New Zealand prime minister Luxon has said his party will introduce a bill in parliament that ⁠seeks to ban children ⁠under ​16 from using social media, proposing fines of up to 10% of a platform’s global revenue for non-compliance.

The bill would ⁠require social media platforms to take reasonable steps to verify users’ ages, including by utilising existing account information, facial technology and ⁠digital identity documents. Luxon explained that this decision is to protect children from harm that may be caused by harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not ‌equipped to deal with.

In December, Australia became the world’s first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking them from platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram ⁠and Facebook.

That legislation had been a “colossal failure”, New Zealand’s foreign minister Peters said, adding that ​keeping children off ​social media should be the responsibility ​of parents.

Canada Prime Minister Carney defended the French influence of Canada on Monday while American negotiators saw the French language in Canada as an “irritant”, days after receiving widespread praise from political leaders for rejecting a US trade proposal that many perceived as weakening the country’s Francophone culture.

The prime minister’s remarks came hours after US president Trump showed little interest in retreating from the spat, posting on social media that Canada had been “ripping off the United States of America for years” and threatening a swath of new, economically devastating tariffs on cars and trucks.

Quebec, Canada’s predominantly French-speaking province, has long sought to protect its distinct identity, at times with laws that clashed with the federal government and the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms. In recent years those rules have also frustrated US negotiators, who have framed them as trade irritants. Bill 96, for example, requires products sold in Quebec to have a French description and for trademarks using generic terms to be translated into French, while Bill 109 compels media services such as Netflix, Spotify and Apple to promote and prioritize French content for Quebec users.

Quebec’s premier, Christine Fréchette, said Carney had made the right decision in walking away from talks that looked to cross a “red line” for Francophones.

Carney’s decision to abandon trade talks with the US spurred declarations from political leaders and pundits in Canada that the country is now fully locked into an economic war with its longtime ally.

Australian officials say they are dismayed by the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite federal government ministers remaining silent on the move.

The government has also been quietly maintaining contact with Australians working at the ICC who might be targeted by future US sanctions, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to ramp up his campaign to “dismantle” the court.

The Trump administration has already sanctioned several ICC lawyers, and last week Rubio announced fresh sanctions on ICC president Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is Senegalese. Rubio’s reason is they have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute officials whose government has not consented to ICC jurisdiction.

The United States has never joined the ICC, and the Trump administration has long been openly hostile to the court, calling it an “unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy” that undermines US sovereignty. Last year Trump also announced sanctions on several ICC officials after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the ABC that Australia “does not support sanctioning the ICC or its officials”, although it did not mention the United States or the Trump administration. Many US allies have also given a muted response to the sanctions, although the European Union said last week it “deeply regrets” the decision, and expressed “unwavering support” for the ICC.