What happened
A new survey suggests that more than half of Reform UK’s base supports either removing non-white British citizens who were born overseas or pressuring them to leave. The research, conducted by Survation among 629 party members between late January and mid-February, found that 54% endorsed deportation or encouragement to depart in such cases. A further 22% said the same should apply even to those whose parents were born in the UK.

The findings, published by the anti-racism organisation Hope Not Hate in its annual “State of Hate” report, come as Nigel Farage “attempts to court centre-ground voters while facing pressure from his right-flank”, said Ben Quinn in The Guardian, including a new hardline party launched by Rupert Lowe, who quit Reform after clashing with Farage.

Who said what
Hope Not Hate’s chief executive Nick Lowles pointed out that any move to moderate Reform’s platform could leave some of its supporters “quite disillusioned”. The report argues that ideas such as “remigration” are simply the repackaging of older concepts of forced repatriation within softer language.

What next?
Hope Not Hate says a growing and more assertive far-right movement is reshaping British politics, with further rallies and protests anticipated in the months ahead.

What happened
Award-winning rapper Ghetts (pictured above) has been handed a 12-year prison term for killing a Nepalese student in a hit-and-run collision in north-east London.

The Mercury Prize nominee, whose real name is Justin Clarke-Samuel, was one and a half times over the legal alcohol limit and driving nearly 70pmh in a 30pmh zone when he fatally struck Yubin Tamang.

Who said what
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said the CCTV footage showed a “quite appalling litany of incidents” in the run-up to the fatal collision, according to Sky News. He noted Clarke-Samuel’s “genuine remorse” and “good work” in the community, which he said had been “marred by driving in drink and taking the life of another young man”.

The rapper, who has collaborated with Skepta, Stormzy and Ed Sheeran, had claimed the reason for his reckless driving was that “he believed someone had been following him”, said The Independent. “However, no evidence of this was found on CCTV.”

What next?
In addition to his custodial sentence, Clarke-Samuel was also disqualified from driving for 17 years.

What if plastic waste could be turned into something useful? Well, that dream may soon become a reality as scientists have found a way to turn plastic into acetic acid using sunlight. Plastics and microplastics have been found everywhere from waterways and remote ecosystems to the bodies of humans and animals. Worldwide plastic usage has also continued to increase over the past 60 years. But this new method would mark a uniquely environmentally friendly way of dealing with plastic pollution.

Scientists have created a “sustainable, highly efficient” method to “upcycle plastics to value-added acetic acid”, which is the main component of vinegar, said a study published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials. The process is a “bio-inspired cascade photocatalysis using iron atoms embedded in carbon nitride”, according to a release about the study. It is similar to “how certain types of fungi break down organic matter using enzymes”.

This newly discovered approach “allows abundant and free solar energy to break down plastic pollution without adding extra carbon dioxide to the atmosphere”, said Dr Yimin Wu, a professor of mechanical and mechatronics engineering at the University of Waterloo who guided the study. In addition, while acetic acid is used to make vinegar, it also has several other uses and a “global annual demand of approximately 18 million tons”, said The Engineer. The material is “widely used across the chemicals sector and also has some energy applications”.

The study’s findings also “point to new possibilities for addressing microplastics directly” as the “process degrades plastics at the chemical level”, which “could help prevent the accumulation of microplastics in water systems”, added the release. The technology is still in the laboratory phase.