children

Three schoolchildren have fallen through a window from the top deck of a bus in Greater Manchester, police have said.

A large emergency response attended following the incident on Bolton Road in Ashton-in-Makerfield shortly before 16:00 GMT.

The children have “potentially serious injuries” but they not thought to be life-threatening, Greater Manchester Police said.

An investigation was in the early stages but Inspector Simon Barrie said it “appears to be an unfortunate accident”.

“This is a serious incident that will cause disruption,” he said.

“Our priority is to make sure the children get the treatment they need in hospital. Thankfully we don’t believe their injuries are life-threatening.”

Councillor Danny Fletcher, of Ashton-on-Makerfield South ward, posted on Facebook and said some of the children had suffered potentially life changing injuries.

“I’ve spoken with our policing team this afternoon,” he said.

“As we know, three young people have fallen from a top floor side window of a school bus and have been taken to Manchester Children’s Hospital, some with potentially life changing injuries.

“I’ve contacted the schools involved to ensure they have council support if needed. Sending my thoughts and all my love to the kids and families involved.”

The road has since reopened.

Transport for Greater Manchester said: “Our thoughts are with those injured and we want to wish them a speedy recovery.

“Emergency services remain at the scene, and we are working closely with the bus operator in supporting police with their enquiries into the incident.”

In a small tent overshadowed by the sound of nearby gunfire, seven-year-old Tulin prepares for her first day of school in two years.

For most children, this would be a moment of excitement. For Tulin and her mother, it is a chapter of terror.

The relentless Israeli war has destroyed the vast majority of Gaza’s educational infrastructure, forcing families to create makeshift “tent schools” in dangerous proximity to Israeli forces — an area demarcated by Israel as the “yellow zone” west of the separation line, often just a few metres away from danger.

“Until my daughter gets to school, I honestly walk with my heart in my hand,” Tulin’s mother told Al Jazeera correspondent Shady Shamieh.

“Many times, I find myself involuntarily following her until she reaches the school. I feel there is something [dangerous], but I want her to learn,” she added. “If not for this situation, she would be in second grade now. But we are determined.”

‘Take the sleeping position’

The journey to the classroom is perilous. Walking through the rubble of Beit Lahiya, Tulin admits she is terrified of the open spaces.

“When I go to school, I am afraid of the shooting,” Tulin said. “I can’t find a wall to hide behind so the shelling or stray bullets don’t hit us.”

Inside the tents, protection is nonexistent. The canvas walls cannot stop bullets, yet the students sit on the ground, determined to learn.

Their teacher describes a harrowing daily routine where education is frequently interrupted by the crack of sniper fire.

“The location is difficult, close to the occupation [forces],” the teacher explained. “When the shooting starts, we tell the children: ‘Take the sleeping position.’ I get goosebumps, praying to God that no injuries occur. We make them lie on the ground until the shooting stops.”

“We have been exposed to gunfire more than once,” she added. “Despite this, we remain. The occupation’s policy is ignorance, and our policy is knowledge.”

Among the students is Ahmed, who lost his father in the war. “We come with difficulty and leave with difficulty because of the shooting,” he told Al Jazeera. “But I want to fulfil the dream of my martyred father, who wanted to see me become a doctor.”

‘One of the biggest catastrophes’

The desperate scenes in Beit Lahiya reflect a wider collapse of the education system in the enclave.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic on Monday, Kazem Abu Khalaf, the spokesperson for UNICEF in Palestine, described the situation as “one of the biggest catastrophes”.

“Our figures indicate that 98 percent of all schools in the Gaza Strip have suffered varying degrees of damage, ranging up to total destruction,” Abu Khalaf said.

He noted that 88 percent of these schools require either comprehensive rehabilitation or complete reconstruction.

The human toll is staggering: approximately 638,000 school-aged children and 70,000 kindergarten-aged children have lost two full academic years and are entering a third year of deprivation.

Trauma and speech impediments

While UNICEF and its partners have established 109 temporary learning centres serving 135,000 students, the psychological scars of the war are surfacing in alarming ways.

Abu Khalaf revealed that field teams have observed severe developmental regression among students.

“In one area, [colleagues] monitored that approximately 25 percent of the children we are trying to target have developed speech difficulties,” Abu Khalaf said. “This requires redoubled efforts from educational specialists.”

The ban on books

Beyond the structural destruction and trauma, the education sector faces a logistical blockade. Abu Khalaf confirmed that since the war began in October 2023, virtually no educational materials have been allowed into the Strip.

“The biggest challenge, in truth, is that … almost no learning materials have entered Gaza at all,” he said.

UNICEF is currently preparing to launch a “Back to Learning” campaign targeting 200,000 children, focusing on Arabic, English, maths and science, alongside recreational activities to “repair the children’s psyche before anything else”.

However, Abu Khalaf emphasised that the success of any campaign depends on Israel lifting restrictions.

“We are communicating with all parties, including the Israeli side, to allow the entry of learning materials,” he said. “It is not in anyone’s interest for a child in Gaza not to go to school.”

Leading medical groups in the United States have raised alarm after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) under President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for children.

Monday’s sweeping decision, which advances the agenda of Trump-appointed Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy Jr, removes the recommendation for rotavirus, influenza, meningococcal disease and hepatitis A vaccines for children.

It comes as US vaccination rates have been slipping, and the rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country, according to government data.

“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement on Monday.

In response, the American Medical Association (AMA) said it was “deeply concerned by recent changes to the childhood immunisation schedule that affects the health and safety of millions of children”.

“Vaccination policy has long been guided by a rigorous, transparent scientific process grounded in decades of evidence showing that vaccines are safe, effective, and lifesaving,” Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, a doctor and AMA trustee, said in a statement posted on the group’s website.

She pointed out that major policy changes needed “careful review” and transparency, which are lacking in the CDD’s decision.

“When longstanding recommendations are altered without a robust, evidence-based process, it undermines public trust and puts children at unnecessary risk of preventable disease,” she said.

The change was effective immediately and carried out following the approval by another Trump appointee, CDC acting director Jim O’Neill, without the agency’s usual outside expert review.

The changes were made by political appointees, without any evidence that the current recommendations were harming children, Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said.

“It’s so important that any decision about the US childhood vaccination schedule should be grounded in evidence, transparency and established scientific processes, not comparisons that overlook critical differences between countries or health systems,” he told journalists.

Protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making”, the new CDC guidance stated.

States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren.

But CDC requirements often influence the state regulations, even as some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.

Kennedy, the US health secretary, is a longtime vaccine sceptic.

In May, Kennedy announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women, a move immediately questioned by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.

In June, Kennedy fired an entire 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee, later installing several of his own replacements, including multiple vaccine sceptics.

In August, he announced that the US is to cut funding for mRNA vaccine development, a move health experts say is “dangerous” and could make the US much more vulnerable to future outbreaks of respiratory viruses like COVID-19.

Kennedy in November also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence to support the change.

Trump, reacting to the latest CDC decision on his Truth Social platform, said the new schedule is “far more reasonable” and “finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World”.

Ofcom has made “urgent contact” with Elon Musk’s company xAI following reports its AI tool Grok can be used to make “sexualised images of children” and undress women.

A spokesperson for the regulator said it was also investigating concerns Grok has been producing “undressed images” of people.

The BBC has seen several examples on the social media platform X of people asking the chatbot to alter real images to make women appear in bikinis without their consent, as well as putting them in sexual situations.

X has not responded to a request for comment. On Sunday, it issued a warning to users not to use Grok to generate illegal content including child sexual abuse material.

Elon Musk also posted to say anyone who asks the AI to generate illegal content would “suffer the same consequences” as if they uploaded it themselves.

XAI’s own acceptable use policy prohibits “depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner”.

But people have been using Grok to digitally undress people without their consent and without notifying them.

The European Commission – the EU’s enforcement arm – said on Monday it was “seriously looking into this matter” and authorities in France, Malaysia and India were reportedly assessing the situation.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation told the BBC it had received reports from the public relating to images generated by Grok on X.

But it said it had so far not seen images which would cross the UK’s legal threshold to be considered child sexual abuse imagery.

Grok is a free virtual assistant – with some paid for premium features – which responds to X users’ prompts when they tag it in a post.

Samantha Smith, a journalist who discovered users had used the AI to create pictures of her in a bikini, told the BBC’s PM programme on Friday it had left her feeling “dehumanised and reduced into a sexual stereotype”.

“While it wasn’t me that was in states of undress, it looked like me and it felt like me and it felt as violating as if someone had actually posted a nude or a bikini picture of me,” she said.

Under the Online Safety Act (OSA), Ofcom says it is illegal to create or share intimate or sexually explicit images – including “deepfakes” created with AI – of a person without their consent.

Tech firms are also expected to take “appropriate steps” to reduce the risks of UK users encountering such content, and take it down “quickly” when made aware of it.

Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, said the reports were “deeply disturbing”.

She said the Committee found the OSA to be “woefully inadequate” and called it “a shocking example of how UK citizens are left unprotected whilst social media companies act with impunity”.

And she called for the government to take up recommendations by the Committee to compel social media platforms “to take greater responsibility for their content”.

Meanwhile, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said on Monday it was aware of posts made by Grok “showing explicit sexual content,” as well as “some output generated with childlike images”.

“This is illegal,” he said, also calling it “appalling” and “disgusting”.

“This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe,” he said.

Regnier said X was “well aware” the EU was “very serious” about enforcing its rules for digital platforms – having handed X a €120m (£104m) fine in December for breaching its Digital Services Act.

A Home Office spokesperson said it was legislating to ban nudification tools, and under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tech would “face a prison sentence and substantial fines”.

As we enter 2026, one truth is impossible to ignore: children around the world are facing their greatest levels of need in modern history – just as the humanitarian system meant to protect them and their futures is battling some of its biggest challenges in decades.

The events of 2025 marked a dramatic rupture in global humanitarian and development efforts. When the United States abruptly halted foreign aid in January, billions of dollars vanished overnight. Critical programmes were suspended, offices closed, and millions suddenly lost access to food, healthcare, education, and protection. Overnight, lifelines that communities had depended on for decades were thrown into jeopardy – and children, as always, paid the highest price.

For international NGOs, the shock was immediate and severe. At Save the Children, we were forced to take some of the toughest decisions in our 106-year history. We had to close country offices, cut thousands of staff positions, and wind down life-saving operations. We estimated that about 11.5 million people – including 6.7 million children – would feel the immediate impacts of these cuts, while many more would be impacted in the longer term.

The aid cuts came at a time when children globally were already facing major challenges, from conflict to displacement, to climate change, with decades of progress at risk of being reversed.

The facts are startling. In 2025, one in every five children was living in an active conflict zone where children are being killed, maimed, sexually assaulted and abducted in record numbers. About 50 million children globally are displaced from their homes. Nearly half the world’s children – about 1.12 billion – cannot afford a balanced diet, and some 272 million were out of school.

These numbers point to a global failure. Behind each statistic is a child whose childhood is being cut short, a childhood defined by fear, hunger and lost potential.

For children, the collapse of aid was not an abstract budgetary decision, but it was deeply personal.  Health clinics closed, classrooms closed, and protection services disappeared just as violence, climate shocks and displacement intensified. Years of hard-won progress in child survival, education and rights were suddenly at risk of being undone, leaving millions of children more vulnerable to hunger, exploitation and violence.

The crisis also revealed the fragility of the global aid system itself. When humanitarian support is concentrated among a handful of government donors, sudden political shifts reverberate directly through children’s lives. The events of 2025 showed how quickly international commitments can unravel – and how devastating that can be for the youngest and least protected.

Yet amid this turmoil, something extraordinary happened.

In many places, families, teachers, health workers and local organisations found ways to keep learning going, to provide care, and to create spaces where children could still play, heal and feel safe. These efforts underscored a simple truth: Responses are strongest when they are rooted close to children themselves.

There were also moments of progress. In a year marked by pushback against human rights, important legal reforms advanced children’s protection – from a ban on corporal punishment in Thailand, to the criminalisation of child marriage and the passing of a digital protection law in Bolivia. These gains reminded us that change is possible even in difficult times, when children’s rights are put at the centre of public debate and policy.

Out of the shocks of 2025 has come a moment of reckoning and an opportunity: to adapt, to innovate, towards approaches that are more sustainable, more locally led and more accountable to the people they are meant to serve. For children, this shift is critical. Decisions made closer to communities are more likely to reflect children’s real needs and aspirations.

This period of reinvention has also revived difficult questions that can no longer be postponed. How can life-saving assistance be insulated from political volatility? How can funding be diversified so that children are not abandoned when a single donor withdraws? And how can children and young people meaningfully participate in decisions that shape their futures?

Innovation alone will not save children, but it can help. When digital tools, data and community-led design are used responsibly, they can improve access, accountability and trust. Used poorly, they risk deepening inequalities. The challenge is not technological — it is political and ethical.

Children do not stop wanting to learn, play or dream because bombs fall or aid dries up. In camps, cities and ruined neighbourhoods, they organise, speak out and imagine futures that adults have failed to secure for them. They remind us why our work – and our ability to adapt – matters so profoundly.

In Gaza this year, I witnessed the horrors that children are living through daily, with the war now raging for more than two years and most of the Strip covered in rubble. I saw children facing malnutrition at our healthcare clinics and heard how some now wish to die to join their parents in heaven. No child should ever be living under such terror that death is preferable. They are children, and their voices need to be heard.

If 2025 exposed the failures of the old aid model, 2026 must become a turning point. A different choice is possible — one that builds systems resilient to political shocks, grounded in local leadership and accountable to the children they claim to serve. The challenge now is to reshape our systems so that, no matter how the world changes, we can put children first, always, everywhere.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s administration announced late Tuesday that it’s freezing child care funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some day care centers after a series of fraud schemes involving government programs in recent years.

Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on the social platform X that the move is in response to “blatant fraud that appears to be rampant in Minnesota and across the country.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pushed back on X, saying fraudsters are a serious issue that the state has spent years cracking down on but that this move is part of “Trump’s long game.”

“He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.

O’Neill referenced a right-wing influencer who posted a video Friday claiming he found that day care centers operated by Somali residents in Minneapolis had committed up to $100 million in fraud. O’Neill said he has demanded Walz submit an audit of these centers that includes attendance records, licenses, complaints, investigations and inspections.

“We have turned off the money spigot and we are finding the fraud,” O’Neill said.

The announcement comes one day after U.S. Homeland Security officials were in Minneapolis conducting a fraud investigation by going to unidentified businesses and questioning workers.

There have been years of investigations that included a $300 million pandemic food fraud scheme revolving around the nonprofit Feeding Our Future, for which 57 defendants in Minnesota have been convicted. Prosecutors said the organization was at the center of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud scam, when defendants exploited a state-run, federally funded program meant to provide food for children.

A federal prosecutor alleged earlier this month that half or more of the roughly $18 billion in federal funds that supported 14 programs in Minnesota since 2018 may have been stolen. Most of the defendants in the child nutrition, housing services and autism program schemes are Somali Americans, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Minnesota.

O’Neill, who is serving as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also said in the social media post Tuesday that payments across the U.S. through the Administration for Children and Families, an agency within the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, will now require “justification and a receipt or photo evidence” before money is sent. They have also launched a fraud-reporting hotline and email address.

The Administration for Children and Families provides $185 million in child care funds annually to Minnesota, according to Assistant Secretary Alex Adams.

“That money should be helping 19,000 American children, including toddlers and infants,” he said in a video posted on X. “Any dollar stolen by fraudsters is stolen from those children.”

Adams said he spoke Monday with the director of Minnesota’s child care services office and she wasn’t able to say “with confidence whether those allegations of fraud are isolated or whether there’s fraud stretching statewide.”

Trump has criticized Walz’s administration over the fraud cases, capitalizing on them to target the Somalia diaspora in the state, which has the largest Somali population in the U.S.

Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, has said an audit due by late January should give a better picture of the extent of the fraud. He said his administration is taking aggressive action to prevent additional fraud. He has long defended how his administration responded.

Minnesota’s most prominent Somali American, Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, has urged people not to blame an entire community for the actions of a relative few.

Golden writes for the Associated Press.

Dec. 31 (UPI) — At least six people, three of them children, were injured in the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa in a Russian drone strike overnight that blacked out parts of the city, cutting off electricity, water and heat, said local officials.

The victims, including a 7-month-old infant, an 8-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy, belonged to two families in the same apartment building after Shahed-type drones targeted residential areas, causing structural damage and setting apartments ablaze.

Four buildings were hit in all, with firefighters rescuing at least eight people from one burning high-rise.

Private energy provider DTEK said two of its facilities in the region had been badly damaged, bringing to 10 the number of its plants attacked since the beginning of December.

Across the province, more than 170,000 people were without power, Deputy Energy Minister Oleksandr Vyazovchenko said.

Elsewhere in Odessa Oblast, logistics warehouses were set on fire in a separate strike.

The attacks came amid a sustained aerial campaign targeting port, energy and civilian infrastructure in the strategically key coastal province, which sits on the Black Sea.

The drones menacing Odessa overnight were among 127 that injured at least five other people across Kyiv, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson provinces. The Ukrainian Air Force said it downed or disabled all but 26 of the UAVs.

Over the past day, at least three people were killed by Russian artillery fire in the frontline regions of Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv.

Another three civilians were killed and four were injured in the eastern Donetsk province, where Ukrainian forces are engaged in intense battles with Russian forces to hold onto the remaining territory they control.

The attacks follow claims by the Kremlin of an attempted strike by Ukrainian drones on the state residence of President Vladimir Putin, northwest of Moscow, on Monday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov vowed the attack, which he described as terrorism, would not go unanswered and warned it would affect the current peace talks.

Kyiv categorically rejected the claim, with President Volodymyr Zelensky calling it a “complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine” and cover for Moscow’s refusal to take steps to end the war.

Liverpool and Wolves paid tribute to Diogo Jota on an emotional day at Anfield as his two former sides met for the first time since his death.

The Portugal forward, 28, was killed in a car crash in Spain in July, alongside his 25-year-old brother Andre Silva.

Jota joined Liverpool in 2020 after three seasons with Wolves.

Dinis and Duarte, two of his three children, joined the matchday mascots on the pitch before their Premier League game on Saturday.

Jota’s sons, along with other young family members, led the Liverpool team out of the tunnel, walking out ahead of captain Virgil van Dijk.

Jota’s wife, Rute Cardoso, was also in attendance.

A banner which read ‘Diogo Jota, forever in our hearts’ was held aloft in the Kop stand before kick-off.

Chants of “Diogo, Diogo, Diogo” rang out from the Wolves fans in the away end before all of Anfield stood and applauded as Liverpool supporters sang in tribute to Jota in the 20th minute.

Dutch midfielder Ryan Gravenberch scored Liverpool‘s opener and dedicated it to Jota – recreating the shark-style celebration that the Portugal forward sometimes used.

CARDI B’s boyfriend Stefon Diggs seemed to finally confirm he has welcomed more than one baby this year.

The New England Patriots player, 32 – who welcomed a son with rapper Cardi in November – posted three separate photos of three infants on his Instagram Stories on Christmas Day.

In one, Stefon held a baby boy in front of a colorful Christmas tree.

“One of my boys’ first Christmas,” he proudly posted.

The identity of the baby’s mother is unclear- though Stefon was rumored to have fathered a mystery child after TMZ obtained photos of him loading a baby carrier outside a New York hospital in May.

In the second photo, the NFL star posed with a baby girl – who appears to be Charliee, his daughter with Instagram model Lord Gisselle, who also goes by Aileen Lopera.

HOT MAMA

Cardi B amazes fans by going out HOURS after announcing birth of her 4th baby

The U.S. Sun exclusively confirmed Stefon was the father of Aileen’s baby after she took him to court to confirm paternity and request child support in Los Angeles.

The baby was born in April 2025 – just seven months before Cardi gave birth to his son.

In Stefon’s third photo, Cardi, 33, held their son in front of a sparkling Christmas tree.

“Miss yaw!” he captioned the pic. “Don’t be squeezing him too tight, you making him soft.”

Cardi and Stefon first stepped out publicly in May of this year, and she announced her pregnancy in September.

She is the mother of three kids with ex Offset- Kulture, Wave and Blossom. She gave birth to her youngest daughter in September 2024.

Stefon also has an older daughter named Nova, 8.

A Colorado mother who is accused of murdering two of her children has been extradited from the UK to the US, authorities say.

Kimberlee Singler, 37, is alleged to have carried out the attack in Colorado before fleeing to London, where she was arrested in December 2023.

She challenged her extradition at Westminster Magistrates Court – reportedly on the basis that her sentence, if she was convicted, would break European human rights law. But she was unsuccessful.

A district attorney in Colorado confirmed on Tuesday that Ms Singler was back in the US and was in custody. She was being held without bond and was expected to appear in court “in the coming days”.

The district attorney, Michael Allen, said Ms Singler was facing charges of two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, three counts of child abuse and one count of assault.

At the extradition hearing in London, the court heard that Ms Singler’s alleged crimes were “committed against the backdrop of acrimonious court proceedings” relating to the custody of her children with her ex-husband.

Prosecutor Joel Smith said police in Colorado Springs responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a Colorado residence at 00:29 local time (06:29 GMT) on 19 December 2023.

When officers arrived at the defendant’s address, they found her 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son dead and a “blood-stained handgun”, which was discovered on the floor of the bedroom.

Mr Smith said DNA tests were carried out on the gun and a knife which revealed the presence of mixed profiles matching the children and Ms Singler.

A third child, who has not been named, was found with a serious injury to her neck. She was taken to hospital and survived.

Mr Smith said Ms Singler blamed her husband for the attack, but it was found he had been driving a “GPS-tracked truck” in Denver, giving what the prosecutor described as a “complete and verifiable alibi”.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Adrian Vasquez, the Colorado Springs police chief, said the extradition of Ms Singler was “a significant milestone” in the investigation.

Chief Vasquez added: “I know these acts have deeply impacted this community, and our hearts remain with the victims.”

Christmas is a time for the whole family, including the very youngest members of the household.

With Christmas Day just hours away, families are on the hunt for festive films that cater to all ages.

A flurry of new Christmas movies have recently hit the screens, from Netflix‘s Champagne Problems and My Secret Santa to Prime Video‘s Oh. What Fun.

However, these might not be the most suitable picks for the younger audience. So, here’s a guide to where you can catch some of the top-notch Christmas films for children.

Christmas films for children and toddlers

The Snowman

The 1980s classic fantasy animation, The Snowman, is an iconic and charming viewing experience for the entire family.

The Snowman spins the story of a young lad who crafts a snowman that springs to life while everyone else is fast asleep, whisking him off on an extraordinary journey.

Adding to the thrill is the fact that the narrative is introduced by none other than the late glam rock legend David Bowie.

The Snowman is available on Channel 4.

Mickey Mouse’s Once Upon A Christmas

Mickey Mouse also has his own holiday film with Once Upon A Christmas, a compilation-style movie featuring three separate tales about love, kinship and the spirit of giving.

This animated Disney gem stars Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Daisy Duck, Pluto, and naturally, Mickey Mouse himself.

Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas is available to watch on Disney+.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

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A Charlie Brown Christmas may be celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, but it remains a timeless classic for good reason.

Disheartened by the commercialisation of the holiday season, Charlie embarks on a quest to uncover the true essence of Christmas by directing his school’s nativity.

Through this venture, he discovers that Christmas isn’t about material possessions but love and the celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth.

A Charlie Brown Christmas is available on Apple TV.

Arthur Christmas

Featuring the voices of James McAvoy and Bill Nighy, Arthur Christmas centres around Santa Claus’ well-meaning but bumbling grandson, Arthur.

Upon realising that Santa has overlooked delivering a present to a little girl on Christmas Eve, Arthur embarks on a frantic last-minute quest to ensure it reaches her before daybreak.

Arthur Christmas is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, or for streaming via Sky Go or NOW.

Klaus

Another contemporary Christmas family favourite is Klaus, which explores the origin story of Santa Claus.

After spoilt postman Jesper is banished to the desolate town of Smeerensburg, he teams up with reclusive woodsman Klaus to distribute toys, igniting community spirit and a cherished new tradition.

Klaus can be streamed on Netflix.

The Polar Express

Voiced by the legendary actor Tom Hanks, The Polar Express follows a young lad who, doubting the magic of Christmas, embarks on an enchanting train journey to the North Pole.

During his voyage, he forms new friendships and experiences the true essence of Christmas.

The Polar Express is available for rent or purchase on Prime Video, or for streaming via Sky Go or NOW.

The Muppet Christmas Carol

Often hailed as one of the greatest Christmas films ever, the 1990s flick The Muppets Christmas Carol holds a special place in many hearts.

Featuring Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Rizzo and the rest of the Muppets crew, these endearing puppets breathe life into Charles Dickens’ timeless story, A Christmas Carol.

At the centre of this yuletide film is none other than actor Michael Caine, portraying the curmudgeonly Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Muppet Christmas Carol can be viewed on Disney+.

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has warned that babies and children in the Gaza Strip are dying from harsh winter weather, calling on Israel to ease its aid blockade as the military continues to violate the ceasefire and press on with its genocidal war.

Citing the death of a 29-day-old premature baby, Said Asad Abedin, from severe hypothermia in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, MSF said on Friday that winter storms “combined with the already dire living conditions [are] increasing health risks”.

The death toll from extreme weather stood at 13 as of Thursday, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health. Another two-week-old baby, Mohammed Khalil Abu al-Khair, froze to death without access to proper shelter or clothing earlier this week.

Ahmed al-Farra, head of the maternity paediatric department at Nasser Medical Complex, said in a video update that “hypothermia is very dangerous” for babies. “If nothing is offered for these families in the tents, for warming, for mobile homes, for caravans, unfortunately, we will see more and more” deaths, al-Farra said.

Children are “losing their lives because they lack the most basic items for survival,” Bilal Abu Saada, a nursing team supervisor at Nasser Hospital, told MSF. “Babies are arriving to the hospital cold, with near-death vital signs.”

In addition to the growing number of deaths, MSF said its staff has recorded high rates of respiratory infections that it expects to increase throughout the winter, posing a particular danger to children under five.

“As Gaza is battered by heavy rains and storms, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians continue to struggle in flooded and broken makeshift tents,” the organisation added. “MSF calls on Israeli authorities to urgently allow a massive scale up of aid into the Strip.”

No letup in Israeli attacks

Palestinian news agency Wafa, meanwhile, reported that Israeli forces demolished buildings, carried out artillery shelling and shot guns in areas east of Gaza City on Saturday morning, with more gunfire reported east of Khan Younis.

On Friday, an Israeli strike on a shelter for displaced Palestinians killed at least six people. The Israeli military claimed to be firing on “suspects”.

Graphic videos from the scene showed body parts and terrified civilians trying to carry wounded people out of danger.

Military vehicles also descended upon the town of az-Zawiya, located west of Salfit in the occupied West Bank, where forces severely beat and injured a number of citizens and stormed homes, the agency said.

‘I can still hear his tiny cries’

Heavy rain, high winds and freezing temperatures have battered Gaza in recent weeks, flooding or blowing away more than 53,000 tents that have served as makeshift shelters for displaced Palestinians.

With huge swaths of buildings and infrastructure destroyed, streets are quick to flood and sewage overflows. Displaced families have sought refuge in the shells of partially fallen-down buildings despite the risk of collapse, with 13 buildings caving in across Gaza last week.

The winter weather and Israel’s blocking of vital aid and mobile homes for shelter have proven deadly for children and babies.

Late in the evening of December 13, Eman Abu al-Khair, a 34-year-old displaced Palestinian living in al-Mawasi west of Khan Younis, found her sleeping baby Mohammed “cold as ice”, his hands and feet frozen and “his face stiff and yellowish”, she told Al Jazeera.

She and her husband couldn’t find transportation to get to hospital, and intense rain made it impossible to make the trek by foot.

After rushing Mohammed by animal-drawn cart to Red Crescent Hospital in Khan Younis at dawn, he was admitted to intensive care with a blue face and convulsions. He died two days later.

“I can still hear his tiny cries in my ears,” Eman said. “I sleep and drift off, unable to believe that his crying and waking me at night will never happen again.”

Mohammed “had no medical problems,” she added. “His tiny body simply couldn’t withstand the extreme cold inside the tents.”

Since the October 10 ceasefire took effect, Israel has continued to block the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip despite calls from a host of United Nations agencies, international organisations and other states for it to stop.

The UN has said that Israel has prevented tents and blankets from reaching Palestinians, even as an estimated 55,000 families have seen their belongings and shelters damaged or destroyed in the storm.

Dozens of child-friendly spaces have also been damaged, affecting 30,000 children, according to the UN.

Natasha Hall, a senior advocate for Refugees International, told Al Jazeera that aid is entering Gaza in a “trickle” in part due to its opaque list of “controlled dual-use items” that has included nappies, bandages, tools, tents and other essentials.

“It’s unclear how those could be used as weapons or any kind of dual use,” Hall said.

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.