child

A GROUP of office workers were left shocked when they learned their colleague is a former child star, and had a role in an iconic festive film.

The actor now keeps a low profile working as a Logistics Manager for the upcoming 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Glasgow. But do you recognise him?

Joe Lane appeared in 2009 hit Nativity!, which featured Martin Freeman, Jason Watkins and Ashley Jensen.

He portrayed schoolboy Edward in the film, which is centred around a heartbroken primary school teacher’s journey to make his class’s nativity play reach Hollywood, and win his ex-girlfriend back in the process.

In a TikTok shared by Joe’s colleagues, the former actor was left red-faced when they figured out his famous past.

The clip showed Joe, dressed in a Christmas jumper and a festive headband, as he is shaken by his colleagues.

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It then cuts to clips of him in the movie, before his colleagues recreate a hilarious moment by his character Edward.

Joe’s starring moment in the film saw him take to the microphone during the final Nativity performance and impersonate fart sounds with his armpit.

The former child star had his head in his hands when his co-workers cornered him at his desk and re-enacted the funny moment in the TikTok video.

“When you find out your colleague was in the nativity films,” read the video, with the caption adding: “The most exciting office development this week”.

The film was cast by producers holding open calls for local kids in Coventry, with the aim to use non-professional actors for an authentic feel.

After appearing in the first movie, Joe appears to have steered away from continuing an acting career.

He went on to become a semi-professional rugby player, before moving into logistics for sporting events.

Coventry-born Joe is now living in Glasgow after spending time in Australia and London.

It appears he has been keen to keep his famous past under wraps in the workplace.

One TikTok user commented on the video to reveal that they had previously worked with Joe, and had no clue of the connection.

“I worked with Joe at Coventry Rfc and unless I was out of the loop he kept this very well hidden!” they said.

Another commenter joked “So he didn’t become shrek??”, referencing the scene in Nativity! where character Mr. Poppy told Edward, “You could be Shrek”.

A number of the children who appeared in Nativity! returned to their normal lives following the movie, and despite its massive success, have gone into regular jobs.

Cadi Mullane, who played Crystal – one of the main children in the film – previously detailed what filming was like in a TikTok video.

She said: “I was part of an agency called Stagecoach, they were looking for kids who were really chatty, who could dance a little bit and sing a little bit. Apparently that was me.

“There was about seven auditions. But I’m from Wales so I had to keep travelling up to London which was a bit annoying, but it was OK because I really wanted to be in a film.

“They looked at how well we could sing and how well we got on with the other kids, cause that was important, obviously.”

Cadi went on to recall how the movie filmed throughout the summer, with no scripts for the children.

She said: “It was filmed in Coventry but obviously I’m not from Coventry so we all stayed in a hotel together. It was like The Suite Life Of Zach and Cody, honestly.

“There was no scripts. Everything was improvised, except from some bits. We basically just spoke loads of rubbish, and then we were asked to say it again on camera.”

PETE Davidson has welcomed his first child with his girlfriend, Elsie Hewitt, and shared the baby’s gender and special name.

Elsie revealed the happy news on Instagram on Thursday.

The model shared photos capturing the moments after the little one’s arrival, including the pair bonding with the newborn.

She announced in her caption that they welcomed their daughter, named Scottie Rose Hewitt Davidson, on December 12th.

“My best work yet, i am absolutely overflowing with love and gratitude and disbelief. – elsie

“Wu tang forever. – pete,” Elsie added in her caption.

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The baby’s name is a sweet nod to Pete’s New York City firefighter father, Scott Davidson, who died on September 11, 2001.

Fans took to the comments to congratulate the new parents and gush over her family moniker.

Elsie, 29, revealed her pregnancy in July with a funny Instagram post featuring ultrasound photos.

She humorously wrote in her caption, “Welp now everyone knows we had sex.”

An insider previously told The U.S. Sun that Elsie and Pete, 32, hoped to one day have a family together, and that the supermodel envisioned a life with the Saturday Night Live alum.

Pete had been vocal about wanting to become a father sooner rather than later, although he sympathized with his girlfriend for going through her pregnancy in the public eye.

During an August appearance on The Breakfast Club, the comic admitted that he “felt bad” for Elsie, who had to deal with many things in the limelight because of their relationship.

Pete has had a spotlight on his personal life since his string of high-profile romances.

They included a brief engagement to Ariana Grande in 2018, and a months-long relationship with Kim Kardashian, following her messy split from her ex-husband, Kanye West.

Pete has also made headlines for his impulsive purchase of a massive Staten Island Ferry with his former SNL co-star, Colin Jost.

The duo has faced numerous delays in their renovation plans since buying the ferry four years ago.

The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed in October that the $280,000 vessel is currently sitting decrepit and abandoned in a New York City harbor, and that both Pete and Colin have expressed regrets over the extravagant purchase.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans.

The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid dollars from being used to fund such procedures.

“This is not medicine, it is malpractice,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of gender-affirming procedures on children in a news conference on Thursday. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”

Kennedy also announced Thursday that the HHS Office of Civil Rights will propose a rule excluding gender dysphoria from the definition of a disability.

In a related move, the Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to a dozen companies that market chest-binding vests and other equipment used by people with gender dysphoria. Manufacturers include GenderBender LLC of Carson, California and TomboyX of Seattle. The FDA letters state that chest binders can only be legally marketed for FDA-approved medical uses, such as recovery after mastectomy surgery.

Proposed rules would threaten youth gender-affirming care in states where it remains legal

Medicaid programs in slightly less than half of states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.

Thursday’s announcements would imperil access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars.

The proposals announced by Kennedy and his deputies are not final or legally binding. The federal government must go through a lengthy rulemaking process, including periods of public comment and document rewrites, before the restrictions becoming permanent. They are also likely to face legal challenges.

But the proposed rules will likely further intimidate health care providers from offering gender-affirming care to children and many hospitals have already ceased such care in anticipation of federal action.

Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the federal government’s largest health plans that cover seniors, the disabled and low-income Americans. Losing access to those payments would imperil most U.S. hospitals and medical providers.

The same funding restrictions would apply to a smaller health program when it comes to care for people under the age of 19, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to a federal notice posted Thursday morning.

Moves contradict advice from medical organizations and transgender advocates

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on Thursday called transgender treatments “a Band-Aid on a much deeper pathology,” and suggested children with gender dysphoria are “confused, lost and need help.”

Polling shows many Americans agree with the administration’s view of the issue. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey conducted earlier this year found that about half of U.S. adults approved of how Trump was handling transgender issues.

Chloe Cole, a conservative activist known for speaking about her gender-transition reversal, spoke at the news conference to express appreciation. She said cries for help from her and others in her situation, “have finally been heard.”

But the approach contradicts the recommendations of most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, which has urged states not to restrict care for gender dysphoria.

Advocates for transgender children strongly refuted the administration’s claims about gender-affirming care and said Thursday’s moves would put lives at risk.

“In an effort to strongarm hospitals into participating in the administration’s anti-LGBTQ agenda, the Trump Administration is forcing health care systems to choose between providing lifesaving care for LGBTQ+ young people and accepting crucial federal funding,” Dr. Jamila Perritt, a Washington-based OB/GYN and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said in a statement. “This is a lose-lose situation where lives are inevitably on the line. “

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization for LBGTQ+ youth, called the changes a “one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government” on a decision that should be between a doctor and patient.

“The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling,” he said.

Actions build on a larger effort to restrict transgender rights

The announcements build on a wave of actions President Trump, his administration and Republicans in Congress have taken to target the rights of transgender people nationwide.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that declared the federal government would recognize only two immutable sexes: male and female. He also has signed orders aimed at cutting off federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19 and barring transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.

On Wednesday, a bill that would open transgender health care providers to prison time if they treat people under the age of 18 passed the U.S. House and heads to the Senate. Another bill under consideration in the House on Thursday aims to ban Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care for children.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive hormone-blocking drugs that delay puberty, followed by testosterone or estrogen to bring about the desired physical changes in patients. Surgery is rare for minors.

Swenson, Perrone and Shastri write for the Associated Press. Shastri reported from Milwaukee. AP writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report.

Courtney Bardell, 25, said the family-of-five faced two-hour waits for rides as well as pushing and shoving in crowds after forking out over £270 to visit London’s Winter Wonderland

A young girl was left in tears after an exhausted Santa “refused her entry” to his Grotto during a “disappointing” visit to Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland, her mum has claimed.

Mother-of-three Courtney Bardell, 25, claims her children were “upset” following a disastrous outing to the popular London market last Saturday (12). She said the family-of-five endured two-hour queues for rides alongside aggressive jostling in crowds after spending over £270 on travel, attraction passes, and food.

However, the event’s organisers have said that admission to see Father Christmas is paused at ‘peak times’, and that the grotto’s workers also have scheduled breaks.

The stay-at-home mum, who attended with partner Connor, 26, and daughters Harlie-Mae, six, Lucia, four, and Essie, one, insists she won’t be returning to the festive event. Courtney, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, said: “I expected it to be busy but I didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was.”

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“I expected them (the kids) to see Santa and get a gift from Santa. It was advertised that Santa’s Grotto would be open until 6pm but we got there at about 3pm and the staff said ‘Santa’s had enough’. Harlie-Mae started crying because she wanted to see Santa. You could see through the glass that other children were getting to see him.”

Courtney said that her family arrived at 2pm and were instantly taken aback by the sheer volume of visitors.

She added: “The kids couldn’t even walk without getting pushed over. My six-year-old was asking me after half an hour ‘when are we going home?’. You also get advertised a meal which we assumed would be in a sit-down restaurant but there weren’t enough tables at all, so you’re getting pushed while you’re trying to eat.”

Courtney has since shelled out £35 to take the children to a local grotto after Harlie-Mae labelled her day at Winter Wonderland as “rubbish”.

“We’ll probably just go somewhere local next time”, she added. “It’ll save the disappointment.”

In a statement from Winter Wonderland, a spokesperson said: “Hyde Park Winter Wonderland’s priority is the safety of all our visitors. To manage visitor flow, we operate specific entry times and a ticketing system to help guests enjoy the event comfortably.

“We understand there can be queues during particularly busy periods and work to clear these as quickly as possible. Santa’s Grotto operates with scheduled breaks, and admissions may be paused at peak times.”

Courtney isn’t the only one to be left disappointed by her Winter Wonderland experience this year. A woman who ordered a hot chocolate at the Hyde Park attraction was left floored by the price, and took to TikTok to show how she managed to spend £70 on food and drink during her trip.

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However, there are cheaper alternatives such as Christmas markets in Europe. The cheapest Christmas market in Europe was recently revealed as Poznan in Poland, which is just a two hour flight from the UK. Visitors can book hotel rooms for as little as £30 a night, and pints are about £2 in this underrated city.

Another option closer to home is Newcastle Christmas Market, recently named one of the best in the UK by readers of Which? It was recently praised for having a large number of independent traders, the majority of them being local to Newcastle, and groups can pre-book igloos in the city centre and enjoy food and drink service with somewhere to shelter.

Have a story you want to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com

Winter cold ‘becomes lethal’ as Israel restricts entry of tents, blankets and other shelter supplies to ravaged enclave.

A Palestinian infant has frozen to death in the Gaza Strip, local authorities say, as Israel continues to restrict the entry of shelter supplies and other humanitarian aid to the enclave despite the harsh winter conditions there.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said on Tuesday that the two-week-old baby, Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, died a day earlier after seeking treatment for severe hypothermia, brought on by the extreme cold gripping Gaza.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum noted that the child’s death comes as basic protections in Gaza have been “systematically dismantled” due to Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the territory.

“Families are living in tents on wet ground without heating, electricity or sufficient clothing,” Abu Azzoum said. “When food, fuel, shelter and aid are banned, cold absolutely becomes lethal.”

Israel’s two-year war has decimated more than 80 percent of the structures across Gaza, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to take refuge in flimsy tents or overcrowded makeshift shelters.

A huge storm that recently hit the Strip killed at least 11 people as torrential rains and fierce winds flooded tents and caused damaged buildings to collapse.

“We try to dry the children’s clothes over the fire,” Umm Mohammed Assaliya, a displaced Palestinian mother, told Al Jazeera from Gaza City.

“There are no spare clothes for them. I am exhausted. The tent we were given cannot withstand winter conditions. We need blankets,” she said.

Humanitarian groups have urged Israel to allow unimpeded deliveries of aid to Gaza.

But the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which the UN says is best suited to distribute supplies in the territory, says the Israeli government has blocked it from bringing aid directly into Gaza.

“People have reportedly died due to the collapse of damaged buildings where families were sheltering. Children have reportedly died from exposure to the cold,” UNRWA said in a social media post on Tuesday.

“This must stop. Aid must be allowed in at scale, now.”

Hamas slams Israeli ceasefire violations

Meanwhile, Hamas has condemned Israel for its repeated violations of a ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.

At least 393 Palestinians have been killed and 1,074 others wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the first full day of the ceasefire on October 11, according to the latest figures from the enclave’s Health Ministry.

The Israeli military also killed a senior Hamas leader, Raed Saad, in a targeted attack on a vehicle in western Gaza City on Saturday, further straining the tenuous truce.

On Tuesday, Hamas leader Ghazi Hamad accused Israel of “manipulating” the text of the US-brokered agreement.

“We want to make it absolutely clear: the ceasefire agreement is straightforward, detailed, and unambiguous. However, it’s evident that the Israeli occupation has distorted the text, manipulating and violating every single article,” Hamad said.

“Since day one, Hamas has fully abided by the agreement and honoured its commitments. In contrast, Israel has deliberately committed several systematic and preplanned breaches.”

Rob Reiner was known to millions as a TV actor and film director.

But the Brentwood resident, known for the classic films “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally,” was also a political force, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes and a Democratic Party activist who went beyond the typical role of celebrities who host glitzy fundraisers.

Reiner was deeply involved in issues that he cared about, such as early childhood education and the legalization of gay marriage.

Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, were found dead inside his home Sunday, sparking an outpouring of grief from those who worked with him on a variety of causes.

Ace Smith — a veteran Democratic strategist to former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Jerry Brown and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — had known Reiner for decades. Reiner, he said, approached politics differently than most celebrities.

“Here’s this unique human being who really did make the leap between entertainment and politics,” Smith said. “And he really spent the time to understand policy, really, in its true depth, and to make a huge impact in California.”

Reiner was a co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that successfully led the fight to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage. He was active in children’s issues through the years, having led the campaign to pass Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created an ambitious program of early childhood development services.

Proposition 10 was considered landmark policy. Reiner enlisted help in that effort from Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, and his own father, comedy legend Carl Reiner.

“He wanted to make a difference. And he did, and he did profoundly,” Smith said.

Reiner was also a leading backer of Proposition 82, an unsuccessful measure that would have taxed the wealthy to create universal preschool in California.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had known Reiner since he was a state lawmaker in the 1990s, worked with him on Proposition 10 and was impressed with how Reiner embraced the cause.

“He was a man with a good answer. It wasn’t politics as much as he was always focused on the humanity among us,” Villaraigosa said. ‘When he got behind an issue, he knew everything about it.”

“Just a really special man. A terrible day,” the former mayor said.

Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by the day’s events, saying Reiner “always used his gifts in service of others.”

“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” the mayor said.

“I’m holding all who loved Rob and Michele in my heart,” Bass said.

Newsom added, “Rob was a passionate advocate for children and for civil rights — from taking on Big Tobacco, fighting for marriage equality, to serving as a powerful voice in early education. He made California a better place through his good works.”

“Rob will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity,” the governor said.

Orban’s government has been rocked by several child-abuse scandals in recent years.

Tens of thousands of Hungarians have taken part in a demonstration in Budapest demanding Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s resignation over his inaction towards repeated child-abuse scandals in the country.

Since returning to power in 2010, Orban has promised to prioritise the protection of children in Hungary, but multiple high-profile child abuse scandals have rocked his government in recent years.

Saturday’s protests, led by opposition party TISZA’s leader Peter Magyar, came after new allegations regarding a juvenile detention centre in the country’s capital Budapest surfaced in September. Security camera footage from the centre showed the director of the Szolo Street juvenile detention centre kicking a boy in the head.

Earlier this week, four staff members were taken into custody, and the government announced that it would place all such child facilities under direct police supervision.

On Saturday, thousands of protesters walked through Budapest’s frosty streets behind a banner reading “Protect the children!” and called on the government to take more action against the perpetrators. Some people also carried soft toys and torches in solidarity with victims of physical abuse in a case dating back several years.

On Friday, Magyar also released a previously unpublished official report from 2021, which found that more than a fifth of children in state-run care institutions have been abused.

“We should be outraged at what is being done with the most vulnerable children,” Zsuzsa Szalay, a 73-year-old pensioner who took part in Saturday’s protest, told the AFP news agency.

Orban’s government has insisted that action was being taken against suspected child abuse.

The prime minister, who faces what could be the toughest challenge to his 15-year rule in an election likely to be held in April, has also condemned the abuse in an interview with news outlet Mandiner, and called it unacceptable and criminal. He added that “[even] young criminals should not be treated this way”.

But protesters on Saturday said Orban’s response was inadequate.

“Normally, a government would be toppled after a case like this,” 16-year-old David Kozak told AFP.

Last year, the country’s president, Katalin Novak, also bowed down to public pressure and resigned after pardoning the deputy director of a state-run children’s school who was convicted of covering up sexual abuse by its director.

“For them, the problem is not that the abuses happened, but that they were revealed,” Kozak added.

For most American infants, the hepatitis B shot comes just before their first bath, in the blur of pokes, prods and pictures that attend a 21st century hospital delivery.

But as of this week, thousands of newborns across the U.S. will no longer receive the initial inoculation for hepatitis B — the first in a litany of childhood vaccinations and the top defense against one of the world’s deadliest cancers.

On Dec. 5, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s powerful vaccine advisory panel voted to nix the decades-old birth-dose recommendation.

The change was pushed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which has long sought to rewrite the CDC’s childhood vaccine schedule and unwind state immunization requirements for kindergarten.

California officials have vowed to keep the state’s current guidelines in place, but the federal changes could threaten vaccine coverage by some insurers and public benefits programs, along with broader reverberations.

“It’s a gateway,” said Jessica Malaty Rivera, an infectious disease epidemiologist in Los Angeles. “It’s not just hepatitis B — it’s chipping away at the entire schedule.”

Democratic-led states and blue-chip insurance companies have scrambled to shore up access. California joined Hawaii, Oregon and Washington in forming the West Coast Health Alliance to maintain uniform public policy on vaccines in the face of official “mis- and dis-information.”

“Universal hepatitis B vaccinations at birth save lives, and walking away from this science is reckless,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. “The Trump administration’s ideological politics continue to drive increasingly high costs — for parents, for newborns, and for our entire public-health system.”

The issue is also already tied up in court.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sent a lawsuit over New York’s vaccine rules back to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for review, signaling skepticism about the stringent shots-for-school requirements pioneered in California. On Friday, public health officials in Florida appeared poised to ax their schools’ hepatitis B immunization requirement, along with shots for chickenpox, a dozen strains of bacterial pneumonia and the longtime leading cause of deadly meningitis.

Boosters of the hep B change said it replaces impersonal prescriptions with “shared clinical decision-making” about whether and how to vaccinate, while preserving the more stringent recommendation for children of infected mothers and those whose status is unknown.

Critics say families were always free to decline the vaccine, as about 20% did nationwide in 2020, according to data published by the CDC. It’s the only shot on the schedule that children on Medicaid receive at the same rate as those with private insurance.

Rather than improve informed consent, critics say the CDC committee’s decision and the splashy public fight leading up to it have depressed vaccination rates, even among children of infected mothers.

“Hepatitis B is the most vulnerable vaccine in the schedule,” said Dr. Chari Cohen, president of the Hepatitis B Foundation. “The message we’re hearing from pediatricians and gynecologists is parents are making it clear that they don’t want their baby to get the birth dose, they don’t want their baby to get the vaccine.”

Much of that vulnerability has to do with timing: The first dose is given within hours of birth, while symptoms of the disease might not show up for decades.

“The whole Day One thing really messes with people,” Rivera said. “They think, ‘This is my perfect fresh baby and I don’t want to put anything inside of them.’ ”

U.S. surgeon general nominee Casey Means called the universal birth dose recommendation “absolute insanity,” saying in a post on X last year that it should “make every American pause and question the healthcare system’s mandates.”

“The disease is transmitted through needles and sex exclusively,” she said. “There is no benefit to the baby or the wider population for a child to get this vaccine who is not at risk for sexual or IV transmission. There is only risk.”

In fact, at least half of transmission occurs from mother to child, typically at birth. A smaller percentage of babies get the disease by sharing food, nail clippers or other common household items with their fathers, grandparents or day-care teachers. Because infections are often asymptomatic, most don’t know they have the virus, and at least 15% of pregnant women in the U.S. aren’t tested for the disease, experts said.

Infants who contract hepatitis B are overwhelmingly likely to develop chronic hepatitis, leading to liver cancer or cirrhosis in midlife. The vaccine, by contrast, is far less likely than those for flu or chickenpox to cause even minor reactions, such as fever.

“We’ve given 50 billion doses of the hepatitis B vaccine and we’ve not seen signals that make us concerned,” said Dr. Su Wang, medical director of Viral Hepatitis Programs and the Center for Asian Health at the Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in New Jersey, who lives with the disease.

Still, “sex and drugs” remains a popular talking point, not only with Kennedy allies in Washington and Atlanta, but among many prominent Los Angeles pediatricians.

“It sets up on Day One this mentality of, ‘I don’t necessarily agree with this, so what else do I not agree with?’” said Dr. Joel Warsh, a Studio City pediatrician and MAHA luminary, whose recent book “Between a Shot and a Hard Place” is aimed at vaccine-hesitant families.

Hepatitis B also disproportionately affects immigrant communities, further stigmatizing an illness that first entered the mainstream consciousness as an early proxy for HIV infection in the 1980s, before it was fully understood.

At the committee meeting last week, member Dr. Evelyn Griffin called illegal immigration the “elephant in the room” in the birth dose debate.

The move comes as post-pandemic wellness culture has supercharged vaccine hesitancy, expanding objections from a long-debunked link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism to a more generalized, equally false belief that “healthy” children who eat whole foods and play outside are unlikely to get sick from vaccine-preventable diseases and, if they do, can be treated with “natural” remedies such as beef tallow and cod liver oil.

“It’s about your quality of life, it’s about what you put in your body, it’s about your wellness journey — we have debunked this before,” Rivera said. “This is eugenics.”

Across Southern California, pediatricians, preschool teachers and public health experts say they’ve seen a surge in families seeking to prune certain shots from the schedule and many delay others based on “individualized risk.” The trend has spawned a cottage industry of e-books, Zoom workshops by “vaccine friendly” doctors offering alternative schedules, bespoke inoculations and post-vaccine detox regimens.

CDC data show state exemptions for kindergarten vaccines have surged since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with about 5% of schoolchildren in Georgia, Florida and Ohio, more than 6% in Pennsylvania and nearly 7% in Michigan waved out of the requirement last year.

In Alaska and Arizona, those numbers topped 9%. In Idaho, 1 in 6 kindergartners are exempt.

California is one of four states — alongside New York, Connecticut and Maine — with no religious or personal-belief exemptions for school vaccines.

It is also among at least 20 states that have committed to keep the hepatitis B birth dose for babies on public insurance, which covers about half of American children. It is not clear whether the revised recommendation will affect government coverage of the vaccine in other states.

Experts warn that the success of the birth-dose reversal over near-universal objection from the medical establishment puts the entire pediatric vaccination schedule up for grabs, and threatens the school-based rules that enforce it.

Ongoing measles outbreaks in Texas and elsewhere that have killed three and sickened close to 2,000 show the risks of rolling back requirements, experts said.

Hepatitis is not nearly as contagious as measles, which can linger in the air for about two hours. But it’s still fairly easy to pick up, and devastating to those who contract it, experts said.

“These decisions happening today are going to have terrible residual effects later,” said Rivera, the L.A. epidemiologist. “I can’t imagine being a new mom having to navigate this.”

The saga of a Los Angeles Army veteran who legally immigrated to the United States, was wounded in combat and self-deported to South Korea earlier this year, became a flashpoint during a testy congressional hearing about the Trump administration’s immigration policy.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was grilled Thursday on Capitol Hill about military veterans deported during the immigration crackdown launched earlier this year, including in Los Angeles.

“Sir, we have not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans,” Noem responded when questioned by Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.).

Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.) speaks during a hearing of the House Committee on Homeland Security on Thursday. He was joined on a video call by Sae Joon Park, a U.S. military veteran who self-deported to South Korea.

(Mark Schiefelbein / Associated Press)

An aide then held up a tablet showing a Zoom connection with Purple Heart recipient Sae Joon Park in South Korea. The congressman argued that Park had “sacrificed more for this country than most people ever have” and asked Noem if she would investigate Park’s case, given her discretion as a Cabinet member. Noem pledged to “absolutely look at his case.”

Park, reached in Seoul on Thursday night, said he was skeptical that Noem would follow through on her promise, but said that he had “goosebumps” watching the congressional hearing.

“It was amazing. And then I’m getting tons of phone calls from all my friends back home and everywhere else. I’m so very grateful for everything that happened today,” Park, 56, said, noting that friends told him that a clip of his story appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” show Thursday night.

The late-night host featured footage of Park’s moment in the congressional hearing in his opening monologue.

“Is anyone OK with this? Seriously, all kidding aside, we deported a veteran with a Purple Heart?” Kimmel said, adding that Republicans “claim to care so much about veterans, but they don’t at all.”

Park legally immigrated to the United States when he was 7, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley, and joined the Army after graduating from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988.

Sae Joon Park received a Purple Heart while serving in the Army.

(From Sae Joon Park)

The green card holder was deployed to Panama in 1989 as the U.S. tried to depose the nation’s de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega. Park was shot twice and honorably discharged. Suffering post-traumatic stress disorder, he self-medicated with illicit drugs, went to prison after jumping bail on drug possession charges, became sober and raised two children in Hawaii.

Earlier this year, when Park checked in for his annual meeting with federal officials to verify his sobriety and employment, he was given the option of being immediately detained and deported, or wearing an ankle monitor for three weeks as he got his affairs in order before leaving the country for a decade.

At the time, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park had an “extensive criminal history” and had been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport.

Park chose to leave the country voluntarily. He initially struggled to acclimate in a nation he hasn’t lived in since he was a child, but said Thursday night that his mental state — and his Korean-language skills — have improved.

“It hasn’t been easy. Of course, I miss home like crazy,” he said. “I’m doing the best I can. I’m usually a very positive person, so I feel like everything happens for a reason, and I’m just trying to hang in there until hopefully I make it back home.”

Among Park’s top concerns when he left the United States in June was that his mother, who is 86 and struggling with dementia, would die while he couldn’t return to the county. But her lack of awareness about his situation has been somewhat of a strange blessing, Park said.

“She really doesn’t know I’m even here. So every time I talk to her, she’s like, ‘Oh, where are you?’ And I tell her, and she’s like, ‘Oh, when are you coming home? Oh, why are you there?’” Park said. “In a weird way, it’s kind of good because she doesn’t have to worry about me all the time. But at the same time, I would love to be next to her while she’s going through this.”

MIAMI — President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy split more than 5,000 children from their families at the Mexico border during his first term, when images of babies and toddlers taken from the arms of mothers sparked global condemnation.

Seven years later, families are being separated but in a much different way. With illegal border crossings at their lowest levels in seven decades, a push for mass deportations is dividing families of mixed legal status inside the U.S.

Federal officials and their local law enforcement partners are detaining tens of thousands of asylum-seekers and migrants. Detainees are moved repeatedly, then deported, or held in poor conditions for weeks or months before asking to go home.

The federal government was holding an average of more than 66,000 people in November, the highest on record.

During the first Trump administration, families were forcibly separated at the border and authorities struggled to find children in a vast shelter system because government computer systems weren’t linked. Now parents inside the United States are being arrested by immigration authorities and separated from their families during prolonged detention. Or, they choose to have their children remain in the U.S. after an adult is deported, many after years or decades here.

The Trump administration and its anti-immigration backers see “unprecedented success” and Trump’s top border adviser Tom Homan told reporters in April that “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead.”

Three families separated by migration enforcement in recent months told The Associated Press that their dreams of better, freer lives had clashed with Washington’s new immigration policy and their existence is anguished without knowing if they will see their loved ones again.

For them, migration marked the possible start of permanent separation between parents and children, the source of deep pain and uncertainty.

A family divided between Florida and Venezuela

Antonio Laverde left Venezuela for the U.S. in 2022 and crossed the border illegally, then requested asylum.

He got a work permit and a driver’s license and worked as an Uber driver in Miami, sharing homes with other immigrants so he could send money to relatives in Venezuela and Florida.

Laverde’s wife Jakelin Pasedo and their sons followed him from Venezuela to Miami in December 2024. Pasedo focused on caring for her sons while her husband earned enough to support the family. Pasedo and the kids got refugee status but Laverde, 39, never obtained it and as he left for work one early June morning, he was arrested by federal agents.

Pasedo says it was a case of mistaken identity by agents hunting for a suspect in their shared housing. In the end, she and her children, then 3 and 5, remember the agents cuffing Laverde at gunpoint.

“They got sick with fever, crying for their father, asking for him,” Pasedo said.

Laverde was held at Broward Transitional Center, a detention facility in Pompano Beach, Fla. In September, after three months detention, he asked to return to Venezuela.

Pasedo, 39, however, has no plans to go back. She fears she could be arrested or kidnapped for criticizing the socialist government and belonging to the political opposition.

She works cleaning offices and, despite all the obstacles, hopes to reunify with her husband someday in the U.S.

They followed the law

Yaoska’s husband was a political activist in Nicaragua, a country tight in the grasp of autocratic married co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

She remembers her husband getting death threats and being beaten by police when he refused to participate in a pro-government march.

Yaoska only used her first name and requested anonymity for her husband to protect him from the Nicaraguan government.

The couple fled Nicaragua for the U.S. with their 10-year-old son in 2022, crossing the border and getting immigration parole. Settling down in Miami, they applied for asylum and had a second son, who has U.S. citizenship. Yaoska is now five months pregnant with their third child.

In late August, Yaoska, 32, went to an appointment at the South Florida office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her family accompanied her. Her husband, 35, was detained and failed his credible fear interview, according to a court document.

Yaoska was released under 24-hour supervision by a GPS watch that she cannot remove. Her husband was deported to Nicaragua after three months at the Krome Detention Center, the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse.

Yaoska now shares family news with her husband by phone. The children are struggling without their father, she said.

“It’s so hard to see my children like this. They arrested him right in front of them,” Yaoska said, her voice trembling.

They don’t want to eat and are often sick. The youngest wakes up at night asking for him.

“I’m afraid in Nicaragua,” she said. “But I’m scared here too.”

Yaoska said her work authorization is valid until 2028 but the future is frightening and uncertain.

“I’ve applied to several job agencies, but nobody calls me back,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”

He was detained by local police, then deported

Edgar left Guatemala more than two decades ago. Working construction, he started a family in South Florida with Amavilia, a fellow undocumented Guatemalan migrant.

The arrival of their son brought them joy.

“He was so happy with the baby — he loved him,” said Amavilia, 31. “He told me he was going to see him grow up and walk.”

But within a few days, Edgar was detained on a 2016 warrant for driving without a license in Homestead, the small agricultural city where he lived in South Florida.

She and her husband declined to provide their last names because they are worried about repercussion from U.S. immigration officials.

Amavilia expected his release within 48 hours. Instead, Edgar, who declined to be interviewed, was turned over to immigration officials and moved to Krome.

“I fell into despair. I didn’t know what to do,” Amavilia said. “I can’t go.”

Edgar, 45, was deported to Guatemala on June 8.

After Edgar’s detention, Amavilia couldn’t pay the $950 rent for the two-bedroom apartment she shares with another immigrant. For the first three months, she received donations from immigration advocates.

Today, breastfeeding and caring for two children, she wakes up at 3 a.m. to cook lunches she sells for $10 each.

She walks with her son in a stroller to take her daughter to school, then spends afternoons selling homemade ice cream and chocolate-covered bananas door to door with her two children.

Amavilia crossed the border in September 2023 and did not seek asylum or any type of legal status. She said her daughter grows anxious around police. She urges her to stay calm, smile and walk with confidence.

“I’m afraid to go out, but I always go out entrusting myself to God,” she said. “Every time I return home, I feel happy and grateful.”

Salomon writes for the Associated Press.

If you’re planning to travel with children and parents this holiday season, may the grace of whatever god you believe in descend upon you with alacrity. May you never grow weary, frustrated or borderline psychotic when your 80-something mom questions your every decision moments after you make it, or when your child loses that wildly overpriced souvenir hours after you finally agree to buy it.

But let’s be real: Being on vacation with a parent and child requires many coping mechanisms that aren’t obvious before you’re deep into the experience. As the sandwich-generation adult responsible for your multigenerational holiday, you need to be part tour director, part therapist and part life coach to everyone counting on you for a vacation of a lifetime.

I know, because earlier this year I spent three weeks in Austria, Switzerland and southern Bavaria with my 81-year-old mother and grade-school daughter. This was a vacation that we’ll each remember, always. It was that good. But it wasn’t easy.

And it required a lot of preparatory work and patience. Here are my Top 10 lessons learned, for anyone who plans to soon or someday travel with a child and an older parent.

No. 1: Think of yourself as an expedition leader and master every logistical detail

For my daughter’s sake, I never left our hotel or Airbnb without a full water bottle and a hard-boiled egg or two from the breakfast buffet. Or a couple oranges or other fruit that wouldn’t get crushed at the bottom of a backpack. Nothing is fun on vacation if your kid gets “hangry.”

The calculation for a parent is different. Because my mom wasn’t interested in managing more than her own aches and pains, I knew I had to be in charge of every move every day, from getting to sites to negotiating purchases to finding places to eat and managing the heat and everyone’s daily moods and energy levels.

No. 2: Create an itinerary that suits your parent’s and child’s needs and personalities

You probably know your parent’s tolerances for everything from how much he or she wants to do to how regularly they need a food or rest break to how much time they need to get up and out the door each day. Some activities that your kid has her heart set on aren’t realistic for an older parent.

In Switzerland, for example, my daughter really, really wanted to go tubing at the top of Jungfraujoch, a massive glacier 10,000 feet above sea level near Interlaken. So she and I trekked to and played in the snow for an hour while my mom had coffee at a glaciertop restaurant.

Similar to how marathoners manage a race, multigenerational family vacations tend to have fast parts and slower parts, based on how draining (or rejuvenating) the previous day was. Monitor parent and child end-of-day energy (or exhaustion) levels. They’re a good indication of how ambitious you should be the following day.

For instance, after a long day of train travel, from Vienna to Interlaken or from Interlaken to Bavaria, I made sure the next day was free of any grand excursion or event. To recharge personal batteries, everyone needs to have their coffees, or play on a playground, or feel the sun on their faces, and spend time not being scheduled.

No. 3: Give your parent and child an idea of what to expect, and ask their opinion

What works for children often works for older parents: Clearly explain well ahead of time what they should expect from the daily vacation experience.

The lovely part of traveling with parents is that, unlike young children, they often have informed, realistic opinions about what they want and don’t want from the experience writ large and on a daily basis. Ask them: What do you want out of this vacation?

For my daughter, who was excited to see Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria — the one that is said to have inspired the Disneyworld facsimile — the key piece of advance intelligence I gave her was that we’d be spending three to four hours on our feet with a tour guide.

That helped her pre-set her patience for a lot of continuous listening.

No. 4: Adjust on the fly

As the quote attributed to Mike Tyson goes: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the nose. On vacation, the punch will be figurative: You miss a train, are too tired to visit that must-see exhibit or natural wonder, or don’t like your hotel or resort as much as you thought you would.

Be willing to adjust your plans based on what will make your parent and child happy and willing to pivot when necessary.

When the June heat in Vienna became a little too much for my mom, we agreed to cut out the walk through an ornate Hapsburg garden and go to lunch somewhere with air-conditioning.

While my mom nursed her post-prandial local beer, my kid and I went for a leisurely stroll through a nearby park. The definition of a vacation win-win.

No. 5: Identify your aging parent’s individual ‘kryptonite’ — e.g., heat, distance, foreign languages or big crowds

For my mom, extreme heat is a major barrier to her ability and desire to venture out of an air-conditioned hotel room. If the temperature is cool, my mom will walk until the hounds of hell stop her, no matter how much pain she’s in; she equates taking a short taxi ride as a moral failure. But if the temperature rises above, say, 75, she wilts within minutes.

So, I checked the weather forecasts and planned strategically.

No. 6: Calibrate daily walking distances and stairs to match your kid’s and parent’s tolerances

Think realistically about exactly how long a walk, how many stairs up and — especially important for older parents! — stairs down.

I carried a small lightweight camping stool in my backpack every day, in case my mom needed to sit with no bench in sight. We used it only once … for my daughter, during the four-hour Bavarian castle tour. (My mom refused to sit down, saying she might not be able to get up again.)

Pro tip: If you’ll be traveling by train, beware the unexpected challenge of many, many stairs at the stations. There may also be stairs up and down a medieval castle tour, where people behind you may grow impatient with an older person’s slow pace. Think about whether to put your parent and child at the back of your tour group during long stair climbs and descents.

No. 7: Diffuse inevitable inter-generational friction and frustration

At some point in your journey, Mom, Dad or child will be as fed up with you as you are with them. Perhaps more so. Usually, it’s the small things that, repeated daily, push family members traveling together to a point of needing to blow off some steam.

Plan regular “steam valve” times when you let your loved ones express whatever is on their mind. (Who knows, maybe it’ll be pure gratitude … but probably it will be a gripe you’re rather familiar with.) It’s like couples therapy sessions, except the “couple” is parent and child on a vacation together. Let them speak their truth, and accept it with a mature, “Thank you for letting me know.”

On our trip, my mom and I made each other howl with laughter by doing imitations of each other. She made fun of my haranguing her for carrying her own luggage off trains, and I poked fun at her for habitually asking whether we were on the right train.

We did this over half-liters of beer, which didn’t hurt.

My daughter added her laugh-out-loud imitations of me being overly bossy or short-tempered, and her grandma’s habit of asking whether we were on the right train and sitting in the right seats.

No. 8: Expect to be exhausted by all the daily planning and guiding

You’re going to be doing the work of two people, caring for your parent and child on a vacation — as well as yourself. That is an hourly emotional and physical load you’ll need to monitor and manage.

Anticipate that tour-leader stress, and give yourself regular off-ramps from it. Maybe it’s a night off that you spend on your own while Dad or Mom stays in the room with your kid, watching cat videos on the iPad. Maybe it’s sleeping in for once, and having morning coffee by yourself.

Like they say on airplanes, put on your own oxygen mask before helping others with theirs.

No. 9: Don’t expect every day to be a thrill or feel like a postcard

Every day of your multigenerational vacation probably won’t be as rejuvenating as you perhaps had hoped. As I told my mom and daughter before our trip: Some days will feel like the best ever; other days not so much. Expect to feel the minor let-downs along with the surprising delights.

No. 10: Offer encouragement regularly (and especially on hard days)

Whether directed at a child or octogenarian parent, a few artfully supportive words from you — “You’re doing such a great job,” “You’re so strong for your age!” or my psy-ops favorite: “Gosh, I think I’m complaining more than either of you are” — will help keep them going through a rough patch.

During the first few days in Vienna, for example, I praised my daughter for holding my mom’s hand while crossing streets or walking over tram tracks. She never missed another opportunity to look out for her Grandma.

Likewise, when my mom’s hip began hurting after two miles of walking, I made the conscious decision to announce, rather loudly on the street, “You’re doing great, Mom!” She said nothing, but I knew she heard me. And she made it back to the hotel.

Think about what words of encouragement from someone else would make you feel great (e.g., “You’re doing an incredible job managing this trip for your mom!”) and do that for them.

And never, ever forget: You’re making big memories for you and your loved ones.

At least 153 students and 12 teachers taken from a Catholic school last month remain in captivity.

Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 children who were among hundreds kidnapped from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria last month, officials and local media have reported.

The 100 children arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger State on Monday, an unnamed United Nations source told the AFP news agency.

“They are going to be handed over to Niger State government tomorrow,” the source told the AFP news agency.

Nigeria’s The Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday that the rescued children were receiving medical evaluations and would be reunited with their families after a debriefing.

Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare also confirmed reports to the AFP that 100 children were being freed.

Armed gunmen kidnapped 303 students and 12 teachers from St Mary’s School in the Papiri community of Niger State’s Agwara district on November 21.

They included both male and female students aged between 10 to 18 years, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

Fifty of the students escaped captivity in the days after they were kidnapped, returning home to their families. Following the release of 100 students on Sunday, 153 students and 12 teachers are believed to remain in captivity.

Days earlier, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the neighbouring Kebbi State’s Maga town,170km (106 miles) away.

“We have been praying and waiting for their return. If it is true, then it is a cheering news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school.

“However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.”

The latest abductions are the worst seen in Nigeria since more than 270 girls from Chibok town were snatched from their school in 2014.

In total, more than 1,400 Nigerian students have been kidnapped since 2014, in almost a dozen separate incidents.

The most recent kidnappings came soon after United States President Donald Trump said that Nigeria’s Christians are facing genocide, a claim that has been questioned by local officials and Christian groups, who say that people from different faiths have been caught up in ongoing violence in parts of the country.

Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera last month that people of all faiths have been affected by the ongoing violence.

“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed,” Ebienfa said.

“The majority is not the Christian population.”

Trump has threatened military intervention in Nigeria, alleging that the country is failing to protect Christians from persecution. He has also threatened to cut aid to Nigeria.

Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.

According to Pew Research Center estimates, Muslims make up 56 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Christians make up just more than 43 percent.

Armed groups have been engaged in a conflict that has been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim, and has dragged on for more than 15 years.