Law

ByteDance plans to spend $7 billion on the chips in 2025, according to reporting from The Information, citing inside sources. If ByteDance follows through, it will become one of the world’s top owners of Nvidia chips, despite U.S. efforts to restrict Chinese companies from buying U.S. AI chips like these.

In 2022, the U.S. announced export restrictions on certain kinds of AI chips to countries, including China, where ByteDance is headquartered. These restrictions have gotten tighter multiple times since.

ByteDance is technically adhering to these restrictions by using a loophole: The company isn’t bringing the chips directly to China and is instead storing them in data centers located in other regions like Southeast Asia, according to The Information’s reporting. This doesn’t technically violate U.S. restrictions.

Snigger. Just stick the chips in a data centre not in China.

Post Office spent at least £130m of taxpayers’ money defending itself in Horizon inquiry
Company’s annual report shows costs of £132m up to March 2024 in inquiry that ended this week

Those trying to argue their way out would, at least, have had to pay their own lawyers.

Immigration judges backed his claim and rejected an appeal by the Home Office against him remaining in the UK. They ruled that it would breach his right to a family life based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and that there was a risk of persecution because of his Kurdish birthright.

The tribunal was told that he was a “reformed” character, that his wife had stood by him over the affair and that his deportation would split the family as she would not be able to go to Turkey with him owing to her responsibility to support her two daughters and two grandchildren in the UK.

That is a significant burden to weigh againt….well, against what?

A Turkish crime boss said to be one of Britain’s biggest drug dealers will not be deported after judges ruled it would breach his human rights, the Telegraph can reveal.

The man, who was jailed for 16 years for plotting to supply heroin across the UK, won the right to remain in the country on the basis that it would breach his human right to a family life, even though he had an extra-marital affair with a woman in Turkey.

Everything is costs and benefits, no? The trick beng to find the balance.

Deportation I would have thought……

By tapping two combative ultra-loyalists to run the FBI and the justice department, Donald Trump has sparked fears they will pursue the president-elect’s calls for “revenge” against his political foes and sack officials who Trump demonizes as “deep state” opponents, say ex-justice department prosecutors.

Ooooh, no, no, noooooo.

Don’t do to us what we’ve been doing to them for years now, no, noooooo.

He went on to suggest his son was “treated differently” because of his father’s status.

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unravelled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.”

Even the damn judge couldn’t swallow the deal. Because it tried to contain a resolution of everything he could possibly be charged with, ever, for anything up to that date. A plea deal that had just covered roughly and approximately the things alleged and things connected would almost cerrtainly have sailed through. But everything? Nahh……

A resolution of everything drugs, guns, taxes and tarts could have been achieved. One that covered all of Burisma – whether or not there will be charges there etc – and Ukraine and China and….by dint of pleading guilty to drugs and guns and taxes? Nope.

Telling someone with a foreign accent you can’t understand them could be racial harassment, a senior tribunal judge has said.

Commenting on or criticising the way someone from another country or ethnic group speaks could breach employment law, Judge James Tayler said.

A friend went through this (New York firm) decades back:

If you are a young and ambitious lawyer, landing a job at an American law firm in London is the pinnacle of status and pay. But you have to “sell your soul” for it, in the words of Oliver, 27, a newly qualified solicitor in London. US companies are now offering starting salaries of £170,000. In return, staff must work evenings, weekends and on holiday.

These “zillennial” lawyers (aged 26-29) now routinely work more than 70 hours a week in the Square Mile, according to research conducted by the website Legal Cheek. Top US firms pay the best and demand the most from their NQs (newly qualified staff), taking the 11 top spots in the table listing hours worked. Most demanding is Weil, Gotshal & Manges, where young lawyers rack up an average of 67.5 hours, Monday to Friday (an average of 13 hours 23 minutes on every weekday), with weekend working taking their total hours to more than 70 a week. In return, the firm’s starting salary is £170,000. Second is Kirkland & Ellis, demanding an average of 13 hours 3 minutes every weekday and paying starting salaries of £172,000.

Increasingly, top British law firms have the same work ethic. At Linklaters, junior solicitors log more than 60 hours on average (11 hours 39 minutes per day) while at its rival, Freshfields, juniors are reported to be turning in 56.5 hours a week over five days (11 hours 31 minutes per day). These firms offer starting salaries of £150,000.

That’s not working hours. That’s billable hours. Not time at desk, but how many hours – in 6 minute increments – the punters get charged for.

This works both ways. A 30 sec phone call gets billed as 6 minutes. Because that’s the minimum charge. But that chat with the boss about putting nose to grindstone isn’t time at work – because no client is being billed for it.

As laddie said back then, the money’s great, the life not so much.

Special counsel prosecutors will shut down their criminal cases against Donald Trump before he takes office, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter, after his stunning victory against Kamala Harris meant they would not proceed to trial.

The move reflects the reality that the cases will not be completed before inauguration day. Once the former president returns to the White House, the special counsel’s office would be prohibited from pursuing further criminal actions under justice department policy.

Well, there’s that. You’ve got to impeach a sitting President, not lawfare against him.

But possibly the real reason is that as the cases didn’t work as lawfare then why bother?

Time’s up for status quo on assisted dying
It makes no sense to preserve a law that waits for a patient to die before deciding whether they were pressured into it

Continue with the system as it is – many a Granny’s aided over that edge in the final day or three with a bolus of heroin – and everyone who does that is at least potentially chargeable with murder. It’s then up to 12 good and true to decide.

We already have assisted dying. Along with a fairly strict limitation upon it.

Chris Packham has been forced to pay £200,000 to a pensioner and country sportsman he was accused of pursuing ‘vindictively” through the courts, it has been claimed.

In 2023, the naturalist and BBC presenter was awarded £90,000 in damages after the High Court upheld his defamation claims against two contributors to Country Squire, an online magazine that wrongly accused him of misleading people into donating to a tiger rescue charity.

But his case against Paul Read, a 70-year-old grandfather who was the proofreader for some of the magazine articles, was thrown out by the High Court judge.

It meant Packham, 63, became liable for the pensioner’s legal costs, and Mr Read has now claimed his damages have been dwarfed by that bill.

I mean, seriously, going after the proofreader?

Tessa Gregory, of Leigh Day,

Oh, those grifters? No wonder…..

….if you win, of course:

First prize will win a meeting with Lady Simler, a tour of the Court, and a UK Supreme Court coffee table book, and a certificate signed by Lady Simler.

Second price will be two meetings…..

The Legal Feminist, a forum to discuss feminist issues in the legal system, is preparing to fight back against proposals from the industry regulator which could see barristers punished if they fail to act in a way which “advances equality, diversity, and inclusion”.

Barrister Naomi Cunningham, who specialises in discrimination, said she fears the vagueness of a new proposal from the Bar Standards Board (BSB) paves the way for “arbitrary enforcement” meaning barristers with “unpopular or unfashionable views” get excluded.

All very Vyshynsky, isn’t it? Lawyers would routinely berate the people they were supposedly defending for shaming Comrade Stalin etc…

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.

His decision to plead guilty to misdemeanour and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors, caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father, Joe Biden’s political career.

Interesting bit of American legal trivia. A President usually announces a list of pardons and commutations on his last day in office. One of the rules about such is that only cases which are finally finished can be so pardoned or the sentences commuted.

Jus’ Sayin’

A seven-year row between three brothers and their sister over their mother’s £1 million inheritance is “out of control”, a High Court judge has said.

David, Nino and Remo Rea have fought with their sister Rita Rea, a tennis coach, since 2017, after their mother Anna Rea left her daughter her home, which made up nearly all her fortune.

A million quid!

handing her the £1 million house in South London at the centre of the battle.

That’s a two up two down terrace these days, no? Seems a bit indelicate to be snarling about such trivia, no?

Anyway, the lawyers will have eaten it all already:

David, Nino and Remo Rea have fought with their sister Rita Rea, a tennis coach, since 2017, after their mother Anna Rea left her daughter her home, which made up nearly all her fortune.

The case has been through the courts five times, running up massive legal bills.

No, that’s gone.

In Rotherham, a hotel used to house asylum seekers was set ablaze, and another in Tamworth was targeted by anti-immigration protesters.

In Bolton, Muslim groups shouting “Allahu Akbar” clashed with far-Right rioters.

A mob in Middlesbrough shouted “smash the p—s” and “there ain’t no black in the Union Jack” while targeting the homes of migrants, while footage on social media from elsewhere in the city appeared to show groups of Asian men attacking white men.

“‘Ee started it!” is not in fact a defence in law. Not unless you use only that violence necessary to stop the attack and thereby ensure your own safety. That is, that over here there’s a mob attacking non’Anglo Saxons is not a defence for those non-Anglos Saxons attacking Anglo Saxons 500 yards away.

Both or either are equally guilty of assaulty, GBH, riot, whatever.

Which does lead to that interesting question. Are the police and courts going to treat them the same way?

Even, which way will a former DPP tell everyone to jump?

Obviously, creating kiddie porn is worse than looking at it. Creating is the direct abuse of a kids to make the porn, right?

The man who shared indecent images of children with Huw Edwards, the former BBC presenter, received a suspended prison sentence in March this year after pleading guilty to seven offences, police have confirmed.

Alex Williams, 25, from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, shared the images with Edwards via WhatsApp.

Scotland Yard arrested Edwards in November last year after receiving information from colleagues in South Wales Police.

An examination of a phone seized by officers revealed Edwards’ participation in a WhatsApp conversation.

Right.

Huw Edwards, once the BBC’s most senior news presenter, has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

He admitted having 41 indecent images of children, which had been sent to him by another man on WhatsApp, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Eh? He received images – bad, criminal etc – but was charged with creating?

Ah, but you see……the image exists, but loading it into a browser – no really – means there are now two copies, server and browser. So that’s porn creation, see?

#At which point we can think one of two things. Either those who created the legislation didn;t understand how the common law interprets “creation” or they did and decided not to care. Which is worse is up to you.

Anjem Choudary jailed for at least 28 years over terror offences

UK should stop arming Israel after ICJ advisory ruling, top lawyer says
Exclusive: Philippe Sands KC says non-binding opinion will nevertheless be seen as ‘authoritative statement of law’

What did Mr. Sands say about selling arms to Israel before the court ruling? If it was already that such sales should stop then the court ruling hsa made no difference, has it?

If Trump v United States, the US supreme court majority’s shocking immunity decision on 1 July, left anyone unconvinced that America’s courts are on the ballot, federal judge Aileen Cannon just sealed the deal, dropping a sledgehammer on the rule of law. Just two weeks after the disgraceful immunity decision, she tossed out Trump’s prosecution for stealing national security documents after losing re-election, smashing the longstanding and vital authority of special counsels in the bargain.

This election, our constitutional republic is at stake, along with its first principle: no one, including the most powerful, is above the law. Only We, the People, can preserve the freedom and security our laws safeguard.

The finding was that the manner of appointment and funding of the office were unconstitutional. Now, that may be right and it may be wrong – I’ve no idea myself. But whatever else it is it’s an affirmation of the constitutional nature of the Republic, no?

Conversion therapy will be banned under a new law to be announced in the King’s Speech.

Sir Keir Starmer will push ahead with a ban at the first opportunity by including the proposals in Labour’s legislative agenda for its first year in office, to be set out on Wednesday.

The move comes despite fears that outlawing the practice, which attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, would risk criminalising parents who try to help children who think they are trans.

Strapping someone down, Clockwork Orange-style, might not even work let alone be morally permissible. And so , OK, illegal then.

Being anything less than wholly supportive would be seen by some as an attempt to deter the conversion.

So, what’s the definition of conversion therapy then?