There have been more than 230 school shootings in the United States over the past decade and active shooter drills have become routine in students’ lives. Now, technologies developed to protect soldiers in war are being incorporated into everyday objects of childhood school days. At a recent educational trade show, a booth displaying backpacks with removable ballistic shields — riddled with bullet marks from testing — was set between booths for the textbook company McGraw Hill and the learning toy Speak & Spell. Some of these products come from major brands like 3M; others are designed by entrepreneurial parents. One thing they all have in common: they’re expensive ($185 for a pencil case, $450 for a bulletproof hoodie, $60,000 for a classroom shelter). Despite advertisements that tout official protection ratings by the National Institute of Justice, a federal agency, the institute declared such claims “false” and said that it has never tested nor certified any bullet-resistant items except body armor for law enforcement. “School security measures and so-called ‘target hardening’ are extraordinarily expensive and so far, there is not scientific evidence that they make schools safer,” said Dewey Cornell, an expert in classroom safety at the University of Virginia who has trained threat assessment teams in thousands of schools. Steve Naremore, owner of the ballistic shield company TuffyPacks, acknowledged that it was a “morbid industry.” He said that he sold tens of thousands of products to parents within a week of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. “People say, ‘Oh, you’re just profiting off the carnage,’ ” he said. “And you know what I say? ‘Look, don’t blame me. I’m just the fire extinguisher manufacturer, OK?’” One common marketing tactic is to emphasize kid-friendly aesthetics — whimsical colors, patterns and adorable characters.

A report about the neonatal unit where Lucy Letby worked was only shown to parents in full eight years after it was written, a public inquiry has heard.

Icon Sportswire / ContributorDoctors are worried a combat sport called slap fighting, watched by millions online and gaining in popularity, is causing serious brain damage.

A sobering discovery has led to Cambridge University academics calling on the government to stop serving beer in pints to reduce Britain’s alcohol intake.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long voiced doubts about vaccine safety, has hopes of influencing federal health policy. Could he finally get the chance?“Make America healthy again!”Robert F. Kennedy Jr. looked out into the crowd in Glendale, Ariz., on Saturday at his first major campaign event for his onetime rival, former President Donald J. Trump, and talked up their future together — one he hopes will finally bring his long-held agenda for public health to fruition.“He’s going to end the chronic disease epidemic,” said Mr. Kennedy, who has for years expressed doubts about the safety of vaccinating children and has pushed conspiracy theories about the inner workings of federal health agencies. “And he wanted my help to do it.”As a candidate polling in the single digits, Mr. Kennedy had no path to the White House. But now, as an ally of Mr. Trump’s who has already been named to the transition team that would advise on personnel and policy priorities, he has very real opportunities to exert influence and gain power in a field where he has long been considered a fringe voice.Historically, members of a winning candidate’s transition team often end up in prestigious positions themselves. Mr. Trump said in an interview with CNN that he “probably would” appoint Mr. Kennedy to a role in a second Trump administration.In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Kennedy confirmed that Mr. Trump “asked me to be involved in the administration at a high level.” He said they had not discussed the specific role yet, given the “legal constraints” of doing so before the election.“We’ve talked about the sort of general role in looking at corruption across the agencies, having some kind of portfolio that would look atunraveling corruption — and particularly in the agencies that I’ve had a lot of litigation experience with,” Mr. Kennedy said, citing several federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency and C.D.C. “And public health: in doing what needs to be done to end the chronic disease epidemic. So those are the two areas that he’s asked me to be involved with.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

The Climate reporter Hiroko Tabuchi is interested in all the things we take for granted about our environment.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.On March 11, 2011, a 9-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Honshu, Japan, setting off a catastrophic chain of events: The quake caused a tsunami, which in turn caused the Fukushima disaster, one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. In total, about 19,000 people died.The day after the tsunami hit, Hiroko Tabuchi, then a reporter for the Business desk of The New York Times, pleaded with her editor. “I remember crying on the phone with her, saying ‘Please let me go to the tsunami zone,’” Ms. Tabuchi said in an interview.Instead, her editor suggested she stay in Tokyo, sensing that there might be a bigger story to cover: the nuclear fallout from the power plant in Fukushima. Covering the disaster became a turning point in Ms. Tabuchi’s career. “It was my introduction to writing about climate, with the disaster so entwined with environmental pollution and climate change,” she said.In 2014, Ms. Tabuchi joined The Times’s Climate desk, focusing her coverage on policy. She took on a new, messier beat this summer: pollution. In recent months, she has written about “forever chemicals” on American farmlands and the uproar surrounding plastic packaging at Costco.In a phone conversation from her home in Manhattan, Ms. Tabuchi, who grew up in Kobe, Japan, discussed her accidental path to The Times and the challenges of deciphering climate science. These are edited excerpts.Did you always want to be a reporter?I never wanted to be a journalist. I studied international relations in college, and my dream was to work for the United Nations or UNICEF. After college, I ended up working for this Japanese governmental agency, the Japan External Trade Organization. It was a tough adjustment. I wasn’t used to traditional office culture in Japan. The stories about its work culture are true: If you’re a first-year female in an office, you serve everyone tea.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Scientists continue to rethink the idea that moderate drinking offers health benefits.Adults under age 50 have been developing breast cancer and colorectal cancer at increasingly higher rates over the last six decades, and alcohol use may be one factor driving the trend, according to a scientific report published on Wednesday.The report, by the American Association for Cancer Research, highlights scientific breakthroughs that have led to new anticancer drugs and improved overall survival.But the authors also described a troubling pattern: Even as cancer death rates have declined, the overall incidence of several cancers has been rising inexplicably, with an especially alarming increase among younger adults in cancers of the gastrointestinal system, like colorectal cancer.The report estimates that 40 percent of all cancer cases are associated with modifiable risk factors. It recommends reducing alcohol consumption, along with making lifestyle changes such as avoiding tobacco, maintaining a healthy diet and weight, exercising, avoiding ultraviolet radiation and minimizing exposure to pollutants.The authors called for raising awareness through public messaging campaigns and adding cancer-specific warning labels to alcoholic beverages.The recommendations come amid a radical rethinking of the putative health benefits of moderate alcohol consumption, which for years was considered to be protective against heart disease.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Dr Lily HuangJunior doctors working across the NHS will now be called resident doctors instead – in a change intended to better reflect their expertise.

Buffer zones will come into force around abortion clinics in England and Wales from 31 October.

The Princess of Wales has carried out her first official work meeting since she began cancer treatment earlier this year.