The Know Daily - Tuesday 22 September 2026

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South Africa’s winelands are waving bye-bye to pesticides by employing a far more effective (and much cuter) method – 1,000 Indian Runner ducks. Don’t believe us? We’ve brought receipts! 👇

🎁 The UK’s rules for political donations

Mega-donations are back in the headlines after Reform UK was gifted a total of £72m by two crypto billionaires – so what are the rules around political donations?

Go on…
Reform UK has received two £36m donations from cryptocurrency billionaires Christopher Harborne and Ben Delo (£72m in total 😳). It’s a huge amount of money, but there’s nothing in the current rules that puts a general cap on how much a permissible donor can give to a political party. Instead, the rules focus on who is allowed to donate and whether the money is properly reported, with large donations published by the Electoral Commission for voter transparency.

Ok, can anyone donate?
Political parties can receive donations from certain sources, including individuals registered on a UK electoral register, UK-registered companies carrying out legitimate business, trade unions and some other UK organisations. But the rules around overseas donors are now being tightened. According to the BBC, the Labour government is proposing a £100k annual cap for British citizens registered as overseas electors, alongside tougher rules for people returning to the UK after living abroad. That has put the Reform donations under particular scrutiny because the legal position depends on the donors’ circumstances and when the donations were made.

What about Reform’s £72m?
This is where things get a little complicated. Reform says the donations comply with the law, while the government is trying to change the rules around overseas electors and people returning to the UK, including measures that could apply retrospectively. The Telegraph has reported on the House of Lords debate over the issue, while the BBC has stated that Nigel Farage has said the donations were compliant with the law as it stood when they were made. So the question isn't simply whether £36m is too much – it's whether the donors meet the rules that apply to them.

So what’s the plan going forward?
Right now, the big question is whether there should be a cap for donations. The Electoral Commission has modelled what different limits would have meant between 2020 and 2025: a £100k cap would have reduced reported party donations by an estimated £181m over the period, while a £50k cap would have reduced them by £211m. Reform's donations would have been particularly affected: the Commission estimates a £100k cap would have reduced its reported donations by 72% over those five years. It stresses that these are estimates, because donors and parties might behave differently if a cap actually existed.

👶 Newborn baby girls spent more time looking at faces than boys in a new study, suggesting some differences in attention may be present from birth.

• The bigger story: Researchers at the University of Cambridge tracked the eye movements of 130 babies aged between eight hours and three days old as they watched videos of a face and a moving toy. Both groups preferred the face, but girls showed a stronger preference on average. The researchers say biological factors may play a role, while stressing there was considerable overlap between individual babies and the findings do not determine how children will develop.

🗞️ Three US news outlets have filed a critical First Amendment lawsuit after President Donald Trump banned their access from the White House.

🐻 Fat Bear Week 2026 is underway, with the public set to vote for the fattest of brown bears in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. 

🌠 “Ghost particles” could help to reveal which stars will go supernova and which will become black holes, scientists have found.

🚝 A speakeasy–style bar is being introduced by Eurostar on its double-decker trains… that’s the team’s Christmas excursion sorted! 

💸 New series alert: our go-to money experts break down investing, one finance fear at a time. Catch up here. 

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Trivia answer: C) This Scandi city came out as the best in Europe for quality of life in a new Global Cities Index.

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