Sally Rooney: ‘I can’t publish work in UK due to Palestine Action ban’

Normal People author Sally Rooney has claimed she will be unable to publish any new work in the UK while protest group Palestine Action faces a terror ban.

The Irish author, who has two of her novels adapted for TV by the BBC, has been supportive of the activists, saying they are “plainly not a terrorist organisation” and condemned the government’s decision to proscribe them.

She said in August that she intended to use the earnings from her work and her public platform to continue to support Palestine Action.

Now, in a witness statement submitted to the High Court, Ms Rooney said that it is “almost certain that I can no longer publish or produce any new work within the UK while this proscription remains in effect”.

She claimed: “If Palestine Action is still proscribed by the time my next book is due for publication, then that book will be available to readers all over the world and in dozens of languages, but will be unavailable to readers in the United Kingdom simply because no one will be permitted to publish it (unless I am consent to give it away for free).”

Ms Rooney said this would be because her UK publishers are unsure whether they will be able to pay her for her work, due to the risk that she could use this money to support Palestine Action.

She also said that her books may have to be withdrawn from sale as their publication is based on royalties on sales, and the non-payment of the royalties would mean she could terminate the contract.

Ms Rooney’s best-selling work includes Conversations with Friends and Intermezzo.

She added: “If, therefore, [her publisher] Faber and Faber Limited are legally prohibited from paying me the royalties I am owed, my existing works may have to be withdrawn from sale and would therefore no longer be available to readers in the UK.”

Following her pledge to donate money to the group, Downing Street said that any support for a proscribed organisation was a criminal offence.

Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori has taken the government to court over the terror ban, arguing that the impact of the proscription was “dramatic, severe, widespread and potentially lifelong”.

Raza Husain KC, for the claimant, said that the decision by then-home secretary Yvette Cooper to proscribe the organisation in June 2025 was “novel and unprecedented”. He told the High Court: “This is the first direct action civil disobedience organisation that does not advocate for violence ever to be proscribed as terrorism.”

He added that the decision, which Ms Cooper faltered over, was “so extreme as to render the UK an international outlier”.

Mr Husain also told the court that there had been more than 2,000 arrests following Palestine Action’s proscription, which included “priests, teachers, pensioners, retired British Army officers” and an “81-year-old former magistrate”.

During a hearing on Wednesday, scores of people assembled outside the Royal Courts of Justice holding placards which read “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. Several demonstrators were carried away by police officers.

Sir James Eadie, for the government, told the court on Thursday that it was for parliament to decide what acts constituted terrorism.

He explained that the home secretary had been advised by a group of security experts that certain actions of Palestine Action did qualify as terrorist acts.

Sir James said the ban “strikes a fair balance between interference with the rights of the individuals affected and the interests of the community”.

The barrister also emphasised that the ban has not prevented people from protesting against Israel’s actions in Gaza or in support of Palestinians.

Black Friday 2025 live: Latest offers chosen by our shopping team

Start your engines. Black Friday officially kicks off tonight, and the deals are landing thick and fast. Amazon’s slashed the price of Kindle ereaders, and Currys has discounted a load of air fryers. There are big savings to be found at Charlotte Tilbury, Nintendo, Dyson and Ninja.

As The Independent’s senior tech critic, I’ve spent the past decade covering these sales, so I know which discounts are worth it and which you can safely ignore. The best offers so far include £130 off the PS5 Pro, £60 off the Meta Quest 3S, £50 off the Ninja double stack air fryer, and more than £500 off Simba’s hybrid luxe mattress.

The Independent’s Black Friday guides only feature tried and tested products you can trust, and our consumer team has pulled together their top tips so you don’t get caught out by a fake discount. Grab a cuppa and get comfy. The best savings are coming right up.

MTG goes on rant about Charlie Kirk, Republican men and her resignation

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a lengthy screed about Republican men and the threats she faces as a political figure, after someone suggested she stay in office.

The firebrand congresswoman has broken from the Republican Party on several major issues in recent months, a split that culminated in a falling out with President Donald Trump. In a shock announcement last week, Greene said she plans to step down in January after enduring years of personal attacks and threats.

On Tuesday afternoon, in response to one of Greene’s (Twitter) X posts, right-wing internet personality Mike Cernovich insisted she rethink her resignation. “You need to serve out your full term,” he wrote.

She responded with a tirade Wednesday, defending her decision to resign and alluding to the dangers of being an outspoken political figure in 2025.

“Oh I haven’t suffered enough for you while you post all day behind a screen? Do I have to stay until I’m assassinated like our friend Charlie Kirk. Will that be good enough for you then?” she wrote, referring to the 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder’s assassination in September.

“S*** posting on the internet all day isn’t fighting. Get off YOUR ass and run for Congress. I fought harder than anyone in the real arena, not social media. Put down your little pebbles and put your money where your mouth is,” Greene wrote.

An hour later, she posted a screenshot of that tweet and continued her thought — this time taking aim at “Republican men.”

“Typical of Republican men telling a woman to ‘shut up get back in the kitchen and fix me something to eat.’ F*** you in the sweetest most southern drawl I can enunciate,” she wrote.

“I have been trying tell all you ‘men’ that our kitchen pantry is empty with spider webs, our house has been ransacked, the windows and doors are broken and busted, and the greedy rich bastards have twisted your minds into a sick state that you all continue in the two party toxic political system that acts like college football playoffs yet is burying you and your children and their children and their children in a pine box in a shallow grave,” Greene continued.

“Get off your ass and fix your own damn food and clean up the kitchen when you’re done,” she concluded.

Greene has represented Georgia’s 14th congressional district since 2021. For years, she was a staunch MAGA ally of Trump, touting his “America First” policies and even promoting his 2020 election fraud claims. Trump, in turn, called her a “future Republican star” and “real winner.”

In recent months, the GOP congresswoman has publicly broken with her party over the war in Gaza, health care subsidies, and the handling of the Epstein files.

Perhaps most detrimental to her relationship with the president, Greene was one of just four Republicans to sign the discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to release the Epstein files, inciting Trump’s wrath. The president dubbed her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene” and said he was withdrawing his endorsement of her.

Once the discharge petition garnered the final signature, Trump reversed course on the legislation and encouraged members of Congress to support it. The Epstein Files Transparency Act then swiftly passed both chambers of Congress and the president signed it into law.

Despite the victory on the bill she fought hard to pass, Greene announced her decision to resign days later. In her resignation statement, she alluded to the president’s insult.

“Standing up for American women who were raped at 14, trafficked and used by rich powerful men, should not result in me being called a traitor and threatened by the president of the United States, whom I fought for,” she said.

In her time in Congress, Greene has endured “nonstop, never-ending personal attacks, death threats, lawfare, ridiculous slander and lies about me,” she added. “I refuse to be a ‘battered wife’ hoping it all goes away and gets better.”

Lifetime ISA set to be scrapped – everything you need to know

The government is set to reform the Lifetime ISA (Lisa), it was confirmed at Wednesday’s Budget, meaning major changes for millions of savers.

Held by an estimated 1.3 million people, the government-backed savings account offers a unique ‘savings rate’ of 25 per cent, but can only be used to purchase a first home. It was first introduced in 2017.

Up to £4,000 a year can be deposited into a Lisa, to which the government will add a maximum of £1,000, equalling up to £5,000. The savings accumulated cannot be used to purchase a property worth more than £450,000.

The Treasury says: “The government will publish a consultation in early 2026 on the implementation of a new, simpler ISA product to support first time buyers to buy a home. Once available, this new product will be offered in place of the Lifetime ISA.”

The scope of this review has not been laid out, but it will likely aim to address issues raised by campaigners in recent years.

This spend limit has been a key criticism of the scheme, as house prices – particularly in the capital – quickly outpace the £450,000 mark.

Removing money from a Lisa for any other reason will also result in a 25 per cent deduction, which money expert Martin Lewis has pointed out in the past equates to a 6.25 net reduction in funds.

The Money Saving Expert Founder has previously predicted that the scheme could be tweaked in one of two ways. This would be by removing that effective fine for buying a bigger property, or increasing the threshold to “somewhere in the £500,000s” as it would be if the amount had risen with inflation.

Reacting to the Budget, he said: “When I chatted to a very senior member of the government about this, what I was told was they will be looking at … they will be looking within that consultation also at whether they should be increasing that £450,000 threshold on the Lifetime ISA”.

Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell, said: “It looks like the Government is ready to hammer a nail into the Lifetime Isa’s coffin.”

He added: “The Isa system in general is too complicated, and the Lifetime Isa is one of the worst offenders, featuring withdrawal penalties for certain circumstances and a cap on property purchase limits that hasn’t kept pace with the broader property market.”

Alongside the announcement, chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed that the Cash Isa limit will drop from £20,000 to £12,000, with a notable exception for those aged over 65. It’s thought this was done in a bid to increase interest in investing.

The common problem reducing the benefits of your exercise

Better mental health, lowered risk of heart disease, and slimmer waistlines are all well-known health benefits of regular exercise.

But a new study suggests some of the advantages gained by getting active may be reduced simply by where you live. Scientists found those who exercised regularly but were exposed to highly polluted air appeared to see mortality benefits gained by exercising slashed in half.

Research from University College London and published in the journal BMC Medicine analysed data from more than 1.5 million adults tracked for more than a decade in countries including the UK, Taiwan, China, Denmark and the United States. The exercise habits of the adults were tracked alongside levels of tiny particles known as PM2.5, which can get stuck in the lungs and enter the bloodstream.

Researchers found people who did at least two-and-a-half hours of moderate or vigorous exercise per week had a 30 per cent lower risk of dying than those who did not.

However, if people in this very physically active group lived in an area with high fine particle pollution (above 25 micrograms per cubic metre), this reduction in risk was halved to 12 to 15 per cent.

The health benefits of exercise weakened further for those exposed to areas with higher levels of fine particle pollution. Researchers found for those experiencing levels above 35 micrograms per cubic metre, the benefits of exercise on the risk of cancer were “no longer robust”.

The team said nearly half (46 per cent) of the world’s population live in areas exceeding 25 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic metre, and about a third (36 per cent) live in areas whose yearly average PM2.5 levels exceed 35 micrograms per cubic metre.

For study participants in the UK, the average yearly PM2.5 levels were lower than these thresholds, at 10 micrograms per cubic metre. However, researchers said levels of fine particle pollution “vary a lot”, adding “spikes” in pollution in UK cities can exceed 25 micrograms per cubic metre.

The lead researcher, Professor Po-Wen Ku of National Chung Hsing University in Taiwan, said the findings show that exercise is still beneficial in polluted environments, but that improving air quality “can greatly enhance these health gains”.

The team added the negative impacts of air pollution can be mitigated by “checking air quality, choosing cleaner routes, or easing off intensity on polluted days”.

Co-author Professor Andrew Steptoe, from UCL’s department of behavioural science and health, said: “Our study shows that toxic air can, to some extent, block the benefits of exercise, although not eliminate them. The findings are further evidence of the damage that fine particle pollution can do to our health.

“We believe clean air and physical activity are both important for healthy ageing and so we encourage greater efforts to curb health-harming pollution levels.”

It comes after a study found even one minute of vigorous exercise a day can lower your risk of an early death by 38 per cent. Other research has also shown that gender could have an impact on the benefits of exercise, with one study concluding that men need roughly twice as much exercise as women to see the same reduction in their heart disease risk.

Cruise through Cajun Country on this unforgettable Louisiana road trip

A circular route from New Orleans takes you north along the Mississippi through Louisiana’s River Parishes to Baton Rouge. Loop through Lafayette and Houma on Highway 90, before returning to New Orleans. Whilst the 300-mile road trip can be done in a week, a fortnight or more best suits the southern laidback spirit to truly discover treasures along the way.

Best planned for early spring, when Louisiana jumps to its feet with music festivals and parties, or in the calmer autumn months when food festivals, gumbo cook-offs, and fall colours light up the oak-lined avenues. Here’s what not to miss en route…

New Orleans gives main character energy, even though the state capital, Baton Rouge, sits just 80 miles west along the river. Start the journey here with a day (or night) lost in the French Quarter, where lacy iron balconies and pastel facades are the backdrop to Jackson Square street performers and jazz music on every corner. Grab a coffee and oh-so-light powdered sugar beignet at Café du Monde, to fuel exploration of the city’s great cultural institutions, such as The National WWII Museum or the evocative Historic Voodoo Museum. Ride the St. Charles Streetcar past moss-draped oaks and stately mansions in the Garden District, or explore the city by foot to find your own adventure.

For a quirky day trip, drive across the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway – the world’s longest continuous bridge over water, according to the Guinness World Records – to find Abita Mystery House in Abita Springs; a curious folk-art installation of animated miniature towns and oddities from the mind of local inventor, John Preble.

Follow the Mississippi River north towards Baton Rouge, with a few stops en route. Explore Houmas House Estate and Gardens: once one of the largest sugar plantations in the country, visitors can now dine at one of the many restaurants and take guided tours showcasing the extensively-restored manor house and expansive gardens. Whitney Plantation, about 30 miles downriver gives a heartbreaking and evocative account of enslavement, and visiting these two plantations gives a sense of how both sides lived.

Baton Rouge emerges like a stately figurehead, rocking on the porch at the top of the Great River Road. A hub for art, music and politics, Baton Rouge is also a food mecca with fine dining, soul food, and the Red Stick Farmers Market – filled with homemade goods on the weekend. The gothic inspired Old State Capitol museum wouldn’t look out of place in a medieval fairytale, whilst climbing the current State Capitol building’s tower unravels views of the Mississippi river snaking through the landscape below.

Drive 55 miles westward, and find yourself in Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge – halfway along Interstate 10. The conservation area protects over 15,000 acres of hardwood forest and swamp habitat; spot alligators paddling through the bayous riverways, bird watch for woodpeckers, wrens and warblers, or just take in the impressive scenery.

Follow the sound of zydeco music down the Interstate to the dance halls of Lafayette. The heart of Cajun and Creole country, Lafayette is the ultimate place to tap your feet to this blend of French accordion and Afro-Caribbean beats. Louisiana’s French history is very much alive, as French conversations linger in the porchlight or come to life in Vermilionville folk museum, the re-creation of a 19th-century Acadiana village. Lafayette is also a food lover’s paradise. Try spicy boudin sausage from a roadside meat market, feast on gumbo as dark as a bayou at dusk, or savor po’boys and crawfish étouffée stew at a local café.

U.S. Highway 90 takes you southeast to the coastal wetlands of Houma. If you like it spicy, make a stop off in New Iberia and follow the pepper-scented air to Avery Island, home to the world’s only Tabasco factory and the botanical Jungle Garden of conservationist and hot sauce founder, Edward Avery McIlhenny.

As you travel further south, sing along with the southern leopard frogs on a guided swamp tour, spot another alligator, or drop into Houma’s Bayou Terrebonne Waterlife Museum to hear the story of shrimpers, oystermen, and how this slice of coastline has been shaped by cultural, industrial and ecological events.

With a suitcase full of memories and joie de vivre, head back to New Orleans. Every mile offers a detour worth taking; from the turbulent history and uplifting music, to watery labyrinths and astounding swamp wildlife. A Louisiana road trip invites you to slow down and enjoy a journey into the true Deep South.

For more travel inspiration and information visit Explore Louisiana

Archaeologists say they have proof humans carved pits near Stonehenge

Archaeologists have said they believe humans are the architects behind a number of “extraordinary” pits near Stonehenge, in a groundbreaking new study.

The true nature of the Durrington pit circle has been debated among academics since its discovery in 2020. But a fresh analysis of the site using exciting new scientific techniques has shown they were likely to be created by determined ancestors, rather than by natural processes.

Made up of a sweep of 20 pits surrounding Durrington Walls henge, just two miles northeast of Stonehenge, the “extensive arrangement” is now believed to have formed a part of a “large, and currently unique, neolithic pit structure”.

The paper, published in the journal Internet Archaeology, analysed 16 of the pit “features” to determine how and when they were made. But due to the size of the features, archaeologists had to use a series of novel methods to come to their findings.

Electrical resistance tomography assessed the depth of the pits and radar and magnetometry was used to analyse their shapes. In order to establish how the pits came to be, they extracted sediment cores and used optically stimulated luminescence to date the soil from the last time it was exposed to the sun, as well as “sedDNA”, which recovers animal and plant DNA from the soil.

They also found repeating patterns in the soil from different parts of the site, which they believe proves that humans must have been involved.

Professor Vincent Gaffney, of the School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences at the University of Bradford, who is leading the analysis, told The Guardian he believed the new research showed the pits formed an “extraordinary structure” that was likely built in the late Neolithic period.

Of the repeating patterns, he added: “They can’t be occurring naturally. It just can’t happen,” Gaffney said. “We think we’ve nailed it.

“Now that we’re confident that the pits are a structure, we’ve got a massive monument inscribing the cosmology of the people at the time on to the land in a way we haven’t seen before. If it’s going to happen anywhere in Britain, it’s going to happen at Stonehenge.”

New immigration and asylum numbers point in different directions

Net immigration fell to 204,000 in the year to June, according to the latest estimate from the Office for National Statistics. This is the level that was the norm for several years before the EU referendum. It was considered too high by a majority of the population at the time – a view that contributed to the 52 per cent Leave vote in 2016.

It now looks a remarkably low figure, compared with the peak of the “Boriswave”, when net immigration reached 944,000 in the year to March 2023, under Boris Johnson’s liberal post-Brexit rules.

Meanwhile, separate figures published by the Home Office show that there were 36,000 asylum seekers in hotels in September, a rise of 2 per cent over the previous year.

The same figures for the year to September also show a large increase in the number of people arriving in the country by irregular routes, such as small boats or lorries: 51,000 people arrived by irregular routes, 46,000 of whom arrived by dinghy – up 53 per cent on the previous year.

The reduction in legal immigration has been predicted since the last Conservative government realised the scale of what was happening and changed the law to restrict visas. The largest part of the “Boriswave” was people on health and care visas and their families – and most of the restrictions on this group were applied by James Cleverly as home secretary before the change of government.

It is worth noting, though, that the fall in net immigration is not driven by British or EU nationals leaving the country. Emigration has risen, according to the ONS, but this is accounted for solely by non-British, non-EU nationals.

Public perceptions have not yet caught up. According to research by British Future, an immigration think tank, most of the general public thinks that immigration is still rising.

Sunder Katwala, the director, said: “This is another significant drop in net migration, but research shows this has not cut through to the public, who still think immigration is going up.”

He added: “Falling immigration has been the best-kept secret in British politics for too long. It is time that our immigration debate caught up with reality.”

Katwala urges the government to make the case for a moderate level of immigration, to go back to the pre-Brexit debate about what level gives the optimum balance between the “pressures and gains”.

Perceptions of immigration are probably influenced by the most visible form, which is the cross-Channel traffic of small boats. Given that almost all of these arrivals claim asylum, the asylum figures may be the most important for the government’s attempt to assure public opinion that it is in control.

Those Home Office statistics reveal that 110,000 people claimed refugee status in the year to September – higher than the previous peak of 103,000 under the last Labour government in 2002.

Tony Blair and Jack Straw, his home secretary, brought the numbers down quite quickly in the early 2000s, but Keir Starmer and Shabana Mahmood face a much tougher struggle, trying to succeed where Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and James Cleverly failed.