Spain to Legalize Status of 500,000 Undocumented Migrants

The Spanish government announced plans to grant legal status to an estimated 500,000 undocumented migrants, according to BBC World. The measure, revealed recently, will offer an initial one-year residence permit to foreign nationals who lack a criminal record and can demonstrate they resided in Spain for at least five months prior to December 31, 2025.

Elma Saiz, Spain's Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, hailed the decision as "an historic day for our country," according to BBC World. The move comes after long campaigning from the far-left party Podemos, who advocated for undocumented migrants under the slogan "regularisation is rights," BBC World reported.

UK Faces Legal Action and Tech Industry Challenges

In other news, the UK is facing legal action from Rwanda over a scrapped migrant deal, BBC World reported. Rwanda filed a case with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Netherlands, claiming the UK failed to honor financial commitments made under the agreement to send asylum seekers to the African nation. The previous Conservative government agreed to payments to Rwanda to host asylum seekers and support its economy. However, after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer axed the deal in 2024, the Home Office stated that £220 million in "scheduled future payments will not have to be paid" to Rwanda, according to BBC World.

Meanwhile, the UK's tech industry is grappling with several legal and regulatory challenges. Pornhub announced it would restrict access for UK users starting February, citing the "failure" of Online Safety Act (OSA) requirements for age verification, BBC Technology reported. The company's parent company, Aylo, said traffic to the website had already fallen by 77% due to the law change in October. Ofcom, the regulator, stated that the tougher age checks were fulfilling their purpose of stopping children from accessing pornography, according to BBC Technology.

Valve Corporation is also facing a £656 million lawsuit in the UK over alleged unfair prices on its Steam online store, BBC Technology reported. The legal action, brought by digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt on behalf of up to 14 million Steam users, accuses Valve of abusing its market dominance by imposing restrictive terms on game publishers and locking players into using Steam. The tribunal ruled that the case could proceed, potentially leading to compensation for affected users.

In the United States, a landmark social media addiction trial is set to begin in California, BBC Technology reported. The plaintiff, a 19-year-old woman identified as KGM, alleges that the design of social media platforms' algorithms caused her addiction and negatively impacted her mental health. Meta (owner of Instagram and Facebook), TikTok's owner ByteDance, and YouTube parent Google are among the defendants. Snapchat settled with the plaintiff last week. Top tech executives, including Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify during the trial.