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Europe’s scramble to police teen social media use is accelerating, and Ireland is under pressure to decide how far it will go. As Spain, France, Denmark, Greece and Portugal push national age limits — and Australia touts the impact of its world-first under-16s ban — Dublin is drafting a PPS-based age verification system that has already triggered sharp privacy and legal pushback. Spain became the latest EU country to propose restrictions this month. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez vowed to “ban access to social media for minors…

Analysis: The UN’s budget math has turned existential The United Nations is navigating its most acute cash crunch in decades. In a letter to the 193 member states, Secretary-General António Guterres warned that the organisation faces “the very real prospect of financial collapse,” with cash potentially running out as early as July. Senior UN officials now acknowledge that shuttering the Secretariat’s Manhattan headquarters this summer is a “distinct possibility.” This is not rhetorical brinkmanship. It is the cumulative…

Somalia's Trade Unions Reject New Labour Code Amidst International Concerns The Somali Congress of Trade Unions (SOCOTU) has expressed strong opposition to the recently enacted Somali Labour Code (Law No. 36), highlighting its failure to meet international labour standards and the lack of meaningful involvement of workers' representatives in its drafting process. The law was approved by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs without proper tripartite consultation. SOCOTU argues that the code undermines existing…

Gordon Brown said the crisis engulfing Keir Starmer over Peter Mandelson was “serious” and that the Labour leader had been “too slow to do the right things,” even as he backed Starmer as “a man of integrity” who had been “betrayed” by his former Cabinet ally. The intervention from the former prime minister came as the Metropolitan Police confirmed its misconduct-in-public-office investigation into Mandelson will “take some time,” after officers searched properties in London and Wiltshire. Mandelson has not been arrested. “I…

Iran’s foreign minister said talks with the United States would resume soon after an initial round in Oman, even as he warned that Tehran would target U.S. bases in the region if Washington strikes Iranian territory. The comments underscore the fragile path back to negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program amid new U.S. sanctions and tariff threats. Abbas Araghchi, speaking in excerpts carried on his official Telegram channel from an interview with Al Jazeera, called the Muscat exchanges “a good start” and said rebuilding…

Russia launched a massive overnight air assault on Ukraine’s energy network, striking electricity generation and distribution facilities with more than 400 drones and about 40 missiles, Ukrainian officials said Thursday. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the barrage targeted the grid, generation sites and distribution substations across the country, as winter temperatures begin to plunge. “Every day, Russia could choose real diplomacy, but it chooses new strikes,” he posted on X. Moscow did not immediately comment on the…

Clintons ask House committee to make Epstein testimony public Bill and Hillary Clinton are urging the House Oversight Committee to take their testimony in public rather than behind closed doors, arguing that transparency is the best guard against politicization of the panel’s inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein’s connections and how authorities handled information about his crimes. The Republican-led committee had ordered the former president and former secretary of state to sit for closed-door depositions as part of its Epstein…

Keir Starmer’s defense of his decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington — that he did not grasp the depth of Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein — does not withstand the weight of what was already widely known. The scandal now engulfing Downing Street is not a bolt from the blue; it is the foreseeable consequence of elevating a man whose entanglements, instincts and methods were part of the public record. And it has exposed the operating system of this government more starkly than…

Sydney is bracing for large protests and a heavy police presence as Israeli President Isaac Herzog arrives Monday for a four-day visit to honor victims of the Bondi Beach mass shooting, with authorities warning demonstrators to avoid violence and disruption in the city’s streets. New South Wales Police said they will deploy in large numbers and have declared the visit a “major event,” a designation that allows officers to separate rival groups and impose crowd-management controls to reduce the risk of confrontation. “It’s…

GENEVA — The United States called for three-way talks with Russia and China to set new limits on nuclear weapons after the New START treaty expired, erasing the last binding cap on U.S.-Russian strategic arsenals and reviving fears of a new arms race. Thomas DiNanno, the under secretary of state for arms control, told the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva that the now-lapsed pact had “fundamental flaws,” citing what he called serial Russian violations, the growth of global stockpiles and weaknesses in the treaty’s…