Australia

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Last of nearly 100 pilot whales that beached on Australia’s coast are euthanized after rescue fails

PERTH, Australia (AP) — The last of nearly 100 whales that beached on the southwestern Australian coast were euthanized Wednesday after a second day of frantic, but unsuccessful efforts to rescue them, authorities said.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-beached-pilot-whales-euthanized-a9ef026881fb9bf9464ad244d0cf6a4e?

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Failed referendum on Indigenous rights sets back Australian government plans to become a republic

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s failed referendum on the Indigenous Voice has set back the government’s plans to cut the nation’s constitutional ties to Britain’s King Charles III, a minister said Thursday.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-referendum-indigenous-voice-republic-c3558574bddf932081129847ba3808a2?

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Australian police arrest 7 alleged teen extremists linked to stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police arrested seven teenagers accused of following a violent extremist ideology in raids across Sydney on Wednesday, as a judge extended a ban on social media platform X sharing video of a knife attack on a bishop that started the criminal investigation.

https://apnews.com/article/sydney-church-stabbing-search-warrants-bishop-stabbed-australia-29bca1f98cea72947a05435ba6202bdb?

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Army whistleblower who exposed alleged Australian war crimes in Afghanistan is sentenced to prison

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian judge sentenced a former army lawyer to almost six years in prison on Tuesday for leaking to the media classified information that exposed allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan.

https://apnews.com/article/mcbride-whistleblower-court-prison-afghanistan-war-crimes-e3fd2301d22d35ee348668b91b02d6bb?

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Self-described Nazi will be sent to prison for salute at sentencing next month

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A self-described Nazi will become the first person in Australia sentenced to prison for performing an outlawed Nazi salute when a magistrate sets his term next month.

https://apnews.com/article/nazi-salute-convicted-australia-victoria-d6a2a4848cdc0aeeb657d41817918f71?

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Australian police recover 40,000 stolen ‘Bluey’ coins

SYDNEY (AP) — Australian police said on Wednesday they had recovered more than 40,000 stolen limited-edition coins based on the hit children’s animated series “Bluey.”

https://apnews.com/article/australia-stolen-bluey-coins-recovered-sydney-3f4f2b10618fb36fea62990d05472135?

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Australia plans a social media ban for children under 16

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government announced on Thursday what it described as world-leading legislation that would institute an age limit of 16 years for children to start using social media, and hold platforms responsible for ensuring compliance.

https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-age-limit-e8259408c0b1456f41967decd474782a?

Suspicious spheres

Thousands of mysterious black balls washed up on beaches in Sydney, Australia, prompting closures and clean-up efforts. Scientists now know what they were — and it’s pretty disgusting.   Australia's blueprint for screen-free childhood   Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios   Australia's parliament is about to look at a law that would keep kids off of social media until they turn 16. Why it matters: Evidence continues to mount that excessive screen time and social media are increasing anxiety and depression in kids. Many countries have taken on this issue, but Australia's proposal is the most stringent yet. 📱 Zoom in: The law, which proposes the highest age limit set by any country, could go into effect in a year. Meta and TikTok would have to figure out how to restrict use based on age, AP reports. "The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. "The onus won't be on parents or young people." Australia's proposal doesn't allow exemptions for parental consent or kids' preexisting accounts. 🔭 Zoom out: The big question for social media age limits — which Australia and the platforms operating there will grapple with — is how they can actually be implemented. Most social media companies don't let kids under age 13 open accounts. But a 2022 U.K. study found 80% of 12-year-olds had accounts (CBS). 👀 What to watch: Some tech experts fear that banning kids from the big platforms will fuel underground, unregulated social media — which comes with its own dangers.

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First emperor penguin known to reach Australia found on tourist beach

An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday. Read More.

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Australia’s plan to ban children from social media proves popular and problematic The Australian government’s plan to ban children from social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthdays is politically popular, and leaders of all eight Australian states and mainland territories have unanimously backed the plan, although Tasmania, the smallest state, would have preferred the threshold was set at 14. Read more.

Why this matters: Some experts in the fields of technology and child welfare have responded with alarm. More than 140 such experts signed an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemning the age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.” Details of what is proposed and how it will be implemented are scant. More will be known when legislation is introduced into the Parliament next week.   A major concern for social media users of all ages is the legislation’s potential privacy implications. Age estimation technology has proved inaccurate, so digital identification appears to be the most likely option for assuring a user is at least 16. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has suggested adopting the role of authenticator.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Bluesky has added 1 million users since the US election as people seek alternatives to X   An AI chatbot pushed a teen to kill himself, a lawsuit against its creator alleges   Keeping children safe on social media: What parents should know to protect their kids

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Social media ban

The Australian government has proposed a ban on children under 16 from using social media and will hand down huge fines to companies who don't comply. The ban is expected to apply to services including TikTok, X, Instagram and Snapchat, though a full list has not been released. The legislation follows several high-profile cases of bullying and complaints from parents worldwide about the pressure their children face to be online. Many pro-ban campaigners have lauded the bill as a long-overdue measure to hold tech companies accountable for their impact on children. However, critics say the proposed ban is a blunt instrument that will reduce teens' access to support networks and create greater risks for those who defy the ban.

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How a wave of antisemitic attacks roiled Australia and provoked claims of foreign influence A wave of antisemitic attacks has roiled Australia, with a dozen arrests for vandalizing or setting homes, schools and synagogues on fire and hundreds more charged in just over a year with crimes targeting Jews. Read more.

Why this matters: Investigators are examining whether criminals for hire were paid by foreign actors to carry out the recent attacks, leaders of the taskforce said in January. They did not specify what foreign interests they believed were responsible.   Officials said the 12 arrested by the taskforce don't share the antisemitic ideology expressed by their crimes, underscoring suggestions that the acts were orchestrated abroad.  The revelations were strange, but not unprecedented, analysts said.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Trump is targeting antisemitism in schools. Experts fear other civil rights will be ignored   WATCH: As number of Holocaust survivors dwindles, one man is determined to share how he survived Nazi camps

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What’s that smell? Conservation!

Surely you’d be disgusted if your dog burrowed its face in a pile of poop. (You’d certainly have a right to be.) Consider, though, that perhaps your dog is preparing for a career in conservation.    In a bid to save endangered koalas, a team of researchers in Australia are deploying super-smelling dogs to locate koala scat in the wild. Conservationists can study the scat to glean whether its dropper koala is diseased and how they interact with their environment — they can even identify an individual koala based on its poop. All of this scat data (scat-a?) fill in important blanks about koalas’ private lives and health profiles, which conservationists can use to better understand their habits — and better protect them.   Australia’s beloved marsupials face a slew of dangers: Land clearing and development deplete their favorite food source, eucalyptus, and destroy their habitats, which in turn shrinks the pool of potential mates. There are still strides that need to be made to help koala populations thrive again. Sniffing out and studying koala droppings, though, is a promising place to start.

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🗳️ West's anti-Trump bump

First in Canada and then yesterday in Australia, voters looked at what President Trump is doing and chose the precise opposite.

• Why it matters: Safe, uncharismatic establishmentarians from the center-left are on the march in the Anglophone world, Axios' Dave Lawler writes.

Trump's 2016 victory, four months after the UK's Brexit vote, ignited talk of a global wave of right-wing populism. But in two big elections during Trump 2.0, winners on the left have linked Trump to opponents on the right.

• 🇦🇺 Center-left Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, reelected yesterday, branded Peter Dutton, the conservative opposition leader, as "DOGE-y Dutton."
• 🇨🇦 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal Party won the country's federal election last week. The Liberal Party looked poised to lose power for the first time in a decade, but it shored up support after Trump's threats to annex Canada.