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  • ✇US news | The Guardian
  • Meta agrees to make sweeping changes to apps for teens | First Thing
    Safety features including usage limits and night-time blocks to be set by default. Plus changes to famous French cheesesDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning. Meta has agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit. The agreement curtails a major trial in California and will require the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usag
     

Meta agrees to make sweeping changes to apps for teens | First Thing

27 août 2026 à 07:32

Safety features including usage limits and night-time blocks to be set by default. Plus changes to famous French cheeses

Good morning. Meta has agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in a settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit. The agreement curtails a major trial in California and will require the social media company to pay up to $18bn. Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the US.

California and 28 other US states sued the $1.36tn (£1tn) company over allegations that Meta deliberately designed addictive products that hooked young people, leading to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and suicide. As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.

What will be changing in the apps? The biggest alteration is that Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, is now required to make many of its safety limitations the default setting for accounts created by teenagers, a pivot from its previous opt-in approach to child safety. Nick Robins-Early and Johana Bhuiyan explain more in this piece: six key takeaways from the end of the Meta trial.

Will other companies be affected? Meta is putting the agreement forward as a precedent for other social media companies to follow. The company’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said: “Because teens move fluidly across dozens of apps, we need an industry-wide solution. We therefore call on our industry peers … to implement this new framework.” Meta, YouTube, TikTok and Snap face thousands more similar US lawsuits brought by families, individuals, school districts and other attorneys general.

Are campaigners satisfied with the result? Arturo Béjar, an ex-Facebook employee and whistleblower, said the outcome “is not an all-clear to say the product is safe. The limitations that are in the agreement are the equivalent of saying: ‘Well, you can smoke as many cigarettes as you can in two hours a day’. It doesn’t make the cigarettes any safer.”

How did it happen? As this visual guide explains, at 8.37am on Wednesday an enormous section ⁠of a glacier in the Himalayas sheared free and crashed on to the valley floor in Nepal’s Langtang national park, about 60km north of the capital, Kathmandu, near the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border.

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© Photograph: Ian Allenden/Alamy

© Photograph: Ian Allenden/Alamy

© Photograph: Ian Allenden/Alamy

  • ✇US news | The Guardian
  • First Thing: Pause on US immigrant visa leaves thousands of applicants in limbo
    All US immigrant visa applications halted as state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access. Plus tributes pour in for Dolly Parton, who has died aged 80Good morning. All US immigrant visa applications have been paused by the Trump administration as the state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access to applicants whom they deem could need US assistance. The agency launched the initiative at all embassies and consulates in early August.Applicants with scheduled i
     

First Thing: Pause on US immigrant visa leaves thousands of applicants in limbo

26 août 2026 à 08:33

All US immigrant visa applications halted as state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access. Plus tributes pour in for Dolly Parton, who has died aged 80

Good morning. All US immigrant visa applications have been paused by the Trump administration as the state department moves to tighten restrictions and limit access to applicants whom they deem could need US assistance. The agency launched the initiative at all embassies and consulates in early August.

Applicants with scheduled interviews were sent emails that their appointments had been canceled. Agency officials claim this will ensure visa applicants will not end up relying on US public benefits. This week the Trump administration also announced plans to revoke visas from asylum seekers who had initially entered the US for tourism or business. Up to 200,000 people seeking asylum could be affected.

Is the move lawful? “The court made clear that immigration laws cannot be used to justify discrimination,” Joanna Cuevas Ingram, a senior staff attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, said. In February, a federal judge overturned the president’s attempt to suspend the US refugee system entirely.

Why are the states suing Meta? The lawsuit centers on the allegations that Meta deliberately designed addictive products that hooked young people, leading to mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and suicide. Meta has denied all allegations, saying the states are chasing an “outlandish payout”.

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© Photograph: Hanna Kuprevich/Alamy

© Photograph: Hanna Kuprevich/Alamy

© Photograph: Hanna Kuprevich/Alamy

  • ✇US news | The Guardian
  • Supreme court threatens midterms mail-in voting as it backs Trump plan | First Thing
    US president has been obsessed with restricting the ability to vote by mail, despite using it himself. Plus, why we are still fascinated with Meg from the White StripesDon’t already get First Thing in your inbox? Sign up hereGood morning. The US supreme court has sided with Donald Trump in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it is unclear whether or not his administration will be able to take action before the midterm elections in November. The court’s justices voted 6-3 along ide
     

Supreme court threatens midterms mail-in voting as it backs Trump plan | First Thing

25 août 2026 à 08:31

US president has been obsessed with restricting the ability to vote by mail, despite using it himself. Plus, why we are still fascinated with Meg from the White Stripes

Good morning. The US supreme court has sided with Donald Trump in his effort to crack down on mail-in voting, though it is unclear whether or not his administration will be able to take action before the midterm elections in November. The court’s justices voted 6-3 along ideological lines to lift an injunction that a judge in Massachusetts had placed in June on an executive order issued by the president. But a second injunction remains in place, and the ruling leaves room for legal challenges.

Trump has repeatedly likened voting by mail to cheating, despite his own use of it and overwhelming evidence that the system is secure. In March he ordered the government to create a “state citizenship list” of eligible voters, requiring that mail-in ballots only be delivered to people on that list. He also directed the justice department to prioritise investigations and prosecutions of state and local election officials who issue ballots to people deemed ineligible to vote in federal elections.

What did the dissenting judges say? In a blistering dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the decision “needlessly injects chaos and uncertainty into the upcoming midterm elections”.

How have rights organisations reacted? The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Derrick Johnson, said: “Let this ruling be a reminder that democracy is never, ever guaranteed. We have to fight for it, we have to fight to keep it and we have to protect the rights we do have within it … they are trying to do everything they possibly can to make it difficult for you to vote.”

How has Canada reacted? The country’s prime minister, Mark Carney, told reporters that Trump’s announcement was largely expected. “It’s not a surprise for us that the US would take some form of reprisal to our response to their unjustified tariff,” he said. Carney has vowed to match the American tariffs “dollar for dollar”, and said Canada could not accept any proposed trade deal that would weaken French language protections.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

  • ✇US news | The Guardian
  • First Thing: New Fed chair Kevin Warsh faces early test amid bond market worries
    Key speech to be delivered this week at Jackson Hole said to focus on productivity and demographics in the US. Plus, how do you vaccinate 1,000 little penguins in the wild?Good morning. The new US Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, faces a critical test this week amid anxiety in government bond markets over inflation and Donald Trump’s tax and spending plans. As the world’s most powerful central bank prepares for its annual Jackson Hole conference, analysts said bond traders would be looking fo
     

First Thing: New Fed chair Kevin Warsh faces early test amid bond market worries

24 août 2026 à 08:28

Key speech to be delivered this week at Jackson Hole said to focus on productivity and demographics in the US. Plus, how do you vaccinate 1,000 little penguins in the wild?

Good morning. The new US Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, faces a critical test this week amid anxiety in government bond markets over inflation and Donald Trump’s tax and spending plans. As the world’s most powerful central bank prepares for its annual Jackson Hole conference, analysts said bond traders would be looking for signals from Warsh over its commitment to fighting inflation.

However, Warsh has signalled reluctance to use his speech on Friday for the “more traditional setup” of dropping hints over how the US central bank may respond to inflationary pressures when its officials next meet to set interest rates in September and December. Instead, he has said his Jackson Hole speech could be “focused on bigger questions”, including concerns over productivity and demographics.

Why is this a crucial moment for the Fed? The gathering of the world’s most powerful central bankers in the Grand Teton national park is a blue riband event in the financial calendar. However, the meeting comes as selling pressure intensifies in the $30tn US government debt market despite efforts by the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, to assuage investor worries after he committed to at least double Washington’s purchases of US Treasury bonds.

What did Joshua Aviles say about his father’s arrest? “I’ve been deployed for over nine months, out ⁠at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country ​that has given me everything. I just got a call that my dad ‌was taken by ICE. We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting. This is heartbreaking for me. I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days ‌knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal.”

How did the DHS respond? The DHS said Luis Manuel Aviles Roa ​entered the US illegally and would remain in immigration and customs enforcement detention pending removal proceedings. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the DHS said.

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© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

© Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

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