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Julian Assange’s father says he fears the WikiLeaks founder “will die in jail”. “Julian’s persecution is a global matter,” John Shipton claims, adding that “the only international law that has been observed is the extradition treaty between the US and the UK”.

Shipton, who used to spend 10 days each Christmas with his son while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy, said he has not had privacy with him since 2012. “A private conversation has not been possible because of surveillance — a matter that is now being investigated by the Spanish courts,” he said.

Earlier this week, Assange’s mother Christine said that her son should be freed from prison due to Covid-19 fears, with one prison chief predicting jails could become fertile breeding ground for the virus. Assange’s health has reportedly been poor over the past few months. Assange has been in Belmarsh Prison since last September. The Australian is wanted in America over his alleged leaking of classified US military documents around a decade ago. His US extradition hearing started last month at Woolwich crown court.

He previously spent several years inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, before being evicted last April. Assange had been set to be extradited to Sweden over a rape allegation, but the investigation was dropped last year as prosecutors said witnesses' memories had faded. Shipton previously talked about his son’s ill health, saying “he didn’t look good” on a recent jail visit. “I’m 74 and I look better than him and he’s 47. It’s such a shock” he said.

Assange’s father told Australian media that his son has a wide range of support. He added that he dreamt that his son one day would “feel the sun’s warmth and walk freely among people”.

Comic strip start to a date with a dame

Gyles Brandreth has been reminiscing about last year’s St Patrick’s Day, which he spent with Dame Judi Dench. The writer and broadcaster fondly recalled to his Something Rhymes with Purple podcast how he met Dench in Soho after her car couldn’t get through the crowds on the way to the theatre. “This great distinguished dame gets out of the car, aged 84,” he said, adding: “I’m there with a tattered umbrella saying, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, you’re outside a strip club.’ “She fell about laughing.”

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Dina Asher-Smith has achieved a new record: becoming the first athlete to have her picture on the alumni wall of King’s College London, where she read history. But KCL hasn’t mentioned that Asher-Smith became world 200m champion last year. Oops.

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With Premier League football postponed, a five-a-side firm is under fire after a player emailed asking for a tournament to be called off. Powerleague stressed football’s “health benefits” and said it’s cleaning pitches with “sodium hypochlorite”. How long will that hold?

Look Hughes a winner

Comedian London Hughes accepted her RTS award via video while holding up a coveted bottle of hand sanitiser from her quarantine in LA last night. Back in London, model Lady Amelia Windsor posted a video of herself hugging trees amid social-distancing rules. Founder of Deliciously Ella, Ella Mills also turned to trees in these testing times, reminding her followers alongside her baby: “The strongest trees are the ones that can bend with the wind.” Meanwhile, actor Sheridan Smith is “going stir crazy”, but the show must go on for presenter Myleene Klass who was spotted arriving at the Global Radio studios.

SW1A

New DCMS select committee chairman Julian Knight has shed more light on potential reforms to the BBC, criticising a “we know best” attitude and “paternalist views” that don’t “resonate like they used to”. In an interview in The House magazine he also cooled talk of a subscription model replacing the licence fee, saying the technology wouldn’t work. Change could be slow.

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Parliament should adapt its working habits but still sit, MPs say. “Cheek by jowl all day, heading back off around the country, isn’t good,” argues Labour’s Lucy Powell. Wes Streeting suggests a “rota for speakers… to help limit numbers in the chamber”. Order!

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A Labour MP asked Jeremy Corbyn why he isn’t self-isolating as per Government instructions. The Labour leader joked back: “I’m 70 — not over 70 — so get it right!”

Gina's class action

Anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller has a new fight: to save her old school. Independent Eastbourne girls’ school Roedean Moira House is to close this year due to financial trouble. Miller, who successfully took the Government to court over its plan to implement Brexit without Parliament’s consent, and again over the prorogation of Parliament, shared a petition to save the school. Bit of a step down from taking on the British establishment — but if she can’t do it, nobody can...

Quote of the day

‘Just had some homemade soup, think I need to up my celebrations’

Footballer Alex Scott after she won an award for punditry, but the ceremony was cancelled.