Body discovered in water off Shetland during search for a missing wild swimmer who disappeared two days after Christmas By JONATHAN BROCKLEBANK Published: 20:14 EST, 29 December 2024 | Updated: 20:26 EST, 29 December 2024 e-mail View comments A body has been found in the water off Shetland in the search for a missing wild swimmer. It was discovered on Saturday by emergency services looking for 58-year-old Ian Napier who had not been seen or heard from since early the previous day. Although formal identification had yet to take place, Mr Napier’s family have been informed of the find. The Shetlander was last seen heading off for what police think would have been a walking or swimming session around Scousburgh Bay at 9am on Friday. A search involving the RNLI’s lifeboat from Lerwick and the HM Coastguard search and rescue helicopter from Sumburgh was launched on Friday and the body was found at about 11.40am on Saturday. Police Scotland said the death was not being treated as suspicious. Dr Napier, who was senior fisheries policy adviser at further education college UHI Shetland, was a keen swimmer and paddle boarder. A body has been found off the coast of Shetland after a wild swimmer disappeared days after Christmas (file photo) Ian Napier (pictured) was last seen heading off for what police think would have been a walking or swimming session around Scousburgh Bay He was an Aberdeen University graduate and had worked for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food before returning to his native Shetland in 1995. Dr Napier was closely involved in establishing Shetland’s local shellfish fisheries management system and was a former chair of the Shetland Shellfish Management Organisation. He was a well-known figure in the local community and many expressed their shock at the news on social media. ‘Gut wrenching,’ said one. ‘Ian is a good man. His life cut short far too soon.’ Police said a report would be submitted to the procurator fiscal. Share or comment on this article: Body discovered in water off Shetland during search for a missing wild swimmer who disappeared two days after Christmas e-mail Add comment
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‘Tis the season of awkward office parties and obligatory gift exchanges a la Secret Santa. In the popular holiday tradition, each participant is randomly assigned to another to whom they present a gift anonymously. Each person's gift-giver is only revealed after everyone has received their gifts. Now this eventual reveal would be fine if you know your recipient well, and have gotten them a gift you know they'll love. Unfortunately, when played among colleagues, Secret Santa is often semi-stressful, unlike when the game is played among longtime friends. But team bonding doesn’t have to be painful, as unusual as that sounds. You can have fun. Enter Secret Satan: A subversive version of Secret Santa that my ex-colleagues and I once played to unexpected success. The ridiculous absurdity of the whole situation bonded us faster than any Christmas custom would. We weren’t fans of the unspoken pressure to impress with our gifting skills in Secret Santa, not least since the holiday season is meant to be relaxing. So we switched up the rules – and now you can too. HOW TO PLAY SECRET SATAN Similar to Secret Santa, each participant is randomly assigned their gift recipient. The identity of givers is kept secret here too. But the rules for gifting are where it gets interesting. In the Secret Satan that I played, there were only a few criteria: First, gifts had to cost less than S$5, and second, they couldn’t be items considered “normal” under Secret Santa. There also remain no-go zones, like no religiously- or racially-insensitive gifts, despite the nature of Secret Satan. Even if you know the recipient appreciates such dark humour, remember they wouldn’t initially know who their gift-giver is. In short, gifts can be tongue-in-cheek but not tasteless. 5 IDEAS FOR SECRET SATAN GIFTS If you’re stuck on ideas, here are five to get the ball rolling. They won't get you a promotion, but you can expect to earn extra street cred. After all, a workplace would have to be pretty cool to agree to play Secret Satan in the first place. 1. A single sock Yes, one side of a pair of socks. Unless your recipient happens to love wearing mismatched socks, in which case you would have found a fellow sociopath to match your freak, this gift is rather useless. In other words, mission accomplished. Alternatively, recreate this idea with any item that is only functional when used in a pair. 2. A used parking coupon This was my gift to my unfortunate Secret Satan recipient years ago. To ensure the coupon was rendered completely unusable, I tore out a date and time on the coupon and threw away the stubs. You may wish to avoid giving this to much younger colleagues though, lest you evoke a different reaction entirely when they don't recognise a parking coupon. 3. A calendar or diary from the current year If your recipient receives the gift on Christmas Day, they still have six days of the year to make full use of it. So what you’ve really given them is almost a week’s worth of sustainability-friendly behaviour to feel good about themselves. Surely that balances out the guilt from contributing to excessive holiday season waste. 4. A newspaper with parts of articles cut out You know the feeling of reaching the crux of an online article, only to realise the rest of the article is behind a paywall? This gift is the real life version of that. To do this gift well, you can’t just cut out any random part of articles. You have to read the entire article to understand its key points – then gleefully snip the right paragraphs out. Your recipient wants to know the dish that's gotten plenty of rave reviews at a restaurant? Too bad, there’s now a literal hole where that detail used to be. Admittedly you might be the only one laughing. But the upside is you’ll learn plenty about topics you may otherwise not have read while creating this gloriously frustrating masterpiece. 5. A name keychain, magnet or plaque – without the recipient’s name Got assigned a recipient named Kenneth? Give him a keychain that says Brandon or Linda. Better yet, attach an accompanying card detailing all the reasons you’ve always thought Kenneth made a better Brandon or Linda. Time for the man to realise his true potential. There you have it. Secret Satan won’t just inject some much needed fun into the obligatory office gift exchange, but even reveal which colleagues have a solid, albeit unhinged, sense of humour. Plus, you won’t have to wrack your brain to figure out how to regift a well-intended item you don’t quite like. Pass on these gifts at your own peril. (That is, unless you were regifting them for another Secret Satan gift exchange, which would perfectly align with the spirit of Secret Satan.) And if this article resonates with your workplace better than any proposed HR activity, bookmark it for future reference. Consider it my gift that keeps on giving.
Jimmy Carter, 100, the peanut farmer who became the commander in chief, whose ceaseless humanitarian work around the globe superseded his one tumultuous term as 39th president of the United States, died Sunday, Dec. 29, in hospice care at his longtime home in Plains, Ga., according to his nonprofit organization. Born Oct. 1, 1924, Carter died a little more than a year after his beloved wife, Rosalynn, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at 96. He lived longer than any other U.S. president, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018 at 94. He endured melanoma skin cancer that spread to his liver and brain in 2015, underwent brain surgery in 2019 after a fall, and had returned to his ranch house in Plains in February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays. Still, up until 2015, Carter continued to teach Sunday school classes, work on Habitat for Humanity building projects, lecture at Emory University in Atlanta, and flash those bright blue eyes at ribbon cuttings, book signings, and other public events. "I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes," he said in 2015 when his health began to decline. "I've had a wonderful life. I've had thousands of friends. I've had an exciting, adventurous, gratifying existence." When news of Carter's move to hospice care first circulated on Feb. 18, 2023, admirers flocked to his boyhood home in Plains and the Carter Center in Atlanta, and tributes poured in from world leaders, American politicians, social activists, journalists, and everyday citizens across the globe. Former President Bill Clinton tweeted an old photo showing him and Carter sitting together, smiling and chatting. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey tweeted: "Jimmy Carter is the model of kindness, generosity, and decency that is the finest part of America." Word of his death late Sunday afternoon brought swift and heartfelt reactions from elected officials. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden called Carter "an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian. ... What's extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well." In a statement on Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump said Carter, as president, "did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude." On X, formerly Twitter, former President Barack Obama said Carter "taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice and service." In a joint statement, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Carter for having "worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags at half-staff throughout the commonwealth, and remembered Carter on X as "a humble, generous, and admirable public servant — both as our President and in his years after as a citizen in service." "We pray that, in rest, President Carter will be reunited with his beloved wife Rosalynn," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement on X. Calling Carter "one of the foremost advocates of affordable housing in this country," Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker took to X to recall a visit by him to North Philadelphia to help build homes with Habitat for Humanity "that are still in use today." Carter, a Democrat, served a single, turbulent term in the White House from 1977 to 1981, and it is largely for his efforts after leaving office that he will be remembered. He constructed homes for Habitat for Humanity, wrote dozens of books sharing his own life details, shared advice on health and diet, and guided the Carter Center toward at least one remarkable public health breakthrough in Asia and Africa. A man of profound faith and optimism, Carter remained sanguine about the future despite constant conflict among religious groups. "I am convinced that Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and others can embrace each other in a common effort to alleviate suffering and to espouse peace," Carter said in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2002, as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Carter surprised political pundits when he emerged from small-town Georgia to win the White House in 1976. He was the only Democratic president during a 24-year period in which Republican chief executives were the rule. A relative unknown before attaining the presidency, he was considered an outsider, even in his own party. The singular achievement of his years in power was his role in negotiating a milestone peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, longtime rivals in the Middle East. But to millions of Americans, Carter, who once vowed to make government "as good and as decent as the American people," seemed overwhelmed by the job. He had the misfortune to serve in stormy times and, in the eyes of his critics, came to embody ineptitude at home and weakness abroad. His four years in office are remembered most for the traumas that played out in his last year. Fifty-two Americans spent 444 days, from Nov. 4, 1979, to Jan. 20, 1981, held hostage in Iran while the U.S. economy faltered under the highest inflation and interest rates in a generation. The year culminated when voters went to the polls in November and gave Carter one of the most resounding votes of no-confidence ever dealt an incumbent president. And the Iranians delivered the final insult, refusing to end the hostages' imprisonment until a half hour after he left office and Ronald Reagan was sworn in. "That was the image that I left behind in the White House," Carter recalled later, "that I was not strong enough or not macho enough to take military action to bring these hostages home." Asked in 2015 if he wished he had done anything differently, Carter did not grandstand. He drew laughs by saying he wished he had sent "one more helicopter" on the botched attempt in 1980 to rescue the hostages. "We would have rescued them, and I would have been reelected," said Carter, flashing his famous toothy grin. For all of his troubles in office, he earned renewed respect in his post-White House years for his intelligence, integrity, and commitment to peace and human rights. He was frequently said to be a model ex-president. Unlike some other former chief executives, he did not spend his time playing golf or selling his services as a public speaker or a private consultant. Instead, he took tools in hand and built homes for the needy in the United States and villages in Africa and Latin America. And through the work of the Carter Center, he devoted himself to resolving conflicts, promoting democracy, and combating health problems throughout the world. He was proud of the Carter Center's success in helping to eradicate the debilitating illness known as Guinea worm. In 1986, when the Carter Center began its efforts against the disease, its officials said there were an estimated 3.5 million cases occurring annually in Africa and Asia. The center said the incidence of Guinea worm fell to 28 cases in 2018. "I'd like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do," Mr. Carter said in 2015. A humble start James Earl Carter Jr. was born in the town of Plains, Ga., population 550. His ties to the barren landscape of southwest Georgia were deep and lasting. He spent most of his adult life in his birthplace, living in Plains from 1953 until his death, except for the years he spent in executive mansions in Atlanta and Washington. Actually, Carter grew up three miles west of Plains, in the unincorporated hamlet of Archery, in a clapboard farmhouse alongside a dirt road. But it was in Plains that he attended school and church and sold boiled peanuts on the street. His father, James Earl Carter, known as Mr. Earl, was a stocky, conservative authority figure. His mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, known as Miss Lillian, was something of a rebel, a liberal with a curious mind and training as a registered nurse. As he came of age, Carter's goal was to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. He got there in 1943, graduating 59th in a class of 820, and going on to work with the unit that developed the first nuclear submarine. But, after the death of his father, he left the Navy and brought his wife, the former Rosalynn Smith, and their three sons, Jack, Chip, and Jeff, home to Plains to run the peanut-growing and farm-supply business. In 1962, at 37, Carter entered politics, winning a seat in the Georgia State Senate. Four years later, he ran for governor and lost in the Democratic primary. The defeat sent him into a deep funk, causing him to question the entire direction of his life. He resolved his self-doubts by becoming born-again, spending much of the next year working as a lay missionary. The experience left him with a renewed commitment to become governor. In 1970, he won the job and, upon being inaugurated, declared: "The time for racial discrimination is over." He ordered that a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be hung in the state Capitol, a move that won him the undying affection and political support of Dr. King's widow and father. His public statements and symbolic acts won him considerable publicity, and he was seen as one of a new breed of politicians from the New South. Perhaps the most important thing that happened to Carter as governor was that he invited politicians from around the country to stay at the governor's mansion when they were in Atlanta. They did not impress him. He figured he was as talented as any of them. If some of them could run for president, he asked, why couldn't he? So, in 1976, he did. And, as the election year approached, events broke his way. The Watergate scandal forced Richard M. Nixon to resign the presidency in disgrace in 1974, leaving the office to the unelected Gerald R. Ford. All that did severe damage to the Republican Party and federal establishment, setting the stage for someone like Carter, a Democrat who came from the outside talking about decency and morality. He was the first real long shot to prevail in the age of media politics, the first man to demonstrate how to get elected by running full-time for two years. Speaking softly but with a missionary's zeal, Carter promised voters that he would "never tell a lie." He was liberal on civil rights, conservative on economics, and hard to categorize on almost everything else. When he accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at its convention in New York, he had a lead of more than 30 points in the polls over President Gerald Ford. In the end, he won narrowly, getting 51% of the vote to Ford's 48%, 297 electoral votes to Ford's 241. On Inauguration Day 1977, Carter reinforced his image as the humble outsider in an unforgettable way. After being sworn in on the Capitol steps, Carter, his wife, and young daughter, Amy, got into a limousine for the traditional ride down the parade route to the White House. Then, despite the bitter cold, the three of them climbed out and walked the rest of the way. The idea, he said, was to show that the "imperial presidency" of the Nixon era was dead and gone. "It was," he wrote later, "one of those few perfect moments in life when everything seems absolutely right." Tough times There were few more moments like that in the Carter administration. Even though the Democrats held overwhelming majorities in both houses, he found it hard to get things done. His proposals for welfare, tax reform, and a national health program all disappeared without a trace. His attempt to get the government to adopt a national energy policy — an effort he described as "the moral equivalent of war" — did not fare much better. Inflation crippled the economy, and frayed relations between the White House and Congress crippled the government. So he turned his attention to foreign affairs. First came Panama. For several years before Carter took office, the United States had been negotiating about the future of the U.S.-built Panama Canal, the vital waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Carter completed the negotiations. Under the final agreement, the canal would be turned over to Panama in 1999, although the U.S. retained the right to use force to keep the canal open. After a bruising, yearlong battle, the Senate ratified the treaty. Then came the Middle East. No other foreign policy area so absorbed him. Indeed, few presidents in the 20th century were so consumed with trying to bring peace to the Holy Land. Almost immediately after taking office, Carter began meeting frequently with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Progress seemed possible when Sadat, on Nov. 19, 1977, took the risky and unexpected step of traveling to Jerusalem, the Israeli capital, to address the Israeli parliament. But the inability of Egypt and Israel to convert the opening into a peace agreement left Carter ever more frustrated. "There was only one thing to do, as dismal and unpleasant as the prospect seemed," he later recalled. "I would try to bring Sadat and Begin together for an extensive negotiating session with me." On Sept. 5, 1978, Mr. Carter, Sadat, Begin, and their staffs gathered at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, and shut themselves off from the world. For Carter, as host and mediator, the stay at Camp David would prove to be the highlight of his presidency. On Sept. 17, an agreement was reached on a framework for peace. Egypt would recognize Israel's right to exist. In return, Israel would withdraw from the Egyptian territory in the Sinai it had occupied since the Six Day War of 1967. That night, in the East Room of the White House, the three world leaders signed that framework. Six months later, the framework blossomed into a full-fledged peace treaty. While the Camp David process resulted in peace between Israel and Egypt, it did not produce significant progress toward peace throughout the region. That became a source of increasing disappointment to Carter after he left office. Nor did Carter achieve any major breakthroughs in U.S.-Soviet relations. The two nations negotiated a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, SALT II, which Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev signed on June 18, 1979, at a summit meeting in Vienna. But the pact did not call for cuts in nuclear arsenals, only ceilings. Opposition to the treaty sprang up in the Senate almost immediately. Whatever chance it had of ratification expired at the end of that year, when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. Carter reacted to the Soviet invasion by imposing an embargo on American grain sales to the Soviet Union and by having the United States boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, which were set for Moscow. By then, his presidency was in deep political trouble. These were unsettling times in America. Gasoline prices were high, and lines at fuel pumps were long. Inflation and unemployment were rising. So, too, was national pessimism. Awareness of that pessimism had caused Carter to retreat to Camp David in July 1979 for an extended, loosely structured domestic summit. When it was over, he delivered a nationally televised speech on what ailed the nation and then fired three members of his cabinet. The episode came to be known as the "malaise speech." Carter seemed, in the view of his critics, to be trying to shift the blame for the nation's problems away from his administration and onto the American people. He seemed to be confessing his impotence. Within days, there was a large and growing body of thought in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts should challenge Carter in the 1980 presidential primaries. Kennedy did run. But by the time he announced his candidacy, the political landscape had been transformed. On Nov. 4, 1979, in the Iranian capital of Tehran, about 3,000 militants loyal to Iran's new revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, overran the U.S. Embassy. They denounced America as "the Great Satan." And they took hostages. The number of hostages would vary in the long days ahead. Ultimately it would settle at 52. Thus began, Carter recalled later, "the most difficult period of my life." It was not just 52 individuals who were held captive. It was an entire nation. The episode crystallized the general sense that U.S. power and prestige had deteriorated. At first, the crisis worked to Carter's political benefit. Americans rallied around their president, and the prospects of his two main challengers within the Democratic Party, Kennedy and California Gov. Jerry Brown, seemed to flag. But, as months passed and the hostages remained in captivity, the nation's patience with Carter grew thin, as did his own patience with Iran. After months of intensive and fruitless negotiations behind the scenes, the president decided to try to rescue the hostages. On April 24, 1980, the mission was launched. Success depended largely on eight helicopters, which were to ferry the rescuers from a makeshift base in the Iranian desert to Tehran itself. But two of the helicopters malfunctioned, and one of them crashed into a transport plane in the desert, killing eight servicemen. The failure of the mission undercut what was left of the nation's confidence in Carter. He carried on and was renominated by a deeply divided Democratic Party. The atmosphere on the final night of the convention in New York was so bitter that Kennedy refused to raise Carter's hand in the traditional display of party unity. In the general election campaign, the Republican nominee, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, sealed Carter's defeat by posing to the nation: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Many Americans — thinking of the hostages, double-digit inflation, and soaring interest rates — couldn't help but answer "No." In the end, Carter got only 41% of the vote, to Reagan's 51% and 7% for independent John Anderson. But there was a landslide in the Electoral College — 489 for Reagan and only 49 for Mr. Carter. He devoted what remained of his term to getting the hostages out. They were released on Jan. 20, 1981, Inauguration Day. Never slowing down After leaving the White House, Carter went home to Plains. There, he wrote his memoirs and raised the money to build his presidential library in Atlanta. He devoted much of his time and effort to open the Carter Center in 1982. In the mid-1980s, Carter staged well-publicized sessions on the Middle East and arms control, both of which were cochaired by Gerald Ford. Carter described the friendship between the old rivals as "a surprise to both of us." As the years passed, Carter kept pursuing his causes, traveling throughout the Middle East and Latin America to foster democracy and human rights. He became almost universally recognized as an "honest broker" whose word was accepted by one and all. "It's possible under some circumstances that I could be more meaningful as a human being this way than if I'd had a second term in the White House," he said in 1985. In 1989, he arranged for peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean rebels. In 1990, he monitored the elections in Nicaragua. In 1994, he mediated the end of a military coup in Haiti, went to North Korea, and brokered a truce in Bosnia. His accumulated efforts won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the citation praising him for standing by the principles that "conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law." "My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," son Chip posted on the Carter Center's website. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs." In addition to his three sons and daughter, Carter is survived by 12 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two sisters, a brother, and a grandson died earlier. Services are pending. Biden said Sunday he will be ordering an official state funeral to be held in Washington. Staff writers Julia Terruso, Michelle Myers and Diane Mastrull contributed to this article. ©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Jimmy Carter, 39th US president, Nobel winner, dies at 100A 9th telecoms firm has been hit by a massive Chinese espionage campaign, the White House says
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India turning into world’s Deep Tech Hub as reforms reverse brain drain: Hardeep Singh PuriQatar tribune dpa Kiev Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has taken stock of Russia’s attacks against his country over the past seven days, counting hundreds of drones, bombs and missiles largely targeting energy infrastructure. “In total, Russia has used more than 370 attack drones, around 280 guided glide bombs and 80 missiles of various types against Ukraine this week,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook. “Even on Christmas night, the terrorists carried out a massive airstrike.” The Russian military’s attacks were primarily directed against energy infrastructure in Ukraine, Zelensky noted, adding that residential buildings were also attacked and damaged, apparently at random, with several people being killed. According to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, Russia is using a modified tactic in its missile and drone attacks on Ukraine. Russia has now most likely decided to allow more time to pass between attacks in order to build up stocks, the ministry wrote on X, and hopes that fewer but larger waves of attacks can inflict more damage than more frequent, smaller attacks. With these combined mass attacks, the Russian military aims to overwhelm the Ukrainian air defence. Copy 30/12/2024 10Swinney: I'd consider Australia-style ban on social media use for teenagers under the age of 16 Click here to visit the Scotland home page for the latest news and sport By TOM GORDON DEPUTY SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR Published: 17:25 EST, 11 December 2024 | Updated: 18:20 EST, 11 December 2024 e-mail View comments John Swinney has said he would consider following Australia in banning social media for under-16s. The First Minister said young people had to be protected from a ‘social media storm’ and said there was a ‘strong argument’ for a similar move in the UK. Australia last month became the first country in the world to pass a law intended to stop children using platforms such as TikTok , Instagram , Snapchat , Facebook and X. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was a ‘clear, causal link’ between the rise of addictive social media and harm to ‘the mental health of young Australians’. Firms flouting the law, which will take at least a year to kick in, could be fined A$50million (£25 million). But there are doubts about how age restrictions can be imposed in practice, especially as privacy tools can be used to get round checks. Mr Swinney, who has a 14-year-old son, said social media could have a ‘significant effect’ on children’s wellbeing. He said: ‘I’ve called for much stronger steps to be taken to regulate the activities of social media giants. Teens face harm due to algorithms that allow them to be bombarded with toxic content ‘I think young people are being caught up in a social media storm, which can have a significant effect on their wellbeing. He said he was already in ‘dialogue’ with the UK Government about taking steps to improve protection for children and young people. When asked if that would include a ban on social media for under-16s, the First Minister said: ‘I would certainly consider that. ‘I think there’s a strong argument for it. Australia is obviously going down that direction, and it’s one of the issues that I think we should look at.’ Labour Secretary of State for Science and Technology Peter Kyle last month said a social media ban for under-16s was ‘not on the cards at the moment’ in the UK. But he revealed he was in contact with the Australian government, and wanted to do more to prevent the deaths of children linked to social media. Scottish Liberal Democrat education spokesman Willie Rennie said: ‘There are many tragic stories about the effect of social media on children and young people, it’s clear both our governments and social media companies must do more to protect children from harmful content online.' A Scottish Conservative spokesman said: ‘We will carefully scrutinise the details of what this would ultimately mean if any proposals were put forward.’ Labour MSP Martin Whitfield added: ‘All options must be considered when it comes to making the internet a safer place for children and young people.’ Instagram Facebook TikTok Anthony Albanese Share or comment on this article: Swinney: I'd consider Australia-style ban on social media use for teenagers under the age of 16 e-mail Add comment
With 3:56 left in last Sunday’s game against the 49ers, the late-afternoon sun falling on Levi’s Stadium seemed a fitting metaphor for the Seahawks’ season. Seattle had just turned the ball over on downs when Zach Charbonnet’s fourth-and-one plunge at the 49ers' 37-yard line went nowhere. That followed a Geno Smith sneak on a third-and-one that was also ruled — much to the disagreement of many on the Seahawks sideline — to have gone nowhere. A couple 49ers first downs and the game would be over. Seattle’s season might have gone with it. Instead, a third-down stop and as efficient of a game-winning drive led by Smith as you’ll ever see, and the light returned. That sequence of events pulled Seattle from being two.games back of two other teams in the NFC West — and essentially three back of the 49ers — to tied with the Rams and 49ers at 5-5 and just a game behind 6-4 Arizona. “We were trying to turn our season around," Smith said afterward. Now the task: to take proper advantage of that statistically unlikely turn of events. A script writer could hardly have crafted the story better to now have Arizona coming to Seattle for a 1:25 p.m. game on Sunday at Lumen Field that could move the Seahawks back into first place in the NFC West. As the Seahawks and Cardinals are kicking off, the 49ers will do the same at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers. But the 49ers will do so without quarterback Brock Purdy and star pass rusher Nick Bosa, each ruled out due to injury. The losses of those two players propelled the betting line to flip from San Francisco favored by 2.5 when it opened to the Packers favored by as much as six on Saturday afternoon — the first time the 49ers have been an underdog since the 2022 season. Then in the night game, the Rams host an Eagles team that has won six in a row and is listed as a three-point favorite. So, to make it simple, a win by Seattle and losses by the 49ers and Rams and the Seahawks will be in first place in the NFC West by the end of the day, holding the tiebreaker for the moment on Arizona. What a swing that final 3 minutes and 56 seconds may have made in Seattle’s season, and in creating an NFC West race that appears as wide open this late in the season as it’s been in years. Coach Mike Macdonald this week didn’t shy away from stating how pivotal each week going forward figures to be with each team in the division now having had their bye and seven games remaining. “Put it this way, look, we've earned the opportunity to be fighting for the lead in the division going into the home stretch," Macdonald said. “So, that's the way we're treating it. It's very much like a playoff mindset for us at this point. (We) can't afford to drop games. You want to have the right to play for these really important games in December and January. You've got to be able to execute and put yourself in that situation. It's basically a December football game." Smith spoke similarly. “Anybody can go get this division the last seven games of the season," he said. “So, really it's going feel like playoff games, every single one. The division games are going to feel like you won two games because they're going to matter that much." Sunday’s game may loom even more critical for Seattle and Arizona since the two teams play again in Glendale on Dec. 8. Given that the Cardinals already also have wins over the Rams and 49ers, a win Sunday and possibly moving two games in front of everyone else in the division would put the Cardinals in a pretty firm driver’s seat. But a Seattle win, and the Seahawks may go to Arizona in two weeks with a chance to take control of the division, especially if Seattle can beat a downtrodden Jets team in New York on Dec. 1. Macdonald and Smith speaking candidly of the stakes at hand Sunday, though, stood in contrast to the Cardinals’ approach this week. “I’m not really looking at it that way," Arizona quarterback Kyler Murray said this week when asked how it feels to play a late-November game with so much on the line. “I’m just taking it one game at a time. I know that the guys are as well, so I think that's the message that we're preaching. No game's bigger than the other. The one that we've got right now is the biggest one. We have to win it." On paper, though, the game projects as the most important for Arizona since earning its last playoff spot following the 2021 season. Arizona has won four in a row to move into first — matching its win total for all of last season when the Cardinals went 4-13 in the first season for coach Jonathan Gannon and with Murray held to eight games while recovering from an ACL injury suffered on Dec. 12, 2022. The Cardinals winning only eight games in the 2022 and 2023 seasons combined, the coaching inexperience of Gannon and some uncertainty about whether Murray could reclaim his pre-injury form had most preseason prognosticators picking Arizona last in the NFC West. But the return of Murray full-time, another good season from veteran running back James Conner and the addition of first-round pick receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. has led to an improved offense. And the Arizona defense finally seems to be taking on the personality of Gannon, who got the job after serving as the defensive coordinator for the Eagles team that got to the Super Bowl following the 2022 season, particularly in keeping teams out of the end zone; the Cardinals are ninth in the NFL in red-zone defense, allowing TDs on just 17 of 35 drives inside the 20. But the Seahawks finally beating the 49ers for the first time since 2021 a week ago, and doing so after a chaotic week that included the surprising retirement of center Connor Williams, has them feeling like anything is possible. Step one, though, is winning Sunday and snapping a four-game home losing streak. “These games are going to be so electric," Smith said. “I can't wait to be in the stadium on Sunday. It's going to be so fun. We're looking forward to the fans being there and just going crazy." The Seahawks made an expected move Saturday, activating safety Rayshawn Jenkins off Injured Reserve, filling an opening Seattle had on its 53-man roster. Macdonald said Friday that Jenkins — who had been sidelined with a hand injury — is expected to play against the Cardinals. Seattle also elevated tight end Tyler Mabry and linebacker Patrick O’Connell off the practice squad for Sunday’s game. Mabry adds depth at the tight end spot with Brady Russell (foot) ruled out and Noah Fant (going) questionable. O’Connell, a second-year player from Montana, played 10 snaps on special teams last week against the 49ers and will likely fill a similar role against the Cardinals. This is the third elevation for O’Connell, the most that is allowed.In a significant move, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is all set to host the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 player auction, marking its first significant venture into cricket . The auction will be held on Sunday, November 24, and Monday, November 25, at Abady Al Johar Arena, also known as Benchmark Arena, in Jeddah . A total of 574 players have been selected from an initial pool of 1,574 names. Of the 574 players, 366 are Indian, while 208 are overseas, including three from associate nations. The auction will see 318 Indian uncapped players and 12 uncapped overseas players in contention. Featuring notable players such as Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant, veteran England fast bowler James Anderson, and New Zealand all-rounder Rachin Ravindra. Saudi Arabia’s holding of the IPL auction signals its intention to elevate cricket alongside football, golf, and boxing in its sports investment portfolio under the Vision 2030 project. This is not the first time the player auction is venturing out of India. In 2023, the player auction was held at the Coca-Cola in Dubai.