All posts tagged: Children

American doctor with Ebola flown to Germany as wife and four children are monitored

American doctor with Ebola flown to Germany as wife and four children are monitored

Published by Sam Flores

By the time the American surgeon who contracted Ebola in Congo was flown to Germany for treatment Tuesday, he was barely able to stand on his own, according to two leaders of the Christian missionary group where he worked. Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content. Dr. Scott Myhre, the East and Central Africa area director for the group, called Serge, described the scene as Dr. Peter Stafford departed. “There were people in full — we call it PPE — the personal protective equipment, and they’re completely covered, and he’s hanging on them barely strong enough to walk,” Myhre said. “He looked really tired and really sick.” Stafford worked at Nyankunde Hospital, which is in Congo’s Ituri province, where the Ebola outbreak is centered. Days before the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the outbreak, Stafford operated on a 33-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain, Myhre said. At the time, doctors thought the patient had a gallbladder infection. Stafford “did an abdominal procedure and found …

Afghans sell their children in grim reality of life under Taliban | World | News

Afghans sell their children in grim reality of life under Taliban | World | News

Published by Sam Flores

Men in Afghanistan have been selling their children to survive poverty under the Taliban, a report from the country has revealed. The Taliban has taken over the country since the US withdrew its troops back in 2021. Since then, the Taliban offensive reestablished the Islamic Emirate, bringing Afghanistan back under their rule. The group intensified their crackdown on human rights, especially against females. The collapse of the economy almost entirely dependent on foreign aid pushed over 90% of the population into poverty and caused a near-total degradation of the local economy. The country is now facing record levels of hunger, with 4.7 million – more than a tenth of Afghanistan’s population – estimated to be one step away from famine. One resident of the badly-affected province Ghor, Abdul Rashid Azimi, told the BBC about his plans about his seven-year-old twins Roqia and Rohila. “I’m willing to sell my daughters,” he said. “I’m poor, in debt and helpless. I come home from work with parched lips, hungry, thirsty, distressed and confused. My children come to me …

End faith school discrimination against SEND children, NSS urges

End faith school discrimination against SEND children, NSS urges

Published by Sam Flores

Efforts to reform special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) education should include a review of the discriminatory effects of faith schools, the National Secular Society has said. Responding to a Government consultation, the NSS highlighted the “significant and growing body of evidence” that faith schools, particularly those which use religiously selective admissions, perpetuate unfairness against those most disadvantaged in our society, including children with SEND. Around a third of publicly funded schools in England are faith schools, with the vast majority being either Church of England or Catholic. Legal exemptions allow these schools to select pupils based on religion in their admissions and prioritise children from families who share the school’s faith. In its response, the NSS pointed to research published by the London School of Economics and Political Science demonstrating that faith-based primary schools admit fewer children with SEND than nonreligious community primaries. Dr Tammy Campbell, who authored the research, concluded many Church of England and Catholic primary schools “serve as hubs of relative advantage, seeming disproportionately to serve children from more affluent families …

The House Article | Children Are Turning To AI Chatbots For Mental Health Support

The House Article | Children Are Turning To AI Chatbots For Mental Health Support

Published by Sam Flores

(Ascannio/Alamy) 9 min read5 hr New data shows young people are turning to AI chatbots for mental health support. Could the trend be an effective way of relieving pressure on an overburdened health service, or are we already playing catch-up in our attempts to limit the fallout? Matilda Martin investigates Imagine sharing your most private thoughts and questions without fear of disclosure or judgement and receiving answers that appear expert and dispassionate. The attraction of AI tools for children and young adults wrestling with the challenges of growing up is, in some senses, understandable.   So too, however, are the concerns of those who say chatbots are no substitute for genuine therapeutic expertise – or simple human kindness. That children are using AI to try to manage their mental health just confirms for some the extent to which adults have abrogated responsibility for their welfare to machines.  “I was having a conversation with [ChatGPT] and asking questions, and it told me I might have anxiety or depression. It’s made me start thinking that …

Parents Explode in Fury at School’s Plan to Constantly Film Their Children to Train AI

Parents Explode in Fury at School’s Plan to Constantly Film Their Children to Train AI

Published by José Betancourt

Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech A planned University of Washington study would’ve had preschool teachers wear cameras to record first-person footage of everything in the classroom, including the young children they were instructing, and use that footage to train AI models. If a parent was uncomfortable with all that, they had to manually opt-out — meaning that unless the researchers were given a formal no, a parent’s child would’ve been automatically opted into the experiment. “With your permission, your child’s lead teacher may wear a small teacher-worn camera that captures the teacher’s approximate first-person perspective, and/or we may place a fixed video camera in the classroom,” reads a document given to parents and obtained by 404 Media in a new investigative piece. “These videos simply capture the normal interactions between teachers and children during regular classroom activities.” The parents did a little more than opt out, however. They revolted, and the backlash was so heated that the University of Washington called off the …

Prenatal air pollution linked to ADHD symptoms in school-age children, but not clinical diagnosis

Prenatal air pollution linked to ADHD symptoms in school-age children, but not clinical diagnosis

Published by José Betancourt

A study of children from Tarragona, Spain, found that higher prenatal exposure to air pollution (PM10 and PMcoarse particles, NO2, and NOx gases) was associated with modestly higher teacher-reported ADHD symptom scores in school-age participants. However, the study did not find an association between air pollution exposure and a clinical ADHD diagnosis. The paper was published in Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology. Air pollution is the presence of harmful substances in the air, such as gases, particles, smoke, and chemical pollutants. It can come from traffic, factories, power plants, heating systems, agriculture, fires, and natural sources such as dust storms. Air pollution is typically described in terms of the substances that comprise it and the size of the particles in the air. For example, PM2.5 refers to very small airborne particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less. These particles are especially concerning because they can enter deep into the lungs and may even pass into the bloodstream. PM10 refers to particles with a diameter of 10 micrometers or less, including dust, pollen, …

Meghan says leaders must act to protect children against ‘exploitative and harmful’ online content

Meghan says leaders must act to protect children against ‘exploitative and harmful’ online content

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore The Duchess of Sussex has urged global health leaders to act to keep children safe online, adding they are being shaped by systems “designed to capture attention at any cost”. Speaking at a memorial in Geneva, Switzerland, for people who have died after suffering digital harm, Meghan described children’s online safety as a “public health issue”. The duchess made the remarks at the opening of the Lost Screen Memorial on Sunday, where she was joined by World Health Organisation (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. She told global health leaders, ministers and families affected by online harm: “Children today are being shaped by systems designed to capture attention at any cost: relentless algorithms, exploitative engagement, and endless exposure to harmful content that they are not seeking out.” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus with the Duchess of Sussex (Cyril Zingaro/Keystone via AP) Meghan said …

Mother Courage and her Children review – moving, funny and savage portrait of life during wartime | Theatre

Mother Courage and her Children review – moving, funny and savage portrait of life during wartime | Theatre

Published by Sam Flores

This production of Bertolt Brecht’s masterpiece seems to break the first rule of Brecht’s epic theatre, which requires emotional distance. It conjures Brecht’s upside down world, in which war denotes order and profit, while underlining all the losses that Mother Courage faces in spite of her relentless entrepreneurialism and attempts at profiteering – selling anything from burgers to ammunition and sex. But it is human, moving and funny. The distance closes and the production becomes devastating in its most savage moments, when Mother Courage loses her children, one by one. Translator Anna Jordan justifies these moments by interpreting Brecht’s rule of verfremdungseffekt as making the drama “strange” rather than distanced. And in director Elle While’s powerful production, the emotional drama is tightly controlled, flaring up momentarily. In between flare ups, the narrator (Max Runham) pulls us away from the intimacies of this family to draw the bigger picture, summarising the gyrations of war and Courage’s travails over the years. Michelle Terry as Courage is a calculating hustler with few soft edges – a cross between …

The Skill Oldest Children Are More Likely To Excel At, According To Experts

The Skill Oldest Children Are More Likely To Excel At, According To Experts

Published by Sam Flores

Over the years, there’s been much research, discussion and debate surrounding firstborn children and what their position in a family involves. The pressure, the expectations, the complicated feelings about having received undivided attention from parents are all considered fairly common issues for oldest children as they become adults. Firstborns (sometimes jokingly referred to as PFBs or “precious firstborns”) certainly have some experiences or advantages that their siblings may not. And, in a lot of cases, their experiences as the first child in the family help them nurture specific talents.  “The oldest child experience often comes with a unique mix of strengths that are quietly developed over time, often out of necessity rather than by choice,” Eleecia Myers, a counsellor atKey Counseling Group, a practice that specialises in working with kids, teens, adults and families, told HuffPost. But there is one skill, in particular, that older siblings are more inclined to excel at. And you may be able to guess what it is. The skills we might associate with oldest children are often born out of necessity. …

Canada’s Assisted Suicide Program Could Include Children And The Mentally Ill

Canada’s Assisted Suicide Program Could Include Children And The Mentally Ill

Published by Jenni Sidey

Canada’s MAID program is the subject of ongoing concern among anti-globalist movements across the western world.  The assisted suicide system kills around 15,000 or more Canadians each year and is quickly expanding to include more and more people who are not terminally ill.   Almost all assisted suicide programs are created by liberal governments and all of them are initially promoted as a way to “end the suffering” of people who are close to death anyway.  However, this is merely the first stage of the greater goal, which is to normalize the government sanctioned killing of almost anyone for any reason.  Keep in mind, the activists and politicians who constantly pontificate about the need for mass immigration into the west from the third world in order to solve population decline are the same people who support mass abortions and mass suicides.  They are also, for some reason, staunchly against the government execution of murderers.  It doesn’t make rational sense, until you realize these people are psychopathic. Canadian Conservatives are currently fighting for a freeze on expansion …