Latest news with #Ironside
Irish Independent
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
‘Code of Silence' review: Taut thriller with a deaf lead is a groundbreaking drama series
Code of Silence, a wonderfully suspenseful thriller, is written by Catherine Moulton, who has been partially deaf since birth Today at 21:30 Dramas that break new ground can come in all shapes and sizes. Still, the last place you'd expect to find boundaries being smashed is in an ITV crime drama. It's long been considered unacceptable for characters with a disability to be played by actors without one, which was the norm back in the days of series like Ironside (wheelchair-using police chief) and Longstreet (blind insurance investigator).
ABC News
12-05-2025
- ABC News
High Court to decide if information gathered on encrypted messaging app AN0M was legally obtained
The High Court will on Tuesday delve into the murky world of organised crime and encrypted messaging on an app known as AN0M, which was secretly controlled by the FBI and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The operation known as "Ironside" began in 2018, when phones with the app began to circulate among criminal elements, encouraged by people the police identified as "criminal influencers", who unwittingly recommended the devices. It appeared to be a secure way to send messages, except that every communication was being copied and forwarded to police. In 2021 there was a worldwide crackdown. The app had collected about 28 million messages, including 19 million relating to Australia. The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) said there were nearly 1,000 arrests globally, with 42 tonnes of illicit drugs and $US58 million in cash and crypto currency seized. According to AFP data, there have been nearly 100 people in Australia charged, with drugs, firearms, and substantial amounts of money seized. The ACIC said at the time the operation "provided voluminous, invaluable intelligence and insight that has never been obtained before by Australian law enforcement". But now two South Australian men, who are alleged members of the Comancheros bikie group, want the High Court to find that information was not legally obtained. The two are charged with belonging to a criminal group and possession of prohibited firearms. Their lawyers will tell the High Court the evidence against them collected from AN0M should be inadmissible in their trial, because its collection breached The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. "The question is whether communications obtained covertly by the AN0M application were obtained as the result of an unlawful interception," their submissions to the court said. The pair have so far failed in two appeals against the use of the information, but were granted special leave to appeal by the High Court last year. Soon afterwards the case took a new turn when the Commonwealth changed the law, to back up the use of the app by police. On Tuesday the High Court will also consider if the new law is valid. In their submissions the men's lawyers said it interferes with the exercise of judicial power guaranteed under the constitution. "It is an invalid exercise of legislative power," submissions for the men said. The lawyers will tell the High Court the new law undermines the institutional integrity of the courts, removing the "fact finding" function which is a hallmark of judicial power. But the Commonwealth will tell the High Court the new law does not direct the courts to find any fact, and is valid under the constitution. The Commonwealth also said in its submissions the new act made no difference to the interception laws. "[The] Court of Appeal was correct to conclude that the AN0M evidence did not involve an interception in contravention … of the Interception Act," Commonwealth submissions said. The attorneys-general for New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria have intervened, along with the Director of Public Prosecutions for South Australia, which has applied to intervene in support of the Commonwealth.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Shoplifting offences in UK reach highest level on record, figures reveal
The number of shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales has risen to the highest level on record, according to official figures, surpassing half a million offences for the first time in 2024. A total of 516,971 shoplifting offences were recorded last year, a 20% increase on the 429,873 recorded in 2023, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is the highest level of shoplifting logged since current police recording practices began in 2003, although retailers said the official figures 'severely underestimate' the scale of the problem. Crime figures have shown a rise in shoplifting since the pandemic, but it has continued to climb, resulting in an increase in the overall level of theft in England and Wales last year. The rise in shoplifting has been partly seen as the result of squeezed household finances amid high inflation in recent years, but the industry body British Retail Consortium (BRC) has previously blamed it on organised gangs stealing to order. Related: Nearly one in four Britons have witnessed shoplifting, study shows 'While the ONS statistics show that shoplifting is at record levels, their figures severely underestimate the problem,' said Tom Ironside, the director of business and regulation at the BRC. 'Their figures are equivalent to less than two incidents per shop per year; if you ask most shopkeepers they'll tell you they're lucky if a day goes by without a shoplifting incident,' he added. 'A survey of major retailers by the BRC showed there are over 20m incidents of shoplifting every year – unfortunately many of these go unreported as retailers simply don't have faith that action will be taken by the police,' Ironside said. The trade body has calculated that shop theft costs retailers more than £2.2bn a year, and is also causing them to spend £1.8m on anti-crime measures. Retailers have called for help to prevent and handle rising retail crime and the impact it has on their employees and businesses, and the BRC is demanding more police resources allocated to the tackling increasing levels of theft. Aside from the financial cost, retail workers have warned of the threat of violence and abuse they face when battling to control shoplifting. The retail trade union, Usdaw, said two-thirds of the 9,500 retail workers who responded to its annual survey said incidents of violence, threats and verbal abuse they had experienced were triggered by theft or armed robbery. Paddy Lillis, Usdaw's general secretary said: 'Having to deal with repeated and persistent offences can cause issues beyond the theft itself, like anxiety, fear and physical harm to retail workers.' The retail thefts being reported are 'only the tip of the iceberg,' said James Lowman, the chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores. Fraud increased by a third in 2024 to 4.1m incidents, according to the ONS figures. This included 2.4m incidents of bank and credit account fraud, and 1.1m incidents of consumer and retail fraud, which rose by 35% compared with a year earlier. The consumer group Which? called on the government to 'halt the flood of online scam adverts' through full implementation of the Online Safety Act. 'It's also vital that the government announces plans for tough regulation of online advertising more widely, to tackle the wave of bogus celebrity-backed investment schemes and other scam adverts that appear on popular websites,' said Rocio Concha, Which? director of policy and advocacy.
The Guardian
10-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Doncaster's Joe Ironside: ‘Playing non-league has made me appreciate life now'
Subscribers to the theory that the FA Cup has lost its magic have clearly never met Joe Ironside. It is now more than three years since the Doncaster striker experienced one of the very best days of his life when he scored the winning goal for his former team Cambridge United in a wildly celebrated third-round upset at Newcastle. 'What a day, what a really special day,' says Ironside as he looks forward to Crystal Palace's visit to South Yorkshire for Monday night's fourth-round tie. 'The celebrations afterwards are something I'm going to remember for a lifetime but, although my memories are all happy, the game itself is a bit of a blur. The one thing I can remember was the VAR check for offside after I'd scored. It was only about three minutes but it felt so long.' Ironside's interception of a loose ball Eddie Howe's defence had failed to clear prefaced an unerring finish that not merely prompted Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle's unsmiling chair, to march, taut-faced, into the home dressing room flanked by four bodyguards at the final whistle, but caught the eye of the striker's boyhood hero. 'I grew up idolising Alan Shearer,' says Ironside. 'And before the third round got drawn that year I was telling everyone we were going to get Newcastle at St James' Park and it all came about. And then Alan Shearer rang me a couple of days after the game and we talked on Zoom. He was complimentary about myself and the team. It was a really nice touch.' Should Ironside help Grant McCann's League Two promotion contenders knock Palace out, he can expect a message from an old friend in Manchester, who had his own FA Cup moment on Friday night. 'Harry Maguire and I started out in the academy at Sheffield United and we're still in touch,' says the 31-year-old. 'It's always good to see Harry, what a career he's had, he's achieved absolutely amazing things.' When Ironside scored Sheffield United's consolation goal in the 2011 FA Youth Cup final against Manchester United the sky seemed the limit for the first-year academy scholar. Yet while Maguire eventually joined the Old Trafford payroll and progressed to playing centre-half for England, the striker he used to test himself against in training descended into non-league football. 'Sometimes football's about being in the right place at the right time, having the right manager at the right moment, that's just how it is,' says Ironside. 'Dropping into non-league was difficult but it was with the aim of playing regularly and getting back into the Football League. But I loved it. I wouldn't change a thing.' After making 16 first-team appearances at Sheffield United Ironside signed for Alfreton in 2015, moving on to Nuneaton, Kidderminster and York before joining Macclesfield, then in League Two, in 2019. A year later he was bound for Cambridge United, helping them win promotion to League One, and arrived in Doncaster in June 2023. Since then he has scored 30 goals in 94 games. 'I was lucky enough to get back into the Football League but I'm grateful for the experiences I had outside it,' he says. 'Playing non-league has definitely made me appreciate my life now. You appreciate all the things that are done for players at league clubs these days.' Ultimately Ironside hopes to remain in the professional sphere as a coach or manager but, with an eight-month-old son now part of his family, he is exploring plan Bs and sacrifices considerable free time to not only collecting his coaching badges but studying part-time for a university degree in sports business management. 'I'm trying to create more options for the future,' he says. 'It's good to do different things but football's always the main focus.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Never more so than on Monday night, when Ironside and his co-striker, the former Sheffield United veteran Billy Sharp, will aim to ask England's Marc Guéhi and his fellow Palace defenders questions they struggle to answer. The 39-year-old Sharp – often a highly effective impact substitute nowadays – and Ironside car-share on the journey between their homes in Sheffield and Doncaster. 'We talk a lot,' says the latter. 'But more about life in general than football.' That might change during Monday morning's drive east across the M18 to the 15,000-capacity Eco-Power Stadium. 'Palace have all top players so to be able to share a pitch with people like Marc Guéhi is exciting. It's definitely something to look forward to,' says Ironside. 'But we've got a lot of experience throughout our squad and it's the FA Cup so anything can happen.' Palace would certainly be unwise to underestimate a team riding high in the fourth tier. After all McCann's side includes talented loanees in the Manchester United winger Ethan Ennis and the West Ham midfielder Patrick Kelly. Then there's Teddy Sharman-Lowe, on loan from Chelsea and a former England Under-20s goalkeeper, and the defender Joseph Olowu, who came through Arsenal's youth system. 'I think this tie has really caught people's imaginations in Doncaster,' says Ironside. 'It's a cliche but that's the beauty of the FA Cup. When you're a League Two club that draws a Premier League side it does galvanise the city. It's going to be a great occasion with a bumper crowd and, if Billy Sharp and I can do our jobs, our team's got a chance.'
BBC News
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Narnia magic inspires Malvern Well Dressing Festival this year
Magical tales will inspire people dressing wells in the Malvern Hills for a festival to be held in to 45 wells will be decorated for the Malvern Well Dressing Festival and this year the theme is linked to the area's history of storytelling, magic and of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings and Rings, and the medieval classic Piers Plowman are thought to have been inspired by the local area, Malvern Hills District Council dressing organiser Phil Ironside said the festival was "an amazing celebration of water and of Malvern's water heritage". Also seen in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and other areas of England, the activity, described by the countryside charity the CPRE involves decorating wells with flower petals pressed into wooden frames packed with soaked decorations in Malvern have also used textiles and garlands - and models including a teapot in a previous display based on Alice in festival gets under way on May Day weekend and runs from Saturday 3 May to Sunday 11 May, with wells being dressed on 2 May, judging taking place on opening day and prize-giving on the Bank Holiday by the Malvern Spa Association, last year saw more than 800 people take part in decorating the wells and planned this year includes singing, blessings, dowser workshops and maypole and Morris Ironside said: "We can't wait to see what incredible creations the well dressers produce."People who want to take part can get in touch with the well dressing committee or visit the Malvern Well Dressing Facebook page. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
