Child

Judge says it is ‘disappointing’ there will have to be retrial of prisoners accused over Lostprophets singer’s deathThe jury in the trial of two prisoners accused of murdering the paedophile Lostprophets frontman, Ian Watkins, has been discharged for legal reasons.The disgraced singer was stabbed to death in his cell at high-security HMP Wakefield by Rico Gedel, 25. Watkins was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences. Continue reading...

Charity Commission inquiry into William Blake House in Northamptonshire resulted in rescue planA group of “accidental activist” families have succeeded in their efforts to secure the future of their children’s care home after uncovering serious alleged management failures that took the charity to the brink of bankruptcy.The families launched a campaign after discovering that William Blake House, a residential learning disability care home charity in Northamptonshire, owed £1.5m in unpaid taxes, had paid its former chair £1m in fees, and was close to bankruptcy. Continue reading...

Up to 70% of girls may be in early or forced marriages but law now makes divorce impossible if husbands disagreeChild marriage appears to have been legally recognised for the first time by the Taliban in Afghanistan, as activists say “shameful” new laws make it almost impossible for girls and young women to seek divorce against their husbands’ will.There are no official statistics on forced and underage marriages in Afghanistan, but activists say it has risen at an alarming rate in recent years, driven by the ban on girls being in education after the age of 11. Continue reading...

Federal minister Tanya Plibersek says the group will face same repercussions on arrival in Australia as previous returneesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe last remaining Australian women and children left stranded in the al-Roj detention camp have reportedly left north-east Syria for Damascus, ahead of an expected return to Australia.Vision obtained by an ABC news crew in Syria showed a minivan leaving the camp, which it reported was transporting all the remaining seven women and 14 children from the camp, though this has not been officially confirmed. Continue reading...

HHS advisory says high screen time among youths can be linked to poor sleep and weakened in-person relationshipsHealth officials in the Trump administration have issued an advisory about children and adolescents’ excessive screen time, warning that negative impacts on sleep and mental functioning have “become a public health concern”.The advisory from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) notes that the amount of screen time reaches an average of four or more hours per day by the time a child becomes a teenager and can be linked to poor sleep, decreased functioning in school, less physical activity and weakened in-person relationships. Continue reading...

Chancellor launches ‘Great British summer savings scheme’ after Keir Starmer postpones fuel duty increasePlanned fuel duty rise to be scrapped, says Keir StarmerRachel Reeves is to promise free summer bus rides for children and cut tariffs on some food imports, as part of a package of measures aimed at easing the costs of the Iran conflict.The chancellor will give a statement in the House of Commons on Thursday, outlining her latest plans for cushioning the blow to consumers from an expected rise in inflation later this year. Continue reading...

Lawyers of Hazara man who was allegedly sexually abused by carer launch bid to prevent imminent deportation to Pacific islandGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Albanese government’s $2.5bn deal with Nauru, under which hundreds of non-citizens will be sent to the tiny Pacific island, will face another legal challenge prompted by an alleged child abuse survivor.Legal representatives for Abdul*, a Hazara man who was re-detained in immigration detention earlier this month, have launched a bid to prevent the 29-year-old’s imminent deportation to Nauru by challenging its compatibility with Australia’s constitution. Continue reading...

Greens MLC Abigail Boyd – who chaired inquiry – says system ‘failing too many children, families and educators’Systemic weaknesses in New South Wales’ childcare sector have allowed predators to work in the industry and abuse children, a scathing inquiry has found.In its final report, published on Wednesday, a NSW upper house inquiry into the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector found “the proliferation of for-profit services and a lax regulatory approach” had led to “predators” being allowed to work in childcare and abuse children. Continue reading...

Nurses’ union criticises ‘catastrophic system-wide failure’ in NHS as more under-18s getting stuck in emergency wardsChildren and young people in England having a mental health crisis are spending up to three days in an A&E unit before they get a bed in a specialist unit, NHS figures reveal.One children’s nurse who works in an emergency department said such long waits for under-18s who were in acute distress were “frankly barbaric” but “becoming far more normal”. Continue reading...

Frank Cottrell-Boyce tells MPs to focus on early-years reading, with more support for parents and nursery workersThe children’s laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce has urged the government to prioritise pleasure over learning in children’s reading.Giving evidence to MPs on the education committee, which is investigating the crisis in reading for pleasure among children, the screenwriter and novelist said conversations about children’s reading too often revert to attainment in school. Continue reading...

NSW police called to home in Campbelltown where they arrested a man, aged 47A man has been charged with murder after the bodies of a woman and two children were found inside a Sydney home.Officers attended the home in Campbelltown, in the city’s south-west, on Monday night “following a call from the home to triple zero” at about 7.50pm, New South Wales police said. Continue reading...

About 36% of children whose parents were detained were younger than six, Brookings Institution study foundMore than 145,000 US children have likely experienced a parent being detained by immigration authorities since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency, according to a new report published by a reputed US thinkthank.The report, released Monday by the Brookings Institution, estimates that about 146,635 children who are US citizens have had a parent detained during the mass deportation campaign the Trump administration embarked on after he retook office in early January. The study further found that of those children, more than 22,000 experienced the detention of all of their co-resident parents. Continue reading...

Police will be able to question children without an adult present and hold them after being charged under draft laws introduced by the CLPGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Northern Territory government has been accused of “funnelling Aboriginal children into prisons” over draft youth justice laws that would give police the power to charge, detain and question young people for up to 48 hours without a legal guardian.Under the proposed amendments to the NT Youth Justice Act, introduced by the corrections minister, Gerard Maley, young people charged with an offence would be able to be held for up to 48 hours in police watch houses, interviewed if they have “knowledge in relation to an offence”, and questioned without an adult present if it is “in relation to a serious and urgent matter concerning public safety”. Continue reading...

Charity estimates up to 1,360 children could remain separated from families for every month the suspension continuesHundreds of children every month face being separated from their families since the UK suspended refugee family reunion last September, according to analysis by the British Red Cross.Based on examination of Home Office data of family reunion grants previously made, the charity estimates between 550 and 1,360 children could remain separated from their families for every month that refugee family reunion suspension continues. Of these, between 180 and 430 each month are likely to be unaccompanied minors. Continue reading...

Justice secretary’s white paper will overhaul youth justice rules and could end lifelong criminal records for under-18sDavid Lammy has promised to cut the number of children kept in jail while they await trial by a quarter as part of an overhaul of youth justice rules that could also end lifelong criminal records for under-18s.The justice secretary is publishing a white paper on Monday that he says will reduce the number of children ending up in jail – something he admits was his greatest fear growing up in Tottenham in the 1980s. Continue reading...

Chancellor says he no longer views US as land of opportunity amid ‘deeply polarising’ social climateFriedrich Merz, the German chancellor, already embroiled in a row with Donald Trump over the Iran war, has said he would not advise his children to study or work in the US in the current climate.Speaking to a conference of young Catholics in Würzburg, the conservative leader, viewed by many as a transatlanticist, said he no longer saw the US as the land of opportunity. Continue reading...

Charity says calls to its Childline service about online sexual abuse and exploitation have risen 36% in a yearChildren reported a rise in online blackmail attempts involving sexual images in the UK last year, according to a leading charity.The NSPCC said contacts with its Childline service relating to online sexual abuse and exploitation rose by 36% last year, driven by an increase in cases related to online blackmail. Continue reading...

Medicines watchdog approves two treatments for patients with spinal muscular atrophyHundreds of children with a rare muscle-wasting disease will be able to receive two drugs that can improve their survival in a move parents hailed as a “lifeline”.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has published final draft guidance recommending that any patient who would benefit can have either drug. Continue reading...

Legal and child advocates have criticised the changes, which include eroding the Aboriginal child placement principle, as ‘dangerous, ignorant and wrong’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Northern Territory government is removing a protection introduced to avoid a repeat of the Stolen Generation as part of sweeping reforms to the child protection system.The draft legislation was revealed alongside details of a major review into the Territory’s child protection system, announced in the wake of the high-profile death of five-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby in Alice Springs. Continue reading...

Labor introduced condolence motions in parliament on Tuesday to honour the five-year-old who was allegedly murdered in Alice Springs last monthWarning: This article contains references to Indigenous Australians who have diedFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe mother of Kumanjayi Little Baby has directly asked politicians not to use the death of her daughter for “reasons that do not honour and respect my baby girl”.In a statement read out by the minister for Indigenous Australians, Malarndirri McCarthy, in a condolence motion for the five-year-old Warlpiri girl in the Senate on Tuesday, the girl’s mother, who has not been named for her own safety, asked that her child not be used for political gain. Continue reading...

Since the start of the current conflict, more than 20,500 Ukrainian children have been taken by RussiaIt looks like a typical teenager’s bedroom: football shirts on the wall, crumpled clothes on the floor, exercise books open on the desk. But it is a work of political art, intended to evoke the empty rooms of more than 20,500 Ukrainian children unlawfully taken to Russia.The work was on display on Monday at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels, as delegates from 63 countries and international organisations gathered to discuss how to bring Ukraine’s children home. “It’s essentially a way for someone to step into Ukraine without having to actually travel there,” Isaac Yeung, a co-creator of the installation, said. Continue reading...

Hundreds of four-year-olds among ‘extremely overweight’ patients at 39 specialist centres since 2021More than 6,000 children living with obesity, including hundreds as young as four, have required treatment at specialist NHS weight-loss clinics, new figures reveal.NHS England data, published for the first time, underlines the scale of the growing childhood obesity crisis. Continue reading...

NSW police called to incident in Maroubra amid reports of offensive comments made at under-12s gameFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice are investigating an alleged antisemitic comment made at a children’s netball game involving a Jewish-led team in Sydney.New South Wales police said it was called to netball courts at Heffron Park in Maroubra just after 10am on Saturday, after reports a woman had made offensive comments towards a group of people at an under-12s game between the Maccabi and Saints netball clubs. Continue reading...

Keira Alexandra Kronvold’s daughter Zammi was forcibly removed from her when she was two hours oldA Greenlandic woman whose newborn baby was forcibly removed by Danish authorities as a result of controversial parenting competency tests has won a landmark case in the high court ruling that their actions were illegal.Keira Alexandra Kronvold’s daughter Zammi was taken away from her when she was two hours old and placed in foster care in November 2024 after Kronvold was subjected to so-called FKU (parental competence) psychometric tests. At the time she was told that the test was to see if she was “civilised enough”. Continue reading...

Stanley Burkhardt, convicted abuser and ex-investigator of sex crimes against children, gives deposition in civil caseConvicted child molester Stanley Burkhardt – a former investigator of sex crimes against children who has been in and out of prison for decades – invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination more than 700 times while being questioned under oath recently, including when asked whether he committed a series of unsolved murders of youths in his orbit.Burkhardt’s decision to remain silent came when faced with questions about the killings during a deposition in a civil lawsuit by an alleged sexual abuse victim of his – a case aimed at him and the New Orleans police department (NOPD) which used to employ him. Continue reading...

Revocations will start on Friday for those who owe $100,000 or more, and then expand to those who owe $2,500 or moreSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter email The US state department will begin revoking the US passports of thousands of parents who owe a significant amount of unpaid child support.The department told the Associated Press on Thursday that the revocations would begin on Friday and be focused on those who owe $100,000 or more. That would apply to about 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures supplied to the state department by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Continue reading...

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection uncovered child sexual exploitation material on five cruise ships in San Diego between April 23-25, leading to the detention of 28 crew members including staff from Disney Magic. • Authorities revoked visas and deported the detained crew members, with passengers witnessing handcuffings during the enforcement operation. • The discovery represents a significant coordinated effort to combat child exploitation in the cruise ship industry.