Latest news with #protestors
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Transgender activists and allies call for 'basic human rights' at protest
Crowds of protestors have taken to the streets in Swindon to demand 'basic human rights' for the transgender community. The protest, which took place on Sunday morning, June 15, comes after a recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court means that transgender women, even those with Gender Recognition Certificates, are not legally recognised as women in the context of the Equality Act. Transgender activists and allies gathered outside Regent Circus in Swindon from 10.30am to make their stance on the decision clear, in a call for 'basic human rights'. Max Downey, who was among the protestors, told the Swindon Advertiser: "It should be a basic human right to have access to health care. Wiltshire Police 101 line now responds faster to incoming calls Anger after burst pipe leaves families without water for over 12 hours Highworth care home rated 'Good' by inspectors, but management must still improve "As a trans man, I have been struggling just to get the basic hormones. I'm now on my second GP and still having the same argument." Andrea Downey added: "I used to be a GP and so I can say with confidence that it's difficult to find trans-friendly GPs. We need more services that support trans individuals and more support in healthcare." Ash, Danni and Carmen were also among those who attended the Regent Circus protest dressed in pride colours and wrapped in transgender flags. Ash told the Adver: "We're here today because we can't let our rights continue to be infringed. "Whatever happens to the trans community affects everyone. You think it won't happen to you, but once they start taking away human rights, everybody is at risk. "That's why we have to keep standing up for what's right and living authentically." Joining crowds of protestors were famous Swindon twins Billy and Louie, who represented Swindon in the final of The Voice UK and have openly supported the Pride movement at various events. The twins have previously performed at Swindon and Wiltshire Pride, the group behind this recent protest. A spokesperson for Swindon and Wiltshire Pride said: "We have amazing speakers, a trans wall of support in our Pride hub, and we are ready to make our voices heard. "Now, more than ever, our trans family need our voices to show support, solidarity, and create change. "We have seen too much in the recent news about our rights being stripped away, for simply existing. "Pride started as a protest, and that is what we shall be doing. We are using our voices."
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Heading to a Protest This Weekend? Lock Down Your Phone First
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing. This week, people are protesting all across America. Before you head out to join them, take a few minutes to assess your digital safety. Your phone is a treasure trove of information about you. Even if you have nothing to hide, you don't want to accidentally give law enforcement officials any information you didn't intend to share. Follow these tips to lock down your phone before a protest or other peaceful assembly. When we tell people that their best defense at a protest is just to turn off their phones, they always seem disappointed. But it's true. The best way to keep from being surveilled is never to be on the grid in the first place. Unfortunately, this isn't practical advice. For one thing, mobile phones are useful for staying safe and coordinating with your friends and fellow protestors. For another, protestors document events and amplify their message by sharing photos, videos, and live streams in the moment. While shutting your phone off will certainly make you harder to track, it could also leave you without important tools to protect yourself. Your phone is powerful because it combines cellular, GPS, and Wi-Fi information. That great power is also a weakness: they're highly trackable. For example, federal and local law enforcement use Stingrays and other IMSI catchers to track and identify protestors. These devices can trick your phone into connecting with them instead of a cell tower, then intercept information (such as SMS messages) without you necessarily realizing it. They can also extract information from your phone and track your movements. Even without fancy devices, though, law enforcement may be able to obtain information on your movements and activities from your wireless provider. Even Apple and Google may be willing to give up information about you. The companies have cooperated with law enforcement by handing over customer data in the past, though both companies typically challenge or reject information requests that are legally objectionable. Keep in mind that you probably won't know that you're being monitored or tracked until much later, if at all. Intercepting and processing individual messages from hundreds of thousands of people is doable, but not easy. Law enforcement or government agencies want to know who is at an event, who they are with, and what information can be extracted to monitor them later. Many smart devices track your location through multiple means. This is useful for getting directions and finding things nearby, but it can also allow law enforcement to extract your movements after the fact. For example, pictures you take with a smartphone frequently include their physical locations, and Google Maps maintains records of your movements in its Your Timeline section. Shut off Wi-Fi. Disable location services until you absolutely need them. Ditto Bluetooth. If you don't need to use your data connection, switch it off, too. However, this may hamper your ability to use encrypted communications. Again, if you can, leave your phone at home. If not, at least shut it down. You can also be tracked without your phone, even in a large crowd. Facial-recognition technology coupled with AI-powered detection can pick out and track individuals in groups. Airborne surveillance using anything from conventional aircraft to small radio-controlled quadcopters to military-style drones can monitor the movements of individuals and track them over time. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintains an excellent primer on identifying those surveillance systems, which can include police bodycams, automated-license-plate-reader cameras, and more. Over the years, social media has played a large role in organizing protests and amplifying demonstrators' messages. However, the information posted to these platforms can also be used as open-source intelligence for anyone trying to track who attends demonstrations. Sharing photos and videos from protests can amplify the message, but this information could also be used to implicate you or others. The EFF recommends taking steps to remove metadata from images. Remember that even if you are comfortable being identified in images, others may not be. Consider framing your camera to show as little of people's faces as possible or blurring faces when you share photos or videos. And it never hurts to ask before sharing someone's face online. If you're concerned about being identified for any reason, consider covering identifiable tattoos and wearing inconspicuous clothing. Obscuring your own face can be useful as well. If you bring a phone to a protest, know that it could be confiscated by law enforcement or stolen by someone in the crowd. Either way, once it's is out of your hands, it could be unlocked, and its contents dumped for future analysis. Most modern devices unlock with biometrics (such as facial recognition or thumbprint scanning). Biometric systems may put you at a disadvantage, though, when you're dealing with law enforcement. In its guide for protestors, the EFF writes: "Under current US law—which is still in flux—using a memorized passcode generally provides a stronger legal footing to push back against a court order of compelled device unlocking/decryption." It's better to disable biometrics and enable password or PIN logins before a protest. You may also want to do this when traveling, too. Modern Apple and Android devices support modes that temporarily disable biometrics. However, once you unlock your phone, it reverts to using biometrics. If you don't have the time to fully disable biometrics beforehand, on Android, hold the power button and select lockdown. On an iOS phone, hold the power and volume up buttons for a few seconds until you see the power off, medical ID, and Emergency SOS screen. Tap cancel, and the phone will require your passcode to unlock instead of biometric authentication. Disable biometric logins and enable a passcode. Enable encryption. Most Android and Apple devices will do this automatically when you enable a passcode or biometrics, but double-check in the Settings menu. Remove unnecessary apps and reinstall them later. Even when not in use, some apps can send and receive data. This can slow down an already spotty connection and could be used to monitor your activity. Log out of any apps you won't need. By default, you usually need to log in to an app only once to use it, which can be a problem when you're not in control of your phone. If you back up your phone (and you should), make sure that your backups are secure with a complex, unique password and multi-factor authentication. This may require making changes to your Apple or Google accounts. To help you get started, see our guides to backing up iPhones and Android devices. Enable the remote-control features built into Android and iOS so you can wipe or disable a lost or confiscated phone remotely. Use secure messaging, and set text messages to delete automatically. (More on this below.) Whether you're protesting or just chatting with your family, use encrypted communications whenever possible. These systems ensure that if your messages are intercepted, they will be unreadable except to the intended recipients. Our top recommendation for secure messaging is Signal. We recommend it because the app and its protocol are open-source, so it has been carefully examined for potential flaws and endorsed by security experts. The app looks and works just like your existing messaging client. You can also use it to make encrypted VoIP and video calls. One particularly useful feature of Signal is that your messages can be set to expire. This way, there's little trace of your previous conversations in the app. Other secure messaging apps have similar features. WhatsApp is particularly notable, as it has wider adoption than Signal but uses the same technology to secure messages. Both WhatsApp and Signal have powerful tools for group chats that also make them useful for organizing protests. In most cases, the iPhone uses end-to-end encryption when sending messages between you and other iPhone users. So whenever you see the blue bubble around text, you can rest assured that if the message is intercepted, it cannot be read. Keep in mind that iPhones don't always send encrypted messages. With poor connectivity, iPhones sometimes fail over to unsecured SMS messages, and messages sent to Android users are not encrypted. It's also possible, no matter what secure messaging platform you use, that screenshots of your messages could be shared with people you did not intend. As always, consider that someone might see your messages, even when they're sent securely. If you have the means to do so, consider purchasing a completely different phone for the protest and leaving your personal devices at home. Several affordable Android phones are available, and many wireless carriers can provide a prepaid service for your device. There are also low-cost plans from smaller carriers. If you haven't used a so-called "dumbphone" in a while, take this opportunity to try one out. When I wanted to experience life with a flip phone again, I purchased a Nokia 2780 to bring on camping trips. I haven't had trouble using it for calls and texting. If you opt to go this route, remember to secure the new one as you would your regular phone. If it's not going to be used for other activities, you can lock it down even more. Here are some ideas: Don't install non-essential apps. Don't connect the new phone to any of your cloud services, like your Google account. If you must log into an app to use it, see if you can enable a secondary PIN on the app itself. Signal offers the ability to require a PIN to unlock the app. Store only information in your Contacts app for people who are absolutely essential. Consider not using real names in your address book. There are a lot of methods you can use to lock down your phone, but the best advice we can give is to leave any devices with location-gathering capabilities (including your smartwatch) at home. You should also take a few minutes today to lock down your online presence. Read our guide to completely disappearing online, and lock down your family's home network using our cybersecurity checklist.
News.com.au
7 days ago
- News.com.au
Northern Ireland hit by fourth night of clashes
Northern Ireland was rocked by a fourth night of anti-immigrant unrest on Thursday as police clashed with protestors in a second town, undeterred by driving rain. Firing plastic baton rounds, police sought to drive back several hundred people who had gathered in the town of Portadown -- some 50 miles (80 kilometres) southeast of Ballymena, where an alleged sexual assault that sparked the violence took place -- an AFP correspondent saw. Three nights of unrest had already hit Ballymena, some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Belfast, leaving a trail of damage, with 41 police officers injured and 15 people arrested. The clashes first erupted on Monday night after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged attempted rape of a young girl at the weekend. Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody and had asked for a Romanian interpreter in court. Foreign nationals were forced to hide in wardrobes and attics to escape the rioters, police said on Thursday, calling for the protests to end and warning demonstrators that they would face arrest. "Stop this violence," said Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher. "We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully." Fifteen people have been arrested and four people charged in connection with the ongoing disorder. Boutcher described the riots as "wanton disgraceful criminal behaviour that is absolutely race motivated", speaking at a news conference on Thursday. "They are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here and are well integrated," he added. Clonavon Road, where most of the riots happened -- a neighbourhood known for having a large population of eastern Europeans -- was almost deserted on Thursday. Many of the houses were damaged, and British, English or Northern Irish flags hung from most windows, AFP reporters saw. Some had signs saying they were Filipino residents. - 'Terrible scenes' - There had been fears on Thursday that the violence might spread. One housing association in Portadown called on residents to leave and take measures to protect their property. In a letter to its residents, Arbour Housing said that Thursday's demonstration in the town was "directed towards migrants, foreign nationals, and what are perceived as deviant behaviour," the BBC reported. Residents should take measures to "secure your property and belongings", it added. Ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive have strongly condemned "the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days", while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the "mindless violence". The UK's Northern Ireland minister Hilary Benn, who visited Ballymena on Thursday, said he "utterly condemned the terrible scenes of civil disorder". Police called the violence "racist thuggery", deployed riot officers with dogs and asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest. Political commentator Alex Kane, a former Ulster Unionist Party communications chief, told AFP that "most of those involved in the rioting... were from the working-class loyalist community" who support Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK. "This is a demographic which feels left behind" by various political and social forces, he added. "An unsettled community, particularly when it is mostly composed of the young, is often quick to anger and easy to mobilise on the street. It's a problem which won't disappear any time soon," he warned. While acknowledging the protests were a "bit extreme", college student Lee Stewart, 18, described them as necessary "to defend our own people". "We view it as the police aren't doing anything to stop what is going on to those poor wee girls," Stewart said.
Malay Mail
13-06-2025
- Malay Mail
Fourth night of anti-immigrant unrest rocks Northern Ireland, police clash with protestors
PORTADOWN, June 13 — Northern Ireland was rocked by a fourth night of anti-immigrant unrest yesterday as police clashed with protestors in a second town, undeterred by driving rain. Firing plastic baton rounds, police sought to drive back several hundred people who had gathered in the town of Portadown—some 50 miles (80 kilometres) southeast of Ballymena, where an alleged sexual assault that sparked the violence took place—an AFP correspondent saw. Three nights of unrest had already hit Ballymena, some 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Belfast, leaving a trail of damage, with 41 police officers injured and 15 people arrested. The clashes first erupted on Monday night after two teenagers were arrested for the alleged attempted rape of a young girl at the weekend. Police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the teenagers, who remain in custody and had asked for a Romanian interpreter in court. Foreign nationals were forced to hide in wardrobes and attics to escape the rioters, police said on Thursday, calling for the protests to end and warning demonstrators that they would face arrest. 'Stop this violence,' said Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher. 'We will come after you. We will arrest you. We will prosecute you successfully.' Fifteen people have been arrested and four people charged in connection with the ongoing disorder. Boutcher described the riots as 'wanton disgraceful criminal behaviour that is absolutely race motivated', speaking at a news conference on Thursday. 'They are not criminals. They contribute positively to society here and are well integrated,' he added. Clonavon Road, where most of the riots happened—a neighbourhood known for having a large population of eastern Europeans—was almost deserted on Thursday. Many of the houses were damaged, and British, English or Northern Irish flags hung from most windows, AFP reporters saw. Some had signs saying they were Filipino residents. Terrible scenes There had been fears on Thursday that the violence might spread. One housing association in Portadown called on residents to leave and take measures to protect their property. In a letter to its residents, Arbour Housing said that Thursday's demonstration in the town was 'directed towards migrants, foreign nationals, and what are perceived as deviant behaviour,' the BBC reported. Residents should take measures to 'secure your property and belongings', it added. Ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive have strongly condemned 'the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days', while UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the 'mindless violence'. The UK's Northern Ireland minister Hilary Benn, who visited Ballymena on Thursday, said he 'utterly condemned the terrible scenes of civil disorder'. Police called the violence 'racist thuggery', deployed riot officers with dogs and asked forces in England and Wales for help quelling the unrest. Political commentator Alex Kane, a former Ulster Unionist Party communications chief, told AFP that 'most of those involved in the rioting... were from the working-class loyalist community' who support Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK. 'This is a demographic which feels left behind' by various political and social forces, he added. 'An unsettled community, particularly when it is mostly composed of the young, is often quick to anger and easy to mobilise on the street. It's a problem which won't disappear any time soon,' he warned. While acknowledging the protests were a 'bit extreme', college student Lee Stewart, 18, described them as necessary 'to defend our own people'. 'We view it as the police aren't doing anything to stop what is going on to those poor wee girls,' Stewart said. — AFP
Fox News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Q & Trey: Limits Have Their Logic
How do protestors in Los Angeles seem to know what moves federal ICE agents are going to make? What are the pros and cons of federal term limits? Today, Trey shares his thoughts on these questions and more on today's Q & Trey! And don't worry sports fans, there's one for you too: Trey answers what team he thinks will take it all after a rollercoaster college baseball season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
