News Daily: Student visa rules change and Labour on Brexit

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Immigration: Ministers reverse May’s student visa rules

In 2012, when she was home secretary, Theresa May brought in rules forcing overseas students to leave the UK four months after completing their degree. But the government has decided to extend the period they can stay while looking for a job to two years, reversing Mrs May’s move.

Current Home Secretary Priti Patel said this showed a “global outlook”. But the campaign group Migration Watch has called it “retrograde”, arguing that it will “likely lead to foreign graduates staying on to stack shelves”. Here are the details of the new scheme.

Meanwhile, a report by the OECD economics think tank suggests that going to university in England is still a good investment, despite increased tuition fees.

Brexit: Labour’s Watson demands pre-election referendum

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is insisting his party must make holding a referendum on Brexit its priority. In a speech, he will say that a general election might not break the current deadlock and that Labour must be “crystal clear” in campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU.

This puts him at odds with leader Jeremy Corbyn, who wants the party to offer voters both Leave and Remain options. Labour says it wants an election after 31 October, when a no-deal Brexit on that date has been ruled out.

The BBC asks what people around the UK think about Brexit.

With Parliament not sitting again until 14 October and the conference season about to begin, we also look at where the main parties stand.

Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning

British-Australian women ‘held in Iran’

It’s reported that two British-Australian women have been held in Iran. The Times says one has been jailed for 10 years and the other was arrested with her boyfriend 10 weeks ago on unknown charges. The two cases are not thought to be connected. We’ll have the latest news here.

The women are understood to be in Tehran’s Evin jail, where Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian mother of one from London, has been held on spying charges – which she denies – since 2016. We explain her case.

‘I studied by candlelight when I was homeless’

By Mimi Beard

In the evenings, at the YMCA, everyone would be sitting around and drinking, and I’d be in the corner writing up my notes. I was known as the “sad” one because I was always studying when everyone else was having fun.

And, as much as I hate to admit it, I very nearly gave up, reluctant but defeated, ready to become a statistic. I had to leave during my first year to sort myself out. Life was bleak, I was tired and I couldn’t see a way out.

Things got really bad and on Halloween in 2017, when I was 19, I took an overdose of prescription drugs. It put me in a coma. I am so lucky to have woken up. The overdose was a line in the sand for me and I knew I had to turn things around.

Read the full article

What the papers say

The i says universities have welcomed the change in rules to allow overseas students to stay in the UK for longer. Meanwhile, the Daily Telegraph asks if Prime Minister Boris Johnson has “the answer” to Brexit deadlock, in proposing an “all-Ireland zone” for checks on goods. The Financial Times says US President Donald Trump’s sacking of National Security Adviser John Bolton is unlikely to lead to a softening of approach towards Iran. And the Sun leads on a report that a fire brigade has stopped using the children’s TV character Fireman Sam as a mascot for being “too male” and putting off potential female recruits.