France tightens mobile phone rules in schools for new academic year

With the start of the new school year in France, stricter rules on mobile phone use are coming into effect. President Emmanuel Macron is extending the country's existing phone ban to cover the oldest secondary school pupils, marking one of his final imprints on the national education system. This comes even as his broader ambition — a ban on social media for under-15s — has yet to be successfully passed. French newspapers have welcomed the extended phone ban, while noting that overall screen time remains a concern and that schools still have to deal with cyberbullying incidents that occur outside school hours.

Opposition to data centres

Elsewhere, local opposition to data centre construction is emerging as a potential obstacle to the AI industry's expansion in both the United States and Europe. US President Donald Trump has dismissed critics of data centres, saying they risk leaving the country "backwards and poor". Nonetheless, concerns over water and electricity consumption, along with doubts about long-term job creation, have grown too significant to ignore — including among Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections. Around $150 billion worth of data centre projects are currently stalled across the US. In Austria, residents of the small town of Kronstorf are opposing a planned data centre that could account for as much as 7 percent of the country's electricity demand. The European Union aims to triple its data centre capacity by 2035, but local and environmental concerns could complicate those plans.

In sport

In football news, Lionel Messi has announced his retirement from Argentina's national team, with Argentine media describing it as "the end of an era". Meanwhile, in the English town of Bourton-on-the-Water, local youth and veteran teams marked a century-old tradition by playing a football match in the river.