Laws

Two women who filed the suit against the Epstein estate are seeking a court-ordered program to notify potential victimsJeffrey Epstein’s estate is facing a new lawsuit filed by two women who allege that Epstein possessed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) of them. They want a judge to order that a program be set up to identify and notify all individuals whose “unlawful sexualized images” might have been in Epstein’s collection, and are also seeking monetary damages.The complaint was filed this week in the US district court for the southern district of New York on behalf of two plaintiffs, who are anonymous in the filing but described as survivors of Epstein’s child sexual abuse material crimes. The lawsuit was filed against Epstein’s former lawyer Darren Indyke, and Epstein’s former accountant, Richard Kahn, who are being sued in their capacities as co-executors of Epstein’s estate. Attorneys for Indyke and Kahn, who have both said that they had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes during their employment, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the complaint on Wednesday. Continue reading...

• Representative Scott Fitzgerald introduced a bill to overhaul the suspension and investigation process for federal judges accused of misconduct. • The legislation aims to address the "injustice" faced by a 98-year-old jurist who remained suspended for years during a disability probe. • This change would alter how the government handles misconduct allegations to prevent long-term suspensions without resolution.

Government sources say legislation aimed at China poses a risk to British businesses and must be addressedEuropean legislation that threatens to lock British business out of EU industry could derail a planned reset summit between the bloc and the UK, government sources have said.The “Made in Europe” legislation – formally known as the Industrial Accelerator Act – is designed to curb China’s increasing presence in European industry, but was not on the reset plan agreed by the former prime minister, Keir Starmer, and the European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, in London in May 2025. Continue reading...

The administration has used a list of 235 keywords – such as ‘gender’ and ‘racist’ – to prevent topics from being fundedResearchers filed a class action lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Wednesday, arguing the Trump administration is blocking and cancelling scientific grants to censor topics with which it disagrees.The administration has used a list of 235 keywords – such as “gender” and “racist” – to prevent topics from health equity to climate change from being funded. The NIH is the world’s largest public funder of biomedical research. Continue reading...

As minister says process needs to be ‘streamlined’, Greens and Lock the Gate say the legislation is ‘corrupt’ and tears up environmental protectionsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastQueenslanders’ right to object to mining projects – including coal – would be “gutted” by new legislation that would ban opponents from being heard in court without the minister’s approval and then only if they owned a property within a 125km radius of the project.The Greens have called the move “corrupt” and community action group Lock the Gate Alliance said the state’s LNP government was “tearing up democratic and environmental protections just to make life easier for mining companies”. Continue reading...

Warning follows series of safety incidents, with committee saying threats include public face-scanning and deepfakesUK politics live – latest updatesBritish lawmakers are demanding more restrictions on the power of AI, warning the world is unprepared for the “potentially dire” consequences of the technology, in the latest sign of rising global concern.A new regulatory framework is needed for AI in the UK, including an independent oversight body and legislation to protect the public, according to the cross-party joint committee on human rights, comprising MPs and Lords. Continue reading...

Authorities were caught off guard by the disruption, which they labelled a ‘protest’ despite mass intimidation tacticsTo anybody watching the videos of a group of masked men, all wearing black, descending on the port of Dover last weekend, it was immediately obvious that something novel and disturbing was happening: a mass intimidation in uniform not seen in Britain since the 1930s.Yet to the police and the rest of the UK’s intelligence apparatus, the arrival of the men chanting “stop the boats” was a surprise, despite the fact that residents of a village 18 miles away tried to report that dozens of men were congregating there on the Friday, threatening to go to Dover and “attack Muslims”. Continue reading...

Atlantic Industrial Coatings was given $14.7m no-bid contract and its findings contradict president’s claims of vandalismThe company hired to renovate the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool has acknowledged that “human oversight” and flaws in the repair plan caused the newly installed blue liner to peel and tear, according to documents reviewed by the New York Times that challenge Donald Trump’s repeated claims of vandalism.The president has repeatedly said vandals armed with knives or box cutters were responsible for tearing apart the pool’s “American flag blue” liner. But documents reviewed by the Times show that Atlantic Industrial Coatings, the company awarded the renovation contract, blamed its own execution of the repair work and a flawed design plan. Continue reading...