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Five ways renewables will help insulate the UK from future energy crises

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Canadian school boards sue social media giants over effects on students

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Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram are addictive and have ‘rewired’ the way children learn, educators say.

Four major school boards in Canada have filed lawsuits against some of the world’s largest social media companies, alleging that the platforms have disrupted students’ learning and are highly addictive for children.

The school boards, which are seeking about $2.9bn (four billion Canadian dollars) in damages, said the social media platforms have been “negligently designed for compulsive use, [and] have rewired the way children think, behave and learn”.

Students are experiencing “an attention, learning, and mental health crisis because of prolific and compulsive use of social media products”, the boards said in a statement on Thursday.

The legal claims were filed separately but all identify Meta Platforms Inc, as the defendant; Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram; Snap Inc, which runs Snapchat, and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance Ltd.

“The influence of social media on today’s youth at school cannot be denied,” said Colleen Russell-Rawlins, director of education at the Toronto District School Board, the largest school board in Canada and one of the four involved in the legal claims.

“It leads to pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges. Therefore, it is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth,” she said in the statement.

Three other school boards involved in the lawsuits are Peel District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, and Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.

Several studies have shown that platforms like Facebook and Instagram can be addictive and their prolonged use can lead to anxiety and depression.

In May 2023, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said, “There is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health.”

Murthy said children are exposed to violent and sexual content on social media platforms, as well as bullying and harassment, and their exposure to the platforms can lead to a lack of sleep and cut them off from their friends and family.

As many as 95 percent of children aged 13 to 17 said they used social media, according to a statement from the surgeon general last year, while a third said they used social media “almost constantly”.

“We are in the middle of a national youth mental health crisis, and I am concerned that social media is an important driver of that crisis – one that we must urgently address,” Murthy said.

Thirty-three US states also sued Meta last year, alleging that its products cause mental health issues among young children and teenagers.

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A spokesperson for Snapchat says the platform was designed to be different from other social media platforms [File: Richard Drew/AP Photo]

Meanwhile, in Canada, a spokesperson for Snap Inc told Canadian media outlets that Snapchat was intentionally designed to be different from other platforms.

“Snapchat opens directly to a camera — rather than a feed of content — and has no traditional public likes or comments,” the spokesperson said, as reported by CBC News.

“While we always have more work to do, we feel good about the role Snapchat plays in helping close friends feel connected, happy and prepared as to face the many challenges of adolescence.”

Asked about the lawsuit at a news conference on Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he disagreed with the school boards’ effort.

“Let’s focus on the core values of education. Let’s focus on math and reading and writing, that’s what we need to do: put all the resources into the kids,” he told reporters.

“Let’s focus on the kids, not about this other nonsense that they’re looking to fight in court.”

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‘Famine is setting in’: ICJ orders Israel to ensure Gaza aid

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In a new set of provisional measures, the World Court ordered Israel to open more land crossings to allow aid into Gaza.

Judges at the International Court of Justice have unanimously ordered Israel to take all the necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies arrive without delay to the Palestinian population in Gaza.

The ICJ judges said in an order on Thursday that Palestinians in Gaza face worsening conditions of life and famine and starvation are spreading.

“The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine … but that famine is setting in,” the judges said. “At least 31 people, including 27 children, having already died of malnutrition and dehydration according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,” they said.

In its legally binding order, the court told Israel to take “all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance” including food, water, fuel and medical supplies. The ICJ, however, does not have a mechanism to enforce its rulings.

The new measures were requested by South Africa as part of its continuing case that accuses Israel of carrying out genocide in Gaza.

In January the ICJ, also known as the World Court, ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.

In Thursday’s order, the court reaffirmed the January measures but added Israel must take action to ensure unhindered provision of basic services and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians throughout Gaza.

The judges added that this could be done “by increasing the capacity and number of land crossing points and maintaining them open for as long as necessary”. The court ordered Israel to submit a report in a month after the order to detail how it had given effect to the ruling.

There was no immediate comment from Israel on the order.

The crippling shortages come as Israel continues to severely restrict supplies of humanitarian aid to Gaza and presses on with its military assault, which began more than five months ago.

Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas fighters from the territory led an attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli statistics.

The Israeli assault has killed more than 32,500 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. More than 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced and entire neighbourhoods have been levelled in Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion.

Changing situation

The court said that earlier orders imposed on Israel “do not fully address the consequences arising from the changes in the situation” in Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the UN headquarters in New York City, said the new measures are meant to act as “an enhancement if you will, or a highlighting of some of the provisional measures that were already announced”.

According to Elizondo, the ICJ said that these are meant to be “modifications to the previous provisional measures that were announced due to the change in the situation in Gaza”.

“When the first provisional measures came out in late January, Palestinians in Gaza were facing risk of famine, and the ICJ is now saying – that famine is now setting in,” Elizondo said.

This is a way for the court to tell Israel “the situation has gotten a lot worse”, Elizondo said, and that the ICJ expects Israel to abide by the measures.

In a written response earlier this month to South Africa’s request for more measures, Israel said that claims by South Africa in its request were “wholly unfounded in fact and law, morally repugnant, and represent an abuse both of the Genocide Convention and of the Court itself”.

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Pakistan to investigate army’s meddling in judiciary, law minister says

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Pakistan will probe accusations by High Court judges of intimidation by the country’s top spy agency.

Pakistan will set up an inquiry commission to investigate accusations by six High Court judges of interference and intimidation by the country’s powerful intelligence agencies in judicial decisions, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar has said.

Tarar made the announcement at a news conference on Thursday in Islamabad, saying the decision was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.

Their meeting took place after a letter written by six judges of the Islamabad High Court was sent to Isa’s office. It alleged that the country’s top spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had been intimidating them to seek favourable decisions in political cases.

The Pakistani army’s media office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“We believe it is imperative to inquire into and determine whether there exists a continuing policy on part of the executive branch of the state, implemented by intelligence operatives who report to the executive branch, to intimidate judges, under threat of coercion or blackmail, to engineer judicial outcomes in politically consequential matters,” said the letter, addressed to the Supreme Judicial Council headed by Justice Isa and seen by Reuters.

It mentioned as an example that the ISI’s operatives intimidated through “friends and relatives” two of the judges who had declared against taking up a political case related to jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan last year.

It said the six judges had brought such cases in their chief’s knowledge and also met the then-chief justice of Pakistan to “share their concerns regarding efforts of ISI operatives to affect judicial outcomes”.

They said the interference continued despite their chief assuring them that he had taken up the matter with the ISI head, who gave his word that there would not be any such interference, the letter said.

Khan’s main opponent, the prime minister’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had also accused the ISI of intimidating the same court’s decisions, which led to convictions of his elder brother Nawaz Sharif after his ouster from the prime minister’s office in 2017.

The powerful army plays an oversized role in making and breaking governments in Pakistan. The country has been ruled by military regimes for almost half its history since independence from Britain in 1947. Khan and the elder Sharif both have alleged that they were ousted by the military after they fell out with the generals.

“We want it to be thoroughly probed because we had also been its victim,” Tarar said.

PM Sharif will formally take the decision to set up the commission in a cabinet meeting on Friday, Tarar said.

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