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At least four killed as ex-Pakistan PM Khan’s supporters enter Islamabad

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 09:30
Thousands clash with police as they force their way into capital to demand jailed ex-prime minister's release.

Trump will deliver the final death blow to the liberal order

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 09:29
The current international order, already on its last legs due to the West's support for Israel, won't survive Trump 2.0.

'I want to get a job but I don't know how'

Education - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 09:11
The BBC speaks to young people yet to enter the workforce as well as those who have chosen to leave it.

‘What many of us feel’: ‘Enshittification’ named word of the year

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 08:44
Australia's Macquarie Dictionary says term captures widespread sense that things are getting worse.

Ronaldo scores two goals as Al Nassr win AFC Champions League tie in Qatar

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 08:11
Portuguese star draws 37,000 fans to Al Bayt Stadium as Al Nassr beat Al Gharafa 3-1 in the AFC Champions League Elite.

Google, Meta urge Australia to delay bill on social media ban for children

Technology - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 07:56
SYDNEY — Google and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms urged the Australian government on Tuesday to delay a bill that will ban most forms of social media for children under 16, saying more time was needed to assess its potential impact. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's center-left government wants to pass the bill, which represents some of the toughest controls on children's social media use imposed by any country, into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday. The bill was introduced in parliament last week and opened for submissions of opinions for only one day. Google and Meta said in their submissions that the government should wait for the results of an age-verification trial before going ahead. The age-verification system may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off. "In the absence of such results, neither industry nor Australians will understand the nature or scale of age assurance required by the bill, nor the impact of such measures on Australians," Meta said. "In its present form, the bill is inconsistent and ineffective." The law would force social media platforms, and not parents or children, to take reasonable steps to ensure age-verification protections are in place. Companies could be fined up to $32 million for systemic breaches. The opposition Liberal party is expected to support the bill though some independent lawmakers have accused the government of rushing through the entire process in around a week. A Senate committee responsible for communications legislation is scheduled to deliver a report on Tuesday. Bytedance's TikTok said the bill lacked clarity and that it had "significant concerns" with the government's plan to pass the bill without detailed consultation with experts, social media platforms, mental health organizations and young people. "Where novel policy is put forward, it's important that legislation is drafted in a thorough and considered way, to ensure it is able to achieve its stated intention. This has not been the case with respect to this Bill," TikTok said. Elon Musk's X raised concerns that the bill will negatively impact the human rights of children and young people, including their rights to freedom of expression and access to information. The U.S. billionaire, who views himself as a champion of free speech, last week attacked the Australian government saying the bill seemed like a backdoor way to control access to the internet.

Imran Khan supporters breach lockdown in Pakistan’s Islamabad

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 07:49
Police use tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters who defied a ban to march inside the country's capital.

'Citizen Hub has been a huge help for my family'

Education - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 07:39
The community interest company in St Neots aims to create opportunities and help fill skills gaps.

Extra-curricular activities need 'relentless fundraising'

Education - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 07:23
The principal of a school in Newry says a recent musical production required over £20,000 of fundraising.

French prosecutors seek maximum 20-year sentence for man in mass rape case

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 05:21
Dominique Pelicot drugged his wife and invited dozens of strangers to their home to rape her over a nine-year period.

Leaders make final push for plastic pollution treaty at talks in S Korea

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 04:22
Island nations say recycling insufficient to solve problem when 400 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced yearly.

Trump promises 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, extra 10% tariff on China

Around The Globe - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 01:57
US president-elect says measures will remain until countries stamp out irregular border crossings and drug trafficking.

Google to build subsea cable linking Australia's Darwin to Christmas Island

Technology - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 00:42
sydney — Australia's Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island will be connected by subsea cable to the northern garrison city of Darwin, a project backed by Alphabet's Google that Australia says will boost its digital resilience. Christmas Island is 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) west of the Australian mainland, with a small population of 1,250, but strategically located in the Indian Ocean, 350 kilometers (215 miles) from Jakarta. The cable announcement comes as the Australian and U.S. militaries upgrade airfields in Australia's north, where a rotating force of U.S. Marines will be joined by Japanese troops next year. Google's vice president of global network infrastructure, Brian Quigley, said in a statement the Bosun cable will link Darwin to Christmas Island, while another subsea cable will connect Melbourne on Australia's east coast to the west coast city of Perth, then on to Christmas Island and Singapore. Australia is seeking to reduce its exposure to digital disruption by building more subsea cable pathways to Asia to its west, and through the South Pacific to the United States. "These new cable systems will not only expand and strengthen the resilience of Australia's own digital connectivity through new and diversified routes but will also complement the Government's active work with industry and government partners to support secure, resilient and reliable connectivity across the Pacific," Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said in a statement. The other partners in the cable project include Australian data center company NextDC, Macquarie-backed telecommunications group Vocus, and SUBCO. SUBCO previously built an Indian Ocean cable from Perth to Oman, with spurs to the U.S. military base of Diego Garcia, and Cocos Islands, where Australia is upgrading a runway for defense surveillance aircraft. Although 900 kilometers (560 miles) apart, Christmas Island is seen as an Indian Ocean neighbor of Cocos Islands, which the Australian Defense Force has said is key to its maritime surveillance operations in a region where China is increasing submarine activity. The new cables will also link to a Pacific Islands network being built by Google and jointly funded by the United States, connecting the U.S. and Australia through hubs in Fiji and French Polynesia. Vocus said in a statement the two networks will form the world's largest submarine cable system spanning 42,500 kilometers (26,408 miles) of fiber optic cable running between the U.S. and Asia via Australia.

Google's US antitrust trial over online ad empire winds down

Technology - Tue, 11/26/2024 - 00:30
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — The U.S. Justice Department told a federal judge that Google illegally dominated online advertising technology in seeking a second antitrust win against the company.  The closing arguments in Alexandria cap a 15-day trial held in September in which prosecutors sought to show Google monopolized markets for publisher ad servers and advertiser ad networks and tried to dominate the market for ad exchanges, which sit between buyers and sellers.  “Google rigged the rules of the road,” said DOJ lawyer Aaron Teitelbaum, who asked the judge to hold Google accountable for anti-competitive conduct and added that Google is "once, twice, three times a monopolist."  Another DOJ lawyer, Julia Tarver Wood, compared the case to the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities and said U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema had to decide whether to adopt the DOJ or Google version of the state of the ad market.  Google lawyer Karen Dunn said the DOJ had not met its legal burden and was asking Brinkema to overrule key precedents. "The law simply does not support what the plaintiffs are arguing in this case," Dunn said.  She argued the DOJ was ignoring Google's legitimate business decisions and the robust quality of the online advertising market. The company argues the government had cherry-picked a narrow slice of the online market and did not account for aggressive competition.  Shares of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, were up 1.4% in afternoon trading.  Publishers testified at the trial that they could not switch away from Google, even when it rolled out features they disliked, since there was no other way to access the huge advertising demand within Google's ad network.  In 2017, News Corp estimated losing at least $9 million in ad revenue that year if it had switched away, one witness said.  If Brinkema finds that Google broke the law, she would consider prosecutors' request to make Google at least sell off Google Ad Manager, a platform that includes the company's publisher ad server and its ad exchange.  Google offered to sell the ad exchange this year to end a European Union antitrust investigation, but European publishers rejected the proposal as insufficient, Reuters first reported in September.  Analysts view the ad tech case as a smaller financial risk than the case in which a judge ruled Google maintains an illegal monopoly in online search, and in which prosecutors have argued the company must be forced to sell its Chrome browser.

Total Energies pauses investments into Adani Group on bribery charges

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 23:01
Impact of US indictment of group's chairman is spreading as multiple projects say they are reviewing deals with Adani.

One killed, dozens injured as supporters of Imran Khan protest in Pakistan

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 21:56
Supporters of the former prime minister are marching to the capital, Islamabad, demanding his release from jail.

Israel intensifies attacks on Lebanon but claims ceasefire deal ‘close’

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 21:37
After previous hopes for Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire were dashed, US officials warn that negotiations are not complete.

Lithuania investigates deadly plane crash near Vilnius Airport

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 21:17
A DHL cargo plane crashed near Lithuania’s Vilnius Airport, killing one crew member.

What do Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy plan to do with DOGE?

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 20:51
Musk wants to slash government spending by a third, and Ramaswamy wants to cut 75% of the federal workforce. Can they?

Biden gives final Thanksgiving turkey pardons of his presidency

Around The Globe - Mon, 11/25/2024 - 19:41
Joe Biden performed his final presidential pardons of Thanksgiving holiday turkeys.

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