12/12/2025

FRIDAY | DEC 12, 2025

8

Judge blocks Trump from deploying troops in LA

Women to be paid for forced contraception

BARCELONA: Spain’s Catalonia region reinstated mandatory face masks in hospitals and health and residential care centres on Wednesday, due to an increase in acute respiratory infections, reported Xinhua. According to the Catalan Health Department, the measure, which was approved for an initial period of 15 calendar days, was prompted by a surge in such cases across the northeastern region. The mandatory use of face masks in hospitals and health centres had not been in place in Spain since July 2023, when the Spanish government lifted the requirement nationwide as the Covid-19 pandemic eased. Under the latest measure, face masks are mandatory for workers, patients and visitors in hospitals, all healthcare, mental health facilities and residential care centres for the elderly or people with disabilities. Hospitalised patients are exempt from wearing masks when they are in private rooms. The requirement was approved on Tuesday by the Catalan government’s Executive Council and took effect on Wednesday following its publication in the Official Gazette. – Bernama-Xinhua Spain reinstates mandatory face masks in hospitals Danish authorities are suspected of trying to limit population growth in Greenland. Denmark was responsible for health policy in the territory up to 1992. Greenland is now largely autonomous. – Bernama-dpa COPENHAGEN: 4,500 Greenlandic women who had intrauterine contraceptive devices (IUD) implanted without their consent will be eligible for payments of 300,000 Danish kroner (RM193,029), the Health Ministry in Copenhagen announced on Wednesday, reported German Press Agency. The Danish government and a broad parliamentary majority have reached an agreement providing financial compensation to those affected by the scandal. The women, who had IUD implanted without their knowledge between 1960 and 1991, would be able to apply for the compensation starting April next year. The payments would be made later in the year. The ministry described the forced contraception as “a dark chapter in the joint history of Denmark and Greenland”, associated with great personal cost to the women of Greenland. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen expressed the Danish state’s formal apologies at a ceremony on the autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark in September. Danish doctors implanted thousands of the contraceptive devices, mainly in the 1960s and 1970s, without first securing consent. Some were just 12 years old, said Danish human rights activists. Around

In a separate development, Trump’s administration on Wednesday launched a “Trump Gold Card” that grants rich foreign applicants the right to live in the United States in exchange for a US$1 million (RM4.11 million) payment. Trump had unveiled the plan several months earlier, reported German news agency dpa. The programme is presented as a way to attract highly qualified and pre-vetted workers for US companies. Trump has promised significant revenue for the federal budget.

According to earlier figures from the Commerce Department, the Gold Card is expected to generate over US$100 billion while an even more expensive Platinum programme could bring in around US$1 trillion. The government has not specified over what period those sums might be collected. The application website refers to a waiting list for a “Trump Platinum Card”. Wealthy applicants who pay US$5 million for the card would be allowed to spend up to 270 days a year in the United States without paying US taxes on income earned abroad. – Bernama-Xinhua-dpa

o Order stayed until noon on Monday, administration expected to appeal

of the troops, reducing the number of federalised National Guard members in Los Angeles to only several hundred. Now, 100 federalised California National Guard members remain “at various locations throughout Los Angeles providing rapid response protection to federal facilities, functions and personnel”, Breyer’s ruling stated.

SYDNEY: Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday took aim at young people parading themselves on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the rollout was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives. A day after the law took effect, the country’s social media feeds were flooded with comments from people claiming to be aged under 16, including one on Albanese’s TikTok account saying “I am still here, wait until I can vote”. Under the law, 10 of the biggest platforms, including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube, must bar underage users or face a fine of up to AU$49.5 million (RM135 million). “This is the law, this is not something that can be flouted,“ said Albanese. “Some young people who have not yet been pulled off social media LOS ANGELES: A US federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot deploy members of the California National Guard in Los Angeles and must return control of the troops to the state, reported Xinhua. According to the ruling by US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, the Trump administration retains control of about 300 California National Guard members six months after protests erupted in Southern California over an immigration crackdown. The court stayed the order until noon on Monday, and the Trump administration is expected to appeal. In June, Breyer issued a temporary restraining order saying US President Donald Trump overstepped his bounds in ordering the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued an emergency stay just hours after Breyer’s decision. The dramatic legal reversal capped a day of courtroom confrontation between the Trump administration and California over the unprecedented federal takeover of state military forces. Breyer also ruled in September that the Trump administration violated a 19th century law barring the use of soldiers for civilian law enforcement when it deployed National Guard troops and marines to Los Angeles in June. By late October, the Trump administration had withdrawn most

DIRE DELUGE ... Floodwaters surrounding a building at Naburn Lock after the River Ouse burst its banks, partially flooding fields and sections of road near York in Britain on Wednesday. – REUTERSPIC

Australia PM defends social media ban

not subject to looking at their devices constantly”. Australian searches for VPNs surged to the highest level in about 10 years in the week before the legislation took effect, according to publicly available Google data. Free VPN provider Windscribe said it experienced a 400% increase in installations in Australia in the 24 hours after the ban went live. Another free VPN provider hide.me said it had a 65% spike in visits from Australia in the days before the ban kicked in, although that had not translated to a rising number of downloads. All platforms named by the ban opposed it before saying they would comply. As the legislation came into force, some platforms not covered by the ban rose to the top of app download charts, prompting the Australian government to say the platform list is “dynamic”. – Reuters

internet and there is “little interest in compliance”. “This would result in inconsistent application of the law and ultimately does not make young people safer,“ a spokesperson said. TikTok and Snap, owner of Snapchat, declined to comment on the implementation, while YouTube, X, Amazon’s Twitch, Reddit and Australian-owned Kick, all of which are covered by the ban, were not immediately available for comment. United Nations children’s agency Unicef warned that the ban might encourage children to visit less regulated parts of the internet and could not work alone. “Laws introducing age restrictions are not an alternative to companies improving platform design and content moderation.“ Albanese said the ban would lead to better educational outcomes and behaviour since “you get better social interaction when students are

are sending out notices bragging about it. That just tells the platforms who they are, and so it will be taken down.” Governments around the world have said they would monitor the Australian rollout as they weigh whether to do something similar. US Republican Senator Josh Hawley endorsed the ban as it took effect, nine newspapers reported, while France, Denmark, Malaysia and others have said they plan to emulate Australia. Australian internet regulator eSafety Commissioner would ask all affected platforms to report numbers of under-16 accounts on the days before and after the ban went live on Wednesday, said Communications Minister Anika Wells. Meta repeated its opposition to the law, saying some experts, advocates and parent groups are concerned it is driving teenagers to less regulated parts of the