The government has declined comment on the ban or when and how it will be implemented

International News via Reuters:

Greek mother Georgia Efstathiou has tried everything to loosen the grip that social media has on her 14-year-old son: heart-to-heart talks; internet-free time; confiscating his phone. Arguments flare as she fights the allure of his screen and its videos and messages.

Now, Efstathiou may be getting the help she desperately wants. In the coming days, the Greek government is expected to announce a social media ban for children under 15, joining the growing ranks of nations seeking to shield young children from addiction and online abuse.

“Ban them, shut them down. We’ve reached our limits… We parents need help,” said Efstathiou, 43, holding her son’s mobile phone in her living room in Athens. 

Efstathiou isn’t alone. An opinion poll by ALCO published in February showed about 80% of those surveyed approved of a ban. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ government has already outlawed mobile phones in schools and set up parental control platforms to limit teenagers’ screen time.

The government has declined comment on the ban or when and how it will be implemented.

Reuters reported on the plan in February and sources said a formal announcement is pending. Last month, Mitsotakis told a Greek-Australian newspaper that Greece will move “in a similar direction to that of Australia”, where social media companies were ordered in December to keep out users under 16 or face fines.

WORRIES OF ADDICTION AND BULLYING ABOUND 

As in countries across the world, Greece faces a reckoning with social media sites such as Meta’s Instagram, TikTok and online gaming platforms. 

At the EU-funded Greek Safer Internet Centre in Athens, calls to a helpline which offers support to child victims of cyberbullying more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, said George Kormas, who runs the helpline. Other complaints include blackmail of minors, misinformation and hate speech. 

According to the helpline’s data, 75% of children using social media in Greece are of primary‑school age.

“This undoubtedly worries us, because they cannot handle social media or protect themselves,” he said. 

The head of the National Organization for the Prevention and Treatment of Addictions, Athanasios Theocharis, said roughly 48% of teenagers have felt the negative impact of social media. 

“Clearly (the ban) has the potential to provide a significant degree of protection,” he said.

KIDS CAN’T IMAGINE A LIFE WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

Meanwhile, parents who spoke to Reuters fear they have lost control of what their children do online or expressed concern that kids will find a way around the ban. Some prefer no government intervention at all.

“I’d prefer a different approach, limiting mobile phone use within the family,” said Dimitris, 44. “But where that’s not possible, perhaps a ban would work as the extreme remedy.”

His 14-year-old daughter Catherine says most teenagers her age have never known a world without social media. 

“It is the way we learned since we were born,” she told Reuters, before playing basketball with her father near the Acropolis.

“I can control it — but then again I usually get carried away.”

Additional reporting by Deborah Kyvrikosaios and Louisa Gouliamaki in Athens; Editing by Edward McAllister and Lincoln Feast

Addressing a conference in Rome, Panetta said changes in global investors’ risk perception could quickly lead to pressure on government bonds, especially given high levels of public debt in many economies, such as Italy

International News via Reuters:

Tensions in the energy markets due to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran are a cause of concern for their potential repercussions on financial stability, European Central Bank Governing Council member Fabio Panetta said on Thursday.

Addressing a conference in Rome, Panetta said changes in global investors’ risk perception could quickly lead to pressure on government bonds, especially given high levels of public debt in many economies, such as Italy.

“There are already signs pointing in this direction, as the rise in the value of the dollar, pressure on long-term interest rates and capital outflows from emerging markets reflect a growing preference for safer assets,” he said.

At the same event, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the war could boost migration flows if the Strait of Hormuz, normally the conduit for large amounts of fertiliser for Africa in particular, as well as oil and gas, remained largely blocked.

Panetta also warned about liquidity and leverage levels in non-bank financial institutions, with investors having growing concerns about the U.S. private credit sector.

Even if there were a swift end to the war, which has embroiled the whole Gulf region, a return to normal production would take time, Panetta said, pointing to more pessimistic ECB scenarios that energy supply would recover in the fourth quarter of 2026 or in 2027.

Euro zone inflation rose sharply to 2.5% in March from 1.9% in February as energy prices surged.

These data “highlight the intensity and speed with which the energy shock is being transmitted, whose effects are also likely to be reflected in the data for the coming months as well”, Panetta said.

“At the same time, the trend in leading indicators, in particular the decline in household confidence, points to a possible slowdown in the real economy.”

Despite the darkening outlook, both Panetta and Tajani said Italy was in a better position now than when Russia began its war on Ukraine in 2022, as investors had a more favourable perception of Italy’s public finances.

“This has kept us safe so far,” Panetta said.

Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Kevin Liffey

O’Leary said the Irish carrier, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, is holding daily calls with all of its fuel suppliers across Europe to assess the situation, which the suppliers say will remain stable until the end of May

International News via Reuters:

Ryanair CEO ​Michael O’Leary said jet fuel supply to Europe could be disrupted from June if the Middle East conflict does not end in the next month, potentially forcing the airline and rivals to consider cancelling summer season flights.

O’Leary said the Irish carrier, Europe’s largest by passenger numbers, is holding daily calls with all of its fuel suppliers across Europe to assess the situation, which the suppliers say will remain stable until the end of May.

Global airlines are contending with fuel shortages and high prices as the month-old U.S.-Israeli war against Iran snarls the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping waterway from the Persian Gulf. Jet fuel prices have spiked since the conflict began.

“If this (the conflict) continues through to the end of April, we’re looking at a risk to supplies in early June. If it runs into May, then we don’t know what goes on,” O’Leary told a news conference in London.

“If there’s a risk to 10% or 20% of the fuel supply in June or July or August, then we and other airlines will have to start looking at cancelling some flights or taking some capacity out.”

Germany’s Lufthansa is also preparing for possible fuel shortages outside Europe, with the airline seeing early warning signs in Asia, CEO Carsten Spohr said on Wednesday.

“If shortages in the kerosene supply occur, they are likely to be felt first outside Europe,” Spohr told the FAZ newspaper, adding that some Asian airports were no longer accepting extra flights due to limited fuel availability.

NO KNOCK-ON IMPACT ON FARES

The head of the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday that oil supply disruptions will increase in April and begin to impact Europe’s economy, with the lack of jet fuel and diesel likely to be the biggest problem.

The situation has roiled airlines from Vietnam to the United States and badly dented major Gulf carriers including Emirates and Etihad. Scandinavian airline SAS and Vietnam Airlines have cancelled some flights, while United Airlines is cutting some unprofitable flights due to high oil prices.

Ryanair’s O’Leary said the budget carrier would decide where to cut flights on a rolling weekly basis and focus on whichever airports have constrained fuel supply.

As European airlines make most of their profit from June to September, Ryanair does not have the luxury of cutting out loss-making routes, he added.

He singled out the United Kingdom as the European market most exposed to potential jet fuel shortages due to the amount of oil it imports from Kuwait.

The International Air Transport Association estimates that around 25% to 30% of Europe’s jet fuel demand originates from the Gulf, which it warned puts it among the most exposed regions.

However, European airline stocks rose on Wednesday on hopes of a de-escalation of the conflict.

O’Leary said Ryanair is not seeing much of a knock-on impact on its airfares from the conflict so far and that it still expects ticket prices to rise by 3 to 4% year-on-year from April to June, with traffic set to grow by about 5% over that period.

Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; Writing by Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Jan Harvey, Kirsten Donovan

During French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to Japan for talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, officials signed a roadmap to cooperate on critical minerals supply chains, NHK said

International News via Reuters:

Japan and France agreed to strengthen support for rare earths supply chains on Wednesday, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported, in the latest moves by both countries to lessen dependence on the world’s dominant supplier, China.

During French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to Japan for talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, officials signed a roadmap to cooperate on critical minerals supply chains, NHK said.

“We cannot rely solely on specific countries, especially China,” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure was quoted as saying by NHK.

The two sides also agreed to secure raw material supplies for a rare earths refining project in southern France, called Caremag, the broadcaster said.

The state-owned Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security and gas firm Iwatani, along with the French government, are investors in Caremag, which is due to start operations in late 2026.

Japan plans to get about 20% of its future demand for dysprosium and terbium from the refining plant, heavy rare earth oxides used in magnets for EV motors, offshore wind turbines and electronic components.

Takaichi and Macron are due to issue a joint statement calling for diversifying supplies of rare earths and other critical minerals during their summit on Wednesday, the Nikkei newspaper reported separately.

DIVERSIFYING FROM CHINA

The deal comes at a critical moment, with Japan and Western governments and manufacturers scrambling to secure supplies of rare earths minerals to reduce their dependency on China, the world’s dominant rare earths producer and supplier.

In February, China prohibited exports of so-called dual-use items to 20 Japanese entities, which it said supply Japan’s military.

That was after Takaichi angered Beijing with comments about Taiwan in November.

The rules cover seven rare earths and associated materials currently on China’s dual-use control list, including dysprosium and yttrium, along with a swathe of other controlled critical minerals.

“China is pursuing a strategy of using rare earths as a diplomatic card, and if U.S.-China and Japan–China relations improve, exports could recover quickly,” said Kotaro Shimizu, principal analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting.

Japan has reduced its reliance on China to 60% from 90% following a 2010 diplomatic incident which saw Beijing restricting rare earths supply to Tokyo.

Japan has been boosting investments in overseas projects like trading house Sojitz’s tie-up with Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths, and promoting rare earths recycling and manufacturing processes.

In the latest set of steps, Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials this week agreed to acquire a stake in U.S. ReElement, a company involved in rare earth element recycling, as both countries have set up an action plan for China alternatives.

Japan and the U.S. are also considering joint development of rare-earth-rich mud deposits, near the remote Minamitori Island, and Japan is in talks with India to jointly explore rare earths in the desert state of Rajasthan.

Japan and France will also seek cooperation in space, with companies from the two countries expected to sign memorandums of understanding on 12 joint projects, including space debris removal and rocket launches, the Nikkei said.

Reporting Katya Golubkova and Yusuke Ogawa in Tokyo; Additional reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee & Nichiket Sunil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Kevin Buckland