ReportWire

Tag: Life

  • News We Love: Two friends celebrated at school after one saved the other from drowning

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    STREET MARKET ON OUR WEBSITE WKYC.COM. A YOUNG INDIANA BOY IS BEING CALLED A HERO AFTER SAVING HIS FRIEND FROM DROWNING AT AN INDOOR POOL. IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY PARTY AND LIKE, I WAS EXCITED, SO I JUST JUMPED IN THE POOL. I SAW HIM LIKE, DROWNING. LIKE HE WAS LIKE, NOT SWIMMING. SO I HELD A HOLE, LIKE, GET HIM. AND THEN I GOT HIM. WELL, BRAXTON THOUGHT THE WATER WAS SHALLOW ENOUGH WHEN HE JUMPED IN. HIS FRIENDS SAW HIM STRUGGLING AND SWAM RIGHT TO HIM, LIFTING BRAXTON UP AND HOLDING HIM ABOVE THE SURFACE. EVENTUALLY, BOTH BOYS WERE ABLE TO GET OUT SAFELY. I WAS THANKING HIM HOW HE JUST SAVED MY LIFE AND I WAS LIKE, THANK GOD. LIKE GOD SENT HIM TO SAVE ME. FAMILY TO ME, HE’S MY BEST FRIEND AND I JUST LOVE TO BE WI

    News We Love: Indiana boy praised for heroic effort to save friend from drowning at birthday party

    Updated: 6:05 PM PST Dec 20, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    A young Indiana boy is being called a hero after saving his friend from drowning at an indoor pool.”It was his birthday party, and like I was excited, so I just jumped in the pool,” Braxton said.His friend Clark jumped into action when he noticed Braxton wasn’t swimming.”I saw him like, drowning, like he was, like, not really swimming. So I had to… to get him, and then I got him,” Clark said.Braxton said he thought the water was shallow enough when he jumped in.After Clark jumped in and pulled Braxton to the surface, the boys were able to get out safely.”I was thanking him how he just saved my life, and I was like, Thank God, like God sent him to save me,” Braxton said. “He’s like family to me. He’s my best friend, and I just love to be with him.”The boys were honored at their school’s character award ceremony.

    A young Indiana boy is being called a hero after saving his friend from drowning at an indoor pool.

    “It was his birthday party, and like I was excited, so I just jumped in the pool,” Braxton said.

    His friend Clark jumped into action when he noticed Braxton wasn’t swimming.

    “I saw him like, drowning, like he was, like, not really swimming. So I had to… to get him, and then I got him,” Clark said.

    Braxton said he thought the water was shallow enough when he jumped in.

    After Clark jumped in and pulled Braxton to the surface, the boys were able to get out safely.

    “I was thanking him how he just saved my life, and I was like, Thank God, like God sent him to save me,” Braxton said. “He’s like family to me. He’s my best friend, and I just love to be with him.”

    The boys were honored at their school’s character award ceremony.

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  • Commentary: Trump’s callous political attack on Rob Reiner shows a shameful moral failure

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    Hours after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were found dead in their home in what is shaping up to be a heartbreaking family tragedy, our president blamed Reiner for his own death.

    “A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS,” President Trump wrote on his social media platform. “He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!”

    Then, in the Oval Office, Trump doubled down on Reiner.

    “He was a deranged person,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question about his social media post. “I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.”

    Rest in peace, indeed.

    It’s a message steeped in cruelty and delusion, unbelievable and despicable even by the low, buried-in-the-dirt bar by which we have collectively come to judge Trump. In a town — and a time — of selfishness and self-serving, Reiner was one of the good guys, always fighting, both through his films and his politics, to make the world kinder and closer. And yes, that meant fighting against Trump and his increasingly erratic and authoritarian rule.

    For years, Reiner made the politics of inclusion and decency central to his life. He was a key player in overturning California’s ban on same-sex marriage and fought to expand early childhood education.

    For the last few months, he was laser-focused on the upcoming midterms as the last and best chance of protecting American democracy — which clearly enraged Trump.

    “Make no mistake, we have a year before this country becomes a full on autocracy,” Reiner told MSNBC host Ali Velshi in October. “People care about their pocketbook issues, the price of eggs. They care about their healthcare, and they should. Those are the things that directly affect them. But if they lose their democracy, all of these rights, the freedom of speech, the freedom to pray the way you want, the freedom to protest and not go to jail, not be sent out of the country with no due process, all these things will be taken away from them.”

    The Reiners’ son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Nick Reiner has struggled with addiction, and been in and out of rehab. But Trump seems to be saying that if Nick is indeed the perpetrator, he acted for pro-Trump political reasons — which obviously is highly unlikely and, well, just a weird and unhinged thing to claim.

    But also, deeply hypocritical.

    It was only a few months ago, in September, that Charlie Kirk was killed and Trump and his MAGA regime went nuts over anyone who dared whisper a critical word about Kirk. Trump called it “sick” and “deranged” that anyone could celebrate Kirk’s death, and blamed the “radical left” for violence-inciting rhetoric.

    Vice President JD Vance, channeling his inner Scarlett O’Hara, vowed “with God as my witness,” he would use the full power of the state to crack down on political “networks” deemed terrorist. In reality, he’s largely just using the state to target people who oppose Trump out loud.

    And just in case you thought maybe, maybe our president somehow really does have the good of all Americans at heart, recall that in speaking of Kirk, Trump said that he had one point of disagreement. Kirk, he claimed, forgave his enemies.

    “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie,” Trump said. “I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them.”

    There’s a malevolence so deep in Trump’s remarks about Reiner that even Marjorie Taylor Greene objected. She was once Trump’s staunchest supporter before he called her a traitor, empowering his goon squad to terrorize her with death threats.

    “This is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies,” Greene wrote on social media. “Many families deal with a family member with drug addiction and mental health issues. It’s incredibly difficult and should be met with empathy especially when it ends in murder.”

    But Trump has made cruelty the point. His need to dehumanize everyone who opposes him, including Reiner and even Greene, is exactly what Reiner was warning us about.

    Because when you allow people to be dehumanized, you stop caring about them — and Reiner was not about to let us stop caring.

    He saw the world with an artist’s eye and a warrior’s heart, a mighty combination reflected in his films. He challenged us to believe in true love, to set aside our cynicism, to be both silly and brave, knowing both were crucial to a successful life.

    This clarity from a man who commanded not just our attention and our respect, but our hearts, is what drove Trump crazy — and what made Reiner such a powerful threat to him. Republican or Democrat, his movies reminded us of what we hold in common.

    But it might be Michael Douglas’ speech in 1995’s “The American President” that is most relevant in this moment. Douglas’ character, President Andrew Shepherd, says that “America is advanced citizenship. You’ve got to want it bad, because it’s going to put up a fight.”

    Shepherd’s rival, a man pursuing power over purpose, “is interested in two things and two things only — making you afraid of ‘it’ and telling you who’s to blame for ‘it.’ ”

    Sound familiar?

    That our president felt the need to trash Reiner before his body is even buried would be a badge of honor to Reiner, an acknowledgment that Reiner’s warnings carried weight, and that Reiner was a messenger to be reckoned with.

    Reiner knew what advanced citizenship meant, and he wanted badly for democracy to survive.

    If Trump’s eulogy sickens you the way it sickens me, then here’s what you can do about it: Vote in November in Reiner’s memory.

    Your ballot is the rebuke Trump fears most.

    And your vote is the most powerful way to honor a man who dedicated his life to reminding us that bravery is having the audacity to care.

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    Anita Chabria

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  • Did the U.S. attack? Maduro flee? No, but in Venezuela, rampant rumors fly

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    CARACAS, Venezuela — Even in Venezuela, a nation battered by years of economic, social and political turmoil, the Christmas season is a time to put aside one’s troubles, spend time with family, enjoy a bit of holiday cheer — if you can escape the ubiquitous uncertainty and rumors that mark life here.

    On one day social media will be ablaze with reports that President Nicolás Maduro has fled to Brazil. Or to Turkey. Or that he stopped in Turkey on his way to Qatar. Or that the U.S. invasion had begun. None of it (so far) is true.

    Social media daily fuels the rumor mill, in part, because access to independent news is severely restricted.

    “One hears so much on social media, but learns little,” said Begoña Monasterio, 78, who was out shopping in Caracas for ingredients to prepare las hallacas, the country’s emblematic Christmas dish. It’s a succulent mix of cornmeal, meat, olives, raisins and other delectables cooked and wrapped in banana leaves, a kind of Venezuelan tamale.

    “I want to give a surprise to my eldest son, who is having a birthday during the holiday,” said the grandmother.

    She toted a small shopping bag and vowed to buy “the minimum,” now the custom in a once-wealthy South American nation that has suffered a decade of hyperinflation, ravaged wages, lost savings, mass displacement and migration — the equivalent of multiple Great Depressions.

    But the rumors of war, and peace — and all manner of other developments, from the trivial to the momentous — are never far away, even as shoppers make their way through storefronts and well-lighted malls brimming with holiday fare, much of it beyond most family budgets.

    A lot of the current chatter-cloud hovers above María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She lives “in hiding” in the capital, though the government’s pervasive security apparatus probably watches her movements closely.

    Members of the Bolivarian militia wave Venezuelan flags in Caracas on Wednesday during a march to commemorate a 19th century military battle.

    (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)

    After days of conflicting reports about her whereabouts, Machado showed up in Oslo a day after the Nobel award ceremony, reportedly following a covert, U.S.-aided voyage via land, sea and private jet. Thousands of ecstatic supporters greeted her in the Norwegian capital, a publicity coup for the opposition and another round of bad optics for Maduro’s embattled administration.

    Though Machado did indeed make it to Norway, the Venezuelan rumor mill still churned out theories about her arrival.

    President Nicolás Maduro addresses supporters during a rally

    Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro addresses supporters during a rally Wednesday in Caracas.

    (Pedro Rances Mattey / Anadolu / Getty Images)

    “We heard at one point that María Corina left the country in the fuselage of an airplane carrying migrants, and that once she was out los gringos would arrive,” Monasterio said. “Then we hear that Maduro has fled to Brazil. Really, nothing has turned out to be true. So I try to continue with my life, savoring my little alegrías [joys] as long as I can.”

    It’s a sagacious survival strategy in a country where what will happen next is anybody’s guess. Will Maduro negotiate a stay-in-power deal with President Trump? Will U.S. forces, already amassed off the Venezuelan coast, attack? Or will the tense status quo just drag on?

    “One doesn’t know whom to believe,” said Sebastián López, 33, a public employee who participated in a pro-government political rally downtown, one of a series organized these days by the ruling socialist party. “Many rumors originate outside the country, from Venezuelans who have left and can write what they want on the internet. … Yes, it’s true, María Corina left. But she’ll be back again.”

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers questions during a press briefing

    White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers questions about the recent U.S. military seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.

    (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

    One report circulating is that high-ranking chavistas — the hard-core government supporters named after late ex-President Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s mentor — are sending their families abroad, anticipating a U.S. strike. But there have been no reported high-level defections, a stark contrast from 2019, when Trump, during his first-term “maximum pressure” campaign against Venezuela, also attempted to force Maduro out.

    Another rumor is that, in some fashion, Washington and its allies will officially recognize as the legitimate leaders of Venezuela the opposition tandem of Edmundo González Urrutia and Machado.

    González, a veteran diplomat who lives in exile in Spain, ran as a stand-in presidential candidate for Machado in last year’s national election. Maduro claimed victory in balloting results widely denounced as fraudulent.

    Whether such a move by Washington would even make much difference is not clear. During his first term, Trump followed a similar strategy, declaring Juan Guaidó, then an opposition legislator, as the U.S.-recognized president of Venezuela, providing diplomatic backing and funding for a shadow government. The gambit failed. Guaidó has since joined the large Venezuelan exile community in Miami.

    The news this week that U.S. forces had seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast only fueled the prevalent climate of unease. Maduro’s government denounced the seizure as an act of international piracy. Fears now abound about a possible U.S. blockade, potentially throttling oil exports, Venezuela’s economic lifeline, and deepening hardships for civilians.

    “I’ve heard all the rumors — that the invasion will happen before Christmas, that Maduro is negotiating his departure, to Doha, to Cuba, to Russia — but I pay no attention,” said Carmen Luisa Jiménez, a Maduro supporter in the capital’s working-class Artigas district. “We know that el presidente will never leave, that he will remain with us. … We are a nation of peace, but prepared to confront whatever attack comes from the United States.”

    Members of the militias march during a commemoration

    Militia members wave Venezuelan flags Wednesday in Caracas during a ceremony marking the anniversary of a 19th century military battle.

    (Pedro Rances Mattey / Anadolu / Getty Images)

    Sonia Bravo, 40, who hawks Christmas trinkets from a makeshift stand, has also heard that “zero hour” is imminent. She has no idea. A bigger concern, she says, are slumping sales and trying to put food on the table for her family.

    “People can’t afford to buy much,” said Bravo. “Right now, anything seems possible. But what we are all hoping is this: That something will happen to end this nightmare.”

    Meantime, Venezuelans will keep on stocking ingredients for las hallacas, a complex dish that can take days to prepare. There is no doubt about the delicacy’s comforting presence in homes this Christmas, providing a sense of continuity absent from so many other facets of contemporary life in Venezuela.

    Special correspondent Mogollón reported from Caracas and Times staff writer McDonnell from Mexico City.

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    Mery Mogollón, Patrick J. McDonnell

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  • 55 Gifts W Editors Are Giving (Or Wanting) for the 2025 Holidays

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    Ever wish you could ask some cool, tapped-in people what they’re eyeing for a gift? You’re in luck. Below, seventeen W editors answer that age-old question: what do you want—and what are you giving—for the holidays?

    Maybe it’s because I’m Colombian, but whenever the temperature dips below 40 degrees, I go into shock. This winter, I’m counting on this fabulous Zegna shearling coat to keep me warm without making me look like the Michelin Man. —Armand Limnander, Executive Editor

    I love the idea of receiving a beauty treatment as a gift. I’m also obsessed with Sofie Pavitt’s skincare line, especially the mandelic serum; it changed my face in a major way this year. What better gift than a facial from the acne-clearing queen herself? With my wedding happening next year, my skin needs to be radiant and texture-free—and I would love to get a few extra tips from her. —Ashley Peña, Senior Designer

    I know what I’ll be wearing to pretty much every holiday party I attend this year: these ultra-comfy velvet ballet flats from Longchamp. They come in a range of colors and the dainty double buckle adds shine to an all-black look. —Maxine Wally, Senior Digital Editor

    I often jump to ready-to-wear or collectables when curating my holiday gift list—but this year, skin is in. I’ve been using Clarins’ glow serum for a few weeks; it has a light floral scent (don’t worry, I usually detest strong-smelling skincare, but this is actually nice) and it’s a great pick-me-up for dull skin during winter. —Matthew Velasco, Staff Writer, News

    Here’s a simple LED table lamp for people who have a lot of work to do, but not a ton of space. I’ll be putting this in my office in the New Year. —Tobias Holzmann, Design Director

    I’ve had my eye on the Toteme T-Lock bag for quite a while now. There’s something about the shape—which toes a delicate line between structured, yet still slouchy—and the way it looks when held under the arm. Now all I need is to decide whether I’d get more use out of the clutch or the top handle style… —Carolyn Twersky Winkler, Staff Writer

    This leather trench from Nour Hammour is the gift I’m fully manifesting this holiday season—like, I’m lighting a candle, writing it in my journal, and hoping the universe hears me. It’s the kind of coat that makes you look like you have your life together, even if you certainly do not. If this shows up at my door wrapped in a bow, just know I will be wearing it indoors, outdoors, and possibly to bed. —Che Baez, Visuals Editor

    I’m from Florida, which means two things. One: I’m heading back there for the holidays. Two: Despite nearly a decade in New York, I’m still kind of clueless about outerwear. So, consider this a perfect pick for anyone in your life who’s constantly moving between frigid and temperate climates. It’s a chic silhouette that keeps you warm, but compresses down for easy packing and storing. —Kyle Munzenrieder, Senior News & Strategy Editor

    My mother, who is constantly adventuring and already has planned a multicountry trip across Europe in 2026, will receive this book for Christmas. She can pore over the photographs of lavender fields months before she actually sees them in real life. —M.W.

    This is much more than just your average embroidered evening bag. You buy the purse, and then choose different veils with which to decorate it—from intricate embroidery to playful fringe. The veil slips on and attaches to the bag with invisible magnets. In this case, I like the beaded macramé style, which features black mesh and is finished with glass-beaded tassels. —Allia Alliata di Montereale, Style Director

    This scent by Yves Saint Laurent is the perfect blend of sweet and savory—it’s rich in its lavender and orange tones, and it’s led by a warm vanilla that isn’t overpowering in the slightest. And, from firsthand experience, the metallic exterior looks quite chic on a nightstand. —M.V.

    For your aspiring barista bestie, this is an elevated take on your average Nespresso machine, replete with a steaming wand for milk. We have one in the W office and it is our biggest mascot (and motivator). —M.W.

    For the spiritually inclined friend, sister, or daughter, Gazza Ladra’s talisman charm bracelet is a beautiful gift. Handcrafted with a gold chain and adorned with moon and eye pendants, plus turquoise and coral accents, the piece feels both personal and protective. —Nora Milch, Executive Fashion Director

    Here’s an indulgence in self-care—which I rarely permit myself—that I would really love to get my hands (and body) on. HigherDOSE’s mat supports skin, mood, muscle recovery, and circadian balance, all from the comfort of home, my favorite place to tune out and chill. —Maryam Liberman, Contributing Beauty Editor

    I love a classic gift, and this Burberry scarf is just that. I also adore the fact that you can personalize it. —Jenna Wojciechowski, Fashion Market and Menswear Director

    This one is for the jewelry minimalists. When it comes to style and function, I love how petite the Kimsey watch by March Hare is. It feels light on the wrist and looks timeless with every outfit. —A.P.

    Winter makes my skin flare up—blame the cold, dry air; my heightened anxiety surrounding the holidays, or whatever else. But I need hydration that goes beyond a standard moisturizer, and Rose Los Angeles x Marie Veronique crafted the perfect potion: a lightweight, milky emulsion for all skin types. Plus, they added CBD and THC, which pair anti-inflammatory benefits with Rose’s flower rosin. Although this is a topical and not an edible, I will be gifting this to anyone that needs (their skin) to calm the hell down this season. —C.B.

    My sister recently moved out of the city, so I’ll be spending chilly weekends in Rockland County wearing my chocolate-brown fleece from The North Face and Cecilie Bahnsen’s latest collaboration. It’s got all the nostalgia of the classic North Face fleeces I wore as a teenager, but with cheeky upgrades like floral-cut zipper pulls and a nylon interior. —M.W.

    While I was not into the sheer flat trend, I am very drawn to these heels. There’s a simple whimsy to the design, and the low heel makes them accessible for everyday use. I’ve already mentally styled them with multiple outfits, so here’s hoping someone plucks them from my wishlist. —C.T.W.

    There’s something really sexy about someone telling you you smell good (I’ll die on that hill!). My signature scent for the past decade has a woody base with sweet and spicy notes (à la Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille), but these days, I’m seeking a more niche perfume. That’s why Maison d’Etto’s new I—Dream is for me. Not only is the bottle itself a work of art, the scent hits many of the notes I love, like leather and frankincense. And out of all the perfumes I’ve worn recently, it truly lingers on my skin all day. —Tori López, Fashion Market Editor

    Lately, I’ve been on the hunt for getaways at pristine, restful locations north of New York City. The Bedford Post Inn is a perfect example of a place that’s far outside of the hustle and bustle, but doesn’t feel like an epic novel in terms of travel. The hotel property is meticulously groomed and intentionally chic, the service is warm and welcoming (while still feeling private and not in your face), and the hotel suites are generously sized and include the most thoughtful details, like fresh bath salts and natural sponge exfoliators laid on your bath caddy each morning. While you’re relaxing in the natural landscape, pay a visit to The Bedford Post Tavern, the Inn’s famed restaurant (managed by Sunday Hospitality, also known for the viral Brooklyn restaurants Rule of Thirds and Sunday in Brooklyn) for a scrumptious meal to top off the perfect stay. The caramelized red onion tart was like nothing I’ve ever tasted before—try it. —Oona Wally, Associate Visuals Director

    Here’s a polo-collar sweater that should fit perfectly into almost any guy’s wardrobe. You can’t go wrong. —K.M.

    I love gifting these playing cards as a housewarming gift, or around the holidays. This year, there are newlyweds in my life who will love the look of robin’s-egg blue on their coffee table—and the nudge to turn off Netflix, put down their phones, and play a hand of cards. —Claire Valentine McCartney, Culture Editor

    It may not be the most romantic gift, but I’ll be asking my boyfriend to get me one of Dyson’s best products this year: an air purifier that can also heat or cool your space, depending on your needs. I can’t think of a better addition to a New York City apartment (or any home, for that matter) than clean, temperate air. —C.V.

    This isn’t technically a wintertime scent—it’s a year-round scent, in my opinion. Slightly gourmand and totally scrumptious to sniff, this perfume from Loewe falls in the funk category, but not in an alienating way. The fragrance reminds me of taking a walk in the forest: you smell the sharpness of pine needles, the warmth of the forest floor. It’s also wonderfully genderless. —M.W.

    This French skincare secret is, well, no longer a secret. But consider gifting it to your skincare-obsessed loved one—or better yet, yourself. It’s the ideal winter moisturizer, but I’d suggest for those with oily skin to only use it at night, since the formula is rather rich. —M.V.

    If these earrings could flirt, they would leave a trail of suitors in their wake. Irene Neuwirth’s Gemmy Gem collection is colorful and chic—these one-of-a-kind, 18-karat yellow gold earrings, to me, are pure elegance. There’s a gorgeous array of full-cut emeralds, mixed indicolites, and chrysoprase spheres, finished on diamond pavé hooks. —M.L.

    If you’re thinking about gifting someone a skincare tool this season, the NIRA Pro Laser is the best thing I’ve tried in recent memory. It’s also the closest you can get to having a dermatologist living in your medicine cabinet (minus the small talk). —C.B.

    We test out a lot of scented candles this time of year—and Trudon’s products stand at the top of the list every time. My latest favorite is Luna, from the brand’s zodiac line. The smell is rich and warm, and the vessel is artfully decorated with a starry night sky and holiday ephemera. —M.W.

    Instead of bringing a bottle of wine to a friend’s house for dinner, come with this olive oil in hand. It will not disappoint, and it’s worth the shipment! —A.a.d.M.

    I always think I want an oversize wool coat—but on my 6’1” frame, the look is less “slouchy and cool” and more “giantess and possible Stop Making Sense extra.” So now, I have my sights set on The Row’s Arista Coat—its length is perfect for me, and its slim proportions are much more flattering. —Sally Law Errico, Managing Editor

    This is a great moisturizer for those who want skin that feels extra quenched and bouncy. I just finished a jar, and my mom loves antiaging skincare gifts, so I know she’ll be obsessed. —A.P.

    You don’t need to be a pilot to wear this jacket. The bomber style is right on-trend for winter, according to my colleagues. —T.H.

    If you or someone you know is dreaming of sun-soaked escapes this winter, Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller—who helped shape visual classics like Paris, Texas and Repo Man—captures Los Angeles in quiet, radiant polaroids in this new book. From the cozy corners of Santa Monica to beaches bathed in yellow light, his images reveal the city from a bygone era. Alongside the polaroids are texts from his collaborators, like directors Alex Cox and Wim Wenders, and actor Willem Dafoe. —C.B.

    This gift makes for a great stocking-stuffer, but it’s also exciting enough to stow under the tree with the big presents. The best lip glosses we’ve used to date, Rhode’s Peptide Lip Trio is a special treat each time you use it, with a buttery-soft consistency and nice flavors without overpowering scents. —M.W.

    The best gifts are the ones people don’t want to indulge in for themselves—and a massage at the Shibui Spa perfectly fits that bill. The luxurious oasis is tucked away in Tribeca, and boasts breathtaking facilities, led by experts. There is little else better than treating your loved ones to an hour (or longer, depending on how generous you’re feeling) of bliss. —Molly Cody, Assistant to the Editor in Chief

    After running a marathon a month ago (yes, that’s my excuse for being extra), I’ve developed an obsession with contrast therapy. Enter this ice bath: it’s not just about plunging into cold water—it’s a full-on recharge for the body and mind, promoting faster muscle recovery, reduced inflammation, and an instant energy jolt. Plus, with a built-in timer and breathwork light, I can practice mindfulness like a pro. —C.B.

    Arma’s suede blazer is a modern classic: impeccably tailored, ultra-soft, and endlessly wearable. The leather-focused brand nails essential outerwear every time. —N.M.

    Often packaged in a quaint cobalt-blue tin can, the highly sought-after Rocky’s Matcha remains the superior tea in my life—and yes, I’ve got all my matcha-loving friends hooked, too. This holiday season, the brand is releasing a limited-edition box set of their favorite matcha blends, so you can taste test (or, like me, replenish your empty stock). —T.L.

    This is the kind of cornbread I like. And it has zero calories. —T.H.

    Vacations don’t necessarily happen every year—which is why gifting someone a staycation can be a truly stress-free treat. After eight years out of commission, the Waldorf Astoria recently reopened in Midtown Manhattan and features bigger rooms, new restaurants, and a Guerlain Wellness Spa—everything you need for an exceptionally luxurious experience. The best part? No schlepping required. —C.T.W.

    My baby cousin loves sweet scents, so she’ll be getting Miutine this holiday season. (At 17, she’s not a baby anymore, which she’ll likely remind me when we get together on Christmas Eve.) She knows this perfume from the ads with Emma Corrin. —M.W.

    I put this gift on my list every single year, hoping someone will buy it for me. (Ahem, to my dear fiancé: take note.) The mini version of Gaetano Pesce’s Vessel is the perfect luxury bedside table jewelry catch-all. —O.W.

    You won’t truly appreciate how special this faux-fur hooded cardigan is until you try it on. The plush collar wraps around your face, giving you an instant feeling of luxury. The garment even comes with matching mittens for an extra touch of warmth. —A.a.d.M.

    I’ve been a Freja fan since I gifted myself the Lafayette bag a couple of years ago; it has been my go-to work bag since. The new Ida style is calling my name now. I love that it can hold my laptop and also can be worn as a slouchy clutch for evening. —A.P.

    Sumptuous is the word here, from the luxe gilded bottle to the ceramides, squalane, and hyaluronic acid in the formulation. I can’t get enough of this Prada skin cream, so I’m giving it to my very closest kin this year. —M.W.

    I’m heading into the new year absolutely determined to get my glow back—because honestly, this year has taken it out of me. So, I’m gifting myself the HigherDOSE Red Light Face Mask, the only skincare gadget that actually understands my constantly-in-motion lifestyle. It has an extra head strap and real eye holes, so I can use it while I’m reading, working out, or cleaning my apartment. You can also use their Light Activated Glow Serum while masked up for an extra-powerful skincare session. No cords, no lying still, just a gentle way to boost my mood and revive my skin radiance while I live my chaotic little life. —C.B.

    I’ve lived in New York for 20 years, but my heart still belongs to my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, and I try to shop local whenever I return to visit my family. On my next trip, I hope to pick up the Plentiful Bellfield Tote from Fount, a Cleveland-based leather-goods business run by a husband-and-wife team. The bag’s hand-sewn straps and “unique interior weight-bearing pieces” make me think it’s strong enough to schlep my laptop—and an issue or two of W. —S.L.E.

    I’m a maniac for mohair, so this cozy sweater will be wrapped all around me for the rest of the year. The piece comes in another, darker colorway that’s equally charming. —M.W.

    Designed by Eleni Petaloti and Leonidas Trampoukis in collaboration with Tacchini, the resin vases from Objects of Common Interest are crafted with the duo’s signature blend of sculptural form and functionality. I love how each piece reflects their unique eye and their attention to craftsmanship. —N.M.

    I love these candlesticks, which are handmade in France. No matter where you put them, they’ll transport you to an even warmer, brighter place. —A.a.d.M.

    We talk all the time about whether or not advent calendars are worth their price tags. This year, I am telling you to definitely grab this cheerful Rubik’s Cube from Benefit. It contains cutesy miniatures of their signature products, like They’re Real! Mascara and Benetint. This is one that’s worth its price, and its weight in holiday cheer. —M.W.

    For me, gourmand fragrances can be hit or miss, but this cherry-inspired scent from Abel is too good. The fruit here isn’t obnoxiously sweet, and it mixes well with the sophisticated floral layers. My soon-to-be sister in law and I have similar fragrance tastes, so I’ll be gifting this to her this year. —A.P.

    My favorite team in my favorite museum’s font—the two things I love most. Go Mets! —T.H.

    Long admired for impeccably designed rugs, Nordic Knots has expanded into bedding—and naturally, the selection is just as chic. The new percale Egyptian cotton collection comes in a Shirt Blue hue with contrasting red piping. Consider this my not-so-subtle hint to my husband that this is the gift I would like. —N.M.

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  • Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

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    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership. Those three principles define Team USA curler Steve Hempt. Here’s how Steve Hemp describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student, and that 6 ft 5, *** great athlete, one who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful UConn Huskies. But in 1995, his life changed forever. I was *** drunk driver and fortunately I’m lucky to be alive and sitting here with you all great people today. I was left for dead on the side of the road. I woke up from my coma and I was told I was never gonna walk again at 25 years old. He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and he was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them *** deer caused his accident. Then he accepted responsibility. We’re human, we’re gonna mess up. Forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on. Steve’s new direction becoming *** high school teacher and basketball coach and finding the sport wheelchair curling. I’m an 11 time national champion, two time Paralympic, going on 3, world championships, and my life slogan, I live by this and I. Every day it’s not what happens to you it’s what you decide to do with what happens. What’s happening now for Emp is historic. He just qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time. I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is it different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, um, but just the landscape, the people, just being out there, and again, the opportunity to. Represent Team USA and the grant it’s the stages. It’s goosebumps. On top of being *** teacher, coach, and Paralympian, Empt is also *** motivational speaker who’s written *** self-help book. On the road to Milan Cortina, I’m Fletcher Mackel.

    Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

    Forgiveness, redemption and leadership define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt

    Updated: 3:00 AM PST Nov 28, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership: Those three principles define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt. Here’s how Emt describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut: “All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student.”Standing 6-foot-5, Emt was a great prep athlete who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful University of Connecticut Huskies.But life changed in 1995.”I was a drunk driver; fortunately, I’m lucky to be sitting here with you, great people, today. I was left for dead on the side of the road, and when I woke up from a coma two weeks later, I was told I’d never walk again, at 25 years old,” said Emt. He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them a deer caused his accident, then he accepted responsibility. “We’re human. We’re gonna mess up, forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on,” Emt said.Steve’s new direction, becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach, and finding the sport of wheelchair curling. “I’m an 11-time national champion. two-time Paralympian going on three, world championships, too. My life’s slogan, I live by this, and I say it every day, ‘it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you decide to do with what happens,’” said Emt. What’s happening now is historic. He qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first-ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time. “I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is a different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, but just the landscape, the people just being out there. And again, the opportunity to represent Team USA on the grandest stage, I get goosebumps,” said Emt. On top of being a teacher, coach and Paralympian, Emt is also a motivational speaker who’s written a self-help book.

    Forgiveness, redemption, and leadership: Those three principles define Team USA wheelchair curler Steve Emt.

    Here’s how Emt describes growing up in Hebron, Connecticut: “All American childhood, most popular kid in my high school, great student.”

    Standing 6-foot-5, Emt was a great prep athlete who earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and then transferred to play basketball for the powerful University of Connecticut Huskies.

    But life changed in 1995.

    “I was a drunk driver; fortunately, I’m lucky to be sitting here with you, great people, today. I was left for dead on the side of the road, and when I woke up from a coma two weeks later, I was told I’d never walk again, at 25 years old,” said Emt.

    He passed out behind the wheel, flipping his pickup truck, and was ejected. After the crash, Steve spent months lying to people, telling them a deer caused his accident, then he accepted responsibility.

    “We’re human. We’re gonna mess up, forgive yourself, accept what happened, and move on,” Emt said.

    Steve’s new direction, becoming a high school teacher and basketball coach, and finding the sport of wheelchair curling.

    Steve Emt poses for a portrait during the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on Oct. 28, 2025, in New York City.

    Mike Coppola/Getty Images

    Steve Emt poses for a portrait during the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games on Oct. 28, 2025, in New York City.

    “I’m an 11-time national champion. two-time Paralympian going on three, world championships, too. My life’s slogan, I live by this, and I say it every day, ‘it’s not what happens to you, it’s what you decide to do with what happens,’” said Emt.

    What’s happening now is historic. He qualified with Laura Dwyer for the first-ever mixed doubles curling event at the Paralympics, and he’s excited to travel to Italy for the first time.

    “I’m looking forward to eating pizza. I don’t know, is a different than what we have in New York or Chicago? I don’t know, but just the landscape, the people just being out there. And again, the opportunity to represent Team USA on the grandest stage, I get goosebumps,” said Emt.

    On top of being a teacher, coach and Paralympian, Emt is also a motivational speaker who’s written a self-help book.

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  • The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide

    [ad_1]

    Know someone who lives in their kitchen. These delicious proof tools make mealtime simpler and make great gifts. I’m going to show you three amazing products, ones we’ve tested, we just love, and they’re unbelievably versatile. First, this warming mat is great for holiday parties and buffets and costs about $40 on Amazon. The temperature, set the timer for it to shut off. This is *** must, must have, especially if you’re doing *** lot of cooking. It’s it’s the holidays and you’ve got big pots and you don’t have much space. If you’re always on the go, check out NutriBullet’s $70 portable rechargeable blender. You can even use your laptop to charge it. You’re at your desk the middle of the day. You’re like, you know what, it’s smoothie time. And what is totally awesome is you don’t have to lug around this the base, the base and just take this. It’s done, boom. Finally, this space saving collapsible steamer and strainer from Williams Sonoma costs just under $30. It pops open like this, and you can either use it to steam or you can fully immerse whatever food you want to cook. Give the gift of self-care. Women’s Health has you covered with gift suggestions that are equal parts relaxing and thoughtful. We have curated *** few of our favorite gifts and products that will make an amazing present for anyone in your life that needs *** little extra rest or relaxation, and don’t we all? First up, the $19 Beauty Sleep fabric spray from Laundreist. Put it on your pillow for *** calming effect before bed. This is *** very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster. There’s also an active wear version that is great for refreshing gym clothes. Next, Nodpod’s $38 weighted sleep mask. So *** lot of sleep masks, when you wrap them around your head. They can be kind of uncomfortable when you’re laying on your back or on your side. This one really takes away that whole issue. And for *** soft, luxurious splurge, Brook Lennon’s super plush robe starts at $95. The Women’s Health editors are obsessed with this robe because it is really like stepping into *** five-star spa when you get out of the shower. Shopping for someone who loves their home, look no further than these Good Housekeeping approved gifts. The three gifts that we’ve chosen here today for the home are award winners and editor favorites from Good Housekeeping for 2025. 1st, something practical and perfect for anyone with *** green thumb. These $14 Fiskers pruning and gardening shears. This pair of shears from Fisker’s cuts easily. Through stems and branches whether you’re pruning house plants or pruning shrubs outside, we love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with *** lifetime guarantee. Next, *** gift that brings peace of mind, the $75 smoke and carbon monoxide detector from Kitty is Ring App enabled and connects to your smartphone. The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger. And simultaneously sound an alarm through all of the connected detectors in your home. And for the home cook who loves *** clean countertop, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum costs about $89. They’re your batch cooking on Sundays like me or baking for the holidays. We all know what *** mess the kitchen counter and stove can look like after this vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen clean up quick and easy. Looking for something special for the beauty lovers in your life? Cosmopolitan has you covered. Cosmo Beauty editors test products all year long. We’re always researching, reviewing, swiping, swatching all of the newest beauty launches. Let’s start small and affordable with *** perfect stocking stuffer. These $9 lip balms from EELF come in tons of colors. You can use them on your own or layered over ***. Lip pencil for *** fun lip combo, but really great stocking stuffer at $9. You can’t go wrong. Next, Dazzle Dry’s fast track mini kit for $39 you’ll get salon quality nails at home. So on average, you’ll get 10 days out of *** Dazzle Dry Manny. You can do it at home. It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally 5 minutes for that fresh from the salon blowout. Multi-stylers are having *** major moment. The T3 Air is *** splurge at $250 but that’s half the price of *** Dyson Airwrap. So there’s one base, and then there’s all these interchangeable parts. This is the blow dryer, round brush, really good for *** bouncy blowout, and then two interchangeable curling wands, super easy to use, works on all hair types, and also comes in three really cute colors. Shopping for the outdoorsmen or woman in your life, Men’s Health has *** few solid picks to choose from. all year long at Men’s Health, our team is testing the latest and greatest in new gear. Like these tumblers, Arctic has been one of Men’s Health’s top cooler brands for years. Now they have *** $20 to $25 happy hour collection. What I love about these is that they’re. Insulated, that means that anything you’re putting into them, whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste for camping trips, the $40 Coast voice control lantern is *** great find. Now these things can operate with *** button press, but you can also activate this little one here and say coast red. And it changes for you and for *** sensible splurge, the Amaze Fit Active 2 smartwatch costs about $100. *** lot of guys on staff have these, including myself. Set up is *** cinch. It’s incredibly easy to navigate and it has *** 160+ workout mode so you can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy in your life.

    The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide

    Our experts from Good Housekeeping, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Delish share their top holiday gift picks.

    Updated: 3:38 PM EST Nov 24, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ


    National Consumer Producer

    Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list. Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said. For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.” For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.” Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes. For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said. Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief. To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said. Foodie gifts loved by Delish For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said. Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.

    Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list.

    Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover

    For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan.

    If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said.

    For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.

    Elf Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm

    Dazzle Dry Fast Track Cherry Mini Kit

    Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts

    If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.”

    For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.

    For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.”

    Happy Hour Lowball Tumbler

    RTIC Happy Hour Pint Tumbler

    Coast EAL35R Voice Control Lantern

    Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health

    To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes.

    For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.

    If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said.

    Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray

    Laundress Activewear Fabric Spray

    Brooklinen Super-Plush Robe

    Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping

    For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief.

    To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.

    For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said.

    Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears

    Kidde Ring App Enabled Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector

    KitchenAid Go™ Cordless Kitchen Vacuum

    Foodie gifts loved by Delish

    For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.

    For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.

    For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said.

    Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender

    Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket

    williams-sonoma.com

    $29.95

    Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.

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    Source link

  • The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide

    [ad_1]

    Know someone who lives in their kitchen. These delicious proof tools make mealtime simpler and make great gifts. I’m going to show you three amazing products, ones we’ve tested, we just love, and they’re unbelievably versatile. First, this warming mat is great for holiday parties and buffets and costs about $40 on Amazon. The temperature, set the timer for it to shut off. This is *** must, must have, especially if you’re doing *** lot of cooking. It’s it’s the holidays and you’ve got big pots and you don’t have much space. If you’re always on the go, check out NutriBullet’s $70 portable rechargeable blender. You can even use your laptop to charge it. You’re at your desk the middle of the day. You’re like, you know what, it’s smoothie time. And what is totally awesome is you don’t have to lug around this the base, the base and just take this. It’s done, boom. Finally, this space saving collapsible steamer and strainer from Williams Sonoma costs just under $30. It pops open like this, and you can either use it to steam or you can fully immerse whatever food you want to cook. Give the gift of self-care. Women’s Health has you covered with gift suggestions that are equal parts relaxing and thoughtful. We have curated *** few of our favorite gifts and products that will make an amazing present for anyone in your life that needs *** little extra rest or relaxation, and don’t we all? First up, the $19 Beauty Sleep fabric spray from Laundreist. Put it on your pillow for *** calming effect before bed. This is *** very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster. There’s also an active wear version that is great for refreshing gym clothes. Next, Nodpod’s $38 weighted sleep mask. So *** lot of sleep masks, when you wrap them around your head. They can be kind of uncomfortable when you’re laying on your back or on your side. This one really takes away that whole issue. And for *** soft, luxurious splurge, Brook Lennon’s super plush robe starts at $95. The Women’s Health editors are obsessed with this robe because it is really like stepping into *** five-star spa when you get out of the shower. Shopping for someone who loves their home, look no further than these Good Housekeeping approved gifts. The three gifts that we’ve chosen here today for the home are award winners and editor favorites from Good Housekeeping for 2025. 1st, something practical and perfect for anyone with *** green thumb. These $14 Fiskers pruning and gardening shears. This pair of shears from Fisker’s cuts easily. Through stems and branches whether you’re pruning house plants or pruning shrubs outside, we love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with *** lifetime guarantee. Next, *** gift that brings peace of mind, the $75 smoke and carbon monoxide detector from Kitty is Ring App enabled and connects to your smartphone. The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger. And simultaneously sound an alarm through all of the connected detectors in your home. And for the home cook who loves *** clean countertop, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum costs about $89. They’re your batch cooking on Sundays like me or baking for the holidays. We all know what *** mess the kitchen counter and stove can look like after this vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen clean up quick and easy. Looking for something special for the beauty lovers in your life? Cosmopolitan has you covered. Cosmo Beauty editors test products all year long. We’re always researching, reviewing, swiping, swatching all of the newest beauty launches. Let’s start small and affordable with *** perfect stocking stuffer. These $9 lip balms from EELF come in tons of colors. You can use them on your own or layered over ***. Lip pencil for *** fun lip combo, but really great stocking stuffer at $9. You can’t go wrong. Next, Dazzle Dry’s fast track mini kit for $39 you’ll get salon quality nails at home. So on average, you’ll get 10 days out of *** Dazzle Dry Manny. You can do it at home. It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally 5 minutes for that fresh from the salon blowout. Multi-stylers are having *** major moment. The T3 Air is *** splurge at $250 but that’s half the price of *** Dyson Airwrap. So there’s one base, and then there’s all these interchangeable parts. This is the blow dryer, round brush, really good for *** bouncy blowout, and then two interchangeable curling wands, super easy to use, works on all hair types, and also comes in three really cute colors. Shopping for the outdoorsmen or woman in your life, Men’s Health has *** few solid picks to choose from. all year long at Men’s Health, our team is testing the latest and greatest in new gear. Like these tumblers, Arctic has been one of Men’s Health’s top cooler brands for years. Now they have *** $20 to $25 happy hour collection. What I love about these is that they’re. Insulated, that means that anything you’re putting into them, whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste for camping trips, the $40 Coast voice control lantern is *** great find. Now these things can operate with *** button press, but you can also activate this little one here and say coast red. And it changes for you and for *** sensible splurge, the Amaze Fit Active 2 smartwatch costs about $100. *** lot of guys on staff have these, including myself. Set up is *** cinch. It’s incredibly easy to navigate and it has *** 160+ workout mode so you can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy in your life.

    The ultimate editor-approved holiday gift guide

    Our experts from Good Housekeeping, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Cosmopolitan and Delish share their top holiday gift picks.

    Updated: 12:38 PM PST Nov 24, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ


    National Consumer Producer

    Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list. Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan. If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said. For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.” For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.” Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes. For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said. Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief. To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said. Foodie gifts loved by Delish For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said. Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.

    Looking for the perfect gift this holiday season? We teamed up with editors from Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping and Delish to round up thoughtful, top-tested gifts for everyone on your list.

    Cosmopolitan-approved gifts for the beauty lover

    For an easy stocking stuffer, check out e.l.f.’s Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balms, which come in a variety of colors for $9. “You can use them on your own or layered over a lip pencil for a fun lip combo,” said Lauren Balsamo, beauty director at Cosmopolitan.

    If you are shopping for someone who loves doing their nails at home, Dazzle Dry’s Fast Track Mini Kit offers long-lasting polish that dries super fast. “It’s inexpensive, but the best part is it dries in literally five minutes,” Balsamo said.

    For a beauty splurge, the T3 Aire 360 multi-styler includes interchangeable attachments for blowouts, curls and more. It’s “super easy to use, works on all hair types, and comes in three really cute colors,” Balsamo said.

    Elf Glow Reviver Melting Lip Balm

    Dazzle Dry Fast Track Cherry Mini Kit

    Men’s Health-approved outdoor gifts

    If you are shopping for someone who loves the outdoors, RTIC’s Happy Hour Collection includes insulated tumblers that keep drinks cold. “What I love about these is that they’re ceramic insulated,” said Paul Kita, deputy editor at Men’s Health. “Whether it’s wine or coffee or even an old fashioned, it doesn’t take on that tinny metallic taste.”

    For campers, the Coast EAL35R voice-controlled lantern is a hands-free lighting option that responds to simple commands. “If a guy in your life loves camping but he doesn’t like getting up off of the camp chair, this is the gift for him,” Kita said.

    For a tech-forward gift, Amazfit’s Active 2 Adventure Smartwatch offers easy setup, crisp visibility in bright light and more than 160 workout modes. “A lot of guys on staff have these, including myself,” Kita said. “You can specialize it to whatever kind of active guy’s in your life.”

    Happy Hour Lowball Tumbler

    RTIC Happy Hour Pint Tumbler

    Coast EAL35R Voice Control Lantern

    Cozy gifts backed by Women’s Health

    To elevate a bedtime routine, The Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray adds a light, calming scent to bedding and pajamas. “This is a very light scent that is made to help you relax and ease stress and fall asleep faster,” said Abigail Cuffey, executive editor at Women’s Health. There is also an activewear version that is great for refreshing your gym clothes.

    For a comfort-focused gift, the Nodpod weighted sleep mask provides gentle pressure similar to a weighted blanket. “It just feels like a weighted hug on your face and on your eyes at night,” Cuffey said.

    If you want to splurge, Brooklinen’s Super-Plush Robe brings spa-level softness to everyday routines. “It is really like stepping into a five-star spa when you get out of the shower,” Cuffey said.

    Laundress Beauty Sleep Fabric Spray

    Laundress Activewear Fabric Spray

    Brooklinen Super-Plush Robe

    Home gifts approved by Good Housekeeping

    For plant lovers, Fiskars’ pruning shears make trimming stems and branches easy thanks to their sturdy construction and smooth locking mechanism. “We love that they’re easy to lock and unlock and that they come with a lifetime guarantee,” said Elspeth Velten, Good Housekeeping’s editor in chief.

    To add safety and peace of mind at home, Kidde’s smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector connects to a phone and links with other alarms in the house. “The detector will ping your phone at the first sight of danger and simultaneously sound an alarm,” Velten said.

    For quick cleanups, the KitchenAid Go cordless kitchen vacuum tackles crumbs on counters, stoves and tight corners. “This vacuum gets into every corner and crevice and makes kitchen cleanup quick and easy,” Velten said.

    Fiskars Bypass Pruning Shears

    Kidde Ring App Enabled Smart Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector

    KitchenAid Go™ Cordless Kitchen Vacuum

    Foodie gifts loved by Delish

    For holiday hosting, the rollable FYY warming mat keeps dishes warm for hours without taking up extra space. “This is a must-must-have, especially if you’re doing a lot of cooking … and you don’t have much space,” said Robert Seixas, senior food director at Delish.

    For the smoothie lover, the is rechargeable, travel-friendly and great for keeping at your desk. “You can even use your laptop to charge it,” Seixas said.

    For an inexpensive tool that saves cabinet space, the Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket is collapsible, making storage easy. “You can either use it to steam or fully immerse whatever food you want to cook,” Seixas said.

    Nutribullet Flex Portable Blender

    Williams Sonoma Silicone Steamer Basket

    williams-sonoma.com

    $29.95

    Need holiday recipe ideas to go with your new kitchen tools? Explore the new Delish app for endless cooking inspiration.

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  • Bride helps crash victim while still in her wedding dress

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    Moments after tying the knot on her wedding day, a bride who works as a nurse stepped in to save a life while she was still wearing her wedding dress.The same night Heather Schubert walked down the aisle celebrating her new union, she ended up at a crash scene.”We saw a man laying across the road, and his car, all the airbags were deployed,” Heather Ramsey Schubert said.Schubert and her husband were driving home on a Louisiana highway Saturday night, and the off-duty nurse saw a call to action.”When you’re a nurse and you always put other people first, that’s always my first instinct,” Schubert said.She wasted no time, rushing to help a man critically injured in a crash, before EMS arrived.”I assisted in the manner of seeing what his pupils were like if we had any trauma responses, which he, in fact, did have trauma. His pupils were not reactive to light,” Schubert said.Schubert works to save lives every day as a nurse at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. She says it’s just in her blood to protect.”There’s never a question or a hesitation; I will probably always be the person to run into the accident and see if I can help,” Schubert said.Critical care paramedic Steven Tafoya said emergency teams are trained on how to respond to situations like this.”Just because we’re off the clock doesn’t mean that instinct stops,” Tafoya said. “So what this lady did on her wedding day was remarkable and shows her commitment to health care in general.”Although it was not the ending Heather expected for her wedding day, she said she would not change a thing.”I would hope that anybody, whether they’re a nurse or not, anybody if they see someone in trouble would run and do the same thing,” Schubert said.The victim’s condition is unclear, but everyone involved hopes for a full recovery.

    NEW ORLEANS —

    Moments after tying the knot on her wedding day, a bride who works as a nurse stepped in to save a life while she was still wearing her wedding dress.

    The same night Heather Schubert walked down the aisle celebrating her new union, she ended up at a crash scene.

    “We saw a man laying across the road, and his car, all the airbags were deployed,” Heather Ramsey Schubert said.

    Schubert and her husband were driving home on a Louisiana highway Saturday night, and the off-duty nurse saw a call to action.

    “When you’re a nurse and you always put other people first, that’s always my first instinct,” Schubert said.

    She wasted no time, rushing to help a man critically injured in a crash, before EMS arrived.

    “I assisted in the manner of seeing what his pupils were like if we had any trauma responses, which he, in fact, did have trauma. His pupils were not reactive to light,” Schubert said.

    Schubert works to save lives every day as a nurse at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans. She says it’s just in her blood to protect.

    “There’s never a question or a hesitation; I will probably always be the person to run into the accident and see if I can help,” Schubert said.

    Critical care paramedic Steven Tafoya said emergency teams are trained on how to respond to situations like this.

    “Just because we’re off the clock doesn’t mean that instinct stops,” Tafoya said. “So what this lady did on her wedding day was remarkable and shows her commitment to health care in general.”

    Although it was not the ending Heather expected for her wedding day, she said she would not change a thing.

    “I would hope that anybody, whether they’re a nurse or not, anybody if they see someone in trouble would run and do the same thing,” Schubert said.

    The victim’s condition is unclear, but everyone involved hopes for a full recovery.

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  • Christian missionary father and daughter died when plane bound for Jamaica crashed in Florida

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    A Christian missionary father and his daughter were killed when a small plane bound for a hurricane relief mission in Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood.Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims. In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online. “He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added. According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica. Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday. A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.

    FLORIDA, USA —

    A Christian missionary father and his daughter were killed when a small plane bound for a hurricane relief mission in Jamaica crashed in a South Florida neighborhood.

    Christian ministry organization Ignite the Fire identified the two victims of the Monday morning crash as the group’s founder, Alexander Wurm, 53, and his daughter Serena Wurm, 22.

    The pair were bringing humanitarian aid to Jamaica, according to the organization, when the Beechcraft King Air plane they were flying in crashed into a pond in a residential area of the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs, narrowly missing homes. As of Tuesday morning, investigators had not reported any other victims.

    This content is imported from Facebook.
    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    In recent weeks, Alexander Wurm had helped deliver medical supplies, water filters and StarLink satellite internet equipment to Jamaica for the relief organization Crisis Response International, according to a video statement the group posted online.

    “He really made a difference in the lives of the people on the ground by getting the resources in that he did. He saved lives and he gave his life,” Crisis Response International founder Sean Malone added.

    According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the plane was manufactured in 1976 and its registered owner is listed as International Air Services, a company that markets itself as specializing in providing trust agreements to non-U.S. citizens that enable them to register their aircraft with the FAA. A person who answered the company’s phone Monday afternoon declined to answer questions from a reporter, stating “no comment” and ending the phone call.

    Posts by Alexander Wurm on social media in recent days suggested the evangelist had recently acquired the plane to further his missionary work across the Caribbean, describing the aircraft as “an older King Air with brand new engines,” and “perfect” to ferry deliveries of generators, batteries and building materials to Jamaica.

    Photos and videos on social media show Wurm posing for a picture in the plane’s cockpit and unloading boxes of supplies from the packed aircraft with teams of volunteers.

    The flight tracking website FlightAware shows the plane made four other trips to or from Jamaica in the past week, traveling between George Town in the Cayman Islands and Montego Bay and Negril in Jamaica, before landing in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

    A powerful Category 5 storm, Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28 and tied for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane in history. The storm also caused devastation in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and prompted relief organizations to mobilize.

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  • ‘Goodnight room, goodnight moon’: Boston hotel brings classic book to life

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    The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.

    The Sheraton Boston Hotel is offering guests the chance to spend the night inside a life-sized replica of the beloved “Goodnight Moon” bedroom.

    The suite is a full-scale replica of the Great Green Room from the beloved 1947 children’s book by Margaret Wise Brown.

    The whimsical room is perched on the 24th floor of the hotel and has views of the Charles River. It features green walls, red carpet, a glowing LED fireplace and even a working dollhouse.

    The suite also comes with other custom amenities, including a plush bunny for each child and turndown service complete with milk and cookies served in a keepsake porcelain bowl.

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  • James Watson, Nobel Prize winner and DNA pioneer, dies

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    On a chilly February afternoon in 1953, a gangly American and a fast-talking Brit walked into the Eagle pub in Cambridge, England, and announced to the assembled imbibers that they had discovered the “secret of life.”

    Even by the grandiose standards of bar talk, it was a provocative statement. Except, it was also pretty close to the truth. That morning, James Watson, the American whiz kid who had not yet turned 25, and his British colleague, Francis Crick, had finally worked out the structure of DNA.

    Everything that followed, unlocking the human genome, learning to edit and move genetic information to cure disease and create new forms of life, the revolution in criminal justice with DNA fingerprinting, and many other things besides, grew out of the discovery of the double-helix shape of DNA.

    It took Watson decades to feel worthy of a breakthrough some consider the equal of Einstein’s famous E=MC2 formula. But he got there. “Did Francis and I deserve the double helix?” Watson asked rhetorically, 40 years later. “Yeah, we did.”

    James Dewey Watson, Nobel Prize winner and “semi-professional loose cannon” whose racist views made him a scientific pariah late in life, died Thursday in hospice care after a brief illness, his son told the Associated Press. He was 97.

    Born April 6, 1928, in Chicago, he was the son of a bill collector for a mail-order school who had written a small book about birds in northern Illinois. The younger Watson originally hoped to follow his father’s passion and become an ornithologist. “My greatest ambition had been to find out why birds migrate,” he once said. “It would have been a lost career. They still don’t know.”

    At 12, the brainy boy who read the World Almanac for pleasure appeared on the popular radio show “Quiz Kids.” As is often the case for the gifted, his teen years were trying. “I never even tried to be an adolescent,” Watson said. “I never went to teenage parties. I didn’t fit in. I didn’t want to fit in. I basically passed from being a child to an adult.”

    He was admitted to the University of Chicago at 15, under a program designed to give bright youngsters a head start in life. It was there he learned the Socratic method of inquiry by oral combat that would underlie both his remarkable achievements and the harsh judgments that would precipitate his fall from grace.

    Reading Erwin Schrodinger’s book, “What Is Life?” in his sophomore year set the aspiring ornithologist on a new course. Schrodinger suggested that a substance he called an “aperiodic crystal,” which might be a molecule, was the substance that passed on hereditary information. Watson was inspired by the idea that if such a molecule existed, he might be able to find it.

    “Goodbye bird migration,” he said, “and on to the gene.”

    Coincidentally, Oswald Avery had only the year before shown that a relatively simple compound — deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA — must play a role in transferring genetic information. He injected DNA from one type of bacterium into another, then watched as the two became the same.

    Most scientists didn’t believe the results. DNA, which is coiled up in every cell in the body, was nothing special, just sugars, phosphates and bases. They couldn’t believe this simple compound could be responsible for the myriad characteristics that make up an animal, much less a human being.

    Watson, meanwhile, had graduated and moved on to Indiana University, where he joined a cluster of scientists known as the “phage group,” whose research with viruses infecting bacteria helped launch the field of molecular biology. He often said he came “along at the right time” to solve the DNA problem, but there was more to it. “The major credit I think Jim and I deserve is for selecting the right problem and sticking to it,” Crick said many years later. “It’s true that by blundering about we stumbled on gold, but the fact remains that we were looking for gold.”

    The search began inauspiciously enough, when Watson arrived at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University in late 1951, supposedly to study proteins. Crick was 12 years older, working on his PhD. When they met, the two found an instant camaraderie. “I’m sure Francis and I talked about guessing the structure of DNA within the first half-hour of our meeting,” Watson recalled.

    Their working method was mostly just conversation, but conversation conducted at a breakneck pace, and at high volume. So high, they were exiled to an office in a shabby shack called the Hut, where their debates would not disturb others.

    In January 1953, the brilliant American chemist Linus Pauling stole a march on them when he announced he had the answer: DNA was a triple helix, with the bases sticking out, like charms on a bracelet.

    Watson and Crick were devastated, until they realized Pauling’s scheme would not work. After seeing an X-ray image of DNA taken by crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, they built a 6-foot-tall metal model of a double helix, shaped like a spiral staircase, with the rungs made of the bases adenine and thymine, guanine and cytosine. When they finished, it was immediately apparent how DNA copies itself, by unzipping down the middle, allowing each chain to find a new partner. In Watson’s words, the final product was “too pretty” not to be true.

    American biology professor James Dewey Watson from Cambridge, Nobel laureate in medicine in 1962, explains the possibilities of future cancer treatments at a Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau on July 4, 1967. Watson had received the Nobel Prize together with the two British scientists Crick and Wilkins for their research on the molecular structure of nucleic acids (DNA).

    (Gerhard Rauchwetter / picture alliance via Getty Images)

    It was true, and in 1962, Watson, Crick and another researcher, Maurice Wilkins, were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Franklin, whose expert X-ray images solidified Watson’s conviction that DNA was a double helix, had died four years earlier of ovarian cancer. Had she lived, it’s unclear what would have happened, since Nobel rules allow only three people to share a single prize.

    In the coming years, Watson’s attitude toward Franklin became a matter of controversy, which he did little to soothe by his unchivalrous treatment of her in his 1968 book, “The Double Helix.” “By choice, she did not emphasize her feminine qualities,” he wrote, adding that she was secretive and quarrelsome.

    To his admirers, this was just “Honest Jim,” as some referred to him, being himself, a refreshing antidote to the increasingly politically correct world of science and society. But as the years passed, more controversies erupted around his “truth-telling” — he said he would not hire an overweight person because they were not ambitious, and that exposure to the sun in equatorial regions increases sexual urges — culminating with remarks in 2007 that he could not escape. He said he was “inherently gloomy” about Africa’s prospects because policies in the West were based on assumptions that the intelligence of Black people is the same as Europeans, when “all the testing says, not really.”

    He apologized “unreservedly,” but was still forced to retire as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the Long Island, N.Y., institution he had rescued from the brink of insolvency decades earlier. Afterward, he complained about being reduced to a “non-person,” but rekindled public outrage seven years later by insisting in a documentary that his views had not changed. This time, citing his “unsubstantiated and reckless personal opinions,” the laboratory rescinded the honorary titles it had bestowed, chancellor emeritus and honorary trustee.

    Mark Mannucci, director of the documentary “American Masters: Decoding Watson,” compared him to King Lear, a man “at the height of his powers and, through his own character flaws, was brought down.” Those sympathetic to Watson said the problem was he didn’t know any of his Black colleagues. If he had, they argued, he would have immediately renounced his prejudices.

    Following his DNA triumph, Watson spent two years at Caltech before joining the faculty at Harvard University. During this period, he worked to understand the role ribonucleic acid (RNA) plays in the synthesis of proteins that make bodily structures. If the double-stranded DNA contains the body’s master plan, the single-stranded RNA is the messenger, telling the cell’s protein factories how to build the three-dimensional shapes that make the whole. Watson’s 1965 textbook, “Molecular Biology of the Gene,” became a foundation stone of modern biology.

    As great as was his obsession with DNA, Watson’s pursuit of, and failure to obtain, female companionship was a matter of only marginally less critical mass. At Harvard, he recruited Radcliffe coeds to work in his lab, reasoning that “if you have pretty girls in the lab, you don’t have to go out.” He started attending Radcliffe parties known as jolly-ups. “Here comes this 35-year-old and he wants to come to jolly-ups,” said a biographer, Victor McElheny. “He was constantly swinging and missing.”

    His batting average improved when he met Elizabeth Vickery Lewis, a 19-year-old Radcliffe sophomore working in the Harvard lab. He married her in 1968, realizing by only days his goal of marrying before 40. On his honeymoon, he sent a postcard back to Harvard: “She’s 19; she’s beautiful; and she’s all mine.” The couple had two sons, Rufus, who developed schizophrenia in his teens, and Duncan.

    The same year, Watson finished writing “The Double Helix.” When he showed it to Crick and Wilkins, both objected to the way he characterized them and persuaded Harvard not to publish it. Watson soon found another publisher.

    It was certainly true his book could be unkind and gossipy, but that was why the public, which likely had trouble sorting out the details of crystallography and hydrogen bonds, loved it. “The Double Helix” became an international bestseller that remained in stock for many years. Eventually, Watson and Crick made up and by the time the Englishman died in 2004, they were again the boon pals they’d been 50 years earlier.

    After their discovery of DNA’s structure, the two men took divergent paths. Crick hoped to find the biological roots of consciousness, while Watson devoted himself to discovering a cure for cancer.

    After serving on a voluntary basis, Watson became director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island in 1976. It had once been a whaling village, and the humble buildings retained a rustic charm, though when Watson arrived the rustic quality was on a steep descent toward ruination. Its endowment was virtually nonexistent and money was so tight a former director mowed the lawn himself.

    As skilled at raising money as he was at solving difficult scientific problems, Watson turned the institution into a major research center that helped reveal the role of genetics in cancer. By 2019, the endowment had grown to $670 million, and the research staff had tripled. From an annual budget of $1 million, it had grown to $190 million.

    “You have to like people who have money,” Watson said in explanation of his success at resurrecting Cold Spring Harbor. “I really like rich people.” His growing eccentricity, which included untied shoelaces and hair that spiked out in all directions, completed the stock image of a distracted scientist. Acquaintances swore they saw him untie his shoelaces before meeting with a potential donor.

    In 1988, he became the first director of the $3-billion Human Genome Project, whose goal was to identify and map every human gene. He resigned four years later, after a public falling-out with the director of the National Institutes of Health. “I completely failed the test,” he said of his experience as a bureaucrat.

    Among his passions were tennis and charity work. In 2014, the year of the documentary that sealed his fate as an exile, Watson put his Nobel gold medal up for auction. He gave away virtually all the $4.1 million it fetched. The buyer, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, returned it a year later, saying he felt bad the scientist had to sell possessions to support worthy causes.

    A complex, beguiling, maddening man who defied easy, or any, categorization, Watson followed his own star to the end of his life, insisting in 2016, when he was nearly 90, that he didn’t want to die until a cure for cancer was found. At the time, he was still playing tennis three times a week, with partners decades younger.

    Besides the Nobel Prize, Watson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Eli Lilly Award in Biochemistry and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and was made an honorary Knight of the British Empire. Among his literary works were both scientific and popular books, from “Recombinant DNA” to “Genes, Girls, and Gamow,” a typically cheeky book recounting his twin obsessions, scientific glory and the opposite sex.

    Johnson is a former Times staff writer.

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    John Johnson

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  • Baby Emmanuel’s father sentenced to 25 years to life for murdering infant

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    Jake Haro, the father of missing baby Emmanuel, whose shocking disappearance activated an army of internet sleuths, was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder of his 7-month-old son.

    Haro, 32, who initially pleaded not guilty, reversed course and pleaded guilty on Oct. 16 to one count each of murder, assault on a child under 8 causing death and filing a false police report, according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office.

    He and his wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, reported that their son was kidnapped after someone attacked her in a Yucaipa parking lot on Aug. 14. But detectives quickly found holes in their story and charged both parents with murder.

    On Monday, Haro received a sentence of 25 years to life for murder as well as a 180-day sentence for the false police report.

    Because he committed these crimes while on probation, he must also serve a sentence of six years and eight months that he previously received in a child abuse case, prosecutors said.

    Emmanuel Haro was reported kidnapped, but his parents later faced murder charges.

    (San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department)

    Haro was convicted of felony willful child endangerment in 2023 after his baby daughter was taken to the hospital in 2018 with a skull fracture, several healing fractures to her ribs, a brain hemorrhage, swelling in the neck and a healing tibia fracture in her leg, according to a police affidavit for an arrest warrant.

    A judge later suspended that sentence — a decision that Riverside County Dist. Atty. Mike Hestrin lambasted at an Aug. 27 news conference.

    “If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said. “That’s a shame and it’s an outrage.”

    Haro has been credited with 551 days of time served and, as a result of the aggregated charges, will spend a minimum of 30 years in prison before he becomes eligible for parole.

    Although baby Emmanuel’s body has yet to be found, prosecutors believe that multiple acts of abuse and physical assault led to the boy’s death.

    The mother has maintained her not guilty plea to charges of murder and filing a false police report. She is due back in court for a felony settlement conference on Jan. 21, prosecutors said.

    “The lies told in this case only deepened the tragedy of Emmanuel’s death,” Hestrin said in a Monday statement. “While today’s sentence represents a measure of accountability for Jake Haro, our office will continue to seek justice as the case against his co-defendant moves forward.”

    Prosecutors allege that the couple deliberately faked the child’s kidnapping. When investigators with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department questioned the mother about inconsistencies in her police report, the couple stopped cooperating.

    A week later, they were arrested at their Cabazon home. In August, authorities removed another 2-year-old child from the couple’s custody and scoured a field in Moreno Valley accompanied by Haro in a jail jumpsuit.

    Baby Emmanuel’s remains have yet to be found.

    Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.

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    Clara Harter

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  • Party time: Dodgers’ championship parade and rally on Monday

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    The wait for the first Dodgers parade of the century: 36 years.

    The wait for the second: One year and two days.

    On Monday, in celebration of the Dodgers becoming baseball’s first back-to-back champion in 25 years, Los Angeles will throw another party for the Dodgers.

    The Dodgers’ 2025 championship parade starts at 11 a.m on Monday and runs through downtown, followed by a rally at Dodger Stadium. The rally requires a ticket, which can be obtained starting at noon Sunday at dodgers.com/postseason.

    For fans with rally tickets, parking lot gates will open at 8:30 a.m. and stadium gates at 9 a.m. The event is expected to start about 12:15 p.m.

    The parade and rally will be aired live on Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 and 11 as well as SportsNet LA and AM 570, the team said.

    In last year’s rally, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Ice Cube performed next to each other, with Roberts dancing and Ice Cube singing.

    At one point, future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw took his turn at the microphone and hollered, “Dodger for life!”

    In September, Kershaw announced he would retire at the end of the season. In his only World Series appearance, he got a critical out in the Dodgers’ 18-inning victory in Game 3.

    He’ll make his final Dodger Stadium appearance as a player as part of a second consecutive championship rally. He’ll be back: The Dodgers will retire his No. 22 — they retire the number of all their Hall of Famers — and he’d certainly be in line to throw ceremonial first pitches in the Dodgers’ future postseason runs.

    For now, though: Three-time champion Dodger for life.

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    Bill Shaikin

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  • News We Love: Dog training programs aim to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

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    IT’S A PROGRAM TRULY GIVING PUPS A NEW LEASH ON LIFE AS THEY WALK THE CORRIDORS OF LOUISIANA PRISON. YEAH. THE PARTNERSHIP, A COLLABORATION WITH THE SPCA, THE DOG SCHOOL AND THE LOUISIANA CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE. AND THIS WHOLE THING OPENS THE DOOR TO MORE PETS FINDING FOREVER HOMES WHILE GIVING INMATES A GREATER PURPOSE. FROM BEHIND THE GLASS TO BEHIND BARS. THESE ARE DOGS PULLED FROM KILL SHELTERS. THESE ARE INMATES THAT HAVE DONE HEINOUS CRIMES. BOTH ARE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT OR DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT, BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A UNIQUE PLACE FOR SECOND CHANCES. IT’S IT’S TOTALLY LIFE CHANGING FOR MY INMATE TRAINERS. A NEW LEASH ON LIFE FOR BOTH THE INMATES AT CIW AND SAINT GABRIEL. AND THESE DOGS FROM THE LOUISIANA SPCA THAT HAVE BEEN OFTEN OVERLOOKED. THE TRAINING PROGRAM, SPEARHEADED BY BROOKE DUFOUR, PITS THE TWO TOGETHER, HELPING THESE SHELTER PETS FIND FOREVER HOMES. AND IN RETURN GIVES THESE WOMEN PURPOSE. WE TAKE ABOUT 5 TO 6 DOGS. THEY’RE TAKEN FROM OUR FACILITY TO THE ACTUAL INSTITUTION, AND FROM THERE THEY’RE PAIRED WITH THEIR HANDLER, OR THEY’RE INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL. THE HANDLERS TRAIN THE PUPS. EVERYTHING FROM POTTY TRAINING, DOOR TRAINING, KENNEL TRAINING, REALLY WHATEVER MANNERS THEY NEED TO GET ADOPTED. IF WE HAVE DOGS THAT ARE ROCK STARS, LIKE THEY’RE JUST LEARNING EVERYTHING, THEN WE TRY TO MAKE THEM SERVICE DOGS. AND AFTER THE SIX WEEKS ARE UP, THE DOGS GRADUATE. FETCHING THAT DIPLOMA AND HOPEFULLY A FOREVER FAMILY. I THINK IT’S A REWARDING EXPERIENCE. IT’S ALL ENCOMPASSING BUT ALSO A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. AND IT’S AT THE HEART OF OUR MISSION AS WELL. A MISSION THAT’S ALSO UNLEASHING HEARTS, LEAVING EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH VALUABLE SKILLS FOR A STABLE FUTURE. RANDI RANDI WDSU NEWS. SO FAR, 18 DOGS HAVE GRADUATED SINCE THAT PROGRAM STARTED JUST ABOUT A YEAR AGO, WITH FIVE MORE SET TO JOIN THE RAN

    Louisiana dog training programs aims to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

    The New Leash on Life program is giving inmates and shelter dogs a second chance at success

    Updated: 12:52 PM EDT Nov 1, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons. The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute. “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program. For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted. “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs. “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore. By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose. So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons.

    The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute.

    “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program.

    For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted.

    “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”

    If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs.

    “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore.

    By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose.

    So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.

    For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

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  • Note left at renter’s door by stranger reveals chilling secret from 1980s

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    A California man received a mysterious handwritten note on his front door earlier this year—and it’s giving people online chills.

    Jacob, who lives near Long Beach, said the note appeared on his door on June 18, left by an elderly man who claimed to have once lived in the same house in the 1980s. The message, written on lined notebook paper and said: “Hello, My name is [redacted]. In the early ’80s, I lived here. Something strange happened in the back bedroom. I was wondering if it still happens. I think it was a ghost.”

    The unusual letter continued with the man’s contact details, inviting Jacob to call him “if it still comes.”

    Jacob said in the post that the note “gave me the spooks for a couple days,” though he explained that nothing out of the ordinary has happened since he moved in.

    “I’ve lived here about two years. No strange or paranormal activity—yet, at least,” Jacob told Newsweek.

    Viral Reaction

    Months later, Jacob decided to share the eerie encounter on Reddit after discovering the r/Weird subreddit. Just in time for Halloween. 

    “[I] just thought it was strange but didn’t post it online until I found the r/weird subreddit and thought it could be fitting,” he said.

    His post quickly went viral, gaining over 26,000 upvotes and thousands of comments from amused, and occasionally sympathetic, Reddit users.

    In the comments, people shared their reactions. “Poor dude has been wondering for decades if that place is as haunted as he remembers. I’d call him up and let him know the presence seems to have moved on, just to give him some peace of mind,” user Platitude_Platypus said.

    While UrsusRenata joked: “Ooo, I found a new retirement hobby!” 

    “The letter was pretty decent and he didn’t do anything creepy, so I would call and tell him that nothing is happening, at least to get it out of his mind,” 1saylor1 said. 

    Despite its eerie premise, Jacob said the response from strangers has been heartwarming rather than frightening.

    “The reaction to the post is awesome,” he said. “Several people have reached out to me believing that the man could be a long lost family member.”

    This is not the first time a mysterious note has left a homeowner shocked. Earlier this year, a Gen Z woman found a note outside her home from a “secret admirer” that left her scared to leave the house. 

    While another strange note left in a mailbox in a small town left a family feeling both concerned and a little worried.

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  • Commentary: Doctor who walked L.A.’s perimeter has a prescription for everyone: Escape your own neighborhood

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    Dr. Roy Meals, a longtime hand surgeon, likes to move his feet. He has climbed mountains and he has run three marathons.

    But when he shared his latest scheme with his wife a couple of years ago, she had a quick take.

    “You’re nuts,” she said.

    Maybe so. He was closing in on 80, and his plan was to grab his trekking poles and take a solo hike along the 342-mile perimeter of Los Angeles. His wife found the idea less insane, somewhat, after Meals agreed to hook up with hiking companions here and there.

    Dr. Roy Meals with his book, “Walking the Line: Discoveries Along the Los Angeles City Limits.”

    But you may be wondering the obvious:

    Why would someone hike around a massive, car-choked, pedestrian-unfriendly metropolis of roughly 500 square miles?

    Meals had his reasons. Curiosity and restlessness, for starters. Also, a belief that you can’t really get to know a city through a windshield, and a conviction that staying fit, physically and mentally, is the best way to stall the work of Father Time.

    One more thing: Meals’ patients over the years have come from every corner of the city, and the Kansas City native considered it a personal shortcoming that he was unfamiliar with much of L.A. despite having called it home for half his life.

    To plot his course, Meals unfolded an accordion style map for an overview, then went to navigatela.lacity.org to chart the precise outline of the city limits. The border frames an oddly shaped expanse that resembles a shredded kite, with San Pedro and Wilmington dangling from a string at the southern extremities.

    Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to talk with Louis Lee, owner of JD Hobbies Store in downtown San Pedro.

    Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to talk with Louis Lee, owner of JD Hobbies Store, along West 6th Street in downtown San Pedro.

    Meals divided his trek into 10-mile segments, 34 in all, and set out to walk two segments each week for four months, traveling counterclockwise from the 5,075-foot summit of Mt. Lukens in the city’s northern reaches.

    Day One began with a bang, in a manner of speaking.

    Meals slipped on loose rocks near the summit of Mt. Lukens and tumbled, scuffing elbows and knees, and snapping the aluminum shaft of one of his walking sticks.

    But Meals is not one to wave a white flag or call for a helicopter evacuation.

    “Later, at home, I employed my orthopedic skills to repair the broken pole,” Meals writes in “Walking the Line: Discoveries Along the Los Angeles City Limits,” his just-published book about his travels.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks along West 6th Street in San Pedro.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks along West 6th Street in San Pedro.

    Meals, now 80 and still seeing patients once weekly at a UCLA clinic, remained upright most of the rest of the way, adhering to his self-imposed rule of venturing no farther than one mile in from the city limits. To get back to his starting point each day, he often took buses and found that although it was slow going, riders often exited with a thanks to the driver, which struck him as “wonderful grace notes of acknowledgment.”

    The doctor ambled about with the two trekking poles, a cross-country skier on a vast sea of pavement. He carried a small backpack, wore a “Los Angeles” ballcap and a shirt with the city limits outline on the front, and handed out business cards with a link to his book project.

    Those who clicked on the link were advised to escape their own neighborhoods and follow Meals’ prescription for life: “Venture forth on foot, and make interesting, life-enriching discoveries. Wherever you live, be neighborly, curious, fit, and engaged!”

    Meals was all those things, and as his surname suggests, he was never shy about sampling L.A.’s abundant offerings.

    He tried skewered pig intestines at Big Mouth Pinoy in Wilmington, went for tongue and lips offerings at the Tacos y Birria taco truck in Boyle Heights, thoroughly enjoyed a cheeseburger and peach cobbler at Hawkins House of Burgers in Watts, and ventured into Ranch Side Cafe in Sylmar, curious about the sign advertising American, Mexican and Ethiopian food.

    Meals tried hang-gliding at Dockweiler Beach, fencing on the Santa Monica border, rock climbing in Chatsworth, boxing and go-kart racing in Sylmar, weightlifting at Muscle Beach in Venice.

    Dr. Roy Meals stops to take in the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial Wall of Honor in San Pedro.

    Dr. Roy Meals stops to take in the American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial Wall of Honor while walking one of many paths he wrote about in his book.

    In each sector, Meals sought out statues and plaques and explored points of history dating back to the Gabrielinos and Chumash, and to the days of Mexican and Spanish rule. He also examined the history of those peculiar twists and turns on the city perimeter, mucking through L.A.’s long-simmering stew of real estate grabs, water politics and annexation schemes.

    What remains of the foundation of Campo de Cahuenga in Studio City was one of several locations that “stirred my emotions,” Meals writes in “Walking the Line.” There, in 1847, Andres Pico and John C. Frémont signed the treaty that ceded part of Mexico to the U.S., altering the shape of both countries.

    In Venice, Meals was equally moved when he accidentally came upon an obelisk marking the spot where, in April 1942, more than a thousand Japanese Americans boarded buses for Manzanar.

    “May this monument … remind us to be forever vigilant about defending our constitutional rights,” it read. “The powers of government must never again perpetrate an injustice against any group based solely on ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, race or religion.”

    At firehouse museums, Meals learned of times when “Black firefighters were met with extreme hostility in the mixed-race firehouses, including being forced to eat separately. … Little did I know that visiting fire museums would be a lesson in the history of racism in Los Angeles,” he writes.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks past a display of an armor-piercing projectile in San Pedro.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks past a display of an armor-piercing projectile in San Pedro.

    Although Meals visited well-known destinations such as the Watts Towers and Getty Villa, some of his most enjoyable experiences were what he called “by the way” discoveries that were not on his initial list of points of interest, such as the obelisk in Venice.

    “Among those that I stumbled across,” Meals writes, “were the Platinum Prop House, Sims House of Poetry, and warehouses stuffed with spices, buttons, candy, Christmas decorations, or caskets. These proprietors, along with museum docents and those caring for disadvantaged children, bees, rescued guinea pigs, and injured marine mammals genuinely love what they do; and their level of commitment is inspiring and infectious.”

    His book is infectious, too. In a city with miles of crumbling sidewalks and countless tent villages, among other obvious failings, we can all find a thousand things to complain about. But Meals put his stethoscope to the heartbeat of Los Angeles and found a thousand things to cheer.

    When I asked the good doctor if he’d be willing to revisit part of his trek with me, he suggested we meet in the area to which he awarded his gold medal for its many points of interest — San Pedro and Wilmington. There, he had visited the Banning Mansion, the Drum Barracks, the Point Fermin Lighthouse, the Friendship Bell gifted to L.A. by Korea, the varied architecture of Vinegar Hill, the World War II bunker, the sunken city, the Maritime Museum, etc., etc., etc.

    Meals was in his full get-up when we met at 6th and Gaffey in San Pedro. The trekking sticks, the T-shirt with the jigsaw map of L.A., the modest “Los Angeles” hat.

    “Let’s go,” he said, and we headed toward the waterfront, but didn’t get far.

    Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to visit with famed San Pedro resident John Papadakis.

    Dr. Roy Meals takes a break from his walk to visit with famed San Pedro resident John Papadakis, 75, former owner of the now-closed Greek Taverna in the neighborhood.

    A gentleman was exiting an office and we traded rounds of “good morning.” He identified himself as John Papadakis, owner of the now-closed Greek Taverna restaurant, a longtime local institution. He invited us back into his office, a museum of photos, Greek statues and sports memorabilia (he and son Petros, the popular radio talk show host, were gridiron grinders at USC).

    San Pedro “is the city’s seaside soul,” Papadakis proclaimed.

    And we were on our way, eyes wide open to the wonders of a limitless city that reveals more of itself each time you turn a corner, say hello, and hear the first line of a never-ending story.

    Down the street, we peeked in on renovations at the art deco Warner Grand Theater, which is approaching its 100th birthday. We checked out vintage copies of Life magazine at Louis Lee’s JD Hobbies, talked to Adrian Garcia about the “specializing in senior dogs” aspect of his “Dog Groomer” shop, and got the lowdown on 50 private schools whose uniforms come from Norman’s Clothing, circa 1937.

    At the post office, we checked out the 1938 Fletcher Martin mural of mail delivery. Back outside, with a view of the port and the sunlit open sea, we met a merchant seaman, relaxing on a bench, who told us his son worked for the New York Times. I later found a moving story by that reporter on his long search for the man we’d just met.

    “Traveling on foot allowed me to reflect on and grow to respect LA as never before,” Meals wrote in his book.

    On our walk, while discussing what next, Meals said he’s thinking of exploring San Francisco in the same manner.

    We were approaching Point Fermin, where Meals pointed out the serene magnificence of a Moreton Bay fig tree that threw an acre of shade and cooled a refreshing salt-air breeze.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks along the L.A. Harbor West Path, one of many paths he wrote about in his book, in San Pedro.

    Dr. Roy Meals walks along the L.A. Harbor West Path, one of many paths he wrote about in his book, in San Pedro.

    “If anything,” Meals told me, “I’m quicker to look at small things. You know, stop and appreciate a flower, or even just an interesting pattern of shadows on the street.”

    The message of his book, he said, is a simple one.

    “Basically, just slow down and look.”

    steve.lopez@latimes.com

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    Steve Lopez

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  • Kendama enthusiasts bring ancient game to life in Boston

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    Kendama enthusiasts bring ancient game to life in Boston

    BOSTON PUBLIC GARDEN WITHOUT STUMBLING UPON SOMETHING TRULY FASCINATING. OH YEAH, TODAY, KENDAMA. THERE ARE SEPARATE PARTS, RIGHT? THIS IS CALLED SOMETHING. IT’S THE KEN AND THE TAMA, WHICH TRANSLATES TO SWORD AND BALL. KEN. THE SWORD AND THE TAMA. THE BALL. KENDAMA MEANS BALL AND SWORD GAME. THE GAME’S ORIGINS ARE SOMEWHAT MYSTERIOUS. SOME TRACE IT TO THE FRENCH BALL AND CUP GAME POPULAR ACROSS EUROPE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES. HOWEVER, IT ARRIVED, THE TOY JOURNEYED ACROSS CONTINENTS AND CENTURIES BEFORE EVOLVING INTO THE GAME. WE’RE LEARNING ABOUT TODAY. WHEN I PICK UP THIS OBJECT AND I JUST START PLAYING WITH IT, I GO, IT’S NOT LIKE SOMEWHERE ELSE, BUT I’M JUST MORE KIND OF HERE. I’M JUST PLAYING WITH THE KENDAMA. THAT’S THAT’S ALL MY BRAIN IS THINKING ABOUT. I’M USING MY HANDS A LITTLE HAND-EYE. I’M THINKING ABOUT WHAT TRICKS I WANT TO DO. SOMETIMES YOU REALLY GET DOWN TO MOVE TO LIKE, CATCH SOMETHING, AND THAT FEELS GOOD TO MOVE YOUR BODY. A RARE BUT FAST GROWING PURSUIT THAT BLENDS THE PRECISION OF JUGGLING THE INTENSITY OF SWORD FIGHTING, AND THE FLAIR OF A DANCE BATTLE ALL WITHIN A POCKET SIZED TOY. BUT IS IT A GAME OR A SPORT? KENDAMA IS A VERY NEW SPORT, SO THERE AREN’T A LOT OF RULES AND REGULATIONS ON WHAT THE RIGHT WAY TO PLAY IS. AND WE KIND OF, AS A COMMUNITY, ARE FIGURING IT OUT OURSELVES. IT’S FREESTYLE WHERE PEOPLE GO HEAD TO HEAD AND THEY GET LIKE 45 SECONDS TO A MINUTE ON STAGE, AND THEN A SET OF JUDGES DETERMINES WHICH TRICKS THEY LIKED MORE. YEAH, WE MAY NOT ALL BE ABLE TO PULL OFF THE GRACEFUL FLOW OF BRANT DUFFY AND FINN POUNDS, BOTH LEADERS IN MASS KENDAMA, A GROUP THAT MEETS EVERY SUNDAY AT THE QUINCY QUARRY TO SESH. IT’S A WOODEN STICK WITH CUPS AND A SPIKE, PLUS A BALL ON A STRING. SIMPLE, RIGHT? SO YOU CAN SPIN THE BALL AND KEEP YOUR EYE RIGHT ON THAT CENTER HOLE. A NICE GRIP ON THE KEN. THE REAL MAGIC IS IN THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE BALL AND GRAVITY. DO YOU THINK I’LL EVER GET IT ON THERE, GUYS? YES. OH! MILLIMETERS. I HAVE FOUND MY KRYPTONITE. YOU SWING, YOU MISS, YOU TRY AGAIN. BUT WHEN THE BALL FINALLY LANDS IN A CUP OR SPIKES PERFECTLY, WHEN YOU GET YOUR FIRST SPIKE, YOU SEE PEOPLE’S EYES LIGHT UP IMMEDIATELY. IT’S JUST LIKE WORLD CHANGING. AT LEAST IT WAS FOR ME. AND PRACTICE, AS THEY SAY, MAKES PERFECT ISH. OH, THANK GOODNESS, THANK GOODNESS. OK

    Visitors to the Boston Public Garden are discovering the captivating world of Kendama, a centuries-old toy that combines elements of juggling, sword fighting, and dance. The origins of Kendama are somewhat mysterious, with some tracing it to the French ball-and-cup toy popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is believed to have reached Japan around the same time, possibly traveling along the Silk Road from China.”When I pick this up, I am just here, all I am thinking about is Kendama,” said one enthusiast. “Sometimes you really get down and that feels good to move the body, so it is body and mind and spirit.”Kendama is a fast-growing pursuit that blends precision, intensity, and flair within a pocket-sized toy. While some consider it a game, others view it as a sport. “Kendama is kind of a new sport, so there are not a lot of rules on how to play, so as a community we are figuring it out ourselves,” said a participant. The Kendama Boston Group meets every Sunday at the Quincy Quarry to “jam” or “sesh.”

    Visitors to the Boston Public Garden are discovering the captivating world of Kendama, a centuries-old toy that combines elements of juggling, sword fighting, and dance. The origins of Kendama are somewhat mysterious, with some tracing it to the French ball-and-cup toy popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is believed to have reached Japan around the same time, possibly traveling along the Silk Road from China.

    “When I pick this up, I am just here, all I am thinking about is Kendama,” said one enthusiast. “Sometimes you really get down and that feels good to move the body, so it is body and mind and spirit.”

    Kendama is a fast-growing pursuit that blends precision, intensity, and flair within a pocket-sized toy. While some consider it a game, others view it as a sport. “Kendama is kind of a new sport, so there are not a lot of rules on how to play, so as a community we are figuring it out ourselves,” said a participant.

    The Kendama Boston Group meets every Sunday at the Quincy Quarry to “jam” or “sesh.”

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  • US developer builds homes for displaced Ukrainians, offering hope despite war and crisis

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    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions, scattering families across the country and abroad. For many, heavy fighting in the east means crowded shelters, borrowed beds and fading hope.Related video above: President Trump signals he’s holding back on long-range missiles for UkraineAbout 400 miles west of the front line, however, a privately built settlement near Kyiv offers a rare reprieve: stable housing, personal space and the dignity of a locked door.This is Hansen Village. Its rows of modular homes provide housing for 2,000 people who are mostly displaced from occupied territories. Children ride bikes along paved lanes, passing amenities like a swimming pool, basketball court, health clinic and school.The village is the creation of Dell Loy Hansen, a Utah real estate developer who has spent over $140 million building and repairing homes across Ukraine since 2022.At 72, he’s eager to do more.A new missionHansen’s arrival in Ukraine followed a public reckoning. In 2020, he sold his Major League Soccer team, Real Salt Lake, after reports that he made racist comments. He denied the allegations in an interview with The Associated Press but said the experience ultimately gave him a new mission.“I went through something painful, but it gave me humility,” he said. “That humility led me to Ukraine.”Seeing people lose everything, Hansen said he felt compelled to act. “This isn’t charity to me, it’s responsibility,” he said. “If you can build, then build. Don’t just watch.”Hansen now oversees more than a dozen projects in Ukraine: expanding Hansen Village, providing cash and other assistance to elderly people and families, and supporting a prosthetics clinic.He’s planning a cemetery to honor displaced people, and a not-for-profit affordable housing program designed to be scaled up nationally.Ukraine’s housing crisis is staggering. Nearly one in three citizens have fled their homes, including 4.5 million registered as internally displaced.Around the eastern city of Dnipro, volunteers convert old buildings into shelters as evacuees arrive daily from the war-torn Donbas region. One site — a crumbling Soviet-era dorm — now houses 149 elderly residents, mostly in their seventies and eighties.Funding comes from a patchwork of donations: foreign aid, local charities and individual contributions including cash, volunteer labor or old appliances and boxes of food, all put together to meet urgent needs.“I call it begging: knocking on every door, and explaining why each small thing is necessary,” said Veronika Chumak, who runs the center. “But we keep going. Our mission is to restore people’s sense of life.”Valentina Khusak, 86, was evacuated by charity volunteers from Myrnohrad, a coal-mining town, after Russian shelling cut off water and power. She lost her husband and son before the war.“Maybe we’ll return home, maybe not,” she said. “What matters is that places like this exist — where the old and lonely are treated with warmth and respect.”A nation under strainUkraine’s government is struggling to fund shelters and repairs as its relief budget buckles under relentless missile and drone attacks on infrastructure.By late 2024, 13% of Ukrainian homes were damaged or destroyed, according to a U.N.-led assessment. The cost of national reconstruction is estimated to be $524 billion, nearly triple the country’s annual economic output.Since June, Ukraine has evacuated over 100,000 more people from the east, expanding shelters and transit hubs. New evacuees are handed an emergency government subsidy payment of $260.Yevhen Tuzov, who helped thousands find shelter during the 2022 siege of Mariupol, said many feel forgotten.“Sometimes six strangers must live together in one small room,” Tuzov said. “For elderly people, this is humiliating.“What Hansen is doing is great — to build villages — but why can’t we do that too?”’People here don’t need miracles’Hansen began his work after visiting Ukraine in early 2022. He started by wiring cash aid to families, then used his decades of experience to build modular housing.Mykyta Bogomol, 16, lives in foster care apartments at Hansen Village with seven other children and two dogs. He fled the southern Kherson region after Russian occupation and flooding.“Life here is good,” he said. “During the occupation, it was terrifying. Soldiers forced kids into Russian schools. Here, I finally feel safe.”Hansen visits Ukraine several times a year. From Salt Lake City, he spends hours daily on video calls, tracking war updates, coordinating aid, and lobbying U.S. lawmakers.“I’ve built homes all my life, but nothing has meant more to me than this,” he said. “People here don’t need miracles — just a roof, safety, and someone who doesn’t give up on them.”A fraction of what’s neededLast year, Hansen sold part of his businesses for $14 million — all of it, he said, went to Ukraine.Still, his contribution is a fraction of what’s needed. With entire towns uninhabitable, private aid remains vital but insufficient.Hansen has met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked him for supporting vulnerable communities. Later this year, Hansen will receive one of Ukraine’s highest civilian honors — an award he says is not for himself.“I don’t need recognition,” he said. “If this award makes the elderly and displaced more visible, then it means something. Otherwise, it’s just a medal.” Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dmytro Zhyhinas in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

    TARASIVKA, Ukraine —

    The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced millions, scattering families across the country and abroad. For many, heavy fighting in the east means crowded shelters, borrowed beds and fading hope.

    Related video above: President Trump signals he’s holding back on long-range missiles for Ukraine

    About 400 miles west of the front line, however, a privately built settlement near Kyiv offers a rare reprieve: stable housing, personal space and the dignity of a locked door.

    This is Hansen Village. Its rows of modular homes provide housing for 2,000 people who are mostly displaced from occupied territories. Children ride bikes along paved lanes, passing amenities like a swimming pool, basketball court, health clinic and school.

    The village is the creation of Dell Loy Hansen, a Utah real estate developer who has spent over $140 million building and repairing homes across Ukraine since 2022.

    At 72, he’s eager to do more.

    A new mission

    Hansen’s arrival in Ukraine followed a public reckoning. In 2020, he sold his Major League Soccer team, Real Salt Lake, after reports that he made racist comments. He denied the allegations in an interview with The Associated Press but said the experience ultimately gave him a new mission.

    “I went through something painful, but it gave me humility,” he said. “That humility led me to Ukraine.”

    Seeing people lose everything, Hansen said he felt compelled to act. “This isn’t charity to me, it’s responsibility,” he said. “If you can build, then build. Don’t just watch.”

    Hansen now oversees more than a dozen projects in Ukraine: expanding Hansen Village, providing cash and other assistance to elderly people and families, and supporting a prosthetics clinic.

    He’s planning a cemetery to honor displaced people, and a not-for-profit affordable housing program designed to be scaled up nationally.

    Ukraine’s housing crisis is staggering. Nearly one in three citizens have fled their homes, including 4.5 million registered as internally displaced.

    Around the eastern city of Dnipro, volunteers convert old buildings into shelters as evacuees arrive daily from the war-torn Donbas region. One site — a crumbling Soviet-era dorm — now houses 149 elderly residents, mostly in their seventies and eighties.

    Funding comes from a patchwork of donations: foreign aid, local charities and individual contributions including cash, volunteer labor or old appliances and boxes of food, all put together to meet urgent needs.

    “I call it begging: knocking on every door, and explaining why each small thing is necessary,” said Veronika Chumak, who runs the center. “But we keep going. Our mission is to restore people’s sense of life.”

    Valentina Khusak, 86, was evacuated by charity volunteers from Myrnohrad, a coal-mining town, after Russian shelling cut off water and power. She lost her husband and son before the war.

    “Maybe we’ll return home, maybe not,” she said. “What matters is that places like this exist — where the old and lonely are treated with warmth and respect.”

    A nation under strain

    Ukraine’s government is struggling to fund shelters and repairs as its relief budget buckles under relentless missile and drone attacks on infrastructure.

    By late 2024, 13% of Ukrainian homes were damaged or destroyed, according to a U.N.-led assessment. The cost of national reconstruction is estimated to be $524 billion, nearly triple the country’s annual economic output.

    Since June, Ukraine has evacuated over 100,000 more people from the east, expanding shelters and transit hubs. New evacuees are handed an emergency government subsidy payment of $260.

    Yevhen Tuzov, who helped thousands find shelter during the 2022 siege of Mariupol, said many feel forgotten.

    “Sometimes six strangers must live together in one small room,” Tuzov said. “For elderly people, this is humiliating.

    “What Hansen is doing is great — to build villages — but why can’t we do that too?”

    ‘People here don’t need miracles’

    Hansen began his work after visiting Ukraine in early 2022. He started by wiring cash aid to families, then used his decades of experience to build modular housing.

    Mykyta Bogomol, 16, lives in foster care apartments at Hansen Village with seven other children and two dogs. He fled the southern Kherson region after Russian occupation and flooding.

    “Life here is good,” he said. “During the occupation, it was terrifying. Soldiers forced kids into Russian schools. Here, I finally feel safe.”

    Hansen visits Ukraine several times a year. From Salt Lake City, he spends hours daily on video calls, tracking war updates, coordinating aid, and lobbying U.S. lawmakers.

    “I’ve built homes all my life, but nothing has meant more to me than this,” he said. “People here don’t need miracles — just a roof, safety, and someone who doesn’t give up on them.”

    A fraction of what’s needed

    Last year, Hansen sold part of his businesses for $14 million — all of it, he said, went to Ukraine.

    Still, his contribution is a fraction of what’s needed. With entire towns uninhabitable, private aid remains vital but insufficient.

    Hansen has met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who thanked him for supporting vulnerable communities. Later this year, Hansen will receive one of Ukraine’s highest civilian honors — an award he says is not for himself.

    “I don’t need recognition,” he said. “If this award makes the elderly and displaced more visible, then it means something. Otherwise, it’s just a medal.”

    Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Vasilisa Stepanenko and Dmytro Zhyhinas in Pavlohrad, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

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  • ‘We’re chasing what’s left of life’: Gazans journey back to destruction

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    JABALIA, Gaza Strip — The trailer creaked under the weight of mattresses, blankets, tents, a gas cylinder, weathered plastic barrels, burlap sacks of clothes, plastic chairs, gardening tools, various kitchen utensils and a toy tricycle — the collective belongings of Mohammad Abu Warda and his family.

    Abu Warda, 34, tugged at the ropes securing the load, and hitched the trailer to his tractor. He glanced a moment at his mother, 60-year-old Bouthaina Warda, who was braiding his daughter’s hair, then turned to look at the coastal highway heading northward to Gaza City.

    It was time to go home.

    “The last time we took this highway, we were escaping death,” Abu Warda said, his hands straining against the rope as he tightened it once more.

    “Today, we’re chasing what’s left of life.”

    All around him others were embarking on a similar journey, stacking whatever they had salvaged of their belongings onto whatever transportation they could manage. Donkey carts and tractors jostled for space with pickups and larger transport trucks, the diesel fumes mixing with dust and the salty sea air.

    Every few hundred yards, more people would join on the Al-Rashid Highway from the side streets, adding to the slow-moving deluge of hundreds of thousands returning home to see what — if anything — remained of the lives they had in north Gaza.

    The homecoming arrives at a time of hope after two years of war. A breakthrough Israel-Hamas ceasefire continues to hold, with prospects for an enduring peace. President Trump was headed to Israel in time for Monday’s expected release of the last hostages held in Gaza, with Israel set to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and plans for a surge of aid into the famine-stricken territory.

    Abu Warda had endured displacement early in the war, when he and his family left their house in Jabalia, a few miles north of Gaza City, in November 2023; they returned to it 14 months later in January of this year, before Israel’s intensified assault on Gaza City and the northern part of the enclave last month forced them out again.

    This time, Abu Warda — whose uncles and cousins had braved the 16-mile trek back from central Gaza’s Khan Yunis to Jabalia the day before — knew it would be a bitter homecoming.

    Mohammad Abu Warda sits amid the rubble in Jabalia, which his family returned to on Sunday.

    (Bilal Shbeir / For The Times)

    “Everything is gone. The house is destroyed,” he said.

    Sitting in the trailer, Bouthaina spoke, her voice small and somber.

    “People keep saying we’re going home. But home isn’t there anymore,” she said. “We’re just going to see what’s left. A pile of rubble.”

    Many of 2.1 million people living in the Gaza Strip (which at some 140 square miles is less than a third the area of Los Angeles) face similar circumstances, with nearly the entire population being forced to move over the last two years and more than 90% of homes damaged, according to expert estimates.

    Some parts of the enclave are suffering from famine as a result of a months-long Israeli blockade, say the U.N. and other aid groups, which also have accused Israel of genocide. Israel denies the charge and says it acted to destroy Hamas.

    Meanwhile, the enclave’s infrastructure, whether in healthcare, water or sanitation, has been devastated; especially in Gaza City, according to Asem Al-Nabih, spokesman for the Gaza City municipality.

    “I can’t explain to you the massive amount of damage we’re seeing,” he said.

    He added that the Israeli military had deployed booby-trapped armored assault vehicles, which inflicted damage not only to structures above ground but also to water wells, underground piping and sewage pumps, not to mention roadways.

    “Our priority now is to get water, and we’ve started clearing the main roads so people can get to what’s left of their homes,” he said. “But at the same time, we’ve lost most of our heavy and medium equipment over the last two years, so we can’t do much to relieve people’s suffering.”

    The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people — two-thirds of them civilians, according to Israeli authorities — and kidnapping about 250 others.

    In retaliation, Israel launched a massive military offensive that has killed more than 67,000 people, over 3% of the enclave’s population, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Though it does not distinguish between civilians and fighters in its tally, its figures are seen as reliable and have been used by the U.N. and the Israeli military.

    Abu Warda gunned the tractor’s engine, pushing it faster as he passed the shell of a seaside cafe where his family once stopped for tea and grilled chicken on weekend sojourns. Lining the side of the road were abandoned sandals, plastic water bottles hardened by the sun, and broken toys — remnants of the exodus in months gone by.

    With every mile the family came closer to Jabalia, the landscape shifted, with fewer tents, more ruins and more dust lining people’s faces. Entire apartment blocks leaned into each other, like carelessly toppled dominoes.

    Finally, six hours later, Abu Warda parked the tractor before a heap of masonry and distressed rebar in Jabalia: home.

    “I remember my window was there,” Abu Warda said, pointing to a hollow space between fallen slabs of concrete.

    A trailer holds the possesions of Mohammad Abu Warda's family.

    A trailer holds the possessions of Mohammad Abu Warda’s family, which fled northern Gaza months ago to escape attacks by the Israeli military.

    (Bilal Shbeir / For The Times.)

    A school notebook, dusty and dog-eared, peeked from the rubble. He fished it out and brushed off the cover. His son’s name was still visible, written in red marker.

    Abu Warda’s sister, 25-year-old Amal Warda, bent to the ground and grabbed a handful of gray dust.

    “This is what we came back for,” she said quietly. “To touch the truth with our own hands.”

    As the afternoon wore on, the family used rope scavenged from a neighbor’s courtyard to secure a tarp between two taller chunks of concrete. Abu Warda found an old metal kettle and lighted a small fire with scraps of wood, then brewed tea he poured into dented cups and passed around.

    A few neighbors and cousins emerged from similarly destroyed ruins, exchanging greetings that sounded both joyous and fragile. Someone offered water. Another shared news of which wells in the area were still functioning, along with information about U.S. assistance.

    The children started playing, scampering up piles of debris. Bisan, Abu Warda’s 12-year-old niece, grabbed a stick and traced a drawing of a house with four windows and a tree. She added her family standing outside, with smiles on their faces. When the wind blew it away, she drew it again.

    “Gaza still breathes through its people,” Amal said. “As long as people are back here, life will slowly get back too.”

    By sunset, the sea breeze turned cool. The family stretched out the blankets they had brought with them and slept under the tarp. Abu Warda looked up at the sky.

    “I’m not sure what tomorrow is going to bring,” he said.

    “But I do know this: Being here, even if it’s in ruins, is better than waiting for news in a tent.”

    Special correspondent Shbeir reported from Jabalia and Times staff writer Bulos from Jerusalem.

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    Bilal Shbeir, Nabih Bulos

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  • ‘It’s hard to see so many kids die.’ How volunteering in Gaza transformed American doctors and nurses

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    When Texas neurologist Hamid Kadiwala told his parents he was heading to Gaza to volunteer at a hospital there, they begged him to reconsider.

    “Why would you take that risk?” they asked. What about his Fort Worth medical practice? His wife? His four children?

    But Kadiwala, 42, had been deeply shaken by images from Gaza of mass death and destruction and felt a responsibility to act. Israel’s siege on the small, densely populated Gaza Strip was “a history-shaking event,” Kadiwala said. “I want my kids to be able to say that their father was one of those who tried to help.”

    Kadiwala is one of dozens of American doctors and nurses who have worked in the Gaza Strip since 2023, when Israel began bombing the enclave in retaliation for the deadly Hamas attacks of Oct. 7.

    Neurologist Hamid Kadiwala poses for a portrait at Tarrant Neurology Consultants in Fort Worth.

    (Desiree Rios / For The Times)

    The volunteers — men and women of all ages, agnostics as well as Muslims, Christians and Jews — have labored under the constant threat of violence, amid raging disease and with little access to food and medicine they need to save lives.

    Many are hopeful that the new ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect Friday will halt the violence. But even with new aid rolling in, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza remains daunting.

    With foreign journalists largely barred from Gaza and more than 200 Palestinian media workers slain by Israeli bombs and bullets, on-the-ground testimony from doctors and nurses has been critical to helping the world understand the horrors unfolding.

    But bearing witness comes at a steep personal cost.

    As Kadiwala drove into the enclave in a United Nations convoy late last year, he saw an endless expanse of gray rubble. Emaciated young men swarmed his vehicle. The sky buzzed with drones. Bombs sounded like rolling thunder.

    Kadiwala compared the landscape with dystopian films such as “Mad Max.” “It’s so hard to understand because our brains have never seen something like that,” he said.

    He knew that worse was yet to come.

    “You have to get numb,” he told himself as he prepared to enter Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, where he would be living and working for more than a month. “These patients are here for help, not to see me cry.”

    Child patients are forced to share beds or lie on makeshift mattresses in the hospital corridors due to limited resources.

    Child patients are forced to share beds or lie on makeshift mattresses placed in the corridors due to limited resources and space at Nasser Hospital as the pediatric ward of the hospital is overwhelmed with the waves of displaced families arriving from the north in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Sept. 22.

    (Abdallah F.s. Alattar / Anadolu via Getty Images)

    Death in Gaza

    The explosions began each morning shortly before the call to prayer.

    “Within 20 minutes, there would be 150 people sprawled wall-to-wall with serious injuries,” said Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina who has been to Gaza twice, and who was working at Nasser in March in the violent days after a ceasefire broke.

    Perlmutter, 70, had volunteered on more than 40 humanitarian missions: in Haiti after its devastating earthquake, in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and in New York after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

    Nothing prepared him for Gaza.

    Hospitals stank of sewage and death. Doctors operated without antibiotics or soap. Never before had he seen so many children among the casualties. The hospital filled with shell-shocked kids who had been wrenched from collapsed buildings and others with bullet wounds in their chests and heads.

    “I would step over babies that were dying,” he said. “I would see their blood expanding on the floor, knowing that I had no chance of saving them.”

    Palestinians try to put out a fire at the emergency department of the Nasser Hospital.

    Palestinians try to put out a fire at the emergency department of the Nasser Hospital after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Khan Yunis on March 23.

    (AFP via Getty Images)

    In one haunting experience, an injured boy lying on the ground reached for Perlmutter’s leg, too weak to talk. Perlmutter knew it was too late for the boy, but that other patients still had a shot at survival.

    “I had to pull my pant leg away to get to one I could save,” he said.

    Perlmutter is Jewish and until visiting Gaza was a supporter of Israel. Around his neck he wears as a pendant a mezuzah, which contains a small scroll with verses from the Torah. It was a gift from his late father, a doctor who survived the Holocaust.

    But working in Gaza changed him.

    After treating so many kids with gunshot wounds, he became convinced that Israelis were deliberately targeting children, which the Israeli military denies.

    As he toiled, he and another doctor, California surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, began taking photos of the carnage. Together they would go on to publish essays in U.S. media outlets detailing what they had seen and to send letters to American leaders begging for an arms embargo. Sidhwa would conduct a poll of dozens of American doctors, nurses and medics who said they, too, had treated preteen children who had been shot in the head.

    Activism was a new calling for Perlmutter. He knew it might cost him relationships with loved ones who supported Israel and possibly even patients at his medical practice back in North Carolina. He knew it was straining his relationship with his wife. But he plowed ahead.

    “It’s hard to see so many kids die in front of you and not make that your life.”

    Hospitals under siege

    Andee Vaughan, a 43-year-old trauma nurse, has spent much of her life in ambulances, emergency rooms and on backcountry search-and-rescue trips in her home state of Washington. She spent months providing medical care on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

    She prides herself on maintaining her cool, even under trying circumstances. But while volunteering at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, she often felt tears welling up.

    It wasn’t the mayhem of mass casualty events that shook her, nor the sound of shallow breaths as a patient who had been shot in the skull slipped toward death.

    It was the seemingly countless victims who under normal circumstances could have been saved.

    Like the boy she watched suffocate because the hospital didn’t have enough ventilators. Or patients who perished from treatable infections for lack of antibiotics and proper dressings for wounds.

    Medical workers treat a patient at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

    Andee Vaughan, bottom right, worked day and night for three months at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

    (Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)

    “I am haunted by the patients on my watch who probably shouldn’t have died,” Vaughan said.

    Virtually every person she encountered suffered from diarrhea, skin infections, lung problems and chronic hunger, she said. That included exhausted Palestinian doctors and nurses, many of whom had lost family members, been displaced from their homes and were living in crowded tent cities where hundreds of people shared a single toilet. Many Palestinian medical staffers have been working without pay.

    “You have a whole system in survival mode,” said Vaughan, who contracted giardia shortly after arriving in Gaza and who ate just once a day because there was so little food.

    Vaughan spent three months in Gaza and volunteered to stay longer. Then her hospital came under attack.

    As Israeli forces advanced on Gaza City to confront what they described as the last major Hamas stronghold in the strip, Al-Quds was sprayed by gunfire and rocked by bombs. Most of its windows were blown out. A tank missile hit an oxygen room, destroying everything inside.

    Vaughan filmed videos that showed Israeli quadcopters — drones equipped with guns — hitting targets around the hospital.

    “They are systematically destroying all of Gaza,” she said. “They’re shooting everything, even the donkeys.”

    A trauma nurse, center, cuts the shirt off a young patient at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

    Andee Vaughan, center, cuts the shirt off a young patient at Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City.

    (Courtesy of Andee Vaughan)

    Just a third of Gaza’s 176 hospitals and clinics are functional, and nearly 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed since the war began, according to the World Health Organization.

    It is not lost on Vaughan that most of the weapons used in those attacks come from the United States, which has provided Israel $21.7 billion in military assistance since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack, according to a study by the Costs of War project at Brown University.

    U.S. involvement in the war is what prompted Vaughan to volunteer in Gaza in the first place. “I was there in some ways to make amends for the damage that we have done,” she said.

    Vaughan was evacuated from Gaza last month, bidding goodbye to colleagues and patients who were so malnourished their bones jutted from their skin like tent poles.

    She was ferried to Jordan, where on her first morning since leaving Gaza she went down to breakfast, saw a buffet overflowing with food, and began to sob.

    Coming home

    A doctor talks to a nurse.

    Dr. Bilal Piracha talks to a nurse about a patient’s condition at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6. Piracha has been to the Gaza Strip three times this year, performing humanitarian work at a local hospital.

    (Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)

    After three tours in Gaza, Dallas emergency room doctor Bilal Piracha now works with a kaffiyeh draped over his scrubs.

    The black-and-white scarf, a symbol of Palestinian liberation, often sparks comments from patients, some of them disapproving. Piracha, 45, welcomes the opportunity to talk about his experience.

    “This is what I have seen with my own eyes,” he tells them. “The destruction of hospitals, the destruction of nearly every building, the killing of men, women and children.”

    Dr. Bilal Piracha stands inside an emergency operating room.

    Dr. Bilal Piracha stands inside an emergency operating room at White Rock Medical Center in Dallas on Oct. 6.

    (Emil T. Lippe / For The Times)

    Like many other U.S. doctors and nurses who have spent time in Gaza, Piracha is racked with survivor’s guilt, unable to forget the patients he couldn’t help, the mass graves he saw filled with bodies, the hunger in the eyes of the local colleagues he left behind.

    “Life has lost its meaning,” he said. “Things that once felt important no longer do.”

    He now spends most of his free time speaking out against the siege, traveling throughout the U.S. to meet with members of Congress and making frequent appearances on TV and podcasts. He has marched in antiwar protests and dropped massive banners from Texas highways that say: Let Gaza live.

    He is in frequent touch with doctors in Gaza, who are hopeful that the new ceasefire will put a stop to the violence, but say massive amounts of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid are needed immediately.

    Piracha doesn’t know what to tell them.

    “We can give them words of hope and prayers, but that is it,” he said.

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    Kate Linthicum

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