The Guardian

Ursula von der Leyen announces draft law to stop apps ‘depriving children of their childhood’ The EU will move forward with plans for an under 13s social media ban , the head of the European Commission has confirmed. Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday that social media apps were “depriving children of their childhood” and that big tech platforms needed to prove the safety of their products. C…

National Education Union welcomes news that schools will not have to partly fund increase from their own budgets The UK’s biggest education union is claiming a major victory after the government bowed to pressure and agreed to fully fund a forthcoming pay increase for teachers in England in a sudden U-turn on previous policy. Members of the National Education Union (NEU) were due to vote in a bal…

NBC4 colleagues Eliana Moreno and George Marciniw were working to report on a collision between a bus and an SUV More details are emerging after a local news helicopter crashed in a Los Angeles neighborhood on Tuesday evening, killing two people on board and one person on the ground. Eliana Moreno, an aerial photojournalist, and pilot George Marciniw were identified as two of the victims. Continu…

NSW Institute for Paediatric Trauma will help doctors, researchers and specialists prepare for trauma cases Get our new political email , free app or daily news podcast A new institute dedicated to improving emergency medical care for severely injured children will be established in New South Wales following recent high-profile trauma events in the state. Based at the Sydney Children’s hospital i…

Exclusive: Exhibition focussing on Finnish writer and artist’s illustrations will include original art from her first Moomins book The Moomin books about lovable trolls with hippopotamus snouts who live in harmony with nature are a global publishing phenomenon, having sold up to 30m copies since the Finnish artist and writer Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated them between 1945 and 1977. Now previ…

Doorbell firm aims to replace WhatsApp or Facebook groups with platform where people can post about safety or lost pets Amazon’s doorbell camera maker Ring is to launch its Neighbours community app in the UK in an attempt to supplant neighbourhood WhatsApp or Facebook groups. The service is intended as a modern equivalent of a community message board, where neighbours can post about safety, commu…

Centre for a Better Britain will urge abolishing inheritance tax and phasing out capital gains tax, report says A thinktank linked to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is preparing an influential policy plan that is reportedly going to call for substantial tax cuts for the rich. The Centre for a Better Britain (CFABB) is due to publish the 200-page document next week, giving insight into the economic and …

John Hanson, 84, took advantage of fine amnesty at library to return copy that could’ve amounted to $12,055 in late fees A current affairs magazine that was checked out from a New Hampshire library at the end of the 19th century has finally been returned as a piece of history – more than 130 years overdue. Staff at Concord Public Library were surprised when an 84-year-old man walked into the bran…

Passionate documentary maker won international acclaim for unsparing but poetic films exploring the impact of the Pinochet regime in Chile Patricio Guzmán, the film-maker who chronicled Chile’s bloody 1970s political strife and its subsequent social and political turmoil in films such as The Battle of Chile and Nostalgia for the Light, has died aged 85. According to Chilean news outlet Emol , Guz…

Hashim Thaçi, 58, was convicted by The Hague for crimes committed while he was senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army Europe live – latest updates Hashim Thaçi, the former president of Kosovo, has been sentenced to 25 years by a tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, including dozens of murders, committed during his time as a senior commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army during the countr…

Some 41 states restrict abortions, a ‘core component’ of maternal fetal practice, high-risk pregnancy non-profit says Maternal fetal specialists should see abortion care as a “core component” of their practice in states where laws restrict abortion, according to a new special statement from the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM). Some 41 states ban abortion at some point in pregnancy, and…

Vote comes amid Republican call to impeach defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Plus a catnapped bodega cat in Brooklyn is returned home Good morning. Saudi Arabia’s air defenses intercepted and destroyed a ⁠Houthi drone south of Mecca yesterday before it entered prohibited airspace over the holy city. A spokesperson for the kingdom, which is fighting the Iran-aligned group in Yemen, said the security…

Exclusive: Plastic surfaces form hotspots with an increase of antibiotic-resistant genes, study finds Microplastics act like a “Trojan horse” delivering pollutants, pesticides and bacteria through the soil, a five-year multinational research project has found. The EU-funded project, which has so far resulted in 22 peer-reviewed studies , found microplastics in the soil of all 227 agricultural fie…

Announcement of visa restrictions comes after Trump alleges ‘white genocide’ taking place in South Africa The US has announced visa restrictions on some South Africans as Donald Trump’s administration continues to claim that South Africa’s government racially discriminates against white minority Afrikaners. The announcement did not specify individuals who were barred from the US. Trump has spent …

The action is likely the last House vote on issue ahead of the midterm elections Sign up for the US Breaking News email The Trump administration has cut or frozen up to $177 billon in federal grants since the president took office for his second term, according to a tracking tool by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists. The cuts affected all 50 states and the Distri…