World News
Government concerned by immigration lawyer ‘hitlist’
The government says social media platforms “clearly need to do far more” after it emerged a list purporting to contain the names and addresses of immigration lawyers was being spread online.
Initially shared on the Telegram messaging app – along with the phrase “no more immigration” – it has now begun appearing on other platforms.
Lawyers have told the BBC they have been advised by police to work from home, board up office windows and install fireproof letterboxes.
Jim McMahon, minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government, told the Today programme, on BBC Radio 4, that he was “concerned”.
The Law Society of England and Wales said it was treating the list as a “very credible threat” to its members.
“This week has been a stark reminder that the anti-lawyer rhetoric has very real-world consequences for solicitors working tirelessly for their clients, access to justice and the rule of law,” said its president Nick Emmerson.
“We don’t know if they will transpire to be protests like we’ve seen in other places or whether it’s a list that’s intended just to cause alarm and distress or even to provoke,” Mr McMahon said.
“But to be clear we are absolutely prepared in terms of our policing response, in terms of our prosecutor response, and also in terms of our court response.”
The BBC has approached Telegram for comment on the spreading of the list – it is yet to respond.
However, in a previous statement about the unrest it said its moderators were “actively monitoring the situation and are removing channels and posts containing calls to violence.”
It said such “calls to violence” were explicitly forbidden in its terms of service.
Mr McMahon warned people could “expect the full force of the law” if they “cross the line”, whether it is “on the street or online”.
The Telegram group was created just hours after the killing of three children at a holiday club in Southport, on Merseyside, on 29 July.
That triggered waves of unrest in England and Northern Ireland, partly fuelled by far-right activists and online misinformation.
One immigration lawyer on the list told the BBC she had been repeatedly threatened, and received messages on Monday telling her she was “on a hitlist”.
Mr McMahon would not be drawn on whether Telegram could be told to remove channels where the list is being spread, or whether the messaging app could be blocked altogether.
He said it was important that police and prosecutors were able to do their jobs “without any political interference”.
Mark Webster, the chief constable of Cleveland Police, told Today people should be “very careful” about “naming individual premises or saying what we’re doing individually in forces”.
“You will see an awful lot of resource today and over the following days to make sure we can manage responses to all of the intelligence that comes in,” he said.
He urged people to focus on official communications online, and not to “react to things on social media from sources you can’t verify”.
World News
Fire burns near homes in Orange County, prompting evacuations
A fire that broke out in Orange County on Monday afternoon grew to roughly 800 acres in two hours and prompted evacuations.
The blaze, dubbed the Airport fire, started about 1:30 p.m. along the 32200 block of Trabuco Creek Road near a remote-controlled airplane airport in Trabuco Canyon. By 2 p.m., it had burned at least 7 acres but grew to 292 acres by 3 p.m. An hour later it had grown to 800 acres, according to fire officials.
“Firefighters are attacking the fire from the ground and the air,” the Orange County Fire Authority wrote in a post on X. “This includes engine strike teams, handcrews, dozers, helicopters, and fixed wing aircraft.”
The Orange County Sheriff‘s Department encouraged residents living along Rose Canyon Road, Trabuco Creek Road, Trabuco Canyon Road, Trabuco Oaks Drive, Joplin Loop and Cook’s Corner to evacuate. Homes in the Robinson Ranch community in Trabuco Canyon are under mandatory evacuation orders.
A temporary evacuation center has been set up at the Lake Forest Sports Complex at 28000 Vista Terrace in Lake Forest.
Officials have not determined the cause of the fire.
The fire started amid an extended heat wave that has scorched Southern California for days. Temperatures in the Orange County canyon community reached triple digits Monday afternoon and an excessive heat warning was in place through Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service.
World News
Man recounts being targeted by eagle that was killed after attacking toddler and others
A golden eagle has been killed in Norway after it attacked three people across a vast mountainous area of southern Norway over the last week. The bird – common in Norway — attacked Francis Ari Sture on Thursday, scratching and clawing the 31-year-old bicycle courier’s face and arms over 10 to 15 minutes as he sprinted down the mountain. At first, Francis Ari Sture thought a human was trying to shove him down the steep Norwegian mountainside from behind. Then he saw the golden eagle land.
World News
My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Apple Watch Ultra 2
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Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication.
Credit: Illustration by Ian Moore and product image courtesy of Amazon.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2, which came out last September, is Apple’s latest and most expensive smartwatch. As is the case with most Apple flagship products, the discounts aren’t massive, but they know they don’t need to be for you to buy them. The GPS + Cellular Apple Watch Ultra 2 is currently $689 (originally $799), the lowest price it has been since its release, according to price-checking tools. This is $10 cheaper than it was at Christmas. The only one available is the one-size-fits-all for wrists measuring 130mm to 200mm.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is different than the previous first-generation Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch Series 9. It’s the most premium Apple watch, with the biggest case size (screen), brightest screen (3,000 nits), deepest water resistance of 100 meters, and longest battery life of up to 36 hours.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is packed with fitness-focused features, but even if you aren’t a health nut, it still has a lot of great features for casual users as well. People who want a reliable sleep tracker can learn a lot about their sleep habits with the Ultra 2 as long as they keep it well-charged. Apple is still upgrading its watchOS, with their WWDC event in June revealing new features for it. There are other features not highlighted on the event like nap detection, a translation app, and a feature for Ultra users only that helps you keep track of your current progress in the gym.
The model currently available for $689 is the cellular version, meaning you have an independent cellular signal on your smartwatch and can leave your phone behind on runs and still listen to music or make calls.
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