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  • Banning cellphones in schools gains popularity in red and blue states

    Banning cellphones in schools gains popularity in red and blue states

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have little in common ideologically, but the two have both been vocal supporters of an idea that’s been rapidly gaining bipartisan ground in the states: Students’ cellphones need to be banned during the school day.

    At least eight states have enacted such bans over the past two years, and proposals are being considered in several more states this year.

    Here is a look at the push by states for such bans.

    The push for cellphone bans has been driven by concerns about the impact screen time has on children’s mental health and complaints from teachers that cellphones have become a constant distraction in the classroom.

    Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, who has called on Congress to require warning labels on social media platforms about their effects on young people’s lives, has said schools need to provide phone-free times.

    Nationally, 77% of U.S. schools say they prohibit cellphones at school for non-academic use, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But that number is misleading. It does not mean students are following those bans or all those schools are enforcing them.

    Kim Whitman, co-founder of the Phone Free Schools Movement, said the issue is catching on because parents and teachers in both red and blue states are struggling with the consequences of kids on mobile devices.

    “It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or a rural town, urban or suburban, all children are struggling and need that seven-hour break from the pressures of phones and social media during the school day,” she said.

    At least eight states — California, Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio, South Carolina and Virginia — have enacted measures banning or restricting students’ use of cellphones in schools.

    The policies range widely. Florida was the first state to crack down on phones in school, passing a 2023 law that requires all public schools to ban cellphone use during class time and block access to social media on district Wi-Fi.

    A 2024 California law requires the state’s nearly 1,000 school districts to create their own cellphone policies by July 2026.

    Several other states haven’t banned phones, but have encouraged school districts to enact such restrictions or have provided funding to store phones during the day.

    Sanders announced a pilot program last year providing grants to schools that adopt phone-free policies, and more than 100 schools signed on. In her state of the state address this week, Sanders proposed an outright ban.

    “We will ban cellphones in our schools, bell to bell, so that our kids are not distracted, in class or out of it,” Sanders said.

    Other governors recently calling for bans include Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who was sworn in this month, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has suggested she’ll seek a statewide policy, but has not offered specifics.

    The cellphone bans have faced opposition from some parents who say they need to be able to contact their children directly in case of emergency.

    Some parents have pointed to recent school shootings where having access to cellphones was the only way some students were able to communicate with loved ones for what they thought might be the last time.

    But supporters of the bans have noted that students’ phones could pose additional dangers during an emergency by distracting students or by revealing their location during an active shooter situation.

    Parents opposed to the ban have also said they want their children to have access to their phones for other needs, such as coordinating transportation.

    Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, said she agrees about the dangers of social media on children but that the bans sought by states are taking too broad of an approach. Banning the devices during the school day is not going to solve underlying issues like bullying or the dangers of social media, she said.

    “We have not done our job as grown-ups to try to teach our kids the skills they need to actually navigate this technology,” she said. “We’ve just kicked the can down the road and thrown them into the deep end of the pool when they’re by themselves after school.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Hannah Fingerhut, Margery Beck, Holly Ramer and Anthony Izaguire contributed to this report.

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  • New Brazil law restricts use of smartphones in elementary and high schools

    New Brazil law restricts use of smartphones in elementary and high schools

    SAO PAULO — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Monday signed a bill restricting the use of smartphones at school, following a global trend for such limitations.

    The move will impact students at elementary and high schools across the South American nation starting in February. It provides a legal framework to ensure students only use such devices in cases of emergency and danger, for educational purposes, or if they have disabilities and require them.

    “We cannot allow humanism to be replaced by algorithms,” Lula said in a closed ceremony at the presidential palace in the capital, Brasilia, adding that the bill “acknowledges the work of every serious person in education, everyone who wants to take care of children and teenagers in this country.”

    In May, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a leading think-tank and university, said Brazil had more smartphones than people, with 258 million devices for a population of 203 million Brazilians. Local market researchers said last year that Brazilians spend 9 hours and 13 minutes per day on screens, one of the world’s highest figures.

    Education minister Camilo Santana told journalists that children are going online at early ages, making it harder for parents to keep track of what they do, and that restricting smartphones at school will help them.

    The bill had rare support across the political spectrum, both from allies of leftist Lula and his far-right foe, former President Jair Bolsonaro.

    Many parents and students also approved the move. A survey released in October by Brazilian pollster Datafolha said that almost two-thirds of respondents supported banning the use of smartphones by children and teenagers at schools. More than three-quarters said those devices do more harm than good to their children.

    “(Restricting cell phones) is tough, but necessary. It is useful for them to do searches for school, but to use it socially isn’t good,” said Ricardo Martins Ramos, 43, father of two girls and the owner of a hamburger restaurant in Rio de Janeiro. “Kids will interact more.”

    His 13-year-old daughter Isabela said her classmates struggled to focus during class because of their smartphones. She approved the move, but doesn’t see it as enough to improve the learning environment for everyone.

    “When the teacher lets you use the cell phone, it is because he wants you to do searches,” she said. “There’s still a lot of things that schools can’t solve, such as bullying and harassment.”

    As of 2023, about two-thirds of Brazilian schools imposed some restriction on cellphone use, while 28% banned them entirely, according to a survey released in August by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee.

    The Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Maranhao and Goias have already passed local bills to ban such devices at schools. However, authorities have struggled to enforce these laws.

    Authorities in Sao Paulo, the most populous state in Brazil, are discussing whether smartphones should be banned both in public and private schools.

    Gabriele Alexandra Henriques Pinheiro, 25, works at a beauty parlor and is the mother of a boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She also agrees with the restrictions, but says adults will continue to be a bad example of smartphone use for children.

    “It is tough,” she said. “I try to restrict the time my son watches any screens, but whenever I have a task to perform I have to use the smartphone to be able to do it all,” she said.

    Institutions, governments, parents and others have for years associated smartphone use by children with bullying, suicidal ideation, anxiety and loss of concentration necessary for learning. China moved last year to limit children’s use of smartphones, while France has in place a ban on smartphones in schools for kids aged six to 15.

    Cell phone bans have gained traction across the United States, where eight states have passed laws or policies that ban or restrict cellphone use to try to curb student phone access and minimize distractions in classrooms.

    An increasing number of parents across Europe who are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young kids jeopardizes their safety and mental health.

    A report published in September by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said one in four countries has already restricted the use of such devices at schools.

    Last year in a U.S. Senate hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to parents of children exploited, bullied or driven to self harm via social media. He also noted Meta’s continued investments in “industrywide” efforts to protect children.

    ____

    Rodrigues reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writers Gabriela Sá Pessoa in Sao Paulo and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed.

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  • As schools cut back on bus service, parents are turning to rideshare apps

    As schools cut back on bus service, parents are turning to rideshare apps

    CHICAGO — Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.

    On the way across Chicago, El-Amin’s daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city’s North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.

    “They’re waving to each other in the back. I’m looking at the dad. The dad’s looking at me. And I was like, parents can definitely be a resource to parents,” said El-Amin, who went on to found Piggyback Network, a service parents can use to book rides for their children.

    Reliance on school buses has been waning for years as districts struggle to find drivers and more students attend schools far outside their neighborhoods. As responsibility for transportation shifts to families, the question of how to replace the traditional yellow bus has become an urgent problem for some, and a spark for innovation.

    State and local governments decide how widely to offer school bus service. Lately, more have been cutting back. Only about 28% of U.S. students take a school bus, according to a Federal Highway Administration survey concluded early last year. That’s down from about 36% in 2017.

    Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth-largest district, has significantly curbed bus service in recent years. It still offers rides for disabled and homeless students, in line with a federal mandate, but most families are on their own. Only 17,000 of the district’s 325,000 students are eligible for school bus rides.

    Last week, the school system launched a pilot program allowing some students who attend out-of-neighborhood magnet or selective-enrollment schools to catch a bus at a nearby school’s “hub stop.” It aims to start with rides for about 1,000 students by the end of the school year.

    It’s not enough to make up for the lost service, said Erin Rose Schubert, a volunteer for the CPS Parents for Buses advocacy group.

    “The people who had the money and the privilege were able to figure out other situations like rearranging their work schedules or public transportation,” she said. “People who didn’t, some had to pull their kids out of school.”

    On Piggyback Network, parents can book a ride for their student online with another parent traveling the same direction. Rides cost roughly 80 cents per mile and the drivers are compensated with credits to use for their own kids’ rides.

    “It’s an opportunity for kids to not be late to school,” 15-year-old Takia Phillips said on a recent PiggyBack ride with El-Amin as the driver.

    The company has arranged a few hundred rides in its first year operating in Chicago, and El-Amin has been contacting drivers for possible expansion to Virginia, North Carolina and Texas. It is one of several startups that have been filling the void.

    Unlike Piggyback Network, which connects parents, HopSkipDrive contracts directly with school districts to assist students without reliable transportation. The company launched a decade ago in Los Angeles with three mothers trying to coordinate school carpools and now supports some 600 school districts in 13 states.

    Regulations keep it from operating in some states, including Kentucky, where a group of Louisville students has been lobbying on its behalf to change that.

    After the district halted bus service to most traditional and magnet schools, the student group known as The Real Young Prodigys wrote a hip-hop song titled “Where My Bus At?” The song’s music video went viral on YouTube with lyrics such as, “I’m a good kid. I stay in class, too. Teachers want me to succeed, but I can’t get to school.”

    “Those bus driver shortages are not really going away,” HopSkipDrive CEO Joanna McFarland said. “This is a structural change in the industry we need to get serious about addressing.”

    HopSkipDrive has been a welcome option for Reinya Gibson’s son, Jerren Samuel, who attends a small high school in Oakland, California. She said the school takes care to accommodate his needs as a student with autism, but the district lined up the transportation because there is no bus from their home in San Leandro.

    “Growing up, people used to talk about kids in the short yellow buses. They were associated with a physical disability, and they were teased or made fun of,” Gibson said. “Nobody knows this is support for Jerren because he can’t take public transportation.”

    Encouragement from his mother helped Jerren overcame his fear about riding with a stranger to school.

    “I felt really independent getting in that car,” he said.

    Companies catering to kids claim to screen drivers more extensively, checking their fingerprints and requiring them to have childcare or parenting experience. Drivers and children are often given passwords that must match, and parents can track a child’s whereabouts in real time through the apps.

    Kango, a competitor to HopSkipDrive in California and Arizona, started as a free carpooling app similar to the PiggyBack Network and now contracts with school districts. Drivers are paid more than they would typically get for Uber or Lyft, but there are often more requirements such as walking some students with disabilities into school, Kango CEO Sara Schaer said.

    “This is not just a curbside-to-curbside, three-minute situation,” Schaer said. “You are responsible for getting that kid to and from school. That’s not the same as transporting an adult or DoorDashing somebody’s lunch or dinner.”

    In Chicago, some families that have used Piggyback said they have seen few alternatives.

    Concerned about the city’s rising crime rate, retired police officer Sabrina Beck never considered letting her son take the subway to Whitney Young High School. Since she was driving him anyway, she volunteered through PiggyBack also to drive a freshman who had qualified for the selective magnet school but had no way to get there.

    “To have the opportunity to go and then to miss it because you don’t have the transportation, that is so detrimental,” Beck said. “Options like this are extremely important.”

    After the bus route that took her two kids to elementary school was canceled, Jazmine Dillard and other Chicago parents thought they had convinced the school to move up the opening bell from 8:45 a.m. to 8:15 a.m., a more manageable time for her schedule. After that plan was scrapped because the buses were needed elsewhere at that time, Dillard turned to PiggyBack Network.

    “We had to kind of pivot and find a way to make it to work on time as well as get them to school on time,” she said.

    ___

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Telangana Government Forms Committees To Oversee Food Safety In State-Run Schools

    Telangana Government Forms Committees To Oversee Food Safety In State-Run Schools

    Amid the reports of food poisoning incidents in government schools, the Telangana government on Thursday constituted separate committees to ensure the safety of food served to the students. Taking serious note of such incidents, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy directed district Collectors to undertake regular inspections in state-run educational institutions to ensure that there is no negligence in providing hygienic food to the students.

    Expressing anguish over the incidents of students falling ill after eating food, despite several directives given by him, CM warned that once the negligence was proved, the government would not hesitate to sack the employees responsible for that. State Panchayat Raj Minister D Anasuya Seethakka expressed doubts that conspiracies could be behind the ‘food poisoning’ incidents and vowed to expose them.

    State Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari issued orders constituting a three-member ‘Task Force Committee’ to ensure the safety of food distributed in all the state-run institutions, including schools, welfare hostels, residential schools, hospitals, and Anganwadi Centres running under the departments of scheduled caste development, tribal, backward classes, minority welfare and others.

    The ‘Task Force Committee’ shall consist Commissioner of Food Safety/Food Safety Officer, Head of the Department (HoD) of the concerned institution/Additional Director, and District level officer of the concerned institution. The Committee should visit and probe all food safety incidents reported in any institution, identify the reasons, and fix the responsibility against the persons and agencies, the orders issued by the Chief Secretary said.

    Separately, the Chief Secretary issued an order to constitute institution-level food safety committees to oversee the cooking and serving of food to prevent food contamination and food-borne illnesses.

    The committee shall consist Head of the Institution (Head Master/Principal) and two other staff members working in the institution. The panel shall inspect the store room and kitchen before cooking every meal and ensure the quality of provisions and hygiene in the kitchen room, the order said.

    The committee members should taste the food after the preparation of every meal to check the quality of the food before serving it to the children, the order said.

    The committee should take photos of these activities and keep them in the record without fail till a ‘nodal department’ develops a mobile-based app that would allow instant uploading of photos taken in each institution, it said.

    Alleging that BRS is shedding crocodile tears on the incidents of students falling ill, Minister Seethakka on Thursday asked if any minister visited the victims when such incidents happened during the previous BRS regime.

    “We will expose such conspiracies… If any officials are involved in such conspiracies, we will file criminal cases and remove them from service,” she told reporters.

    BRS Working President K T Rama Rao on Wednesday said his party MLAs and other leaders would visit the state-run educational institutions between November 30 and December 7 to study the conditions there. He alleged that the Congress government has thrown school education and social welfare residential schools into a crisis.

    The Telangana High Court on Wednesday sought a report from the government by December 2 over the recent incidents of students falling ill after consuming mid-day meals in government schools.

    (Disclaimer: Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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  • NYC students embrace low-tech lifestyle as Mayor Adams stews on phone ban in schools

    NYC students embrace low-tech lifestyle as Mayor Adams stews on phone ban in schools

    As Mayor Eric Adams weighs a smartphone ban in New York City public schools, a growing number of students are evangelizing a low-tech lifestyle.

    Last week, members of a Luddite club tried to entice new members at a Brooklyn Tech fair, touting the real-life activities they do at meetings while their phones are stashed away.

    Jameson Butler, a 17-year-old senior, showed off collaborative drawings club members recently made playing a Surrealist parlor game called exquisite corpse.

    “Are you addicted to your phone? Do you like to have fun? Join the Luddite club!” Butler called to students.

    But finding new members wasn’t easy. Many students walked by the table without giving a glance to the club’s poster with messages reading, “The truth will set you free” and “Liberate yourself from your iPhone.”

    Butler and her friends named the club after the 19th century textile workers who smashed machinery because it threatened their jobs. The student club is more pacifist. At gatherings, club members talk about books, make art, play cards and sing songs. Some have renounced smartphones altogether and carry flip phones. Others just like to carve out a couple hours a week without social media.

    “I think it’s unhealthy how dependent a lot of us are on our screens, especially kids,” Butler, who co-founded the club with a friend several years ago, said. “Their attention spans are just deteriorating. You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it — but you can only put your mind to it if you have an attention span.”

    The high school students in a Luddite club are taking a more pacifist approach than 19th century Luddites, who destroyed agricultural machinery threatening their jobs.

    Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Butler and her fellow Luddites had anticipated a breakthrough for their movement this school year. Over the summer, then-Schools Chancellor David Banks had said a ban on phones in public schools was imminent. But then Adams reversed course, saying he needed more time to work out the logistics and respond to concerns from parents and staff.

    Education department officials said they are using this year to talk to students, parents and staff about a potential ban. Nearly 900 of the 1,600 public schools have restrictions or will impose some this year. The plan, officials said, is to evaluate how the bans are working in order to chart a course forward. Adams said he would be reviewing schools’ experiences with phone lockers versus secure pouches, and weighing concerns from parents about contacting their kids in an emergency.

    In the meantime, student-led groups are building up the smartphone resistance.

    Last week, three high school “ambassadors” gave a presentation about the dangers of social media to elementary school parents at P.S. 11 in Chelsea.

    Gemma Graham, a 17-year-old senior at West End Secondary School, shared the experiences she and her classmates have had with cyberbullying, and told parents she wanted to prevent young people from getting “trapped in the black hole” of social media.

    A parent, Tara Murphy, described the moment she realized there are hardly any safe spaces on the internet. She recalled when her 9-year-old daughter, who likes chess, tried watching a game online. The comments were full of vulgar language.

    “I’m like, nope, we’re out. I cannot just leave her on even a site that seems innocuous like chess,” Murphy said.

    Students suggested parents consider giving their kids lower-tech alternatives to smartphones, like flip phones or smart watches. They fielded questions on how to prevent kids from overriding screen time limits and other parental controls.

    Student Gemma Graham delivered a presentation on phone addiction and the dangers of social media to parents at P.S. 11.

    Jessica Gould

    Thomas Loeb-Lojko, also a 17-year-old senior at West End Secondary School, said he noticed that even young children get addicted to screens.

    “When it gets taken away from them, they’re prone to throw a tantrum. The screen can kind of burn them out of having any sort of energy to do anything,” he said.

    Megan Kiefer, trained the new teen ambassadors through her nonprofit, Take Two Media Initiative. She said she was inspired by previous generations of students who led campaigns to curb smoking and promote recycling.

    “I got to the point where I was like, ‘I think we’ve had enough adults talking about this,’” she said. “How amazing would it be if we could train young people to be the voice for their generation and be the advocates for this?”

    She said the goal is to train enough students so that they can visit schools across the city – making similar presentations to parents and kids.

    Meanwhile, the Luddite club has spread to multiple schools. Following news coverage, more kids have started coming to Sunday meetings outside the Brooklyn Public Library, and there’s a documentary about their movement in the works.

    But Butler said many kids still have their eyes glued to their phones. As they tabled for new members last week, it seemed many students didn’t even register that the Luddites were there at all.

    “Right now we’re just in need of a wellness revolution against technology,” Butler said.

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  • NYC students embrace low-tech lifestyle as Mayor Adams stews on phone ban in schools

    NYC students embrace low-tech lifestyle as Mayor Adams stews on phone ban in schools

    As Mayor Eric Adams weighs a smartphone ban in New York City public schools, a growing number of students are evangelizing a low-tech lifestyle.

    Last week, members of a Luddite club tried to entice new members at a Brooklyn Tech fair, touting the real-life activities they do at meetings while their phones are stashed away.

    Jameson Butler, a 17-year-old senior, showed off collaborative drawings club members recently made playing a Surrealist parlor game called exquisite corpse.

    “Are you addicted to your phone? Do you like to have fun? Join the Luddite club!” Butler called to students.

    But finding new members wasn’t easy. Many students walked by the table without giving a glance to the club’s poster with messages reading, “The truth will set you free” and “Liberate yourself from your iPhone.”

    Butler and her friends named the club after the 19th century textile workers who smashed machinery because it threatened their jobs. The student club is more pacifist. At gatherings, club members talk about books, make art, play cards and sing songs. Some have renounced smartphones altogether and carry flip phones. Others just like to carve out a couple hours a week without social media.

    “I think it’s unhealthy how dependent a lot of us are on our screens, especially kids,” Butler, who co-founded the club with a friend several years ago, said. “Their attention spans are just deteriorating. You can do anything you want if you put your mind to it — but you can only put your mind to it if you have an attention span.”

    The high school students in a Luddite club are taking a more pacifist approach than 19th century Luddites, who destroyed agricultural machinery threatening their jobs.

    Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Butler and her fellow Luddites had anticipated a breakthrough for their movement this school year. Over the summer, then-Schools Chancellor David Banks had said a ban on phones in public schools was imminent. But then Adams reversed course, saying he needed more time to work out the logistics and respond to concerns from parents and staff.

    Education department officials said they are using this year to talk to students, parents and staff about a potential ban. Nearly 900 of the 1,600 public schools have restrictions or will impose some this year. The plan, officials said, is to evaluate how the bans are working in order to chart a course forward. Adams said he would be reviewing schools’ experiences with phone lockers versus secure pouches, and weighing concerns from parents about contacting their kids in an emergency.

    In the meantime, student-led groups are building up the smartphone resistance.

    Last week, three high school “ambassadors” gave a presentation about the dangers of social media to elementary school parents at P.S. 11 in Chelsea.

    Gemma Graham, a 17-year-old senior at West End Secondary School, shared the experiences she and her classmates have had with cyberbullying, and told parents she wanted to prevent young people from getting “trapped in the black hole” of social media.

    A parent, Tara Murphy, described the moment she realized there are hardly any safe spaces on the internet. She recalled when her 9-year-old daughter, who likes chess, tried watching a game online. The comments were full of vulgar language.

    “I’m like, nope, we’re out. I cannot just leave her on even a site that seems innocuous like chess,” Murphy said.

    Students suggested parents consider giving their kids lower-tech alternatives to smartphones, like flip phones or smart watches. They fielded questions on how to prevent kids from overriding screen time limits and other parental controls.

    Student Gemma Graham delivered a presentation on phone addiction and the dangers of social media to parents at P.S. 11.

    Jessica Gould

    Thomas Loeb-Lojko, also a 17-year-old senior at West End Secondary School, said he noticed that even young children get addicted to screens.

    “When it gets taken away from them, they’re prone to throw a tantrum. The screen can kind of burn them out of having any sort of energy to do anything,” he said.

    Megan Kiefer, trained the new teen ambassadors through her nonprofit, Take Two Media Initiative. She said she was inspired by previous generations of students who led campaigns to curb smoking and promote recycling.

    “I got to the point where I was like, ‘I think we’ve had enough adults talking about this,’” she said. “How amazing would it be if we could train young people to be the voice for their generation and be the advocates for this?”

    She said the goal is to train enough students so that they can visit schools across the city – making similar presentations to parents and kids.

    Meanwhile, the Luddite club has spread to multiple schools. Following news coverage, more kids have started coming to Sunday meetings outside the Brooklyn Public Library, and there’s a documentary about their movement in the works.

    But Butler said many kids still have their eyes glued to their phones. As they tabled for new members last week, it seemed many students didn’t even register that the Luddites were there at all.

    “Right now we’re just in need of a wellness revolution against technology,” Butler said.

    Source link

  • Takeaways from AP story on Ukrainian schools built underground to guard against bombs and radiation

    Takeaways from AP story on Ukrainian schools built underground to guard against bombs and radiation

    ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Most of the Russian weapons that hit the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia kill in an instant: the drones, the ballistic missiles, the glide bombs, the artillery shells. But Russian soldiers control another weapon they have never deployed, with the potential to be just as deadly: The nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

    The NPP, as it’s known, once produced more electricity than any other nuclear power plant in Europe. It fell to Russian forces in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, and Russia has held its six reactors ever since. The plant has come under repeated attacks that both sides blame on the other.

    These twin dangers – bombs and radiation – shadow families in Zaporizhzhia. An Associated Press team spent nearly a week in the city to learn about its building binge for its future: an underground school system.

    Here’s what AP found:

    About 50 kilometers (31 miles) away, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been in in cold shutdown for two years after intense negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Russian government. The IAEA has rotated a handful of staff on site ever since.

    There are risks even in cold shutdown, when the reactor is operating but not generating power. The main danger is that its external electrical supply, which comes from Ukrainian-controlled territory under constant Russian bombardment, will be cut off for a longer period than generators can handle.

    The nuclear plant needs electricity to keep crucial backups functioning, including water pumps that prevent meltdowns, radiation monitors and other essential safety systems. Russia has repeatedly struck at Ukraine’s grid, attacks that have intensified this year. Highlighting the constant danger, electricity to the NPP was cut yet again for three days as emergency workers struggled to put out the fire.

    The Zaporizhzhia plant has a safer, more modern design than Chornobyl, known in Russian as Chernobyl, and there’s not the same danger of a large-scale meltdown, experts say. But that doesn’t reduce the risk to zero.

    Most of the youngest residents of the city have never seen the inside of a classroom. Schools that had suspended in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago continued online classes after the war started in February 2022.

    Construction has begun on a dozen subterranean schools designed to be radiation- and bomb-proof and capable of educating 12,000 students.

    The cost to build a subterranean school system is enormous — the budget for the underground version of Gymnasium No. 71 alone stands at more than 112 million hryvnias ($2.7 million). International donors are covering most of it, and the national and local governments have made it a priority on par with funding the army.

    But most parents say bombs, which strike the city daily, are a far more tangible fear than radiation.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accuses Russia of targeting nuclear plants deliberately. Russian forces seized control of the Chornobyl area in the first days of the invasion, only to be driven back by Ukrainian forces.

    Since the start of the war, Russia has repeatedly alluded to its nuclear weapons stockpile without leveling direct threats. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would consider any attack by a country supported by a nuclear-armed nation to be a joint attack and stressed that Russia could respond with nuclear weapons to any attack that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty.”

    Ukrainian officials fear that the Russian attacks on Chornobyl and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants may be just a start. During his speech in late September to the U.N. General Assembly, Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing strikes on more nuclear plants, which generate a large portion of Ukraine’s electricity.

    ___

    The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

    ___

    Additional AP coverage of the nuclear landscape: https://apnews.com/projects/the-new-nuclear-landscape/

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  • Parents whose kids attend one of Australia’s most exclusive schools take drastic action after Aussie sporting legend was banned from speaking to students

    Parents whose kids attend one of Australia’s most exclusive schools take drastic action after Aussie sporting legend was banned from speaking to students

    • Prestigious Sydney Grammar School called off speech by star
    • LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off!, available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday

    By James Cooney For Daily Mail Australia

    Published: | Updated:

    Parents of children attending Sydney Grammar School have found a way around the institution’s ban on former Socceroos captain Craig Foster giving a lecture to students.

    Foster was scheduled to give a guest lecture to students at Sydney Grammar, but the $45,000-a-year institution decided to can the football great turned human rights activist.

    Exactly why he was cancelled isn’t clear, but there is speculation the move was prompted by Foster’s strident criticism of Israel and his recent snubbing of an invitation to meet King Charles.

    ‘We are very mindful that our Ithaka Lecture series must also acknowledge and be respectful of the impact it may have on the wellbeing of members of our community,’ said headmaster Richard Malpass in an email to parents.

    ‘We believe it is not in the best interests of our community at this time for the lecture scheduled for 23 October to proceed.’

    But it seems Grammar students will get to hear from Foster after parents organised a room at the State Library for the lecture. 

    ‘In light of the cancellation of last week’s Sydney Grammar lecture, which was full, parents of the boys, particularly mothers, asked if I would still take the time to speak to their sons,’ Foster announced on social media.

    The event has proved very popular, with organisers having to double the capacity of the space and now offering a live-stream option to those who can’t attend in person.

    Craig Foster was recently blocked from giving a lecture to Sydney Grammar School students

    Craig Foster was recently blocked from giving a lecture to Sydney Grammar School students

    Parents of students from Sydney Grammar (pictured) organised another venue for Foster to give his talk to their sons

    Parents of students from Sydney Grammar (pictured) organised another venue for Foster to give his talk to their sons

    Foster made headlines in May when he stepped down as co-chair of the ARM along with Aussie Olympics great Nova Peris.

    Ms Peris said her decision to step down was due to her belief Mr Foster’s decision to write to Football Australia, the International Federation of Association Football and the West Asian Football Federation asking them asking them to suspend Israel from an upcoming FIFA conference ‘had created division’.

    The former Socceroos star published his letter online, which explained that the International Court of Justice had deemed Israel’s actions as ‘plausible genocide’.

    ‘Every member of the football community and your governing body, Football Australia has a duty of care to do everything possible to stop genocide wherever, and whenever it occurs,’ he said.

    But Ms Peris said his comments had created division within not only ARM but also across the country.

    Foster has made headlines for his strident criticism of Israel and his recent snubbing of an invitation to meet King Charles III

    Foster has made headlines for his strident criticism of Israel and his recent snubbing of an invitation to meet King Charles III

    Forster also made waves earlier in October for the way he turned down an opportunity to meet King Charles and Queen Camilla on their tour of Australia.

    The former co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement recently received an invite from NSW Premier Chris Minns and his wife Anna to attend a function where he would be ‘in the presence of’ the royal couple, who begin their journey down under on October 18.

    Foster took to X to reply: ‘Thanks Anna and @ChrisMinnsMP. But, no thanks. I look forward to being ‘in the presence of’ our first Aussie Head of State. When we put our big pants on, as a country.’

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  • High School Fall Sports Round-Up; Lakers, Tigers finish boys soccer regular seasons in style; volleyball teams run into buzzsaws in home matches | High Schools

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    MURRAY—  Murray High concluded a superb boys soccer regular season Thursday night with 7-1 victory over Paducah Tilghman at the Mallary France Soccer Complex.

    That win gives the Tigers a 19-1 mark so far this season as postseason play arrives next week. The Blue Tornado, much improved this season evens its mark at 6-6-1.

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  • V.I. SCHOOL SPORTS ROUNDUP: St. Croix schools win Antilles varsity volleyball tourney | Sports

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    St. Croix schools Central High School and Good Hope Country Day School came away with division titles from the 2024 Antilles Varsity Volleyball Tournament on St. Thomas.

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