WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
WHO under threat, social media dangers, and why life feels better in the morning

 
today's international story

Argentina withdraws from World Health Organization

What happened
The Argentine government led by Javier Milei has announced that it plans to pull out of the World Health Organization, mirroring the move made by US President Donald Trump last month.

Who said what
Milei (pictured above) ordered Argentina's withdrawal because of "deep differences" with the WHO's management of health issues, particularly the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We Argentinians will not allow an international organisation to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” said presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni at a news conference yesterday.

The announcement "echoes a similar move last month from the United States", said Al Jazeera. "Far-right administrations currently govern both countries" and Milei "has a close relationship" with Trump.

Argentina's withdrawal will unquestionably do damage, said CNN, further "imperilling an international agency charged with co-ordinating public health responses".

What next?
Leaving the WHO "could end up costing Argentina", said The New York Times. Unlike the US, which contributes roughly 15% of the organisation’s $6.8 billion (£5.4 billion) budget, Argentina pays a much smaller membership, estimated at about $10 million (£8 million) a year.

The benefits Argentina receives from membership far outweigh the cost, including the tracking of outbreaks, disease prevention and sharing of technology, said Leandro Cahn, director of Fundación Huésped, a large public health organisation in Argentina. "The problems the Argentine health system has won’t be resolved by not being part of the WHO."

 
 
today's media story

Social media for children 'like cancer risk of smoking'

What happened
The risks of children using social media are akin to the "cancer" caused by smoking, Britain's head of counter-terrorism has said, as he called for the introduction of age restrictions.

Who said what
Giving evidence to The Times Crime and Justice Commission, Matt Jukes (pictured above) said the idea of introducing restrictions on accessing social media platforms – similar to Australia's world-first ban for under-16s – "warrants serious attention" and should be "explored" by ministers.

Jukes, an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard who leads national counter-terrorism policing, said there had been a recent surge in the online radicalisation of young people that had been accelerated by isolation during the pandemic.

What next?
Jukes's comments were "echoed across the political divide", said The Times. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said "nothing can be off the table", while Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said he was "broadly in favour" of a ban, but felt the age limit could be lower than 16.

In the meantime, Jukes has urged social media companies to deploy their algorithms to tackle "harmful, hateful content".

 
 
Today's health story

Life really does feel better in the morning, study finds

What happened
A large study has suggested that people are happiest early in the morning.

Researchers tracked nearly 50,000 adults in the UK for two years, measuring their mood and controlling for factors such as age, employment and health. Self-reported happiness levels peaked at 6am and dipped at about 10am, then rose at 6pm before falling sharply after 8pm, reaching the lowest levels at midnight.

Who said what
This could be due to biology. Cortisol, a hormone that regulates mood, "peaks shortly after waking and reaches its lowest levels around bedtime", researchers explained in the journal BMJ Mental Health.

What next?
The "intriguing" findings must be replicated in other studies, but they could have "important practical implications", said Feifei Bu of University College London's department of behavioural science and health, who led the research. For example, mental health support services could adjust their resources to match "fluctuating needs" by "prioritising late-night availability".

 
 

It's not all bad

A Brazilian prison reading initiative is now inspiring similar programs worldwide, including in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. For 13 years Brazil’s "Remission for Reading" program has allowed inmates to cut sentences by up to 48 days a year by reading books and submitting reports. With Brazil’s 80% recidivism rate, the initiative aims to aid rehabilitation. Studies show that prisoners now read nine times more than the national average, and advocates of the program argue that great literature fosters critical thinking, offering inmates a path to redemption and reintegration.

 
 
under the radar

Earth's mini-moon was the Moon all along

Asteroid 2024 PT5, which almost became a temporary mini-moon to Earth, was recently found to be a broken-off part of the Moon itself. This discovery has led scientists to believe that there are many more lunar-sourced space rocks waiting to be discovered. Studying these could provide new insight into the Moon and its composition.

While 2024 PT5 never officially joined Earth's orbit, the almost-moon still became a topic of interest and is now understood to be a piece of the actual Moon, according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The rock was probably "flung into space by an impact on the lunar surface that occurred sometime within the past tens of thousand years", said The New York Times.

Researchers deduced the object's true nature by observing its movement through space, ruling out that it was human-made space debris. Then they "studied how the sunlight reflected off the small rock" and found it "didn't match that of any known asteroid type". Instead, the "reflected light more closely matched rocks from the Moon," said USA Today.

The asteroid is only the second one ever discovered to have lunar origins and scientists predict that there may be many more. "As telescopes become more sensitive to smaller asteroids, more potential Moon boulders will be discovered, creating an exciting opportunity not only for scientists studying a rare population of asteroids, but also for scientists studying the Moon," said NASA.

 
 
on this day

6 February 1952

Queen Elizabeth II succeeded King George VI to the British throne and was proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This week King Charles met with Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch for a private audience at Buckingham Palace – a practice last observed in 2006 when Queen Elizabeth II hosted David Cameron.

 
 
Today's newspapers

The Mirror leads on the report into the man who killed three people in the street in Nottingham, saying his victims were "failed by the state". There were "cover-ups on an epic level", says Metro. Trump's Gaza takeover plan is facing "global condemnation" says The Guardian, and the FT notes that Arabs and Europeans alike are "outraged". Meanwhile, the girlfriend of the late One Direction singer Liam Payne has said she "wasn't to blame for Liam's death", says The Sun.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Dam good work

Beavers in the Czech Republic have saved the country's government nearly a million pounds by building a dam that local authorities had spent seven years planning. Beavers in the Brdy region of the Czech Republic built several dams in one night, "completing a project that officials had been arguing about", said Metro. The area where construction was planned has now been returned to its natural wetland state – and in double quick time.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Harriet Marsden, Jamie Timson, Ross Couzens, and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images; Daniel Leal / AFP / Getty Images; Yoshiyoshi Hirokawa / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images.