UN in touch with all parties regarding Gaza ceasefire: SpoxT he Lonely City by Olivia Laing looks at loneliness in its emotional and psychological dimensions, using New York City as a metaphor for isolation. The book is half-memoir, but also delves into the lives of the city’s most compelling artists — Andy Warhol, Edward Hopper and David Wojnarowicz — all of whom used art to explore their own feelings of isolation and the attendant ugliness. Laing emphasises that loneliness is about the emotional distance between people, often exacerbated by modern society’s emphasis on individualism. As grief and isolation became the norm during the pandemic, different people navigated the storm of their emotions in different ways. The COVID-19 pandemic and multiple lockdowns promoted remote work culture and social distancing has scarred people socially in different ways. For Arunima Singhal, 20, the pandemic was one of the darkest times of her life. Her family grappled with a deep wedge of isolation, each member waking up, doing the chores only to go back to sleep. “There seemed to be barely any point reaching out to people because I wasn’t sure what to talk about. I remember it just really felt like I had to push myself to exist.” Many people also find it hard to remember the person that they were prior to the pandemic, which forms the passageway to feelings of guilt, depersonalisation, and detachment. “I finally started to understand Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb,” says Singhal, as she laughs. Tanishqa Mathur, 24, talks about how the pandemic felt like it was a whole other world. “Even though my friend and I found different ways to stay in touch (like watching online movies), we couldn’t trust the reality of virtual connections, and since there was no certainty as to when or if the pandemic would end, loneliness held a sort of gravity.” Now, she says, the pandemic changed how she views all of her relationships with her friends and her romantic partners. The absolute physical isolation seems to have hit several people hard. The loss of touch beckoned people to go online and look at peoples’ lives voyeuristically whilst barely making an effort to change their own. Gen Z is also one of the first generations to fully grow up with so much technology at the press of a button, which seems to have acted as a catalyst to enable things to spiral out of control. While grief and isolation became prevalent in COVID era, it’s aftermath still persists in various ways. Though screens have bridged the distances amongst people, it has also left people emotionally drained. “Many people are now connecting online, but these interactions lack the warmth of face-to-face contact, leaving people feeling detached,” says a Mumbai-based psychotherapist, Neha Mehta. Loneliness has come across a public health crisis in the past few years and is often linked with suicide, mental health disorders and substance abuse. Many school and college students are struggling to adjust and reconnect with their peers after two years of online learning. The increasing consumption of social media and digital interactions during the COVID era has left many people, especially the youth feeling a sense of “digital isolation.” WHO estimated that 10% of adolescents and 25% of old people in India are alone. India’s loneliness epidemic is not only a mental health crisis, it has also come across as a societal challenge threatening social connections and bonds among people. madhumitasharma9318@gmail.com treya.sinha@gmail.com Published - November 24, 2024 02:27 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditKYIV, Ukraine — NATO and Ukraine will hold emergency talks Tuesday after Russia attacked a central city with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile. escalating the nearly 33-month-old war. The conflict is “entering a decisive phase,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday, and “taking on very dramatic dimensions.” Ukraine’s parliament canceled a session as security was tightened following Thursday’s Russian strike on a military facility in the city of Dnipro. In a stark warning to the West, President Vladimir Putin said in a nationally televised speech the attack with the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks Friday during a meeting with the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense, representatives of the military-industrial complex and developers of missile systems at the Kremlin in Moscow. Putin said Western air defense systems would be powerless to stop the new missile. Ukrainian military officials said the missile that hit Dnipro reached a speed of Mach 11 and carried six nonnuclear warheads, each releasing six submunitions. Speaking Friday to military and weapons industries officials, Putin said Russia will launch production of the Oreshnik. “No one in the world has such weapons,” he said. “Sooner or later, other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development. “We have this system now,” he added. “And this is important.” Putin said that while it isn’t an intercontinental missile, it’s so powerful that the use of several of them fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with strategic — or nuclear — weapons. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with nuclear or conventional warheads, echoing Putin’s claim that even with conventional warheads, “the massive use of the weapon would be comparable in effect to the use of nuclear weapons.” In this photo taken from a video released Friday, a Russian serviceman operates at an undisclosed location in Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov kept up Russia's bellicose tone on Friday, blaming “the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries” in supplying weapons to Ukraine to strike Russia. "The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns were not taken into account have also been quite clearly outlined," he said. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the European Union, echoed Moscow’s talking points, suggesting the use of U.S.-supplied weapons in Ukraine likely requires direct American involvement. “These are rockets that are fired and then guided to a target via an electronic system, which requires the world’s most advanced technology and satellite communications capability,” Orbán said on state radio. “There is a strong assumption ... that these missiles cannot be guided without the assistance of American personnel.” Orbán cautioned against underestimating Russia’s responses, emphasizing that the country’s recent modifications to its nuclear deployment doctrine should not be dismissed as a “bluff.” “It’s not a trick ... there will be consequences,” he said. Czech Republic's Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky speaks to journalists Friday during a joint news conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriiy Sybiha in Kyiv, Ukraine. Separately in Kyiv, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský called Thursday’s missile strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe.” At a news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Lipavský also expressed his full support for delivering the necessary additional air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks.” He said the Czech Republic will impose no limits on the use of its weapons and equipment given to Ukraine. Three lawmakers from Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, confirmed that Friday's previously scheduled session was called off due to the ongoing threat of Russian missiles targeting government buildings in central Kyiv. In addition, there also was a recommendation to limit the work of all commercial offices and nongovernmental organizations "in that perimeter, and local residents were warned of the increased threat,” said lawmaker Mykyta Poturaiev, who said it's not the first time such a threat has been received. Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the Oreshnik missile was fired from the Kapustin Yar 4th Missile Test Range in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. Test launches of a similar missile were conducted in October 2023 and June 2024, the directorate said. The Pentagon confirmed the missile was a new, experimental type of intermediate-range missile based on its RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. Thursday's attack struck the Pivdenmash plant that built ICBMs when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. The military facility is located about 4 miles southwest of the center of Dnipro, a city of about 1 million that is Ukraine’s fourth-largest and a key hub for military supplies and humanitarian aid, and is home to one of the country’s largest hospitals for treating wounded soldiers from the front before their transfer to Kyiv or abroad. We're all going to die someday. Still, how it happens—and when—can point to a historical moment defined by the scientific advancements and public health programs available at the time to contain disease and prevent accidents. In the early 1900s, America's efforts to improve sanitation, hygiene, and routine vaccinations were still in their infancy. Maternal and infant mortality rates were high, as were contagious diseases that spread between people and animals. Combined with the devastation of two World Wars—and the Spanish Flu pandemic in between—the leading causes of death changed significantly after this period. So, too, did the way we diagnose and control the spread of disease. Starting with reforms as part of Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s, massive-scale, federal interventions in the U.S. eventually helped stave off disease transmission. It took comprehensive government programs and the establishment of state and local health agencies to educate the public on preventing disease transmission. Seemingly simple behavioral shifts, such as handwashing, were critical in thwarting the spread of germs, much like discoveries in medicine, such as vaccines, and increased access to deliver them across geographies. Over the course of the 20th century, life expectancy increased by 56% and is estimated to keep increasing slightly, according to an annual summary of vital statistics published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2000. Death Records examined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to see how the leading causes of death in America have evolved over time and to pinpoint how some major mortality trends have dropped off. According to a report published in the journal Annual Review of Public Health in 2000, pneumonia was the leading cause of death in the early 1900s, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 deaths. By the time World War I ended in 1918, during which people and animals were housed together for long periods, a new virus emerged: the Spanish Flu. Originating in a bird before spreading to humans, the virus killed 10 times as many Americans as the war. Many died of secondary pneumonia after the initial infection. Pneumonia deaths eventually plummeted throughout the century, partly prevented by increased flu vaccine uptake rates in high-risk groups, particularly older people. Per the CDC, tuberculosis was a close second leading cause of death, killing 194 of every 10,000 people in 1900, mainly concentrated in dense urban areas where the infection could more easily spread. Eventually, public health interventions led to drastic declines in mortality from the disease, such as public education, reducing crowded housing, quarantining people with active disease, improving hygiene, and using antibiotics. Once the death rates lagged, so did the public health infrastructure built to control the disease, leading to a resurgence in the mid-1980s. Diarrhea was the third leading cause of death in 1900, surging every summer among children before the impacts of the pathogen died out in 1930. Adopting water filtration, better nutrition, and improved refrigeration were all associated with its decline. In the 1940s and 1950s, polio outbreaks killed or paralyzed upward of half a million people worldwide every year. Even at its peak, polio wasn't a leading cause of death, it was a much-feared one, particularly among parents of young children, some of whom kept them from crowded public places and interacting with other children. By 1955, when Jonah Salk discovered the polio vaccine, the U.S. had ended the "golden age of medicine." During this period, the causes of mortality shifted dramatically as scientists worldwide began to collaborate on infectious disease control, surgical techniques, vaccines, and other drugs. From the 1950s onward, once quick-spreading deadly contagions weren't prematurely killing American residents en masse, scientists also began to understand better how to diagnose and treat these diseases. As a result, Americans were living longer lives and instead succumbing to noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs. The risk of chronic diseases increased with age and, in some cases, was exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyles. Cancer and heart disease shot up across the century, increasing 90-fold from 1900 to 1998, according to CDC data. Following the post-Spanish Flu years, heart disease killed more Americans than any other cause, peaking in the 1960s and contributing to 1 in 3 deaths. Cigarette smoking rates peaked at the same time, a major risk factor for heart disease. Obesity rates also rose, creating another risk factor for heart disease and many types of cancers. This coincides with the introduction of ultra-processed foods into diets, which plays a more significant role in larger waistlines than the increasing predominance of sedentary work and lifestyles. In the early 1970s, deaths from heart disease began to fall as more Americans prevented and managed their risk factors, like quitting smoking or taking blood pressure medicine. However, the disease remains the biggest killer of Americans. Cancer remains the second leading cause of death and rates still indicate an upward trajectory over time. Only a few types of cancer are detected early by screening, and some treatments for aggressive cancers like glioblastoma—the most common type of brain cancer—have also stalled, unable to improve prognosis much over time. In recent years, early-onset cancers, those diagnosed before age 50 or sometimes even earlier, have seen a drastic rise among younger Americans. While highly processed foods and sedentary lifestyles may contribute to rising rates, a spike in cancer rates among otherwise healthy young individuals has baffled some medical professionals. This follows the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020. At its peak, high transmission rates made the virus the third leading cause of death in America. It's often compared to the Spanish Flu of 1918, though COVID-19 had a far larger global impact, spurring international collaborations among scientists who developed a vaccine in an unprecedented time. Public policy around issues of safety and access also influences causes of death, particularly—and tragically—among young Americans. Gun control measures in the U.S. are far less stringent than in peer nations; compared to other nations, however, the U.S. leads in gun violence. Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens (around 2 in 3 are homicides, and 1 in 3 are suicides), and deaths from opioids remain a leading cause of death among younger people. Globally, the leading causes of death mirror differences in social and geographic factors. NCDs are primarily associated with socio-economic status and comprise 7 out of 10 leading causes of death, 85% of those occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization. However, one of the best health measures is life expectancy at birth. People in the U.S. have been living longer lives since 2000, except for a slight dip in longevity due to COVID-19. According to the most recent CDC estimates, Americans' life expectancy is 77.5 years on average and is expected to increase slightly in the coming decades. Story editing by Alizah Salario. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. This story originally appeared on Death Records and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Although it has been the subject of many acclaimed documentaries, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has yielded very little in the way of fiction. Damian Kocur ’s Under the Volcano , which has been chosen as Poland’s official submission for this year’s Best International Feature Oscar , is unusual in that it takes place entirely on the Spanish island of Tenerife. In defiance of the impending war, the Kovalenko family have decided to take their vacation anyway. But even without the events that are about to unfold, the trip is awkward for all concerned, as father Roman (Roman Lutsky) has brought his new wife Anastasiia (Anastasiia Karpenko), much to the disgust of his teenage daughter Sofiia (Sofiia Berezovska), who is forced to babysit her little brother Fedir (Fedir Pugachov). Flanked by producers Mikołaj Lizut and Agnieszka Jastrzębska at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International award-season event, Kocur spoke about the film’s evolution. “The inspiration for the film came from a German newspaper, about a Ukrainian family that were spending the vacation somewhere outside Ukraine when the war started in February ’24,” said Kocur. “That was the starting point for writing. It’s a fictional story, but I was researching a lot. I was talking to the Ukrainians that were in similar situations, so I kind of collected all of those stories and put them in one place, so to speak. Many scenes were based on some people’s [actual] experiences.” RELATED: Contenders International — Deadline’s Complete Coverage Key to the film’s success is the Kovalenkos, who jell so well that it seems, at first sight, that Kocur might have hired an actual family. “We had a very classical casting [process],” he explained. “We hired two casting directors, two Ukrainians. One was doing it remotely — she was living in Portugal at the time — and the second casting director was in Kyiv, so we did street casting as well. We’d been looking for professional actors in theaters also, and at the beginning I was more into [the idea of] working with non-professionals. I soon realized that maybe we should cast professional actors. But the main protagonist, Sofiia Berezovska, is a non-professional. It was her first experience on a full-length feature, because I’d cast her for a very small scene for the episode in the short film we made a year before [ As it Was , in 2023].” Similarly, there’s a sense of spontaneity that suggests the film was more improvised than it actually was. “There was a proper script,” said Kocur, “but I wasn’t always following the script so much — I was following, I would say, the emotion [of it]. Most of the scenes were very precisely written. But I was always trying to achieve a certain level of realism, so that you could really believe in the story.” RELATED: Best International Feature Film Oscar Winners Through The Years: Photo Gallery Under the Volcano had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and became a fixture on the autumn festival circuit, where it competed in London, São Paolo, Marrakech, Warsaw and more. “I’ve been traveling with the film for the last couple of months, since Toronto,” said Kocur, “and I’m really impressed by what people are focusing on. We’re just not talking about political issues; people are very into the method of filmmaking. Even normal viewers, not filmmakers.” For Jastrzębska, part of the film’s appeal is Kocur’s decision to keep the war out of sight, but not out of mind. “I think the very important thing is the way Damian decided to show the war without showing the war,” she said, “with no bombs, and with no army. I think it’s a very interesting point of view that everything is happening without [Kocur] showing it directly.” For Kocur, there was a sense of duty in making this film. “We’re Polish so this is not our war,” he said. “I’ll leave [the Ukrainians] to make a film about it, and there will be films about it for sure in the near future, I hope. But for now, they don’t have the possibility of making films, because of the financial issues they’re facing and because of the war itself. So, I thought we had an obligation, and I think that’s also one of the reasons why the Oscar committee in Poland picked our film.” Check back Monday for the panel video.DU's proposal to introduce four value addition courses on Bhagavad Gita draws flakManmohan Singh Death LIVE: Former PM Passes Away At 92; Tributes Pour In
Emerging tight end Noah Gray gives Mahomes and the Chiefs another option in passing game
Emerging tight end Noah Gray gives Mahomes and the Chiefs another option in passing game
Farewells, family and a first – F1 drivers’ helmets for the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP | Formula 1Meister 3-5 1-2 7, Ciezki 9-16 12-13 34, Garzon 2-11 3-3 7, Moore-McNeil 2-8 2-2 7, Parrish 1-2 3-4 5, Striplin 3-8 2-2 8, Bargesser 1-5 3-4 5, LaMendola 0-1 0-0 0, Totals 21-56 26-30 73 Fontleroy 3-7 0-2 7, Littlepage-Buggs 2-7 1-1 5, Vonleh 4-9 3-6 11, Andrews 1-9 0-0 3, Walker 3-16 9-11 15, Abraham 1-1 0-2 2, Bartley 0-0 0-0 0, Felder 6-12 3-4 20, Jennings 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 21-63 16-26 65 3-Point Goals_Indiana 5-17 (Ciezki 4-5, Garzon 0-6, Moore-McNeil 1-4, Parrish 0-1, Striplin 0-1), Baylor 7-23 (Fontleroy 1-4, Andrews 1-7, Walker 0-3, Felder 5-8, Jennings 0-1). Assists_Indiana 11 (Bargesser 3, Garzon 3, Moore-McNeil 3), Baylor 13 (Andrews 5). Fouled Out_Indiana LaMendola, Baylor Andrews, Littlepage-Buggs. Rebounds_Indiana 42 (Moore-McNeil 10), Baylor 41 (Littlepage-Buggs 8, Vonleh 8). Total Fouls_Indiana 25, Baylor 27. Technical Fouls_None. A_179.
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