The under-16s ban is a pragmatic first step in trying to reduce the potential harm on young people of addictive products. It is not undermining the democratic process

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A constitutional challenge is pending against the government’s under-16 social media account ban. The case argues that the law contravenes the implied freedom of political communication. It is likely to fail.

Two 15-year-olds, Noah Jones and Macy Neyland, backed by the Digital Freedom Project advocacy group will argue that the law is unconstitutional because it impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication.

Dean Sanderson died of head and chest injuries and his wife, Shannon, suffered broken ribs and a fractured scapula after falling 20-25 metres to the ground

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A man died and his wife was badly injured after a tourist zip line system they were riding on failed because it wasn’t anchored tightly enough, a coronial inquest has heard.

Coroner Wayne Pennell held a pre-inquest hearing on Thursday into the death of Dean Sanderson at Jungle Surfing Canopy Tours at Cape Tribulation, in north Queensland on 22 October 2019.

Cyclones like those in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia that killed 1,750 are ‘alarming new reality’

The climate crisis supercharged the deadly storms that killed more than 1,750 people in Asia by making downpours more intense and flooding worse, scientists have reported. Monsoon rains often bring some flooding but the scientists were clear: this was “not normal”.

In Sri Lanka, some floods reached the second floor of buildings, while in Sumatra, in Indonesia, the floods were worsened by the destruction of forests, which in the past slowed rainwater running off hillsides.

María Corina Machado climbs over barriers to meet chanting supporters gathered outside the Grand Hotel in early hours of Thursday

Venezuela’s best-known opposition leader, the Nobel peace prize winner María Corina Machado, has made a dramatic appearance in Norway after slipping out of her authoritarian homeland by boat.

The Venezuelan politician and pro-democracy activist stepped out on to the balcony of Oslo’s iconic Grand Hotel at just before 2.30am local time, after spending the past 11 months in hiding in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

Commercial in Netherlands depicting festival-season chaos at ‘most terrible time of year’ prompted flurry of criticism online

McDonald’s says it has removed an AI-generated Christmas advertisement in the Netherlands after it was criticised online.

The ad, titled “the most terrible time of the year”, depicts scenes of Christmas chaos, with Santa caught in a traffic jam and a gift-laden Dutch cyclist slipping in the snow. And the message? Retreat to a McDonald’s restaurant until January and ride out the festive season.

At least 15 people killed, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones were waging battle

Half a million evacuees in Cambodia and Thailand were sheltering in pagodas, schools and other safe havens on Wednesday after fleeing fresh border clashes while US president Donald Trump vowed to intercede to stop the fighting.

At least 15 people, including Thai soldiers and Cambodian civilians, have been killed in the latest hostilities, officials said, while more than 500,000 people have fled border areas near where jets, tanks and drones were waging battle.

Figures for England and Wales show there were 51,672 offences for child sexual exploitation and abuse online in 2024

Online child sexual abuse in England and Wales has surged by a quarter within a year, figures show, prompting police to call for social media platforms to do more to protect young people.

Becky Riggs, the acting chief constable of Staffordshire police, called for tech companies to use AI tools to automatically prevent indecent pictures from being uploaded and shared on their sites.

Qualifications watchdog launches consultation amid complaints from pupils about writing fatigue in exams

Students could be sitting some of their GCSEs and A-levels on a laptop by the end of the decade, according to England’s qualifications watchdog.

Amid complaints from pupils of writing fatigue in exams because their hand muscles “are not strong enough”, Ofqual is launching a three-month public consultation about the introduction of onscreen assessments.

PwC warns that future of a generation is at risk and that jobs crisis is costing UK economy up to £26bn a year

Britain is slipping down the global league table for youth employment amid a dramatic rise in worklessness that is putting a generation’s future at risk, research has warned.

Sounding the alarm over a worsening youth jobs crisis, the report from the accountancy firm PwC said Britain’s economy was missing out on £26bn a year because of sharp regional divisions in youth joblessness.

Ally claims former Mas president ‘illegally kidnapped’ and suggests arrest linked to fund for Indigenous Bolivians

Bolivia’s former president Luis Arce was reportedly detained and taken to police headquarters on Wednesday.

His former presidency minister, María Nela Prada Tejada, posted a video on social media saying she had received information from “unofficial sources” that Arce had been “illegally kidnapped” by police.

Marc Skinner, the Manchester United manager, defended his decision to make five changes after his side were outplayed in the Champions League.

Melchie Dumornay’s two sumptuous late goals produced a margin of victory that was no less than OL Lyonnes deserved when United failed to lay a glove on their opponents.

Eighty-eight minutes had passed and Newcastle fans were already in party mode when Alejandro Grimaldo collected Ibrahim Maza’s pass and concluded a move he had initiated courtesy of a glorious run and dummy.

As the Spain left wing-back’s shot slid beneath Aaron Ramsdale’s body and his Bayer Leverkusen teammates celebrated an arguably deserved equaliser, North Rhine-Westphalia suddenly felt a much colder place for Eddie Howe’s players.

Transport infrastructure in the US is a hot mess – and the guy in charge thinks ‘wellness spaces’ are going to solve the problem

Sean “Dog” Duffy is a legend in the lumberjack world: a three-time world champion in the 90ft lumberjack speed climb who is renowned for his prowess in mounting and rolling big bits of wood. Not just a lumberjack, Duffy also made waves on late-90s reality TV shows The Real World: Boston and Road Rules: All Stars. And now Duffy is parlaying his experience on Road Rules into his role as US transportation secretary.

Duffy has got a lot on his big lumberjack hands: transport infrastructure in the US is, to use the technical term, a hot mess. More than a third of the country’s bridges need major repair work or replacement. There has been little historical investment in railways and the country lags behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to high-speed trains. Meanwhile, there’s a chronic air-traffic-controller shortage, which was exacerbated by the recent government shutdown when a number of controllers, fed up with the dysfunctional system, took early retirement.

For Xabi Alonso, the slide towards the abyss has looked sudden from the outside. Everything was fine at the beginning of November, results for Real Madrid excellent. Since when precious little has gone his way. The manager desperately needed something here. When this latest game eluded him, it was easy to fear the worst. Time is not a commodity afforded to men in his position.

Alonso has now won twice in eight matches in all competitions and the pain was deep, the frustration given an extra twist by the reality that his players did put it in for him. They were unable to bend the occasion to their will. The margins were against them.

The Chelsea captain, Millie Bright, had dismissed any suggestions that the team were in crisis after a first league defeat in 34 games, and six goals in a comprehensive victory against Roma in their penultimate game of the Champions League group phase put those thoughts to bed.

An own goal broke the fight of Roma early on, with further goals from Wieke Kaptein, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd, Sjoeke Nüsken, Maika Hamano and Lucy Bronze.

This was an evening of notable milestones for Arsenal and Gabriel Martinelli, although there was no smile broader than Noni Madueke’s. The England forward was subjected to a ridiculous online petition that opposed his move across London from Chelsea in the summer. But on a rare appearance on the right flank as Bukayo Saka was given a welcome rest, Madueke scored a fantastic individual goal before adding a second after half-time to set up a comfortable victory for Mikel Arteta’s side.

It means Arsenal have become only the fifth English team to win their opening six matches of a Champions League or European Cup campaign and now need only a point from their remaining two to rubber‑stamp their progress directly to the last 16, even if in reality it is already a formality thanks to their superior goal difference.

Wealthy immigrants will be able to buy residency, and $5m ‘platinum card’ will exempt holders from some US taxes

Donald Trump launched a new program that will allow wealthy foreign individuals to buy a US “golden visa” for $1m, and trailed a “platinum” version for $5m.

“A direct path to Citizenship for all qualified and vetted people. SO EXCITING! Our Great American Companies can finally keep their invaluable Talent,” Trump wrote on Wednesday on social media.

Space agency is investigating after Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend

Nasa has lost contact with a spacecraft that has orbited Mars for more than a decade, though the US space agency said it was trying to re-establish a communications link.

Maven abruptly stopped communicating to ground stations over the weekend. Nasa said this week that the spacecraft had been working fine before it went behind the red planet. When it reappeared, there was only silence. “Telemetry showed all subsystems working normally before it orbited behind [Mars],” Nasa said in a statement.

In survey, US school principals describe ‘climate of distress’ and declines in student attendance amid crackdowns

Immigrant students across the US have experienced increased bullying, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdowns causing declines in attendance and a “culture of fear” among immigrant students in public schools, according to a new survey of high school principals.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access (Idea) conducted a “nationally representative” survey of more than 600 principals about the toll of raids and deportations, and how schools were responding.

If search interest holds, glitchy glam, cool blue, aliencore and gummy bear aesthetics are among the vibes set to rock the creative world next year

Next year, we’ll mostly be indulging in maximalist circus decor, working on our poetcore, hunting for the ethereal or eating cabbage in a bid for “individuality and self-preservation”, according to Pinterest.

The organisation’s predictions for Australian trends in 2026 have landed, which – according to the platform used by interior decorators, fashion lovers and creatives of all stripes – includes 1980s, aliens, vampires and “forest magic”.

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In the earlier kick-offs Vålerenga fell to a 1-0 loss to Paris FC after Karina Saevik was shown a red card, while Barcelona have climbed back to top of the table with a 3-1 win over Benfica.

Catch up on all the latest WSL action with the women’s football weekly podcast where Chelsea lost their first domestic game under Sonia Bompastor:

Funds for contract signed with Daedalus Aviation will come from $170bn allocated for Trump’s border policy

The Department of Homeland Security has signed a nearly $140m contract to purchase six Boeing 737 planes for deportation operations.

The contract, signed with the Virginia-based firm Daedalus Aviation, was first reported by the Washington Post on Wednesday and later confirmed by DHS.

States’ attorneys general argue agency has failed to properly evaluate mifepristone’s safety since initial 2000 approval

Texas and Florida have launched the latest lawsuit seeking to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone, following the US Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of a new generic version.

In the lawsuit, filed late on Tuesday in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, the states’ Republican attorneys general argue that the FDA has failed to thoroughly evaluate the drug’s safety and effectiveness since its initial approval in 2000 and disregarded the risks to the women who take it.

Photographer Janette Beckman and curator Julie Grahame have organized a one-time fundraiser for the ACLU that showcases images of musicians who have recorded protest songs or are known for their activism. Forty-three photographers have donated images of 50 artists, from John Lennon to Nina Simone to Bad Bunny, and 100% of the profits will go towards the ACLU and their efforts to protect equality, freedom and rights. In addition to the images there is a playlist of songs for the fundraiser.