At least six MPs to submit letter of no confidence, says Andrea Jenkyns, who has already submitted her own
Rishi Sunak is facing a fresh backlash from rightwing Conservative MPs who are pushing for emergency legislation to overrule the supreme court’s decision on the UK government’s Rwanda deportation plan.
At least six MPs will submit letters of no confidence in the prime minister, according to Andrea Jenkyns, a rebel backbencher who has already submitted her own.
Continue reading...Whitehall sources say it could take more than a year for any treaty to be passed, with next election looming
Rishi Sunak is attempting to finalise a new pact with Rwanda after a central plank of the British government’s immigration plans was ripped up by the supreme court.
A treaty, which would have to be ratified by the UK parliament, was being drawn up with the government in Kigali, the prime minister said.
Continue reading...A victory for the immigration and asylum policy on Wednesday will come with headaches, but a defeat could split the Conservative party
Wednesday marks a potentially pivotal moment in the government’s fortunes when the supreme court rules whether its plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful.
The decision could have significant implications not just for immigration and asylum policy, but also for the future direction of Rishi Sunak’s government, and the Conservative party more widely. Here is what could follow from a government win or loss.
Continue reading...Tories reject international criminal court’s right to investigate war with Hamas but Labour wants an inquiry into potential war crimes
The UK government is being challenged over whether it will join Labour in supporting an international criminal court inquiry into potential war crimes committed by Israel, with the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, calling for all parties to uphold international law.
The ICC prosecutor, Gen Karim Khan, has insisted he has jurisdiction, but under the premiership of Boris Johnson the government said the court had no legal right to interfere.
Continue reading...Party loyalty would force Conservatives to vote against plan for fiscal responsibility
Read more: ‘I challenge Rishi Sunak: vote with Labour to stop a Truss-style disaster happening again,’ writes Rachel Reeves
Labour will force a Commons vote this week aimed at creating new legal safeguards against fiscal disasters such as Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget, which sent the financial markets into meltdown and drove up mortgage rates.
The party’s plan for a “fiscal lock” to protect personal, family and the national finances from reckless politicians will be contained in an amendment to the king’s speech that will be voted on by MPs on Tuesday. The manoeuvre will present Conservative backbenchers with a dilemma over whether to back a Labour amendment, or vote against what is a plan designed to embed fiscal responsibility into the budgetary process, and protect it from wild or accidental political misjudgments.
Continue reading...Association of Clinical Psychologists must pay £20,000 after intervening in family justice case where it mounted ‘critique of expert’
A professional body ordered to pay costs of £20,000 by the president of the family division after intervening in an appeal regarding the qualifications of a court-appointed expert has said the ruling was “unfair” and could have a “chilling effect”.
The Association of Clinical Psychologists UK (ACP-UK) said it had acted in good faith on a matter of “public protection”, after being criticised for conducting itself in a “wholly exceptional manner” during an appeal before the most senior family judge in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Security Force Monitor finds 64% of senior army officers led units allegedly committing killings, rapes, torture and disappearances
New research into alleged war crimes in Myanmar has concluded that the majority of senior commanders in the Myanmar military, many of whom hold powerful political positions in the country, were responsible for crimes including rape, torture, killings and forced disappearances carried out by units under their command between 2011 and 2023.
The research, by the Security Force Monitor (SFM), a project run by Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute, states that 64% – 51 of 79 – of all Myanmar’s senior military commanders are responsible for war crimes. It claims that the most serious perpetrator of human rights violations is Gen Mya Tun Oo, Myanmar’s deputy prime minister, former defence minister and a member of the ruling military council.
Continue reading...PM to announce tougher sentences for rapists and killers ahead of upcoming general election
Rishi Sunak’s first king’s speech will include a series of hardline criminal justice measures promising tougher sentences for rapists and killers in the run-up to a general election.
With crime and punishment a major point of contention with Keir Starmer’s Labour, the prime minister will confirm the introduction of a new sentencing bill under which murderers whose crimes involved sadistic or sexual conduct will face spending the rest of their lives in jail.
Continue reading...Peers express fears that Jagtar Singh Johal will not receive ‘due process’ in India amid torture claims
Assurances by a UK minister that a British man imprisoned in India will receive a fair trial fly in the face of evidence that he has been tortured and arbitrarily detained, three lawyers who held senior public roles have warned.
To coincide with the sixth anniversary of Jagtar Singh Johal’s detention, Ken MacDonald KC, Elish Angiolini KC and Jim Wallace KC have written to the UK Foreign Office minister Lord Ahmad asking him to retract his recent comments saying that the British citizen would receive “due process” in India.
Continue reading...Donald Jr says he ‘relied upon accountants’ for financial statements while Eric says he ‘never had anything to do’ with them
Trump’s eldest sons claimed on Thursday that they had no knowledge of the financial statements at the heart of the family’s $250m fraud trial.
Eric and his older brother Donald Trump Jr claimed in court that they had relied on accountants and others to make sure their financial records were correct.
Continue reading...Mahsa Yazdani convicted of blasphemy and ‘insulting supreme leader’ as Iran regime targets families of those killed in protests
A mother in Iran, whose son was reportedly killed after being shot repeatedly at close range by security forces, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison by an Iranian court after she demanded justice for her child on social media.
Mahsa Yazdani, whose 20-year-old son Mohammad Javad Zahedi was killed at an anti-regime protest in September 2022, was convicted on charges of blasphemy, incitement, insulting the supreme leader, and spreading anti-regime propaganda, according to human rights groups and family members. They say she will serve the first five years with no chance of parole.
Continue reading...Donald Trump’s eldest son testifies in New York civil trial, claiming repeatedly: ‘I don’t recall’
Donald Trump Jr took the stand in the ongoing fraud trial against his father and the family business on Wednesday and tried to distance himself from the financial statements at the center of the case.
Trump’s eldest son, 45, is the first family member to testify in the civil trial brought by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. His younger brother Eric is expected to testify on Thursday, with Trump and his daughter Ivanka expected in court next week.
Continue reading...Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka scheduled to give evidence with father this week in case against Trump Organization
Donald Trump’s fraud trial becomes a family affair this week as three of his children, and the former president himself, prepare to be called to the witness stand in New York.
Trump’s appearances in court so far have been controversial, to say the least. The former president has railed against the prosecution, calling it a “witch-hunt”, and has been threatened with jail for attacking one of the court’s clerks on social media.
Continue reading...King urged to offer apology while in Kenya for UK’s ‘brutal and inhuman treatment’ during the Mau Mau uprising in the 1950s
The Kenya Human Rights Commission has called on King Charles to offer an “unequivocal public apology” for colonial abuses, during his visit to the country this week.
“We call upon the king, on behalf of the British government, to issue an unconditional and unequivocal public apology (as opposed to the very cautious, self-preserving and protective statements of regrets) for the brutal and inhuman treatment inflicted on Kenyan citizens,” the KHRC said.
Continue reading...Constrained on multiple fronts by finances and resistance from both wings of his party, the PM still has a few vote-winning options
Exhausted by scandals, deflated by byelection defeats and uninspired by their leader at Conservative party conference, many of Rishi Sunak’s MPs are not looking forward to the next year in politics. “It’s hard to muster the enthusiasm to come out fighting given everything that has happened,” said one Tory adviser.
But Sunak appears still to be energised by the prospect of governing for at least another 12 months – and has explicitly said he wants to get things done in the next year. “What can a country achieve in 52 weeks? Watch this space,” his new promotional video said this week.
Continue reading...Justin Trudeau appoints Mary Moreau to bench of Canada’s top court, which will be made up of five women and four men
Justin Trudeau has nominated the Alberta judge Mary Moreau to Canada’s top court, setting up the first majority-female bench in the supreme court’s 148-year history.
The naming of Moreau will give Canada’s top court five female judges and four male judges. Moreau was most recently the chief justice of Alberta’s superior court, and has worked in that court for 29 years. She will fill a vacancy on the supreme court created by the resignation of Russell Brown in June.
Continue reading...Activists deplore ‘distressing setback for equality’ as court backs law against ‘indecent acts’ between military personnel
South Korea’s constitutional court has upheld two anti-LGBTQ+ laws including the country’s notorious military “sodomy law” for the fourth time, in a ruling activists are calling a setback for equality rights.
The court, in a five-to-four vote, ruled that article 92-6 of the military criminal act, which prescribes a maximum prison term of two years for “anal intercourse” and “any other indecent acts” between military personnel, even while on leave and consensual, was constitutional in response to several petitions challenging the law.
Continue reading...Judges reject requirement for trans people to remove reproductive organs for state-recognised gender change
Japan’s top court has ruled that a legal clause requiring people to undergo sterilisation surgery if they want to legally change their gender is unconstitutional.
Several international organisations including the European court of human rights, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and UN had said the requirement was discriminatory and infringed on human rights.
Continue reading...Trump’s ex-fixer takes stand at New York fraud trial as former president, in attendance in court, attacks Cohen as ‘proven liar’
Donald Trump’s ex-fixer inflated the valuation of the former president’s assets to “whatever number Mr Trump told us to”, he has testified.
Michael Cohen made the allegation as he took the stand at Trump’s civil fraud trial in New York. His highly anticipated testimony is at the heart of the prosecutors’ case against his former boss.
Continue reading...Violations have soared but legislative effort to strengthen protection for young workers have received little support
Child labor violations have been soaring in the US, but efforts to render solutions through legislation have received little support, and Republicans at the state level continue pushing bills that would roll back current child labor protections.
In most recent fiscal year, the US Department of Labor wage and hour division reported 835 cases of child labor violations affecting 3,876 minors, and 688 minors employed in violation of hazardous occupation, a 283% increase since 2015. Civil penalties against employers totaled just under $4.3m.
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