Friday 18th September 2026. EU social media limits. Sweden PM resigns. West Bank olives. Korea ant fine. US AI debate. Bolivia new cat...

0:00 Good morning. This is Send7 World News in 7 minutes. I'm Stephen Devincenzi. Today is Friday the 18th of September, 2026. Starting in Europe today. In France, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans for the European Union to introduce major limits to social media aimed at protecting children.

0:34 Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, von der Leyen said that these limits would include children not being able to access social media at all until they are 13 and not being able to have an account on social media until they are 15.

0:51 No social media under the age of 13. No personal account under the age of 15. That means from 13 until a child turns 15. Only mini accounts that are set up and supervised by parents or guardians with limited feature and time restriction to one hour a day maximum.

1:17 Also in Strasbourg, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke yesterday after the EU proposed associate membership of the EU.

1:27 Together, Canada and the European Union can anchor our ground to hold our values while forming a protective canopy under which our citizens can thrive. Europe and Canada are stronger together.

1:46 In Kosovo, there has been public criticism of the guilty verdict and sentencing of former President and Prime Minister Hashim Thatchie on Wednesday. An international tribunal in the Netherlands found Thaci guilty of war crimes, particularly against Serbs. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said that the verdict did not go far enough and that Thaci and others should have also been found guilty of crimes against humanity. In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Christensen has resigned after his centre-right bloc lost control of Parliament in last weekend's election. The centre-left bloc, led by the Social Democrats, won just three more seats than the centre-right bloc. Social Democrat leader Magdalena Anderson is

2:38 expected to become Prime Minister for the second time. Asia. In southern Lebanon, Reuters has reported that some people are scared about what will happen after United Nations peacekeepers leave their areas, which is expected to happen in the next few months. United Nations peacekeepers have been in southern Lebanon for 48 years, however their mandate is expected to finish at the end of this year. Lebanon's parliament and president have said that they would prefer for the peacekeepers to remain.

3:16 According to a Reuters report, more than half of UN peacekeeper bases are in Israeli-occupied areas. Some residents, especially Christians, told Reuters that they fear that people could see them as collaborators. In Palestine's West Bank, residents have said that Israeli settlers are setting fire to Palestinian olive groves. Growing an olive tree until it is economically productive can take more than 10 years. In Nepal, there are still over 5,000 people missing from the sudden floods along the border with China's Tibet region. Over 1,400 people are known to have died in the floods, which were caused by a collapsing glacier.

4:04 In China, only 43 deaths have been confirmed, despite there being 519 people officially missing, according to Reuters. In South Korea … A two-Michelin-starred restaurant has received a fine for serving a dessert topped with ants. The restaurant Evit was fined € 10. 1 million, over € 6, 000, for serving ants on the dessert.

4:33 Ants are not approved for consumption in South Korea. America's In the United States, at a conference in San Francisco, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said that people were right to be afraid of AI and said that the industry needed to be better regulated.

4:56 The world is right to be afraid of this. This thing that our industry has been talking about for a while, which is, no, no, this technology, this approach is going to go very far. These models are in some ways going to become more capable, smarter than people That finally happened. So I think that was a big change to why now when people say, you know, my probability of doom is X or Y or whatever, it hits in a different way. These models have gotten so good so fast that we need to treat the alignment and monitoring and security with a new level of rigor. And we have to be willing to pace our development of capabilities such that alignment, safety, and monitoring are always ahead of capabilities.

5:37 In Bolivia, a new species of cat has been discovered for the first time in over 100 years. The cat, given the scientific name Leopardis tilcaio, is about 46 centimetres long, making it slightly smaller than a standard pet cat. Africa In Djibouti, thousands of Yemeni refugees have arrived this week, crossing the sea from Yemen. after the Houthi group took control of large areas previously controlled by the internationally recognised government.

6:16 In South Africa, police are investigating a series of murders of young women around Johannesburg. Nine women have been found dead in the same area, although police have not said that there is a definite link. In Nigeria, various digital investment platforms have crashed and as people rushed to buy shares in Dangote, the oil refinery, during the biggest initial private offering in Africa's history. And Ethiopian two-year-old conjoined twin girls, who were born joined at the head, have been successfully separated in the United States. Hiyab and Wubto spent months in hospital in St.

7:04 Louis.

7:04 Including having six operations, the last of which lasted 24 hours. Doctors have said that they are recovering well. That's your world news for this week. If you would like to have access to all of our transcripts, vocabulary lists, worksheets and world news quizzes, and listen to this podcast without adverts and receive bonus episodes, then you should become a Send7 supporter. We also give 10% of our profit to extremely effective charities. Just go to send7. org or click the link in the description of this episode. If you are a Send7 supporter, then I will see you later today for the bonus quiz episode. And everyone else, I will see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.