The government will also strengthen the information-gathering powers of its internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, allowing it to compel social media companies to provide evidence of what they have done to stop under-16s from getting an account

International News via Reuters:

Australia said on Saturday it would double the maximum penalty it can impose on tech firms that fail to uphold a ground-breaking social media ban for children, as evidence mounts that the ban has had little effect on teen use.

The government will also strengthen the information-gathering powers of its internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, allowing it to compel social media companies to provide evidence of what they have done to stop under-16s from getting an account.

Under the changes, the maximum penalty for systematic failures to uphold the ban jumps to A$99 million ($68 million) from A$49.5 million.

‘BIG TECH NOT DOING ENOUGH,’ PM ALBANESE SAYS

The government reiterated that eSafety is actively investigating the possible non-compliance of five platforms: Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Google’s YouTube, Snap’s Snapchat and TikTok.

Google, Meta, Snap and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Australia’s plans outside regular business hours.

Australia’s six-month-old ban is being closely watched by many nations seeking to emulate it due to concerns about the impact of social media on youth mental and physical health. Britain this month said it planned restrictions that go further as gaming and live-streaming platforms will also be affected.

“I’m heartened by the shift in conversation and the global momentum we’ve seen since introducing the social media minimum age, but it’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law – there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

The statement said that since the ban has been put in place, more than 5 million under-16 accounts have been deactivated or restricted.

But numerous studies have also shown that age-assurance mechanisms, such as taking a selfie, which have been put in place by tech companies, are easily circumvented by children and that in many cases, the children have never been asked to prove their age.

Among Sydney’s grownups, Penny Lilley said on Sunday she doubted stiffer penalties would prompt improvements from platforms “when they make so much money as well off of people being on their websites”.

Another Sydneysider, Zara Keats, told Reuters she felt platforms “haven’t really done as much as they said they were going to” in upholding the ban.

“I have family who are still using it actively, and I have to sort of sit there and pretend like it’s not illegal for them to do so,” Keats said.

TEENS EVADING BAN, STUDY FINDS

According to a study published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday that looked at 408 adolescents, 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban took effect. Two-thirds of underage users stayed online by self-declaring an age over 16 or posting a selfie that the platform accepted as over 16, it said.

In April, an industry body representing tech suppliers blamed problems enforcing the ban on social media platforms’ weak deployment of tools available to run age checks rather than the limits of the ​technology.

“Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the big tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” Minister for Communications Anika Wells said in the statement.

In addition to empowering the regulator to demand information from the social media platforms, planned updates to the law will also allow it to gather information from third parties such as age-assurance or app store providers to assist in testing claims made by the platforms.

A spokesperson for the prime minister said the timing of introducing the amendments to the law to parliament had not yet been decided, but the government would have more to say on the matter soon.

Message board website Reddit is separately challenging the ban in Australia’s highest court, seeking to overturn it on free speech grounds. The government has said it will defend against the lawsuit.

($1 = 1.4499 Australian dollars)

Reporting by Sam McKeith and Cordelia Hsu in Sydney; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

Its fate highlights a growing problem on Santorini, where low rainfall and searing temperatures from 2023-2025 have increased the price of grapes, slashed wine production and intensified concerns over water supply

International News via Reuters:

In a vineyard on the Greek island of Santorini, winemaker Yiannis Boutaris gestures to a dried-up ‘kouloura’ vine trained into the shape of a basket to protect the grapes from the gruelling summer sun. The plant endured for 90 years but was finally killed by heat and drought.

Its fate highlights a growing problem on Santorini, where low rainfall and searing temperatures from 2023-2025 have increased the price of grapes, slashed wine production and intensified concerns over water supply – an issue blighting much of Greece as climate change makes summers hotter and rainfall more erratic.

“The lack of rain, in combination with the lack of cultivation, in the last couple of years has led to these old vineyards really dying,” said Boutaris, whose winery has its own vineyards and also buys grapes – including from the vineyard with the dying vines.

“The main thing for our winery is we are not abandoning tradition … we are adapting the vineyard to the new circumstances.”

GREECE’S ANCIENT VINEYARDS TRY NOVEL TECHNIQUES

Boutaris, a sixth-generation winemaker who runs the Domaine Sigalas winery, now part of the Kir-Yianni family of wineries, is testing a pilot project with local authorities and scientists to take wastewater from homes and hotels to irrigate the vines.

They say the practice, also used in California, could be more sustainable and energy-efficient than taking water from expensive desalination plants.

Boutaris is also testing planting vines in rows rather than scattered in the traditional way, to make irrigation more efficient, and atmospheric water harvesting. This captures moisture from the air in hydrogels, then extracts it as water with heat generated by solar panels.

Wine growers are at the centre of a wider contest for land and water in Greece.

In the warmer months, when millions of tourists descend on islands like Santorini, farmers, hotel owners and swimming pool operators often compete for a share of the dwindling water supply. 

Production of Santorini’s famous Assyrtiko grape fell from 2,500 metric tons in 2022 to just 500 tons last year. Winemakers are paying farmers 10 euros ($11) a kg, the kind of prices seen in prosperous regions like Champagne. In northern Greece, which is less hot, a kilo goes for just 80 cents. 

“Santorini reached a limit of dramatic conditions in 2023 and 2024,” said Stefanos Koundouras, a professor of viticulture at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. He said the temperatures were the hottest in 60 years.

Koundouras said the wine sector could become less sustainable all over Europe, particularly around the Mediterranean, if it keeps getting hotter and drier.

“We are already seeing problems in the quality and special character of the wines.”

Winemaker Yiannis Papaeconomou is also planning to tap into the wastewater project for his 6-year-old vines. 

He has been trying other techniques such as a system that irrigates the vines underneath the soil rather than from above, to reduce evaporation, as well as trellising them so they can be watered more efficiently. 

“So we must adapt and proceed in a new way of thinking and, you know, find a way out,” he said.

($1 = 0.8772 euros)

Editing by Edward McAllister and Kevin Liffey

The death toll from Wednesday’s twin earthquakes neared 1,500 people as foreign rescue teams poured into La Guaira, the hardest-hit state of a country long mired in a deep political and economic crisis

International News via Reuters:

Rescue teams raced on Sunday to find more survivors of the two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela this week, with signs of life bringing occasional relief to a grim quest to whittle down a list of tens of thousands missing.

The death toll from Wednesday’s twin earthquakes neared 1,500 people as foreign rescue teams poured into La Guaira, the hardest-hit state of a country long mired in a deep political and economic crisis.

Dozens of buildings collapsed into piles of sand and rubble in the coastal state, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Caracas.

“Rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing. Today (Sunday) we have recovered people alive and, therefore, operations are not being suspended. We always maintain hope,” said interim President Delcy Rodriguez, after announcing a presidential commission that would determine the habitability of buildings.

Flanked by several of her ministers, Rodriguez said school classes would be suspended for one more week and the electricity supply in La Guaira had been restored to 75%.

The government — headed by Rodriguez since her predecessor was ousted by the U.S. in a January raid — had thanked civilian volunteers ferrying aid to La Guaira, but then tightened access to the road, saying traffic was preventing efficient movement of emergency vehicles.

Earlier, Jorge Rodriguez, the acting president’s brother and president of the National Assembly, said the death toll rose by 20 people on Sunday to reach 1,450. He added that 3,150 people remained injured, 12,721 had been displaced, and 774 buildings had collapsed.

“We are in critical hours, in crucial hours to continue rescuing lives and to build camps where those people who have lost their homes, or who cannot return, for whatever reason, to their residences can stay,” he said.

Families and volunteers spent days pulling survivors and bodies from the rubble before the arrival of the more than 2,600 foreign rescue workers, often complaining of scant heavy equipment and a limited official presence, as hundreds of aftershocks deepened damage and kept residents on edge.

So far this weekend, the government said at least 33 people had been rescued by Saturday evening, including several children, while tens of thousands remained unaccounted for.

A father and his son were pulled out alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Sunday as rescue workers raced against the clock to find more survivors.

Although the government has given a figure of hundreds missing or trapped, just under 50,000 people were listed as unaccounted for on a website promoted by the country’s political opposition on Sunday, a slight decline from 55,000 people a day earlier. 

LIMITED TIME FOR FINDING SURVIVORS

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated more than 10,000 deaths were possible from the magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 quakes, which would place them among Latin America’s deadliest of the last century.

“There exists a window of roughly three days, 72 hours, where the probability afterwards decreases that you can save people alive,” said Sebastian Eugster, the leader of the Swiss rescue team.

The 80-strong team had found multiple people alive in the rubble thanks to alerts from their eight search dogs, but had not been able to pull them out in time to save them, he added.

Saturday evening marked 72 hours since the quakes.

RESCUED CHILDREN

The U.S. State Department hailed the rescue of an infant by U.S. rescue crews on Saturday, posting a video on X showing helmet-clad rescuers removing the blanket-wrapped and wailing child from the rubble.

A Colombian rescue team also saved an 11-year-old boy, Moises, who had been trapped some 3 meters (10 feet) deep in rubble, after identifying his location with a scanner, Reuters TV reported.

He was removed on a stretcher with a broken arm, his eyes covered by cloth to protect them from the shock of daylight. His mother and sister were killed.

Mexican rescuers working at a collapsed building in the town of Caraballeda rescued another 11-year-old boy, Rodriguez posted on X late on Saturday, showing crews carrying a small figure on a stretcher out of the rubble.

Pope Leo on Sunday told worshippers gathered for the Angelus prayer in Rome that he wanted “to express my closeness to the Venezuelan sisters and brothers affected by the recent earthquakes” and expressed gratitude to rescue workers.

A senior U.S. official said on Saturday that a funding package worth hundreds of millions of dollars is expected to be announced within the next day or so, in addition to the $150 million the Trump administration had already committed.

Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado told media outlets on Sunday she planned to return to the country, where she had been living in hiding since a 2024 presidential election that international observers say the opposition won, until she left in December to receive her prize.

A White House official told Reuters on Saturday that her push to return home is frustrating senior officials in Washington, who said it was too soon after the disaster.

Venezuela’s largest refinery, the 645,000-barrel-per-day Amuay, shut down operations on Sunday following a large power outage in western Falcon state, workers from that facility said.

Reporting by Vivian Sequera in Caracas and Efrain Otero en La Guaira; Additional reporting by Diego Ore in Mexico City, Julia Symmes Cobb in Bogota, Francesca Landini in Vatican City, Akanksha Khushi in Bangalore; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Christian Plumb and Chris Reese

There were no World Cup games being screened at the time of the shooting, with the only match of the day in the tournament finishing around 2 p.m. local time (2100 GMT)

International News via Reuters:

One person was killed and another seriously injured on Sunday in a shooting at a popular entertainment spot in San Jose, California, that has been hosting a World Cup “fan zone” screening matches, police said. 

There were no World Cup games being screened at the time of the shooting, with the only match of the day in the tournament finishing around 2 p.m. local time (2100 GMT). 

“One victim was pronounced deceased on scene. The second victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries,” San Jose police said in a post on social media platform X.

“This incident is being investigated as a homicide. Several surrounding streets are closed in the area.” 

The incident occurred at San Pedro Square, one of several places in the San Francisco Bay Area where huge crowds have gathered for lively “watch parties” showing World Cup matches on big screens.

The Bay Area has hosted five World Cup matches so far, with the last game a knockout match on Wednesday between Bosnia and co-hosts the United States.

A Reuters journalist at the scene saw a heavy police presence, multiple police vehicles and a person on a stretcher partially covered by a white sheet being rushed away from the area by people in uniforms.

The scene was cordoned off and most bars in the area were closed after the incident. 

A security guard, who declined to be named because she was not authorised to speak to media, said she saw the injured person in distress.    

“The person was still moaning and groaning. There was blood around his neck and upper back,” she said. “Police were talking to security and a couple of witnesses.”

There are several dozen fan zones across the Bay Area.   

Reporting by Ian Ransom; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Mendez; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Jamie Freed

Mediators have established communications channels to de-escalate any incidents, and technical talks are set to continue

International News via Reuters:

Iranian and U.S. technical teams working on the implementation of an interim peace deal are expected to meet in Doha in the coming days, a source told Reuters on Monday, after tit-for-tat weekend strikes threatened to derail the fragile accord. 

Mediators have established communications channels to de-escalate any incidents, and technical talks are set to continue, the source, with knowledge of the discussions, added. However, a senior Iranian official was reported as saying technical meetings were not confirmed.

The U.S. and Iran signed a 14-point memorandum of understanding aimed at ending four months of conflict on June 17, under which both sides agreed to cease hostilities and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically transits.

Closure of the waterway sent oil prices soaring to above $100 a barrel, triggering a renewed spike in global inflation and causing a political headache for U.S. President Donald Trump by pushing up prices at the pump months before midterm elections.

The accord paves the way for 60 days of more in-depth talks on thornier issues such as Iran’s nuclear program, although both sides have given conflicting accounts as to what was agreed. 

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that $6 billion out of $12 billion of assets frozen in Qatar would be released following the accord and returned to Iran, Iranian state media reported. 

He added that the recent agreement had lifted sanctions on Iran’s oil and petrochemical sectors, describing it as “a great victory for the Iranian people.”

BAHRAIN, KUWAIT HIT BY STRIKES

A U.S. official also told Reuters on Sunday that the two sides had agreed to stop the hostilities.

“Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MoU. Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Monday that technical working group meetings were not scheduled for this week and that talks in Qatar were not confirmed, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

Consultations with Qatar, including on following up on the implementation of the other side’s commitments, were continuing as usual, he said.

Oil prices steadied at around $72 a barrel for Brent crude on Monday on news of a return to diplomacy.

Analysts at ING said “this complacency is odd”, given the high risks still facing the oil market.

A return to talks would follow several days of strikes and counterstrikes since an Iranian projectile hit a cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, with both the U.S. and Iran accusing the other of breaking the interim ceasefire.

Iran launched missiles and drones at U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain early on Sunday, shortly after Trump issued his latest threat against Iran.

“There may come a point when we are no longer able to be reasonable, and will be forced to militarily complete the job that we very successfully started,” Trump said on social media.

“If that happens, the Islamic Republic of Iran will no longer exist!” he added.

UNCERTAINTY OVER LATEST CEASEFIRE DEAL IN LEBANON

About an hour after Trump’s post, Kuwait’s army said its air defences were responding to missile and drone attacks, while Bahrain said sirens had sounded there.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said its navy and air forces had launched missile and drone operations targeting U.S. military sites in Kuwait and Bahrain.

The Guards said U.S. strikes had violated the ceasefire and said American bases in the region would “experience hell in the coming days”.

Hours later, alarms sounded for a second time in Bahrain, where authorities said an Iranian attack damaged a residential building. Bahrain urged the U.N. Security Council to hold an urgent session to hold Iran accountable.

The Kuwaiti army said it had intercepted two ballistic missiles with no damage or casualties.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a key ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah, attacked a U.S.-brokered agreement between Lebanon and Israel, aimed at halting a parallel war there.

Berri warned on Monday that the deal could lead to attempts to divide Lebanese and said it would not be implemented.

The latest round of conflict in Lebanon began after Hezbollah struck Israel early in the war, in what it said was support of its backer Iran. Israel’s response has led to mass displacement and more than 4,000 deaths in Lebanon.

Tehran has said ending that conflict and withdrawing Israeli troops from the south of Lebanon are an integral part of any deal struck with the U.S. to end the wider war that began with U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

Israel said on Sunday it had struck Hezbollah, destroying underground infrastructure. That came after another strike on Saturday, which closely followed its most recent ceasefire deal with Lebanon on Friday.

Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Sharon Singleton; Editing by Aidan Lewis

There was also a warning that the heat was likely to build again from the start of next week in countries such as France and Germany that bore the brunt over the past few days

International News via Reuters:

The Balkans felt the impact on Monday of the record-breaking heatwave that has caused hundreds of excess deaths and disrupted daily life across the continent for more than a week, with growing concerns over the spread of wildfires.

There was also a warning that the heat was likely to build again from the start of next week in countries such as France and Germany that bore the brunt over the past few days.

In Croatia, the weather service issued a red alert on Monday for regions including the capital Zagreb and the tourist destinations of Split and Dubrovnik.

Dozens of firefighters, assisted by four aircraft, battled a wildfire burning pine forests on the tourist island of Vis in the Adriatic Sea, some 34 miles (55 km) southwest of Split.

In neighbouring Serbia, the State Hydrometeorological Service (RHMZ) has warned temperatures would reach 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday.

Further south, Albania contained a wildfire that has consumed many hectares of bushes and olive trees near the southern village of Klos over the weekend.

Scientists have said the heatwave, which began on June 20, was ‌the worst recorded in Europe, and the blistering conditions have disrupted power generation, damaged infrastructure and overwhelmed healthcare systems.

France has reported 1,000 excess deaths during the heatwave. The French public health agency said most of the heat-related fatalities involved older people and warned the number was expected to rise.

The heatwave would have been “virtually ‌impossible” without human-caused climate change, which has made this week’s soaring night-time temperatures 100 times more likely than they would have been just two decades ago, according to scientists.

HEAT TO RISE AGAIN FURTHER WEST

Luca Mercalli, the president of Italy’s Meteorological Society, said temperatures were set to soar again from July 5-6.

“The areas affected look broadly the same as in the first wave, including France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and to some extent Britain,” he told Reuters.

“With the extreme heat the risk of forest fires increases, but we are also seeing a lot of rainstorms, which obviously mitigates that risk,” he added, noting that storms were very localised so rainfall amounts could vary greatly.

Further tragedies related to the heat were reported at the weekend.

Two boys aged 8 and 10 from Bulgaria were found dead in a hot car in Cyprus on Sunday afternoon, police said. Cyprus is currently experiencing temperatures of around 38 C, which is not classified as a heatwave on the east Mediterranean island for the time of year.

Two cyclists, a 30-year-old and a 71-year-old, died while taking part in an event in the Poland Bike Marathon series in Marki near Warsaw on Sunday.

Temperatures in Poland reached a new record high on Sunday at 40.5 C.

Reporting by eporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo, Fatos Bytyci in Tirana, Gavin Jones in Rome, Michele Kambas in Nicosia and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Editing by William Maclean