Emmanuel Macron has said the French judiciary is independent and must be protected as a judge was put under police guard after sentencing Marine Le Pen to an immediate ban from running for office. Speaking on Wednesday, two days after the far-right leader’s conviction for the embezzlement of European parliament funds, the French president told … Read more
Political attacks on judges are “dangerous” and “a huge threat to the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary”, the attorney general has said in a direct rebuke to the shadow justice secretary. Richard Hermer said politics was entering a “dangerous moment” where politicians were “attacking judges on a personal basis” on the … Read more
Rachel Reeves has defended the £40bn in tax increases in autumn’s budget as businesses brace for their impact, saying NHS waiting lists would now be higher if she had not taken action. Employers are set for a £25bn increase in national insurance contributions (NICs), which comes into force on 6 April, at the same time … Read more
Kevin Young, the director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington DC, is not currently in charge of the museum and has been on leave since 14 March, as Donald Trump targets the Smithsonian museum network for its content. The Washington Post first reported that Young has been on … Read more
A rightwing US group backing an anti-abortion campaigner whose case has become a new source of UK tensions with the Trump administration is significantly expanding activities and spending in Britain. The UK branch of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is funding the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt – who is being prosecuted for an alleged breach … Read more
An investigation has been launched after a racist message was reportedly “blasted out” on portable radios used by Home Office contractors at an asylum processing centre. The deeply offensive broadside, saying “fuck off you niggers, go back to where you came from”, was reportedly heard at the Manston processing site for small boat arrivals in … Read more
A forensic doctor who examined the bodies of some of the 15 paramedics and Palestinian rescue workers shot dead by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in southern Gaza has said there was evidence of execution-style killing, based on the “specific and intentional” location of shots at close range. The Palestinian Red Crescent … Read more
Democrats were tasting unfamiliar triumphalism on Wednesday after the election for a vacant Wisconsin supreme court seat turned into an emphatic repudiation of Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s richest supporter and key ally. Musk endured a wave of gloating on X, his own the social media platform, after Brad Schimel, a Trump-endorsed judge that he spent … Read more
Democrats were the clear winners in election contests on Tuesday that offered a temperature check on the popularity of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. In Wisconsin, Susan Crawford, a liberal judge backed by Democrats, won a seat on the state supreme court, defeating her conservative opponent Brad Schimel by 10 points (Trump carried the state … Read more
A group of anglers trying to restore the ecosystem of a river have seen off a challenge by the environment secretary, Steve Reed, who claimed that cleaning up their waterway was administratively unworkable. Reed took an appeal against a group of anglers from North Yorkshire, who had won a legal case arguing that the government … Read more