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A police force has defended spending nearly €15,000 on a coffee machine after criticism from auditors. Police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia spent a total of €4.66 million on a new "innovation lab" which was originally set to cost just €250,000.

A drag queen who was subjected to a campaign of online abuse after hosting a children's storytelling event has instructed Belfast firm Phoenix Law to take legal action. Lady Portia Di'Monte was one of the two drag performers running the family-friendly event at Holywood Arches Library in Belfast as

Northern Ireland's agriculture, environment and rural affairs minister was welcomed to Law Society House this week for a high-level seminar on climate policy and legal engagement. The first-of-its-kind event was hosted by the Law Society of Northern Ireland's climate justice group and featured a mod

A man who lost his job after suffering two strokes is to receive a £100,000 settlement after taking action with support from the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Clifford Donaldson accused his former employer, Fraser Partners Ltd, of disability and age discrimination. The case has bee

A beauty salon has been ordered to pay €1,500 in compensation after discriminating against a Traveller mother and her two daughters. FLAC represented the mother and daughters, who have not been named, in the proceedings before the Workplace Relations Commission.

TLT has appointed commercial real estate expert Jonathan O’Hagan as a partner in the firm's Belfast office. Mr O'Hagan joins TLT from DWF, bringing over 10 years' experience in the real estate sector, and has been hired to help meet growing client demand for cross-jurisdictional real esta

Mayo-based J.V. Geary Solicitors has moved to a formal partnership structure, with principal solicitor John Geary welcoming his long-standing colleague Ita Feeney as a partner in the firm. The firm, based on Linenhall Street in Castlebar, was established by Mr Geary in 2010 and has since grown to a

Elon Musk's social media platform, X, played a central role in spreading misinformation and hate which fuelled racist riots across England and Northern Ireland last summer, according to a new report. Amnesty International says the platform's content-ranking algorithms enabled toxic, racist, and fals

Northern Ireland's Department for Infrastructure has served a notice of appeal against a High Court ruling quashing a decision to proceed with the first phase of the A5 dual carriageway project. Mr Justice Gerry McAlinden ruled at the end of June that the Department for Infrastructure had failed to

Germany's data protection watchdog is seeking the input of Irish stakeholders as part of a public consultation into AI and memorisation. The consultation is intended to contribute to the development of data protection-compliant approaches for dealing with personal data in the context of large langua

Indonesia's human rights minister has called for a crackdown on the flying of a straw-wearing skull-and-crossbones flag from a popular Japanese anime. An online protest movement has encouraged members of the public to raise the pirate flag from TV series One Piece in place of the Indonesian flag, Th

A woman who was unfairly dismissed by a packaging manufacturer has been awarded nearly £88,000 by the Industrial Tribunal of Northern Ireland. Rosaleen Conway was employed by JMC Packaging Limited from 1 June 2022 until 20 October 2023, initially as chief financial officer and later as finance

The Court of Appeal has upheld an injunction preventing a subsidiary of Danone from launching a range of skyr yoghurt products in Ireland pending a full trial in a passing-off dispute raised by rival company Yoplait. Yoplait Ireland Limited, which has sold skyr products in Ireland since 2022, brough

Senior figures in Northern Ireland's criminal justice and human rights sectors are among the newest cohort in the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building's fellowship programme. This year's 28 fellows include Anna McClung of the Department of Justice, Rhyannon Blythe of the Northern Ireland Human Ri

Increased liability for suppliers and strict EU-wide bans on vague environmental claims are among the key legal trends identified in a new report from Mason Hayes & Curran. The firm's product and consumer protection mid-year review for 2025 examines a significant EU court ruling in the Ford Ital