Author: ALJAZEERA

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he wants children ‘off their phones and on the footy field’.Australia is planning to ban children from using social media amid concerns that platforms like Instagram and TikTok are negatively affecting young people’s physical and mental health. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the government will launch an age verification trial in the coming months ahead of the introduction of legislation to enforce a ban. Albanese said his centre-left Labor Party government is considering a minimum age of between 14 and 16. Albanese said parents are “worried sick” about their children’s…

Medan, Indonesia – Indonesian workers who paid thousands of dollars to travel to the United Kingdom to pick fruit say they face the prospect of returning home heavily in debt after being sacked for not meeting unrealistic targets. Migrant worker Abdul said he departed for the UK in May with nine other Indonesians under the country’s seasonal worker scheme, which grants foreign workers six-month visas to work on British farms. Hired by UK recruiter Agri-HR, Abdul was sent to Haygrove, a farm in Hereford, about 215km (135 miles) southwest of London. “A friend of mine who had already been to the…

US Commerce Department says curbs follow consultation with international partners.The United States has rolled out fresh export controls on quantum computers and semiconductor-manufacturing equipment amid concerns about the use of advanced technologies by rivals such as China. The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday that the export restrictions followed consultation with international partners and would strengthen relations with “like-minded countries”. “Today’s action ensures our national export controls keep step with rapidly evolving technologies and are more effective when we work in concert with international partners,” Under Secretary for the Bureau of Industry and Security Alan Estevez said in a…

In August, X, the social media company once known as Twitter, publicly released Grok 2, the latest iteration of its AI chatbot. With limited guardrails, Grok has been responsible for pushing misinformation about elections and allowing users to make life-like artificial intelligence-generated images – otherwise known as deepfakes – of elected officials in ethically questionable positions. The social media giant has started to rectify some of its problems. After election officials in Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington wrote to X head Elon Musk alleging that the chatbot produced false information about state ballot deadlines, X now points users…

Tech founder says French authorities are putting innovation at risk in first public comments since his detention.Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has criticised French authorities for pursuing “misguided” criminal charges against him instead of approaching his company with their concerns in his first public comments since his arrest. In a post on Telegram on Thursday, Durov said it was “surprising” to learn that he could be held personally responsible for illegal activities carried out by other people on his social media-cum-messaging platform. “If a country is unhappy with an internet service, the established practice is to start a legal action against…

Xi pledges $51bn in new financing for African countries at Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to create “at least” one million jobs in Africa as he seeks to position Beijing as the development partner of choice for the Global South. Speaking at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation on Thursday, Xi said Beijing would provide African countries $51bn in new financing, including loans and “various types of assistance”, and support 30 infrastructure projects to boost connectivity across the continent. “We have together built roads, railways, schools, hospitals, industrial parks and special economic zones. These projects have changed…

Ministry of Commerce’s investigation comes after Ottawa announced 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs.China has announced anti-dumping investigations into Canadian canola and chemical products after Ottawa imposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), steel and aluminium. China’s Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday that “unfair competition by the Canadian side” had inflicted losses on domestic canola producers. The ministry said it would also launch a probe into Canadian chemical products based on “applications by domestic industries”. “China … will take all necessary measures to defend the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises,” the ministry said in a statement. The…

Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je freed after court finds insufficient evidence to justify his detention.A court in Taiwan has ordered the release of a former mayor and presidential candidate who was arrested over his alleged role in a corruption scandal, citing insufficient evidence for his detention. Taipei District Court on Monday ruled that Ko Wen-je, a former mayor of Taipei and the leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), should go free after finding that prosecutors had failed to make the case for his detention. The court said prosecutors had not met the standard of there being a “high…

At issue is whether de Moraes can order the social network to block certain accounts, a request that Musk denounces as censorship.Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes has moved to block the financial accounts of billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink as an ongoing feud leaves his social media platform X on the brink of being taken down in the country. Starlink confirmed on Thursday it received an order from the judge that prevents the company from conducting financial transactions in Brazil and said in a post on X that it would address the order legally. De Moraes’s decision on Thursday…

The judge has ordered the full and immediate suspension of X in the country until all related court orders on X are complied with.A Brazilian Supreme Court justice ordered on Friday the “immediate suspension” of social media platform X in the country after a court-imposed deadline expired for the company to identify a legal representative in Brazil. The move is the latest chapter in an ongoing feud between Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and Elon Musk, which also included the freezing of the satellite internet provider Starlink’s financial accounts in Brazil. In the decision, de Moraes ordered the full and…