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Museum Pulls Wax Figure of Sinead O'Connor after Complaints

In this undated handout photo provided by The National Wax Museum Plus, Artistic Coordinator Mel Creek applies the finishing touches on a wax figure of the late singer Sinead O'Connor, at the National Wax Museum Plus on Dublin's Westmorland Street, Ireland. (Julien Behal via AP)
In this undated handout photo provided by The National Wax Museum Plus, Artistic Coordinator Mel Creek applies the finishing touches on a wax figure of the late singer Sinead O'Connor, at the National Wax Museum Plus on Dublin's Westmorland Street, Ireland. (Julien Behal via AP)
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Museum Pulls Wax Figure of Sinead O'Connor after Complaints

In this undated handout photo provided by The National Wax Museum Plus, Artistic Coordinator Mel Creek applies the finishing touches on a wax figure of the late singer Sinead O'Connor, at the National Wax Museum Plus on Dublin's Westmorland Street, Ireland. (Julien Behal via AP)
In this undated handout photo provided by The National Wax Museum Plus, Artistic Coordinator Mel Creek applies the finishing touches on a wax figure of the late singer Sinead O'Connor, at the National Wax Museum Plus on Dublin's Westmorland Street, Ireland. (Julien Behal via AP)

A wax figure of Sinéad O’Connor that did not compare to how the late singer looked caused a minor meltdown among fans and family members, leading a Dublin museum on Friday to pull it from its collection.
The National Wax Museum Plus apologized to O'Connor's family and said it would immediately begin creating a more accurate representation of the singer best known for her 1990 cover of Prince's ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.”
According to The Associated Press, John O'Connor said it was a “hideous” representation of his sister that looked like a cross between something in a department store window display and a 1960s sci-fi TV show that used electronic puppets.
“When I saw it online yesterday I was shocked," he told Irish broadcaster RTE. “I thought it looked something between a mannequin and something out of the ‘Thunderbirds.’”
The museum had unveiled the figure Thursday in honor of the first anniversary of her death. O'Connor, 56, died in her London home of natural causes July 26, 2023.
Paddy Dunning, the Dublin museum’s director who called O'Connor a longtime friend, said she deserved a better tribute.
“In response to the public’s feedback regarding the wax figure, we acknowledge that the current representation did not meet our high standards or the expectations of Sinead’s devoted fans,” the museum said in a statement.
John O'Connor said he was upset by the timing of the unveiling and the fact that no one had contacted his family.
“As I said earlier, the world may have lost a star, and they did, but I lost my sister," he said. "It just should not have been put there even without checking with somebody: ‘Is this all right?’”

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Varieties

Nearly 250 Million Children Missed School Last Year Because of Extreme Weather, UNICEF Says 

Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
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Nearly 250 Million Children Missed School Last Year Because of Extreme Weather, UNICEF Says 

Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)
Two maintenance workers clean the tables of one of the classrooms of Zakia Madi middle school, five days before the students return to school, in the village of Dembeni, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 22, 2025. (AFP)

At least 242 million children in 85 countries had their schooling interrupted last year because of heatwaves, cyclones, flooding and other extreme weather, the United Nations Children's Fund said in a new report Friday.

UNICEF said it amounted to one in seven school-going children across the world being kept out of class at some point in 2024 because of climate hazards.

The report also outlined how some countries saw hundreds of their schools destroyed by weather, with low-income nations in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa hit especially hard.

But other regions weren't spared the extreme weather, as torrential rains and floods in Italy near the end of the year disrupted school for more than 900,000 children. Thousands had their classes halted after catastrophic flooding in Spain.

While southern Europe dealt with deadly floods and Asia and Africa had flooding and cyclones, heatwaves were “the predominant climate hazard shuttering schools last year,” UNICEF said, as the earth recorded its hottest year ever.

More than 118 million children had their schooling interrupted in April alone, UNICEF said, as large parts of the Middle East and Asia, from Gaza in the west to the Philippines in the southeast, experienced a sizzling weekslong heatwave with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said in a statement. “Children’s bodies are uniquely vulnerable. They heat up faster, they sweat less efficiently, and cool down more slowly than adults. Children cannot concentrate in classrooms that offer no respite from sweltering heat, and they cannot get to school if the path is flooded, or if schools are washed away."

Around 74% of the children affected in 2024 were in middle- and low-income countries, showing how climatic extremes continue to have a devastating impact in the poorest countries. Flooding ruined more than 400 schools in Pakistan in April. Afghanistan had heatwaves followed by severe flooding that destroyed over 110 schools in May, UNICEF said.

Months of drought in southern Africa exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon threatened the schooling and futures of millions of children.

And the crises showed little sign of abating. The poor French territory of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean off Africa was left in ruins by Cyclone Chido in December and hit again by Tropical Storm Dikeledi this month, leaving children across the islands out of school for six weeks.

Cyclone Chido also destroyed more than 330 schools and three regional education departments in Mozambique on the African mainland, where access to education is already a deep problem.

UNICEF said the world's schools and education systems “are largely ill-equipped” to deal with the effects of extreme weather.