Good afternoon.<\/p>\n
Facebook and Instagram began shutting down half a million accounts<\/a> of users under 16 years old on Thursday as the deadline for the Albanese government\u2019s social media ban looms. The Young Nationals have urged Labor to scrap the law entirely<\/a>, arguing many children in regional and remote areas rely on social media to stay connected.<\/p>\n The ban is due to take effect from 10 December. Here\u2019s everything you need to know<\/a>.<\/p>\n Top newsIn picturesChinese-made Unitree G1 humanoid robots demonstrate their boxing ability in front of a crowd at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo. Photograph: Greg Baker\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Robots demonstrate their boxing ability in front of a crowd at an exhibition in Tokyo in this highlight from the Guardian\u2019s daily wrap of photos from around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n What they said \u2026Brittany Higgins has responded to the federal court dismissing Bruce Lehrmann\u2019s appeal in his defamation suit against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson. Photograph: Jane Fitzgerald<\/p>\n \u201cI cannot begin to tell you how retraumatising it is to have your rapist weaponise the legal system against you for daring to speak out.\u201d \u2013 Brittany Higgins<\/p>\n The former Liberal staffer has said she feels she can \u201cbreathe again\u201d<\/a> after Bruce Lehrmann lost his appeal against a defamation decision that found he raped her. Richard Ackland has dissected<\/a> Lehrmann\u2019s solicitor\u2019s description of her client as an \u201cinspiration\u201d \u2013 only to \u201clitigants whose cases have crashed and burned\u201d, he writes in the Guardian.<\/p>\n Full StoryNour Haydar and Kate Lyons for the Full Story podcast. Composite: Guardian Australia<\/p>\n Why NDIS plans will soon be computer-generated<\/a><\/p>\n A Guardian Australia exclusive report has revealed details of a planned major overhaul to the national disability insurance scheme. Under the new model, funding and support plans will be generated by a computer, with human involvement dramatically reduced.<\/p>\n Senior reporter Kate Lyons speaks to Nour Haydar about what this means for the more than 750,000 Australians relying on the scheme<\/a>, and why some staff and disability advocates are raising the alarm.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Afternoon Update<\/p>\n Our Australian afternoon update breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Listen to the episode here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Full StoryWhy NDIS plans will soon be computer-generated<\/p>\n Sorry your browser does not support audio – but you can download here and listen $https:\/\/audio.guim.co.uk\/2025\/12\/03-25599-FS_NDIS_ch_031225_1755.mp3<\/p>\n Before bed readTaylor Swift is among Australia\u2019s favourite global artists on Spotify\u2019s Wrapped list, while the Wiggles and the Kid Laroi are high-rated locals. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko\/AP<\/p>\n It may be Fred Again, Donna Summer or Barkaa. Your musical \u201clistening age\u201d could be 21, 57 or three. You have listened to 14 minutes or 40,000. But, as Cait Kelly reports<\/a>, your Spotify Wrapped list is not likely to feature much Australian content.<\/p>\n Daily word game Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n Today\u2019s starter word is: ELAN. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sign up<\/p>\n If you would like to receive this Afternoon Update to your email inbox every weekday, sign up here<\/a>, or start your day with a curated breakdown of the key stories you need to know with our Morning Mail newsletter<\/a>. You can follow the latest in US politics by signing up for This Week in Trumpland<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good afternoon. Facebook and Instagram began shutting down half a million accounts of users under 16 years old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-298117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}