China's internet regulator on Monday launched a sweeping two-month crackdown targeting "malicious" social media content, including pessimistic economic commentary and posts promoting "negative outlooks on life," as concerns mount over widespread youth disillusionment amid the country's economic struggles.

The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the nationwide campaign will target content deemed to incite "violent or hostile sentiment," including posts that spread claims like "hard work is useless" or "studying is useless". The initiative comes as China faces record youth unemployment of 18.9% in August 2025 and persistent economic headwinds.

Drones recently spotted over several Danish airports were part of a hybrid attack that Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has said was likely orchestrated by a professional actor.

A Paris court on Thursday convicted ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy for accepting illegal campaign funds from late Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The ruling is the latest in a string of legal hurdles for the right-wing ex-leader, 70, who denied the charges. Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France's highest honour.

The judgement has been overshadowed by the death on Tuesday in Beirut of Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key accuser of Sarkozy in the case.

It was October 30, 2014, and Sweden was the first country to recognise Palestinian statehood as a current European Union member. (Some eastern European countries, including Poland and Hungary, had already done so in connection with Palestine’s declaration of independence in 1988, but the acknowledgements carried less weight since they were made prior to EU admission.)

The Socialist-led government in Stockholm had hoped that the move – which was widely described as both surprising and bold in European media – would put the Israelis and Palestinians on a more equal footing, and thus help revive the hopes of a two-state solution.

But for the Swedish plan to work, the tiny nation of barely 10 million needed other, more powerful, Western countries to follow suit. No one did.

Israel reacted to Sweden's decision with fury. Tel Aviv immediately recalled its ambassador, and local trade groups threatened with boycotts.

(Former Sweden Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom says), “If the European Union had committed itself back then, and used the political and economic tools it has at its disposal to stop the settlement expansion and encourage a two-state solution, we might not have been where we are today.”

As Donald Trump hikes the fee for a popular skilled worker visa programme in the US, lawyers and business experts are urging Canada to seize the moment and open its doors.

But some caution that those looking north as an alternative may find that Canada's immigration system has its own challenges.

The call to attract and retain talented workers left behind by the Trump administration's changes to H-1B visa is one that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to be paying attention to.

US airstrikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean Sea are an "act of tyranny", Colombia's President Gustavo Petro told the BBC in an interview where he also called for criminal proceedings against US officials if investigations find Colombians were killed in the attacks.

Donald Trump has cast the strikes, which have reportedly killed 17 since they began this month, as needed to stop the flow of fentanyl and other illegal narcotics into the US.

Legal experts and lawmakers, though, have questioned if they violate international human rights laws.

"Why launch a missile if you could simply stop the boat and arrest the crew?" said Petro. "That's what one would call murder."