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Australia's government has pledged to introduce what it described as "world-leading" legislation to ban children under the age of 16 from social media."Social media is doing harm to our kids and I'm calling time on it," Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. "I've spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online."The legislation will be introduced in the country's parliament during its final two weeks in session this year, beginning on 18 November.Mr Albanese said the age limit would take effect a year after the law is passed - with platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Elon Musk's X and Bytedance's TikTok using those 12 months to work on how to exclude Australian children under 16. Alphabet's...

Whoever picked up the keys to the White House, this was always going to be a historic election win.A Kamala Harris victory would have made her the first female president. Donald Trump is the first convicted felon to become POTUS. In May, Trump became the first former US president to be criminally convicted, for attempting to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign. Image: Mr Trump is now due to be inaugurated as president for the second time. Pic: Reuters He was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud. As it stands, he is due to be sentenced in this case later in November.Mr Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as president in January, has a...

An Australian Olympian, whose breakdancing routine at the Paris Games went viral, says she will no longer compete.Rachael Gunn known competitively as 'Raygun', says her professional career is over. The 37-year-old Sydney university lecturer failed to get on the scoreboard in all three of her competition rounds in August.Her routines at the Olympics included unorthodox moves such as a "kangaroo" dance.She later apologised and said she was "very sorry" for the backlash, but suggested much of the criticism was due to ignorance of the sport. On the Australian radio station 2DayFM on Wednesday, she said she now only "breaks" at home with her partner."Dancing is so much fun and it makes you feel good and I don't think people should feel crap about, you know, the way that they dance," she told Th...

The US election is all but over, the headline result is known with just a couple of states left to declare for either candidate.Donald Trump is headed back to the White House in January, but before then there are still a few things that have to happen. Here's what happens next:Final counting in remaining statesWe are still waiting for official results from some states. And while we know that Mr Trump has secured enough Electoral College votes to win the presidency, a handful of states have still not been declared for either candidate.They include Alaska, Arizona and Nevada.There is also the matter of the popular vote, which looks set to go to the Republican. That would mark the first time Mr Trump has won the popular vote in his three election campaigns, and the first time his party has do...

Cuba has been plunged into darkness after Hurricane Rafael slammed into the island as a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115mph (185kph).The country's electricity operator UNE said high winds had caused the electricity grid to collapse. State-run TV reported the entire population of 10 million people was without power - part of a series of blackouts which have plagued the Caribbean island in recent weeks. Image: Cuba's energy grid suffered a complete blackout when Hurricane Rafael made landfall. Pic: Reuters Image: In Havana, people were warned to take shelter. Pic: Reuters Rafael lashed Cuba's capital Havana late on Wednesday afternoon, with wind...

Germany's ruling coalition is on the brink of collapse, triggering potential political chaos in Europe's largest economy.It means Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) face heading a minority government after sacking his finance minister Christian Lindner from the pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP). Mr Scholz made the decision after weeks of disputes among Germany's coalition partners over ways to boost the country's ailing economy.Added to that, the government's popularity has been sinking while far-right and far-left forces have been surging.He said Mr Lindner "has broken my trust too often", and claimed he was focused on the short-term survival of his own party. "This kind of selfishness is utterly incomprehensible," he added. The three other FDP ministers - ...

As the dust settles on Donald Trump's historic US election win, the president-elect will begin the process of choosing who will be in his administration for his second stint in the White House.During his presidential campaign, Mr Trump - who will become the 47th president of the United States, having also served as its 45th - avoided directly confirming any appointments but frequently dropped hints about who will be in his top team. Mr Trump's picks for positions within the cabinet, the wider administration and advisory roles will likely be announced in the coming days and weeks, as his transition team prepares for the Republicans to move back into the White House in January.US election latest: Trump's lawyers plan to halt criminal casesSo who are the top contenders? Here are the people be...

A man described by not one but two of his closest former aides as a fascist will become the most powerful man in the world when he takes office. How worried should we be?Very, say another dozen White House staffers who served under Donald Trump and watched him in action for his first four years in power. In a second term, they are warning that those who once tried to prevent him from acting on his worst impulses will no longer be there to rein him in.Follow latest: Trump wins US election - as world leaders congratulate him"The grown ups", as they were called in Mr Trump's first administration, will have gone, replaced by people more aligned with his agenda and pushing their own. What is that agenda and what is to come? That is harder to say. We have learned not to take Donald J Trump liter...

So the worst kept secret in Irish politics is finally out, and the people look set to head to the ballot boxes on 29 November.The taoiseach employs several lofty explanations for why he has decided upon an early election, but it's hard to look beyond political expediency. The Fine Gael party has been flying in the polls since Simon Harris became leader in April, while the opposition is in freefall. Sinn Fein, Ireland's main opposition party, dropped to 16% in one recent poll - the lowest level of support since 2019.Its leader Mary Lou McDonald - once seen as Ireland's first female taoiseach in waiting - has been battling a serious decline in support for a year, and is bogged down in firefighting a damaging series of internal party scandals, north and south of the border.Why wait until next...

A woman who has accused Conor McGregor of raping her in a hotel bedroom has told a civil court she feared she would never see her daughter again when the mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter was "choking" her.The woman is claiming civil damages against the Irish fighter and another man, James Lawrence, alleging they sexually assaulted her in December 2018.But lawyers for the fighter, nicknamed "Notorious", are contesting the allegations and have accused her of attempted "extortion".Warning: This article contains content that some people may find distressingThe woman broke down as she described how she froze during the alleged attack, which she said "felt like it was going on for ages." Image: Conor McGregor greets fans outside the High Court in Du...