Latest news with #RenjuJose
Japan Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Japan Today
Australia widens teen social media ban to YouTube, scraps exemption
YouTube app is seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration By Renju Jose and Byron Kaye Australia said on Wednesday it will add YouTube to sites covered by its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the Alphabet-owned video-sharing site and potentially setting up a legal challenge. The decision came after the internet regulator urged the government last month to overturn the YouTube carve-out, citing a survey that found 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst showing for a social media platform. "I'm calling time on it," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement highlighting that Australian children were being negatively affected by online platforms, and reminding social media of their social responsibility. "I want Australian parents to know that we have their backs." The decision broadens the ban set to take effect in December. YouTube says it is used by nearly three-quarters of Australians aged 13 to 15, and should not be classified as social media because its main activity is hosting videos. "Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It's not social media," a YouTube spokesperson said by email. Since the government said last year it would exempt YouTube due to its popularity with teachers, platforms covered by the ban, such as Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, have complained. They say YouTube has key similarities to their products, including letting users interact and recommending content through an algorithm based on activity. The ban outlaws YouTube accounts for those younger than 16, allowing parents and teachers to show videos on it to minors. "Teachers are always curators of any resource for appropriateness (and) will be judicious," said Angela Falkenberg, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association, which supports the ban. Artificial intelligence has supercharged the spread of misinformation on social media platforms such as YouTube, said Adam Marre, chief information security officer at cyber security firm Arctic Wolf. "The Australian government's move to regulate YouTube is an important step in pushing back against the unchecked power of big tech and protecting kids," he added in an email. The reversal sets up a fresh dispute with Alphabet, which threatened to withdraw some Google services from Australia in 2021 to avoid a law forcing it to pay news outlets for content appearing in searches. Last week, YouTube told Reuters it had urged the government "to uphold the integrity of the legislative process". Australian media said YouTube threatened a court challenge, but YouTube did not confirm that. The law passed in November only requires "reasonable steps" by social media platforms to keep out Australians younger than 16, or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million. The government, which is due to receive a report this month on tests of age-checking products, has said those results will influence enforcement of the ban. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia to work closely with US on review of Biden-era submarine pact
By Kirsty Needham and Renju Jose SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday his government would work closely with the United States while President Donald Trump's administration conducts a formal review of the AUKUS defence pact. "It is natural the administration would want to examine this major undertaking including progress and delivery," a spokesperson for Marles said in a statement. Australia in 2023 committed to spend A$368 billion ($239.3 billion) over three decades on AUKUS, Australia's biggest ever defence project with the United States and Britain, to acquire and build nuclear-powered submarines. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to meet Trump for the first time next week on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in Canada, where the security allies will discuss tariffs and a request from the United States for Australia to increase defence spending from 2% to 3.5% of gross domestic product. Albanese had previously said defence spending would rise to 2.3% and has declined to commit to the U.S. target, saying Australia would focus on capability needs. Under AUKUS, Australia was scheduled to make a $2 billion payment in 2025 to the U.S. to help boost its submarine shipyards and speed up lagging production rates of Virginia class submarines to allow the sale of up to three U.S. submarines to Australia from 2032. Britain and Australia will jointly build a new AUKUS class submarine expected to come into service from 2040. Britain recently completed a review of AUKUS. It has not released the results publicly, but it announced plans this month to increase the size of its nuclear-powered attack submarine fleet. Marles' spokesperson said AUKUS would grow the U.S. and Australian defence industries and generate thousands of manufacturing jobs. John Lee, an Australian Indo-Pacific expert at Washington's conservative Hudson Institute think tank, said the Pentagon review was "primarily an audit of American capability" and whether it can afford to sell up to five nuclear powered submarines when it was not meeting its own production targets. "Relatedly, the low Australian defence spending and ambiguity as to how it might contribute to a Taiwan contingency is also a factor," Lee said. ($1 = 1.5380 Australian dollars)
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australia raises minimum wages by 3.5% as inflation eases
By Renju Jose and Stella Qiu SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia's independent wage-setting body on Tuesday raised the national minimum wage by 3.5% effective July 1, a real wage increase for about 2.6 million workers on the lowest pay as inflationary pressures ease in the economy. The minimum rate will rise to A$24.94 ($16.19) per hour, resulting in an extra A$1,670 in a year for full-time employees, according to the Fair Work Commission's (FWC) annual review. Headline consumer price inflation held at 2.4% in the first quarter, comfortably within the Reserve Bank of Australia's target band of 2% to 3% and having come down from the 7.8% peak in late 2022. FWC President Adam Hatcher said the decision could help many workers to recoup the loss of their real income over the last few years due to high living costs. "If this opportunity is not taken in this annual wage review, a loss in the real value of wages which has occurred will become permanently embedded ... and a reduction of living standards for the lowest paid in the community will thereby be entrenched," Hatcher said. Last year, the FWC increased minimum wages by 3.75% but that was largely in line with inflation. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) described the wage increase as "a great outcome" for employees on minimum wages, who it said suffered the most when inflation soared after the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our lowest-paid workers are getting ahead again," ACTU Secretary Sally McManus told reporters. The Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a two-year low last month as cooling inflation at home offered scope to counter rising global trade risks, and left the door open to further easing in the months ahead. At the same time, the labour market has remained surprisingly resilient, with the jobless rate hovering at 4.1% for over a year now. Employment gains have been driven by a surge in public sector jobs, with still tepid wage growth suggesting few risks of a damaging wage-price spiral. ($1 = 1.5401 Australian dollars)
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Zealand defers vote on rare suspension of Indigenous lawmakers
By Renju Jose SYDNEY (Reuters) -The New Zealand government on Tuesday deferred a vote over the rare suspension of three Indigenous lawmakers from parliament for performing a haka, the Maori ceremonial dance, during the reading of a contentious bill last year. A parliamentary privileges committee last week recommended temporarily suspending three Te Pati Maori parliamentarians for acting in "a manner that could have the effect of intimidating a member of the house." The Te Pati Maori members performed the haka last November ahead of a vote on a controversial bill that would have reinterpreted a 184-year-old treaty between the British and Indigenous Maori that still guides policy and legislation. Co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi should be suspended for 21 days and representative Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke for seven days, the committee said. Chris Bishop, the leader of the house, said delaying the vote would allow the suspended members to participate in the federal budget on Thursday. The vote will take place following the budget, he said. "Deferring consideration of the debate means all members will have the opportunity to debate and vote on the budget," Bishop said. Several protesters gathered outside the parliament in Wellington for the vote over the suspensions, and New Zealand media reported they might perform a haka in support of the Maori lawmakers. Judith Collins, who heads the privileges committee and serves as attorney-general, told parliament that the haka forced the speaker to suspend proceedings for 30 minutes and that no permission had been sought to perform it. "It's not about the haka ... it is about following the rules of parliament that we are all obliged to follow and that we all pledged to follow," Collins said. Suspending lawmakers is rare in New Zealand's parliament, with the last occasion in 1987, according to media reports. The opposition Labour party called for a compromise and proposed censure instead of suspension. The committee's proposal is "totally out of line with existing parliamentary practice and is disproportionate to the allegations," opposition leader Chris Hipkins said. "We have never seen a sanction of this nature in New Zealand's history before ... it is disproportionate. A sanction is appropriate, this level of sanction simply is not." The haka was traditionally a way for Maori to welcome visiting tribes or to invigorate warriors ahead of battle. It is now performed at important events as well as ahead of matches by New Zealand's rugby teams.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Zealand boosts movie production incentives after Trump's 100% tariff plan
By Renju Jose SYDNEY (Reuters) -New Zealand will allocate more budget funds to give rebates to foreign studios for filming movies in the country - a move which follows U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of 100% tariffs on films made outside the United States. New Zealand, where the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was shot, has become a popular filming location for Hollywood movies due to lower costs and government incentives. "We are sending a clear message to the world: New Zealand is the best place in the world to make movies. Bring your productions here to take advantage of our talent and locations," Finance Minister Nicola Willis said in a statement. When announcing the 100% tariffs this month, Trump said Hollywood was dying a "very fast death" due to incentives offered by other countries. An additional NZ$577 million ($339 million) will be injected into next week's federal budget to sustain New Zealand's International Screen Production Rebate scheme. That comes despite the government's proposed cuts to baseline spending as tax revenue shrinks. Under the rebate programme first introduced in 2014, eligible productions can access a cash rebate of 20% for production costs of more than NZ$15 million for feature films, and NZ$4 million for television shows. "While industry incentives are not generally our favoured approach, the reality is we simply won't get the offshore investment in our highly successful screen sector without continuing this scheme," Willis said. New Zealand's film sector employs about 24,000 people and generates NZ$3.5 billion annually, with around a third of revenue coming from the United States, its foreign ministry said in a March 2025 report. Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom provide more generous incentives than New Zealand, Willis also said. ($1 = 1.7030 New Zealand dollars) Sign in to access your portfolio
