legal

Argentina gives UK two weeks to cease operations or face maritime court action.

Argentinian President Javier Milei has threatened the British government with legal action unless it stops an oil project off the disputed Falkland Islands, the British-administered territory over which Buenos Aires claims sovereignty.

Milei gave the United Kingdom a two-week ultimatum on Monday evening, saying it must halt all work on the Sea Lion oil project or Argentina will ask the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a maritime court in Hamburg, Germany, to order a stop to the project.

He called the operations “the illegal plundering of our resources” and declared “Argentina will not stand idly by” as the UK causes “irreversible and irreparable” damage.

The companies developing the project, Israel’s Navitas and Britain’s Rockhopper, have shrugged off Argentina’s threats, insisting they have valid exploration licences issued by the UK.

The tribunal, an independent court established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, can issue legally binding emergency orders. But even if it ordered the UK to halt the project, it has no means of forcing the government to comply.

The UK rejects Argentina’s sovereignty claim, arguing that the islanders have the right to determine their own future and develop their natural resources. In a referendum in 2013, residents of the Falklands voted overwhelmingly to remain a British overseas territory. Argentina says the islands were populated illegally.

Milei’s administration has already taken legal action against the project authorised by Britain, arguing it violates a United Nations resolution calling for both sides to desist from unilateral actions in the islands until their dispute is resolved.

Buenos Aires has doubled down on its claim over the Falklands since United States President Donald Trump said Washington was open to reviewing its historically neutral stance on the territory.

The British government for its part has said it stands behind the businesses operating near the Falklands.

The dispute over the Falkland Islands led to a war between Britain and Argentina in 1982. It killed 649 Argentinian soldiers, 255 British soldiers and three islanders after Argentina invaded the archipelago that year.

Manchester City‘s legal fight with the Premier League has the potential to “spiral out of control”, a former top club executive has warned.

Christian Purslow, a former Liverpool managing director and Aston Villa chief executive, who also held a senior role at Chelsea, said the case could begin a chain of events that would be “appalling for the game”.

City have been found guilty of the vast majority of 115 charges brought forward by the Premier League.

The club were accused of a wide range of rule breaches which centred around claims that they inflated sponsorship revenue from connected companies and made other “off the books” payments to circumvent football’s financial rules.

Premier League clubs are seeking legal advice about compensation relating to the charges, while BBC Sport has been told that City will appeal.

Sanctions on the club are yet to be announced, but repercussions could include a points deduction, expulsion from the Premier League or a huge fine.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Purslow appeared alongside football law expert Paul Gilroy KC, who described the case as a “seismic moment for world football”.

Purslow said: “It’s a sort of ‘where does this end?’ because if you look at every single season – the nine seasons which we now know Manchester City breached rules – then all of their 19 Premier League rivals in that season, to differing extents, suffered easy-to-compute loss. Whether it was a place in the Premier League – every place was worth £3m.

“Teams that came fifth who didn’t make the Champions League maybe lost tens of millions of pounds – and of course teams that were relegated. Let’s say the team that finished 18th would’ve finished 17th if Manchester City weren’t there. And they, of course, suffered huge loss.

“If you add all those claims up, over nine years, and that’s just in the Premier League, you can see that the potential here for this to spiral out of control is huge.

“I really hope that common sense prevails here and that there is a comprehensive solution between the authorities and Manchester City that looks at all these issues and tries to draw a line in the sand.

“Because a never-ending waterfall of legal claims and uncertainties for another four or five years would be absolutely appalling for the game.”

Gilroy added that, so far, four clubs have put in protective claims “reserving the right to claim compensation if City are found guilty”.

A three-part series following investigative reporters and police investigators who were instrumental in holding Gary Glitter accountable for his sex abuse crimes has been paused

Netflix has paused the release of an investigative docuseries into disgraced Gary Glitter’s history of sexually abusing minors.

The streaming giant has issued a statement confirming that the three-part series will no longer be released on October 14 as they originally announced.

A spokesperson for Netflix said: “We have made the decision to pause the release of Hunting Gary Glitter originally due to launch on October 14.

“This follows new legal information we recently became aware of. We’re not able to share further detail at this time, but we’ll provide an update as soon as we’re in a position to do so.”

The synopsis for the series states: “A string of dogged journalists chases fugitive pop star Gary Glitter across the globe — from Cuba to Cambodia to Vietnam — determined to expose the child sexual abuse he concealed behind decades of chart-topping fame.

“This documentary follows their pursuit alongside the survivors who speak out, charting Glitter’s 1997 conviction, through to his years on the run, and eventual incarceration.”

The rocker, real name Paul Gadd, was a popular British glam rocker in the 1970s and sang numerous hits like Do You Wanna Touch Me and I Love You Love Me Love.

In 1999, his popularity was derailed by numerous allegations of child sexual abuse and subsequent conviction for possession of child pornography.

Later, in 2006, he was jailed in Vietnam for the sexual abuse of two girls. In 2015, he was convicted of sexually abusing three additional young girls.

In 2023, Gadd was released for a short time on probation before being reincarcerated. Police did not publicly say how he violated the terms of his release.

Featured in the trailer of Hunting Gary Glitter, the docuseries uses first-person interviews to detail Gladd’s original convictions and years hopping from country to country, including Vietnam, Cuba, and Cambodia to avoid prosecution and jail time.

The advert was released alongside the initial announcement but has now been pulled as has all the other assets from Netflix’s media website.

Hunting Gary Glitter was due to be released on Netflix on October 14 but has been paused

In April 2022, Moore tested positive for nandrolone and boldenone at a WTA 250 event in Bogota, with an independent tribunal ruling in December 2023 that contaminated meat was the source.

Moore, who was Britain’s leading women’s doubles player at the time of the failed test, was found to bear “no fault or negligence”, but the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) appealed against the decision.

Last year, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruled in favour of the ITIA and Moore was banned until 2028.

Moore then initiated proceedings with the American Arbitration Association, in which she claimed the WTA’s “failure to warn against eating meat in Colombia was a direct cause of her positive test result and the harm that followed”.

The arbitrator supported the ruling made by Cas and dismissed the case against the WTA.

In response, Moore filed a motion against the decision at the United States District Court in New York.

Moore, who was ranked a career-high 77th in the world in 2022, claimed she was denied a fair hearing by the arbitrator.

The motion detailed how Moore was seeking “no less than $20m in compensatory damages” after claiming the WTA “stayed silent in the face of a known and specific danger and then shifted the blame for its own negligence” to the player.

On Friday, United States district judge Andrew Carter found Moore’s challenge was “not justified” on a legal basis.

The WTA and ITIA have been approached for comment.

BBC The Split spin-off The Split Up is here and it features a number of exciting guest stars.

Two British comedy icons are taking on rather less cheerful roles in BBC drama The Split Up.

Sir Lenny Henry and Jane Horrocks play a couple whose marriage is falling apart in the Manchester-set spin-off from The Split.

Their characters’ divorce puts them at the heart of a high-profile case for the Kishan family’s law firm.

Comic Relief co-founder Henry appears in the opening minutes as Alex Edwards, an old friend of the Kishans.

Meanwhile, Absolutely Fabulous, Little Voice and Trollied stra Jane Horrocks features later on in the debut episode as his wife Tash Edwards.

Alex decides to end their marriage after photographs emerge suggesting Tash has been having an affair with “someone half your age”, reports Wales Online.

Speaking to lawyer Aria Kishan (played by Ritu Arya), a devastated Alex looks back on the start of their relationship: “We met when I was 19. Working in a chippy.

“I didn’t know what I was doing or where I was going. And then she turned up and just made sense of it all.”

The role also brings Henry into a drama alongside his life-long friend Sanjeev Bhaskar, who plays Aria’s father, Dhruv. Henry previously appeared in Bhaskar’s sitcom The Kumars at No 42.

Bhaskar was full of praise for his friend’s performance when he told Digital Spy: “I saw Lenny last week actually and I told him how brilliant I thought he was in it and I think he was quite surprised at his own performance.

“I think it’s a testament to the writing and to the directing to get that out of him.”

Henry and Horrocks are not the only recognisable names joining the cast either with The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil also set to feature as Nisha Mantri.

Away from Alex and Tash’s marital troubles, the six-part series follows Aria as she prepares to take over the family firm while planning her wedding.

Her mother died six months earlier, and Dhruv, the founder of Kishan Law, is beginning to doubt whether his daughter is ready for the responsibility.

In addition, the return of a former flame adds another complication to Aria’s life.

The Split Up is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

In one corner is bnb-side, a six-room bed and breakfast on the Isle of Portland – a tiny wedge of limestone tied by a narrow ribbon of shingle to the Dorset coast – that was created to help secure the future of the rock’s much-loved arts festival, b-side.

On the other is Airbnb, the San Francisco-based booking colossus. The battle between them is over the three little letters they share.

b-side says the “bnb” in bnb-side means what it has always meant: bed and breakfast. But lawyers for the Silicon Valley titan say the name of the guesthouse, perched on an outcrop just 4 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, threatens the global brand of the $100bn heavyweight.

“We thought the name was both really obvious and really cool,” said Rocca Holly-Nambi, director of b-side. “b-side was founded almost 20 years ago, so when we set up our BnB in 2024 to raise money for the festival, we just popped the ‘bn’ in front because it’s a universally recognised description of what we’re offering.”

Airbnb doesn’t agree. In May, it sent the first of three legal letters to the tiny social enterprise to demand it cease its attempt to register the B&B using the name it had used since it opened its doors.

“They won’t let us compromise by using a different case, an ampersand or an ‘and’,” said Holly-Nambi. “According to Airbnb, we can’t describe our BnB as a BnB at all.”

For bnb-side, losing the argument could mean more than abandoning a clever name. It would mean replacing signage and rewriting websites, social media and all other material referencing and advertising the B&B.

“That’s not just a huge waste of money – of which we don’t have much – and of the equally valuable time of our volunteers, but it would throw b-side’s core income stream into chaos,” said Holly-Nambi. “We’d have to painstakingly build our reputation and brand back up from scratch all over again.”

Raina Summerson, chair of b-side, is fuming and incredulous. “We opened bnb-side because we were completely dependent on public funding and wanted to be more financially secure,” she said. “bnb-side now generates almost half the festival’s annual £250,000 turnover. If it loses its name, we risk having to establish it all over again.”

Airbnb has opposed the name on three separate legal grounds: that consumers will confuse the two brands, that bnb-side could benefit from or damage Airbnb’s reputation, and that bnb-side will financially profit by misrepresenting itself as an official Airbnb service.

b-side is asking the Intellectual Property Office to reject Airbnb’s opposition in full, with costs awarded in their favour. The case is still under way, with no ruling having yet been made.

Airbnb’s claim has hit a nerve on the proud, windswept outcrop. Cat Wightman, manager of bnb-side, said: “It’s pretty bitter. We’ve watched other small, local hospitality businesses go under, and local people unable to afford homes here, who have been negatively affected by the force with which the Airbnb market has conquered Portland. One person owns eight properties on the island, all of which are rented out on Airbnb.”

b-side obtained pro bono advice and is working with the law firm Stevens Hewlett & Perkins to defend them, but the process is still intimidating. “It’s terrifying but we’re not going to back down,” said Holly-Nambi. “We do things differently here in Portland.”

Craig Beaumont, a trademark attorney and senior associate at Barker Brettell, a law firm that specialises in intellectual property, said that for all Airbnb’s might, this would not be an easy or straightforward win for them.

“This feels like an uphill battle they’re embarking on,” he said. “BnB has long been widely understood as shorthand for a descriptive phrase, and descriptive phrases are available for the public to use.”

bnb-side are not the only company who agree with Beaumont: Companies House records show that in the past decade 14 accommodation companies with “bnb” in their name successfully registered their businesses.

Darren Meale, a partner and trademark litigation specialist at Simmons & Simmons, said it was no surprise the term was used so often. “It’s quite punchy of Airbnb to say they’re so well-known that they can monopolise a term that they only incorporated into their name in the first place because it was a descriptive one that everyone immediately understood, and then say that someone else using the term is going to confuse customers and damage them.”

Lee Curtis, a partner and chartered trademark attorney at IP law firm HGF, agreed that Airbnb “may be testing the limits” of the law. But he pointed to another risk for the lodging colossus.

“There’s a public relations angle to take into account,” he said. “Some companies may welcome getting a reputation for aggressive enforcement but that can backfire when the target is a community organisation, like this one.”

Airbnb has been approached for comment.

AN AMERICAN heavy metal group has confirmed they are locked in a legal battle with the estate of their late bandmate.

The Blood and Thunder hitmakers have been forced to release a statement to their Instagram page addressing the previously-unearthed feud and how they will proceed.

Oblivion singers Mastodon, a Grammy-nominated band formed in Atlanta, told how what they deem a “meritless lawsuit” is centred on their late Brent Hinds.

The band’s guitarist Brent quit the group in March 2025 after 25 years together, prior to his death in a motorcycle crash in the August.

The group’s founding member passed aged 51, after his Harley-Davidson collided with a BMW SUV.

Prior to his death it appeared there were frictions between the musician and the band, and this only seems to have developed a year since the tragedy.

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Mastodon have now told of the fresh legal woe and uploaded a statement which read: “Sadly, a private business dispute with the estate of our dear departed friend Brent Hinds was made public.

“We strongly deny allegations of ill intent on our part and intend to vigorously defend what we believe is a meritless lawsuit.

“We don’t intend to speak publicly on this going forward, as we feel this wouldn’t honour Brent’s memory or the legacy of his musical gifts”.

Fans were quick to respond to support the group, who now are formed of Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher, Brann Dailor, Nick Johnston and João Nogueira.

One wrote: “Nobody’s business but yours. The fans are here for the music my guys. Congrats on the excellent new album”.

A second put: “We love Brent, we love Mastodon”.

A third posted: “This is really disheartening. Hoping things can be resolved”.

Last year, Brent told Billboard that his departure from the group was not mutual.

He then said the remaining members “kicked me out”.

This came after the band said they had “mutually decided to part ways”.

The new lawsuit has seen a civil complaint filed by the Hind estate, against the band’s members, on behalf of the late musician on September 3 according to loudwire.com.

As per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the lawsuit claims Mastodon failed to pay Brent for his share of the business after his exit.

It claims although the wheels were in motion for the group to buy him out of his share in “band related business” he had not in fact signed the paperwork prior to his passing.

As such, it claims his stake remains valid.

Representatives for his estate also suggest Brent’s image was also used to present the band’s Marrow Deep album, in the same legal challenge.

The lawsuit claimed: “Defendants selected and placed a recognizable image of Brent on the album cover of Marrow Deep and disseminated that cover to advertise, market, distribute and sell physical albums, digital downloads and streams, merchandise and related goods or services”.

Jamaica’s campaign for reparations from the United Kingdom is part of a broader push for countries to pay for their roles in the transatlantic slave trade and hundreds of years of slavery.

Momentum is building. In March, a United Nations resolution said the claims represent a step towards a remedy for the descendants of enslaved people. Most Western countries abstained from the vote, and the United States opposed it.

In June, African and Caribbean nations met in Ghana – where hundreds of thousands of people were forced onto slave ships. They put together a plan for reparatory justice, which would include debt relief and other support for African nations.

Last month, a UN committee said governments are obliged by law to consider paying damages.

So, will the legal argument boost the case for reparations?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Hilary Beckles – vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies and chairman of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Reparations Commission

Lawrence Goldman – emeritus fellow in history at St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, and former editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Patrick Vernon – British historian and social commentator knighted in 2026 for his services to racial equality and social justice

US sanctions Turkish bank over alleged IRGC ties, accusing it of facilitating millions in transactions for Iran.

The United States Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on a Turkish bank and its subsidiaries over alleged ties to Iran, as Washington seeks to economically isolate Tehran.

The Treasury Department accused Golden Global Yatirim Bankasi Anonim Sirketi (Golden Global Bank) on Friday of facilitating “tens of millions of dollars’ worth of transactions for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force” and providing the Iranian government with banking access to move its funds internationally.

Washington alleged the bank “was established for the purpose of enabling Iran’s rahbar network [shadow banking system] to transfer oil revenues from China to Turkey” using gold and cash.

Golden Global Bank responded on Friday, saying it fulfilled all local and international banking compliance rules and would take legal action against the US-imposed sanctions.

There are no transactions conducted by Golden Global Bank that could substantiate the claims made by the US, the bank said in a news release.

“We will exercise all our rights of objection and legal recourse in the most effective manner and will take the necessary actions at the earliest against these allegations and the decision,” the Turkish bank added.

“Financial institutions continue to find out the hard way that we are serious about Operation Economic Outcast,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in a statement published by the department on Friday.

The sanctions place the bank and its two subsidiaries on the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)’s Specially Designated Nationals list, cutting off access to the US financial system.

The bank said individuals and entities named in the OFAC decision “have never been and are not currently customers” of Golden Global.

US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack said on Saturday that it would be a mistake for Turkish officials “to read [the US’s] narrow measure as a judgement upon Turkiye”.

“The health of the Turkish financial system is not in question; the conduct of one institution was,” Barrack said on X.

Last week, the US took steps towards severing the UAE operations of Egypt’s second-largest bank from financial access after accusing it of processing transactions for companies linked to Iran’s shadow-banking system.

Bessent said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a G20 summit that Washington would likely announce a bank sanction this week and another next week, as it ramps up its economic campaign against Tehran.