Urgent rescue mission for trapped cave explorer reaches second day
The explorer sustained a head injury on Sunday after being struck by falling rocks approximately 40 metres underground.
Medical teams have reached the injured individual and are providing treatment inside a heated tent within the cave.
Due to the severity of his head injury, the explorer cannot exit the cave unassisted.
Rescuers have used explosive charges to widen sections of the cave to facilitate his extraction, and he remains in good condition.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Two-fifths of mobile phones stolen in Europe are taken in UK, data reveals
Nearly two in every five phones stolen in Europe are taken in the UK, according to data collated an insurance firm. An analysis of claims made to the American insurance company SquareTrade showed that 39% of all phone thefts across the company's 12 European markets were in Britain. This was despite the UK only making up 10% of the company's European customers. The data revealed that phone theft claims in the UK had increased by 425% since June 2021 and 42% of phone thefts in the UK occurred in London. This equated to 16% of all phone thefts in Europe. The data, reported by the Times, comes amid growing concern about phone snatching, with police saying gangs are now stealing handsets as an easier way to make money than drug dealing. The Metropolitan police said about 80,000 phones were stolen in London last year, describing the phenomenon as an 'organised criminal enterprise'. The stolen devices had a street value of about £20m, with iPhones being targeted most frequently. James Conway, a Met police commander specialising in phone thefts, said phone theft had become more prevalent among gangs partly due to a growing demand for such gadgets in overseas markets, creating opportunities for 'huge profitability'. Conway said: 'These are the same sort of gangs that are also running county lines operations and dealing [drugs] but are getting increasingly involved in robbery and theft … They can make a far greater profit than from dealing drugs in the same period of time with a lower risk from a criminal justice perspective.' The commander added: 'The sort of sentences you see for drug trafficking or drug dealing offences, and those you might receive for a series of thefts as a young person are very different.' The police have called for phone companies to cut off cloud services on stolen phones in an effort to reduce their resale value. Representatives of Google and Apple told the House of Commons science and technology committee last month that security features were already in place to protect customer data. Simon Wingrove, a software engineering manager at Google, said its system for such situations was 'robust and works very well'. Gary Davis, a senior director in regulatory and legal at Apple, said the company was concerned about the potential for fraud. He said there was a risk of bad actors attempting to obtain data and the power to delete accounts for blackmailing victims. The Apple representative added the company had invested 'many hundreds of millions' in designing protections for its customers against phone theft.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sudden spike in searches for VPNs as porn users look to get around new ID checks
Britain's new porn laws sparked a huge surge in VPN use, suggesting porn users are rushing to dodge the strict new age checks. Under rules that came into force on Friday, UK users must prove they are over 18 to access pornographic websites, with some platforms demanding ID uploads or even facial scans. Major sites including Pornhub, YouPorn, RedTube, Cam4, and others have told regulator Ofcom they've rolled out these checks. Social media and messaging platforms such as Reddit, Discord, Bluesky, Grindr, and X have also introduced age verification measures. But the clampdown appears to have backfired as online searches for VPNs, which can disguise a user's location, spiked by more than 700 per cent on Friday morning, suggesting thousands are already looking for ways around the restrictions. VPNs help users appear as though they're browsing from another country, allowing them to access sites without triggering the local ID checks. Experts had previously warned that the technology could be used by users trying to bypass the system. Marcus Johnstone, a criminal defence solicitor, told The Independent that such measures won't prevent access to fringe forums or the dark web, where much online exploitation occurs. He said: 'It will also do nothing to restrict access to [fringe] forums, where much online exploitation takes place, or to the dark web, which remains easily available to those with the motivation to look.' Under the new rules any sites fail to do the checks, Ofcom can impose fines and in very serious cases apply for a court order to prevent the site or app from being available. 'We will be actively checking compliance from 25 July and, should it be necessary, we expect to launch any investigations into individual services next week,' Ofcom said. Why is the porn crackdown happening? According to Oliver Griffiths, Ofcom's group director of online safety, making life safer online 'is one of the defining challenges of our era'. 'Society has long protected youngsters from products that aren't suitable for them, from alcohol to smoking or gambling,' he said. 'But for too long children have been only a click away from harmful pornography online. 'Now, change is happening. These age checks will bring pornography into line with how we treat adult services in the real world, without compromising access and privacy for over-18s.' How do the age checks work? Ofcom has listed seven methods that porn providers could use. Ultimately, which one they opt for is their decision, not Ofcom's, but their chosen method must be 'highly effective' at correctly determining if a user is under 18. Ofcom's seven suggested strategies are photo-ID matching, facial age estimation, mobile-network operator (MNO) age checks, credit card checks, email-based age estimation, digital identity services and open banking. Open banking works by accessing the information a bank has on record regarding a user's age, while photo-ID matching involves uploading a verified photo-ID document, like a PDF of a passport of driving licence. Facial age estimate works by analysing the features of a user's face from a photo to work their age, while MNO age checks involve mobile-network operators applying age-restriction filters themselves. Because you must be 18 to get a credit card in the UK, credit card checks are also listed as 'highly effective', as are email-based age estimations, which estimate your age based on other services where you've provided your email address. 'The process can be as simple as submitting an email address and will return an accurate result in seconds,' explained Lina Ghazal, head of regulatory and public affairs at safety tech firm Verifymy. What happens if porn sites don't comply? Ofcom says that many porn sites have already put their age checks in place. It stresses that the law applies to all sites and apps that allow pornography – whether they are dedicated adult sites or social media, search or gaming services. Fines for non-comply could be up to £18 million or 10 per cent of the platform's qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is greater. The Online Safety Act The crackdown is part of the Online Safety Act 2023 – a set of laws that protects children and adults online. Mrs Ghazal said it is a 'great step forward for child safety', adding: 'It means some of the world's biggest sites will have highly effective age assurance in place that protects children and also preserves the privacy of users.' The idea of implementing age checks on pornography websites, and fining those sites that don't comply, has existed for several years now. Back in 2016, the UK government launched a public consultation over plans to implement age checks on pornography sites. It was then included in the Digital Economy Act 2017 – but the provision was delayed and eventually abandoned in October 2019. Government said at the time age checks would be delivered through its 'proposed online harms regulatory regime' – in other words, the Online Safety Bill. One criticism of age-checking technology for porn is regarding concerns about handing sensitive identification information – namely age or date of birth – to third parties. 'Everyone realised right from the start – 2016 – that users were not going to want to share their name, let alone a copy of their passport or driving licence, with a porn site,' said Iain Corby, director of Age Verification Providers Association. New research from Ofcom reveals the extent to which children are accessing porn online, and underlines the need for new measures to protect them. It found that eight per cent of children aged 8-14 in the UK visited an online porn site or app in a month – including around 3 per cent of 8–9-year-olds – the youngest children in the study. Ofcom's research tracked the use of websites and apps by 8–14-year-olds across smartphones, tablets and computers over a month. Boys aged 13-14 (19 per cent) were mostly likely to visit a porn service, significantly more than girls the same age (11 per cent).
The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
‘Killer' accused of murdering beauty queen ‘fled to UK on small boat' as heartbroken dad fears he'll never get justice
A MAN accused of murdering his beauty queen wife fled to the UK on a small boat, it is claimed. Ibrahim Ghazal, from Lebanon, is alleged to have suffocated Zeina Kanjo to death in Beirut before moving around Europe for years. 3 3 The 36-year-old - who is subject to an Interpol red notice - eventually travelled to Britain from France this year along with thousands of other migrants. Ghazal was jailed last week jailed for nine months for attempting to arrive without valid entry clearance after being arrested by Border Force. Government officials are facing a possible crisis ahead of his sentence expiring. Ms Kanjo's dad Mohammed fears his daughter will never get justice if the alleged killer returns to Lebanon and is hopeful the British legal system can step up. There are fears Ghazal could do the same to remain in Britain. Ms Kanjo, 33, was murdered in January 2021, having apparently got married just four months earlier. Her death sparked a national debate in Lebanon about domestic abuse. Ms Kanjo had filed domestic violence and fraud cases against her new husband and was trying to divorce him when she was killed, according to reports. She had represented her country at a beauty contest in Egypt the previous year. Ghazal allegedly fled to Turkey hours after his wife's death. Lebanese channel Al Jadeed broadcast an audio recording in which he allegedly admitted to the murder. Speaking to Ms Kanjo's sister, the person says: "I didn't want to, I didn't want her to die, when she was screaming, I just put my hand on her mouth." Ghazal is understood to have travelled through Greece, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. He was arrested in December 2022 in Stokholm under Interpol's red notice. However, Swedish laws prevented him from being extradited back home where he said he faced execution, and when he was detained again in Germany, the same thing happened, according to Ms Kanjo's lawyer Ashraf Al-Moussawi. Mr Al-Moussawi has pointed out Lebanon has not carried out an execution since 1994 and so this should not have been used as a defence. He added the alleged killer then "wandered Europe until his recent arrest in England". The lawyer has urged the British government to find a way to send Ghazal back to his homeland to face justice. Ms Kanjo's dad Mohammed claims his daughter's husband had sneaked back into Lebanon to attend his cousin's wedding a year after his wife's death. "After all this time, I'm left wondering if justice will ever be served," he told the Mail. "It's like something is missing from your body, something that is not replaceable. "I honestly hope he's not handed over to Lebanese authorities only to be imprisoned and then released again." He added perhaps the UK legal system can "find a way to properly punish him". Ghazal was detained by Border Force and jailed at Gloucester Crown Court last Wednesday after admitting to entering the country unlawfully. A Government spokesman said: "The Home Office never comments on whether extradition requests have or have not been received, and it is also our longstanding policy not to comment on individual cases. "However, we will always do everything in our power to remove serious foreign criminals from the UK so they are not left free on our streets after completing their sentence."
