​ Meta and YouTube found liable in landmark social media addiction trial. 9 hours ago. Kali Hays,Technology reporter,. Nardine Saadand. Regan Morris,Los Angeles. A Los Angeles jury has handed down an unprecedented win for a young woman who sued Meta and YouTube over her childhood addiction to social media.. Jurors found that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, owner of YouTube, intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed the 20-year old’s mental health.. The woman, known as Kaley, was awarded $6m (£4.5m) in damages, a result likely to have implications for hundreds of similar cases now winding their way through US courts.. Meta and Google said separately that they disagreed with the verdict and would both appeal. Meta said: “Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.. “We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different, and we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.”. A spokesperson for Google said: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”. Jurors found that Kaley should receive $3m in compensatory damages and an additional $3m punitive damages, because they determined Meta and Google “acted with malice, oppression, or fraud” in the way the companies operated their platforms.. Meta will be expected to shoulder 70% of Kaley’s damages award, with Google the remaining 30%.. Parents of other children, who are not part of Kaley’s lawsuit but claim they also were harmed by social media, were outside the courthouse on Wednesday, as they had been many days throughout the five-week trial.. When the verdict came through, parents like Amy Neville were seen celebrating, and hugging other parents and supporters who had been waiting for a decision.. The LA verdict came a day after a jury in New Mexico found Meta liable for the way in which its platforms endangered children and exposed them to sexually explicit material and contact with sexual predators.. Mike Proulx, a research director for advisory firm Forrester, said the back-to-back verdicts underline a “breaking point” between social media companies and the public.. In recent months, countries such as Australia have imposed restrictions for children to stop or limit their use of social media. The UK is currently running a pilot programme to see how a ban of social media for people aged under 16 may work.. “Negative sentiment toward social media has been building for years, and now it’s finally boiled over,” Proulx said.. Getty Images. During his appearance before the juryin February, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chairman and chief executive, relied on his company’s longstanding policy of not allowing users under the age of 13 on any of its platforms.. When presented with internal research and documents showing that Meta knew young children were, in fact, using its platforms, Zuckerberg said he “always wished” for faste  

​ New India bill to amend transgender rights sparks protests. 34 minutes ago. Nikita Yadav & Abhishek Dey. AFP via Getty Images. India’s parliament has passed a controversial bill that seeks to change how transgender people are legally recognised and their right to self-identify, amid protests by opposition parties and the LGBTQ community.. The government says the changes will make welfare benefits more accessible and strengthen an existing law against exploitation and trafficking, but critics warn it could exclude many transgender, non-binary and gender-fluid people.. India is estimated to have around two million transgender people, though activists say the true number is higher and legal recognition remains uneven.. The legislation was approved by both houses this week and now needs the president’s assent to become law.. In 2014, India’s Supreme Court recognised transgender people as a “third gender” and affirmed their right to self-identify.. Despite legal protections, many transgender people in India continue to face discrimination and limited access to education, healthcare and formal employment, often relying on traditional or informal forms of work.. In 2019, the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act was enacted, aimed at addressing vulnerabilities faced by the community.. Now, the new bill – essentially a proposed amendment to the 2019 law – centres on how a transgender person is defined.. The government says the current definition is too vague and makes it difficult to identify those who are most marginalised.. It argues that a narrower definition will help ensure welfare benefits – such as job reservations and healthcare support – reach those who need them.. It says the changes are intended to protect people facing “extreme and oppressive” discrimination and to prevent exploitation and trafficking.. The bill removes the right to self-identify and instead limits recognition to those defined by biological or physical traits. This includes people with intersex variations – where a person is born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions of male or female – as well as traditional identities long used among transgender communities in India.. The bill also makes certification from medical boards and district authorities mandatory for those undergoing gender-affirming surgeries.. AFP via Getty Images. Activists say the new bill moves away from the self-identification principle of the 2014 court ruling and could reshape how transgender people are legally recognised.. Critics further argue that the new definition could exclude many transgender people, particularly those who rely on self-identification, including some trans men and women as well as non-binary and gender-fluid people.. They also say that mandatory medical certification undermines dignity and autonomy.. “It has shattered our identity,” transgender rights activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi told reporters.. Activist Grace Banu told a press conference in Delhi t  

​ ‘We are being choked’: Philippines transport workers strike over fuel costs. 35 minutes ago. Virma Simonette,Manilaand. Yvette Tan. Hundreds of transport workers in the Philippines’ capital Manila have gone on strike over rising fuel costs.. Diesel and petrol prices have more than doubled since the Iran war broke out on 28 February – with the Philippines now in a state of national energy emergency.. One 62-year-old driver in Manila told the BBC the situation was getting increasingly desperate, saying he had no food to support his five children and had not received any cash aid from the government.. As the two-day strike started on Thursday a ship carrying more than 700,000 barrels of Russian crude oil arrived in the country. President Ferdinand Marcos’ spokeswoman said.. Press Secretary Claire Castro told reporters that the Sierra Leone-flagged Sara Sky arrived earlier this week with the crude shipment.. Marcos had promised to look for new sources of oil as the country had been relying on supplies that pass through the Strait of Hormuz for 98% of its requirements.. The transport coalitions leading the strike have laid out sweeping demands – from scrapping fuel taxes and rolling back oil prices, to abandoning deregulation and introducing state controls.. They are also pushing for fare increases and higher wages.. Groups of protesters gathered in different areas across the capital on Thursday morning, holding signs and calling for the government to do more to help.. Many of them were drivers of jeepneys – mini-buses known for their cheap fares. Motorcycle and car ride-hailing drivers were also among those who earlier said they would join protests, according to local reports.. Some said they had not received the payout of 5,000 pesos ($83; £62) that the Department of Social Welfare and Development had said certain drivers would be eligible for.. “I lined up for more than five hours yesterday for the cash aid from the government, but my name was not there,” said 62-year-old Guillermo Japole, adding that he had received “no cash aid, no earnings, no food for the family”.. Guillermo, whose five children are in school, says his family is on the edge of being evicted from their rental home.. Another driver, 28-year-old Anjo Lilac similarly said he had not received any aid. He brought his daughter Hannah to the protest.. “No one will look after her since my wife got a temporary job,” he explained. “It [financial aid] will help us – for food, house rent and most especially the milk for our baby.”. Some jeepney drivers told the BBC they might go back to their hometowns to look for other jobs.. “It feels like we are being choked. It’s really tough. We don’t know where can we get money to provide for our families,” said Ronnie Rillosa, 58, who has been a jeepney driver for 30 years.. “We don’t need cash aid if the government will cut the prices of fuel, food, electricity, water.”. The effects of the planned two-day strike are already being felt by Manila’s c  

​ Trump confirms May meeting with Xi Jinping as Iran war forces postponement. 1 hour ago. Koh Ewe. Getty Images. US president Donald Trump says he will meet Chinese president Xi Jinping in China on 14-15 May, after delaying the landmark trip amid the US-Israel war with Iran.. This would be the first visit to China by a US president in nearly 10 years.. Trump is also set to host Xi in Washington DC later this year, and officials are “finalizing preparations for these Historic Visits”, he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the dates of Trump’s visit, telling reporters that President Xi had understood and accepted the request to postpone the trip.. “President Xi understood that it’s very important for the president to be here throughout these combat ​operations right now,” Leavitt said at a press briefing on Wednesday.. Beijing has not confirmedthe dates listed by Trump – though it does not typically reveal Xi’s schedule so far in advance.. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters on Thursday that “both sides are maintaining communication regarding President Trump’s visit to China”.. He also said that “leader-level diplomacy plays an irreplaceable strategic guiding role” in bilateral ties.. Trump’s trip, originally slated for 31 March, was delayed after the US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran last month, killing the country’s supreme leader.. In response, Iran attacked Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf and effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz – a key waterway for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas – leading to a global fuel crisis.. Trump has urged US allies to help unblock the strait. He also threatened Iran with attacks on its energy production infrastructure if it did not allow full access through the waterway.. When asked if the Iran war would wind down by the time Trump visits China, Leavitt said they had “always estimated approximately four to six weeks, so you can do the math on that”.. The last time a US president visited China was in November 2017, during Trump’s first term.. The last time Trump and Xi met was last October in South Korea, on the sidelines of the Apec summit.. Ties between the two countries have long been plagued by sore spots ranging from trade friction to tech competition and geopolitical tensions. Trump’s visit will be closely watched for any signs of easing tensions.. Ahead of Trump’s visit, Chinese state media has encouraged US officials to visit and interact with their Chinese counterparts.. A Global Times editorial published on Thursday said the lack of people-to-people exchanges between the countries and the long absence of a US presidential visit to China was “abnormal and should not be the case”.. “History has repeatedly shown that both China and the US stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation,” it said.. Asia. China. United States  

​ ‘I have no recollection of anything’ – Epstein survivor says she was drugged and raped. 3 hours ago. Victoria DerbyshireBBC Newsnight. Warning: This story contains graphic sexual descriptions. A woman who said she was drugged and raped by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has spoken publicly for the first time to BBC Newsnight about her ordeal.. The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity and whom the BBC will refer to as Nicky, said she met the disgraced financier when she was 19, working as a model.. She said that after she gave him a massage at his waterfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, he gave her a drink of water, and she blacked out for hours, when she believes she was raped by Epstein.. Nicky said she felt encouraged to come forward by other survivors sharing their stories. She is now calling for the US Department of Justice to release all its remaining files on Epstein.. ‘There’s nothing you won’t do to stop reliving all of it’. In an extensive interview with BBC Newsnight, Nicky described in detail Epstein’s abuses.. As other survivors of Epstein have recounted, Nicky’s interaction with Epstein began with a massage. He asked her to remove her top and bra.. “I honestly thought, OK, maybe it’s just an old rich guy that has a fetish and so be it,” she said. “Whatever. I mean, it paid my rent.”. But a few weeks later, when Nicky returned to see Epstein, her encounter was different.. “So I took my top off just like last time, started at his feet, worked my way up, and when I got to his upper thigh and went on to his chest, he pulled at my jeans, like almost to unbutton them,” Nicky said.. She told Epstein she was on her period, which was not true.. He encouraged her to have sex with him anyway and proceeded to masturbate in front of her, Nicky recalled.. She quickly got dressed and told herself she had to “get the hell out of here”. She went to the bathroom to wash the massage oil off her hands and when she returned, Epstein offered her a sip of water.. “I took some water and I have no recollection of anything for a minimum of 12 hours after that,” Nicky said.. She said she woke up feeling sick, sluggish and heavy. Nicky said when she went to the bathroom, there were signs she had had sex, although she could not recall any intercourse.. “I have done various psychotherapies to try to remember, to try and have a glimpse of something, and it’s black, I have no idea,” she said of the interaction. “But I can logically make a variety of assumptions that I think would be very accurate.”. She believes Epstein drugged and sexually assaulted her.. Later that day, when Nicky saw Epstein, he asked her to massage him one more time before she left.. And that is when, she said, Epstein confirmed her worst suspicions.. “He once again tried to pull up my jeans, and I was like, ‘no, no, I’m on my period’ and he says, ‘you don’t have to lie to me, [Nicky],'” she said.. Nicky said she later realised that Epstein could only have known she was not mens