31/07/2025

THURSDAY | JULY 31, 2025

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Quake off Russia sparks Pacific tsunami warnings

Australia widens teen social media ban to YouTube

SYDNEY: Australia said yesterday it will add YouTube to sites covered by its world-first ban on social media for teenagers, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the Alphabet-owned video sharing site and potentially setting up a legal challenge. The decision came after the internet regulator urged the government last month to overturn the YouTube carve-out, citing a survey that found 37% of minors reported harmful content on the site, the worst showing for a social media platform. “I’m calling time on it,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement highlighting that children were being negatively affected by online platforms, and reminding social media of their social responsibility. The decision broadens the ban set to take effect in December. YouTube says it is used by nearly three-quarters of Australians aged 13 to 15, and should not be classified as social media because its main activity is hosting videos. “Our position remains clear, YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It’s not social media,” a YouTube spokesperson said by email. Since the government said last year it would exempt YouTube due to its popularity with teachers, platforms covered by the ban, such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, have complained. They say YouTube has key similarities to their products, including letting users interact and recommending content through an algorithm based on activity. The ban outlaws YouTube accounts for those younger than 16, allowing parents and teachers to show videos on it to minors. “Teachers are always curators of any resource for appropriateness (and) will be judicious,” said Angela Falkenberg, president of the Australian Primary Principals Association. Artificial intelligence has supercharged the spread of misinformation on social media platforms such as YouTube, said Adam Marre, chief information security officer at cyber security firm Arctic Wolf. “The government’s move to regulate YouTube is an important step in pushing back against the unchecked power of big tech and protecting kids,” he added in an email. Last week, YouTube told Reuters it had written to the government urging it “to uphold the integrity of the legislative process”. Australian media said YouTube threatened a court challenge, but YouTube did not confirm that. “I will not be intimidated by legal threats when this is a genuine fight for the well-being of Australian kids,” Communications Minister Anika Wells told parliament yesterday. The law passed in November only requires “reasonable steps” by social media platforms to keep out Australians younger than 16, or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million (RM136 million). – Reuters

TOKYO: A powerful magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Russia’s Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula triggered tsunami waves of up to 5m and sparked evacuation orders in Hawaii and across the Pacific yesterday. The shallow earthquake damaged buildings and injured several people in the remote Russian region, while much of Japan’s eastern seaboard was ordered to evacuate. A resident in the city of Petropavlovsk Kamchatsky said the shaking rumbled for several minutes. “I decided to leave the building. It felt like the walls could collapse at any moment. The shaking lasted continuously for at least three minutes,” said Yaroslav, 25. Tsunami waves struck parts of Kamchatka, partially flooding the port and a fish processing plant in the town of Severo-Kurilsk and sweeping vessels from their moorings, regional officials and Russia’s Emergency Ministry said. o Largest temblor in region since 1952, say scientists

Three tsunami waves had been recorded in Japan, the largest of 1.3m, officials said. Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services said on Telegram that a kindergarten was damaged but most buildings withstood the quake. No serious injuries or fatalities have been reported. Several people in Kamchatka sought medical assistance following the quake, said Regional Health Minister Oleg Melnikov. In Severo-Kurilsk in the northern Kuril islands, south of Kamchatka, tsunami waves exceeded 3m, with the largest up to 5m. Alexander Ovsyannikov, the town’s mayor, said four tsunami waves had passed. Kamchatka and Russia’s Far East sit on the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. “However, due to certain characteristics of the epicentre, the shaking intensity was not as high as one might expect from such a magnitude,” said Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka Branch of the Geophysical Service, on Telegram. “Aftershocks are ongoing. Their intensity will remain fairly high. However, stronger tremors are not expected in the near future. The situation is under control.” – Reuters

“Today’s earthquake was serious and the strongest in decades of tremors,” Kamchatka Governor Vladimir Solodov said in a video posted on the Telegram messaging app. Russian scientists said it was the most powerful quake to hit the region since 1952. In Hawaii, coastal residents were told to get to high ground and the US Coast Guard ordered ships out of harbours. Shortly after 0730 GMT (1.30pm in Malaysia), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said waves of up to 1.7m were impacting the Hawaiian islands. The US Geological Survey said the earthquake was shallow, at a depth of 19.3km and centred 119km east-southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a city of 165,000. It revised the magnitude up from 8.0 earlier, and reported a series of strong aftershocks up to a magnitude of 6.9. Tsunami alarms sounded in coastal towns across Japan’s Pacific coast and evacuation orders were issued. Workers evacuated the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, its operator Tepco said. Broadcaster Asahi TV reported a 58-year old woman died when her car fell off a cliff while she was evacuating in central Japan’s Mie prefecture.

A tsunami hits Severo-Kurilsk on Paramushir Island of Russia’s northern Kuril islands. – GEOPHYSICAL SERVICE OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES /AFPPIC

Shanghai evacuates 283,000 residents as typhoon hits SHANGHAI: Authorities here have evacuated almost 283,000 people from vulnerable coastal and low-lying areas as Typhoon Co-May approaches, bringing lashing rains and high winds, state media reported yesterday. eastern Zhejiang Province at about 4.30am yesterday (same time in Malaysia), with winds of 83kph near its centre. Sheets of rain inundated the city without pause yesterday, with pedestrians bracing their umbrellas against gusts and delivery drivers splashing through huge puddles as they made their way through sodden streets.

Its passage has had an indirect link to extreme weather in China’s north, Chen Tao, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Centre, told China Daily . Heavy rain there has killed more than 30 people and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands, state media reported on Tuesday. “Typhoon activity can influence atmospheric circulation, altering the northward transport of moisture,” Chen said. Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer. – AFP

after making landfall in the morning, live shots from China’s east coast showed waves overrunning seaside walkways, while broadcasts from the city of Ningbo showed residents walking through ankle-deep water. China also issued a tsunami warning for parts of the eastern seaboard after an earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. However, the warning was later lifted, according to CCTV. Co-May was downgraded to a tropical storm before leaving the Philippines and then strengthened again over the South China Sea.

It was expected to make a second landfall in financial hub of Shanghai in the evening. From Tuesday night to 10am yesterday, 282,800 people have been evacuated and relocated, basically achieving the goal of evacuating all those who needed to be evacuated, state broadcaster CCTV reported. More than 1,900 temporary shelters have been set up across the city, authorities said.

Almost a third of flights from Shanghai’s two international airports have been cancelled, the city’s news service said, totalling about 640. The Shanghai Meteorological Observatory yesterday afternoon upgraded an earlier yellow rainstorm alert to orange, the second-highest warning level. Typhoon Co-May made landfall in

Ferry services have been cancelled, additional speed limits are in place on highways, and there has been some disruption to metro and train services in the city. However, Shanghai’s Legoland and Disneyland remained open yesterday morning. As the typhoon tracked northwest