27/05/2026

WEDNESDAY | MAY 27, 2026

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‘Social media as bad for children as smoking’

illegal and harmful online content, but the government has committed to going further. “The question isn’t whether we are going to act; we will, whether that is a ban on social media for the under-16s or restrictions on key features and functions,” Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told BBC News. Hundreds of British families are testing social media bans, curfews and app time limits to see how they affect children’s sleep, family life and schoolwork. Experts are divided on how effective a ban would be, while a group of young people in London recently said they were opposed to restrictions. – Reuters

“It ranks alongside smoking and wearing seatbelts in cars as a unifying force for the medical profession.” “There can be few issues which have united clinicians so resoundingly in recent years as the impact that unfettered exposure to tech and devices is having on children and young people’s health,” said the body, which represents the UK and Ireland’s 23 royal medical colleges and faculties. More than half of 132 doctors surveyed saw at least one case of health harm that could be related to tech and devices every week, and over a third saw evidence of harm multiple times a week, it said. Harms ranged from physical

injuries, for example caused by replicating acts of pornography, to mental health impacts, such as trauma from seeing violence online. Britain is consulting on restricting children’s access to social media, including a possible ban for under 16s, as well as curfews, app time limits and curbs on what it has described as addictive design features. Australia last year became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, with European countries considering similar measures. Britain’s online safety law requires social media companies to take measures to protect children from

LONDON: Social media ranks alongside smoking as a danger to children, senior British doctors said yesterday, as they urged lawmakers to tackle the harm that they say excessive screen time is causing to young people. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges detailed the impact of social media on children in a submission to the government’s consultation on protecting children online, which closed yesterday. o Britain mulls bans, curfews, app limits

Sonny Rollins, last jazz ‘colossus,‘ dead at 95 NEW YORK: Sonny Rollins, the “Saxophone Colossus” whose hard-charging yet flowingly meditative works made him the last in a golden era of jazz greats, died on Monday. He was 95. “It is with deep sorrow and profound love that we announce the passing of Sonny Rollins,” a post to his social media page said, adding that he “died this afternoon at his home in Woodstock, NY”. Rollins found in jazz a means of social and spiritual commentary, with his tenor sax expressing the hopes of African Americans in the civil rights movement, the grief after the Sept 11 attacks, and the mystical path he found on retreats in India and Japan. Rollins was one of a handful of saxophone players who defined the instrument. Rollins lived a long life, remastering his work well into his 80s even as respiratory issues limited his performances. In an interview, Rollins credited his longevity to yoga – which helped him to concentrate and stay off drugs and alcohol – but mostly to his creative thirst. “I’m still alive because I’m still learning,” Rollins said. Among major saxophonists, Rollins’ style was among the most biting, a heavy delivery that often struck rather than soothed the listener, yet he paradoxically was intricate and holistic about composing, describing music as a path to find universal truths. He was dubbed the “Saxophone Colossus” after the title of his seminal 1956 album, in which he brought a new power to the instrument as he came to define hard bop – a jazz that was intense and stripped back the genre’s structural confines. The most enduring image of Rollins comes from the early 1960s when, needing a break from his rising fame, he would practice on the Williamsburg Bridge that connects Brooklyn and Manhattan’s Lower East Side, playing for nearly every waking hour over three years. The public sabbatical produced one of his best-known albums, The Bridge, and has led to proposals to rename the Williamsburg Bridge in Rollins’ honour. – AFP Rollins performing on Nov 2, 1987 at the Paris Jazz Festival. – AFPPIC

Four killed in Belgium train, bus collision BRUSSELS: Four people, including two teenagers, were killed in Belgium yesterday when a train crashed into a school bus on a level-crossing near the town of Buggenhout, RTL TV reported, citing Transport Minister Jean-Luc Crucke.

The victims also included the bus driver and an adult accompanying the pupils, RTL quoted Crucke as saying. Two other people were also severely injured, he added. The accident occurred early yesterday at a level-crossing near Buggenhout station, about 23km from Brussels. Crucke said security cameras showed that the crossing’s security barriers had come down. Belgian media showed images of a badly damaged minibus lying on its side on a road next to a railway line, with tents set up by emergency workers around. A police spokeswoman told the media that seven children, a supervisor and a driver were aboard the minibus. Asked by AFP, the Belgian police refused to confirm the casualty toll from the incident. “The impact was extremely violent,” spokesman Frederic Sacre said, describing the toll as “dramatic”. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on X that “it is with deep sadness that I learned of the tragic accident that occurred in Buggenhout.”

A damaged train car lies at the railway crossing in Buggenhout. – PHOTO BY DIRK WAEM/BELGA/AFPPIC

Belgium, where a dense railway network criss-crosses towns and villages, has a history of accidents at level-crossings. No Gulf safe haven for US bases, says Khamenei Five people died in such accidents last year, railway infrastructure operator Infrabel says on its website, the lowest number recorded since 2020. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she was “heartbroken” by a crash between a train and school minibus in Belgium. “My deepest condolences go out

to the victims’ families and their loved ones. “Europe grieves with Belgium,” the European Commission president posted online. – Reuters/AFP

TEHRAN: Supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei said yesterday that regional countries would no longer be shields for US bases, in a written statement carried by state television. “What is certain in this regard is that the hands of time will not turn backwards, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” said Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since he took office in March, in a message marking the Eid al-Adha holiday.

response legitimate and certain”. On Monday, the US Central Command said forces attacked missile sites in southern Iran and boats trying to lay mines, despite the ceasefire. Iran has not officially confirmed the US attack but state media reported blasts in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas without specifying their source. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, succeeded his father Ali Khamenei who was killed in the opening US-Israel strikes of Feb 28, triggering retaliatory attacks by Tehran across the region. – AFP

Tehran and Washington reached understandings on many issues in exchanges over a deal for ending the war, but warned an agreement was not yet imminent. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said yesterday they had downed a US drone and shot at other aircraft attempting to enter the country’s airspace, without specifying when the incidents took place. In a statement, the Guards further warned “against any violation of the ceasefire by the aggressor US military and considers its right to reciprocal

He said the United States “in addition to no longer having any safe haven in the region for aggression and the establishment of military bases, is moving further and further away from its former position with each passing day”. The remarks come as Iran and the United States continued exchanges aimed at reaching a deal to end the war which began on Feb 28 and spread across the region. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since April 8. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has said