “It is noticeable that those who consumed most ultra-processed foods tended to eat few vegetables, fruit, legumes and wholegrain. This appeared to suggest that it might not be as simple as that those who ate more ultra-processed foods were more likely to die earlier.”