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Editorial: Caring for mental health essential in challenging times

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

These are difficult, often frightening, times.Nobody knows better than we who cover the news that it’s difficult to be confronted with the worst of humanity day in and day out. There are awful people doing awful things on a daily basis, and it can take a tremendous toll to absorb that ugliness and violence and harm.That’s why we’d urge everyone to take a break, even if only for 15 minutes. Turn off your phone. Sit in the sunshine. Be quiet and calm. Recharge. Try to find a moment of peace.The events in Israel are the latest reminder that the forces of evil are determined and unrelenting, but also that the scenes of horror are never far from reach in our interconnected world.Reports of indiscriminate rocket attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians by Hamas forces, followed by the swift and violent Israeli response, were available instantaneously via social media platforms — terror beamed directly into the palm of your hand.There’s a term for endlessly reading bad news on soc...

A visit to Burlington, VT’s Blind Tiger steeped in style and ambiance

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

It’s so easy to love Burlington, Vermont.There’s the downtown with its cobblestoned Church Street area dotted with cool shops, great eats and most days, free live entertainment.There’s the college scene: UVM is perched above downtown, with lovely buildings, grounds and people that add to the cool vibe of the city.There’s Lake Champlain in its glory, reflecting the sepia-toned mountains behind it.And there are great, great places to stay right in that downtown area (Hotel Vermont is a personal favorite; the Hilton on the waterfront is a nice spot with a lovely view).I visit whenever I can. But there’s one part of Burlington I’ve long been drawn to: Burlington Heights, as locals call it, a tree-lined neighborhood that sits way uphill looking down on the lakeside city.Lined with breathtakingly beautiful Victorian homes (and right up against the edge of the UVM campus), I’ve long wished for a friend to invite me to pop in for a stay.My wish was answered.The “friend” who invited me was t...

Oliver Dench checks into new season of ‘Hotel Portofino’

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

A lush Mediterranean melodrama set against Fascist Italy’s tumultuous 1920s, “Hotel Portofino” introduces American audiences to Oliver Dench.As Season 2 begins Sunday night on PBS, Dench’s Lucian Ainsworth is struggling in a doomed marriage, completely alienated from his father and extremely close to his mother, the beautiful Bella (the series’ top-billed star Natascha McElhone) who runs the luxury Italian Riviera resort hotel of the title.“It is absolutely a troubled marriage. It’s tragic,” Dench, 30, began in a Zoom interview from his London flat. “because there’s not really any wrongdoing in either party.“They’re just two people who shouldn’t be married, who clearly aren’t in love with each other. The first time we see them in Series 2, they’re trying their best to rub along in some small way.“But they are two characters who suffered from different mental health ailments, so it’s nigh on impossible and just breaks my little heart to imagine peo...

Dear Abby: Dreading the holiday newsletter bragfest

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

Dear Abby: Is there any way to end the “holiday newsletter”? Every Christmas, I get one from a particular family member, which invariably includes a list of their glowing accomplishments, expensive trips, etc., accompanied by lots of photos. Nobody else in our family sends these kinds of letters, and I don’t know how they feel about receiving it. Last December, I couldn’t even read it because it made me so depressed.My siblings and I are all in our 60s and 70s and spread out across the U.S. We have diverse lifestyles, incomes, etc. Most of us can’t afford the kind of vacations this sibling writes about. Many of us also have personal, painful things going on in our lives, which we don’t really want to discuss.Is it better to just not read the newsletter? I don’t believe this sibling means to be insensitive, and I don’t think I could ever bring the subject up for discussion. I just know I’m already dreading December’s letter....

Pedestrian killed after struck by vehicle on I-5: CHP

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A pedestrian was killed after being struck by a vehicle on the northbound Interstate 5 near Old Town Saturday night, according to California Highway Patrol.The collision was reported to authorities just before 8:30 p.m. According to CHP logs, the pedestrian was walking on the freeway in the No. 1 lane in between the Old Town Avenue exit and the Moore Street on-ramp when they were struck by the vehicle.The pedestrian was declared dead at the scene. Their identity has not been disclosed by authorities.The two right lanes were blocked as a result of the collision, Caltrans said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. Traffic was slowed through the area, although no SigAlert was issued.No additional details about the collision were immediately available.This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Gaza’s desperate civilians search for food, water and safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians faced a deepening struggle for food, water and safety Sunday and braced for a looming invasion a week after Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on Israel. While hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents sought to heed Israel’s order to evacuate roughly the northern half of the territory, others huddled at hospitals in the north.Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of U.S. warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border and drilled for what Israel said would be a campaign by air, land and sea to dismantle the militant group. In Israel, pathologists and others at a military base worked through the Jewish Sabbath to identify the more than 1,300 Israelis and others killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault. The Gaza Health Ministry said Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women. Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City in the north and...

6.3 magnitude earthquake hits western Afghanistan, USGS says

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, the US Geological Survey said, more than a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages.The Associated Press

Noted Iranian film director and his wife found stabbed to death in their home, state media report

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Noted Iranian film director Dariush Mehrjui and his wife were stabbed to death in their home by an unknown assailant, state media reported Sunday.The official IRNA news agency quoted Hossein Fazeli, a judiciary official, as saying that Mehrjhi and his wife, Vahideh Mohammadifar, were discovered dead with knife wounds in their necks.Fazeli said the director’s daughter, Mona Mehrjui, found the bodies when she went to visit her father Saturday night at the home in a suburb about 30 kilometers (19 miles) west of the capital, Tehran.The report said authorities were investigating and gave no speculation on a motive, though the wife had complained about a knife threat on social media in recent weeks.Mehrjui , 83, was known as cofounder of Iran’s film new wave in the early 1970s that mainly focused on realism. He received many awards, including a Silver Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival in 1998 and a Golden Seashell at the San Sebastián Internationa...

The Israel-Hamas war has roiled US campuses. Students on each side say colleges aren’t doing enough

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

America’s colleges aspire to be places where ideas meet and common ground emerges. As the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war, they have become seats of anguish.Many Jewish students and their allies, some with family and friends in Israel, have demanded bold reckonings and strong condemnation after the attacks by Hamas militants, who stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns, killing and abducting civilians and soldiers.Meanwhile, some Muslim students have joined with allies to call for a recognition of decades of suffering by Palestinians in Gaza, plus condemnation of the response by Israel. After the Hamas attack, Israel launched a total blockade of Gaza; airstrikes have flattened buildings and homes, killing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. On many campuses, these students agree on one thing: Their colleges, which are increasingly staking out positions of neutrality, have not done enough to support them.College officials, already...

Australia looks for new ways to lift Indigenous living standards after referendum loss

Published Mon, 23 Dec 2024 16:38:36 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will look for new ways to lift Indigenous living standards after voters soundly rejected a proposal to create a new advocacy committee, the deputy prime minister said on Sunday.Every state and mainland territory apart from Australian Capital Territory voted against a proposal to enshrine in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament to advocate on behalf of the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said his government remained committed to improving Indigenous welfare to close the eight-year gap in average life expectancies between Indigenous Australians and the wider community.“In terms of exactly what the precise steps forward are from here is a matter that we need to take some time to work through and I think people can understand that,” Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp.“Coming out of this referendum there is a greater call for action on closing the gap,” Marles added.Indigenous Voice ...