
Poland's pivotal election could deliver abortion pledge at last
Like many other liberal-minded Poles she was particularly impressed by the former European Council president's promise that within 100 days of coming to power he would liberalise Poland's laws on abortion, which are among the most restrictive on the continent.
'I want to have children one day, but should there be any difficulties with the pregnancy, I would be terrified of not being able to access abortion services in Poland,' said Stopyra, 30, an American-educated art historian.
Yet more than 500 days later, abortion remains as inaccessible
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BreakingNews.ie
8 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Palestinian ambassador backs Sally Rooney over Palestine Action comments
Irish author Sally Rooney is using her voice to 'call out human rights violations', the Palestinian ambassador in Ireland said, after the novelist said she will continue to support and fund Palestine Action. The award-winning author said she will donate her earnings from her books and BBC adaptations to support the group, which was recently proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK. Advertisement The Co Mayo native and author of Normal People, said that if that 'makes me a 'supporter of terror' under UK law, so be it'. Writing in The Irish Times over the weekend, Ms Rooney said she will use the proceeds of her work and her public platform to continue her support for Palestine Action and 'direct action against genocide in whatever way I can'. Palestine Action was recently proscribed under terrorism legislation in the UK, but not under Irish law. Ms Rooney currently lives in the west of Ireland. Advertisement A Palestinian flag outside The Royal Courts Of Justice in central London (Jonathan Brady/PA) The BBC has said that Ms Rooney is not and never has been BBC staff, adding that what novelists say and do with money previously received is a matter for them. Dr Jilan Wahba Abdalmajid, the ambassador of the state of Palestine in Ireland, said on Monday: 'Sally Rooney is using her voice to call out international law and human rights violations in Palestine. 'I hope these calls result in practical actions that will stop the horrors we're witnessing carried out by Israel in Palestine; to stop the genocide and forced displacement and end the Israeli occupation.' In a statement, a BBC spokesperson says: 'Matters relating to proscribed organisations are for the relevant authorities.' Advertisement The BBC said it is not currently working with Ms Rooney on any upcoming projects. It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper labelled Palestine Action more than 'a regular protest group'. She said protest and free speech remain 'an important part of our democracy' which will 'always be protected', but argued Palestine Action has carried out 'an escalating campaign'. Writing in The Observer, she said: 'Some may think it is a regular protest group known for occasional stunts. Advertisement 'But that is not the extent of its past activities.' Ms Cooper said counterterrorism intelligence showed the organisation passed the tests to be proscribed under the 2000 Terrorism Act with 'disturbing information' about future attacks.


The Independent
37 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump isn't fighting for peace in Ukraine, he's managing Russia's victory - and Europe is worried
No higher delegation of European leaders has ever assembled for a mission of such extraordinary importance - talks with an American presiden t who now wholly represents the interests of Russia. Donald Trump has represented Russia's strategic interests against Ukraine, Europe, and arguably his own country, consistently since his inauguration this year. He will be speaking the Kremlin 's mind when he meets Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval office. And he will rehearsing Putin's talking points when he meets the assembled European leaders later. Putin's strategic aim has been to defoliate Europe's democracies as part of a wider effort to restore Russian power, and the land holdings of the Soviet Empire. His backing of far right groups like France's National Front and Germany's AfD, his support for Brexit and for Hungary's authoritarian leader Victor Orban, show this. Donald Trump is also a fan of Orban, his cabinet members are supporters of the AfD and he thought Brexit was a great idea. He's very much on side with Putin. Trump has directly supported Russia's war effort this year in the prosecution of its invasion of Ukraine. He cut arms supplies from the US. He suspended Ukraine's access to real-time intelligence as Russia re-took the Kursk region of territory captured last year by Kyiv. Trump has been Putin's agent in Ukraine. Now the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO hope to shore up Zelensky at a crucial diplomatic moment in Putin's invasion. They're in Washington DC to make sure Zelensky isn't subjected to the public bullying session that met him in the Oval Office in February. More importantly, though, is that they're there because, among other things, Trump has spelled out what his agenda is – Ukrainian surrender. 'President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,' Trump said on his social media posts. He means Ukraine should just give up – throw in the towel and hope that Russia won't attack again. Putin will attack again. He invaded first in 2014, agreed various later ceasefires, then invaded in earnest in 2022. He wants all of Ukraine. He has said so many times. He also wants eastern Europe back in the Russian sphere just like in the days of the Soviet empire. He said its loss was the greatest global catastrophe the world had ever seen. He wants it back and Trump wants to give it to him. The White House has accepted that Ukraine must give up all of the provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as Crimea. These are the 'land swaps' that Russia is making that involve no Russian territory in return for a 'freeze' of the frontlines where they are. His leaves Russia with 20 per cent of Ukraine. Zelensky, and Europe's leaders, are making one final effort to bring Trump in from the cold and have him rejoin the democratic west, but they're up against it. The US president has agreed with Putin that Ukraine can never join Nato. He has, apparently, agreed that Ukraine should get security guarantees to protect its future after the war but offered no whiff of detail on this. There's no mention of Russian reparations for its war crimes in Ukraine, no mention of using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine's defence or repair the damage done. Trumps is demanding that Ukraine make all the concessions while Putin makes none. It doesn't make sense for America to behave like this. Trump has, ironically, weakened its standing in Europe and Nato by (rightly) insisting that its member states pay for their own defence. They are now heading towards spending around 3.5 per cent of GDP on this and soon that will be 5 per cent, they say. His attacks on Nato and his administration's support for anti-democratic forces in Europe make enemies of friends. Trump dreams of befriending Russia, perhaps. Moscow sees the west as an existential threat that must be subverted and conquered – not cuddled. From the first day of his presidency, Trump has backed a Russian victory over the defence of European democracy and international law. The world order has been replaced by a rogue order, in which leaders whom Trump admires - Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu - get to commit war crimes with American help. Putin gets backing over Ukraine and Netanyahu gets actual bombs to drop on Gaza. In a peace settlement of the sort dreamed of for Ukraine, the aggressor, Russia, would be forced to withdraw from the territory it invaded. It would pay for the damage it has done, and it would be shown that any future attacks would be devastating. 'Let's reiterate once more – Russia started this war,' said Petteri Orpo, Finland's prime minister. But Trump does not work this way. In his own country, he has flooded the capital with soldiers. He's sought to undermine federal and state courts, he's sent heavily armed masked ICE police across America sowing terror in a campaign against illegal immigrants, and muses on subverting the US constitution with a third term in office. If there was any doubt about where Trump stands, consider how he admires the methods used by Putin to deal with his internal opponents – many of whom have fallen to their deaths from windows, died in prison, been poisoned or simply disappeared. 'I said, 'Vladimir, how do you deal with your opponents? Do you have them vanish? Do you have them taken out in the middle of the night? What's your secret?'' said Trump on May 17 this year in Des Moines, Iowa. That's why Europe's leaders are in DC.


Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
First trans judge appeals to ECHR over Supreme Court ruling
Britain's first transgender judge has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the Supreme Court ruling on gender. In April, Supreme Court judges ruled the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act referred to biological sex and not to acquired gender in a legal action brought against the Scottish Government by For Women Scotland, a campaign group. Lawyers for Victoria McCloud told The Telegraph that she was seeking a re-hearing of the case, arguing the Supreme Court undermined her Article 6 rights to a fair trial after refusing to hear representation from her and evidence from any other transgender individuals or groups. But women's rights campaigners dismissed the case as 'fantasy' and say McCloud should exhaust 'all domestic legal remedies' before going to Strasbourg. In a statement on Monday morning, Ms McCloud said: 'There is no space for decision-making about us, without us. 'I intend to ensure that there will be no peace for the gender-critical ideological movement, the Labour Government appeasing it, or space in our schools, homes and workplaces for an ideology which causes harm, misery and oppression of a small and law-abiding minority in our formerly tolerant country.' Ms McCloud is being represented by Oscar Davies, the UK's first openly non-binary barrister, and Olivia Campbell-Cavendish, the founder and executive director of the Trans Legal Clinic and the first black trans lawyer in the UK. The Trans Legal Clinic has launched a legal fundraiser for £150,000 to raise funds to support the case, and it is the first one in British history to be brought by a trans-led legal team. But the challenge has provoked a backlash from women's rights groups. Maya Forstater, the chief executive of the women's human rights charity Sex Matters, told The Telegraph: 'What we are being told about this proposed case is incomprehensible. 'The European Court of Human Rights only hears cases that have exhausted all domestic legal remedies, and since McCloud wasn't a party to For Women Scotland in the Supreme Court, that's not the case here. 'It's a fantasy that someone can go straight to Strasbourg to complain that the Supreme Court in their own country didn't listen to them.' Ms Forstater said Ms McCloud's team should go to the UK High Court to 'seek a declaration of incompatibility with domestic human rights law'. Susan Smith, from For Women Scotland, said: 'As far as we understand it is the SC's prerogative whether to accept interventions or not. It obviously carefully considered McCloud's application and made a decision based on the value of its content. 'The court is solely concerned with statutory interpretation and does not hear personal testimony or take evidence, and rarely takes interventions from individuals. 'We will watch with interest whether McCloud's application is accepted by the ECHR or even if it comes within the deadline to proceed.' 'Public figure and a target' Ms McCloud quit the profession last year after claiming she could no longer do the job without politicising the judiciary. She transitioned in the 1990s, becoming the first transgender barrister and judge in the UK. She was the youngest person to become a King's Bench Master of the High Court at the age of 40 in 2010. In her resignation letter last year, she said the leaking of her formerly private transgender identity eight years ago 'came at a cost because I became a public figure and a target'. At the time of the case, the Supreme Court heard interventions from a number of gender-critical groups including Sex Matters, the LGB Alliance and The Lesbian Project. Earlier this month, The Times reported that Labour MPs were also pushing back against the Supreme Court ruling. Andrew Western, a work and pensions minister, told one of his constituents that he felt the case was 'completely unnecessary' and he appreciated 'the fear and distress that has resulted' from it. Josh Newbury, the MP for Cannock Chase, said that it was 'clear' to him 'that trans women are women and that trans men are men'.