{"id":723387,"date":"2026-06-08T16:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723387\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:41:09","slug":"news-in-brief-cambridge-crowns-council-confirmations-and-competitive-cricket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/723387\/","title":{"rendered":"News in Brief: Cambridge crowns, council confirmations, and competitive cricket"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Murray Edwards will host the Afghan Refugee Women’s Cricket Team later this month Shelley Yang for Varsity<\/p>\n

Complete University Guide crowns Cambridge\u2026 again<\/p>\n

The University of Cambridge has been named<\/a> the top university in the UK by the Complete University Guide (CUG) for the fourth consecutive year. The rankings place Cambridge first overall and top in 28 out of 74 individual subject areas from Archaeology to Engineering in the 2027 edition of the Guide. The Complete University Guide (CUG) ranks UK universities using ten overall measures and six measures for subject league tables, including entry requirements, research output, and graduate employability. Cambridge was previously ranked at the top of the guide for ten consecutive years between 2012 and 2021, before losing the top position to the University of Oxford in 2022 and 2023.<\/p>\n

Cambridge City Council confirms Labour leader<\/p>\n

Cambridge City Council has elected<\/a> a Labour leader, Katie Thornburrow, after the party lost its majority and previous party leader Cameron Holloway lost his seat in the May 2026 local elections. Thornburrow was previously the Council\u2019s cabinet member for planning and transport, and won the leadership against Green candidate Sefira Davison after the Liberal Democrats abstained. Although the Council is now under no overall control following the local elections, Labour remains the largest party on the Council with 17 seats. The Green Party now has 12 seats and the Liberal Democrats have 11, whilst the Conservatives and Your Party have one seat each.<\/p>\n

Afghan Refugee Women\u2019s Cricket Team take Fenner\u2019s<\/p>\n

The Afghan Refugee Women\u2019s Cricket Team will play<\/a> two T20 matches at Fenner\u2019s Cricket Ground in Cambridge on 27 June as part of their England tour. The team consists of former Afghan national players who were forced to leave their country after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, with many now settled in Australia. Murray Edwards College will host the team as they take on Cambridge University Cricket Club Women\u2019s Team, followed by the UK Armed Forces Cricket Team \u2013 the public can watch both matches for free. Touring player Shafiqa Khan told Australia\u2019s ABC Sport: \u201cwe can represent Afghan women who live back home and be a voice for a million girls who are denied their basic rights and follow their passion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Party in the Centre for the USA<\/p>\n

The University of Cambridge has launched<\/a> the Centre for the United States of America at Cambridge, an interdisciplinary initiative that will serve as \u201cCambridge\u2019s intellectual home for research and teaching on the United States\u201d. The Centre was launched at an event at the Ray Dolby Centre, and featured the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Warren\u00a0A. Stephens. The event examined the USA\u2019s Declaration of Independence after 250 years, as well as celebrating 25 years of Cambridge in America, which focuses on philanthropy and engagement across North America.<\/p>\n

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.<\/p>\n

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.<\/p>\n

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!<\/p>\n

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as \u00a31, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Murray Edwards will host the Afghan Refugee Women’s Cricket Team later this month Shelley Yang for Varsity Complete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-723387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}