The Friendly Caller Who's Helping Seniors Feel Less Lonely
Residents of a nonprofit senior living community in Riverdale, N.Y., took part in a recent pilot study to determine whether calls from a virtual companion named Meela would alleviate depression and loneliness.
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Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Laura Loomer takes victory lap after State Department halts visitor visas for Gaza
Far-right activist Laura Loomer is taking a victory lap for a new State Department policy decision: halting all visitor visas from Gaza. The State Department announced Saturday it was stopping the visas for people from Gaza, one day after Loomer posted a series of videos capturing alleged flights bringing people from the territory to the United States. She questioned why they were allowed into the country, and demanded that whoever approved their visas be fired. 'All visitor visas for individuals from Gaza are being stopped while we conduct a full and thorough review of the process and procedures used to issue a small number of temporary medical-humanitarian visas in recent days,' the State Department said in a statement Saturday. In a social media post, the conservative firebrand celebrated the department's decision as 'fantastic news,' noting that it was made 'following the release of my reports yesterday exposing flights of GAZANS arriving at airports all across the US.' She added: 'Hopefully all GAZANS will be added to President Trump's travel ban. There are doctors in other countries. The US is not the world's hospital!' The Independent has asked the State Department whether Loomer had any influence on the decision. Throughout the day Friday, Loomer posted videos allegedly showing people from Gaza arriving at airports across the U.S., including Seattle, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Houston, in the past few weeks. The videos were originally posted by HEAL Palestine, a nonprofit dedicated to delivering urgent and long-term support to Palestinian children and families. The videos, posted by HEAL Palestine's Instagram account, show children coming to the U.S. for medical treatment. More than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's war in Gaza since Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, according to Gaza's Health Ministry last month. Visitor visas are nonimmigrant visas for persons who want to enter the U.S. temporarily. The B-1 visa covers business, and the B-2 visa is for tourism which includes medical treatment, according to the State Department. In one heart-wrenching example, a 14-year-old girl, who arrived in San Francisco this month, was injured when a school that her displaced family was using as shelter was bombed. 'She sustained second-and third-degree burns across her body and face, shrapnel wounds to her head and leg, and is still living with embedded fragments,' the nonprofit wrote in an August 6 post. The child also suffers from malnutrition, weighing just 20 kilograms, or 44 pounds. The Independent has asked the nonprofit for comment on Loomer's posts. 'Who from the State Department is assisting 'Heal Palestine'?' Loomer wrote in a Friday social media post. 'Why are any Islamic invaders coming into the U.S. under the Trump admin?' She continued: 'This is a national security threat. We didn't vote for more Islamic immigration into the United States. Who signed off on these visas? They should be fired.' Loomer's posts picked up some traction, including from GOP members of Congress. Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy remarked Friday: 'Deeply concerned about the incoming flights - including to Texas - allegedly filled with folks from Gaza as reported by @LauraLoomer. Inquiring.' Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine similarly said he was 'troubled' by Loomer's report. 'If true, this is absolutely unacceptable. My office will be working with the relevant authorities to confirm the truth, understand how it happened, and seek immediate expulsion,' he wrote on X Friday. After the State Department's announcement Saturday, Fine gave Loomer a pat on the back. 'Massive credit needs to be given to @LauraLoomer for uncovering this and making me and other officials aware. Well done, Laura,' he wrote on X. The far-right activist seems to have some sway within the Trump administration as a pattern seems to have emerged. Not long after Loomer makes an online complaint, a change seems to happen within the administration. Last month, Loomer boasted after Maurene Comey, who prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend and sex offender, Ghislaine Maxwell, and music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, was fired from the Justice Department. After she was terminated, Loomer took a victory lap, writing on X: 'This comes 2 months after my pressure campaign on Pam Blondi [sic] to fire Comey's daughter and Comey's son-in-law from the DOJ.' In May, Loomer urged President Donald Trump to pick a new nominee for surgeon general after she called his pick, Janette Nesheiwat, 'not ideologically aligned with Donald Trump or his admin's health initiatives.' The president later withdrew Nesheiwat's nomination. In April, Loomer met with Trump, urging him to fire members of the National Security Council who had been disloyal to him. Not long after, the president terminated several NSC staff. It's not clear how much Loomer's demands played a role in the decisions. Asked how many staffing decisions she's had a hand in, Loomer told the New York Times last month: 'I don't even know…I really enjoy and take great pleasure in humiliating people who suck at their job.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Women Reveal What It Feels Like To Be In A Sexless Marriage
When a couple stops having sex, it doesn't just affect things in the bedroom — it often puts a strain on the entire relationship. If both partners are content with little to no sex, then those dry spells (which are quite common, by the way) may not pose a problem. But in relationships in which one or both partners value their sex lives, a dead bedroom can bring up painful emotions, fears and resentments that just push them further and further apart. Related: 'Couples collude in silence,' sex therapist Kimberly Resnick Anderson told HuffPost in 2018. 'They decide it is easier to have no sex at all than to deal with the hurt feelings and unpredictable emotions, such as guilt or anger.' A number of factors can give way to a period of sexlessness: physical or mental health conditions, having kids, stress, mismatched libidos and communication issues, to name a few. We asked women who have lived through sexless marriages to reveal what the experience was like for them and how it affected their relationships. For privacy reasons, some respondents' last names have been withheld or a pseudonym has been used. Interviews have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. 'Not Good Enough' 'I didn't want anyone to know about my sexless marriage so I hid behind a smiling facade. Inside, I was drowning in a maelstrom of emotions: shame over experiencing pain from intercourse (instead of orgasms), then not wanting sex altogether. Fear that the pain was serious, my body damaged, defective. Disappointment in myself that I was not the sexual woman I'd imagined myself to be when I married the man of my dreams. Anger that this was not how it's supposed to be — this was not the dream. Confusion over why I didn't want sex with the man I loved. And powerlessness — over everything. I tried to will myself to be sexual. It wasn't working, which led to more of the same — shame, fear, disappointment, anger. With every gynecologist I saw, every test I ran, I got the same response: There was nothing wrong with me physically. 'Then it must be me and my sexuality. I'm the one who's broken here,' I concluded. My biggest fear — that I am not good enough as a woman and as a wife — permeated almost every thought and preoccupied me day and night. I blamed my body for being fat, not sexy, not worthy of sex — which led me to put on an 40 extra pounds. But the most painful part was that I felt so alone. My heart was hurting — but I did not have the words (or permission) to confide vulnerably in my husband about this inner struggle. I was on my own. All I knew was to act out my frustrations and fears — with angry remarks, followed by apologies — that only made me hate myself more and drew us further apart.' —Irene Fehr Related: 'Deep Loneliness' 'In my experience, a sexless marriage begins when conversation dies and then it's a natural progression to physical and spiritual celibacy between two people. Even writing these words draws up those feelings of deep loneliness and feeling unloved. I guess he may have felt the same except he was still trying to initiate physical sex but without putting in the effort to kindle desire through attention and conversation. Ultimately, the state of the marriage was impacting my health: I went into depression and my weight went up to more than 350 pounds. I could not contemplate creating a new life as I was utterly detached from who I had been pre-marriage. I was lost. I am forever grateful to a dear friend who wrote to me about my health. It was the first step in acknowledging the truth of my life at that time and then initiating plans for a better future. Looking back, I don't regret this time of my life, as I have learned from the experience and my life is full of titillating, scintillating and hilarious conversations with the person I love. Even though we might only do the horizontal tango a few times a month, we are committed to celebrating each other every single day: small acts of kindness, a pinch on the bum, and a slow kiss every morning and night.' ― Susan Jarvis 'I Felt Guilty' 'I went through a sexless period in my marriage, but the reason for that was entirely on my end. My husband had a high sex drive and still found me desirable, but I was almost never aroused. I had an undiagnosed chronic illness that messed with my hormones and libido. I still loved sex. I missed having sex. And I really enjoyed sex when I had it. I wanted more, but I could only bring myself to do it once every month or two. I felt frustrated because I wasn't able to give myself what I wanted. I felt guilty because I couldn't stop thinking that I had tied my husband down to this relationship and now he was cheated out of having a normal sex life. And I felt scared because I didn't know how long he'd put up with it. He said he was fine and that he loved me too much to live without me, but how long would he really put up with a sexless marriage? One year? Five years? Ten? After a years-long dry spell, I finally saw my way out of it. I started writing about sex and that helped. But it's going through hormonal replacement that really pushed things forward. My health is still very much a work in progress, but things are looking up and I'm back to having sex regularly.' ― Emma Austin 'I Was Shamed About My Body' 'Our relationship didn't start sexless. To the contrary, we had sex every day. It was wonderful and I felt alive. It was affirming. I've struggled with my self-esteem since I was a young gymnast, and here was this man that seemed to want me. Then it dropped off. My weight became an issue, reaffirming all my worst fears. I shouldn't have married him. Related: For our wedding night, he had arranged for his brother to be in our suite. I spent my own money to book another. Then it only happened on special occasions, and then for two years, nothing. I was shamed about my body. There were a number of factors but it ended our marriage. My self-image has been so harmed by this. When we'd first broken up, despite looking relatively normal, I felt too ugly to go outside, too ugly for makeup. I still struggle with people taking pictures. I'm a doctor, I take care of my family, and I still feel like my entire worth rests on my appearance. Weirdly, when my husband and I did split, he seemed horrendously hurt that men were interested in me and I basked in that interest. He did not want his trash to be another's treasure. It'll take me a long time before I trust a man long-term again. Longer still before I feel worth something.' ― Alayna 'I Felt So Unattractive' 'My partner and I have been married for two and a half years, together for nine. Our relationship started with sex and it was intense. Our libidos matched, we could talk outside the bedroom about what we liked and didn't like and what we wanted to try next. When I moved in, all intimacy seemed to vanish overnight. It went from once every two weeks to once a month. He always had an excuse, he was tired, not feeling well, too busy. He would physically push me away and say 'Get off me.' It was devastating but I kept trying, I was so attracted to him. I knew what the problem was. He had gained weight and his overall health went downhill, resulting in little or no libido. But he never shared that with me, just deflected or made me feel bad about desiring my partner. The times we did have sex, there was no foreplay, no flirting in the kitchen, whispering dirty things in each other's ears. So once we were in bed, I wasn't ready and he complained. I ended up in tears more often than orgasm. One night, I said to him that the night before was fun and I would like us to go to bed together again. He jumped up, told me I was stressing him out and walked to the bedroom. He came out a few minutes later to apologize, but the damage was done. I stopped initiating and planned to leave. I hate feeling undesirable to the one man who is supposed to love me before all. I became terrified of his rejection. I was depressed and tried medication. I never cheated because I couldn't hurt him and also because I felt so unattractive. My partner doesn't want me, how could anyone else! The relationship is over. There were many other issues besides the lack of intimacy, but the lack of intimacy seemed to magnify all other problems. If I had felt loved and desired and cared for, maybe I could have overlooked some issues.' ― Lindsay Sex Ed for Grown-Ups is a series tackling everything you didn't learn about sex in school — beyond the birds and the bees. Keep checking back for more expert-based articles and personal stories. Related... 10 Signs You're Headed For A Sexless Marriage Can A Sexless Marriage Survive? We Asked The Experts. What To Do When Your Sex Drives Don't MatchSolve the daily Crossword
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Hiker in Tennessee Who Picked Up a Venomous Snake Dies After Being Bitten
A hiker in a Tennessee state park died after picking up a rattlesnake that bit him in what was a rare fatality arising from a snake bite, the authorities said on Friday. The hiker, a man who was not publicly identified, was in Savage Gulf State Park in Gruetli-Laager, Tenn., around 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 8, Matthew Griffith, director for the Grundy County Emergency Association, said in an email. A witness told officials that the hiker had picked up a snake, which was believed to be a timber rattlesnake, and was bitten on a hand, Mr. Griffith said. It was not clear why the hiker picked up the snake. The hiker was a half mile along a trail. Emergency medical workers arrived and gave him CPR before transferring him to a hospital, where he died, Mr. Griffith said. Thousands of people in the United States are bitten by venomous snakes each year, but only about five bites annually prove to be fatal, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. More people would die if they did not seek medical care, the agency said. It is believed the man's death was caused by an allergic reaction, but full details have yet to be released, Mr. Griffith said. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
