Outdoors Notebook

You take a vacation day, but get distracted by the thought of your work inbox filling up. Or you sit down to watch a movie and immediately feel guilty about all the tasks still on your to-do list. Or perhaps you splurge on a massage, but barely enjoy it because your thoughts are racing the entire time.

Mustafa Nayyem, the top official overseeing Ukraine’s defense fortifications and reconstruction efforts, announced his resignation on Monday. The news marks the latest high-profile departure that has shaken Western confidence in Ukraine’s government. Nayyem, who resigned alongside two other officials in Ukraine’s Restoration and Infrastructure Development agency, claimed his work was being undermined by the government. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Nayyem told the Financial Times that prior to his resignation, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal prohibited him from attending the annual Ukraine Recovery Conference on June 11 and 12 in Berlin.

The Republican Party of 2024 belongs to Donald Trump and to MAGA. But the populist right once viewed the GOP very differently. At the second annual Conservative Political Action Conference in 1975, attendees debated whether they should junk and replace the GOP. One speaker advocating for the move called parties “no more than instruments, temporary and disposable, by which like-minded citizens can express their views.” The conference passed a resolution declaring that “the question of our allegiance to [the two major] political parties is a matter of increasing doubt to conservatives.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Though a proposed third-party venture went nowhere fast, it reflected the right’s distinctive, cold-eyed approach to the party form.

Denver Public Schools projects 6,338 fewer children will attend its schools within the next five years as the declining K-12 enrollment continues to hit Colorado districts – and their budgets – despite the unexpected boost from last year’s surge of migrant students. Enrollment in Colorado’s largest district is expected to fall 8.3% from 76,157 K-12 students during the 2023-24 academic year to 69,819 pupils during the 2028-29 school year, according to a presentation DPS officials are scheduled to give the Board of Education on Monday. The school board on Monday is also expected to discuss the district’s policy on school consolidation and closures, which, if approved, would set guidelines for Superintendent Alex Marrero if and when he decides which schools to recommend for closure. The policy includes directives such as not using enrollment minimums as “bright line criteria,” as schools of any enrollment size are eligible for consolidation, according to the latest draft. “We’re currently waiting on a decision around (that policy) and that dictates both whether we consider consolidation and what the parameters of that process and consideration will be,” said Andrew Huber, executive director of enrollment and campus planning for DPS. The school board’s goal is to vote on the school closure policy, titled Executive Limitation 18 School Consolidation and Closure, in June, district spokesman Scott Pribble said. Across Colorado and the U.

I am asked all the time why in the world I would do something as difficult as working for hospice. People often ask, “Isn’t it so depressing?” It’s sad sometimes, yes. There’s really no way around that. But I don’t find my job to be depressing. In a way, it’s actually a sacred gift to me.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — They arrived in the middle of the day, when the squat concrete buildings of the Nuseirat refugee camp are stifling and the narrow streets outside are filled with people. No one suspected a thing until the shots rang out. The Israeli raid caught everyone off guard, from the Hamas militants guarding four hostages in two different buildings to the thousands of civilians who soon found themselves running for their lives through a blistering crossfire. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] By the time it was over, four Israeli hostages had been brought home alive and mostly unscathed, at least physically, and at least 274 Palestinians, and an Israeli commando, had been killed. For Israel, it was the most successful operation of the eight-month war, bringing nationwide elation and removing some of the stain from the army’s unprecedented collapse on Oct.