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Marine Le Pen appeal trial ends with presidential race at stake

Defence lawyers for Marine Le Pen have told a Paris appeals court she did not orchestrate a system to misuse European parliament funds, at the close of an embezzlement trial that will determine whether the far-right leader can run in the 2027 French presidential election. Le Pen’s lawyer, Sandra Chirac Kollarik, told the court on Wednesday: “At no moment did Marine Le Pen imagine that she broke the rules.” She added: “Never in her life would she have deliberately accepted making a false contract.” Le Pen, 57, has denied organising a fake jobs scheme to embezzle European parliament funds. She told the court any job contracts for European parliament assistants were transparent and “we don’t have the feeling of having committed the slightest crime”. The leader of the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) had been one of the top contenders for next year’s presidential election until last March, when her conviction in the fake jobs trial led to her being barred from running for public office. Judges in that trial ruled Le Pen had been “at the heart” of a carefully organised system of embezzlement of European parliament funds from 2004 to 2016. They banned her from running for office for five years, effective immediately, and handed out a four-year prison sentence, with two of those years suspended and two to be served outside jail with an electronic bracelet. They also ordered her to pay a €100,000 fine. Le Pen, who is trained as a lawyer, appealed. During the appeal trial she has sought to overturn the verdict and sentence, denying wrongdoing and insisting she wanted to run again for president. The verdict and sentence – to be delivered before the summer – will determine her political future and whether she can make a fourth presidential attempt next year. If not, she would be replaced by her protege and party president, 30-year-old Jordan Bardella. Last week, state prosecutors asked appeal court judges to maintain the five-year election ban on Le Pen. If the judges grant that request, she would probably not be able to run in France’s 2027 presidential election. State prosecutors told the appeal court that Le Pen had been at the heart of a “thought-out”, “centralised” and almost “industrial” system to embezzle European parliament funds. They said taxpayer money allocated to members of the European parliament to pay their assistants based in Strasbourg or Brussels had been siphoned off by the party from 2004 to 2016, to pay its own workers in France, in violation of the parliament’s rules. The staff in France had no connection to work undertaken at the European parliament, prosecutors said. The loss to European funds was estimated at €4.8m (£4.2m). The party, called Front National at the time, made substantial savings through the system, prosecutors said. One state prosecutor, Thierry Ramonatxo, criticised Le Pen for making public attacks on judges after last year’s verdict, when she said a “tyranny of judges” wanted to stop her running in a presidential race that she could otherwise win. Ramonatxo said judges simply applied the law that had been voted for by the people’s representatives in parliament. He said Le Pen had “made a choice to attack judges on the political stage rather than to reflect upon what she had been reproached for”. The judges will retire to consider their verdict over several months.

Putin ‘trying to break the Ukrainian people – they will not be broken,’ says Nato’s Rutte - Europe live

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Nato secretary general Mark Rutte has warned that Russia’s president Putin “is trying to break the people of Ukraine, hoping to weaken their resolve,” but he drew on his last week’s visit to the country saying that “they have show time and again they will not be broken” (15:07, 15:18, 15:21). His comments come after Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned that “as long as Russia continues to kill people and destroy our infrastructure, there will not be sufficient public trust in active diplomacy” (13:43), amid reports of US putting pressure on Kyiv to end the war (10:17) despite continued Russian attacks. The trilateral US-Ukraine-Russia talks are expected to continue next week, Zelenskyy said (14:28). Key talks on European security are expected to be continued at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, which we will report live here, on Europe Live. Separately, Nato announced that its Arctic Sentry mission to strengthen the alliance’s presence and the regional security in the Arctic has now formally begun (13:11), seemingly in large part in response to Donald Trump’s recent complaints about the region’s security as he discussed his intention of acquiring Greenland (15:11, 15:24, 15:35). Meanwhile, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen insisted this morning that the EU needs to “tear down” the economic barriers that prevent it from becoming “a global giant” and deepen its internal market, as she kicked off 48 hours of intensive discussions on the bloc’s economy (9:51). Germany’s Friedrich Merz and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni emerged as leaders of a group of countries pushing for rapid reforms of the EU to increase the bloc’s competitiveness ahead of tomorrow’s crunch summit in Belgium (12:01). The commission has also outlined its plan to counter drone threats after months of disruptions caused by drones and meteorological balloons affecting major airports across the EU (11:38). Speaking of which, major disruptions loom in German air traffic on Thursday after calls by two unions for strikes by Lufthansa pilots and cabin crew (12:52). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Canada shooting: 10 dead including suspect in attack on Tumbler Ridge high school, police say

Nine people have been killed and dozens injured after an assailant opened fire at a school in western Canada, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the country’s history. The suspect was later found dead from what appeared to be a self-inflicted injury. Police found six dead inside the high school in the remote town of Tumbler Ridge in British Columbia, with a further two bodies found at a residence believed to be connected to the incident. Another person died on the way to hospital, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said. The suspected shooter was found dead at the school, police said, adding they did not believe there were any more suspects or ongoing threat to the public. Prime minister Mark Carney said he was “devastated” by the shootings. “I join Canadians in grieving with those whose lives have been changed irreversibly today, and in gratitude for the courage and selflessness of the first responders who risked their lives to protect their fellow citizens,” he said. “Our ability to come together in crisis is the best of our country – our empathy, our unity, and our compassion for each other.” The prime minister’s office said Carney had suspended plans to travel to Germany on Wednesday for the Munich security conference. More than two dozen people have been hospitalised – two with life-threatening injuries – in what British Columbia’s premier, David Eby, called an “unimaginable tragedy”. “It’s hard to know what to say on a night like tonight. It’s the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places and not close to home,” Eby told reporters. A police active shooter alert sent to people in the area described the suspect as “female in a dress with brown hair”. Police Supt Ken Floyd later confirmed at a news conference that the suspect described in the alert was the same person found dead in the school. Police did not say how many of the victims were minors. The District of Tumbler Ridge issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon, calling the shooting a “deeply distressing” incident for a community of less than 2,500. “We recognise that many residents may be feeling shocked, scared and overwhelmed,” the district said. “In the days ahead, we know this will be difficult for many to process. Please check in on one another, lean on available supports, and know that Tumbler Ridge is a strong and caring community.” Tumbler Ridge is a remote town in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern British Columbia, approximately 1,155km northeast of Vancouver. Tumbler Ridge secondary school has 160 students in grades 7 to 12, roughly ages 12 to 18, according to its website. The school will be closed for the rest of the week and counselling will be made available to those in need, school officials said. “There are no words that can ease the fear and pain that events like this cause in a school community,” the Tumbler Ridge Parent Advisory Council said in a statement. “We want families to know that the safety and wellbeing of students and staff are paramount, and we are grateful to the first responders and emergency personnel who acted quickly and professionally.” Officials said the town’s small police force was on the scene within two minutes of receiving a call, and that victims were still being assessed hours after the incident. British Columbia’s public safety minister, Nina Krieger, said at a press conference: “Speed and professionalism saved lives today.” Earlier, Krieger, said online that news of the shooting was “sending shockwaves through the community and the entire province”. Police initially issued an emergency active shooter alert on Tuesday afternoon after receiving reports of a shooting at the secondary school at about 1.20pm. The alert told residents to shelter in place, lock their doors and refrain from going outside. The RCMP alert was lifted at 5.45pm. Supt Floyd told reporters the scene of the shooting was “very dramatic” with extensive injuries. He said all remaining students and staff at the secondary school, numbering about 100 people, had been safely evacuated from the school. Floyd said police wouldn’t comment on a possible motive. “We’re following all leads to try to determine the connection to the shooter,” he said. “I think we will struggle to determine the ‘why’, but we will try our best to determine what transpired.” The town’s health centre was placed on Code Orange, signifying a mass-casualty incident or large-scale emergency response. But given the rural nature of the community, at least two victims were airlifted to larger hospitals. Shock Trauma Air Rescue Service (STARS) said one of its aircraft from Grande Prairie, Alberta, was requested for the incident. Because of Canada’s strict gun laws, which make it difficult to own both handguns or “assault-style weapons”, the country has experienced far fewer instances of mass violence compared with the United States. Still, the shooting is the second-deadliest school shooting in Canadian history. In 1989, a gunman killed 14 students at Montreal’s L’Ecole Polytechnique in an attack that targeted women. In 2016, five people were killed in a series in La Loche, Saskatchewan. Speaking to reporters, Eby, a father of three, said news of the shooting “makes you want to hug your kids a little tighter”. “Wrap these families with love. Not just tonight but tomorrow and into the future. This is something that will reverberate for years to come,” he said. He later added: “This is the kind of thing that feels like it happens in other places, and not close to home in a way that this feels like for many British Columbians and Canadians.”

Moscow preparing to evacuate Russian tourists from Cuba amid US oil blockade

Moscow has said it is planning to evacuate Russian tourists from Cuba within days as a fuel crisis triggered by US efforts to choke off the island’s oil supplies deepens. Russia’s aviation authorities said on Wednesday that two of its airlines serving the Caribbean island would operate outbound-only flights to bring tourists home before suspending services. Cuban aviation authorities had warned that the country was running out of jet fuel, threatening to derail its crucial tourism industry. Canada’s flag carrier said it would temporarily halt flights because of the fuel crisis, while several other airlines said they were rerouting planes to refuel at neighbouring Caribbean airports. Russia’s tourism board said about 4,000 Russian tourists were currently in Cuba. Many of them are state employees; Cuba, a longtime Kremlin ally, remains one of the few destinations Russian officials are allowed to visit under strict security service travel rules. The tourism board said all future tourist packages would be suspended. In online chat groups, Russians remaining on the island complained about fuel rationing and cuts to public transport as shortages deepened. Some said they had been moved to lower-grade hotels where the electricity supply was more stable. Cuba’s rapidly worsening situation follows a move by the Trump administration last month that in effect introduced an oil blockade on the island. The last known delivery came via a tanker from Mexico in early January, but Mexico halted exports amid US pressure. At the same time, crude flows from Venezuela have dried up after a US operation in January that resulted in the capture of Nicolás Maduro, cutting off support from Cuba’s most trusted energy supplier. The Kremlin said on Monday that the fuel situation was critical ‌and that ‌US attempts ‌to “suffocate” ⁠Cuba were causing ‌many difficulties. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, separately said Moscow stood in solidarity with Cuba and was “ready to provide our friends with all necessary support together with other like-minded partners”. It remains unclear what form that support could take, as the Kremlin is engaged in sensitive negotiations with the Trump administration, while its political and military focus remains fixed on the war in Ukraine – leaving little appetite for steps that could provoke Washington.

Iran’s president denies it seeks nuclear weapon and admits ‘shame’ after mass protests

Iran’s president insisted his country was not seeking a nuclear weapon as he acknowledged “great sorrow” after the authorities’ recent crackdown on protesters. Speaking to crowds gathered across Iran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, Masoud Pezeshkian sought to claim a message of national unity after demonstrations that roiled the country and triggered an unprecedented crisis for the regime. The comments were made against a backdrop of negotiations with the US that hang in the balance, with the prospect of a military confrontation on the table and repeated claims by Iranian military leadership that it is ready to confront and defeat America. On Tuesday, Donald Trump said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East to prepare for military action if talks with Tehran failed. Pezeshkian said Iran was willing to negotiate over its nuclear programme and was “ready for any kind of verification” in relation to its insistence it is not trying to build nuclear weapons. However, the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been unable for months to inspect and verify Iran’s nuclear stockpile. Pezeshkian said: “The high wall of mistrust that the United States and Europe have created through their past statements and actions does not allow these talks to reach a conclusion. “At the same time, we are engaging with full determination in dialogue aimed at peace and stability in the region alongside our neighbouring countries.” While he did not directly address the bloodshed by authorities in suppressing the protests, Pezeshkian said: “We are ashamed before the people. We are obliged to serve all those who were harmed in this process. We are ready to hear the voice of the people. We are servants of the people and we do not seek to confront the people.” However, Pezeshkian spurned an appeal from leaders of reformist parties to speak out against the mass arrest of their leadership in recent days. In a statement, the Reform Front told Pezeshkian that a failure to demand their release would be understood as a betrayal of his campaign promises and a blow to peace. Lawyers acting for the detained reformists said they understood they were being kept in solitary confinement. Media organisations close to the security forces claimed they were guilty of sedition by trying to organise a national conference to call for change. The 1979 commemorations featured state television showing hundreds of thousands of people at pro-government rallies, which included the burning of American flags and cries of “death to America!” Yet the night before, witnesses had heard shouts from people’s homes in the Iranian capital, Tehran, of “Death to the dictator!” Alongside the crowds in the streets, pictures circulated of empty school desks adorned with red roses commemorating children killed in the protests. A teachers’ union said it believed 213 children were killed. Other regime figures used the anniversary of the revolution as an opportunity to reassert their ideological supremacy. Brig gen Aziz Nasirzadeh, the defence minister, hailed the crowds as unique and claimed: “I have never seen such a passionate attendance in any year.” He added: “They have participated in this march with full awareness, and this presence is more powerful than any bomb or missile.” Away from the demonstrations, Iranian diplomats were trying to head off an attempt by Benjamin Netanyahu to toughen Trump’s negotiating stance with Iran before the Israeli leader’s meeting in the White House with him on Wednesday. An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said the country was ready to discuss a reduction in the enrichment of uranium. Israel wants the talks to include the question of Tehran’s ballistic missile programme, a matter that Iran has so far rejected. Tehran is determined that its stockpile of ballistic missiles, regarded as necessary for Iran’s defence, is excluded from the talks. Ali Shamkhani, a representative of the supreme leader, said the missile issue was not something that the negotiators had authority over. In his latest remarks, Trump suggested Iran’s nuclear missiles would have to be included in any agreement. Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, visited Qatar after holding three hours of talks with mediators in Oman on Tuesday. Larijani is trying to craft a response to US demands that will keep within Iran’s red lines but still make the US believe talks are worth continuing. Larijani kept open the possibility of wider talks with US, so long as next week’s talks are confined to guarantees about Iran’s civil nuclear programme. Larijani said: “If the current negotiations with the United States are successful, they can be expanded and extended to other areas as well. However, at the moment, I cannot say definitively whether this path will lead to talks about other disputes with the United States or not.”

Father of activist Anna Kwok convicted under Hong Kong national security law

A Hong Kong court has found the father of a wanted activist guilty of a national security violation, after he tried to end her insurance policy and withdraw the funds, drawing international criticism for the targeting of relatives of pro-democracy campaigners. Kwok Yin-sang, 68, is the first person to be charged under a homegrown national security law, also known as Article 23, for “attempting to deal with, directly or indirectly, any funds or other financial assets or economic resources” belonging to an absconder. His daughter, Anna Kwok, helps lead the Washington-based advocacy group Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC), and is one of 34 overseas activists wanted by Hong Kong national security police. She is accused of colluding with foreign forces and police have offered a bounty of 1m Hong Kong dollars (£93,740) for her arrest. Anna Kwok said the targeting of her father was an attempt by the authorities “to drive distance between me and other Hongkongers”. The regime wanted to “weaponise human emotions against me”, she added. “It has been a journey for me to find out what activism means.” In a separate statement published by the HKDC, she said: “The Hong Kong government’s retaliation does not and will not discourage me from my ongoing advocacy and activism.” Kwok Yin-sang was accused of trying to withdraw funds totalling 88,609 Hong Kong dollars from an education savings insurance policy he bought for her when she was almost two years old. He had pleaded not guilty and did not testify at the trial. The acting principal magistrate Cheng Lim-chi said since Anna Kwok was a fugitive, directly or indirectly handling her insurance policy is illegal. A sentence is expected to be announced within a few weeks. The maximum penalty is seven years in jail. According to the prosecution, when Kwok Yin-sang was arrested, he said under police caution: “I know my daughter is wanted by the security bureau. I was the one paying for her insurance policy. Since she’s no longer in Hong Kong, I just cut it.” He had initially been denied bail but was later granted bail by the high court, with conditions imposed including a travel ban and a ban on communication with his daughter. During the closing submission, his defence lawyer Steven Kwan argued that section 89 and 90 of Article 23 should not apply in a case where a person was simply handling an insurance policy he had bought a long time ago for his children. “This … is a form of prosecution based on family ties,” Kwan said. Anna Kwok’s brother was also arrested for the same crime, and is now on bail. Elaine Pearson, the Asia director for Human Right Watch, said: “The conviction of Kwok Yin-sang is cruel and vindictive, showing just how far Hong Kong authorities are willing to go to silence peaceful activism abroad.” The targeting of relatives of a person wanted by the authorities is common in mainland China, although is a relatively new phenomenon in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous city that was suppose to maintain an independent identity for at least 50 years after it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Legal experts and rights groups say the tactics used to target regime critics in Hong Kong are becoming increasingly similar to those of mainland China. On Monday, Jimmy Lai, a high-profile critic of the Chinese Communist party, was sentenced to 20 years in jail for national security offences. The length of the sentence for the 78-year-old outstrips punishments given to some of China’s most famous dissidents. China imposed a sweeping national security law in 2020. In 2024, the city’s legislature passed Article 23, enacting a provision of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution that had previously faced fierce opposition from Hongkongers. The authorities said that Article 23 was necessary to close “loopholes” in the city’s national security regime.