By BARBARA ORTUTAY, Associated Press

Instagram parent company Meta has introduced new safety features aimed at protecting teens who use its platforms, including information about accounts that message them and an option to block and report accounts with one tap.

The company also announced Wednesday that it has removed thousands of accounts that were leaving sexualized comments or requesting sexual images from adult-run accounts of kids under 13. Of these, 135,000 were commenting and another 500,000 were linked to accounts that “interacted inappropriately,” Meta said in a blog post.

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The heightened measures arrive as social media companies face increased scrutiny over how their platform affects the mental health and well-being of younger users. This includes protecting children from predatory adults and scammers who ask — then extort— them for nude images.

Meta said teen users blocked more than a million accounts and reported another million after seeing a “safety notice” that reminds people to “be cautious in private messages and to block and report anything that makes them uncomfortable.”

Earlier this year, Meta began to test the use of artificial intelligence to determine if kids are lying about their ages on Instagram, which is technically only allowed for those over 13. If it is determined that a user is misrepresenting their age, the account will automatically become a teen account, which has more restrictions than an adult account. Teen accounts are private by default. Private messages are restricted so teens can only receive them from people they follow or are already connected to. In 2024, the company made teen accounts private by default.

Meta faces lawsuits from dozens of U.S. states that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.

By JOSH BOAK and ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. automakers are concerned about President Donald Trump’s agreement to tariff Japanese vehicles at 15%, saying they will face steeper import taxes on steel, aluminum and parts than their competitors.

“We need to review all the details of the agreement, but this is a deal that will charge lower tariffs on Japanese autos with no U.S. content,” said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the Big 3 American automakers, General Motors, Ford and Jeep-maker Stellantis.

Blunt said in an interview the U.S. companies and workers “definitely are at a disadvantage” because they face a 50% tariff on steel and aluminum and a 25% tariff on parts and finished vehicles, with some exceptions for products covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that went into effect in 2020.

The domestic automaker reaction reveals the challenge of enforcing policies across the world economy, showing that for all of Trump’s promises there can be genuine tradeoffs from policy choices that risk serious blowback in politically important states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, where automaking is both a source of income and of identity.

Trump portrayed the trade framework as a major win after announcing it on Tuesday, saying it would add hundreds of thousands of jobs to the U.S. economy and open the Japanese economy in ways that could close a persistent trade imbalance. The agreement includes a 15% tariff that replaces the 25% import tax the Republican president had threatened to charge starting on Aug. 1. Japan would also put together $550 billion to invest in U.S. projects, the White House said.

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The framework with Japan will remove regulations that prevent American vehicles from being sold in that country, the White House has said, adding that it would be possible for vehicles built in Detroit to be shipped directly to Japan and ready to be sold.

But Blunt said that foreign auto producers, including the U.S., Europe and South Korea, have just a 6% share in Japan, raising skepticism that simply having the open market that the Trump administration says will exist in that country will be sufficient.

“Tough nut to crack, and I’d be very surprised if we see any meaningful market penetration in Japan,” Blunt said.

Major Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the trade framework, nor did Autos Drive America or the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, organizations that also represent the industry.

There is the possibility that the Japanese framework would give automakers and other countries grounds for pushing for changes in the Trump administration’s tariffs regime. The president has previously said that flexibility in import tax negotiations is something he values. The USMCA is up for review next year.

Ford, GM and Stellantis do “have every right to be upset,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president at consultancy AutoForecast Solutions. But “Honda, Toyota, and Nissan still import vehicles from Mexico and Canada, where the current levels of tariffs can be higher than those applied to Japanese imports. Most of the high-volume models from Japanese brands are already produced in North America.”

Fiorani noted that among the few exceptions are the Toyota 4Runner, the Mazda CX-5 and the Subaru Forester, but most of the other imports fill niches that are too small to warrant production in the U.S.

“There will be negotiations between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico, and it will probably result in tariffs no higher than 15%,” Fiorani added, “but nobody seems to be in a hurry to negotiate around the last Trump administration’s free trade agreement.”

St. John contributed from Detroit.

By SARA CLINE, Associated Press

Nine men accused of breaking out of a New Orleans city jail in May after slipping through a hole behind a toilet and scaling a barbed wire fence pleaded not guilty to escape charges on Wednesday.

Officials have repeatedly pointed to video surveillance of the brazen escape, one of the largest jailbreaks in recent U.S. history, and vowed to bring the inmates to justice. A 10th inmate, Derrick Groves, a convicted killer, is the lone fugitive still on the run.

“Everyone is entitled to due process. But there’s a video of these detainees running out of the jail in the middle of the night. They were not heading to court hearings,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said on Wednesday. “We will continue to hold everyone accountable for the escape.”

FILE – The Orleans Justice Center jail, left, in New Orleans is seen on Friday, May 16, 2025. (Brett Duke/The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate via AP, File)

The nine men appeared via Zoom from the Louisiana State Penitentiary for their arraignment Wednesday. Groves’ attorney was present for the hearing but did not enter a plea on his behalf, reported The New Orleans Advocate/The Times-Picayune.

All 10 men are charged with simple escape, which is tacked on top of previous criminal counts that initially landed them in jail, Murrill’s office confirmed. The men’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.

The escape charge carries a sentence of two to five years in prison.

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Authorities say that the men broke out of the jail after yanking open a locked door to access a cell, where the water had been turned off, removing a toilet and squeezing through a hole in a wall. Video surveillance shows 10 men sprinting out of the jail and fleeing into the coverage of darkness.

The getaway went unnoticed for hours until a routine morning head count. When authorities located the point of the escape they found a message written on the cell wall above the hole, once covered by the toilet: “To Easy LoL”.

At least 16 people have been arrested and charged for helping in the escape or the aftermath. Many of them are family members of the escapees and face charges for providing transport, food, shelter and cash to the fugitives.

The latest episode of the Family Homelessness Coalition’s ‘Hear Our Voices’ podcast features Kayla Mumtaz at the Alliance for Quality Education. The conversation touched on how New York funds its schools, what universal childcare would mean for struggling families and how parents can advocate for change.

A scene from the first day of school in New York City in 2021. (Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)

Each year for nearly the last decade, more than 100,000 children in the city’s public school system experienced homelessness—meaning they lived in shelter, at a motel or were “doubled up” in shared housing.

Homeless students and their families often face additional educational barriers and disruptions. This was a focus of the latest episode of the “Hear Our Voices” podcast, which shares stories, resources and information about family homelessness in New York City (the podcast is produced by the Family Homelessness Coalition, whose members include Citizens’ Committee for Children, a City Limits funder).

Podcast host Kadisha Davis was joined by Kayla Mumtaz, legislative affairs and community engagement specialist at the Alliance for Quality Education. Mumtaz spoke about AQE’s Education and Early Education Warriors programs, which train parents on how to advocate for city and state policy changes.

“We always say at the Alliance for Quality Education that if you’ve lived it, you are an expert,” Mumtaz said. “So you don’t need a degree to tell you that something in your life is wrong and that you need to change it.”

Among the changes the group is pushing for: reforms to the state’s Foundation Aid Formula, which determines how much funding schools receive based on the needs of the students they serve.

“Foundation Aid Formula accounts for different things like poverty rates, homelessness, free school or reduced lunches, things like that,” Mumtaz explained. But it hasn’t been updated in more than 20 years, something AQE is pushing the state to do now to account for increased housing insecurity and other criteria.

AQE also advocates for more affordable childcare, calling for New York to move toward a universal childcare model.

“Education doesn’t start in kindergarten,” Mumtaz said. “The state should be funding it, because parents can get out of these situations that they’re in if they have childcare. They could work more. They can get better jobs. They can work flexible jobs. They can go to college if that’s what they decide to do. They can do a lot more.”

You can listen to the full podcast episode, which was recorded in two parts, below.

The post ‘Hear Our Voices’ Podcast: Navigating School, Childcare & Homelessness appeared first on City Limits.