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Australia has enacted a world-first ban on social media for users aged under 16, causing millions of children and teenagers to lose access to their accounts.

Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and TikTok are expected to have taken steps from Wednesday to remove accounts held by users under 16 years of age in Australia, and prevent those teens from registering new accounts.

Platforms that do not comply risk fines of up to $49.5m.

There have been some teething problems with the ban’s implementation. Guardian Australia has received several reports of those under 16 passing the facial age assurance tests, but the government has flagged it is not expecting the ban will be perfect from day one.

All listed platforms apart from X had confirmed by Tuesday they would comply with the ban. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said it had recently had a conversation with X about how it would comply, but the company had not communicated its policy to users.

Bluesky, an X alternative, announced on Tuesday it would also ban under-16s, despite eSafety assessing the platform as “low risk” due to its small user base of 50,000 in Australia.

Parents of children affected by the ban shared a spectrum of views on the policy. One parent told the Guardian their 15-year-old daughter was “very distressed” because “all her 14 to 15-year-old friends have been age verified as 18 by Snapchat”. Since she had been identified as under 16, they feared “her friends will keep using Snapchat to talk and organise social events and she will be left out”.

Others said the ban “can’t come quickly enough”. One parent said their daughter was “completely addicted” to social media and the ban “provides us with a support framework to keep her off these platforms”.

“The fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear, ­national standard.”

Polling has consistently shown that two-thirds of voters support raising the minimum age for social media to 16. The opposition, including leader Sussan Ley, have recently voiced alarm about the ban, despite waving the legislation through parliament and the former Liberal leader Peter Dutton championing it.

The ban has garnered worldwide attention, with several nations indicating they will adopt a ban of their own, including Malaysia, Denmark and Norway. The European Union passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions, while a spokesperson for the British government told Reuters it was “closely monitoring Australia’s approach to age restrictions”.

President Donald Trump's administration has warned that Europe faces "civilisational erasure" and questioned whether certain nations can remain reliable allies, in a new strategy document that puts a particular focus on the continent.

The 33-page National Security Strategy sees the US leader outline his vision for the world and how he will wield US military and economic power to work towards it.

Trump described the document as a "roadmap" to ensure America remains "the greatest and most successful nation in human history".

European politicians have begun to react, with Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying his country did not need "outside advice".

A formal National Security Strategy is typically released by presidents once each term. It can form a framework for future policies and budgets, as well as signalling to the world where the president's priorities lie.

The new document follows similar rhetoric to Trump's speech to the United Nations earlier this year, where he had harsh criticism for Western Europe and its approach to migration and clean energy.

The new report doubles down on Trump's point of view, calling for the restoration of "Western identity", combatting foreign influence, ending mass migration, and focusing more on US priorities such as stopping drug cartels.

Focusing on Europe, it asserts that if current trends continue the continent would be "unrecognisable in 20 years or less" and its economic issues are "eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure".

"It is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies," the document states.

It also accused the European Union and "other transnational bodies" of carrying out activities that "undermine political liberty and sovereignty", said migration policies were "creating strife" and said other issues included "censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition, cratering birthrates, and loss of national identities and self-confidence".

Conversely, the document hails the growing influence of "patriotic European parties" and says "America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit".

The Trump administration has fostered links with the far-right AfD party in Germany, which has been classified as extreme right by German intelligence.

The document says there must be a readjustment of "our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere". To do this, the strategy calls for moving assets away from theatres which are less important to American national security than they once were.

This re-prioritising of military power can be seen already in the Caribbean, where the US military has a growing presence and has carried out repeated deadly strikes on boats which the government alleges are carrying drugs. The world's largest warship, the USS Gerald Ford, is currently based in the Caribbean along with its strike group.

“Put moral formation at the centre of your society”

David Brooks' speech was challenging and thought provoking, calling for us to reassess what we think cultural renewal looks like and to reconnect to our spiritual roots.

Feel free to share when you came in with a line or joke at just the right time - nothing beats a well timed moment!

US President Donald Trump confronted his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, over widely discredited claims of a white genocide in South Africa, during an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday.

Mr Trump said that white farmers are "fleeing South Africa", playing footage to the room showing people chanting "kill the Boer, kill the farmer".

Responding, Mr Ramaphosa condemned the chants but pushed back against claims of white persecution.

Donald Trump will inevitably claim Monday’s temporary truce in the US-China trade war as a victory, but financial markets seem to have read it for what it is – a capitulation.

Stocks were up and bond yields were higher after the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s early morning press conference in Geneva, where he has been holding talks with China.
As with the UK “trade deal” last week, the US is not reverting to the status quo before Trump arrived in the White House.

Instead, tariffs on Chinese goods will be cut from 145% to 30% – initially for a 90-day period. In return, China has cut its own tariffs on US imports to 10%, from the 125% it had imposed in retaliation against the White House.

That still marks a big shift in the terms of trade between the two countries since before Trump came to power, but falls far short of what was in effect a trade embargo.

Instead, the statement hailed “the importance of a sustainable, long-term and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship”. The language was rather different to Trump’s Liberation Day speech, about the US being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far”.

In other words, the president has caved. He may have been swayed by market wobbles but it seems more plausible that dire warnings from retailers about empty shelves – backed up by data showing shipments into US ports collapsing – may have strengthened the hands of trade moderates in the administration.

Donald Trump just imposed a 25 percent tariff on virtually all goods produced by America’s two largest trading partners — Canada and Mexico. He simultaneously established a 20 percent across-the-board tariff on Chinese goods.

As a result, America’s average tariff level is now higher than at any time since the 1940s.

Meanwhile, China and Canada immediately retaliated against Trump’s duties, with the former imposing a 15 percent tariff on American agricultural products and the latter putting a 25 percent tariff on $30 billion of US goods. Mexico has vowed to mount retaliatory tariffs of its own.

This trade war could have far-reaching consequences. Trump’s tariffs have already triggered a stock market sell-off and cooling of manufacturing activity. And economists have estimated that the trade policy will cost the typical US household more than $1,200 a year, as the prices of myriad goods rise.

All this raises the question: Why has the US president chosen to upend trade relations on the North American continent? The stakes of this question are high, since it could determine how long Trump’s massive tariffs remain in effect. Unfortunately, the president himself does not seem to know the answer.

In recent weeks, Trump has provided five different — and contradictory — justifications for his tariffs on Mexico and Canada...

...more in the article.

Nigel Farage has been accused of acting as “Donald Trump’s spokesman in Britain” for refusing to criticize his ally after the US president bullied and belittled Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last Friday.

Condemning the Reform leader, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Nigel Farage is once again showing his true colours as Trump's own spokesman here in Britain.

"Zelensky showed courage and integrity in that room - in stark contrast to Farage’s cowardly approach of licking Trump’s boots.

And the Conservatives said Mr Zelensky is a hero who has “stood up to Putin’s aggression and led his country’s defence against their barbaric and illegal invasion”.

“It is troubling to not hear the leader of Reform say that,” shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel said. She added: “For Nigel Farage to sit there pointing the finger at Zelenskyy is both morally wrong and diplomatically counterproductive.

Labour MP Blair McDougall, a member of the foreign affairs committee, told The Independent he was “utterly unsurprised” by Mr. Farage joining the attack on Mr. Zelensky.

He added: “Most of us look at Putin and feel disgust. Farage has always seen someone to admire. A leader who can’t pick a side between a murderous dictatorship and a democracy doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near decisions about Britain’s security.”

Please state in which country your phrase tends to be used, what the phrase is, and what it should be.

Example:

In America, recently came across "back-petal", instead of back-pedal. Also, still hearing "for all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes".

This ability of the sorcerer will wipe any one song of your choosing from the pages of history, as if it never existed! Gone from our reality. They were going to do it anyway, but they're making you choose.

Which song would you pick?

(If you really can't narrow it down to one, then try narrowing to three)

~picture credit goes to zenart07 , DeviantArt~

On the afternoon of August 5th, televisions in Bangladesh broadcast images of a helicopter rising from the residence of Sheikh Hasina, the country’s prime minister until minutes before. The chopper was carrying her and her sister “to safety”. Shortly afterwards images appeared of gleeful protesters entering the prime minister’s residence, lounging in her bed and making off with pets and furniture. Others were filmed dancing in the streets of Dhaka. In an address to the nation, General Waker-uz-Zaman, the army chief, confirmed that Sheikh Hasina had resigned and said he would form an interim government. One of the world’s wiliest autocrats, and its longest-serving female head of government, she had been summarily dispatched by angry citizens. “She is a blood-sucker, a monster for us, for the young people,” said a protester. “She destroyed Bangladesh.”

Started from students, then a mass of citizens, who eventually pushed back and managed to actually kick her out.