Canberra (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says a landmark law that bans under-16s from social media will result in “less harm” for children. The crackdown on sites like Facebook, Instagram and X, which was approved by parliament late Thursday, will lead to “better outcomes and less harm for young Australians”, he tells reporters.
Polonnaruwa (Sri Lanka) (AFP) – Floods in central Sri Lanka’s Polunnaruwa district has forced some 335,155 people to seek temporary shelter in public buildings after their homes were flooded, according to Colombo’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC). Rescuers recovered the bodies of six children, taking the number of those killed in the torrential rains to 12, as a powerful but slow-moving storm heads towards India.
Beijing (AFP) – Beijing says that increased tariffs on China threatened by US President-elect Donald Trump due to its alleged role in fuelling the US fentanyl crisis “will not solve the United States’ own problems.”
Astana (Kazakhstan) (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin calls US President-elect Donald Trump an “intelligent person” who is capable of solving problems, as tensions between the West and Moscow escalate ahead of the Republican taking office. “As far as I imagine the re-elected president, he is actually an intelligent person, already quite experienced. I think he will find a solution,” Putin says of Trump while on a visit to Kazakhstan, without specifying what “solution” he was referring to.
Gothenburg (Sweden) (AFP) – In the gang war that is shaking Sweden, young people are being recruited as hitmen via encrypted messaging, a method used by criminal organisations to evade the police. Sweden has struggled to rein in a surge in gang shootings and bombings across the country in recent years, linked to score-settling and battles to control the drug market. The number of murder-related cases in Sweden where a suspect is under the age of 15 rose from 31 in the first eight months of 2023 to 102 in the same period this year, according to the Prosecution Authority.
Lara (Australia) (AFP) – Australian lawmakers have passed landmark rules to ban under 16s from social media, approving one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram and X. The legislation ordering social media firms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent young teens from having accounts was passed in the Senate with 34 votes in favour and 19 against. “It’ll be a weird feeling to not have it,” says 12-year-old Angus Lydom. However, with no details on how the rules will be enforced, the pre-teen seems unphased, “I’ll find a way, and so will all my other friends,” he tells AFP. of social media use in Australia
Miaodao archipelago, Shandong province (China) (AFP) – As international negotiators gather in South Korea to try to broker a plastic deal, one Chinese artist is raising awareness about the problem through his work. Fu Junsheng creates art from the plastic waste he collects from a forgotten beach in China’s Miaodao islands.
Zibqīn (Lebanon) (AFP) – As tens of thousands of Lebanese head back home following the ceasefire announcement, many are finding their towns and villages have been devastated by the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
Seoul (AFP) – South Korea’s capital was blanketed by the heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago.
Ankara (AFP) – Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is “pleased” with the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah. “We expect all parties, especially Israel, to fulfil their responsibilities to the letter in order to maintain calm on the ground,” he says. Hours after the ceasefire came into force, Turkey said it was ready to give Lebanon the “necessary support for the establishment of internal peace”.
Nienburg (Germany) (AFP) – The Grigoryeva twins Anastasia and Elizaveta, 20, escaped Russia after authorities prosecuted them for protesting against Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, while their father, a paratrooper, fought with the Russian army. Now living in exile in Germany, the two sisters vow to continue their anti-war activism.
London (AFP) – Ahead of the first stage of voting on a bill to legalise assisted dying in the UK, AFP speaks to both sides of the debate. Palliative care consultant Amy Proffitt opposes the “practicalities” of the bill, saying that she “as a doctor, cannot determine coercion — I have no legal training whatsoever.” Anil Douglas, on the other hand, whose father secretly took his own life, believes that “if the bill had been in place when my father died, he could have had a much safer, kinder, more compassionate death”.
