Japan’s Defense Chief Conveys Concerns Over China To NATO Chief

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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged some young people were still on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the rollout was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives.

A day after the law took effect with bipartisan support from the major political parties and backing by some three-quarters of Australian parents, the country's social media feeds were flooded with comments from people claiming to be under 16, including one on the prime minister's TikTok account saying "I'm still here, wait until I can vote".

Under the law, 10 of the biggest platforms including TikTok, Meta'sInstagram and Alphabet'sYouTube must bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million). The government has said it would take some time for the platforms to set up processes to do this.

"Of course it isn't smooth," Albanese told Melbourne radio station FOX.

"You can't in one day switch off over a million accounts across the board. But it is happening."

On Nova Radio in Sydney, Albanese added: "If it was easy, someone else would have done it."

Governments around the world have said they would monitor the Australian rollout as they weigh whether to do something similar. U.S. Republican senator Josh Hawley endorsed the ban as it took effect, Nine newspapers reported, while France, Denmark, Malaysia and others have already said they plan to emulate the Australian model.

The Australian internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, would ask all affected platforms to report numbers of under-16 accounts on the days before and after the ban went live on Wednesday, Communications Minister Anika Wells said.

TikTok and Snap, owner of Snap, declined to comment on the rollout, while Meta, YouTube, X, Amazon'sTwitch, Redditand Australian-owned Kick - all of which are covered by the ban - were not immediately available for comment.

HEATED GLOBAL REACTIONS

The ban generated impassioned reactions across the spectrum of global commentators - including from U.S. psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose book "The Anxious Generation" featured prominently in the Australian debate.

"Bravo Australia," he wrote on X.

The United Nations childrens agency UNICEF warned in a statement the ban might encourage children to visit less regulated parts of the internet and could not work alone.

"Laws introducing age restrictions are not an alternative to companies improving platform design and content moderation," the statement said.

U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a tirade posted for his 4.4 million X followers, called the ban "the training wheels for the internet ID".

"It is the holy grail of tyrany," he said. "It's here."

Albanese, visiting a school in Canberra, said the ban would lead to better educational outcomes and behaviour" since "you get better social interaction when students aren't subject to looking at their devices constantly".

Australian searches for virtual private networks (VPNs), which can mask an internet user's location, surged to the highest level in about 10 years in the week before the legislation took effect, according to publicly available Google data.

Free VPN provider hide.me told Reuters it experienced a 65% spike in visits from Australia in the days before the ban kicked in, although that had not translated to a rising number of downloads.

All 10 platforms named by the ban opposed it before saying they would comply. As the legislation came into force, some platforms not covered by the ban rose to the top of app download charts, prompting the Australian government to say the platform list was "dynamic".

One app, Lemon8, which is owned by TikTok parent Bytedance, introduced an age minimum of 16. Photo-sharing app Yope told Reuters it had experienced "very fast growth" to about 100,000 Australian users. About half its users were over 16.

The company told Reuters it had told the Australian internet regulator overseeing the rollout that it considered itself a private messaging service, not social media.

($1 = 1.4995 Australian dollars)

Source: TradingView

Source: Reuters

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado arrived in Oslo in the middle of the night on Thursday, the head of the Nobel committee said, after she failed to reach the Norwegian capital in time to receive her award at a ceremony held hours earlier.

The 58-year-old engineer had secretly left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities in her home country and after spending more than a year in hiding.

"I can confirm that Maria Corina Machado has arrived in Oslo," Joergen Watne Frydnes told people gathered in the lobby of the Grand Hotel, where Nobel laureates traditionally stay.

"She is on her way here, but she will go straight to meet her family ... We'll see you all tomorrow."

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the Nobel Prize in her name and delivered a speech by her mother in which she said democracies must be prepared to fight for freedom in order to survive.

In her speech, Machado said that the prize held profound significance, not only for her country but for the world.

"It reminds the world that democracy is essential to peace," she said via her daughter, whose voice cracked when she spoke of her mother. "And more than anything, what we Venezuelans can offer the world is the lesson forged through this long and difficult journey: that to have a democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom."

LAUREATE LEFT VENEZUELA BY BOAT

Machado left Venezuela by boat on Tuesday and travelled to the Caribbean island of Curacao, from where she departed on a private plane for Norway, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The source, who had been briefed by Machado's camp, said her escape from the Venezuelan coast was handled by her security staff. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Machado's travel to Curacao, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

A large portrait of a smiling Machado hung in the Oslo City Hall to represent her. The audience cheered and clapped when Norwegian Nobel Committee head Joergen Watne Frydnes said during his speech that Machado would be coming to Oslo.

Evoking previous laureates Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa, he said fighters for democracy were expected "to pursue their aims with a moral purity their opponents never display".

"This is unrealistic. It is unfair," he said.

"No democracy operates in ideal circumstances. Activist leaders must confront and resolve dilemmas that we onlookers are free to ignore. People living under the dictatorship often have to choose between the difficult and the impossible."

'A CHOICE THAT MUST BE RENEWED EACH DAY'

"Freedom is a choice that must be renewed each day, measured by our willingness and our courage to defend it. For this reason, the cause of Venezuela transcends our borders," she said in her prepared speech.

"A people who choose freedom contribute not only to themselves, but to humanity."

In 2024, Machado was barred from running in the presidential election, despite having won the opposition's primary by a landslide. She went into hiding in August 2024 after authorities expanded arrests of opposition figures following the disputed vote.

The electoral authority and top court declared President Nicolas Maduro the winner, but international observers and the opposition say its candidate handily won and the opposition has published ballot box-level tallies as evidence of its victory.

'FRAGILE' DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS

In her speech, Machado said Venezuelans did not realise in time that their country was sliding into what she described as a dictatorship.

Referring to the late president Hugo Chavez, who was elected in 1999 and held power until his death in 2013, Machado said: "By the time we recognised how fragile our institutions had become, a man who had once led a military coup to overthrow democracy, was elected president. Many thought that charisma could substitute the rule of law."

"From 1999 onward, the regime dismantled our democracy."

President Nicolas Maduro, in power since 2013, says U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to overthrow him to gain access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves and that Venezuelan citizens and armed forces will resist any such attempt.

DEDICATED TO TRUMP

When Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize in October, she dedicated it in part to Trump, who has said he himself deserved the honour.

She has aligned herself with hawks close to Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, despite doubts raised by the U.S. intelligence community.

The Trump administration has ordered more than 20 military strikes in recent months against alleged drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and off Latin America's Pacific coast.

Human rights groups, some Democrats and several Latin American countries have condemned the attacks as unlawful extrajudicial killings of civilians.

Source: Reuters

The Bank of Canada held its key policy rate steady at 2.25% on Wednesday as widely expected, and Governor Tiff Macklem said the economy was proving resilient overall to the effect of U.S. trade measures.

There was maybe a little bit of pushback around some of the excitement that followed the recent strong employment numbers... The Bank noting that their outlook hasn't really changed despite a few good data prints in Canada.

We do acknowledge maybe a little bit more progress is being made, a little bit more resilience in the economy. But at the end of the day, it is a fairly cautious tone and it leads me to be very comfortable with the idea that the bank will be on hold for quite some time.

Overall, I think the bank is watching the incoming data to see which path it may go. There are signs that Canada is adjusting to the trade shock but there's some lingering softness as well. So I think they'll keep their cards close to their chest and just watch the incoming data to see if additional policy action is needed.

The market is trying to figure out what the odds are for the next Bank of Canada action. Maybe a little premature on (pricing in) a hike but that's what markets do.

Source: Investing

Mexican lawmakers gave final approval for new tariffs on Asian imports, broadly aligning with US efforts to tighten trade barriers against China, as President Claudia Sheinbaum seeks to protect local industry.

Mexico's Senate on Wednesday voted in favor of the bill that imposes tariffs of between 5% and 50% on more than 1,400 products from Asian nations that don't have a trade deal with Mexico. The bill passed with 76 votes in favor, five against and 35 abstentions.

The new levies will take effect starting next year and hit a wide range of products from clothing to metals and auto parts, with the massive output of Chinese factories emerging as the legislation's focus.

Passage of the bill took place against the backdrop of Sheinbaum's high-stakes trade talks with President Donald Trump and pressure to match his priorities, fueling hopes Mexico's levies on Chinese goods could ease punishing US tariffs on goods like Mexican steel and aluminum.

While Sheinbaum has publicly denied any connection to Trump's own tariff onslaught against the Asian giant, the new import levies resemble the US leader's approach.

For decades, Mexico has embraced free trade more than nearly any other country in the Americas, inking dozens of trade deals with nations all across the globe. But Sheinbaum's leftist Morena party is now moving in a different direction.

Mexico's finance ministry estimates the new tariffs will raise nearly 52 billion pesos ($2.8 billion) in extra revenue next year.

Sheinbaum sent the proposal to Congress in early September, but lobbying from Asian governments and domestic opponents — from business lobbies and critical legislators — delayed its passage.

Manufacturers reliant on inputs made in China, India and South Korea, among others, warned of rising costs that could fan inflation. Some lawmakers, including from the ruling party, sought to avoid a dispute with a rising region many consider crucial to the diversification of Mexican export markets.

Sheinbaum's embrace of the tariffs track with US concerns regarding so-called transshipment of Chinese exports through other countries, and follow action by Canada last year to also emulate US levies on electric cars, steel and aluminum from China.

Chinese officials have sharply criticized the latest Mexican tariffs as unwarranted and harmful.

According to the tariff legislation, Chinese cars will face among the steepest tariffs at 50%. The country's massive auto sector currently holds 20% of the Mexican market, up dramatically from minimal vehicle imports just six years ago.

Mexican officials and local auto associations backed the import levies in a bid to protect national vehicle production, a major driver of Mexico's manufacturing sector.

Along with the new tariffs, lawmakers approved a measure that will empower Mexico's Economy Ministry, responsible for trade policy, to adjust the import levies as it sees fit.

The measure states that the ministry "may implement specific legal mechanisms and instruments for the importation of goods from countries with which the Mexican state does not have a free trade agreement in force." The provision cites the flexible mechanism's goal of ensuring supplies of key imports under competitive conditions.

The policy could provide Mexican officials with useful tools ahead of next year's review of the North American USMCA trade pact with US and Canadian negotiators.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

Luis Arce led Bolivia for five years beginning in 2020

Former Bolivian President Luis Arce was arrested as part of a corruption investigation linked to his time as economy minister, officials said on Wednesday.

Arce's detention comes only a month after he left office and less than two months aftercentrist candidate Rodrigo Paz won the October runoff election.

The election campaign this year was dominated by economic concerns as Bolivians expressed a desire for change, with many having grown disillusioned with the country's Movement Toward Socialism party, widely known as MAS.

Bolivians chose to elect Paz this year, and with that, brought about an end to two decades of socialist rule in the Latin American country.

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In a video posted to TikTok, Vice President Edmand Lara confirmed the news about Arce's detention.

Lara went on to say Arce would be the first of many targets as the new government seeks accountability.

"Those who have stolen from this country will return every last cent," Lara said, before ending his video by wishing "death to the corrupt."

Arce detained as part of corruption probe

According to officials, the corruption probe is from the period of time when Arce served as economy minister during the socialist presidency of Evo Morales, who was in office from 2006 to 2019.

Arce, 62, became president in 2020. He ended a five-year term and did not seek reelection following the August vote, with his presidency facing a number of shortages of fuel and foreign currency which led to widespread protests.

The former president is accused of authorizing transfers from the public treasury into the personal accounts of political leaders.

One alleged beneficiary was former lawmaker Lidia Patty, who was arrested last week for allegedly receiving close to $100,000 for a tomato cultivation project.

Sources in the prosecutor's office told AFP that Arce will have to answer to charges of dereliction of duty and "economic misconduct."

Allies reject allegations

Maria Nela Prada, Arce's minister of the presidency and closest ally, agreed the charges seemed to stem from his period as economy minister.

Speaking outside the headquarters of a special police force dedicated to fighting corruption, she insisted on Arce's innocence. "Of course he's innocent, I can confirm that," she said.

Source: DW