META EARLY BAN
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, says it's going to start deactivating the social media accounts of kids under 16, a week before the government's ban even comes into effect. You see, the social media ban is coming into effect here, on the 10th of December, but now Meta says its platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and Threads, are going to start removing accounts a week earlier on December 4th. That means if you're under 16, you might start receiving notifications from Meta. That could be by text, email, or in-app messages, giving you a two-week warning to download and save your data before your account gets deactivated. Meta says it will contact the users it's most confident are under 16 first, but it may not always be accurate. Users who want to appeal their removal will have to undergo a facial age scan, by taking a video selfie or providing government-issued ID like a driver's license. Kids under 16 will also be given the option to hand over their contact details to Meta, so it can reach out to them after their 16th birthday to reopen their account. At the moment, this December 4 deadline only affects apps made by Meta, and other social media platforms with under-16 accounts will be banned starting December 10.
CYCLONE FINA PREP
People in the Top End are prepping for the arrival of Tropical Cyclone Fina. The cyclone is expected to make landfall as a category two storm in Cape Don tomorrow morning. Residents have been urged to secure boats and property, and stock up on any necessary supplies. It marks an early start to the northern Australian cyclone season, which normally doesn't see its first cyclone form until December, or sometimes January.
UK TICKET RESELLING
New rules in the United Kingdom will make it illegal to resell tickets to live events for more than their original cost. Last week, a heap of big artists in the UK signed an open letter to their Prime Minister, urging the government to put a cap on the price of second-hand tickets, as they reckon it's stopping proper fans from enjoying what they love. The UK government admits ticket reselling, or touting as it's called over there, has got more advanced in recent years, with people using bots and stuff to get in super fast. So now they're putting in new rules, mainly targeting the reselling sites, to stop people selling a suspicious number of tickets, and selling them for more than they first cost to buy. In Australia, the rules on this vary state-to-state, but most cap ticket mark-ups at 10 per cent. One big reseller reckon laws like what UK is putting in fail fans in other countries, like Australia, because it pushes them to into dodgy sites where you can't trust if the tickets are even real.
GOLD TOILET
First up, to a toilet made entirely out of 18-carat gold. And yes, it is fully functional. This work of art, titled America, was made by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, the same chap who made this artwork of a banana taped to a wall. It's just sold at auction for a whopping 18.7 million dollars.
ROGER FEDERER
Now to Roger Federer, who's just been elected into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, in front of a room full of kids. Roger was the first male player to win 20 Grand Slams, and holds the record for the most consecutive weeks as world number 1 from 2004 to 2008.
DIGITAL MOUSE BRAIN
And finally, scientists from the US and Japan have just teamed up to make a digital mouse brain, using one of the world's biggest supercomputers. They hope it can help them run scientific tests completely electronically, but say replicating a human brain is still impossible with today's technology.