ban

Feb. 3 (UPI) — Spain announced it will ban social media for children younger than 16 and introduce measures that hold platforms and people accountable.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke at the World Government Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and denounced social media companies’ misconduct. He said access for young teens will end next week as part of five new government measures against the platforms.

“Social media has become a failed state, a place where laws are ignored, and crime is endured, where disinformation is worth more than truth, and half of users suffer hate speech,” Sanchez said. “A failed state in which algorithms distort the public conversation and our data and image are defied and sold.”

He said, “platforms will be required to implement effective age-verification systems — not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work.”

“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone: a space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation and violence. We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital wild west,” Sanchez said.

The first country to ban young teens from social media was Australia, which implemented its new law in December. There is also a measure in the French National Assembly to do the same. Greece, Denmark, Ireland and Great Britain are considering similar laws.

Spain hasn’t said which platforms will be subject to the new law. But during his speech, Sanchez criticized TikTok, X and Instagram.

Spain’s other measures include developing a “hate and polarization footprint,” which would track and quantify how platforms create division and magnify hate. Sanchez said the government will also hold social media executives criminally liable for failure to remove illegal or hateful content.

“We will turn algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content into a new criminal offense,” he said in Dubai. “Spreading hate must come at a cost.”

KATIE Price’s new husband Lee Andrews has shared ‘proof’ he’s not banned from leaving Dubai, despite reports claiming otherwise. 

The businessman has been accused of being unable to leave the United Arab Emirates city after allegedly forging his ex-girlfriend Dina Taji’s signature to secure a £200,000 loan.

But today Lee took to Instagram to address the rumours, sharing a grab allegedly from an app which shows if someone has any travel bans in Dubai. 

He said: “Oh guys, I’ve never really been one to explain myself but there’s a lot of fake news going around so I better say something. 

“I’m going to share on the next story, after this one, that there is no travel ban, directly from the police UAE application. 

“It’s my profile. You can check those statuses, you can check any fines you’ve got, relating to traffic, and also if you’re allowed to travel. 

home comforts

Katie Price’s husband Lee insists they’ve found first home together

PRICE AIN’T RIGHT

Katie Price’s husband ‘was banged up in Dubai jail’ WEEKS before wedding

“Allow me to share that. It’s not fabricated, I’m going on my honeymoon in a few days guys so definitely not on a travel ban.” 

It comes after Lee told The Sun he and Katie have found their first home together – and teased details of their “remote” honeymoon. 

He said: “Yeah, we’ve got the house, thank you. We’ll be flying out for our honeymoon together, remotely.

“I’m not going to tell you where we’re going but it is in the next 72 hours. So, I can fly and you’ll see us snapped somewhere.”

He and new wife Katie claim to have hit it off on social media last month, just days after her split from JJ Slater.

They moved fast to get matching tattoos before Andrews popped the question inside the luxury Burj Al Arab.

Two days later they married, with Lee insisting it is legally binding, despite their officiant claiming he only performs ceremonial weddings.

Lee later made a U-turn after claiming he would be flying to the UK to be with Katie.

Just days after telling followers he would be travelling to meet his new wife, he said: “I’m waiting for Katie to come out here, love you so much Katie.”

Medical charity has been barred for not providing Israeli authorities with personal details of its staff in the enclave.

Israel says it will terminate the humanitarian operations in Gaza of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff, further depriving Palestinians in the besieged enclave of life-saving assistance.

In December, Israel announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from working in Gaza from March 1 for failing to submit detailed information about their Palestinian employees, drawing widespread condemnation from NGOs and the United Nations.

“The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism is moving to terminate the activities of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said on Sunday.

The decision followed “MSF’s failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations operating in the region”, it added.

The ministry had earlier alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the charity has denied.

On Sunday, the ministry said MSF had committed in early January to sharing the staff list as required by the Israeli authorities but ultimately refrained, citing concerns for staff safety and a lack of assurances over how the information would be used.

“Subsequently, MSF announced it does not intend to proceed with the registration process at all, contradicting its previous statements and the binding protocol,” the ministry added, saying, “MSF will cease its operations and depart the Gaza Strip by February 28.”

Israel’s decision to terminate MSF’s operations in Gaza “is an extension of Israel’s systematic weaponisation and instrumentalisation of aid”, James Smith, an emergency physician based in London, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel has systematically targeted the Palestinian healthcare system, killing more than 1,700 Palestinian healthcare workers,” thereby “creating a profound dependency on international organisations”, Smith said.

MSF said 15 of its employees have been killed over the course of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023.

MSF has long been a key provider of medical and humanitarian aid in the enclave, particularly since the war began.

The charity said it currently provides at least 20 percent of hospital beds in the territory and operates about 20 health centres.

In 2025 alone, it carried out more than 800,000 medical consultations and more than 10,000 infant deliveries. It also provides drinking water.

Aid groups warned that without international support provided by organisations such as MSF, critical services such as emergency care, maternal healthcare and paediatric treatment could collapse entirely in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of residents without basic medical care.

France is moving closer to banning social media for users under the age of 15, citing growing concerns over young people’s mental health. The move comes as other European countries consider similar restrictions. Al Jazeera’s Aly Zein Mohamed explains.

Bangladesh cricket lost their place at T20 World Cup after refusal to play in India, but shooting team heads to New Delhi.

Bangladesh ‌has approved its shooting team’s tour to New Delhi for ‍next month’s Asian ‍Shooting Championships, days after the cricket team’s refusal to play in India due to safety concerns cost them a place at the Twenty20 World Cup.

Bangladesh have been replaced by Scotland in ⁠the T20 World Cup, which runs from February 7 to March 8, ​after they insisted they would not tour India, highlighting security ‍concerns following soured political relations between the neighbours.

The International Cricket Council (ICC), citing independent security assessment reports, dismissed Bangladesh’s demands to play their World Cup matches in Sri Lanka, the tournament ‍cohosts, ⁠instead, arguing the late change in schedule was “not feasible”.

However, media reports in Bangladesh said a three-member contingent comprising shooter Robiul Islam, his coach Sharmin Akhter and jury member Saima Feroze had received approval from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to compete in New Delhi.

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) secretary-general, Pawan Singh, confirmed the shooting team’s participation in India.

“Bangladesh’s participation was confirmed a month ‌ago. Our applications for clearances for all nations have been in process for almost three months,” Singh told the Reuters news agency.

“We have to follow ISSF norms as a ‌sport and comply with the IOC (International Olympic Committee) charter, and as NRAI, we have always received support ‌from the government,” he said, referring to the International Shooting Sport Federation.

Singh added that the Bangladesh contingent ⁠did not request any extra security measures.

“The Bangladesh team has come to our tournaments many times, so they know our strict protocols well. Maybe that’s why they are confident and ‌have not made any special requests.”

The Asian Shooting Confederation, which is organising the event, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The continental ‍rifle and pistol shooting championship will be held in New Delhi from February 2 to 14.

Ousted premier says the exclusion of her Awami League party “deepens resentment” on Muhammad Yunus’s interim government.

Bangladesh’s toppled leader Sheikh Hasina has denounced her country’s election next month after her party was barred from participating in the polls, raising fears of wider political division and possible unrest.

In a message published by The Associated Press news agency on Thursday, Hasina said “a government born of exclusion cannot unite a divided nation.”

Hasina, who was sentenced to death in absentia for her crackdown on a student uprising in 2024 that killed hundreds of people and led to the fall of her 15-year government, has been sharpening her critique of the interim government of Nobel Peace winner Muhammad Yunus in recent days, as the election that will shape the nation’s next chapter looms.

“Each time political participation is denied to a significant portion of the population, it deepens resentment, delegitimises institutions and creates the conditions for future instability,” the former leader, who is living in exile in India, warned in her email to the AP.

She also claimed that the current Bangladesh government deliberately disenfranchised millions of her supporters by excluding her party – the former governing Awami League – from the election.

More than 127 million people in Bangladesh are eligible to vote in the February 12 election, widely seen as the country’s most consequential in decades and the first since Hasina’s removal from power after the mass uprising.

Yunus’s government is overseeing the process, with voters also weighing a proposed constitutional referendum on sweeping political reforms.

Campaigning started last week, with rallies in the capital, Dhaka, and elsewhere.

Yunus returned to Bangladesh and took over three days after Hasina fled to India on August 5, 2024, following weeks of violent unrest.

He has promised a free and fair election, but critics question whether the process will meet democratic standards and whether it will be genuinely inclusive after the ban on Hasina’s Awami League.

There are also concerns over security and uncertainty surrounding the referendum, which could bring about major changes to the constitution.

Yunus’s office said in a statement to the AP that security forces will ensure an orderly election and will not allow anyone to influence the outcome through coercion or violence. International observers and human rights groups have been invited to monitor the process, the statement added.

Tarique Rahman, the son of former prime minister and Hasina rival, Khaleda Zia, returned to Bangladesh after his mother’s death in December.

Rahman, the acting chairman of Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party, is a strong candidate to win the forthcoming election.

On Friday, Hasina made her first public speech since her ouster, telling a packed press club in Delhi that Bangladesh “will never experience free and fair elections” under Yunus’s watch.

Her remarks on Friday were broadcast online and streamed live to more than 100,000 of her supporters.

The statement was criticised by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which issued a statement saying it was “surprised” and “shocked” that India had allowed her to make a public address.

Bangladesh has been asking India to extradite Hasina, but New Delhi has yet to comment on the request.

India’s past support for Hasina has frayed relations between the South Asian neighbours since her overthrow.

Emmy-winning Owda points to changes in TikTok’s US ownership, remarks from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to explain ban.

Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has said she has been permanently banned from TikTok, days after the social media platform was acquired by new investors in the United States.

Owda, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera’s AJ+ from Gaza, shared a video on her Instagram and X accounts on Wednesday, telling her followers that her TikTok account had been banned.

“TikTok deleted my account. I had 1.4 million followers there, and I have been building that platform for four years,” Owda said in the video filmed from Gaza.

“I expected that it will be restricted, like every time, not banned forever,” she added.

Al Jazeera sent a query to TikTok inquiring about Owda’s account and is waiting for a reply.

Hours after Owda shared her video, an account that appeared to have the same username was still visible on TikTok with a message that said: “Posts that some may find uncomfortable are unavailable.”

The last post visible on that account was from September 20, 2025, nearly three weeks before a ceasefire was reached in Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

In her video on Wednesday, Owda pointed to recent remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm, as a possible explanation for the ban.

Netanyahu met with pro-Israel influencers in New York in September last year, telling them that he hoped the “purchase” of TikTok “goes through”.

“We have to fight with the weapons that apply to the battlefield in which we engage, and the most important ones are social media,” Netanyahu, who is a war crimes suspect, said at the time.

“The most important purchase that is going on right now is … TikTok,” Netanyahu added. “TikTok, number one, number one, and I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential,” he said.

TikTok announced last week that a deal to establish a separate version of the platform in the US had been completed, with the new entity controlled by investment firms, many of which are American companies, including several linked to US President Donald Trump.

Owda also shared an undated video of Adam Presser, the new CEO of TikTok’s US arm.

In the video, Presser speaks about changes made at TikTok, where he previously worked as head of operations in the US, saying that “the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute” had been designated “as hate speech”.

“There’s no finish line to moderating hate speech, identifying hateful trends, trying to keep the platform safe,” Presser said.

Zionism is a nationalist ideology that emerged in the late 1800s in Europe, calling for the creation of a Jewish state.

Owda’s social media presence grew from posting daily videos in which she greeted her audience, saying, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m still alive.”

She made a documentary of the same name with Al Jazeera’s AJ+, which was awarded an Emmy in the Outstanding Hard News Feature Story category in 2024.

Her video on Wednesday came as Israel’s top court again postponed making a decision on whether foreign journalists should be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli military.

Despite the ongoing ceasefire, an Israeli attack last week killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 207 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “vast majority” killed by Israeli forces.

Court gives Israeli government until March to justify ban on foreign media from Gaza

Israel’s Supreme Court has postponed a decision on whether to allow foreign journalists independent access to Gaza, in the latest delay of a legal battle that has stretched over a year.

The court granted the government until March 31 to respond to the petition filed by the Foreign Press Association, despite state attorneys failing to provide detailed justifications beyond citing security risks.

The decision extends a policy that has barred foreign correspondents from entering Gaza to report on conditions there, unless reporters are prepared to embed with the Israeli army.

At the hearing on Wednesday, justices appeared frustrated with the government’s explanations for maintaining the blanket ban on independent press access, which has remained in place since Israel launched its genocidal war against the Palestinian people of Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

A ceasefire took effect in October 2025, though Israel has continued carrying out attacks, which have killed more than 400 people.

Justice Ruth Ronen rejected the state’s arguments, insisting that “it is not enough to cite ‘security risks’ without providing details” and noting there had been “a very significant change on the ground” since the ceasefire.

The FPA’s legal team was barred from attending or accessing the material presented to the judges.

The FPA, which represents 370 journalists from 130 media outlets, said it was “deeply disappointed that the Israeli Supreme Court has once again postponed ruling on our petition for free, independent press access to Gaza.”

“All the more concerning is that the court appears to have been swayed by the state’s classified security arguments,” the FPA added, calling the closed-door process one that “offers no opportunity for us to rebut these arguments and clears the way for the continued arbitrary and open-ended closure of Gaza to foreign journalists.”

This marks the ninth extension granted to the government since the petition was filed in September 2024.

Just days earlier, on January 25, Israel extended its shutdown of Al Jazeera’s operations for another 90 days, citing national security threats the network denies.

US plan for Gaza demilitarisation

The postponement comes as mediators continue to press for progress in the US-backed plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

At the UN Security Council, the United States said it had unveiled plans for an “internationally funded buyback” programme to disarm Hamas as part of Gaza’s demilitarisation, which is a key element in the second phase of the US-backed plan.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told the Security Council on Wednesday that “international, independent monitors will supervise a process of demilitarisation of Gaza to include placing weapons permanently beyond use through an agreed process of decommissioning”, supported by the buyback scheme.

Hamas still controls just under half of the territory in Gaza beyond the Yellow Line, where Israeli forces remain present.

The second phase of the US plan will also require the Israeli army to withdraw, though Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said demilitarisation would have to come before any further progress on the ceasefire.

Two Hamas officials told the Reuters news agency this ‌week that neither the United States nor the mediators presented the Palestinian group with any detailed or concrete disarmament proposal.

Jan. 27 (UPI) — Legislators in France took the first step toward becoming the first European country to block children from social media with a ban that would take effect at the beginning of the new school year in September.

National Assembly members voted 116-23 for the ban for children younger than 15, which was introduced by a lawmaker representing France’s Champagne region in President Emmanuel Macron‘s Renaissance party, late Monday.

The MPs amended the bill to empower the country’s media regulator to decide which social media services will be included in the ban and not limited to just those most popular with teens such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram.

The law would use an as-yet-undecided method of age-verification to block children from accessing those sites the regulator determines are most harmful to children’s mental and emotional health.

An existing smartphone ban for children in junior and middle schools would also be extended to high schools, under the legislation.

Children younger than 15 would be permitted to continue to use platforms on a second list deemed to pose less risk to them, but only if their parents give their consent.

Hailing the vote as a “major step,” Macron urged the Senate, the upper house, where it must also pass to become law, to follow suit and vowed to make sure it was implemented in time for the start of the fall semester.

“To ensure that this ban is effective from the start of the next academic year, I have asked the government to activate the accelerated procedure,” he posted on X.

“Because our children’s brains are not for sale. Not to American platforms, nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams cannot be dictated by algorithms. Because we do not want an anxious generation,” Macron added.

Fastracking the law will enable it to leapfrog over a logjam in the assembly which has been unable to pass a budget for this year.

National Assembly Deputy Laure Miller, sponsor of the bill, complained afterward that opponents attempted to run the debate, which went on for almost seven hours, off the clock, knowing they would lose when it came to a vote.

“We explained everything to you, but you didn’t want to listen. Obstruction, off-topic remarks, conspiracy-laden speeches… above all, you tried everything to avoid having to vote on this text. Pathetic,” she wrote online.

Miller headed a committee probe into the psychological impact of social media on children that issued its report earlier this month.

MP Louis Boyard from the populist France Insoumise party said the bill had been rushed through.

By granting blanket verification powers to the government and the European Union to check the ages of all social media users, regardless of age, Macronist deputies were sleepwalking France into a surveillance state,” he said on X.

“The Macronists refused to respond or speak in order to have it voted on as quickly as possible. Under the pretext of banning social networks for those under 15, the Macronists seem to be preparing to have everyone monitored.”

He urged the Senate to send it back to the assembly to allow a “more enlightened” public debate to take place.

“The subject is too important to be rushed,” added Boyard, who represents a different district of the same region as Miller.

The development in France comes amid similar efforts being weighed across Europe, including in Greece, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and Britain, where the House of Lords voted through a ban for children under 16 on Wednesday.

Lawmakers in the upper chamber of parliament passed the amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill by 261 votes to 150, however, the government signaled it intended to overturn the effort in the House of Commons, the lower house.

The move came two days after the government launched a consultation on a potential ban for under-16s in the wake of the lead taken by Australia, which last month became the first Western country to implement such a ban.