What happened
Reform UK is increasingly concerned about its chances in tomorrow’s Makerfield by-election, with internal estimates suggesting that Labour candidate Andy Burnham is on track for victory. Figures compiled by the party and seen by The Independent indicate that Labour could secure about 45.5% of the vote, ahead of Reform on 41%.

The projections suggest that support for Rupert Lowe’s rival right-wing party, Restore Britain, will help deprive Reform of a winning margin. Restore Britain is forecast to attract about 5% of the vote.

Who said what
Reform board member Gawain Towler told Times Radio that Burnham’s candidacy “does change the weather” and defeating him would be a “very, very hard task”.

Tactical voting by Greens and Lib Dems “could be key to Labour’s victory”, said Hannah Al-Othman in The Guardian. The by-election may be swung by the fact that “left-leaning voters are more willing to back Andy Burnham than Restore supporters are to vote Reform”.

On his US TV show “Last Week Tonight”, John Oliver said the idea that Makerfield’s 76,000 registered voters are set to play a critical role in deciding the political future of the UK is “fucking bonkers”.

What next?
Polls will open tomorrow at 7am and close at 10pm. Results are expected in the early hours of Friday morning, probably at about 4am.

What happened
Kensington Palace has confirmed that Prince George will attend Eton College from September, the same boarding school as his father, the Prince of Wales. Marlborough College in Wiltshire, attended by the Princess of Wales, was also reportedly among several schools in contention.

Who said what
Eton is the “perfect choice” for the young prince, who turns 13 in July, according to The Telegraph. As well as being his father’s former school and a short drive from the family home, Eton has been a “magnet for international royals for hundreds of years”.

That “prestige”, which also boasts 20 British prime ministers among its alumni, comes with a “hefty price tag”, said Sky News. Annual fees are more than £63,000 a year.

What next?
The Prince and Princess of Wales will “try to balance the inevitable interest” in George as the future heir to the throne against the press intrusion endured by William and Harry during their school days, said ITV News. So far media access to the young royals has been “minimal”.

Colossal Biosciences, a Texas-based biotech company known for its de-extinction agenda and previous claims about genetically engineering dire wolves, has successfully hatched 26 chicks from artificial eggs. The firm now hopes to use the technology to bring back extinct birds, including the dodo and the giant moa. But sceptics say de-extinction is not possible and that the company may be overstating its claims.

Eggs are a biological wonder. They are the “largest single cell of any species” and a “self-contained engine of incubation, doing away with the need for a living womb to keep a growing organism safe”, said Time. Because of eggs’ unique properties, artificially engineering them is a difficult task. However, Colossal Biosciences said in a release that it had managed to 3D-print artificial eggs with a “semi-permeable, silicone-based membrane housed inside a rigid hexagonal support cup”.

But “producing a chick from an artificial vessel is not necessarily new”, Dr Nicola Hemmings, who studies bird reproductive biology at the University of Sheffield, told CBS News. In the past scientists have “used cruder technology to create transparent eggshells that hatched chicks from plastic films or sacks”.

Colossal Biosciences previously claimed that it had revived the extinct dire wolf and hoped to resurrect species like the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger. The company has also suggested that its technology could support conservation efforts, but included “no data or peer-reviewed scientific publications” in its release about the hatching chicks, “making it difficult to independently assess the claim”, said Nic Rawlence, an associate professor in ancient DNA at the University of Otago in New Zealand, on The Conversation. “If the technology lives up to the hype, it won’t be a silver bullet or panacea to stopping species declines, but it might just help.”