No end to UK protests as government expands jail capacity
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00:00Next now to the U.K., where some 6,000 specialist police officers are being deployed to deal
00:04with the far-right rioting and violence that's broken out following the murder of three children
00:09last week at a dance class in Southport in northwestern England.
00:14Violent protesters have been attacking officers and throwing bricks and fireworks at them
00:18around the country.
00:19There have been hundreds of arrests so far.
00:22Our London correspondent, Benedict Pavio, has more now on the violence overnight.
00:28There's been more unrest in parts of the U.K. overnight, with police coming under attack
00:33in Belfast, Darlington and Plymouth.
00:36Several vehicles and a pub were also damaged in Birmingham.
00:39In Belfast, in Northern Ireland, riot officers had stones and petrol bombs thrown at them.
00:44In Plymouth, six more arrests were made.
00:47The government has now announced that more than 500 extra prison places are being created
00:54to help cope with this ongoing violence.
00:58Which has meant that there have already been nearly 400 arrests over the last few days.
01:05So there's been violent disorder in towns and cities since last Tuesday.
01:10And this, of course, was all sparked off after the killing, stabbing of three young girls
01:15aged between six and nine in Southport.
01:19The government has accused social media companies of helping to fuel these protests by spreading
01:25false claims online that the suspect in the killing of these three small girls a week
01:30ago was an asylum seeker who had arrived in the United Kingdom illegally.
01:36Downing Street said yesterday that action taken by social media companies to tackle
01:41this misleading and what they called inflammatory material, quote, doesn't go far enough.
01:47So they've been having talks with the heads of many social media companies, including X.
01:53Downing Street also warned that some foreign state actors were amplifying online disinformation.
01:59So an ongoing and tense situation here.