Day: May 21, 2024

1. Trump Media stock falls 10% after posting $327.6 million loss in first quarter  CNBC
2. Trump Media Reports $770,000 in Revenue for First Quarter and Large Losses  The New York Times
3. Trump Media and Technology Group posts more than $300 million net loss in first public quarter  ABC News

Ministers are intent on restricting protest, and will flout the law to do it. Don’t rely on them to do the right thing

• Akiko Hart is director of the human rights organisation Liberty

The government cannot step outside the law to do whatever it wants. This should not be a controversial statement, but in recent years it has become increasingly important to remind the current UK government of this fact. Today, the high court did exactly that, ruling that anti-protest legislation Suella Braverman brought in as home secretary last year was unlawful and undemocratic, and must now be scrapped.

This is a huge victory for our rights. The law in question gave the police almost unlimited powers to crack down on any protest it deemed as causing “more than minor” disturbance. This is an incredibly broad and deliberately vague definition, and unsurprisingly dragged whole swaths of protesters into the criminal justice system. Hundreds of people, including Greta Thunberg, have already been arrested under this unlawful legislation – as well as several other laws introduced in recent years – including more than 600 people last November alone.

Akiko Hart is director of the human rights organisation Liberty

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Brian Langstaff’s report has opened the door. We will keep fighting to bring those responsible to justice

• Andy Evans is the chair of the Tainted Blood campaign group

Finally, people know we’re not conspiracy theorists. We’re not raving mad, and we haven’t been barking up the wrong tree. “Go away, live your lives, it was all a mistake,” is a refrain we infected blood campaigners and victims have heard for decades. But it turns out it wasn’t “just a mistake”, that more than 30,000 patients received blood infected with HIV and hepatitis C. And now, finally, the lies, the closing of ranks, and the blatant conspiracy to pervert justice for victims has been laid bare.

Brian Langstaff’s report is everything we have been saying for the last 40 years, packaged up by a high court judge and signed off in a public inquiry. His findings – that victims have been let down by “successive governments” who ignored warnings about contamination and engaged in a “cover-up” – are seismic.

Andy Evans is the chair of the Tainted Blood campaign group. As told to Lucy Pasha-Robinson

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