Latest news with #newlife
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
I quit my job, divorced my husband, and moved to Italy to retire. I miss my kids, but I'm happier and healthier here.
Cindy Sheahan quit her job, got divorced, and began traveling abroad for a bigger, fuller life. She's visited more than 50 countries, but one city stole her heart: Palermo, on the island of Sicily. Sheahan told Business Insider she's happier, healthier, and saving more money in Italy. This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Cindy Sheahan, 64, who retired from real estate in 2017 and left Colorado to travel abroad. In 2025, Sheahan settled in Palermo, Italy. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. In 2017, I was at a crossroads. A lot of people I knew were dying, and I started thinking: You really don't know how many days you get or what's promised to you. I figured I'd start traveling abroad. My company was kind enough to let me take a sabbatical while I sorted out my world. It turned out to be a mistake for them, because I decided I wasn't coming back. Once I stepped out the door and visited places I had only dreamed of and ate food I had only read about, it was ridiculous to think I was going to go back to my "normal life." I wasn't getting any younger. I figured I could always work again if I wanted to. But right now? I wanted to climb a waterfall in Cambodia and ride a motorbike in Vietnam. So I quit my job, retired, and divorced my husband. We had 30 years together and raised our amazing kids. But I didn't want just to walk the dog, play pickleball, and tend a garden. I wanted a bigger life. I thought living abroad would be temporary, but I was wrong After the divorce, I moved into a small apartment in Colorado with a monthly rent of $1,700. I still have it and rent it out to traveling nurses abroad. In the beginning, I thought I'd travel the majority of the year, come back to the States, and live a "normal" life there for one month a year. For some time, I did that. I've visited nearly 50 countries, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Madagascar, Turkey, Cyprus, and the more popular spots, like France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Greece. After being a mom to four kids, it's amazing to travel alone. Eating, sleeping, and reading when you want to is nice. You can go back to the same restaurant twice or visit a museum. You have no one to apologize to or explain yourself to. I remember sitting on a bench in front of Picasso's famous painting Guernica in the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. Who knew I could sit and look at it for half an hour without anyone saying: "Oh my God, can we go? Are you done?" It was a sense of freedom that was incredible. The US was no longer for me After seven years of full-time backpack and hostel traveling, I was ready to set up a home base. I wanted to put my toothbrush on my own sink and put my clothes on a hanger somewhere. I knew I didn't want to live in the US anymore. Not only did I feel empowered abroad, but I also felt that the US no longer aligned with my values. I wasn't into the US's overconsumption. With the divisive political climate and the ridiculous gun culture, there was no way in hell I'd live there after experiencing a more peaceful life in so many other countries. Palermo, Italy, has my heart In 2022, moved to Portugal on a retirement residency visa. After about 11 months, I realized I could apply for Italian citizenship through ancestry, and the process would be faster in Italy than in the US. That was a game changer. For some time, I explored different parts of Italy, trying to determine where I wanted to live. I lived in a small medieval village in Umbria, and visited Bologna, Milan, Torino, Rome, and Florence. Then I went to Palermo, a city on the island of Sicily, and it hit me: I had found my soul city. Palermo is a feast for the senses. There's laughter, joy, noise — it's completely lovely. I moved to the city in October 2024. I didn't want to live in the suburbs — though living in the outer areas will always be less expensive and, in some ways, more authentic. So, I chose to live in the city center. I live in an area where I can walk for about 15 minutes and be at a cathedral, the gardens, or in the neighborhoods where all the restaurants, markets, and festivals happen. Palermo has a vast and active expat community. I feel safe in my neighborhood. I have a good friend who lives by the local train station, about a 30-minute walk from my apartment. I walk back from her house all the time late at midnight, and there's no stress — I'm not walking with my keys in my hand. My apartment is about 1,100 square feet, and I pay around $800 monthly plus a $100 condominium fee. It came completely furnished and is gorgeous. I have three sets of French doors that open onto three separate balconies. The floors are terrazzo with border patterns, and there are medallions on the 12-foot-high ceiling. My bathroom is spacious, which is hard to find in Italy, where showers are often the size of a phone booth. The apartment building dates back to the early 1930s. Although it is old, compared to some other buildings in Italy, it feels relatively new. Life is more affordable in Italy I couldn't afford my lifestyle if I moved back to the US. I receive $1,500 a month in Social Security. It's not enough to cover rent in Denver, but abroad, it easily covers my housing and much more. Daily expenses are affordable in Palermo. I love that I can go to the grocery store and not break the bank. You can buy tomatoes, eggplants, zucchini, sun-dried tomatoes, and everything else for a song. Healthcare is also much more affordable in Italy. In 2024, while traveling in Tunisia, I broke my foot. When I returned to Italy, I had two sets of X-rays and two appointments with an orthopedic specialist, and the total cost was less than $150. At the time, I wasn't even on the national healthcare system. Now that I'm an Italian citizen, I'm fully covered, which means there's no charge for general care. If I need to see a specialist, like a dermatologist, I might pay around $40. I am happier in Italy than I'd ever be in the US Living in Italy, I make a new discovery every day. That sense of wonder and joy has become a regular part of my life. I feel like I outgrew a lot of people and places in the US. Don't get me wrong, I desperately miss my friends and family, especially my kids. But they're all able to travel, and they'd much rather visit me somewhere fun than grab a drink at a bar in Denver. My quality of life has improved in Italy. I walk almost everywhere, so my blood pressure, weight, and cholesterol are in better condition. I eat better, I've made new friends, I've cut down on expenses, and most importantly, I'm happy. Read the original article on Business Insider
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The nefarious message behind the DHS ‘manifest destiny' painting: ‘four pillars of propaganda'
In Morgan Weistling's oil painting A Prayer for a New Life, a young, white pioneer couple sit inside a covered wagon, sharing a quiet moment with their swaddled newborn as prairie stretches out behind them. The work could be interpreted as a western take on the birth of Jesus; Mary and Joseph on the Oregon trail. One might imagine it decorating the oak-walled office of an oil executive in a Yellowstone spin-off show – though it is probably too schmaltzy even for that. Last week, Weistling's painting took on a darker meaning when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s official X account posted, to the artist's consternation, an image of the painting with the caption: 'Remember your Homeland's Heritage.' To some, the post seemed like authoritarian propaganda, similar to what was put out by Joseph Goebbels about Aryan motherhood in 1930s Nazi Germany. 'In case you had any doubts about the white supremacist thing,' one X user responded to the post. Others nakedly applauded its perceived subtext, a celebration of the right's vision for America, in which families of strong men and maternal women usher in a pronatalist baby boom. 'Our people. Our place,' responded Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab, a social network popular among alt-right, neo-Nazi and white nationalist users. Under Trump's second administration, the DHS has orchestrated sweeping immigration raids across the US, and Ice is reportedly detaining a record number of migrants. A scroll through the department's X account shows videos of families torn apart by immigration officers, and then this post, which seems to say: we're fine with migration and movement – so long as the families doing it are white. Experts say the benign look on the couple's faces and the presence of an innocent newborn distract from the real problem: what's not in the painting's frame. 'The main stories that are told through art of the American west tend to focus on white settlers, which omits the suppression of other populations,' said Emily C Burns, director of the Charles M Russell study for the center of art of the American west and an associate professor of art history at the University of Oklahoma. 'It's challenging when a single image of something that is incredibly complicated is placed in the foreground. What stories are lost in that?' Those stories include the US government's violent expulsion and genocide of Indigenous people to clear land for settlers, and the Black cowboys, many of them formerly enslaved or one generation removed from slavery, who went west on horseback and helped develop the country's nascent ranching industry. Also omitted are the Chinese immigrants who built the west's railroads and worked its goldmines and factories, and who, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, could not legally gain US citizenship. Adam Klein, associate professor at Pace University, studies how extremist movements infiltrate American media and politics. 'The [Weistling] painting isn't violent at all,' he said. 'On the surface, it's a beautiful image. But when you look at where it's coming from, with [DHS using] language like 'homeland' and 'heritage', that's really evocative of anti-immigrant sentiment.' Klein said the post brought to mind similar themes used by VDare, a far-right, anti-immigration website that launched in 1999 and suspended operations last year. VDare was named after Virginia Dare, the first child born to European settlers in the 'new world'. Since the 1800s, white supremacists have glorified her memory, though all we know of her is her birthdate and the fact that she disappeared as part of the 'lost colony' of Roanoke. Dare's image and disappearance are ripe for racist projections, including the conspiracy theory of a 'white genocide' perpetrated by non-white immigrants. In 2018, the VDare founder Peter Brimelow told the Washington Post that he chose the name 'to focus attention on the very specific cultural origins of America, at a time when mass nontraditional immigration is threatening to swamp it'. Klein also noted that the DHS's post seemed like 'an attempt to stir the pot and be divisive'. Under the leadership of Kristi Noem, the DHS has taken up Donald Trump's orders for mass deportation with militant aplomb and an all-out publicity blitz. Noem looked glamorous as she livestreamed pre-dawn Ice raids in New York and toured the southern border on horseback. Meanwhile, the department shares mugshots of migrants and reminders from Uncle Sam to 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS.' Last month, it posted AI-rendered art hyping Alligator Alcatraz, thumbing its nose at critics horrified by the detention center's reported conditions. On a less aggressive artistic note, it also shared the late artist Thomas Kinkade's Morning Pledge, a pastoral painting showing two boys walking to their small-town schoolhouse underneath a fluttering American flag. 'Protect the Homeland,' the DHS captioned this post. Both Kinkade's perfectly manicured Americana and Weistling's 'manifest destiny' daydream belie the chaos DHS has sown through its often violent immigration crackdown. But they do align with the retrograde America Trump 2.0 desires, and is ordering US universities, museums and national parks to teach. Weistling, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote on his website that DHS used his 2020 painting without permission. He described the work as two parents with their baby, 'depicted here praying to God for his fragile life on their perilous journey'. His style often canonizes traditional domestic roles: girls and young women cook and clean, while men ride on horseback and build things. When asked about its social media strategy, including the use of Weistling's work, a DHS spokesperson wrote via email: 'If the media needs a history lesson on the brave men and women who blazed the trails, forded the rivers, and forged this Republic from the sweat of their brow, we are happy to send them a history textbook. This administration is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage. Get used to it.' Renee Hobbs, a professor of communication studies at the University of Rhode Island and founder of the Media Education Lab, says that she teaches her students 'the four pillars of propaganda': activating strong emotions; simplifying information and ideas; appealing to people's deepest hopes, fears and dreams; and attacking opponents. The DHS's post hits all of these pillars. 'This could be an image from a children's book,' Hobbs said. 'It's a vision of America that was sold to generations. I'm a boomer, and I read these kinds of stories as a child. Now I have a critical perspective on manifest destiny, but this taps into my memory, which can bypass critical thinking.' Those feelings, good or bad, are the whole point: 'DHS is looking for engagement, and the use of emotional imagery gets people to react, whether they love it or hate it,' Hobbs said. 'So from a PR strategy, these posts are actually working quite well.'
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
The nefarious message behind the DHS ‘manifest destiny' painting: ‘four pillars of propaganda'
In Morgan Weistling's oil painting A Prayer for a New Life, a young, white pioneer couple sit inside a covered wagon, sharing a quiet moment with their swaddled newborn as prairie stretches out behind them. The work could be interpreted as a western take on the birth of Jesus; Mary and Joseph on the Oregon trail. One might imagine it decorating the oak-walled office of an oil executive in a Yellowstone spin-off show – though it is likely too schmaltzy even for that. Last week, Weistling's painting took on a darker meaning when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)'s official X account posted, to the artist's consternation, an image of the painting with the caption: 'Remember your Homeland's Heritage.' To some, the post seemed like authoritarian propaganda, similar to what was put out by Joseph Goebbels about Aryan motherhood in 1930s Nazi Germany. 'In case you had any doubts about the white supremacist thing,' one X user responded to the post. Others nakedly applauded its perceived subtext, a celebration of the right's vision for America, in which families of strong men and maternal women usher in a pronatalist baby boom. 'Our people. Our place,' responded Andrew Torba, CEO of Gab, a social network popular among alt-right, neo-Nazi and white nationalist users. Under Trump's second administration, the DHS has orchestrated sweeping immigration raids across the US, and Ice is reportedly detaining a record number of migrants. A scroll through the department's X account shows videos of families torn apart by immigration officers, and then this post, which seems to say: we're fine with migration and movement – so long as the families doing it are white. Experts say the saccharine smiles on the couple's faces and the presence of an innocent newborn distract from the real problem: what's not in the painting's frame. 'The main stories that are told through art of the American west tend to focus on white settlers, which omits the suppression of other populations,' said Emily C Burns, director of the Charles M Russell study for the center of art of the American west and an associate professor of art history at the University of Oklahoma. 'It's challenging when a single image of something that is incredibly complicated is placed in the foreground. What stories are lost in that?' Those stories include the US government's violent expulsion and genocide of Indigenous people to clear land for settlers, and the Black cowboys, many of them formerly enslaved or one generation removed from slavery, who went west on horseback and helped develop the country's nascent ranching industry. Also omitted are the Chinese immigrants who built the west's railroads and worked its gold mines and factories, and who, due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, could not legally gain US citizenship. Adam Klein, associate professor at Pace University, studies how extremist movements infiltrate American media and politics. 'The [Weistling] painting isn't violent at all,' he said. 'On the surface, it's a beautiful image. But when you look at where it's coming from, with [DHS using] language like 'homeland' and 'heritage', that's really evocative of anti-immigrant sentiment.' Klein said the post brought to mind similar themes used by VDare, a far-right, anti-immigration website that launched in 1999 and suspended operations last year. VDare was named after Virginia Dare, the first child born to European settlers in the 'new world'. Since the 1800s, white supremacists have glorified her memory, though all we know of her is her birthdate and the fact that she disappeared as part of the 'lost colony' of Roanoke. Dare's image and disappearance are ripe for racist projections, including the conspiracy theory of a 'white genocide' perpetrated by non-white immigrants. In 2018, VDare founder Peter Brimelow told the Washington Post that he chose the name 'to focus attention on the very specific cultural origins of America, at a time when mass nontraditional immigration is threatening to swamp it'. Klein also noted that DHS's post seemed like 'an attempt to stir the pot and be divisive'. Under the leadership of Kristi Noem, DHS has taken up Donald Trump's orders for mass deportation with militant aplomb and an all-out publicity blitz. Noem looked glamorous as she livestreamed pre-dawn Ice raids in New York and toured the southern border on horseback. Meanwhile, the department shares mugshots of migrants and reminders from Uncle Sam to 'REPORT ALL FOREIGN INVADERS.' Last month, it posted AI-rendered art hyping Alligator Alcatraz, thumbing its nose at critics horrified by the detention center's reported conditions. On a less aggressive artistic note, it also shared the late artist Thomas Kinkade's 'Morning Pledge', a pastoral painting showing two boys walking to their small-town schoolhouse underneath a fluttering American flag. 'Protect the Homeland,' DHS captioned this post. Both Kinkade's perfectly manicured Americana and Weistling's 'manifest destiny' daydream belie the chaos DHS has sown through its often violent immigration crackdown. But they do align with the retrograde America Trump 2.0 desires, and is ordering US universities, museums and national parks to teach. Weistling, who did not respond to a request for comment, wrote on his website that DHS used his 2020 painting without permission. He described the work as two parents with their baby, 'depicted here praying to God for his fragile life on their perilous journey'. His style often canonizes traditional domestic roles: girls and young women cook and clean, while men ride on horseback and build things. When asked about its social media strategy, including the use of Weistling's work, a DHS spokesperson wrote via email: 'If the media needs a history lesson on the brave men and women who blazed the trails, forded the rivers, and forged this Republic from the sweat of their brow, we are happy to send them a history textbook. This administration is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage. Get used to it.' Renee Hobbs, a professor of communication studies at the University of Rhode Island and founder of the Media Education Lab, says that she teaches her students 'the four pillars of propaganda': activating strong emotions; simplifying information and ideas; appealing to people's deepest hopes, fears and dreams; and attacking opponents. DHS's post hits all of these pillars. 'This could be an image from a children's book,' Hobbs said. 'It's a vision of America that was sold to generations. I'm a boomer, and I read these kinds of stories as a child. Now I have a critical perspective on manifest destiny, but this taps into my memory, which can bypass critical thinking.' Those feelings, good or bad, are the whole point: 'DHS is looking for engagement, and the use of emotional imagery gets people to react, whether they love it or hate it,' Hobbs said. 'So from a PR strategy, these posts are actually working quite well.'
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Loose Women star Andrea McLean breaks down in tears as she addresses her decision to leave the UK for Spain after near-death health scare and failed business
Andrea McLean has confirmed she is moving to Spain for a new life in an emotional Instagram video this morning. This former Loose Women anchor, 55, looked visibly upset as she revealed she didn't think the shock announcement was something she would be making. Since stepping down from Loose Women in 2019, the mum-of-two has faced several financial and health woes. Taking to social media she said, 'You may have seen or heard in the papers that we are moving. And yes, we are,' before she points her camera to a room filled with boxes. 'I wasn't going to say anything just yet, but in a nutshell a conversation I had with someone ended up in the papers, so here we are.' Explaining her decision to leave the UK, Andrea admitted, 'Lots of reasons for this. It's been really well documented that obviously, I've had a bit of a shocker over the last few years. 'Not only health wise, but obviously my business failing and then it culminated at the start of the year with, I had been very unwell. And what it made me realise is oh gosh, you only get one shot, and you have to seize the day.' Her husband, Nick Feeney, leaned in to embrace her as she added, 'I don't know why I'm crying. Oh so silly, I didn't mean to do this. 'Those of you who know me, know I have always wanted to live by the sea and in the sun, and so that's what we're doing. The timing of course is not perfect - timing isn't always perfect. 'There is never a perfect moment, but what I realised at the start of this year is you don't know how many moments you might have left. You have to seize them.' 'It's a good thing, it's scary. I have no idea how things are going to pan out,' she confessed. Fans and friends were quick to send their well wishes, with one saying, 'You're right, new adventures, sending love.' Andrea left Loose Women in 2020 to pursue other endeavours, including starting her female empowerment brand, This Girl On Fire. But earlier this year she made the difficult decision to dissolve the business, which had struggled to bring in money despite being boosted by funding from the sale of Andrea's £1million Surrey home. It came just months after the mother-of-two had a terrifying run-in with death after being found collapsed at the family home by her husband Nick Feeney late last year. Andrea was rushed to hospital with severe sepsis and pneumonia, and was told by doctors that if she was taken in for treatment any later she could have died. A source told The Sun of Andrea's plans to move abroad with Nick after a 'tough couple of years' as she looks to focus on her writing career. She has already published three bestselling books, This Girl Is On Fire, Confessions of a Good Girl and Confessions of a Menopausal Woman. A source told the publication: 'It's been a tough couple of years and the business never financially recovered. Andrea made the decision to dissolve the business officially earlier this year. 'Now she's planning a new life in Spain with husband Nick. After she nearly died, Andrea's focused on what really matters - family and friends. 'She's in a really good place, positive, loved up with Nick still, her kids are all grown up so she's happy and making life work for her.' Andrea has two children, Finlay and Amy, with previous partners. She admitted earlier this year that her health scare 'changed her life forever'. Andrea told The Mirror: 'I didn't realise how severe my illness was at the time. But the doctors had told my husband Nick that had I not got to hospital when I did, had we waited another 24 hours to call for help, I may not be here now.' She added: 'What happened over the next few weeks changed my life for ever.' The 55-year-old had been lying on the floor for more than an hour before she was discovered by her husband in December. She was then blue lighted to hospital where after a series of X-ray and CT scans they discovered she had severe pneumonia, an acute kidney injury and sepsis. Reflecting on the frightening ordeal, she added: 'It was only a few weeks after I got home that I realised the magnitude of what had happened – that if I hadn't gone into hospital that day, I may not be here now.' Andrea revealed that the scare made her want to seize the day, but admitted in February that she still wasn't back to full health. She also thanked her husband Nick who she said's 'life stopped' during that time too as he drove her to the hospital everyday, waited for her at clinics for hours at a time and cooked everyone dinner before putting her to bed. The presenter made her return to television just a couple of weeks ago, telling her Instagram followers she was heading back to the studio for the first time in a while, but had suffered 'quite a lot of hair loss'. Andrea explained: 'On my way to do my first live television for a long time. I won't lie, I'm nervous. I'm looking forward to it, because I love doing telly stuff, but because it's been a while I'm a bit scared. 'I know it's because I care and I want to do a good job and not look stupid, which is absolutely normal. I'm nervouscited.' She continued: 'We all feel like this. It'll be fine once I'm doing it. Deep down I know it will. I also seem to look permanently dishevelled! 'I have lost quite a lot of hair with Covid and the strong medication after pneumonia and it doesn't seem to behave like it used to. 'I'm embracing it as there's not much else I can do. There's a kind of freedom to that too. I'm liking the rebellion of it.'
Arabian Business
04-06-2025
- General
- Arabian Business
Fujairah Ruler orders release of 112 prisoners for Eid Al Adha 2025
Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Fujairah, has ordered the release of 112 prisoners from punitive and correctional institutions in Fujairah on the occasion of Eid Al Adha. The inmates of various nationalities were selected based on good conduct and behaviour. The gesture is part of His Highness' keenness to give prisoners an opportunity to start a new life and bring joy to their families, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) said in a statement. Major-General Mohammed Ahmed bin Ghanim Al Kaabi, Commander-in-Chief of the Fujairah Police, thanked H.H. Sheikh Hamad for this gesture. '[This gesture] will enable the released prisoners to start new lives, contribute to their community, and show good behaviour,' the statement added, citing Major-General Al Kaabi.
