Category: 2. World

YouTube will be included in Australia’s world-first social media ban for children under 16, after the government ditched a previous exemption for the platform.

The video sharing site was set to be excluded from the ban – which will limit TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X and Snapchat and is due to start in December.

Under the ban, teenagers will still be able to view YouTube videos but will not be permitted to have an account, which is required for uploading content or interacting on the platform.

YouTube – owned by Google – had argued it shouldn’t be blocked for children as the platform “offers benefit and value to younger Australians”: “It’s not social media,” it said in statement on Wednesday.

Australia’s laws are being watched with great interest by global leaders, with Norway announcing a similar ban and the UK saying it is considering following suit.

“Social media is doing social harm to our children, and I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told media on Wednesday.

“We know that this is not the only solution,” he said of the ban, “but it will make a difference.”

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant last month recommended YouTube be added to the ban as it was “the most frequently cited platform” where children aged 10 to 15 years saw “harmful content”.

After Wednesday’s announcement, a spokesperson from YouTube said it will “consider next steps” and “continue to engage” with the government.

Last week, several Australian media outlets had reported that Google was threatening to sue the government if YouTube was included in the ban, arguing it would restrict political freedom.

Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells said that while there is a place for social media, “there’s not a place for predatory algorithms targeting children”.

She described trying to protect children from the harms of the internet as “like trying to teach your kids to swim in the open ocean with the rips and the sharks compared to at the local council pool”.

“We can’t control the ocean but we can police the sharks and that is why we will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the wellbeing of Australian kids,” she said.

Exclusions to the ban will include “online gaming, messaging, education and health apps” as they “pose fewer social media harms to under 16s”, Wells said.

Under the ban, tech companies can fined up to A$50m ($32.5m; £25.7m) if they don’t comply with the age restrictions. They will need to deactivate existing accounts and prohibit any new accounts, as well as stopping any work arounds and correcting errors.

More details of how the new ban will work are due to be presented to federal parliament on Wednesday.

MIYUN: Heavy rain killed more than 30 people and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands as swaths of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours that sparked landslides and flooding, state media said on Tuesday.

Weather authorities have issued their second-highest rainstorm warning for the capital Beijing, neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin, as well as 10 other provinces, state news agency Xinhua said. The rains are expected to last into Wednesday.

The heavy rainstorms had left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight on Monday, Xinhua said, citing flood control authorities. More than 80,000 people have been evacuated in the capital alone, according to state-run Beijing Daily. The death toll was highest in Miyun, a northeastern suburb, it said.

“This time the rain was unusually heavy, it’s not normally like this,” a Miyun resident surnamed Jiang said as water streamed down the road outside her house. “The road is full of water so people aren’t going to work,” she said.

In Xinanzhuang village, journalists saw murky water had submerged homes, cars and a road. A local man in his sixties said he had never seen water levels so high.

Record floods

Nearby, torrents of water gushed from spillways in the Miyun Reservoir, which authorities said reached its highest levels since its construction in 1959. Beijing’s northern Huairou district and southwestern Fangshan were also badly affected, state media said.

Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said. “Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,” the outlet said.

More than 10,000 people also evacuated their homes in the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, which saw major flash floods, according to state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times.

And in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, a landslide in a village killed eight people, with four still missing, state broadcaster CCTV said. The army was mobilised to help disaster relief operations, the channel said.

CCTV footage showed soldiers in orange life vests bringing supplies including bottled water, carrying people on stretchers, and clearing debris from roads. Social media users online shared anxious accounts of being unable to reach family members in Hebei’s mountainous Xinglong county.

Mudslides and floods forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate, while rescuers were still attempting to reach some villages that had “lost contact”, China National Radio said. Local authorities have issued flash flood warnings through Tuesday evening, with the city of Chengde and surrounding areas under the highest alert, Hebei’s radio and television station said.

]‘All-out efforts’

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on authorities to plan for worst-case scenarios and relocate residents of flood-threatened areas. The government and Communist Party have collectively allocated around 490 million yuan ($68 million) for disaster relief in nine regions hit by heavy rains, CCTV said. Another 200 million yuan will be allocated for the capital.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025

UNITED NATIONS: Arab countries including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Egypt joined calls on Tuesday for Hamas to disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Palestinian territory.

Seventeen countries plus the European Union and Arab League threw their weight behind a seven-page text agreed at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.

“In the context of ending the war in Gaza, Hamas must end its rule in Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, with international enga­gement and support, in line with the objective of a sovereign and independent Pales­tinian State,” said the declaration.

It followed a call on Monday by the Palestinian delegation at the United Nations for both Israel and Hamas to leave Gaza, allowing the Palestinian Authority to administer the coastal territory. The text also condemned the Hamas raid against Israel of Oct 7, 2023.

France, which co-chaired the conference with Saudi Arabia, called the declaration “both historic and unprecedented.”

“For the first time, Arab countries and those in the Middle East condemn Hamas, condemn Oct 7, call for the disarmament of Hamas, call for its exclusion from Palestinian governance, and clearly express their intention to normalise relations with Israel in the future,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025

MIYUN: Heavy rain killed more than 30 people and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands as swaths of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours that sparked landslides and flooding, state media said on Tuesday.

Weather authorities have issued their second-highest rainstorm warning for the capital Beijing, neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin, as well as 10 other provinces, state news agency Xinhua said. The rains are expected to last into Wednesday.

The heavy rainstorms had left 30 people dead in Beijing as of midnight on Monday, Xinhua said, citing flood control authorities. More than 80,000 people have been evacuated in the capital alone, according to state-run Beijing Daily. The death toll was highest in Miyun, a northeastern suburb, it said.

“This time the rain was unusually heavy, it’s not normally like this,” a Miyun resident surnamed Jiang said as water streamed down the road outside her house. “The road is full of water so people aren’t going to work,” she said.

In Xinanzhuang village, journalists saw murky water had submerged homes, cars and a road. A local man in his sixties said he had never seen water levels so high.

Record floods

Nearby, torrents of water gushed from spillways in the Miyun Reservoir, which authorities said reached its highest levels since its construction in 1959. Beijing’s northern Huairou district and southwestern Fangshan were also badly affected, state media said.

Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said. “Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,” the outlet said.

More than 10,000 people also evacuated their homes in the neighbouring port city of Tianjin, which saw major flash floods, according to state-owned nationalist tabloid Global Times.

And in Hebei province, which encircles Beijing, a landslide in a village killed eight people, with four still missing, state broadcaster CCTV said. The army was mobilised to help disaster relief operations, the channel said.

CCTV footage showed soldiers in orange life vests bringing supplies including bottled water, carrying people on stretchers, and clearing debris from roads. Social media users online shared anxious accounts of being unable to reach family members in Hebei’s mountainous Xinglong county.

Mudslides and floods forced more than 8,000 people to evacuate, while rescuers were still attempting to reach some villages that had “lost contact”, China National Radio said. Local authorities have issued flash flood warnings through Tuesday evening, with the city of Chengde and surrounding areas under the highest alert, Hebei’s radio and television station said.

]‘All-out efforts’

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on authorities to plan for worst-case scenarios and relocate residents of flood-threatened areas. The government and Communist Party have collectively allocated around 490 million yuan ($68 million) for disaster relief in nine regions hit by heavy rains, CCTV said. Another 200 million yuan will be allocated for the capital.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025

SURIN: An uneasy ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia appeared to hold on Tuesday, as military commanders met despite Bangkok’s allegations the truce had been breached with sporadic skirmishes.

Following peace talks in Malaysia on Monday, both sides agreed an unconditional ceasefire would start at midnight to end deadly fighting over a smattering of ancient temples in disputed zones along their 800-kilometre border.

The Thai military said that Cambodian troops “had launched armed attacks into several areas” in “a clear attempt to undermine mutual trust”, but said clashes later stopped.

Cambodia’s defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata insisted there had been “no armed clashes against each other in any regions”. Both sides said morning meetings between rival military commanders along the border — scheduled as part of the pact — had gone ahead.

In the Thai village of Ta Miang, seven kilometres from the frontier, Wanta Putmo said constant blasts for the last five days had stopped her from sleeping in the cramped bunker she had shared with nine others.

“I feel a little relieved, but not completely,” the 68-year-old farmer said, after surviving mostly on canned fish and instant noodles donated by a local monk.

“Maybe if I don’t hear gunfire and shellings tomorrow, I might finally feel at ease and go back home,” she added.

‘A minor skirmish’

Thailand’s army said three meetings on the frontier had seen senior officers agree to de-escalation measures including “a halt on troop reinforcements or movements that could lead to misunderstandings”. But the Thai military also said it had captured 18 Cambodian troops in post-ceasefire fighting “after Cambodian forces launched heavy and indirect fire into Thai territory”.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2025

EPA

ISLAMABAD:

President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister on Tuesday expressed grief over the loss of human lives caused by the recent heavy rains in China.

In his message, the president conveyed heartfelt sympathies to the bereaved families and expressed solidarity with those affected by the natural calamity.

In a separate message shared on his official X account, the premier said: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives and displacement caused by the recent torrential rains and landslides in China.”

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip,” the leading international authority on food crises said in a new alert Tuesday, predicting “widespread death” without immediate action.

The alert, still short of a formal famine declaration, follows an outcry over images of emaciated children in Gaza and reports of dozens of hunger-related deaths after nearly 22 months of war. International pressure led Israel over the weekend to announce measures, including daily humanitarian pauses in fighting in parts of Gaza and airdrops. The U.N. and Palestinians on the ground say little has changed, and desperate crowds continue to overwhelm delivery trucks before they reach their destinations.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said Gaza has teetered on the brink of famine for two years, but recent developments have “dramatically worsened” the situation, including “increasingly stringent blockades” by Israel.

A formal famine declaration, which is rare, requires the kind of data that the lack of access to Gaza, and mobility within, has largely denied. The IPC has only declared famine a few times — in Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and parts of Sudan’s western Darfur region last year.

But independent experts say they don’t need a formal declaration to know what they’re seeing in Gaza.

“Just as a family physician can often diagnose a patient she’s familiar with based on visible symptoms without having to send samples to the lab and wait for results, so too we can interpret Gaza’s symptoms. This is famine,” Alex de Waal, author of “Mass Starvation: The History and Future of Famine” and executive director of the World Peace Foundation, told The Associated Press.

What it takes to declare famine

An area is classified as in famine when all three of the following conditions are confirmed:

At least 20% of households have an extreme lack of food, or are essentially starving. At least 30% of children six months to 5 years old suffer from acute malnutrition or wasting, meaning they’re too thin for their height. And at least two people or four children under 5 per 10,000 are dying daily due to starvation or the interaction of malnutrition and disease.

The report is based on available information through July 25 and says the crisis has reached “an alarming and deadly turning point.” It says data indicate that famine thresholds have been reached for food consumption in most of Gaza — at its lowest level since the war began — and for acute malnutrition in Gaza City. The report says nearly 17 out of every 100 children under the age of 5 in Gaza City are acutely malnourished.

Mounting evidence shows “widespread starvation.” Essential health and other services have collapsed. One in three people in Gaza is going without food for days at a time, according to the World Food Program. Hospitals report a rapid increase in hunger-related deaths in children under 5. Gaza’s population of over 2 million has been squeezed into increasingly tiny areas of the devastated territory.

“This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes,” U.N. secretary-general Antonio Guterres said in a statement on the new report, adding that the “trickle of aid must become an ocean.”

More deaths to come

The IPC alert calls for immediate and large-scale action and warns: “Failure to act now will result in widespread death in much of the strip.”

Humanitarian workers agreed.

“If we don’t have the conditions to react to this mass starvation, we will see this exponential rise,” said Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save the Children International, based in Gaza. “So we will see thousands and potentially tens of thousands of people die in Gaza. That is preventable.” She described children digging through trash piles outside their office, looking for food.

Anything less than a ceasefire and a return to the U.N.-led aid system in place before Israel’s blockade in early March “is policymakers condemning tens of thousands of people in Gaza to death, starvation and disease,” said Rob Williams, CEO for War Child Alliance.

“All of the children who are currently malnourished will die. That is, unless there’s an absolutely rapid and consistent reversal of what is happening,” said Dr. Tarek Loubani, medical director for Glia, based in Gaza.

‘Open every border crossing’

Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages.

Israel eased those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead with a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. The traditional, U.N.-led aid providers say deliveries have been hampered by Israeli military restrictions and incidents of looting, while criminals and hungry crowds swarm entering convoys.

While Israel says there’s no limit on how many aid trucks can enter Gaza, U.N. agencies and aid groups say even the latest humanitarian measures are not enough to counter the worsening starvation.

“The fastest and most effective way to save lives right now is to open every border crossing,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, head of Mercy Corps. the international relief agency, said in a statement Tuesday. Aid groups call the airdrops ineffective and dangerous, saying they deliver less aid than trucks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said no one is starving in Gaza and that Israel has supplied enough aid throughout the war, “otherwise, there would be no Gazans.”

Israel’s closest ally now appears to disagree. “Those children look very hungry,” President Donald Trump said Monday.

___

Anna reported from Lowville, New York. Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed.