An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: France intends to follow Australia and ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year. A draft bill preventing under-15s from using social media will be submitted for legal checks and is expected to be debated in parliament early in the new year. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has made it clear in recent weeks that he wants France to swiftly follow Australia's world-first ban on social media platforms for under-16s, which came into force in December. It includes Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Le Monde and France Info reported on Wednesday that a draft bill was now complete and contained two measures: a ban on social media for under-15s and a ban on mobile phones in high schools, where 15- to 18-year-olds study. Phones have already been banned in primary and middle schools. The bill will be submitted to France's Conseil d'Etat for legal review in the coming days. Education unions will also look at the proposed high-school ban on phones. The government wants the social media ban to come into force from September 2026.
Le Monde reported the text of the draft bill cited "the risks of excessive screen use by teenagers," including the dangers of being exposed to inappropriate social media content, online bullying, and altered sleep patterns. The bill states the need to "protect future generations" from dangers that threaten their ability to thrive and live together in a society with shared values. Earlier this month, Macron confirmed at a public debate in Saint Malo that he wanted a social media ban for young teenagers. He said there was "consensus being shaped" on the issue after Australia introduced its ban.
"The more screen time there is, the more school achievement drops the more screen time there is, the more mental health problems go up," he said. He used the analogy of a teenager getting into a Formula One racing car before they had learned to drive. "If a child is in a Formula One car and they turn on the engine, I don't want them to win the race, I just want them to get out of the car. I want them to learn the highway code first, and to ensure the car works, and to teach them to drive in a different car."
Le Monde and France Info reported on Wednesday that a draft bill was now complete and contained two measures: a ban on social media for under-15s and a ban on mobile phones in high schools, where 15- to 18-year-olds study. Phones have already been banned in primary and middle schools. The bill will be submitted to France's Conseil d'Etat for legal review in the coming days. Education unions will also look at the proposed high-school ban on phones. The government wants the social media ban to come into force from September 2026.
Le Monde reported the text of the draft bill cited "the risks of excessive screen use by teenagers," including the dangers of being exposed to inappropriate social media content, online bullying, and altered sleep patterns. The bill states the need to "protect future generations" from dangers that threaten their ability to thrive and live together in a society with shared values. Earlier this month, Macron confirmed at a public debate in Saint Malo that he wanted a social media ban for young teenagers. He said there was "consensus being shaped" on the issue after Australia introduced its ban.
"The more screen time there is, the more school achievement drops the more screen time there is, the more mental health problems go up," he said. He used the analogy of a teenager getting into a Formula One racing car before they had learned to drive. "If a child is in a Formula One car and they turn on the engine, I don't want them to win the race, I just want them to get out of the car. I want them to learn the highway code first, and to ensure the car works, and to teach them to drive in a different car."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Getting to space is hard. In many ways, getting back is even harder. NASA soon aims to pull off the kind of re-entry it last conducted more than 50 years ago: safely returning astronauts to Earth after they fly to the moon and back. The mission is a big moment for NASA, which will put a crew on its Orion ship for the first time. The flight will test the spacecraft's heat shield, designed to protect the astronauts on board.
Re-entries of vehicles from orbit remain one of the high-stakes parts of any human spaceflight, given the stress they put on spacecraft. In 2003, NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart as it came back from low-Earth orbit due to a breach on the vehicle that occurred during launch. All seven astronauts on board were killed. Orion will be coming back to Earth from much further away than low-Earth orbit, where all recent human spaceflights have been conducted. That means its velocity and the energy it needs to disperse will be greater, putting even more stress on the heat shield.
During a test flight in 2022 that didn't include astronauts, Orion's heat shield didn't perform as expected. That sparked worries about crew safety on future missions, prompting NASA to investigate and address what happened. NASA will launch Orion with the astronauts on board as soon as February. [...] When the vehicle initially re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, it will be traveling around 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The Orion craft, developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA, has a shield that is almost 17 feet in diameter. Installed on the vehicle's underside, the shield is covered in what is called an "ablative" material, which is designed to shift heat away from the craft during re-entry by burning off in a controlled manner.
Re-entries of vehicles from orbit remain one of the high-stakes parts of any human spaceflight, given the stress they put on spacecraft. In 2003, NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle broke apart as it came back from low-Earth orbit due to a breach on the vehicle that occurred during launch. All seven astronauts on board were killed. Orion will be coming back to Earth from much further away than low-Earth orbit, where all recent human spaceflights have been conducted. That means its velocity and the energy it needs to disperse will be greater, putting even more stress on the heat shield.
During a test flight in 2022 that didn't include astronauts, Orion's heat shield didn't perform as expected. That sparked worries about crew safety on future missions, prompting NASA to investigate and address what happened. NASA will launch Orion with the astronauts on board as soon as February. [...] When the vehicle initially re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, it will be traveling around 25,000 miles an hour and face temperatures of 5,000 degrees as it slows down. The Orion craft, developed by Lockheed Martin for NASA, has a shield that is almost 17 feet in diameter. Installed on the vehicle's underside, the shield is covered in what is called an "ablative" material, which is designed to shift heat away from the craft during re-entry by burning off in a controlled manner.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Jersey has found its answer to the relentless flooding that has plagued the state's coastal and inland communities for decades: buy the homes, demolish them and turn the land back into open space permanently. The state's Blue Acres program has acquired some 1,200 properties since 1995, spending more than $234 million in federal and state funds to pay fair market value to homeowners exhausted by repeated floods from tropical storms, nor'easters, and heavy rain.
A Georgetown Climate Center report this month called the program a national model, crediting its success to faster processing than federal buyout programs, stable state funding and case managers who guide each homeowner through the process. The demolished homes become grass lots that absorb rainwater far better than concrete and asphalt.
Manville, a borough of 11,000 at the confluence of two rivers about 25 miles southwest of Newark, has sold 120 homes to the state for roughly $22 million between 2015 and 2024. Another 53 buyouts are underway there. The need for such programs is only growing. Sea levels along the New Jersey coast rose about 1.5 feet over the past century -- more than double the global rate -- and a Rutgers study predicts a further increase of 2.2 to 3.8 feet by 2100.
A November report from the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that billions in previously approved FEMA resilience grants have already been cancelled, making state-run initiatives like Blue Acres increasingly essential.
A Georgetown Climate Center report this month called the program a national model, crediting its success to faster processing than federal buyout programs, stable state funding and case managers who guide each homeowner through the process. The demolished homes become grass lots that absorb rainwater far better than concrete and asphalt.
Manville, a borough of 11,000 at the confluence of two rivers about 25 miles southwest of Newark, has sold 120 homes to the state for roughly $22 million between 2015 and 2024. Another 53 buyouts are underway there. The need for such programs is only growing. Sea levels along the New Jersey coast rose about 1.5 feet over the past century -- more than double the global rate -- and a Rutgers study predicts a further increase of 2.2 to 3.8 feet by 2100.
A November report from the Natural Resources Defense Council noted that billions in previously approved FEMA resilience grants have already been cancelled, making state-run initiatives like Blue Acres increasingly essential.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
JPMorgan Chase is now fighting to avoid paying $10.2 million in disputed legal charges racked up by Charlie Javice, the convicted founder of student-finance startup Frank, after court filings revealed her defense team billed more than $5 million simply for attending her fraud trial -- including on days when court wasn't even in session.
A previously sealed Delaware court filing [PDF] released Monday showed that Javice's total legal tab has reached $74 million, far exceeding the $30 million Elizabeth Holmes spent defending herself in the Theranos case. JPMorgan claims the five law firms representing Javice operated under the mindset that "someone else is paying her bills." The bank's filing focused on Quinn Emanuel and Mintz Levin, the two largest firms on Javice's defense. JPMorgan said Javice had between 16 and 29 lawyers and legal staff present every day of her six-week trial, billing an average of $360,000 daily. No more than four lawyers had speaking roles.
Among the 2,377 pages of receipts submitted for March: a Cookie Monster toddler's toy, lavender and jasmine sachets, 57 hotel room upgrades at $300 per night, and a $900 meal at Koloman, a highly rated New York restaurant. A New York jury found Javice guilty in March of misleading JPMorgan into acquiring Frank for $175 million by fabricating millions of fake users. She was sentenced in September to seven years in prison but remains free on bail pending her appeal.
A previously sealed Delaware court filing [PDF] released Monday showed that Javice's total legal tab has reached $74 million, far exceeding the $30 million Elizabeth Holmes spent defending herself in the Theranos case. JPMorgan claims the five law firms representing Javice operated under the mindset that "someone else is paying her bills." The bank's filing focused on Quinn Emanuel and Mintz Levin, the two largest firms on Javice's defense. JPMorgan said Javice had between 16 and 29 lawyers and legal staff present every day of her six-week trial, billing an average of $360,000 daily. No more than four lawyers had speaking roles.
Among the 2,377 pages of receipts submitted for March: a Cookie Monster toddler's toy, lavender and jasmine sachets, 57 hotel room upgrades at $300 per night, and a $900 meal at Koloman, a highly rated New York restaurant. A New York jury found Javice guilty in March of misleading JPMorgan into acquiring Frank for $175 million by fabricating millions of fake users. She was sentenced in September to seven years in prison but remains free on bail pending her appeal.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
VIDEO - Ik ga natuurlijk een klein beetje in Gajes’ vaarwater zitten met deze titel maar ik doe het lekker toch.
(Like I said; we like to do it in public)
Voor wie na de oudejaarsconference van Peter Pannekoek (die blijkens de kop van een recensie, die ik nog niet gelezen heb want dan is de voorpret ervan af, erg geslaagd is) nog geen genoeg heeft van comedy, hieronder de Kerstaflevering van 1 van mijn favoriete Britse shows. Er is vanavond ook een New Years-editie, maar die staat helaas pas over een paar dagen op YouTube. Hoop ik, anders moet ik weer een andere bron zoeken – zoals bv. Daily Motion waar ie ook vaak op komt, maar het is altijd afwachten. Jammer genoeg is er geen mogelijkheid het Britse Channel 4 in Nederland te bekijken.
De show wordt gepresenteerd door Aussie Adam Hills, samen met Alex Brooker en Josh Widdecomb. Met z’n drieën hebben ze maar 4 (echte, en 2 prothese-) benen, en ze zijn dan ook fervent pleitbezorgers van inclusiviteit voor de mindervalide medemens. Ze maken ook steevast, soms, vaak, vrij grove grappen over hun eigen beperkingen – Alex heeft naast een beenprothese ook dwerggroei en misvormde handen.
Maar de show gaat daar niet expliciet over, het is gewoon een comedyshow die hedendaagse thema’s – vaak politiek – op de hak neemt, daar gasten bij uitnodigt en allerlei rare fratsen uithaalt. Niet altíjd even geslaagd, maar bij deze aflevering heb ik van begin tot eind zitten gieren van het lachen.
(Je moet wel een beetje kennis van de Britse samenleving en cultuur hebben, dus mocht je een referentie niet snappen en daar een knagend gevoel van ontevredenheid aan over hebt gehouden; stel de vraag in de comments. Als snap ik ze ook niet állemaal natuurlijk, maar de meeste wel dus kom maar op.)
Lees meer berichten op Sargasso
WASHINGTON (ANP) - De Amerikaanse president Donald Trump trekt de Nationale Garde terug uit Chicago, Los Angeles en Portland, meldt hij op Truth Social. De Amerikaanse reservetroepen waren naar die steden gestuurd omdat de gewelddadige criminaliteit er uit de hand zou zijn gelopen. De Democratische bestuurders van de steden wezen erop dat de criminaliteit juist dalende was.
Trump beweerde in zijn bericht dat hij tot de terugtrekking had besloten "ondanks het feit dat de criminaliteit aanzienlijk is afgenomen dankzij de aanwezigheid van deze geweldige patriotten in die steden, en uitsluitend daardoor. Portland, Los Angeles en Chicago zouden ten onder zijn gegaan als de federale overheid niet had ingegrepen."
Trump eindigde zijn bericht met de belofte terug te keren, "wellicht in een andere en sterkere vorm, wanneer de criminaliteit weer de pan uit rijst - het is slechts een kwestie van tijd!"
Vorige week wees het Amerikaanse Hooggerechtshof het verzoek van de regering-Trump af om de Nationale Garde te blijven inzetten in Chicago.
NEW YORK (ANP) - De beursgraadmeters op Wall Street zijn in 2025 flink gestegen, ondanks de handelsstrijd van president Donald Trump en andere geopolitieke onrust. Dat komt vooral door de onverzadigbare honger van beleggers naar AI-aandelen. Verder werden goud en zilver flink meer waard. Wel kende de dollar de sterkste waardedaling sinds 2017. Ook de bitcoin lukte het niet om zijn waarde vast te houden.
Op de laatste handelsdag van het jaar was sprake van bescheiden minnen op de aandelenbeurzen in New York, doordat beleggers wat winst pakten. De Dow-Jonesindex verloor 0,6 procent tot 48.063,29 punten. De brede S&P 500-index zakte 0,7 procent tot 6845,50 punten en techbeurs Nasdaq leverde 0,8 procent in op 23.241,99 punten.
De Dow was niettemin goed voor een jaarwinst van zo'n 13 procent. De S&P 500 kreeg er ongeveer 16 procent bij en de Nasdaq is in 2025 zo'n 20 procent gestegen. De beurswaardes van techbedrijven als Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft en Google-moederbedrijf Alphabet stegen tot grote hoogten.
Dollar
Eerder op de dag sloot de AEX-index aan de beurs in Amsterdam al met een jaarwinst van ruim 8 procent.
Voor de dollar was het een ander verhaal. De zogenoemde Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index ging het jaar uit met een min van circa 8 procent. Na een val in de nasleep van Trumps aankondigingen van importheffingen voor tal van landen in april, kwam de dollar onder aanhoudende druk toen de president zijn agressieve campagne begon om volgend jaar een nieuwe Fed-voorzitter te installeren.
Edelmetalen
Beleggers in edelmetalen hebben wel een topjaar achter de rug. Goud en zilver werden dit jaar respectievelijk meer dan 60 en bijna 150 procent duurder. Dat zijn de grootste jaarwinsten sinds 1979. Voor een troy ounce goud (31,1 gram) werd woensdag zo'n 4320 dollar betaald. Ook de koperprijs is dit jaar flink gestegen, iets wat dat metaal ook interessanter maakt voor bijvoorbeeld koperdieven.
Kenners noemen de snelheid waarmee de metaalprijzen dit jaar zijn gestegen "ongezien". Door de toename van geopolitieke risico's zoeken beleggers voor hun geld traditioneel toevlucht in dit soort "veilige havens". Daarnaast zijn de metalen door de renteverlagingen van centrale banken minder aantrekkelijk geworden.
De bitcoin liet daarentegen voor de tweede keer in vier jaar een daling zien, ondanks het cryptovriendelijkere beleid van Trump. De afgelopen maanden wezen sommige experts erop dat er nog steeds veel onzekerheid is over toekomstige cryptoregelgeving.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - Minister David van Weel (Buitenlandse Zaken, VVD) maakt zich zorgen over de dreigende vergunningsstop van hulporganisaties die onder andere actief zijn in Gaza. Daarover heeft de demissionaire bewindsman woensdag contact gehad met zijn Israëlische evenknie Gideon Saar, meldt een ministeriewoordvoerder.
Dinsdag werd bekend dat tientallen internationale hulporganisaties geen nieuwe vergunning dreigen te ontvangen van Israël om door te gaan met hun werk in de Gazastrook en de Westelijke Jordaanoever. Deze organisaties zouden volgens Israël niet voldoen aan strenge nieuwe registratieregels. Onder andere Artsen zonder Grenzen (AzG) verwacht geen nieuwe vergunning te krijgen.
Volgens het ministerie worden ook Nederlandse ngo's geraakt door de vergunningsstop. Daar zitten ook organisaties bij die geld hebben ontvangen van het kabinet. Sinds oktober 2023 heeft Nederland 94,2 miljoen euro toegezegd aan organisaties die crisishulp verlenen in Gaza.
WASHINGTON (ANP/RTR) - De Verenigde Staten hebben strafmaatregelen opgelegd aan vier bedrijven die actief zijn in de Venezolaanse oliesector, evenals aan bijbehorende olietankers. De regering van president Donald Trump voert zo de druk op de Venezolaanse president Nicolás Maduro verder op.
Eerder deze maand kondigde Trump een blokkade aan van alle gesanctioneerde olietankers die Venezolaanse wateren in- of uitvaren. Die maatregel heeft ertoe geleid dat de Venezolaanse olie-export vrijwel stilligt.
"We zullen het illegale regime van Maduro niet toestaan te profiteren van de olie-export, terwijl het de Verenigde Staten overspoelt met dodelijke drugs", aldus minister Scott Bessent van Financiën in een verklaring.
Militaire aanwezigheid
Maduro en zijn regering ontkennen betrokkenheid bij drugshandel. Zij stellen dat de VS regimeverandering nastreven om de controle over de enorme oliereserves van Venezuela te verkrijgen.
De Amerikanen hebben de afgelopen maanden hun militaire aanwezigheid in de regio opgevoerd en meer dan twintig dodelijke acties uitgevoerd tegen schepen die betrokken zouden zijn bij drugshandel in de Stille Oceaan en de Caribische Zee.