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☆ Fact Check-Quote ‘children must have sexual partners’ falsely attributed to the UN
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A quote attributed to the United Nations about children having “sexual partners” is fabricated, and does not appear in guidance on childrens’ sexuality education cited in the false claims. “'Children must have sexual partners’ says United Nations,” reads a poster shared on Twitter that has been viewed more than 779,900 times (here). “CSE is falsely accused of sexualizing children, introducing sexually inappropriate material to young children too early, grooming them for sexual abuse, and promoting homosexuality. Reuters has previously debunked false claims circulating online about the UN advocating decriminalization of sex with children (here). The UN published guidelines on sexuality education for children, but did not say “children must have sexual partners.”This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Opinion: Clarence Thomas’ inability to fill out forms properly defies belief
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Opinion Steven Lubet | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has had to explain decades of omissions on his annual financial reports. As a Supreme Court justice, Thomas routinely interprets complex statutes that affect millions of Americans, priding himself on close adherence to the text. It beggars belief that he could repeatedly misinterpret plain statutory requirements and simple instructions on his annual disclosure reports. Supreme Court justices have life tenure. That is why full compliance with financial disclosure laws is so important, and why Thomas’ evasiveness is so wrong.

The migrants climbed into the rusted wagons of a freight train three days ago, hoping this would be the last leg of their seemingly endless journey to America. Now, with the Chihuahuan desert sun bearing down, exhaustion gave way to optimism: They were closing in on the border. Adolescents waved at the passing cars. Masses of people have been rushing to the border in recent weeks, as a pandemic-era health restriction that the United States used to quickly expel migrants who crossed the border illegally expires. People were coming by bus, mostly, and sometimes by plane.

☆ F.D.A. Advisers Say Benefits of Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill Outweigh Risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Pam Belluck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously on Wednesday that the benefits of making a birth control pill available without a prescription outweigh the risks, a significant step in the decades-long push to make oral contraception obtainable over the counter in the United States. If the F.D.A. approves nonprescription sales of the medication, called Opill, this summer, it could significantly expand access to contraception, especially for young women and those who have difficulty dealing with the time, costs or logistical hurdles involved in visiting a doctor, reproductive health experts say. Approval is not a foregone conclusion, however. analysts also raised questions about whether younger adolescents and people with limited literacy could follow the directions.

☆ Fact Check-UN is not calling for decriminalization of sex with children
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

It does not advocate for adult sex with children or with other vulnerable individuals, independent legal experts told Reuters. “The 8 March Principles do not call for the decriminalization of sex with children, nor do they call for the abolition of a domestically prescribed minimum age of consent to sex,” the statement reads in part. The ICJ report “did not call for the decriminalization of sex with children, nor did it call for the abolition of the age of consent,” Dujarric said. “The International Commission of Jurists report set out legal principles to guide the application of the international human rights law to criminal law across a range of issues. The report does not call for the overall decriminalization of sex with children, as claimed online.

☆ MTV News to shut down as Paramount slashes US workforce
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Liam Reilly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Paramount Media Networks announced Tuesday it will shutter MTV News and slash its US workforce by 25%, bringing to an end the iconic music video network’s news division that once covered a range of issues from pop culture to politics and became a household name for Generation X and Millennial adolescents. During the ’90s, MTV News also provided an alternative to traditional cable news that appealed to young Americans. In addition to MTV News, some units in the company are being eliminated altogether, most of which are operations, a Paramount spokesperson said. CNN, The Washington Post, NPR, Gannett, Vox Media, NBC News and others have also cut their workforces in recent months. The Paramount Media Networks division is cutting staff by 25%.

☆ Teens should be trained before entering the world of social media, APA says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“Social media is neither inherently harmful nor beneficial to our youth,” said Dr. Thema Bryant, the APA’s president. The recommendations emphasize that adolescents should have instruction in social media literacy and psychological development before joining social media as well as occasional training to bolster their knowledge as they go along, all to minimize potential harm. They also advise that social media use should be tailored to the child’s developmental stage — and monitored by adults in the case of younger children. But how do you convince a teenager to get on board with safer social media use? Teens are experiencing much of their social life on social media, and rather than shame it, we should collaborate with the younger generation, she said.

☆ F.D.A. Advisers Weigh Allowing First U.S. Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Pam Belluck | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was like a tale of two birth control pills. At a hearing Tuesday to consider whether the Food and Drug Administration should authorize the country’s first over-the-counter birth control pill, a panel of independent medical experts advising the agency was left to reckon with two contradictory analyses of the medication called Opill. During the eight-hour session, the manufacturer of the pill, HRA Pharma, which is owned by Perrigo, and representatives of many medical organizations and reproductive health specialists said that data strongly supported approval. scientists questioned the reliability of company data that was intended to show that consumers would take the pill at roughly the same time every day and comply with directions to abstain from sex or temporarily use other birth control if they missed a dose. “I’m just really quite confused by the level of discrepancy,” one member of the advisory panel, Pamela Shaw, a senior investigator with Kaiser Permanente Washington, said after both sides had made presentations.

☆ How to Help a Teen Who Can’t Sleep
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Catherine Pearson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

With packed schedules, school days that kick off at 8 a.m. and the lure of screens, it’s little wonder that many adolescents in the United States don’t get enough sleep. And more than one in five adolescents grapple with insomnia, characterized by problems falling asleep, staying asleep or getting sufficient quality sleep (or some combination thereof). “There are two basic things that happen” when teens hit puberty, said Dr. Judith Owens, the director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The first is that there’s a shift in their natural circadian rhythms, so their natural fall asleep time and wake time shift later — by up to a couple of hours. The second thing that happens is their sleep drive slows.” So not only do adolescents want to stay up later, but their bodies are actually capable of doing so, she explained.

☆ Parents need not fear adolescent weight gain
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Michelle Icard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Yet it sends adults into a tailspin of fear around weight, health and self-esteem. Yet weight gain remains a sensitive, sometimes scary subject for parents who fear too much weight gain, too quickly. “About 25 percent of growth in height occurs during this time so as youth grow taller, they’re also going to gain weight. Parents need to work on their own weight bias, but they also need to protect their children from providers who don’t know how to communicate with their patients about weight. “We all have a lot of work to do when it comes to conversations about weight,” Hutchison said.

☆ Colombia cancels flights returning migrants from US, cites mistreatment
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Colombia expected to receive some 1,200 migrants in flights programmed to arrive from the U.S. during the first week of May, the migration agency said in a statement. The plan was suspended after flights programmed for May 1 and May 2 were canceled, Colombia's migration agency said. "Before the arrival of the scheduled flights ... both were canceled by the North American immigration agencies," Fernando Garcia, head of Colombia's migration agency, said in the statement. Colombia's migration agency did not immediately confirm whether flights carrying other migrants would go ahead. Garcia blasted cruel and degrading treatment that some migrants were subjected to before boarding and during the flights, including use of cuffs for hands and feet.

Vaping involves heating a liquid that contains nicotine in an e-cigarette which is vaporized and inhaled by the user. “Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,” Butler said. “It was not sold as a recreational product – in particular not one for our kids. Vaping concerns across the worldResearchers have found links between nicotine addiction among adolescents and children as a result of increased vaping habits. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is also tackling high-levels of youth vaping but is pushing it as an alternative to help long-term smokers quit.

☆ States’ Push to Protect Kids Online Could Remake the Internet
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Natasha Singer | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

People in Louisiana who visited Pornhub in recent months were met with a surprising new demand. That’s because Louisiana lawmakers had passed legislation last year requiring publishers of online material that could be “harmful to minors” to verify that their users were adults. Louisiana is at the forefront of a sweeping national push to insulate young people from potentially harmful content by requiring certain online services to bar or limit minors on their platforms. The proposed restrictions, introduced by at least two dozen states over the last year, could alter not only the online experiences of children and adolescents. They could also remake the internet for millions of adults, ushering in a tectonic cultural shift to a stricter, age-gated online world.

☆ Snapchat’s new AI chatbot is already raising alarms among teens and parents
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The feature is powered by the viral AI chatbot tool ChatGPT – and like ChatGPT, it can offer recommendations, answer questions and converse with users. The net effect is that conversing with Snapchat’s chatbot may feel less transactional than visiting ChatGPT’s website. Snapchat's new AI chatbot. “I snapped a picture … and it said ‘nice shoes’ and asked who the people [were] in the photo,” a Snapchat user wrote on Facebook. One user wrote on Facebook that she’s been asking My AI for homework help.

☆ How parents can help kids overcome 5 friendship hurdles
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Phyllis L. Fagell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

You can’t choose your children’s friends, but here’s how you can help them manage five frustrating friendship pitfalls. If they squeeze too tightly, the friend will want to get away.”Encourage your children to befriend their friend’s friend. “The idea is to help them understand that (true) friendships are bidirectional.”Share the concept of a “hot and cold” friend, too. 4: Your child can’t let go of a grudgeHow parents can help: Two fifth grade girls came to my counseling office for help resolving a conflict. 5: Your child frequently fights with friendsHow parents can help: If your children are triggered, ask them what the incident means and why it’s happening.

☆ ADHD medication abuse in schools is a ‘wake-up call’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Sandee Lamotte | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Schools with the highest rates of teens using prescribed ADHD medications were about 36% more likely to have students misusing prescription stimulants during the past year, the study found. Schools with more White students and those who had medium levels of student binge drinking were also more likely to see teen abuse of stimulants. “But these findings were not being driven solely by teens with ADHD misusing their medications,” McCabe said. Research has also shown people who misuse ADHD medications are highly likely to have multiple substance use disorders. “Parents can make sure the schools their kids attend have safe storage for medication and strict dispensing policies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges at a news conference in Washington, alongside Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The fentanyl trafficking, weapons and money laundering charges in three indictments involved a total of 28 defendants: 23 of whom are based in Mexico, four in China and one in Guatemala. A senior administration official on a call with reporters on Friday called the reward offers “unprecedented.”“These targets traffic fentanyl from around the world including from Mexico, (China) and Guatemala. These reward offers are part of a government wide attempt to put a halt to trafficking in illicit fentanyl and its precursor,” they added. And in late March, the US Food and Drug Administration approved an over-the-counter version of the opioid overdose antidote Narcan for the first time.

☆ Picasso: Love Him or Hate Him?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Deborah Solomon | April | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

It is not hugely cool to profess a love for Picasso these days. This is what Picasso’s detractors — like Hannah Gadsby, the Australian comedian and Picasso basher, who will help curate a Picasso show at the Brooklyn Museum opening on June 2 — often miss. Picasso, by contrast, brought the weight of lived experience into his work, even when he was tethered to archetypal subjects. “The Mother” (1901), an early painting by Picasso, shows a view of motherhood purged of Renaissance idealization. The conventional view of the painting holds that the women are “dolled-up cocottes,” as John Richardson glibly put it in his biography of Picasso.

☆ 'Miracle' drugs could remake the weight loss industry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Julianna Tatelbaum | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Wegovy is one of several new "miracle" drugs that promise to revolutionize the weight-loss industry. You're getting 15 to 17 approaching 20% weight loss with a weekly injection," Peter Verdult, a pharmaceuticals analyst at Citi, told CNBC. A report by the World Health Organization in 2022 showed that obesity has nearly tripled since 1975 and continues to rise. More than 1 billion people are clinically obese globally, of whom 650 million are adults, 340 million are adolescents and 39 million are children. But the long-term consequences of these drugs remain unknown.

☆ Burkina Faso expels two French journalists
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The two are "journalists of perfect integrity, who worked in Burkina Faso legally, with valid visas and accreditations ... We strongly protest against these absolutely unjustified expulsions," Liberation said in an editorial statement on its website. There was no statement from the authorities in Burkina Faso and it was not immediately possible to reach them for comment. The French foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The junta has since ordered French troops to withdraw from the country and suspended broadcasts by France's RFI radio and television channel France 24. Frustrations over authorities' failure to restore security has spurred anti-French sentiment and helped bring about two military takeovers in Burkina Faso and two in Mali since 2020.

☆ EU backs use of Novo Nordisk's weight loss drug in adolescents
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 31 (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency said on Friday its committee has recommended expanding the use of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk's (NOVOb.CO) weight loss drug in adolescents aged 12 years and older. Novo's Wegovy, a semaglutide-based drug, activates GLP-1, a hormone that triggers the feeling of fullness in the body after eating. It has been approved in the U.S. and European Union for treatment of obesity in adults. The company did not indicate a timeline for its plans to launch the drug, already available in Denmark and Norway, in other EU countries. Earlier this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics also recommended use of weight-loss drugs in children aged 12 years or older.

☆ Gun injuries sending more Americans, especially kids, to emergency rooms -study
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Julia Harte | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 30 (Reuters) - Emergency rooms in the U.S. saw a significant rise in the number of patients with gun injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Thursday. Of all age groups, those between 0–14 years experienced the largest increase in the proportion of gun injury emergency room visits, the study said. About 40 children and young adolescents with gun injuries visited U.S. emergency rooms each week on average in 2022, up from 2019's weekly average of about 29. Researchers who study gun violence in American schools have long warned that the stresses and challenges of the pandemic are worsening the problem. The number of patients admitted for firearm injuries began rising in March 2020 and spiked two months later, even as the total number of emergency room visits plummeted, according to the data.

☆ WHO revises COVID-19 vaccine recommendations for Omicron-era
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A 50 years old and immunocompromised resident receives a second booster shot of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine in Waterford, Michigan, U.S., April 8, 2022. The health agency defined high-risk populations as older adults, as well as younger people with other significant risk factors. Meanwhile, it said healthy children and adolescents were "low priority" for COVID-19 vaccination, and urged countries to consider factors like disease burden before recommending vaccination of this group. It said the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters were safe for all ages, but the recommendations took into account other factors like cost-effectiveness. Some high-income countries like the United Kingdom and Canada are already offering those at high-risk COVID-19 boosters this spring, six months after their last dose.

☆ FDA says Pfizer COVID pill EUA for adolescents to stay even after nod for adults
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Companies Pfizer Inc FollowMarch 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. health regulator said on Thursday the current emergency use authorization (EUA) for Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral pill for high-risk adolescents will continue to remain in effect even if it receives full approval for use in some adults. Paxlovid has been authorized for emergency use in mild-to-moderate COVID patients aged 12 years and older since late 2021, but Pfizer's application for full approval only covers high-risk adults. "Should this new drug application be approved, FDA anticipates that the EUA for Paxlovid will remain in effect to continue authorizing treatment of adolescents with mild-(to-)moderate COVID-19 and further address other access needs," the regulator added. A full approval would provide doctors more flexibility in prescribing the drug and also allow the company to expand its advertising campaign. Reporting by Leroy Leo and Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ With positive combo meningococcal vaccine data, GSK eyes US approval
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

If approved, the combo vaccine could simplify the immunisation schedule in the United States and likely expand GSK's already dominant market share there for vaccines used to prevent illnesses caused by meningococcal bacteria. These responses were compared to participants who received GSK's approved vaccines, Bexsero and Menveo. In the United States, a four-shot regimen of Bexsero and Menveo is needed to protect against the five most common strains of meningococcal bacteria. There is no combination vaccine on the market - a gap GSK intends to fill with the new combination. GSK has the world's largest vaccine R&D department and has a broad portfolio of shots, including its blockbuster shingles vaccine Shingrix.

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