children

Los Angeles public schools are opening Thursday for the new academic year confronting an intense and historically unique moment: They will be operating in opposition to the federal government’s immigration raids and have set in motion aggressive moves to protect children and their immigrant parents.

School police and officers from several municipal forces will patrol near some 100 schools, setting up “safe zones” in heavily Latino neighborhoods, with a special concentration at high schools where older Latino students are walking to campus. Bus routes are being changed to better serve areas with immigrant families so children can get to school with less exposure to immigration agents.

Community volunteers will join district staff and contractors to serve as scouts — alerting campuses of nearby enforcement actions so schools can be locked down as warranted and parents and others in the school community can be quickly notified via email and text.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass spoke about “how profound this moment is in U.S. history” during a Monday news conference with local officials.

“Here you have an entire array of elected officials, appointed officials, education leaders, people committed to our children, and we are gathered here today to talk about protecting our children from the federal government,” Bass said.

L.A. schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho said recently that the nation’s second-largest school system will oppose “any entity, at any level, that seeks to interfere with the educational process of our children. We are standing on the right side of the Constitution, and years from now, I guarantee you, we will have stood on the right side of history. We know that.”

High school boy mistakenly handcuffed

The worries among school officials and parents are not without cause.

On Monday federal agents reportedly drew their guns on a 15-year-old boy and handcuffed him outside Arleta High School. The confrontation ended with de-escalation. Family members persuaded federal agents that the boy — who is disabled — was not the person they were looking for, Carvalho said.

The situation was largely resolved by the time the school principal realized what was going on and rushed out to assist. School police also arrived and scooped up unspent bullets dropped on the ground by the agents, Carvalho said.

A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday that Arleta High was not being targeted. Instead agents were conducting “a targeted operation” on a “criminal illegal alien,” they described as “a Salvadoran national and suspected MS-13 pledge with prior criminal convictions in the broader vicinity of Arleta.”

At a Tuesday White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, responded to a question that referenced the L.A. Times reporting about the incident.

“I’ll have to look into the veracity of that report,” Leavitt said. “I read the L.A. Times almost every single day, and they are notorious for misleading the public… This administration wants to ensure that all school children across the country, in every city, from Los Angeles to D.C., can go to school safely.”

LAUSD will oppose “any entity, at any level, that seeks to interfere with the educational process of our children,” said Supt. Alberto Carvalho recently.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

School communities in fear

The incident outside Arleta High is among the ongoing confrontations across the region that have provoked public protests and prompted the Trump administration in June to deploy troops to Los Angeles. Enforcement actions have included masked agents arresting people at parking lots, in parks, on sidewalks and next to bus stops.

Litigation, including a temporary restraining order, appears to have slowed down local immigration raids, but federal officials have strongly affirmed that they have not stopped.

Trump administration policy is that no location — including a school — is off limits for enforcement actions in his drive to deport at least 1 million immigrants a year.

“People in our country illegally can self-deport the easy way, or they can get deported the hard way. And that’s not pleasant,” Trump said in a video posted to a White House social account.

“A big part of it is to create the sense of fear so people will self-deport,” said Jimmy Gomez, a Trump critic and Democratic member of Congress representing Los Angeles.

The ripple effect is that school communities are experiencing fear and trauma, worried that agents will descend on or near campuses.

Most in the state’s public school systems, including in L.A. Unified have embraced a counter mission, protecting the right of children — regardless of immigration status — to a public education. That right to an education is, so far, protected by past U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

For most school officials up and down the state, a necessary corollary to that right is safeguarding students’ guardians and close relatives.

On Tuesday, 30 school board members from L.A. County — which has 80 school districts — convened in Hawthorne to emphasize their own focus on protecting immigrant families.

“We’re about to welcome students back to schools, but we’re very concerned that these fears and anxieties may potentially have an impact for students not wanting to come back,” said Lynwood Unified school board member Alma Castro, an organizer of the event.

She called her district a “safe haven.” Among other measures, her district has trained staff to “restrict the sharing of any student files, any student information, and there’s been some work with thinking about our facilities to ensure that we have campuses that are closed off, that people can’t just walk in.”

L.A. Unified, along with other school districts, has embraced a mission to protect the right of children — regardless of immigration status — to a public education.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

Protecting immigrant families

L.A. Unified, with about 400,000 students, has been layering on protections for months, recently working to incorporate ideas advocated by the teachers union and immigrant-rights groups.

A major ongoing effort is building safe-passage networks one, two and three blocks out from a campus. Participants include paid outside groups, district employees and volunteer activists. School police — though diminished in numbers due to staffing cuts — are to patrol sensitive areas and are on call to move quickly to where situations arise. Some anti-police activists want the protective mission accomplished without any role for school police.

A safe-passage presence has expanded from 40 schools last year to at least 100 this year, among about 1,000 campuses total, Carvalho said.

“It is virtually impossible, considering the size of our community, to ensure that we have one caring, compassionate individual in every street corner in every street,” Carvalho said. “But we are deploying resources at a level never before seen in our district.”

Other various efforts include:

• Starting a task force to coordinate safe passage zones with local cities
• Setting up a donor-supported compassion fund to help families with legal and other costs
• Coordinating food aid for families in hiding
• Providing legal referrals
• Contacting more than 10,000 families to encourage them to send children to schools
• Providing information about online schooling options
• Distributing a “family preparedness” guide

Carvalho and leaders of other school districts reiterated that K-12 campuses and anything related to schooling, such as a school bus or a graduation ceremony, will be off limits to immigration agents unless they have a valid judicial warrant for a specific individual — which has been rare.

“We do not know what the enrollment will be like,” Carvalho said. “We know many parents may have already left our community. They may have self-deported… We hope that through our communication efforts, our awareness efforts, information and the direct counseling with students and parents, that we’ll be able to provide stable attendance for kids in our community.”

Reason to be afraid

Mary, a Los Angeles mother of three without legal status, was terrified, but more or less knew what to do when immigration agents came to her door twice in May for a “wellness check” on her children: She did not let them in to her home. She did not step outside.

And, eventually, the agents — at least eight of them who arrived with at least three vehicles — left.

Mary had learned about what to do in this situation from her Los Angeles public school.

Mary, who requested that her full name not be used, has three children, one of whom attends an Alliance College-Ready charter school, a network of 26 privately operated public schools.

Like L.A. Unified, Alliance has trained staff on the legal rights of immigrants and also trained parents about how to handle encounters with immigration agents and where to go for help.

Alliance largely serves low-income, Latino communities and the immigration raids affected attendance in the school last year. Normally, attendance runs about 90% at the end of their school year. This June, average daily attendance at 14 Alliance high schools had dipped below 80%. Six fell below 70% and one dropped as low as 57.5%.

Alliance also attempted to gather deportation data. Nine families responded in a school network that enrolls about 13,000. In two cases, students were deported; three other students had family members deported; one student and a sibling were in a family that self-deported; one student was detained; two families reported facing deportation proceedings.

While these numbers are small, the reports are more than enough to heighten fear within the community. And some families may have declined to be candid about their circumstances.

“What’s happening now is that no one is safe anywhere, not even in your home, at work, outside, taking a stroll,” L.A. school board member Rocio Rivas said in an interview.

Still, Rivas is encouraging families to send children to school, which she considers safer than other places.

Alliance is focusing heavily on mental-health support and also arranging carpools to and from school — in which the driver is a U.S. citizen, said Omar Reyes, a superintendent of instruction at the Alliance charter group.

Carvalho, a onetime undocumented immigrant himself, said that students deserve a traditional and joyous first day followed by a school year without trauma.

Children, he said, “inherently deserve dignity, humanity, love, empathy, compassion and great education.

Times staff writer Andrea Castillo contributed to this report.

FOUR children have been detained after allegedly stealing a car and mowing down an elderly woman before fleeing the scene.

Cecilia De Astis, 71, died after being struck by an out-of-control vehicle while walking in the Italian city of Milan on Monday.

3

3

3

The grandma had just left a lunch at the “House of Solidarity” – run by the Brothers of St. Francis – in her local Gratosoglio neighbourhood when the tragic incident occurred, reports Italian outlet La Stampa.

Local police took four children – aged between 11 and 13 – into custody on suspicion of vehicular homicide aggravated by failure to provide assistance.

The children were identified by the T-shirts they were wearing, which had been caught on surveillance cameras from a nearby shop.

Under Italian law, children under 14 are not criminally liable.

The minors were tracked down at a Roma settlement on Via Selvanesco, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano.

The stolen Citroën reportedly skidded, crashed into a curb and struck De Astis – throwing her several metres into the air – before slamming into a nearby road sign.

The impact was said to have been devastating – despite emergency services’ quick arrival, nothing could be done to save the woman.

Her sons, Gaetano and Filippo, arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and collected the few belongings left scattered on the road – including the face of their mum’s wristwatch.

Originally from Puglia, De Astis had worked for over 30 years as a textile worker at the Cederna cotton mill before retiring, according to La Stampa.

Dozens of messages of condolence have reportedly been posted in a social media group created by former mill employees.

De Astis had dinner with her sons the night before the incident.

“The only blessing is that we managed to have dinner together the night before,” they told the newspaper.

Her granddaughter said: “She was my second mother, we grew up together. She was a good woman. You can’t die like that.”

The stolen Citroën – which had French number plates – reportedly belonged to a 20-year-old from Strasbourg who was visiting Milan with three friends.

He had parked the car about a mile from the scene and gone to visit the Leonardo da Vinci Museum of Science and Technology with his friends, only to return and find it missing.

He reported it stolen on Sunday evening.

It comes as a popular travel influencer couple who documented their van life adventures online have died in an off-road crash.

Stacey Tourout and Matthew Yeomans reportedly lost control while driving through rough terrain in the mountains near Trout Lake, British Columbia, Canada.

The Canadian couple ran the Toyota World Runners YouTube channel, which had over 200,000 subscribers, and also built a following of 72,000 on Instagram.

News of their deaths was shared by friends and family on social media and confirmed by Kaslo Search and Rescue, who responded to the scene.

It’s 1:00 p.m., and the sun in Maiduguri, North East Nigeria, scorches without mercy – too hot to stand still and too bright to keep eyes open. Under the blistering heat, however, children clutch their bowls tightly, roaming the streets for food.

When it rains, they shiver violently, teeth clattering loud enough to be heard from several feet away, their stomachs rumbling, their eyes scanning for anything edible. With bleeding heels and limps from split soles, their skin looks cracked during the harmattan. They often wander around, drifting through dumpsites with empty bowls or plastic bags clutched to their sides.

At fast food joints, they watch others eat, swatting flies from their eyes and the corners of their mouths, waiting for crumbs or spilt leftovers. By nightfall, they curl under bridges or behind kiosks, sleeping beneath shop awnings, or wherever a patch of shadow might pass for shelter. 

They survive on dumpsites and gutters, scavenging for scraps, stretching out their palms to uninterested pedestrians, and knocking on car windows with quiet pleas. Some chant, some mumble, and some say nothing at all. It rarely makes a difference; most of the time, no one listens. 

HumAngle has spoken to scores of children uprooted and shaped by the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeastern region. Broken and disadvantaged, many of these children say they resort to scavenging at dumpsites to survive, searching through refuse to feed themselves and support their families.

Twelve-year-old Ibrahim Ali, one of the scavenging boys HumAngle interviewed, returns with some metal scraps from a day-long exploration. “I always look for metal scraps that I can sell to support my family,” Ibrahim said. “On a good day, I find three to four kilos of metal that I sell for ₦300 per kilo. But on normal days, I get less than that. Sometimes I may end up without getting any scraps worth selling.”

The Boko Haram conflict unravelled the social safety net entirely. It swelled the ranks of the homeless, turned children into scavengers, and broke the links between family, education, and protection. When two cases of child abuse surfaced recently in the media, the public had a rare glimpse into the routine violence many children silently endure. The first involved a schoolgirl caught plucking mangoes, who was beaten with fists and kicks by the tree’s owner. The second was a video that emerged from a Tsangaya school: a boy stripped shirtless, doused with water, sand poured over him, and lashed mercilessly by his teacher.

The backlash was swift. The teacher was arrested. The state awarded the boy a scholarship. There was outrage. There were hashtags. However, the troubles facing children caught up in war zones are far more disturbing; the future of many of them is held to ransom by terrorists, ruining lives and properties in the suburbs of Borno state.

Bama, for instance, was once a bustling commercial hub, a critical trade link for merchants from Cameroon and neighbouring Nigerian states. But in 2014, it became the first major town to fall to Boko Haram. What followed was the collapse of life as it had once been. When the military reclaimed the town, a deepening humanitarian crisis emerged. Today in Bama, children roam the streets. Many have no idea where their parents are or what it means to be cared for.

These gaps in protection are realities carved into the lives of children like Adamu and Bala, who are forced to navigate survival without the support of family.

Adamu is just 10 years old, yet he carries himself with the hollowed, guarded manner of someone much older. He lives alone in a displacement camp in Bama, a place originally meant to provide safety, but where no one takes responsibility for him. “I don’t know who my parents are,” he said quietly, avoiding eye contact. “I just sleep anywhere in the camp. Sometimes near the fence, or by the market sheds.”

At sunrise, he sets out for Bama town, wandering in search of food. “In the morning, I go to town to beg. That’s how I survive,” he said. 

In Konduga, 12-year-old Bala lives a different but equally difficult life. He shares a shelter in the IDP camp with his mother and two younger brothers, but the conditions are dire. “We don’t have food,” he said. “I beg on the streets to eat.” His father disappeared years ago, and Bala doesn’t know whether he’s alive or dead. Now, as the oldest child, he bears a responsibility far beyond his age, providing for his family.

Both boys are among the estimated 2.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno, more than half of whom are children. Despite the scale of the need, investment in education remains limited. Between 2020 and 2023, the Education Cannot Wait (ECW) initiative allocated US$20.1 million to support nearly 2.9 million children across Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. In 2024, it pledged another US$15 million to reach over 130,000 more. 

“We cannot talk about algebra when they haven’t eaten,” said Mohammad Bunu, an educationist working with displaced and vulnerable children in northeastern Nigeria. The real crisis isn’t infrastructure; it’s the disconnect between formal education models and the survival realities of children in camps and communities, he said.

Bunu calls for a shift toward community-based education that combines basic literacy with vocational training, such as carpentry, tailoring, agriculture, and technology. “They need a path beyond begging or just attending school. Reintegration isn’t only for ex-combatants. We must invest in skills that restore dignity.

Longkat Enock, a clinical psychologist, adds that education must have structured emotional support. “You can’t heal a broken society if you ignore its broken children,” he warned. “They’ve seen killings, starvation and abandonment, yet no one asks how they feel.”

Longkat advocates for trained counsellors, safe spaces, and mentorship. “If we keep acting like food and books alone are enough, we’ll be here again in ten years, facing even more shattered futures.”

“We’re not just talking about children missing school, we’re talking about children missing entire stages of development,” said Bunu. “In many of these camps, there’s no structure, no routine, no trained teachers. It’s impossible to talk about rebuilding a society without rebuilding its education system first.”

The coordinators of a makeshift displacement camp at the Government Day Science Secondary School (GDSSS) in Bama say they host over 109,000 people, including more than 64,000 children.

When HumAngle visited the GDSSS school within the camp, the classrooms were empty, and only five teachers were present. “We don’t have more than 50 pupils attending class regularly,” one teacher said.

“When these boys grow up without any care, what will they turn into?” asked Bulama Abdu, a community elder in Bama. “We suffered from one generation of angry boys with guns. Are we raising another?”

“Conflict doesn’t end by hosting displaced people at camps or even back to their communities. If children are left without education, stability, or guidance, the trauma festers. They become vulnerable to criminality, violence, even new forms of extremism,” Enock added.

This concern is similar in post-conflict zones. In South Sudan, neglected war-affected youth became prime targets for militia recruitment. In post-war Liberia, years of childhood abandonment fed into cycles of urban violence. The Nigerian government has refused to articulate a long-term reintegration and education policy specifically targeting children displaced or affected by the Boko Haram conflict. 

Reintegration efforts in the northeastern region largely prioritise ex-combatants, neglecting civilian victims and displaced children. Education-in-emergencies programs, such as learning centres for orphans, remain donor-dependent and limited in scale. Just 27 per cent of school-aged children in humanitarian response plans have received adequate education support, leaving the vast majority without access.

Health educators note that many Nigerians resist birth control on religious grounds. One family-planning counsellor explained that when the term for “family planning” (literally “limiting birth”) was introduced in Hausa (“Kaiyadde Iyali”), people instantly objected, asking, “Who are you to limit birth?”.  They cite Qur’anic teaching that “Allah will provide for all children.” Many of them see large families as divinely ordained and avoid family planning on faith-based grounds.

Traditional socioeconomics also favour big families.  In rural northern society, women live mostly at home and rely on children for chores and farm work.  Children thus serve as household labour and social security.  Having many sons or daughters brings status and assistance.

When HumAngle randomly spoke to some young persons in Maiduguri, the sentiment was nearly unanimous: family planning is perceived as a Western concept, alien to their values. Most respondents said they desired at least eight children, with several aiming for ten or more. “It is God who takes care of children,” said one of the young men. “Every child comes with their destiny. If he makes it, he will make it. If not, nothing the parents do will change that.”

For 27-year-old Adamu Ali, fathering ten children is part of his plan. “At least five of them will grow up to look after me when I’m old,” he said with conviction. His rationale is not uncommon in most northern communities where the collapse of formal social safety nets has reinforced the reliance on children as a form of long-term security.

UNICEF reports that Borno has one of Nigeria’s highest out-of-school rates, as roughly 1.8 million children lack access to schooling. A study found that conflict-affected women showed increased preference for larger families, viewing “more children as a coping strategy amid insecurity, seeking enhanced social and economic security, or replacing lost members during the conflict”. 

In other words, families often cling to the belief that God will provide for any children they have, even when resources vanish.  Humanitarian workers and relatives thus become the de facto caregivers for these unplanned generations, as villagers insist on growing their families in the hope of divine provision.

The ongoing boko haram conflict has shattered traditional support systems. Where once extended families or religious communities would help raise children, displacement and poverty have made that impossible.

“We don’t plan children,” said Hajja Fatima, a 45-year-old widow in Maiduguri raising six children alone. “That is God’s work. If he gives, you take.”

Legal expert have urged Brits travelling abroad with their kids not to forget one key document this summer – or risk facing ‘unwanted disruption’ before they board the plane

Parents have been urged to bring one key document with them when travelling abroad this summer, or risk being turned away at the airport. The school holidays are rapidly approaching, meaning millions of Brits will be getting ready to jet off for some much-needed Vitamin D.

If you’re heading abroad with your kids, you’ll inevitably already have a long list of essentials to pack – from spare clothes to games and lots of suncream. However, experts over at law firm Richard Nelson LLP have warned that divorced/separated parents should also bring an important letter with them to avoid any ‘unwanted disruptions’.

READ MORE: Having one common drink on holiday could make you sick warns expert

In a statement sent to the Mirror, the firm explained that for a child to be taken abroad, all people with parental responsibility need to agree to the decision.

Mothers are automatically granted parental responsibility at birth, while fathers acquire parental responsibility upon marriage. It’s not widely known, but taking a child abroad without permission is actually classed as child abduction – a serious offence.

“With that in mind, a consent letter from the non-travelling parent is critical,” the experts said. “[This is] a signed letter which provides proof that your ex-partner has agreed to you holidaying abroad should you ever be challenged while travelling. “

The letter should include the other parent’s contact details as well as information about you’re holiday, including the address of your accommodation. If your child has a different surname from you, the letter must also explain this.

However, if you’ve not been able to get permission from your child’s other parents to take them abroad, you may have to seek permission from a court. “If you’re relying on a court order to take your child abroad it’s imperative to allow as much time as possible for the case to be heard,” warned Ann Owens, consultant solicitor at Richard Nelson LLP.

“While you can request an urgent court order these can take more than a week to go through the courts. For those who have been successful in gaining permission this way then you must travel with a sealed copy of the Court Order with you.”

Ann explained that border officials may ask for proof of your legal right to take the child abroad at the airport. “If you can’t provide it, you may be turned away at customs,” she added.

The legal firm also advised bringing your child’s birth or adoption certificate with you to be safe, to provide additional proof of your relation to the kid. If you do have a different last name from your child due to a divorce or new marriage, it may also be wise to bring your divorce or marriage certificate along with you as well. Of course, travelling with all of your family’s passports is a must too.

“While, like the UK, many countries have the legal age of adulthood standing at 18, some have it set as older or younger,” said. “It is important to check the age of adult responsibility in the location you are holidaying in. For instance, you may also need documents for a 19-year-old child when travelling to some Canadian territories.”

Do you have a story to share? Email us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured.

The United Kingdom says it is working with Jordan on “forward plans” to airdrop aid into besieged Gaza and evacuate children needing medical care as Israel’s forced starvation and bombardment of Palestinians fuel global outrage.

Two infants on Saturday became the latest Palestinian children to die from malnutrition. Hospitals in Gaza have now recorded five new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. The total number of starvation deaths in the territory has risen to 127, including 85 children.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the proposal on Saturday in an emergency call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

In a readout of the call, the UK government said the leaders had
agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace,” according to Britain’s Press Association.

“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” the readout said.

Starmer’s Labour government has been roundly accused at home of doing too little too late to alleviate the intense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have been protesting weekly against Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, making it clear they feel their voices aren’t being heard.

Public anger has been further stoked as police in the UK arrested more than 100 people at peaceful protests across the country last weekend that called for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action to be reversed.

Demonstrations took place on Saturday in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro and London as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.

Starmer is also facing mounting pressure to recognise a Palestinian state as France has said it will do at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. More than 200 British parliamentarians urged the prime minister to take this course of action this week.

There has been further controversy over accusations the UK government has continued with arms sales to Israel despite stating it had scaled back weapons sales.

A report in May found that UK firms have continued to export military items to Israel despite a government suspension in September amid allegations that the UK Parliament has been deliberately “misled”.

The report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed that the UK sent “8,630 separate munitions since the suspensions took effect, all in the category ‘Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof-Other’.

‘Waiting for the green light to get into Gaza’

In the meantime, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said proposed airdrops of aid would be an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that could kill starving Palestinians.

Israel said on Friday that it will allow airdrops of food and supplies from foreign countries into Gaza in the coming days in response to critical food shortages caused by its punishing months-long blockade.

But in a social media post, Lazzarini said the airdrops would “not reverse the deepening starvation” and called instead for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need.”

Airdrops, he said, are “expensive, inefficient [and] can even kill starving civilians”. “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will,” he said, calling on Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at scale in Gaza “without bureaucratic or political hurdles”.

He said UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt “waiting for the green light to get into Gaza”. “Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer” than airdrops, he said, adding that it is also more dignified for the people of Gaza.

More than 100 aid and human rights groups this week called on governments to take urgent action as a hunger crisis engulfs Gaza, including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid.

In a statement signed and released on Wednesday by 109 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders (also known as MSF), the groups warned that deepening starvation of the population was spreading across the besieged enclave.

Rescue teams race to find survivors after deadly school building collapse in western India.

At least four children have been killed and 17 others injured after the roof of a school building collapsed in India’s western state of Rajasthan, according to local reports.

The tragedy took place on Friday morning shortly after daily prayers at a government-run school in Barmer district. Authorities say about 25 to 30 students were inside the classroom when the ceiling suddenly gave way.

Local police believe the building’s deteriorating structure, worsened by recent heavy rainfall, may have caused the collapse. “Some of the injured are in critical condition,” senior police officer Amit Kumar told the Press Trust of India.

Rajasthan’s education minister, Madan Dilawar, said he had instructed officials to oversee the medical treatment of the injured and ensure families receive support. “I have directed the authorities to make proper arrangements and to oversee the injured children’s treatment, and to ensure they do not face any kind of difficulties,” he told AajTak news channel.

Dilawar added that a formal investigation would be launched to determine the exact cause. “I have also spoken to the collector and directed authorities to take stock of the situation and help in whatever way possible,” he said.

Footage broadcast on Indian television showed locals and emergency workers using cranes to clear debris as anxious parents looked on. The sound of relatives wailing could be heard near the site.

Rescue efforts were ongoing late into the day. Local media said 32 students had been pulled out alive so far, though some were severely injured.

“Instructions have been given to the concerned authorities to ensure proper treatment for the injured children,” Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma said in a statement on X.

Rajasthan, known for its extreme weather, has experienced intense monsoon rains in recent weeks, raising concerns over the safety of ageing infrastructure in rural schools.

Chuck Mangione, the Grammy-winning flugelhorn player and prolific jazz musician known for songs including “Feels So Good” and “Children of Sanchez,” has died.

Mangione died in his sleep Tuesday in his home in Rochester, N.Y., his manager Peter S. Matorin confirmed to The Times on Thursday. He was 84.

The New York native, over the course of his career which began in the 1960s, earned a reputation as a stylish, lyrically smart trumpeter and played alongside jazz giants Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Sam Jones, Ron Carter and Kai Winding. He also collected 14 Grammy nominations, notably winning two prizes: one for his smooth “Bellavia” in 1977 and another a year later for the titular anthem he composed for the 1978 drama “The Children of Sanchez.”

This story is developing.

Video shows extensive damage to a residential area of Kharkiv after the latest Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian city. Officials say at least 37 people were injured, including a 28-day-old baby. The attack comes a day after the latest fruitless round of talks between the two sides.

When Children’s Hospital Los Angeles first told thousands of patients it was shuttering its pediatric gender clinic last month, Jesse Thorn was distraught but confident he could quickly find a new local care team for his kids.

But by the time the Center for Transyouth Health and Development officially closed its doors on Tuesday, the father of three was making plans to flee the country.

“They’re targeting whoever they can,” Thorn said. “[I’m afraid] the police will show up at my door because I took my child to see their doctor.”

Until this week, Children’s was among the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States — and one of few providing puberty blockers, hormones and surgical procedures for trans youth on public insurance.

The closure of the renowned program signals a wider unraveling in the availability of care across the country, experts said. That includes in former safe havens such as California, New York and Illinois, where state laws protecting trans-specific healthcare are crumbling under mounting legal pressure and bureaucratic arm-twisting by the Trump administration.

In the last week, University of Chicago Medicine and Children’s National in D.C. announced they will end or dramatically scale back services for trans youth, following similar moves by Stanford Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Orange County.

“There’s a rapid collapse of the provision of this care in blue states,” said Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and legal instructor at Harvard. “By end of 2025, most care will effectively be banned.”

Some parents in L.A. say they fear the Department of Justice will use private medical data subpoenaed from California’s largest pediatric safety-net hospital to take their children away from them.

“It’s absolutely terrifying,” said Maxine, the mother of a Children’s Hospital patient, who declined to give her last name for fear of attacks on her son.

“I’m very afraid that the DOJ and this acting Attorney General are going to come after parents and use the female genital mutilation law … to prosecute parents and separate me from my child,” she said.

On July 9, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi announced the Department of Justice was subpoenaing patient medical records from more than 20 doctors and clinics, the latest in a cavalcade of legal and technical maneuvers against providers who care for trans youth.

“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Bondi said in a news release announcing the move.

Children’s would not say whether it had been subpoenaed or if it had turned over records responsive to the government’s demand.

The Justice Department was already investigating pediatric specialists for a litany of alleged crimes, from deceptive trade practices to billing fraud. Federal health agencies have vowed to withhold funding from institutions that continue to provide affirming care.

“These threats are no longer theoretical,” Children’s Hospital executives wrote to staff in an internal email announcing the closure June 12. “[They are] threatening our ability to serve the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on CHLA for lifesaving care.”

Advocates say gender-affirming care is also lifesaving. They point to statistics — contested by the federal government and some experts — showing high rates of suicide among trans youth.

In June, the decision to shutter the clinic was widely condemned. Advocates said Children’s Hospital L.A. had “thrown trans kids under the bus” in disregard of state law.

Few are saying that now.

“You could see kids with leukemia being cut off their chemo therapy unless these hospitals stop provide care to trans people,” Caraballo said. “If one of the biggest children’s hospitals in the country couldn’t shoulder that burden, I don’t see many others being able to do so.”

Others agreed.

“No matter what California or any other state has done to say, ‘We want to protect these kids,’ unless they can write checks that equal the amount of money that’s being lost, [programs close],” said Dara E. Purvis, a law professor at Temple University.

So far, the Trump administration has painted parents as victims of “radical gender ideology.”

Some experts warned that as the government tightens the screws on doctors and hospitals, trans teens and their families are likely to seek hormones outside the medical system, including through gray market channels.

“We’ve seen this with abortion,” Caraballo said. “People are going to go about getting it whichever way they can.”

There are fears that families could face prosecution for continuing to seek medications, similar to charges being filed against mothers who have secured abortion pills for their teenagers.

“We’re working with Congress on existing criminal laws related to female genital mutilation to more robustly protect children,” Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle said during a Federal Trade Commission workshop entitled “The Dangers of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors.”

“We are using all of the tools at the Department of Justice to address this issue,” Mizelle said.

For now, dozens of hospitals across California still provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and surgical procedures.

But the list changes almost day to day.

“Even programs that may have been operating a month ago are not operating now,” said Terra Russell-Slavin, chief impact officer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “There’s a lot of concern about even being public about offering care because those agencies become targets.”

With the medical care their children rely on under threat and few promised protections from the state, some families are unsure what the coming months will bring.

For one Orange County father, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation against his trans son, plans for future travel are suddenly in jeopardy.

He said only about half of his son’s identity documents match his gender, and they’ve been warned not to try to change others.

“He won’t be able to leave the country because he can’t get a matching passport,” the father said.

For Maxine, the L.A. mom, balancing the banal with the existential is a daily strain.

“My kid is just living their life. They want to go to concerts, they want to go shopping for back to school — they don’t know any of this is happening,” the mother said. “You have to experience this intense fear while maintaining a normal household for everybody else.”

Three Israeli strikes hit homes and a tent in Gaza City on Tuesday, killing at least 21 people, mostly women and children. The attacks come as the besieged territory faces extreme hunger and ongoing bombardment.

There’s nothing more stressful than travelling with young children, but a mum-of-two has shared a smart travel hack to keep all electronics charged more easily

Travelling with your children can be a joyful experience until their electronics run out of charge – but TikTok influencer Muddle Through Mummy shared her clever hack to keep her children’s belongings charged at all times while abroad, without worrying about bringing tons of adaptors.

After months of work, the only thing one wishes is to go on a holiday to a hot destination. As travelling with children can become difficult, this hack will make your travels less stressful. Different countries have different chargers, which means having multiple adapters is necessary to keep everything fully charged.

READ MORE: Brits are turning to clever travel hacks to maximise their holidays

Parents or not, we’ve all been in the situation when we’ve completely forgotten to pack one of the most important travel items after the passport.

The 10-second video shows the influencer saying goodbye to her tens of adapters and instead, taking an extension cube with USB and charging pods. “It makes travelling with electronics so simple,” she says.

Users flooded the comment section thanking her for the smart hack. One wrote: “Did this on our last trip and it was a lifesaver!!”

A second one commented: “Omg thank you,” with a third one saying: “We’ve got a few of these. Absolutely a life saver; we are a family of 7 and just needed a small suitcase just for wires and leads lol.”

READ MORE: Brits urged to ignore popular travel hack that’s making people miss flights

Known as Muddle Through Mummy, the mother of two has become popular on social media by sharing her parenting hacks, as well as her day-to-day life with her two sons and her husband.

Her relatable content and easy solutions to common parenting problems made her the go-to advisor. The social media influencer currently has 615.5K followers and over 66 million likes on her TikTok account.

Thanks to this travel hack, travelling has never been so much easier. It’s more convenient, less messy, and it can charge up to 10 devices at once, making it ideal for families or even solo travellers with multiple gadgets.

With this simple hack, family travel can be less chaotic and more convenient – just the way a holiday should be.

*Alfred Silas just turned 18. 

He has been in commercial farming for five years. Working on people’s farms for daily wages from the age of 13, he prides himself on a recent promotion to farm manager, one that comes with many responsibilities and a higher wage. 

Lately, he wakes up by 6:00 a.m., hangs his hoe on his shoulder, and strolls to the farm while his younger ones prepare for school. 

A resident of Imburu village in Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, Alfred is a final-year student at the Government Day Secondary School, Imburu. While his schoolmates all over the country are preparing for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) that will qualify them for admission into a university, Alfred hasn’t been in school for about a month now. 

He will also stay out of school for months to come because a different path has been paved for him, a path he accepts with honour. 

Unlike many teenagers in his community who abscond from school to engage in farm labour for quick cash, Alfred was pressed into commercial farming by the weight of family responsibility. From the start of every rainy season in June to the harvest period in September, an average of three months, he stays out of school to work in rice fields. 

“I put school on hold during every farming season so that I can work on people’s farms, earn money, and contribute to household expenses, and besides, my younger siblings are relying on me to take care of them,” he told HumAngle with a distant smile.

Alfred believes his parents don’t make enough money, so when they brought the idea of commercial farming five years ago, he jumped at the offer and has since grown into it. He explained that he had been contributing to household expenses from the age of 13, and now that he is older and has assumed the role of a farm manager, his contribution to household expenses has doubled. 

If he weren’t doing this work, Alfred said, he would like to be in school so he could study to become a doctor like he always wanted. 

While his hard work yields fruits to make ends meet, HumAngle observed that the wages are little compared to what he and many children from other rural communities in Adamawa deserve. 

Farming between lessons 

Seventeen-year-old *Philip Pwanidi is also a final-year student at the Government Day Secondary School in Imburu. 

Philip wakes up as early as 4:00 a.m., and then treks for about 30 minutes from home to the outskirts of the community where the farm he labours on is located. 

“I try my best to balance commercial farming with school,” he told HumAngle. 

“The first thing I do when I get there is turn on the generator so that it can power the water pump, then I head back home and dress for school.”

He stays in school for an average of two hours (8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.). The school grants an hour of refreshment break from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., so Philip rushes back to the farm in his uniform. There, he changes into his work clothes and carries on with farm labour. 

HumAngle spoke to another teen who does commercial farming in a neighbouring community called Zangun, a fertile land under the Numan Local Government Area (LGA) where urban dwellers come to set up farms and hire locals to manage and cultivate. Fifteen-year-old *Betty Godwin is a junior student at the Government Secondary School in this community. 

She has just been contracted to work in a rice field alongside some older women. Betty comes to the farm around 7:00 a.m., works for five hours and takes a break at noon. Then she resumes around 1:00 p.m. and finishes by 3:00 p.m. 

Currently, her work involves transplanting rice in a waterlogged field, and payment is made daily, at the end of every working hour. 

More work, less pay 

It’s been a year since Alfred became a farm manager for his contractor, who doesn’t live in Imburu. While he supervises other young workers in cultivating the lands, he also works. 

Alfred explained that he went to work on the contractor’s rice farm at least five times a week last year, from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

He didn’t get a dime until after three months. 

“My contractor said he was going to pay me at the end of the harvest season, and I agreed. So the planting season to harvest season took three months, and that was when I got my pay,” he said.

Alfred received the sum of ₦100,000 and a bag of rice as compensation for his three months’ labour of over 10 hours daily.

“We harvested over 100 bags of rice. The farm is big, as you can see,” he said,  pointing at the vast land surrounding him. 

He also added that during the harvest, he stayed on the farm for over three days without bathing. He ate there and had to keep awake because his role also included serving as a farm guard.

The harvest period lasted for three and a half days, after which Alfred went home. Now, he has been contracted for the same job with the same terms. He commenced his 10-hour daily labour in June and will be settled in September. 

Philip and other children who are into commercial farming in Imburu are paid ₦1,000 or ₦1,500 per rice bed. 

“If you’re working on two beds a day, that’s ₦2,000 or ₦3,000,” he said.  

Philip explained that as children, they don’t get the chance to negotiate because their payment is fixed. He stressed that it’s nearly impossible for him and the other kids to work on two or more beds in a day, so they mostly do one bed.

He said it takes an average of five hours to cultivate one bed due to its size, and since he’s farming between lessons, he cultivates a bed daily.  

“Sometimes, I come here around 10:00 a.m. and leave by 4:00 p.m. I take out ₦500 from my daily earnings to buy food, and then I go home with ₦1,000, but it’s not even up to that amount all the time because the work always leaves us fatigued, so we buy pain killers, which cost like ₦200, and then go home with ₦800,” Philip said. 

Philip also stated that it’s quite difficult to work daily. “I get tired, so I skip a day or two,” he said. He shows up an average of four times a week and makes about ₦6,000. If he takes out the ₦500 he spends on feeding daily, he smiles home with ₦4,000 a week. He is proud of his earnings, and he is saving them as pocket money.

For adult commercial farmers, the situation is different. In Imburu, HumAngle gathered that adults are paid an average of ₦3,000 daily despite cultivating the same bed size as the children. 

Children like Philip are worried by the pay gap, but he says he has no choice but to accept what he gets.  

“There are so many of us [children] lining up to do this work, and sometimes, if you don’t show up on time, there’s always someone to take up your place. The contractors don’t negotiate. You take it or leave it,” he said, emphasising how competitive it can be. 

Most of the large-scale farmers who are the contractors come from urban centres like Ngbalang, Numan, and Yola. 

Despite working the same 10 hours as older women on the same rice farm in Zangun, Betty is paid ₦1,000, while the women get triple the amount. For instance, 35-year-old Pwataksino Hakuri, Betty’s co-worker and commercial farmer with four years of experience, told HumAngle that she receives ₦3,500 at the end of every successful day. This shows a disturbing wage gap. 

The Child Rights ACT of 2023, a legislation that protects children and young adults in Nigeria, frowns at the engagement of children in any form of labour that is harmful to their development. While the minimum age for employment is 15 years, it was stated that the work must not interfere with the children’s education.

The ACT also condemns all forms of exploitative labour, as some of the provisions state that no child must be employed as a domestic help outside the home or domestic environment. No child must lift or move anything heavy that might affect their physical health or social development, and no child must be employed in an industrial setting that is not registered as a technical school or similar approved institutions.

While the lack of implementation of the Child Rights Act is a major concern, inflation and poverty, among other reasons, were identified as reasons for the growing child labour and continuous exploitation of children in Nigeria.

HumAngle interviewed Joniel Yannam Gregory, a large-scale farmer in Adamawa State. With a major focus on rice farming, he has grown maize, cotton, guinea corn, sweet potato, and soya beans on a large scale across several local government areas in the last four years. 

Speaking on the exploitation that children face from large-scale farmers, Joniel said, “They are cost-friendly. I mean, children can accept whatever pay that is given to them at the end of the day without complaints.” He also added that children give less trouble to the farmers and demand less welfare, as they are not fed on-site by the contractors like adults.

“Children can also work and agree to receive their pay at a much later date than adults who have bills to pay and will want their payment instantly,” Joniel said. 

Addressing the pay gap, Joniel said it’s mainly due to the absence of a definite payment plan between farm contractors, labourers, and managers.

“However, it is also pertinent to note that, even if there are no definite payment plans, the amount of work done by the labourers and the size of land worked on are strong determinants of how a person is paid, whether he’s a child or not,” he said.

Despite the wage gap, Betty is satisfied with her payment. “I live with my grandmother. She’s old and can’t do anything to generate income, so at the end of every day, I take what I make to her,” she said. But she wants to be in school.

“I want to be a nurse. I don’t like this work. I don’t like missing school, but I have no choice,” she said, emphasising the strain of survival. 

But education is free

At the Government Day Secondary School in Imburu, the school administrators are worried about the declining number of students during every farming season. In an interview with HumAngle, Satina Phineas, the school principal, said the situation is worsening. 

“Before, the students in this community usually skip school during every rainy season, but now that irrigation farming is becoming a trend, they also skip school during the dry season,” she said.

Satina said the hustle for quick cash has caused a lot of children to derail from school despite the government’s provision of free education in the state. 

In  2019, Ahmadu Fintiri, the Governor of Adamawa State, announced free education across all public schools in the state. This has since taken effect. Students across primary and secondary schools only pay a token as a parent-teacher association (PTA) levy. Even WAEC and NECO fees are sorted by the government. 

According to the principal, students pay the sum of ₦640 per term as PTA levy, which amounts to ₦1920 each school year.  “The government has cleared their fees. The teachers are here, but they don’t show up,” she lamented.

She also stressed that some of the students get dressed from home but don’t go to school. They go to the commercial farms, then change into their work clothes when their parents think they are in school. She added that the school sanctions defaulters, but despite continuous efforts, the situation remains the same. 

In Zangun Primary and Secondary School, the classes are scanty. 

Onisimun Myakpado, the assistant head teacher at the primary school, explained that the management went as far as organising a workshop to sensitise parents in the community about the relevance of education. 

“The parents contribute to the absence of children from the school because some of them send the children to go and work on these farms,” he said. 

A fact sheet on Nigeria’s education, developed in 2023 by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows how rural and poor children in Nigeria at all levels have below-average school completion rates in comparison to urban and wealthier children, whose completion rate is above average. The report further states that while 90 per cent of children from the wealthiest quintile complete senior secondary education, less than 16 per cent of children from the poorest quintile do so.

“Education is the only thing parents can give their children as a lifetime inheritance,” said Satina. “If these parents don’t support their children to take advantage of the free education scheme, then they are cheating themselves.”

Esther Simon* is a 41-year-old woman from Imburu. Some of her teenage children are into commercial farming. According to her, commercial farming is an option for the children in her household who have no passion for education and don’t do well at school.

“It’s better if they go to the farm and hustle for money since they don’t do well in school,” she told HumAngle.

Esther also has little faith in the educational system and is worried about the unemployment rate in the country. “I know people who drop their certificates and venture into farming because there is no work, so it’s not entirely a bad thing if the children are into commercial farming,” she said.

However, she acknowledged that formal education and commercial farming combined will equip one for a better future.

“It will be great if we have a system here that allows the children to go to school during the day and then do commercial farming in the evening or during weekends,” she added. 

*The asterisked names are pseudonyms we have used to protect the identities of the sources.