French interior minister says former president will have two officers in nearby cells at all times after beginning five-year sentence for illegal campaign funding The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will have two police officers stationed in nearby cells while he is in prison to ensure he comes to no harm, France’s interior minister has said. Sarkozy arrived at La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin a five-year sentence after being convicted of conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya – a stunning downfall for a man who led the country between 2007 and 2012. Continue reading...

Monarch’s unprecedented speech from the throne comes amid Trump’s repeated threats that the US should annex Canada and make it the 51st state Earlier this morning, Alan Garber, president of Harvard University, told NPR’s Morning Edition that elite institutions need to double down on their “commitment to the good of the nation” and “be firm in our commitments to what we stand for”. Garber said he finds the measures taken by the Trump administration to be “perplexing”; while he acknowledges there is work to be done on campus regarding viewpoint diversity, he said he struggles to see a link between funding freezes and fighting antisemitism. I think that we have heard from some people that they do feel that [Harvard lacks viewpoint diversity]. What is perplexing is the measures that they have taken to address these that don’t even hit the same people that they believe are causing the problems. Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift. The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work – research work – that the federal government designates as high-priority work. It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted. Shutting off that work does not help the country, even as it punishes Harvard, and it is hard to see the link between that and, say, antisemitism. I would say that the federal government has the authority through the budgeting process to reallocate funds. But the question to ask is what problem is [Trump] trying to solve by doing that? The money that goes to research universities in the form of grants and contracts, which is almost all of the federal support that we get, is used to pay for work that we perform at the behest of the government. So in reallocating to some other use, including trade schools, it means that work just won’t be performed. So the right question is, is this the most effective use of federal funding? Do you really want to cut back on research dollars? I’m less concerned about whether it goes to a trade school or if it goes to some other project, like working on highways. The real question is, how much value does the federal government get from its expenditures on research? There is a lot of actual research demonstrating the returns to the American people have been enormous. I would say that we need to be firm in our commitments to what we stand for. And what we stand for – I believe I speak for other universities – is education, pursuit of the truth, helping to educate people for better futures. And hopefully our own students, after they graduate from our institutions, go out and serve the world. In the end, we’re about producing and disseminating knowledge and serving our nation and our world. When we fail in that, then we can expect to be attacked. So number one, I think we all need to redouble our commitment to the good of the nation and the world. And I know my fellow leaders fully embrace that. Continue reading...

The latest loss of an F/A-18 fighter jet occurred during a failed landing aboard the USS Harry S. Truman, an aircraft carrier in the Red Sea.

Deal could help UK industries hit by Trump tariffs, as ministers say it will add £4.8bn a year to economy by 2040 * UK politics live – latest updates Britain and India have agreed a long-desired trade deal that ministers said would add £4.8bn to the UK economy a year by 2040. The agreement, which was finalised on Tuesday after more than three years of negotiations under successive governments, has long been touted as one of the biggest prizes of Brexit. Continue reading...