BTN Newsbreak 18/07/2025
The UK has just announced a big electoral change, that would see 1.6 million more people voting in the next general election. Yeah, to vote in the UK's next general election you will only have to be 16 years old. It's a big change, one the UK Government hopes will boost the country's political engagement, trust in democracy and voter turnout. You see, last year, only 59.7 per cent of eligible voters actually voted. It was their lowest voter turnout since 2001, and experts say, lowering the voting age could really help. The minimum voting age has already been changed to 16 in a number of countries, including Belgium, Germany and Austria, which got me thinking, how would we feel about lowering the voting age here?
OLIVIA SMITH
Canadian soccer player Olivia Smith has broken a world record, not on the field, per se, but in the boardroom. She's just become the first player in the women's game to sign a 1 million pound transfer. That's about 2 million Aussie dollars. Olivia was a striker for Liverpool, but now, she'll be joining Arsenal where you might spot a few familiar faces. Arsenal's got a few Aussie stars on their team – Steph Catley, Kyra Cooney-Cross, and Caitlin Foord.
GEN Z STARE
This stare appears to be spreading across Gen Z everywhere. But how did it start? Indeed, it's not just Gen Z. Many patients here also present with "the millennial pause". Which is clinically defined as "the brief pause people make after they start recording a video". And since not everyone agrees whether the stare is caused by tiredness, boredom, or the lack of a screen, one question remains, is it even real?
MT GAMBIER SCULPTURE
First up, to a controversial new public sculpture that's been unveiled in Mt Gambier, in South Australia. It's meant to represent the mythical creatures thought to have lived in the region 60 thousand years ago, but uh, while some locals seem happy with it, others have dubbed it the blue blob. And have criticised the council for spending $136,000 on it.
NORTH POLE GOLF
Now to a game of golf in the north pole. 19 golfers from around the world battled it out for the very first North Pole Clock Golf Championships.
MARS METEORITE
And finally, to a record breaking rock which has just sold at auction for just over 8 million bucks. It's the largest piece of mars ever found on earth, and yes, I mean found. It was discovered in the Sahara desert a couple years back, thought to have been blown off the surface of mars by an asteroid strike, eventually making its way through earth's atmosphere.
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News.com.au
6 hours ago
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Thousands battle Greece fires as heatwave bakes Europe
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News.com.au
9 hours ago
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European powers tell UN they are ready to reimpose Iran sanctions
Britain, France and Germany have told the United Nations they are ready to reimpose UN-mandated sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme if no diplomatic solution is found by the end of August, according to a joint letter obtained by AFP. The letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council says the three European powers are "committed to use all diplomatic tools at our disposal to ensure Iran does not develop a nuclear weapon" unless Tehran meets the deadline. The foreign ministers from the so-called E3 group threaten to use a "snapback mechanism" that was part of a 2015 international deal with Iran that eased UN Security Council sanctions. Under the deal, which terminates in October, any party to the accord can restore the sanctions. All three have stepped up warnings to Iran about its suspension of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. That came after Israel launched a 12-day war with Iran in June, partly seeking to destroy its nuclear capability. The United States staged its own bombing raid during the war. "We have made clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism," foreign ministers Jean-Noel Barrot of France, David Lammy of Britain and Johann Wadephul of Germany said in the letter. All three countries were signatories to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with the United States, China and Russia that offered the carrot and stick deal for Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium needed for a nuclear weapon. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the accord in 2018 during his first term and ordered new sanctions. The European countries said they would stick to the accord. But their letter sets out engagements that the ministers say Iran has breached, including building up a uranium stock more than 40 times the permitted level under the 2015 deal. "The E3 remain fully committed to a diplomatic resolution to the crisis caused by Iran's nuclear programme and will continue to engage with a view to reaching a negotiated solution. "We are equally ready, and have unambiguous legal grounds, to notify the significant non-performance of JCPOA commitments by Iran ... thereby triggering the snapback mechanism, should no satisfactory solution be reached by the end of August 2025," the ministers wrote in the letter first reported by the Financial Times. - End of cooperation - The United States had already started contacts with Iran, which denies seeking a weapon, over its nuclear activities. But these were halted by the Israeli strikes in June on Iran's nuclear facilities. Even before the strikes, the international powers had raised concerns about the lack of access given to IAEA inspectors. Iran halted all cooperation with the IAEA after the strikes, but it announced that the agency's deputy chief was expected in Teheran for talks on a new cooperation deal. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sent a letter to the UN last month saying that the European countries did not have the legal right to restore sanctions. The European ministers called this allegation "unfounded". dt/tw/lth
