Entertainment
France president ‘wants to ban under-15s from social media’
France plans to ban children under 15 from social media sites and to prohibit mobile phones in high schools from September 2026, local media reported on Wednesday, moves that underscore rising public angst over the impact of online harms on minors.
President Emmanuel Macron has often pointed to social media as one of the factors to blame for violence among young people and has signalled he wants France to follow Australia, whose world-first ban for under-16s on social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube came into force in December.
His government will submit draft legislation for legal checks in early January, Le Monde and France Info reported.
Macron did not reference the legislative push in a New Year’s Eve address but he did pledge to “protect our children and teenagers from social media and screens.”
Earlier, the Elysee and the prime minister’s office declined to comment on the media reports.
Mobile phones have been banned in French primary and middle schools since 2018 and the reported new changes would extend that ban to high schools. Pupils aged 11 to 15 attend middle schools in the French educational system.
France also passed a law in 2023 requiring social platforms to obtain parental consent for under-15s to create accounts, though technical challenges have impeded its enforcement.
Macron wants more action at EU level
Macron said in June he would push for regulation at the level of the European Union to ban access to social media for all under-15s after a fatal stabbing at a school in eastern France shocked the nation.
The European Parliament in November urged the EU to set minimum ages for children to access social media to combat a rise in mental health problems among adolescents from excessive exposure, although it is member states which impose age limits.
Various other countries have also taken steps to regulate children’s access to social media.
Macron heads into the New Year with his domestic legacy in tatters after his gamble on parliamentary elections in 2024 led to a hung parliament, triggering France’s worst political crisis in decades that has seen a succession of weak governments.
However, cracking down further on minors’ access to social media could prove popular, according to opinion polls. A Harris Interactive survey in 2024 showed 73% of those canvassed supporting a ban on social media access for under-15s.
Entertainment
‘Teen Mom’ star’s wife taken into police custody for DUI
Amanda Conner, wife of Teen Mom star Ryan Edwards, was arrested on Sunday morning near Chattanooga, Tennessee, and charged with driving under the influence and child abuse and neglect after allegedly getting behind the wheel with the couple’s baby daughter in the car.
According to TMZ, which first reported the arrest, Conner was also charged with driving on the wrong side of the road.
A dispatch call obtained by the outlet indicated that it was her husband who alerted police, having grown concerned that she may have taken narcotics before leaving the house with the baby.
Her bond was set at $16,000, and she had not been released by 4:30 p.m. local time on Sunday. A court hearing has been scheduled for 3 June.
Conner, 35, and Edwards, 37, married in September 2025, just some time after he finalised his divorce from his previous wife, Mackenzie Standifer.
The pair had been friends for years before beginning a relationship in September 2023. Together they share a one-year-old daughter, Presley, who was in the car at the time of the alleged incident.
The arrest arrives against a complicated family backdrop.
Edwards has had a well-documented history of addiction and legal troubles stretching back years, including a 2023 court order requiring him to seek help for substance abuse following a series of arrests involving Standifer.
He is also father to Bentley, 17, with fellow Teen Mom original cast member Maci Bookout, as well as Jagger, 7, and Stella, 6, with Standifer.
Bookout, who married Taylor McKinney in 2016 and shares two children with him, has spoken candidly in the past about the toll Edwards’ struggles have taken.
“Obviously, when things first went down with Ryan and him having to go to jail and making stupid decisions and stuff, I definitely had a breaking point then,” she shared.
She described therapy and self-compassion as the tools that helped her through.
“I think the therapy I had done previously… and just making sure that I check in with myself and that I give myself grace and that I let myself fall apart and then pick myself back up is a game changer.”
Entertainment
Gordon Ramsay reveals ‘most important thing in life’
Gordon Ramsay may have built his reputation on Michelin stars and television fireworks, but when it comes to raising his six children, the lesson he holds above all others is a rather simpler one.
Speaking to Fox News Digital in an interview published on Sunday, 24 May, the 59-year-old chef revealed what he considers the single most important thing he has instilled in his kids.
“The one thing I’ve taught them all, brilliantly, are manners,” he said, adding with characteristic directness: “The most important thing in life, but they cost zero.”
Ramsay shares his six children, Megan, 28, Holly, 26, Jack, 26, Matilda, 24, Oscar, 7, and Jesse, 2, with his wife Tana.
On the professional front, one of his children appears to be following closely in his footsteps.
Ramsay spoke to PEOPLE in February about his daughter Matilda, known as Tilly, who has chosen to pursue a career in food, a decision that clearly delights him.
Ramsay spoke to PEOPLE again at the Fox Upfront event on 11 May, where he was celebrating the renewal of several of his shows including Hell’s Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, Next Level Chef, Next Level Baker, Gordon Ramsay’s Secret Service and Gordon Ramsay’s Being Gordon Ramsay.
Asked which of his six shows currently on air is his favourite, he reached for a familiar metaphor.
“I have six shows on air right now. That’s like saying, I have six kids as well, what’s my favourite kid? It depends, it’s the one that least pisses me off at the moment.”
Six kids, six shows, and a firm belief in the power of a please and a thank you. Not a bad philosophy, all things considered.
Entertainment
Patti LaBelle on being called a legend: “I have earned it”
Patti LaBelle has been singing for six decades, earning hit records, Grammys and the nickname the “Godmother of Soul.” As she celebrates her 82nd birthday on Sunday, she said she’s “having fun living it down.”
“At 82, I am really living it down, not up. But having fun living it down. I play cards. We have card games on Saturday nights,” LaBelle said. “How easy is it to play cards and take other folks’ money? That’s what I do, and I love it.”
Just like her high notes, she has staying power. LaBelle is still professionally singing, something she said she has to do.
“Singing is my life,” she said, adding that her voice is “big. It’s loud. It’s soft. It can rap. It can do opera, on a good day.”
LaBelle spent her childhood in Philadelphia, a place she still calls home. Back then, she was a shy girl named Patsy Holt.
“My mother had to pay me to go outside. I was very, very, very shy. I would sing in my bedroom with the broom as a microphone. So I knew I had a voice and my mother and father loved my voice,” LaBelle said.
At age 10, she joined a church choir where a duet unlocked the magic of performing. She said she still remembers getting the chills the moment when everyone stood up and said, “Hallelujah.”
As a teen, she started singing with a group. A record label executive suggested she change her name to LaBelle, which means beautiful, but with that advice came a nasty assessment. He called her “quite ugly.”
“It gave me hurt, just total, total hurt, because I knew how much he loved my voice. And I knew, no matter what anyone said about me, I am who I am, I’m not gonna change. The only thing that changed was my nose. I had a huge nose, so I had it done,” she said. “And that’s all I’ve ever had done. My nose, because it was not pleasing to me.”
When Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles became simply Labelle, they changed their style to what the singer described as “outrageous crazy outfits.” They turned “Lady Marmalade,” a song about a Creole prostitute, into a classic hit.
“We were singing about the revolution and sexual things before any Black girl or White girl group sang,” LaBelle said.
“When we sang [Lady Marmalade], we didn’t know what ‘voulez-vous coucher avec moi’ meant. It means, ‘Will you sleep with me tonight?’ So we got a lotta flak from the nuns and different people. And I was saying, at that time, ‘Well, a hooker has to make money too,'” she laughed.
The group split in 1977 but stayed friends. LaBelle said she was petrified when she stepped out as a solo artist for the first time. Getting therapy “helped a whole lot,” she said.
“I learned that I’m never gonna stop singing. And if it’s with a group or alone, that’s what I’m gonna do for the rest of my life,” LaBelle said.
LaBelle’s other talent is cooking. She’s written several bestselling cookbooks and has her own line of food and houseware products, Patti’s Good Life. Her hometown is filled with fans, and even visiting a Philadelphia ShopRite to hand out pancake mix caused quite a stir.
LaBelle isn’t planning to give up singing anytime soon.
“It’s never my last show. I’ll be singing until I can’t no more,” she said.
And on her 82nd birthday, maybe the real gift is that LaBelle knows exactly who she is — a mother, grandmother, and yes, a legend.
“I love it. I should be called, ‘Legend, legend, legend, legend.’ Yes. I love it,” she laughed. “I have earned it. Yes, I have.”
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Watch an extended interview with Patti LaBelle (Video)
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