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A New Zealand bank has found itself in the middle of a free-speech row after attempting to remove explicit memes of its new sheep mascot from social media. Kiwi Bank introduced Buck in June with an ad campaign designed to encourage customers to stop "following the flock".

The Council of Europe has called on Belarus to halt executions as part of renewed efforts to abolish capital punishment across Europe. The call came as the organisation held its first event at its Information Point for Belarusians in Vilnius, Lithuania, yesterday, marking the World Day Against the D

The judiciary in England and Wales will allow AI to support court work but not replace judicial decision-making, under a new position statement setting out safeguards for the technology’s use. The statement, issued by Sir Colin Birss, president of the business and property division and lead ju

The Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has written to First Minister John Swinney following the publication of updated statistics showing a rise in deaths related to illicit drugs. The human rights watchdog says the continued scale of drug deaths in Scotland remains a serious human rights conce

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) has called for “transformational change” as the Scottish government prepares to overhaul the publicly funded system. SLAB has set out its proposals in response to a government consultation on reform, amid concerns about the current system’s &ldqu

Thorntons has appointed Stephanie Mann as a partner in its Aberdeen office to lead the firm’s residential property practice in the city. Mann was born and educated in Aberdeen and has built her career in the North East. She trained at Aberdein Considine, spent six years with the firm, ran its

The UK government has launched a consultation on rewarding whistleblowers who report economic crime such as fraud and bribery.

Thieves have stolen 30,000 bottles of wine worth €5m (£4.2m) from a prestigious Tuscan winery in what is believed to be Italy’s biggest heist of its kind. At least seven masked intruders disabled alarms and CCTV at Marchesi Antinori, a family business established in 1385, before usi

The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), escalating its campaign against an institution it regards as a threat to American sovereignty. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the measures, which prohibit US entities from conducting transactio

The Ministry of Justice is piloting virtual courts in London and Sheffield to ease pressure on the criminal justice system south of the border, as the UK government prepares to abandon plans for juryless trials. The scheme will allow judges, defendants, lawyers, witnesses and court staff to particip

The Crown Office has lodged a first notice to begin the court process for a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the death of Kenneth Divers. The 80-year-old, a prisoner within HMP Low Moss, diedat the Glasgow Royal Infirmary on 2 February 2025

A coalition of community groups and environmental organisations has been launched to campaign for tighter regulation of sewage discharges in Scotland and greater protection for rivers, lochs, seas and public health. The Clean Up Scotland’s Sewage Coalition said Scottish Water recorded 100,044

Scotland’s housing market is largely showing strong signs of underlying demand, despite a lower level of sales and listings in recent months, according to the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Residential Market Survey.

A sheriff principal has ruled that the death of a man who plunged from a high-rise flat in Aberdeen might have been prevented if information about screams for help had been correctly recorded during a 999 call. Jamie Forbes, 37, was held captive and tortured for two days at Elphinstone Court in Janu

A Birmingham businessman who bought a three-bedroom house from the city council for £395,000 inadvertently acquired a primary school because of a paperwork error, The Daily Mail reports. Sukhjit Bains, 50, bought the property at auction in 2013, but his solicitor used a TR1 form that transferr