Major motorway closed as air ambulance lands after crash

Emergency services rushed to the M25 after a “multi-vehicle collision” forced the UK’s busiest motorway to close on Saturday afternoon.

A four-mile queue built up on the M25 anti-clockwise with delays of up to 60 minutes after the road was closed to allow an Air Ambulance to land and pick up an injured person.

The M25 clockwise, which was also closed after the collision, has now reopened, National Highways East said.

“M25 is CLOSED anti-clockwise between J25 (WalthamCross) and J23 (PottersBar) due to a collision” the traffic organisation said in a post on X.

In a previous post, it described the incident as a “multi-vehicle collision”.

“Delays are building on approach. Please allow for extra journey time.”

National Highways East later confirmed that the injury was “not as serious as initially feared”, without giving any further information.

More follows on this breaking news story…

Davina McCall reveals breast cancer diagnosis after finding lump a few weeks ago

Davina McCall has revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump a few weeks ago.

The TV presenter disclosed that she underwent surgery three weeks ago, as she announced the news in an emotional video posted to her Instagram account on Saturday morning.

She said she is sharing the news in the hope that it “might help someone” – and she urged others to “get checked”.

The 58-year-old described being “very angry” when she found out, but said she now feels in a “much more positive place” following the lumpectomy in October.

The diagnosis comes after she underwent surgery last year to remove a benign brain tumour, known as a colloid cyst, which was found after she was offered a health check-up as part of her menopause advocacy work.

The broadcaster said in her message on Saturday: “I just wanted to tell you that I have had breast cancer. I found a lump a few weeks ago, and it came and went, but then I was working on The Masked Singer and Lorraine, the TV show Lorraine Kelly, had put signs on the back of all the doors saying, ‘check your breasts’. And every time I went for a wee, I did that, and it was still there. And then one morning, I saw it in the mirror, and I thought, I’m going to get that looked at.

“So I had a biopsy. I found out it was indeed breast cancer, and I had it taken out in a lumpectomy nearly three weeks ago, and the margins, they take out a little bit extra, and they check the margins, and the margins are clear.

“It was very, very small, so I got it very, very early, which is incredibly lucky, but I am so relieved to have had it removed, and to know that it hasn’t spread.

“My lymph nodes were clear. I didn’t have any removed, and all I’m going to do now is have five days of radiotherapy in January as kind of an insurance policy, and then I am on my journey to try and stop it ever coming back.”

The former Big Brother presenter also thanked staff at the Royal Marsden hospital in London, along with her family and her “brilliant kids” – and she sent an “extra special thanks” to her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas.

“It’s been a lot. I was very angry when I found out, but I let go of that, and I feel in a much more positive place now,” she said.

“I think my message is, get checked if you’re worried, check yourself regularly. If you are due a mammogram, then get it done. And I have dense breasts, and I had a mammogram in August, and I was postponing the ultrasound. I just couldn’t find time to do it. Don’t do that. Get the ultrasound, and thanks for watching. And I’m sending you all a massive hug.”

The post received thousands of comments from friends and fans alike, praising the presenter and sending well-wishes. Among those were broadcaster Amanda Holden, writer Elizabeth Day and All Saints singer Nicole Appleton.

Pushing Daisies actor Anna Friel said: “Oh … I am so sorry you are going through so much. You are shining and still smiling in the face of adversity. It’s a lesson to us all.” Meanwhile, comedian Dawn French called her a “phenomenal woman” and said: “Blimey Davina! What a warrior you are. Must’ve been stressful.”

According to the NHS, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer for women in the UK. Although anyone can get it. Those at higher risk include people over the age of 50 and those who have dense breast tissue or have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

Women are also more likely to get breast cancer if they have higher levels of the hormones oestrogen, progesterone or testosterone, which may occur if they started periods before they were 12, went through the menopause after turning 55, have not given birth, gave birth for the first time after 30, or did not breastfeed their children.

The NHS also said people may be at higher risk if they have used the contraceptive pill in the past 10 years or take hormone replacement therapy, although “these only slightly increase your risk and for many people the benefits of taking them outweigh the risks”.

McCall is known for hosting Big Brother between 2000 and 2010 during its Channel 4 run, and has long advocated on women’s health issues, including presenting documentaries on contraception and the menopause. She has also co-presented BBC Comic Relief and Sport Relief, Channel 4’s Stand Up To Cancer, The Million Pound Drop, Long Lost Family and dating programme My Mum, Your Dad.

‘I am much much happier here’: Ghislaine Maxwell letters reveal her life in new Texas prison

Ghislaine Maxwell says she’s “much happier” at the Texas prison camp she was transferred to in August, she revealed to friends and family in emails.

“I feel like I have dropped through Alice in Wonderland’s looking glass,” Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, wrote in an email obtained by NBC News. “I am much much happier here and more importantly safe.”

She sent the emails shortly after she was transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to the minimum-security Bryan Federal Prison Camp in August. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in a sex trafficking scheme to abuse girls with Epstein.

In some of the emails, she touted the prison camp’s cleanliness and orderliness.

“The institution is run in an orderly fashion which makes for a safer more comfortable environment for all people concerned, inmates and guards alike,” she wrote in one email.

“The kitchen looks clean too — no possums falling from the celling to fry unfortunately on ovens, and become mingled with the food being served,” she wrote in another, comparing it to her previous prison arrangement.

Maxwell also told loved ones the food is “legions better” at the prison camp compared to the Tallahassee prison.

“The food is legions better, the place is clean, the staff responsive and polite – I haven’t seen or heard the usual foul language or screaming accompanied by threats leveled at inmates by anyone. I have not seen a single fight, drug deal, passed out person or naked inmate running around or several of them congregating in a shower!” she wrote.

Maxwell even gave a shoutout to prison camp warden Tanisha Hall, whom she hailed as a “true professional.”

NBC News obtained the emails from the House Judiciary Committee after its top Democrat Jamie Raskin asked Hall in a letter last month about Maxwell’s “VIP treatment,” citing the Wall Street Journal’s report about the 63-year-old’s “unusually favorable treatment” that has sparked resentment from fellow inmates.

“Now, shocking new reports reveal that Ms. Maxwell is not only receiving VIP treatment at FPC Bryan—including private meetings with mysterious visitors, meal delivery to her dormitory, and other special perks—but that you and other prison officials have retaliated against inmates who dared to speak out about her fawning preferential treatment,” the Maryland Congressman wrote.

Maxwell was moved to the prison camp days after meeting with Justice Department officials earlier this year. Former prison staffers said such a move was “unheard of” and others said it reeked of “special preference.”

“It’s not a very uncommon thing,” President Donald Trump told reporters at the time. He has not ruled out a pardon for the British socialite.

The prison camp is dubbed “Club Fed” for its relatively relaxed conditions that boasts dormitory-style cells, no barbed wire, and opportunities to take classes outside of work. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Jen Shah are also housed there.

David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, told NBC News that “there’s nothing journalistic about publishing a prisoner’s private emails, including ones with her lawyers.”

“That’s tabloid behavior, not responsible reporting,” Markus told the outlet. “Anyone still interested in that kind of gossip reveals far more about themselves than about Ghislaine. It’s time to get over the fact that she is in a safer facility. We should want that for everyone.”

Her brother, Ian Maxwell, similarly expressed disapproval of republishing her emails, telling NBC News that the messages were “personal and private by their very nature.”

Woman stabbed in neck in ‘unprovoked’ Birmingham attack in critical condition

A woman is fighting for her life after she was stabbed in the neck in what police believe to be “an unprovoked attack”.

West Midlands Police were called to Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham, shortly before 9pm on Friday after reports of a stabbing.

The woman in her 30s suffered a “serious neck injury”, and she remains in hospital in critical condition.

Police arrested a man in his 20s near the scene, and he is in custody.

Detective Inspector James Nix said: “We believe this was an unprovoked attack and are working to understand why it happened.

“We will have officers in the area today to continue our investigation and provide reassurance.

“We are not currently looking for anyone else in connection with this incident.”

In a statement released on Saturday, the force added: “A man is in custody after a stabbing in Birmingham last night.

“We were called to Smallbrook Queensway shortly before 9pm after reports of a stabbing.

“A woman in her 30s was taken to hospital with a serious neck injury, where she remains in a critical condition.

“A man in his 20s was arrested close to the scene and is in custody at this time.

“Our officers are at the scene carrying out enquiries as we try to establish the exact circumstances of what happened.”

Witnesses or anyone with information have been asked to contact West Midlands Police by calling 101 and quoting log 5503 of November 7.

Scotland trail at Murrayfield while seeking historic first win over All Blacks

Could this be Scotland’s date of destiny? It is 120 years since the hosts first took on New Zealand and still they have never beaten the All Blacks, who they welcome to Murrayfield this afternoon.

Gregor Townsend’s side have run New Zealand close over the last few years but are yet to break their hoodoo in this fixture, left to count their missteps and misfortune in a narrow defeat in 2017 particularly. Their infrequent meetings have generally proved highly competitive, though, and after an encouraging 85-0 drubbing of an overmatched USA kicked off their November campaign, Townsend is able to welcome back Finn Russell, Blair Kinghorn and co for a tilt at Scottish rugby history.

Reports of the All Blacks’ demise may, however, have been exaggerated. A vintage side to compare with those of yesteryear it may not be but a win over Ireland in Chicago last week showed some of the strength in depth still at Scott Robertson’s disposal, even if they did not unlock their full attacking game. They will take some beating — but maybe, just maybe, this might be Scotland’s day…

Follow all of the latest from Murrayfield with our live blog below:

What is tacit knowledge – could your work skills spark a new career?

Whether it’s solving a logistical problem, navigating a tricky client meeting or being able to design, craft or build, we all have certain skills that feel straightforward to us yet can seem out of reach to others. A big part of this is tacit knowledge, the personal ‘know-how’ that individuals possess, built up over time. In a work context, this tacit knowledge can open interesting doors to potential new career paths, in which this real-world experience can be shared with the next generation of workers.

Understanding the concept of tacit knowledge is perhaps easiest when compared to its counterpart: explicit knowledge. “Explicit knowledge is something you can fully articulate linguistically and can be understood without context while tacit knowledge is something that can’t be described in the same way and needs its context to be appreciated,” Dr Neil Gascoigne, Reader in Philosophy at Royal Holloway University of London and co-author of Tacit Knowledge, explains.

Gascoigne gives the example of the famous physics equation of E=mc^2. This formula is considered a piece of explicit knowledge, as words can be used to explain the idea. However, the average person wouldn’t know how to use this formula. This is where tacit knowledge comes in. You would need to have studied physics, put your knowledge into practice and learned first-hand how to use formulas effectively in order to make the most of the explicit knowledge given.

In the workplace, a company handbook might explicitly set out the business’ practice for a certain task. However, you would need some tacit knowledge gained through work experience or time in the company to complete this task most successfully and efficiently.

As tacit knowledge is harder to explain with words, it often has a mysterious quality to it. However, as Gascoigne points out, this is only to the untrained eye. “Tacit knowledge often seems obscure to people unless they possess similar skills themselves. Without them, it doesn’t become apparent what expertise is exactly on display,” he elaborates.

“For instance, say I am watching a Grand Slam tennis match. I know there’s an astonishing kind of athleticism, but if I don’t play tennis or am not a committed tennis fan, I might not be able to tell the difference between a really great shot and a more average shot,” Gascoigne says.

This same idea applies in the workplace. Tacit knowledge is gained through experience and consequently, while we all have tacit knowledge, the areas we have it in differ. What’s more, it can even seem quite mysterious to ourselves. When we have worked in a certain industry for a period of time, we aren’t always aware of the tacit knowledge we have gained. While explicit knowledge relates to aspects of our job that we might have had to sit down and learn, our tacit knowledge is obtained in a practical way over time, by doing tasks again and again and subtly learning and improving as we go along.

After a while, we know exactly how to tackle projects or solve problems, almost without thinking. For instance, in the construction industry, this tacit knowledge would help you judge site safety or develop practical skills like site excavation, land levelling or brick laying. If you work in social care, it is only with time and experience that you can pick up on subtle emotional cues or manage crisis situations effectively. While in engineering, years spent tackling complex technical issues allow you to troubleshoot effectively, and draw on a myriad of possible solutions from projects past.

Whatever sector you work in, the knowledge needed to succeed is always a mixture of explicit and tacit, and the latter – this know-how built from personal experience, intuition, and practice – is incredibly valuable when it comes to judging real-world situations, solving complex problems and having an edge over competitors.

And while by definition, not explicit, that doesn’t mean that tacit knowledge can’t be shared. Indeed with time, attention and training, you can drill down on years-honed skills and information, and share it with others through teaching.

In fact, it is at the core of sharing your craft – and that’s far more than a simple list of instructions. “To learn how to do something, you really need to follow the example of somebody who already knows how to do it,” says Gascoigne. “These people have learnt the rules, internalised them and use tacit knowledge to know when they apply and when they don’t.”

Tacit knowledge is particularly valuable when it comes to Further Education teaching (defined as any education for people aged 16 and over who aren’t studying for a degree). This is because the focus is on preparing students for employment, and teachers need to draw on tacit knowledge to share how things really work in their industry. This ensures that students complete their qualifications not only with theoretical competence but also practical and employable skills.

This is why this type of practical learning that further education teachers specialise in can be so valuable. Workshop-style teaching and skills-led mentoring allows for those with experience to share the vital tacit knowledge they have built up over time in real-world scenarios. Meanwhile, those learning from them can see these nuggets of knowledge in action and have a chance to put them in practice as they learn.

If you’re passionate about your industry and interested in sharing your own tacit knowledge,  becoming a Further Education teacher can be a really rewarding and valuable career move. Further Education covers a huge range of industry sectors including construction, law, engineering, digital, hospitality, tourism, beauty and more. This includes BTECs (Business and Technology Education Council qualifications), T Levels, NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) or City & Guilds Qualifications.

Teaching in a mixture of colleges (often General Further Education Colleges or Sixth Form Colleges) and Adult and Community Learning Centres as well as workplace and apprenticeship settings, Further Education teachers share their years of real world industry  skills with people of all ages and backgrounds from those straight out of school aged sixteen to those making career switches later in life.

You don’t always need an academic degree or prior teaching qualifications to start teaching in Further Education. You can undertake teacher training on the job, often funded by your employer, so you can start earning straight away. Furthermore, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing option. Further Education offers flexible opportunities – so you could teach part time alongside your other commitments. This means you could have a best of both worlds set-up, where you are still working in your chosen industry and teaching alongside it at a time that suits your schedule.

Whether it’s shifting your career fully or adding teaching into the mix, becoming a Further Education teacher can be a life-changing decision. One that taps into your well of tacit knowledge and creates a sense of fulfillment from helping shape the next generation of workers in your field.

Why not consider sharing your tacit knowledge where it matters most – helping inspire the next generation of workers in the field you love? Visit Further Education to find out more

Leaders ignore Trump’s threats and remind us what is at stake at Cop30 in Brazil

Flying into the Cop30 host city of Belem, which is around four hours north of the megacities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, you can understand why Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva chose the city for his “Cop in the Amazon”.

For around the last 45 minutes of the flight, all you can see is thick, green, canopied forest, with the occasional chocolate brown river snaking its way through. The city itself appears through the green almost out of nowhere, a regional hub of 1.3 million perched on the shoreline close to the mouth of the Amazon River.

Known as the “gateway” to the Amazon, much of the city’s wealth has come from its role as an export hub for minerals, hardwoods, and crops grown on deforested lands.

But the symbolism of Cop30 being hosted here goes beyond the location in the “lungs of the Earth”, since it was also in Brazil, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was first established – the organisation that has pushed global action on climate change ever since.

With global emissions nearly doubling over the last 33 years, few would argue that things have progressed as hoped. What’s more, the post-Covid global consensus on tackling climate change appears to be fragmenting, with Donald Trump, president of the US – the largest historic contributor to climate change – actively pushing climate disinformation and using trade tariffs to pressure other territories, including Japan, the EU and South Korea – to buy more US oil. Trump will not attend Cop30.

Visiting the Cop30 conference centre, which has been hosting the world leaders’ summit ahead of the two-week-long conference next week, it is initially hard to escape a sense that Brazilian hosts are scrambling to keep the show on the road. After warnings that insufficient hotel rooms in the small city were keeping delegates from poorer countries away –and news reports in recent days that countries were shunning the conference – the vast, tented conference centre was still under construction, the air heavy with the scent of sawdust and the sound of drills piercing the air. Gloomy corridors seemed only half-lit, while bathroom taps either ran dry or produced water shaded brown.

But once world leaders or their representatives began delivering their messages on climate, it was hard not to be heartened by the power of figures from every corner of the planet coming to express their shared concerns around the need to tackle the defining issue of our time.

Sure, they might come at the subject from different angles – on the need for more climate finance, the need to prioritise “green” economic growth, or the warning that we are not doing nearly enough to help the climate – but the message was clear: here in the Amazon Rainforest are 154 countries, including India, China, and everywhere from Equatorial Guinea to Yemen, that believe in and are committed to addressing the climate crisis. For once, the world seemed able to ignore President Trump’s loud cries of a climate “con job”.

“Cop30 will be the Cop of truth. It is time to take the warnings of science seriously. It is time to face reality and decide whether or not we will have the courage and determination necessary to transform it,” warned Brazil’s President Lula in his keynote address.

“Let us be clear: the 1.5C limit [on global warming] is a red line for humanity. It must be kept within reach,” said UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, striking a similarly stern note. “We need a paradigm shift to limit this overshoot’s magnitude and duration and quickly drive it down. Even a temporary overshoot will have dramatic consequences.”

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen struck a bullish tone, noting the EU’s ambitious climate target to cut emissions by 90 per cent by 2040, and adding that the EU had provided more than €34bn (£30bn) in climate aid in 2024, which was up 10 per cent on the previous year.

“My message is very clear: Europe is staying the course, and we offer our support to our partners to do the same because the whole world should reap the benefits of a clean transition,” she said.

One by one, they delivered pro-climate messages regardless of their political persuasions. The deputy prime minister of Italy, Antonio Tajani, who has been said to share a similar ideological background to Mr Trump, said that “our commitment is concrete”, adding that “we must do our part to limit global warming to 1.5C”.

The climate envoy from Indonesia – an emerging economy that earlier this year was rumoured to be following Mr Trump’s lead in leaving the Paris Agreement said that the country “remain[s] committed in strengthening our national climate deliverance”, and pointed out that Indonesia had managed to bring deforestation down by 75 per cent since 2019.

For poorer, climate-vulnerable countries, the message has become much more urgent.

“I bring you warm greetings from the mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, the kingdom in the sky,” said Lesotho’s deputy prime minister, Nthomeng Majara. “Severe droughts, floods, snow, frosts and storms negatively affect and reshape our lives, and each tasking season reminds us that climate change is no longer a distant threat. It is here.”

“For small island states, the climate crisis is not past tense or future tense. It is our reality. We have no way to run, no way to hide,” added Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, Gaston Browne, who also referenced the recent climate-driven devastation of Hurricane Melissa.

A few countries took direct aim at the absent US leader in their addresses, with Chile’s president Gabriel Boric saying that Mr Trump told a “lie” when he said the climate crisis does not exist, while Colombian president Gustavo Petro said that “Mr Trump is against humankind”.

Others were more veiled in their attacks, with Emmanuel Macron of France calling for “multilateralism over inward-looking attitudes” and for the need to “support free, independent science”.

Sir Keir Starmer struck a characteristically measured tone, warning that the “consensus is gone” on climate change among politicians in the UK, but adding that the “UK is doubling down on the fight against climate change as an investment in future generations”.

Leaders like Sir Keir recommitting themselves to climate action is understandable, not only because the impacts of the climate crisis are becoming ever more obvious with each heat temperature record that is broken, but also because it is an area the electorate continues to take very seriously.

More than 70 per cent of Britons are afraid that the climate crisis will have a big impact on children’s future, a new poll from the NGO ActionAid found this week, with 62 per cent worried that the government is not doing enough on climate action.

Upbeat language is one thing; actions are another. In Sir Keir’s case, while his commitment to climate action was praised by experts, there was serious disappointment that the UK would not offer any money to President Lula’s flagship project, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which is set to provide annual payments to tropical forest nations to aid their forest conservation efforts.

“At last there’s an actual plan on the table to save the world’s remaining tropical forests, on which we all depend,” said cross-bench peer Zac Goldsmith. “Tragically, the UK government simply has no interest in the real natural environment and seems only focused on one-dimensional carbon accounting.” Brazilian representatives were reportedly deeply disappointed in the UK’s failure to contribute.

However, Norway promised a cool $3bn (£2.28bn) to the fund, effectively keeping it afloat – and showing that after 30 years, Cops are still capable of delivering not only positive words but also strikingly meaningful action, in spite of what the naysayers would have you believe.

This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project

Trump is in a power battle more important than the New York mayor

As an asthma sufferer you become acutely aware of things that are triggers for it: cats, horsehair, damp etc. But I swear I know to the day when summer turns to autumn (another irritant) because the air just feels different with that first morning chill.

There was a similar change in air quality in America this week, a year to the day that Donald Trump vanquished the Democrats – and left them wheezing and more or less breathless. But on Wednesday morning liberal America, where the last rites had been read, was heaving in great lungfuls of air and celebrating some rude health once again.

Understandably, nearly all the attention has been on Zohran Mamdani’s remarkable victory in New York. I mean, it is pretty remarkable. Thirty-four years old. Ugandan-born. Muslim. Socialist. In the city that doesn’t sleep, he’s giving a lot of the well-to-do even more cause for insomnia with his radical agenda.

But the real significance of the Democrat victories in the Big Apple – and New Jersey and Virginia were they found an issue that they could all rally around, regardless of whether they were from the centrist or progressive wings of the party. And that was affordability.

Because Donald Trump is such an astonishing self-publicist and a marketing genius when it comes to telling people how brilliant he is, you could be forgiven for thinking it’s true what he’s saying. But that’s not the mood in the US right now. Prices have not come down, voters don’t have more money in their pockets – and that is at the heart of why Republicans did so badly on Tuesday night.

Now let me put in the necessary caveats. These are off-year elections. The Dems were expected to do well. They were hardly going to lose in New York. Some of the Republicans who stood were right old duffers. So what that they’ve regained the governors’ mansions in New Jersey and Virginia; 2028 is still years away.

Yes, yes, yes. I accept all of that. But these results are not nothing either.

The president’s approval ratings are sliding, and the trendlines on cost of food, cost of living, the state of the economy are heading in the wrong direction. And say it quietly, there are those in the White House who know this, but fret about how to make Donald Trump accept the seriousness of the situation.

It’s not just that the Democrats have rediscovered the sweet, aphrodisiacal smell of victory, it’s having a profound psychological effect too. They have been so lost and bewildered since last year’s election defeat, and have been so intent on settling scores with each other, that they had stopped speaking to the American people.

I have written in this column of Donald Trump’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for power, and how – so far – he has encountered remarkably little resistance from anywhere or anyone. But maybe that is about to change.

One other vote that took place on Tuesday was the not very exciting sounding Proposition 50 in California. But it matters. You remember that brilliant soundbite from Michelle Obama when she said, “when they go low we go high”? Well, the Democrat Governor of Gavin Newsom is changing that so that if Republicans want to go low, he’ll go low too.

This vote will allow California to do some redistricting of congressional seats that should harvest an additional five seats for the Dems in next year’s midterms. He’s doing this in response to Texas’s Republican governor – at Donald Trump’s behest – doing the same in the Lone Star state. It’s gerrymander a go-go right now in the US. And you can be sure other states will be looking to do the same.

There is just this slight sense now that Trump is not invincible, that maybe he has a glass jaw. Tides (to mix metaphors) can turn quickly in politics. Whether it has been the legal profession, academia, the media, congress or the courts, the preferred position has been that of the supine crouch. But are these bodies going to stay like that if there’s a hint of vulnerabiity?

Which brings us to the Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative majority – and three of those justices having been appointed by Donald Trump in his first term. This week, they heard a challenge to the president’s tariffs policies, and whether it was lawful for the administration to use emergency powers to bring in sweeping tariffs on countries across the world.

To be honest, I thought this would be a dull affair. It was anything but. A majority of the justices were sharp in their questioning of the solicitor general, who was representing the administration. The legislation Trump used – the International Emergency Powers Act – has nothing to say about taxes, tariffs or anything close.

Of course, the Supreme Court’s deliberations should be purely about the law, but their reputation has taken an absolute battering for their limp acquiescence to anything that the president wants. Could it be they’re about to show some resistance? It certainly sounded like it.

Just imagine if they did. Just imagine if they shredded Donald Trump’s signature economic policy. Just imagine how much weaker he would look in the eyes of America and the rest of the world if that happened.

I’ll insert the proviso one more time. This may not signify that much. But there is a sense of the resistance to Donald Trump feeling a little more emboldened. It may all peter out.

But there’s something in the air.