WASHINGTON — US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Monday called for a warning label to be added to social media apps as a reminder that those platforms have caused harm to young people, especially adolescents.

In an op-ed in the New York Times, Murthy wrote that a warning label alone will not make social media safe for young people but that it can increase awareness and change behavior as shown in evidence from tobacco studies. The US Congress would need to pass legislation requiring such a warning label.

Youth advocates and lawmakers have long accused social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat of what they say is a harmful effect on kids, including shortened attention spans, promoting negative body images, and making them vulnerable to online bullies and predators.

“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,” Mr. Murthy wrote on Monday.

TikTok, Snap and Meta Platforms, owner of Facebook and Instagram, did not respond to requests for comment.

The chief executive officers of those three companies, along with social media platform X and messaging app Discord, were grilled by US senators in January during a hearing about online child safety, with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham accusing the leaders of having “blood on your hands,” for failing to protect young users from sexual predators.

Some US states have been working to pass legislation to safeguard children from the harmful effects of social media, such as anxiety, depression and other mental illnesses as a result.

New York state lawmakers this month passed legislation to bar social media platforms from exposing “addictive” algorithmic content to users under age 18 without parental consent.

In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans children under 14 from social media platforms and requires 14- and 15-year-olds to get parental consent. — Reuters

HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s stock market will stay open during typhoons and heavy rain effective Sept. 23, a change that will help maintain the global financial hub’s competitiveness, city leader John Lee said on Tuesday.

Mr. Lee, who made the announcement during a weekly press conference, said the move was in line with other cities and widely supported by traders and banks.

Dickie Wong, executive director of research at Kingston Securities, said there was already market consensus on the rollout of the new measure to allow trading under extreme weather.

“I don’t think this measure will greatly help the market sentiment or trading volume,” Mr. Wong said, adding he is neutral on the measure.

“The market is now more concerned about whether the (Hong Kong-mainland) Stock Connect program can be expanded to include more companies, such as Alibaba. These measures are more important for Hong Kong stock market,” Mr. Wong added. — Reuters

INFLUENTIAL former Thai Prime Minister (PM) Thaksin Shinawatra, a powerful backer of the ruling government, was granted bail by a court on Tuesday, avoiding pre-trial detention for allegedly insulting the monarchy in a 2015 interview.

The billionaire sought bail from the Criminal Court of Thailand soon after the Attorney-General had formally charged him under Thailand’s lese-majeste law, which carries a maximum jail sentence of up to 15 years for each perceived royal insult.

Mr. Thaksin denies the charges against him.

“The court has released Thaksin on bail of 500,000 baht ($13,600) under the condition that he is prohibited from leaving the country unless granted permission,” a court statement said.

A former policeman who went into the telecoms business and then entered politics, Mr. Thaksin returned to Thailand last year after 15 years in self-imposed exile following his ouster from power by a military coup. Mr. Thaksin’s is the first of four high-profile cases involving key political players that are before the courts on Tuesday, in the latest legal wrangling that could see Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy plunged into a new period of uncertainty.

The cases involve some of Thailand’s most powerful politicians, including its current prime minister, and could deepen a decades-old rift between the conservative-royalist establishment and its opponents, such as the populist ruling Pheu Thai party and the opposition Move Forward party.

The Constitutional Court will conduct a hearing in a case lodged by a group of senators that could potentially see Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin dismissed from office for breaching the law in appointing a lawyer with a conviction record to his cabinet. 

The same court will also hear a case seeking to disband the popular opposition Move Forward Party for their campaign to amend the royal insult law, following a complaint by the Election Commission.

The court is expected to announce the next hearing or verdict date for cases involving Srettha and Move Forward on Tuesday.

The Constitutional Court will also rule whether the ongoing selection process for a new upper house, which started earlier this month and is scheduled to conclude in early July, is lawful.

If the court cancels or delays the process, it would temporarily extend the term of military-appointed senators who have a played crucial role in the formation of the previous government.

“The political parties and representatives that voters have chosen are being systematically and repeatedly stymied,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, told Reuters.

A single petition can bring down a sitting, elected government or oust a prime minister, he said, outlining the power of the country’s courts.

“There’s a judicial assertiveness that has been damaging to Thailand, subverting popular will and popular mandates.”

Such tensions have previously triggered violent street protests, dissolutions of political parties, airport closures and military coups that have hamstrung the economy. — Reuters