Outdoor education was a refuge for Los Angeles families during the pandemic.

The fires have burned schools, public and private schools, nature-based preschools, homeschool groups, summer camps and more.

It's not clear when the air quality in Griffith Park will be good enough to resume outdoor programs.

It can be healing to connect with the land after a disaster like the fires, Lila Higgins says.

Outdoor spaces can help children learn how to develop relationships with animals, understand orientation through space by following trails and map-reading.

Higgins says time in nature lowers heart rates, lowers blood pressure and helps children with attention-deficit disorder feel more calm and relaxed.

Thousands of Romanians rally outside the country's top court on Friday to protest the cancellation of the presidential election in which a pro-Russian candidate won the first round.

The Constitutional Court voided the election two days before the second round.

State documents showed frontrunner Calin Georgescu had benefitted from an unfair social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia .

German authorities confirm country's first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in nearly 40 years .

Disease causes fever and mouth blisters in cloven-hoofed ruminants such as cattle, swine, sheep and goats.

Measures to contain the highly infectious disease are being implemented.

Thousands of students protest in Serbia against violation of civil rights, spy agency crackdown.

The ongoing protests reflect wider discontent with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ’s increasingly autocratic rule.

Pro-government media have bluntly published personal data of some of the protesters, which would not be possible without the involvement of Serbia 's secret service.

Åland has become a destination for Swedish parents wanting to homeschool their children.

The number of homeschooled children in Finland 's Ålands Islands has increased significantly over the past decade .

In Sweden , homeschooling is illegal, and some families have moved to the island from Sweden .

Supervisory teachers say they sometimes feel threatened by uncooperative parents.

India 's inflation rate came in just below expectations at 5.22% in December .

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 5.30% reading.

Annual growth in food prices eased to 8.39% from 9.04% in November .

In October , inflation rate hit a 14-month high of 6.21% , breaching the 6% tolerance limit of the Reserve Bank of India .

Pensacola will look to build affordable housing for military members on the city’s westside after winning a $ 600,000 state grant.

The Florida Department of Commerce awarded the city a $ 608,200 grant to acquire “strategically located land near Naval Air Station .

Escambia County won a grant award of $ 495,000 from the department to continue a program to buy properties near the bases.

Outdoor education was a refuge for Los Angeles families during the pandemic.

"The community has been devastated by the fire," says Natural History Museum's Miguel Ordenana .

"It's been a challenge to carefully share that news with my children and help them work through their emotions," he says.

The fires have burned school buildings, too, including Odyssey Charter School in Altadena .

Outdoor spaces also can help children learn how to develop relationships with animals, understand orientation through space by following trails and map-reading.

"For children's cognitive development, time in nature and time spent connecting with nature is so important," Higgins said.

"This is the reality of modern Southern California ," says author of "Wild L.A." .

Brent crude futures climbed $ 1.35 , or 1.69% , to $ 81.11 a barrel by 2339 GMT .

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.83% to $ 77.97 a barrel after touching a high of $ 78.32 , the loftiest price since Oct. 8 .

Russian oil exports will be hurt by the new sanctions, pushing top buyers China and India to source more oil from the Middle East , Africa and the Americas .

In 2024 , 252 of the nation’s 3,139 pediatric residency slots went unfilled.

Family medicine programs faced 636 vacant residencies out of 5,231 as students chased higher-paying specialties.

At least 12 medical schools, including Harvard , Yale , and Johns Hopkins , don’t even have full-fledged family medicine departments.

The top 10 schools are all osteopathic medical schools, with 41% to 47% of their students practicing primary care.

At the bottom of the U.S. News list is Yale , with 10.7% of its graduates finding lasting careers in primary care. Public universities that have made it a mission to promote primary care have much higher numbers.