NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 2, 2026--
MetLife today announced a new collaboration with Highlights to introduce a custom digital magazine designed to help children build more confident futures through fun, engaging educational resources. Timed to coincide with the global excitement of soccer this summer, the initiative will offer families, educators, and community organizations access to soccer-themed stories, games, puzzles, and interactive activities that help foster resilience, teamwork, self-expression, and a sense of belonging.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601156946/en/
Available in multiple languages, including English, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish, the digital magazines are free for anyone to download and print. Whether used at home, in classrooms, after-school programs, or community settings, these soccer-inspired activities offer simple, engaging ways to encourage children to try new things, connect with others, navigate setbacks, seize opportunities, and develop their self-esteem.
Download, print, learn and explore: Get the free Highlights magazinehere.
“Helping children build confidence and resilience is one of the most meaningful investments we can make in their future and the communities where they live,” said Michael Roberts, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, MetLife. “This ‘summer of soccer’ is bringing people together and inspiring connections across generations and geographies. Our partnership with Highlights allows us to transform these experiences into learning opportunities. Together, we are expanding access to trusted educational resources.”
“For generations, Highlights has helped children build confidence, curiosity, and connection through playful learning experiences,” said Mary-Alice Moore, President, Highlights. “This collaboration with MetLife brings together the universal joy of soccer and the power of purposeful play to create meaningful moments for families everywhere. We’re proud to help children build life skills like resilience, teamwork, and self-belief in ways that feel engaging, accessible, and fun.”
The collaboration complements MetLife’s broader purpose-led work to help strengthen communities around the world by providing access to educational resources and sports. MetLife and MetLife Foundation are supporting the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, which provides grants to community-based organizations working to expand access to education and sports. Together, these efforts reflect MetLife’s focus on helping more people build the skills and resilience to face uncertainty, unlock opportunity, and build confidence for what’s ahead.
About MetLife
MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET), through its subsidiaries and affiliates (“MetLife”), is one of the world’s leading financial services companies, providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to help individual and institutional customers build a more confident future. Founded in 1868, MetLife has operations in more than 40 markets globally and holds leading positions in the United States, Asia, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. For more information, visit www.metlife.com.
About MetLife Foundation
At MetLife Foundation, we are committed to driving inclusive economic mobility. We collaborate with nonprofit organizations and provide grants aligned to three strategic focus areas – economic empowerment, financial health and resilient communities – while engaging MetLife employee volunteers to help drive impact. MetLife Foundation was established in 1976 and for 50 years has continued MetLife’s long tradition of community engagement and involvement. Since its inception, MetLife Foundation has contributed over $1 billion to strengthen communities where MetLife has a presence. To learn more about MetLife Foundation, visit www.metlife.org.
About Highlights
Highlights is a global media brand dedicated to helping children become curious, creative, caring, and confident through engaging content and experiences that are focused on nurturing and developing the whole child. Highlights reaches children 0–12 with its most popular magazines and books, and on multi-platform digital experiences, digital apps, toys/games, a podcast, and more.
MetLife and Highlights Launch Free Soccer-themed Digital Magazine to Help Boost Kid’s Confidence
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles against Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities overnight, killing at least 18 civilians and wounding 131 others, authorities said Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated Moscow’s aerial campaign in recent weeks in an apparent bid to take advantage of Ukraine’s shortage of U.S.-made air defense systems and persuade an increasingly pessimistic audience at home that Moscow is prevailing in the 4-year-old war.
Emergency rescue crews digging through the wreckage of apartment buildings pulled out the bodies of a 3-year-old child as well as those of a woman and her 8-year-old son in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, officials said.
The attack stretched past dawn, with explosions reverberating across cities. Officials said 12 people were killed in Dnipro and six in Kyiv.
Residents of the capital have been on edge for days after Russia warned last week that a massive aerial attack was coming and told foreign diplomats to leave. None appeared to heed the call and no embassies immediately reported damage Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed for more U.S. and European support, describing the massive overnight attack as “an explicit statement by Russia: If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic missiles and other missile strikes, those strikes will continue.”
Putin has stepped up his aerial campaign against Ukraine, with Russian forces recently launching another of their powerful hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missiles. Ukraine's shortage of air defense systems, in part because of depleted U.S. stocks from the Iran war, has left civilians especially vulnerable to ballistic missiles, even as Kyiv's defenses stop most of Moscow's drones.
At least 79 people were wounded in the capital, emergency services said. Iryna Salikova, 37, spent the night lying in a bathtub for protection with her 3-year-old daughter, as blasts reverberated across the city.
“Our window was broken. A cobblestone flew into the children’s room,” Salikova said, although they weren't hurt. “Thank God we’re alive. Today we’re alive, today we’re lucky.”
Russia unleashed 73 missiles and 656 drones across Ukraine, according to the country’s air force, with the main targets including Kyiv, Dnipro and the eastern cities of Poltava, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian air defense forces destroyed or suppressed 40 missiles and 602 drones.
Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov proclaimed Wednesday would be a day of mourning for the 12 dead in his city. That announcement came 20 minutes before Filatov said another drone had struck a residential building there about 2:40 p.m.
Putin is keen to generate some positive news from the conflict that began with Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor and hasn’t gone according to plan.
Western officials and analysts say Ukrainian drones are pinning down Russian troops on the front line, choking Russian supply lines in occupied regions of Ukraine and disrupting oil facilities deep inside Russia that provide vital revenue for Moscow. That has made the war, which Moscow refers to as a “special military operation,” more visible to Russians and increased pressure on Putin.
U.S.-led peace efforts have fizzled out as the sides made no progress on key differences and after the war in Iran grabbed Washington’s attention. Zelenskyy accepted an unconditional ceasefire demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump but Putin refused.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that Tuesday's bombardment struck military-industrial facilities in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi and Sumy regions.
Ukraine said residential, energy and civilian infrastructure was hit but did not confirm or comment on damage to any military-related sites.
Putin signaled that Russia won’t let up its attacks. He said Tuesday that Ukraine’s May 22 drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk in the Russia-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine that killed 21 had given the war “a whole new dimension.”
Ukraine said the attack in Starobilsk hit a Russian drone pilot training center.
Hits of 30 ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and 33 drones were recorded in at least 38 locations across Ukraine, according to regional authorities. Debris from destroyed drones fell on 15 locations, the air force said.
At least four people were killed in Kyiv and 79 people were injured, including three children, Ukraine's state emergency service said. Residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure were damaged in eight Kyiv districts.
Olena Dniprovska, 65, and her husband Yevhen, 64, were wounded in their apartment in Kyiv’s Podilskyi district.
“I went out into the corridor with the phone, and before I understood what happened, everything fell on my head, the glass, and the door blew off,” said Dniprovska, dried blood streaked across her face and a bandage on her chin. “I ran out into the front door and started calling my husband from the room, but he was also blown out by the blast wave.”
“Now I have nowhere to live, the apartment is completely destroyed, no doors, no windows, no balcony. You can step straight from the room out onto the street,” she said.
In Kharkiv, at least 19 people were wounded in residential areas in the past two days — including 11 on Tuesday, burying some residents in the rubble.
Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Katie Marie Davies in Manchester, England, and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, contributed.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
An injured Olena Dniprovska sits in the yard of her house damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Olga Mudra, 35, and her daughter Natalia, 6, walk in the yard of their house damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A woman carries a baby near a residential house damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
A resident looks at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A resident looks at the site of a Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Firefighters work on the site of a burning building after a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
A man clears debris in his apartment building damaged after Russian missile strike that hit in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
People react as they look at the site of Russian missile strike that hit a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
