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By Lex Harvey and Jack Guy, CNN (CNN) — A 12-year-old boy is “fighting for his life,” a man in his 20s was left in critical condition and an 11-year-old boy escaped with only damage to his surfboard in a spate of shark attacks at beaches in Sydney, Australia. The first attack took place at 4.20 p.m. local time Sunday (12.20 a.m. ET), the second just before lunch Monday and the third around 6.20 p.m. local time Monday, according to local authorities. On Sunday, friends pulled the 12-year-old boy out of the water after he was bitten by a shark in Sydney Harbour, and the child is now in critical condition at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Australian authorities said. “It was a horrendous scene at the time when police attended,” Superintendent Joseph McNulty, Commander of the New South Wales Police Marine Area Command, said at a press conference Monday. “We believe it was something like a bull shark that attacked the lower limbs of that boy yesterday.” He praised the boy’s friends for pulling him from the water onto a rock face, calling their actions “nothing but brave.” It was “very confronting injuries for those boys to see, but I suppose that’s mateship,” he said. Upon reaching the unconscious boy, emergency responders applied tourniquets to his legs to stop heavy bleeding before transferring him to a police boat. Police officers performed CPR on the boy as they rushed to shore, where an ambulance was waiting. McNulty said the boy and his friends had been leaping off a popular six-meter (20-foot) rock into water turned brackish by heavy rain over the weekend. Brackish water is a mix of salt and fresh water that can attract sharks seeking food closer to the shoreline. “We believe the combination of the brackish water, the fresh water, the actions of the splashing, may have made that perfect storm environment for that shark attack,” he said. “He is in for the fight of his life now, and the actions of emergency services yesterday gave him that chance,” McNulty said. Giles Buchanan, an official from NSW Ambulance, said by the time the boy reached them, “it was a resuscitation situation.” “It was touch-and-go the entire time, and still he’s in a very dangerous position,” Buchanan said. Less than 24 hours later, a shark took a bite from the board of an 11-year-old boy who was surfing further up the coast at Dee Why Point, the Northern Beaches Council confirmed. It said the boy was not injured in the attack. Preliminary assessments by the NSW Department of Primary Industries said the 15-centimeter (six-inch) bite was probably from a bull shark. Schools in Sydney are currently out for the summer break, meaning the beaches are busy with school-age children. Later Monday, a 25-year-old man suffered serious leg injuries in a shark attack at North Steyne Beach, in the suburb of Manly, local police said in a statement Monday. He was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to Royal North Shore Hospital, where he remains in critical condition. “All beaches on the Northern Beaches are closed until further notice, and this will be reviewed on an ongoing basis,” police added in the statement. Manly is one of Australia’s best-known beaches and is a popular tourist spot that receives around one million international visitors a year. In a statement Monday, the Northern Beaches Council said that all ocean beaches in the area, except for Palm Beach, were closed over the weekend and into Monday “due to dangerous surf conditions.” Australia sees roughly 20 shark bites every year, with two or three fatalities. In November, two tourists from Switzerland were bitten by a shark in Crowdy Bay, eastern Australia. A woman in her 20s died in the attack. However, shark attacks in Sydney are exceptionally rare, with only three fatalities in the past 60 years, including a 57-year-old man who was killed by a large shark while surfing at a Sydney beach in September. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights…

By Dana O’Neil, CNN Miami (CNN) — Back in 2023, Jase Richardson sought a more rigorous athletic and academic high school program for his senior year. His younger brother, Jaxon, was attending a Team USA Under 16 training camp out, competing alongside Cameron and Cayden Boozer. They suggested their spot: Christopher Columbus High School. Together, they’d already led Columbus to one 7A state title. Selfishly, they knew Jase would help his team, but they also thought Columbus would help Jase. He did some quick Googling. He screwed up his nose at first when he saw that it was an all-boys school but did a little more searching anyway. He liked what he saw, so Jase and his family relocated from Las Vegas to Miami. On the first day of school, Jase sat down in his honors calculus class and introduced himself to the kid sitting next to him. Alberto Mendoza said hello. The two became friends, Alberto filling in Jase on what a great spot Columbus had been for him as well as his big brother, Fernando. And now a pause to recap the players involved. Jase Richardson, who spent just one year at Michigan State, was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the Orlando Magic. Cayden Boozer averages 6.4 points and 3.2 assists for No. 6 Duke and is on more than a few NBA draft boards. His twin brother, Cam, leads the Blue Devils in scoring and rebounding and, come this June, will be a first-round pick and possibly the top overall player elected. And Alberto Mendoza is the backup quarterback for Indiana, which will play for the national championship against Miami on Monday. His big brother, Fernando won the Heisman and more than likely will be the top draft pick in the NFL draft. One high school, two sports, four draft picks in two years. And we’re only getting started. Denver Broncos All-Pro quarterback Brian Griese went to Columbus and so did Alonzo Highsmith, the third overall NFL pick in 1987. Baseball star Alex Rodriguez spent a year there and University of Miami football coach Mario Cristobal is an alum. “I think year in and year out, what you see come out of Columbus High School is not only elite talent but elite human beings that are driven, hungry, humble, and understand the importance of impacting others in a positive way,’’ said the Hurricanes head coach. He graduated from Columbus in 1988. So did his big brother, Lou. And Mendoza’s father, Fernando Sr. and Miami defensive back Bryce Fitzgerald and offensive lineman Ryan Rodriguez and backup quarterback Vinny Gonzalez. In an added twist, Mendoza’s father went to the school that is now trying to keep his son from winning a national title and played alongside Mario Cristobal. It’s an absurdity of riches that is hardly news to people who live in the city. “It’s been this way since the very beginning,’’ says John Lynskey, the school’s ambassador of alumni relations. “It becomes part of your DNA and I think that is passed on from generation to generation.’’ Started in 1958 by the Diocese of Miami and run since 1959 by the Marist Brothers, a religious order that was founded for education, Columbus was established as the secondary education continuation for kids at St. Theresa in nearby Coral Gables. That’s how the Cristobals ended up there. Lou needed a little structure, so his parents yanked him from public school and put him in St. Theresa. When he finished there, he naturally matriculated to Columbus and little brother Mario followed the same path. Mendoza didn’t immediately follow in his father’s footsteps. He first went to Miami Belen Jesuit but transferred to Columbus seeking, like Jase Richardson, the football competition. Alberto followed Fernando and just last week little brother, Max, learned he’d been accepted, too. “Columbus took a chance with me as a quarterback,’’ Mendoza said. “The development I got football-wise from Dave Dunn and all the other fantastic coaching and also the kind of tough personality coaching that I got from (the teachers) really helped me grow into…

Por Simone McCarthy, CNN China registró su tasa de natalidad más baja de la historia en 2025, mientras su población se redujo por cuarto año consecutivo, profundizando un desafío demográfico que podría afectar a la segunda economía más grande del mundo durante décadas. La tasa cayó a 5,63 nacimientos por cada 1.000 personas en 2025, por debajo del mínimo de 6,39 por 1.000 de 2023, informó este lunes la Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas de China. La caída sugiere que el leve repunte de nacimientos en 2024 fue una excepción y no una reversión de la tendencia descendente constante desde 2016. La economía de China creció un 5 % en 2025, según informaron también las autoridades, en línea con el objetivo anual del Gobierno de “alrededor del 5 %”. La expansión anual fue impulsada por un auge de las exportaciones chinas que compensó las tensiones comerciales con Estados Unidos y el débil consumo interno. China acumuló un superávit comercial récord de US$ 1,2 billones el año pasado, a pesar de la guerra comercial intermitente del presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, con la segunda economía más grande del mundo. Pero los datos también mostraron una desaceleración económica en el cuarto trimestre, con un crecimiento de solo el 4,5 % respecto al año anterior, el aumento trimestral más lento desde finales de 2022. Las autoridades destacaron la “notable estabilidad” de la economía, y el jefe de la oficina de estadísticas, Kang Yi, dijo que esto se logró a pesar de “una situación compleja y grave marcada por rápidos cambios en el entorno externo y crecientes desafíos internos”. “En 2025, la economía de China resistió la presión y mantuvo un progreso constante, logrando nuevos resultados en el desarrollo de alta calidad”, dijo Kang en una conferencia de prensa. A pesar del crecimiento económico anual en línea con los objetivos, las cifras de natalidad suponen un revés para los esfuerzos de Beijing por revertir el impacto de décadas de estricto control natal impuesto por el Estado bajo la ahora abandonada política del “hijo único” y convencer a más jóvenes de tener hijos. Con los 7,92 millones de bebés nacidos en China el año pasado superados por 11,31 millones de muertes, la población total disminuyó en 3,39 millones, según los datos. La población del país —aún la segunda más grande del mundo, detrás de la India— se sitúa en 1.400 millones para 2025. Los funcionarios consideran que los cambios demográficos de China representan un gran desafío, ya que la fuerza laboral del país se reduce y crece la población de adultos jubilados que cobran pensión. Años de estricto control poblacional bajo la política del “hijo único”, eliminada en 2016, han acelerado tendencias observadas en otros países como Japón y Corea del Sur, donde la caída de la natalidad se atribuye a mayores niveles educativos, cambios en la visión del matrimonio, rápida urbanización y el alto costo de criar hijos. El envejecimiento de la sociedad china se profundizó en 2025, con una población mayor de 60 años de 323 millones, lo que representa el 23 % de la población, un punto porcentual más que en 2024, según los datos. Según proyecciones de Naciones Unidas, la mitad de la población del país podría tener más de 60 años para 2100, una realidad con posibles implicaciones de gran alcance, no solo para la economía china sino también para sus ambiciones de rivalizar con Estados Unidos como potencia militar. El líder chino Xi Jinping ha invocado la necesidad de una “seguridad poblacional” y ha hecho del “desarrollo de una población de alta calidad” una prioridad nacional. También ha supervisado un impulso para automatizar y modernizar la potencia manufacturera del país, reemplazando mano de obra humana por robótica. El Gobierno central de China comenzó el año pasado a ofrecer bonificaciones anuales en efectivo a familias con hijos menores de tres años, modificó normas para agilizar el registro de matrimonios e inició un programa de preescolar público gratuito. Estas medidas se…

CNN By Laura Sharman, Pau Mosquera, Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, CNN A high-speed train derailed and hurtled into another train in Spain on Sunday evening, killing at least 21 people and leaving dozens injured in one of the country’s worst rail disasters in more than a decade. The train, operated by rail company Iryo, was traveling from Malaga to Madrid with 371 people onboard when its rear three carriages derailed and crashed into the front two carriages of another high-speed train traveling in the opposite direction, officials said. The collision, near Adamuz in the southern region of Andalusia, caused both trains to overturn at speed, news agency EFE reported, with the front carriages of the second train sent plunging down an embankment. Passengers were seen scrambling out of windows of the trains and others escaped via the roof, in video verified by CNN. The tragedy prompted an outpouring of grief across Spain, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it a “night of deep pain” for the country. European leaders were quick to send their condolences. The incident marks one of Spain’s worst railway accidents since the Galicia crash in 2013 when 79 people were killed and 144 were injured after a train slammed into a well and burst into flames near Santiago de Compostela. Following Sunday’s incident, which happened shortly after 7.30pm local time, officials in Andalusia launched a large emergency response, involving firefighters, police and a military emergency unit. Many passengers remained trapped in the hours that followed, with video footage showing rescuers working to free them in pitch-black conditions. “The problem is that the carriages are twisted, so the metal is twisted with the people inside,” the region’s chief firefighter Francisco Carmona told Spanish broadcaster RTVE. At least 73 passengers were injured, including 24 in serious condition, emergency officials said on X. The second train –– an Alvia service, offered by Renfe –– was traveling from Madrid to Huelva, according to the Railway Infrastructure Administrator (Adif). Relatives of those onboard that train waited for information at Huelva station, in the southwest of Spain, with many visibly distressed by the uncertainty of their condition, EFE reported. Andalusian Regional Government Health Minister Antonio Sanz told local media that the situation is complex and the death toll could rise. Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente said the cause of the incident remains unknown, but added it was “extremely unusual” as it happened on a straight stretch of track which had been recently renovated as part of a € 700m ($8.14m) investment project and the train was relatively new. “It is truly strange. All the railway experts who have been here today… and those we have consulted are extremely baffled by the accident,” Puente told Spanish TV channel Telecinco. The King and Queen of Spain, who are in Athens with their daughters for the funeral of Princess Irene of Greece, said they are following developments in the tragedy “with great concern.” “We extend our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased, as well as our best wishes for a speedy recover to the injured,” said a statement from the Royal Household of Spain. Iryo, the operator of the first train, expressed regret for the incident, saying that it had activated emergency protocols and was working with authorities to manage the situation. Renfe, Spain’s national railway company, said emergency services have been deployed to help the passengers. Psychological support teams and information points have also been set up for victims and their families. High-speed rail services between Madrid and Andalusia are suspended, and trains traveling on the Seville-Madrid line are being redirected to their point of origin, according to Adif. Commercial services between Madrid, Toledo, Ciudad Real and Puertollano are operating normally. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery…