Memory

Who Gets the Last Word on Steve Jobs? He Might.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis meticulously curated the memory of her husband after he was assassinated, reimagining President John F. Kennedy as a fallen King Arthur in a modern-day Camelot.

Now some historians wonder if Laurene Powell Jobs is also trying to frame the legacy of her late husband, Steve Jobs, a complicated and transformational figure who was shadowed by his flaws as a father and belligerence as a boss.

Last month, Ms. Powell Jobs introduced the Steve Jobs Archive. It aspires to reinvent the personal archive much as Mr. Jobs, in his years running Apple, remade music with the iPod and communication with the iPhone.

Rather than offering up a repository of personal correspondence, notes and items for public research and inquiry, as other influential figures have done, Ms. Powell Jobs, who did not respond to requests for comments, said at a conference last month that the Steve Jobs Archive would be devoted to “ideas.” Those ideas are primarily Mr. Jobs’s philosophies about life and work.

Harvard Business School’s 25 greatest business leaders of the 20th century left behind personal archives that are open to the public in libraries or museums, including Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Asa Candler, who built Coca-Cola.

Other iconic business founders such as Walt Disney, Sam Walton and Ray Kroc entrusted their papers to the companies they built, allowing those collections to become the cornerstone of corporate archives.

Walt Disney Company, make personal correspondence, notes, speeches and other items available to authors for research.

“We don’t censor,” said Becky Cline, director of the Walt Disney archives. “We just vet.”

The new Jobs archive debuted with a minimalist website containing eight pieces of video, audio and writing that express what the archive calls Mr. Jobs’s “driving motivations in his own words.” The items, three-quarters of which were already public, can be accessed by clicking through maxims made famous by Mr. Jobs, including “make something wonderful and put it out there” and “pursue different paths.”

The next steps for the archive are shrouded in the kind of mystery associated with the way Mr. Jobs ran Apple. About all that’s been publicly disclosed is that Ms. Powell Jobs hired a documentary filmmaker to gather hundreds of oral histories about Mr. Jobs from former colleagues. Where that material will be stored and who will have access to it has not been revealed.

She married Mr. Jobs in 1991, two years after meeting him as a graduate student at Stanford. Since his death, she has used her estimated $16 billion fortune to fund the Emerson Collective, a philanthropic and commercial operation that owns The Atlantic magazine and funds an organization trying to reduce gun violence in Chicago.

During his life, Mr. Jobs admired and encouraged historians to preserve the history of his Silicon Valley predecessors such as Robert Noyce, who co-founded the chip maker Intel. But he put little value on his own history, and Apple has seldom commemorated product anniversaries, saying it focuses on the future, not the past.

Stanford spent years cataloging items such as photos of a barefoot Mr. Jobs at work, advertising campaigns and an Apple II computer. That material can be reviewed by students and researchers interested in learning more about the company.

Silicon Valley leaders have a tradition of leaving their material with Stanford, which has collections of letters, slides and notes from William Hewlett, who founded Hewlett-Packard, and Andy Grove, the former chief executive of Intel.

Mr. Lowood said that he uses the Silicon Valley archives to teach students about the value of discovery. “Unlike a book, which is the gospel and all true, a mix of materials in a box introduces uncertainty,” he said.

After Mr. Jobs’ death in 2011, Mr. Isaacson, the author, published a biography of Mr. Jobs. Some at Apple complained that the book, a best seller, misrepresented Mr. Jobs and commercialized his death.

Mr. Isaacson declined to comment about those complaints.

Four years later, the book became the basis for a film. The 2015 movie, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Michael Fassbender, focused on Mr. Jobs being ousted from Apple and denying paternity of his eldest daughter.

according to emails made public after a hack of Sony Pictures, which held rights to the film. She and others who were close to Mr. Jobs thought any movie based on the book would be inaccurate.

“I was outraged, and he was my friend,” said Mike Slade, a marketing executive who worked as an adviser to Mr. Jobs from 1998 to 2004. “I can’t imagine how outraged Laurene was.”

In November 2015, a month after the movie’s release, Ms. Powell Jobs had representatives register the Steve Jobs Archive as a limited liability company in Delaware and California. She later hired the documentary filmmaker, Davis Guggenheim, to gather oral histories about Mr. Jobs from former colleagues and friends. She also hired Ms. Berlin, who was Stanford’s project historian for its Apple archives, to be the Jobs Archive’s executive director.

Mr. Guggenheim gathered material about Mr. Jobs while also working on a Netflix documentary about Bill Gates, “Inside Bill’s Brain.” Mr. Slade, who worked for both Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates, said he sat for an interview about one executive, stopped to change shirts and returned to discuss the other one.

Ms. Berlin assisted Ms. Powell Jobs in gathering material. They collected items such as audio of interviews done by reporters and early company records, including a 1976 document that Mr. Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Apple’s co-founder, called their declaration of independence. It outlined what the company would stand for, said Regis McKenna, who unearthed the document in his personal collection gathered during his decades as a pioneer of Silicon Valley marketing and adviser to Mr. Jobs.

Ms. Powell Jobs also assembled a group of advisers to inform what the archive would be, including Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive; Jony Ive, Apple’s former chief design officer; and Bob Iger, the former chief executive of Walt Disney and a former Apple board member.

Mr. Cook, Mr. Ive and Mr. Iger declined to comment.

Apple, which has its own corporate archive and archivist, is a contributor to the Jobs effort, said Ms. Berlin, who declined to say how she works with the company to gain access to material left by Mr. Jobs.

The archive’s resulting website opens with an email that Mr. Jobs sent himself at Apple. It reads like a journal entry, outlining all the things that he depends on others to provide, from the food he eats to the music he enjoys.

“I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being,” he wrote.

The email is followed by a previously undisclosed audio clip from a 1984 interview that Mr. Jobs did with Michael Moritz, the journalist turned venture capitalist at Sequoia. During it, Mr. Jobs says that refinement comes from mistakes, a platitude that captures how Apple used trial and error to develop devices.

“It was just lying in the drawer gathering dust,” Mr. Moritz said of the recording.

It’s clear to those who have contributed material that the archive is about safeguarding Mr. Jobs’s legacy. It’s a goal that many of them support.

“There’s so much distortion about who Steve was,” Mr. McKenna said. “There needed to be something more factual.”

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Doctors Are Still Hunting For The Cause Of Long COVID Brain Fog

Studies show 30% of COVID patients report brain fog a few months after they’re sick. It’s 65 to 85% for long-haulers sick beyond that.

COVID-related brain fog is a condition that can feel very defeating and overwhelming.

Newsy’s Lindsey Theis has COVID-related brain fog herself. And it’s a topic she’s covered since 2020. She says each person she’s spoken with tells her it’s a dramatic change that impacts how they think and move throughout their lives. For this story, Theis met a family dealing with what she says is one of the worst cases she’s ever seen.

On a bright, sunny day in rural Rensselaer, Indiana, 45-year-old Kari Lentino’s mind is a slow-moving storm.

“I feel like a brain blizzard half the time,” she said.

Lentino is immunocompromised. She’s had COVID twice. Since June 2021, it’s left her with several neurological setbacks. She says her brain fog is among the worst of it.

“I couldn’t remember passwords to get into certain systems. I worked at the library and I would forget what I was doing while I was doing it,” Lentino said.

Her conversations now go at a snail’s pace as she searches for words.

The mother of four and grandmother of two had to quit work and file for disability.

She can’t watch her grandkids. She won’t run errands or drive. Now, her time is spent mothering her brain.

Dr. Igor Koralnik is chief of neuro-infectious diseases and co-director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center, where he also runs a lab.

He says 70% of his COVID brain fog patients are like Lentino — women in their early 40s.

“We see that attention is their main cognitive problem,” he said. “Problem with attention, problem with memory, problem with multitasking and briefly, problems getting through their daily life and working in their current job capacity. … We have people who have been infected back in March 2020 and still have decreased quality of life because of those symptoms and decreased cognitive function.”

Scientists think COVID cognitive dysfunction is from brain inflammation — but what causes it is still itself foggy.

One leading theory is that long COVID is an autoimmune disorder, where the immune system attacks healthy cells in the body, including the brain.

“We find that the virus has confused the immune system, and we think that it’s driving the immune system towards autoimmunity,” Koralnik explained.

Studies show 30% of COVID patients report brain fog a few months after they’re sick. It’s 65 to 85% for long-haulers sick beyond that.

Researchers haven’t found brain fog treatments yet, so they tackle someone’s symptoms.

But even diagnosing brain fog is tricky. It’s invisible. There’s no set case definition but it can include trouble focusing, struggling to remember names, places, or words, reacting slowly, confused judgment, losing a train of thought often and fatigue or exhaustion from concentrating.

Back in Rensselaer, Lentino’s husband helps her prepare her pills. She takes eight medications and two vitamins daily, plus a handful more as needed. That’s in addition to her therapies and memory aids like calendars and post it notes. Those cues share spots in the Lentino home near the signs of her former creative and vibrant self. Prescription bottles near her paintings. Reminders near her Star Wars string art.

“It’s frustrating and depressing. It takes so long to do anything,” she said.

In the spot where she used to stand to paint, brushes and acrylics wait patiently.

Lentino is waiting too, like so many brain fog sufferers. It’s a long, draining wait and the ultimate test of patience.

On a hopeful note, research shows many brain fog patients recover memory and attention near the 6-to-9-month mark. For treatment, some doctors prescribe medicine, like steroids or antihistamines, plus therapies like speech or cognitive rehabilitation therapy. If you have brain fog yourself, experts say you can try memory games and puzzles, and focus on quality sleep and healthy eating.

: newsy.com

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Queen Elizabeth II Mourned At Funeral By Britain And World

By Associated Press
September 19, 2022

Pallbearers carried the coffin into Westminster Abbey, where around 2,000 people gathered to mourn her.

Britain and the world said a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth II at a state funeral Monday that drew presidents and kings, princes and prime ministers — and crowds who massed along the streets of London to honor a monarch whose 70-year reign defined an age.

A day packed with events in London and Windsor began early when the doors of 900-year-old Westminster Hall were closed to mourners after hundreds of thousands had filed in front of her flag-draped coffin. Many had waited for hours in line, including through cold nights, to attend the lying in state in an outpouring of collective grief and respect.

“I felt like I had to come and pay my final respects to our majestic queen. She has done so much for us and just a little thank you really from the people,” said Tracy Dobson, who was among the last to join the line.

In a country known for pomp and pageantry, the first state funeral since Winston Churchill’s was filled with spectacle: 142 Royal Navy sailors drew the gun carriage carrying Elizabeth’s coffin to Westminster Abbey, with King Charles III and his sons, Princes William and Harry, walking behind as bagpipers played. Pallbearers carried the coffin into the abbey, where around 2,000 people ranging from world leaders to health care workers gathered to mourn her. Ahead of the service, a bell tolled 96 times — once a minute for each year of her life.

“Here, where Queen Elizabeth was married and crowned, we gather from across the nation, from the Commonwealth, and from the nations of the world, to mourn our loss, to remember her long life of selfless service, and in sure confidence to commit her to the mercy of God our maker and redeemer,” the dean of the medieval abbey, David Hoyle, told the mourners, as the funeral opened.

It drew to a close with two minutes of silence observed across the United Kingdom. The attendees then sang the national anthem.

Monday has been declared a public holiday in honor of Elizabeth, who died Sept. 8 — and hundreds of thousands of people descended on central London to partake in the historic moment. Long before the service began, city authorities said viewing areas along the route of the funeral’s procession were full.

Millions more had been expected to tune into the funeral live on television, and crowds flocked to parks and public spaces across the U.K. to watch it on screens. Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby noted during the funeral that “few leaders receive the outpouring of love we have seen” for Elizabeth.

On the evening before, Charles issued a message of thanks to people in the U.K. and around the world, saying he and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, have been “moved beyond measure” by the large numbers of people who have turned out to pay their respects to the queen.

Following the funeral, the coffin — accompanied by units of the armed forces in dress uniforms and members of her family — was brought through the capital’s streets.

At Wellington Arch near Hyde Park, it will be placed in a hearse to be driven to Windsor Castle — where Elizabeth spent much of her time — for another procession before a committal service in St. George’s Chapel. She will be laid to rest with her late husband, Prince Philip, at a private family service.

U.S. President Joe Biden was among leaders to pay their respects at the queen’s coffin on Sunday as thousands of police, hundreds of British troops and an army of officials made final preparations for the funeral.

President Biden called Queen Elizabeth II “decent” and “honorable” and “all about service” as he signed the condolence book, saying his heart went out to the royal family.

People across Britain paused for a minute of silence at 8 p.m. Sunday in memory of the only monarch most have ever known. At Westminster Hall, the constant stream of mourners paused for 60 seconds as people observed the minute of reflection in deep silence.

In Windsor, rain began to fall as the crowd fell silent for the moment of reflection. Some camped overnight outside the castle in order to reserve the best spots to view the queen’s coffin.

Jilly Fitzgerald, who was in Windsor, said there was a sense of community among the mourners as they prepared to wait hours to see the procession carrying the queen’s coffin.

“It’s good to be with all the people who are all feeling the same. It’s like a big family because everyone feels that … the queen was part of their family,” she said.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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How The Power Of Music Is Helping Patients With Alzheimer’s

An adult care center for people with dementia uses music as therapy for families, patients, and caregivers.

It’s been said that music is healing, and for Peter Midgely and his daughter Debbie Caramella, music is family.

“He made us all play instruments — all six kids,” said Caramella.

The father and daughter make their way to practice with the Sentimental Journey Singers weekly, a chorus of people with memory loss and their loved ones.

A second sister joined us via zoom.

DEBBIE CARAMELLA: Dad wasn’t your first job delivering papers? And what did you do with your money?” Didn’t you pay for your own..

PETER MIDGELY: Pay for piano lessons.

CARAMELLA: That’s right.

For the trio, rehearsals are about more than family time.

Mary Ann East, is the director of Arts for Life, Encore Creativity for Older Adults.

“There’s even parts of the brain that are strictly for music and they tend to be untouched by cognitive change, or at least not touched right away,” said East.

It’s something that’s been observed with musician Tony Bennett, who has Alzheimer’s disease.

The group of singers rehearse at Insight Memory Care, an adult center in Virginia dedicated to memory loss patients.

“When you get a diagnosis, families go, what the heck do I do now? We’re trying to meet them at that space,” said Anita Irvin, the executive director at Insight Memory Care Center.

For people with dementia, it isn’t just about music, but finding that thing that makes each person spark.

“This is actually participant artwork here. So this is stuff that is done by our participants that we like to kind of highlight what they’ve been successful at doing through art,” said Irvin.

It’s also about exercise and just plain camaraderie.

“I find that physical movement, you would say they’re minor, but for seniors, they’re major,” said James Brophy, a client at Insight Memory Care Center.

As with any diagnosis, the impact goes beyond the patient, to family members and caregivers.

Melissa Long, is the director of education and support at Insight Memory Care Center.

“The guilt that they’re not doing enough. The frustration that they get that this isn’t the person they’ve been with their whole life,” said Long.

“One of the most devastating times that can happen to a caregiver is the day that that person doesn’t know who they are,” said Beth Kallmyer, the VP of care and support at the Alzheimer’s Association.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association caregivers of patients with dementia are more likely to suffer from higher levels of stress and anxiety than non-caregivers.

“It’s helpful to remember that it’s a disease. The person has no control over it, but still it’s very devastating to family members,” said Kallmyer.

While there’s no cure for diseases like Alzheimer’s, experts encourage caregivers to focus on the little victories. And while there’s no clear-cut evidence that isolation speeds disease progression.

“There is there’s some evidence showing that social engagement, using your brain to do different things, having a purpose is remains really important,” said Kallmyer.

CARAMELLA: It’s beneficial to have physical activity, mental activity and social activity every day. What do you think dad? Does this cover those things?

MIDGELY: It does.

CARAMELLA: It does. All of it.

Newsy’s mental health initiative “America’s Breakdown: Confronting Our Mental Health Crisis” brings you deeply personal and thoughtfully told stories on the state of mental health care in the U.S. Click here to learn more.

: newsy.com

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Queen Elizabeth II’s Coffin Makes Journey Through Scotland

The hearse drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died.

Queen Elizabeth II’s flag-draped coffin is passing through the rugged Scottish countryside Sunday on a final journey from her beloved summer estate Balmoral Castle to London, with mourners quietly lining roads and some tossing flowers to honor the monarch who died after 70 years on the throne.

The hearse drove past piles of bouquets and other tributes as it led a seven-car cortege from Balmoral, where the queen died Thursday, for a six-hour trip through Scottish towns to Holyroodhouse palace in Edinburgh. The late queen’s coffin was draped in the Royal Standard for Scotland and topped with a wreath made of flowers from the estate, including sweet peas, one of the queen’s favorites.

“A sad and poignant moment as Her Majesty, The Queen leaves her beloved Balmoral for the final time,” the first minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon tweeted. “Today, as she makes her journey to Edinburgh, Scotland will pay tribute to an extraordinary woman.”

Crowds lined parts of the route as the nation mourns its longest-reigning monarch, the only one most Britons have ever known. In the Scottish village of Ballater, where residents regard the royal family as neighbors, hundreds of people watched in silence and some threw flowers in front of the hearse as it passed.

“She meant such a lot to people in this area. People were crying, it was amazing to see,” said Victoria Pacheco, a guest house manager.

In each town and village the cars drove through, they were met with similar muted scenes of respect. People stood mostly in silence; some clapped politely, others pointed their phone cameras at the passing cars.

Before reaching the Scottish capital, the cortege is traveling down what is effectively a royal memory lane — passing through locations laden with House of Windsor history including Dyce, where in 1975 the queen formally opened the U.K.’s first North Sea oil pipeline, and Fife near St. Andrews University, where her grandson William, now the Prince of Wales, studied and met his future wife, Catherine.

Sunday’s solemn drive through Scotland came as the queen’s eldest son was formally proclaimed the new monarch — King Charles III — in the rest of the nations of the United Kingdom: Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It came a day after a pomp-filled accession ceremony in England steeped in ancient tradition and political symbolism.

“I am deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty, which have now passed to me,” Charles said Saturday.

Just before the proclamation was read Sunday in Edinburgh, a protester appeared with a sign condemning imperialism and urging leaders to “abolish the monarchy,” getting taken away soon afterward by police. The crowd applauded.

One man shouted, “Let her go! It’s free speech!” while others shouted: “Have some respect.”

It’s a sign of how some, including the former British Empire colonies, are struggling with the legacy of the monarchy. Earlier, proclamations were read in other parts of the Commonwealth countries, including Australia and New Zealand.

Charles, even as he mourned his late mother, was getting to work at Buckingham Palace, meeting with the secretary-general and other representatives of the Commonwealth, nations grappling with affection for the queen and lingering bitterness over their colonial legacies, ranging from slavery to corporal punishment in African schools to looted artifacts held in British institutions.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had started laying the groundwork for an Australian republic after elections in May, said Sunday that now was the time not for a change but for paying tribute to the late queen.

India, a former British colony, observed a day of state mourning, with flags lowered to half-staff on all government buildings throughout the country.

Amid the grief enveloping the House of Windsor, there were hints of a possible family reconciliation. Prince William and his brother Harry, together with their respective wives, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, delighted mourners near Windsor Castle with a surprise joint appearance Saturday.

The queen’s coffin will take a circuitous journey back to the capital. On Monday, it will be taken from Holyroodhouse to nearby St. Giles’ Cathedral, where it will remain until Tuesday, when it will be flown to London. The coffin will be moved from Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to the Houses of Parliament to lie in state until a state funeral at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 19.

In Ballater, the Rev. David Barr said locals consider the royals as “neighbors” and try to treat them as locals when they spend summers in the Scottish Highlands.

“When she comes up here, and she goes through those gates, I believe the royal part of her stays mostly outside,” he said. “And as she goes in, she was able to be a wife, a loving wife, a loving mum, a loving gran and then later on a loving great-gran — and aunty — and be normal.”

Elizabeth Taylor, from Aberdeen, had tears in her eyes after the hearse carrying the queen’s coffin passed through Ballater.

“It was very emotional. It was respectful and showed what they think of the queen,” she said. “She certainly gave service to this country even up until a few days before her death.”

Additional reporting by the Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Meghan, Harry, William, Kate Make A Surprise Appearance At Windsor

Their “walkabout” was the first time the brothers have appeared amicably together in public since March 2020.

Prince William and wife Kate made a surprise joint appearance with Prince Harry and wife Meghan on Saturday, warmly greeting a large crowd gathered outside Windsor Castle to remember their long-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II.

Their “walkabout,” the first time the brothers have appeared amicably together in public since March 2020, comes at a time when the younger generation of Britain’s royal family must step up their responsibilities significantly.

William, long second-in-line to the throne, is now the heir apparent after his father, King Charles III, became Britain’s new monarch upon his mother’s death. That means William and Kate, both 40 and parents of three young children, immediately assume a much more central role as the new face of the monarchy.

William and Harry had been on frosty terms since Harry quit as a senior royal and moved to the U.S. two years ago. Their show of unity Saturday was reportedly initiated by William and left some observers hoping that Harry, 37, might return to the fray and support his elder brother in sharing the heavy workload now on William’s shoulders.

“Certainly William and Catherine, as the new Prince and Princess of Wales, will be even more in the media spotlight if that’s possible,” said Joe Little, managing editor of Majesty magazine. “Until Thursday, there was a buffer between him and the throne. That buffer has now been removed.”

It’s a stark contrast to how thing were just two weeks ago, when William and Kate announced they were moving their family from central London to a more rural base in Windsor. Observers thought they were seeking more privacy and a more “normal” upbringing for their children, who just started a new year together at a private school.

Long before he ascended to the throne, Charles indicated that he wanted a “slimmed down” monarchy with a tighter core group of full-time working royals and lower expenses.

That was before Harry’s move — and before the princes’ uncle, Prince Andrew, was effectively banished from public life following sexual misconduct scandals.

Not many other recognizable “working royals” — members of the royal family who officially represent the monarch — were left to share the hundreds of official engagements and numerous overseas visits undertaken each year.

The group includes Charles and his wife, Camilla, now the Queen Consort; William and Kate; the queen’s only daughter, Princess Anne; and the queen’s youngest child, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie. Also working royals, but much lesser known, are the queen’s first cousin, Prince Richard, and his wife, Birgitte.

In his first speech to the nation, which was broadcast Friday, Charles formally bestowed his own title, the Prince of Wales, to William. Kate is now the Princess of Wales, and is the first person since William’s late mother, Princess Diana, to hold the title.

William and Kate also inherit Charles and Camilla’s other honorary titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall. That means managing and taking income from the Duchy of Cornwall, an estate comprising land across the U.K. that is reportedly worth 1 billion pounds.

“With Catherine beside him, our new Prince and Princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations, helping to bring the marginal to the center ground where vital help can be given,” Charles said Friday.

In his speech, Charles said he knows won’t be able to devote as much time and energy to causes he cares most about, such as the environment and climate change.

William will now likely spend more time championing those topics. He already made his mark by founding the Earthshot Prize, an ambitious “legacy project” expected to hand out millions of pounds in grants for environmental initiatives over the next 10 years.

“It will be some time before the reality of life without Grannie will truly feel real,” William wrote in a statement Saturday. “I will honour her memory by supporting my father, The King, in every way I can.”

Charles also spoke briefly of Harry in his address to the nation, expressing his “love for Harry and Meghan as they continue to build their lives overseas.”

Harry and Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, moved away from the U.K. to seek financial independence and freedom from severe British media scrutiny into their lives.

The couple is now settled in California with their two young children. Both Harry and Meghan repeatedly have aired their unhappiness with the royals since their departure.

Those tensions were put aside Saturday, as the two princes and their wives arrived in the same car to greet people who pressed against road barriers outside the gates of Windsor Castle. Each royal stopped to speak to both children and adults, accepting flowers and condolences from an excited crowd.

“It was so beautiful to see. I felt so emotional and I felt the queen would have loved it,” said Banita Ranow, 28. Her mother, Baljinder, said the visit was “fabulous.”

“I just hope in the future they remain like that and that the brothers come together,” she said.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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The Struggle And Rising Need For Veterans To Get Mental Health Care

Research shows nearly half of American veterans who need mental health care don’t get it.

The guilt felt by Connor McDaniel’s father, David, is overwhelming.

“He had more personality than a whole bunch of people put together. I miss him terribly. I miss him every day,” David said. “I’m his father. I’m supposed to protect him, even from himself, and I failed. It’s very, very hard to deal with.”

Last year, the 26-year-old veteran sent his last email to his loved ones.

“He felt like his entire life would’ve been a series of bad experiences.”

His family tried to stop him. His father called law enforcement for help.

El Paso County sheriff’s deputies found McDaniel first, where he provoked them to shoot and kill him.

The district attorney’s office ruled the shooting was justified.

David is now fulfilling a promise to his son — that he would never be just another number.

“My son made it very clear in his note to us that he didn’t want to be a gun violence statistic, a veteran suicide statistic,” he said.

David wants to ensure every veteran receives access to mental health care after they return home. And data shows the need is rising.

The Department of Veterans Affairs projects a 32% spike in outpatient mental health care over the next 10 years. And one-third of veterans who received care from the VA were diagnosed with at least one mental health condition.

But there are barriers to treatment. Stigma and shame are two of them, according to Bob McLaughlin with the Mount Carmel Veterans Service Center.

“It’s about resiliency, right, and when that breaks — when people feel that they’re weak — that’s against the culture,” he said.

In a 2018 study from the peer-reviewed BMC Health Service Journal, researchers found a majority of veterans were worried about what others would think if they sought treatment.

University of Memphis President Michael Rudd also says troops on active duty can face consequences for reaching out for help.

“Ultimately, the concern is about the impact on career progression, the impact on your deployability, the impact on all sorts of things in terms of advancement,” he said. “That’s how stigma is maintained.”

Some veterans told the BMC that fear lingers long into retirement.

In an effort to erase stigma, the VA created a national campaign called “The Veterans Know,” where former service members encourage each other to take charge of their mental health.

“It really is quite empowering to hear veterans talk about their struggle, how they became aware of the struggle and then all the different kinds of ways that they got help,” Department of Defense Mental Health National Director for VA Christopher Loftis said.

Even when veterans look for treatment, the BMC study found that many had little confidence in the VA health care system.

Veterans who were interviewed pointed to “appointment problems, staffing issues” and “limited follow-up” from providers and staff.

“It’s just starting to build back up into another waitlist scandal,” Concerned Veterans of America Coalitions Director Joshua Stanwitz said.

Before the problem hits a crisis point, like the waitlist scandal in 2014, Navy veteran Paula Pedene accused VA officials in Phoenix of lying to the federal government about shorter appointment wait times.

An audit from the VA Inspector General found systemic problems throughout the VA, discovering the average wait was really 115 days and at least 40 veterans died without the chance to see a doctor.

“There was 111 VA facilities that were using the same methodology and manipulating the wait time data to make them look good,” Pedene said.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki stepped down in the wake of the scandal and then-president Barack Obama signed 19 executive orders to improve VA hospitals.

On its website, the VA says it implemented new methods of calculating average wait times to be more accurate so patients can check how long it will take to see a provider.

The wait times change daily, but when we last checked within 50 miles of Chicago, the wait was anywhere from 9 to 13 days.

Under the VA Mission Act of 2018, which aims to provide broader access to health care, veterans should only wait a standard of 20 days after requesting a mental health appointment.

Rural areas also face unique geographical hurdles, like in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

When we last checked, there is one treatment facility in the area with a 15-day wait.

The center with the second-earliest availability is 95 miles away.

If veterans can’t get the help they need, the VA Mission Act says the VA is supposed to pay other health care systems to take over, like community care.

But an investigation from USA Today last year found in some cases, administrators overrule doctor recommendations to send vets outside the VA in order to retain patients. And once people are sent to community care, the average wait time is about 42 days.

The VA told USA Today it’s following Mission Act requirements. And some doctors say expanded telehealth is easing struggles.

“The way that psychiatrists and psychologists can work with someone in a rural area is very effective as well,” Zablocki VA Hospital Mental Health Division Manager Dr. Bert Berger said.

VA data shows the pandemic drove telehealth appointments to unprecedented heights, jumping nearly 2,000% between January 2020 and 2021.

Officials told Congress last year about spending government funds to expand care and improve reach.

Veterans Health Administration Acting Deputy Under Secretary Dr. Steven Lieberman said the VA distributed over 84,000 iPads and 20,000 cell phones. “It helped us accelerate the modernization of bandwith to reach over 2,100 locations with increased bandwith on modernized platforms.”

Today, the system is supporting over 100,000 remote users.

Still, some veterans expressed distrust over using online services, telling BMC researchers they think the system will share private information.

One Vietnam veteran confessed he was afraid that sharing about his time overseas would land him in jail.

Other vets said they simply didn’t know anything about VA benefits before leaving the military. They struggled to understand how to find or use mental health services as veterans, instead of as active-duty members.

The VA built Make the Connection, a website to link up veterans with resources and solutions for their mental health needs.

There are also free, online tools for veterans to deal with sleep issues or anger management, plus a crisis line with 24/7 support for vets and their families.

But Berger says it’s important for veterans to take the difficult first step and seek the support they need.

“Veterans are proud,” he said. “They served their country. They don’t want to admit they have a problem or admit defeat in any way, so admitting that they have a mental health problem is really difficult.”

As for David McDaniel, he just wants to make sure troops know they aren’t alone when they come back from deployment, while keeping his son’s memory alive along the way.

“I really do strongly feel like if we can make the ‘D’ disappear from PTSD, and it’s not such a stigma, and everybody who’s been in combat goes for some mental health, I think it will change things a lot.”

: newsy.com

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Inflation Tightens Its Grip on Europe

At the Saku beer factory in Estonia, the mammoth copper brew kettles sit side by side like household sink plungers stored on a shelf in a manor house for giants. The brewery has been around for 200 years, but this is the first time in memory that the company has planned two price rises — of 10 percent each — in a single year.

And even that double-barreled increase won’t be enough to cover the brewery’s skyrocketing costs, said Jaan Harms, a board member at Saku.

“We are in an environment of increasing inflation, and, of course, energy is by far the main driver,” Mr. Harms said. When its energy contracts run out at the end of the summer, the company’s gas costs will rise 400 percent and the electricity bills will double, he said. And because the providers of every product and service they buy are also dealing with soaring fuel prices, those costs are rising as well.

estimates released Wednesday by the European Commission’s statistical office.

3 percent — a level that at the time set off alarms for reaching a decade-long high, but that would now be greeted with relief.

European Central Bank is scheduled to meet, is likely to reinforce the view that interest rates need to be raised again to curb inflation, despite the risk of recession.

Speaking at an economic summit near Jackson, Wyo., over the weekend, Isabel Schnabel, a member of the bank’s executive board, warned that inflation was more persistent than expected and said the bank needed to act “forcefully.”

“Inflation volatility has surged beyond the levels seen during the 1970s,” Ms. Schnabel said, a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and climate change that is causing widespread drought, wildfires and other extreme weather.

nearly double in October, making it difficult for millions of people to heat their homes this winter.

inflation hit 8.5 percent in July, still high but a decline from the 9.1 percent registered in June as prices for gas, airfares, used cars and hotel rooms fell.

agreement with the European Union to temporarily cap electricity prices at €40 per megawatt-hour. Professors at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia in Lisbon and at Complutense University in Madrid calculated that prices were 15 to 18 percent lower than they would have been without the cap.

Elsewhere in Europe, prices for electricity in August set eye-popping records, according to Rystad Energy, a consultancy in Norway, with an average price of €547 per megawatt-hour.

glass bottles from its Russian supplier after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Since then, wholesale bottle prices have shot up 20 to 80 percent.

solar panels atop its warehouses and brewery this summer, and it now boasts the country’s largest industrial rooftop solar park. In addition, the thermostats in offices will be lowered by 2 degrees this winter.

The energy crisis has also spurred the brewery to reconsider a proposal it had shelved as too expensive: the construction of a water treatment plant. The energy savings previously were not large enough to justify the cost. “But we are now thinking of doing this because the rules of the game have changed so much,” Mr. Harms said.

Saku’s initial price increase has gone through, but so far, there has not been a drop in sales. Summer vacation is prime season, Mr. Harms said, and when the weather is warm in this northern European country, people spend and drink.

But like the rest of Europe, Estonia is preparing for a dark winter.

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Princess Diana’s Global Impact 25 Years After Her Death

By Luke Hanrahan
August 31, 2022

A young woman who positively altered the public’s perception of the royal family and made a lasting impact on the world is remembered 25 years later.

Capturing imaginations from the very beginning, Diana — then an innocent 20-year-old but marrying the future king — would transform her life.

Photographers would follow her wherever she went.

While the princess hated the intrusion, she quickly learned the media was also a tool she could use to bring attention to a cause.

Before she met Prince Charles, Princess Diana lived in a three-bedroom apartment in South Kensington. She had “chief chick” written above her bedroom door. She was an archetypal small-town girl from the English countryside who would come and go in a Mini Metro car. People remember her as a typical girl next door. It’s difficult to believe how Princess Diana would go on to impact not just British society, but further afield too.

“I think the one that sticks to memory is the walking amongst the mines … I can still see that very clearly today,” Diana’s former neighbor John Fultner said. “It was quite an emotional time. It was quite significant.”

Whether it was stepping out onto an active minefield to aid in the call for an international ban on land mines, or highlighting poverty alongside Mother Teresa, Diana made a positive impact on the contemporary issues of her day.

Raymond Kyle is a former neighbor who, like many, has his own personal and long-lasting memories of Diana.

“I think the AIDS thing, there was a real stigma and Princess Diana went out to shake hands with them. And that really, I think, did help,” he said.

She was a woman who became not just a mother but an international style icon who made a difference to millions.

Her death 25 years ago on Aug. 31 shook the world: a car crash in Paris, precipitated by a paparazzi chase.

The scale of the outpouring of public emotion in Britain had never been seen before and has never been seen since.

“I admired and respected her for her energy and commitment to others and, especially, for her devotion to her two boys,” Queen Elizabeth II said during Diana’s funeral.

Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, have similarly learned to harness the power of the media to shine a light on just causes.

“I think she would be extremely proud of both of them,” London resident Jill Brailey said. “They’ve gone in separate directions but they’re really good lads and I think she would be proud of them.”

“The monarchy, having witnessed a sharp decrease in its popularity in the aftermath of Diana’s death, basically looks to these boys as the saviors of the institution and the entire, if you like, front of the institution is remodeled around their ambitions as two young royals,” royal historian Ed Owens said. “So the reason she matters is because she transformed the institution during her lifetime. But in terms of her legacy, she’s continued to transform the institution through the figures of her two sons.”

Diana was a young woman who positively altered the public’s perception of the royal family and made a lasting impact on the world — a legacy her sons continue to honor and maintain.

: newsy.com

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Serena Williams Not Done Yet; Wins 1st Match At U.S. Open

Three weeks ago, Williams told the world that she was ready to concentrate on having a second child and her venture capital firm.

They came from far and wide for Serena — no last name required, befitting someone as much an icon as superstar athlete — to see her practice and play and, it turned out, win a match at the U.S. Open on Monday night, turning out in record numbers to fill Arthur Ashe Stadium and shout and applaud and pump their fists right along with her.

Serena Williams is not ready to say goodbye just yet. Nor, clearly, are her fans. And she heard them, loud and clear.

In her first match at what is expected to be the last U.S. Open — and last tournament — of her remarkable playing career, even if she insists that she won’t quite say so, Williams overcame a shaky start to overpower Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3 amid an atmosphere more akin to a festival than a farewell.

What memory will stick with her the most from the evening?

“When I walked out, the reception was really overwhelming. It was loud and I could feel it in my chest. It was a really good feeling,” said the owner of six U.S. Open championships and 23 Grand Slam titles overall, numbers unsurpassed by any other player in the sport’s professional era.

“It’s a feeling I’ll never forget,” she added. “Yeah, that meant a lot to me.”

This opening outing against Kovinic, a 27-year-old from Montenegro ranked 80th, became an event with a capital “E.” Spike Lee participated in the pre-match coin toss. Former President Bill Clinton was in the stands. So were Mike Tyson and Martina Navratilova, sitting next to each other. And sitting with Dad and Grandma was Williams’ daughter, Olympia, who turns 5 on Thursday, wearing white beads in her hair just like Mom did while winning the U.S. Open for the first time at age 17 back in 1999.

Williams is now 40, and told the world three weeks ago via an essay for Vogue that she was ready to concentrate on having a second child and her venture capital firm.

Asked after her victory Monday whether this will definitively be her final tournament, Williams replied with a knowing smile: “Yeah, I’ve been pretty vague about it, right?”

Then she added: “I’m going to stay vague, because you never know.”

The night session drew 29,000 folks, a high for the tournament — more than 23,000 were in Ashe; thousands more watched on a video screen outside the arena — and the place was as loud as ever. Certainly louder than any other first-round match in memory.

Both players called the decibel level “crazy.” Kovinic said she couldn’t hear the ball come off Williams’ racket strings — or even her own.

Early, Williams was not at her best. Maybe it was the significance of the moment. There were double-faults. Other missed strokes, missed opportunities. She went up 2-0, but then quickly trailed 3-2. Then, suddenly, Williams looked a lot like the champion she’s been for decades and less like the player who came into this match with a 1-3 record since returning to action in late June after nearly a year off the tour.

“At this point, honestly, everything is a bonus for me, I feel,” Williams said. “It’s good that I was able to get this under my belt. … I’m just not even thinking about that. I’m just thinking about just this moment. I think it’s good for me just to live in the moment now.”

She rolled through the end of that opening set, capping it with a service winner she reacted to with clenched fists and her trademark cry of “Come on!” That was met with thunderous cheers and applause — as was the ending of the 1-hour, 40-minute contest, as if another trophy had been earned.

Instead, there is plenty more work to be done. Williams will play in the second round of singles on Wednesday against No. 2 seed Anett Kontveit of Estonia. And there’s also doubles, too: Williams and her sister, Venus, are entered together in that competition, with their initial match slated for Wednesday or Thursday.

“Just keep supporting me,” Williams told the spectators, “as long as I’m here.”

They surely will. They were there to honor her and show appreciation for what she’s done on the court and off. After watching the victory over Kovinic, spectators held up blue, white or red placards that were distributed at their seats to spell out “We (Heart) Serena.”

After Kovinic was introduced simply by name, making clear to even her what an afterthought she was on this muggy evening, Williams’ entrance was preceded by a tribute video narrated by Queen Latifah, who called the American the “Queen of Queens.” The arena announcer called Williams “the greatest of all time,” and intoned: “This U.S. Open marks the final chapter of her storied tennis history.”

She means a lot to a lot of people. As a tennis player. As a woman. As an African American. As a mother. As a businesswoman.

“When she started out, female athletes weren’t getting recognized. She’s done so much,” said Quintella Thorn, a 68-year-old from Columbus, Georgia, making her eighth trip to the U.S. Open. “And now, she’s …”

“Evolving,” chimed in Thorn’s friend, Cora Monroe, 72, of Shreveport, Louisiana, using the word Williams says she prefers to “retirement.”

Which is why Monday mattered more than the usual Day 1 at a major tournament. And why the daily program did not make mention of any other of the dozens of athletes in action, showing instead a montage of six images of Williams holding her six U.S. Open trophies above the title: “Serena Williams, A Legacy of Greatness.” And why there was a sense of less importance for matches involving wins for other elite players such as past U.S. Open champions Bianca Andreescu, Andy Murray and Daniil Medvedev, or French Open finalist Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old American.

After her own 6-2, 6-3 victory over Leolia Jeanjean earlier in the day, Gauff looked forward to sitting in Ashe herself to watch Williams, someone she credits with inspiring her to play tennis. Gauff’s original plan was to tune in on TV, but then she decided this was too important to miss.

“Everybody is going to be on her side. I’m going to be cheering for her,” Gauff said. “It’s going to be probably one of the most electric matches that will ever happen in tennis.”

She lived up to the billing. And now there is more to come for Williams and her supporters.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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