By JILL LAWLESS

LONDON (AP) — Love is, famously, a many-splendored thing. It can encompass longing, loneliness, pain, jealousy, grief — and, sometimes, joy.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, the many facets of passion are going on display in “Love Letters,” a public exhibition at Britain’s National Archives that covers five centuries.

Curator Victoria Iglikowski-Broad said that the documents recount “legendary romances from British history” involving royalty, politicians, celebrities and spies, “alongside voices of everyday people.”

“We’re trying to open up the potential of what a love letter can be,” she told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Expressions of love can be found in all sorts of places, and surprising places.”

They also take many forms. The exhibition ranges from early 20th-century classified ads seeking same-sex romance to sweethearts’ letters to soldiers at war and a medieval song about heartbreak.

There’s also “one of our most iconic documents,” Iglikowski-Broad said, referring to a poignant letter to Queen Elizabeth I from her suitor Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.

Written days before Dudley’s death in 1588, it conveys the intimacy between the “Virgin Queen,” who never married, and the man who called himself “your poor old servant.”

The missive, with “his last lettar” written on the outside — spelling at the time was idiosyncratic — was found at the queen’s bedside when she died almost 15 years later.

Bonds of family and friendship

Love, in the exhibition, doesn’t just mean romance. Family bonds are in evidence in Jane Austen’s handwritten will from 1817 leaving almost everything to her beloved sister Cassandra, and in a 1956 letter in which the father of London gangster twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray, implores a court to go easy on the brothers, because “all their concern in life is to do good to everybody.”

The letter writers range from paupers to princes. In an 1851 petition, an unemployed 71-year-old weaver named Daniel Rush begs authorities not to separate him and his wife by sending them to workhouses. It’s displayed alongside the Instrument of Abdication through which King Edward VIII gave up the throne in 1936 so that he could marry “the woman I love,” twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson.

“There is a lot of connection in these two items even though on the surface they seem very different,” Iglikowski-Broad said. “In common they have just this human feeling of love … that the sacrifice is actually worth it for love.”

Other documents tell of love lost. There is a never-before-displayed 1944 letter from young British intelligence officer John Cairncross to his former girlfriend Gloria Barraclough, reflecting on what might have been. “Would we have broken off, I wondered, if we had known what was coming?”

Some readers may think Barraclough had a lucky escape — years later, Cairncross was unmasked as a Soviet spy.

Royal romance and tragedy

Some love stories tell of danger, heartbreak and tragedy. In one, Lord Alfred Douglas asks — in vain — for Queen Victoria to pardon his lover Oscar Wilde. The writer had been sentenced to two years in prison for gross indecency after Douglas’ outraged father revealed their relationship.

Nearby is a letter written in 1541 by Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII, to her secret beau Thomas Culpeper.

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Archives historian Neil Johnston noted that the tone of the extraordinary letter is “restrained panic. She is warning him to be very, very careful.”

Catherine signed off the letter “yours as long as life endures.” That turned out not to be long. The king discovered the affair and both Catherine and Culpeper were executed for treason.

A letter by Queen Henrietta Maria to King Charles I – “my dear heart” – is a rarity, since Britain’s royal family guards its private papers closely.

It was found among possessions left behind by the fleeing king in 1645 after a battlefield defeat for royalist troops in England’s civil war. Charles lost the war and was tried, convicted and executed in 1649. The letter ended up in Parliament’s archives, which last year was transferred to the National Archives.

“We don’t have very many intimate letters between monarchs like this,” Johnston said. “This is a little gem within the disaster of the English Civil War.”

“Love Letters” opens Saturday and runs to April 12. Admission is free.

As Eric Lichtblau began research for a non-fiction book on the rise of hate crimes in the United States, he found that there was a seemingly unending array of horrific examples.

In 2022, a White supremacist shot and killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. That same year, a Colorado Springs man, inspired by other hate-inspired mass shootings, killed five patrons at an LGBTQ nightclub.

A few years earlier, 23 Hispanic people were shot and killed at an El Paso Walmart by a man who posted a hate-filled manifesto online before opening fire. Before that, 11 Jewish people died when a similarly motivated gunman started shooting inside a Pittsburgh synagogue.

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In the end, though, Lichtblau turned his focus to Orange County, where in January 2018, Blaze Bernstein of Irvine was stabbed to death by Samuel Woodward of Newport Beach in a murder that a jury decided was a hate crime against Bernstein, who was gay, by a former high school classmate who’d joined a Neo-Nazi group.

“When I started working on this, there had been this whole series of national hate crime disasters on a massive scale,” Lichtblau said in a recent phone interview. “And so I was looking for a way of grounding that at kind of a local level: How do you tell the story at a more intimate [level], putting sort of a human face on it?

“And Orange County was one place that came to mind,” he said, referring to “the tragedy and horror” of the Blaze Bernstein case. “Sam Woodward’s radicalization spoke to the growing neo-Nazi movement. It really hit a lot of the really jarring elements.”

In the just-published book, “American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis, and a New Age of Hate,” Lichtblau, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for his work at the New York Times, examines the story of Bernstein’s death and the influences that shaped Woodward’s actions, as well as a bigger story about hate in America and its explosive growth since 2015.

In addition to the murder of its title, “American Reich” also looks at Orange County, where Lichtblau once worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, as a microcosm of the bigger, national picture of hatred and violence.

In an interview edited for clarity and length, Lichtblau talked about the historical precedents for hate and White supremacy in Orange County and the nation, how his reporting took him into the closest circles of Bernstein’s family and friends, the impact of our modern-day politics and social media on hate, and more.

Q: As well as the Blaze Bernstein case, you trace things back a hundred years or so to the Klan control of the Anaheim City Council. Talk about the historical context in Orange County.

A: Well, Orange County certainly had this reputation for so long as the conservative bastion, going back to not only the Klan days and then the John Birch Society after that. When I was a young reporter there, you had just one Republican after another in the ’70s and ’80s through the ’90s and 2000s – you couldn’t be conservative enough in Orange County.

And as I say in the book, saying and doing offensive things towards minority groups couldn’t hurt you.

You had the White power music scene that went back to the ‘80s, especially in Huntington Beach. And along with that, a couple of really sensational crimes that drew a lot of attention, hate crimes, in the ’80s and ’90s.

Q: And in more recent years?

A: I’m not the first one to make the case, but in 2018, when Orange County elected all Democrats to Congress, that was something few, if any, people saw [coming]. That was such a political sea change. Orange County goes all blue. And then you had almost this backlash among the far right.

You had at times a resistance, a violent pushback, and then a whole surge of hate crimes that spouted up after that. Defiant messages over the 405 talking about the new Muslim mayor in Irvine. Like, “You’re not getting rid of us yet. They may have just elected all these Democrats, but we’re not going away.”

And then back to January 6, we had an awful lot of Orange County people, as I reflect in the book, represented there. A dozen or more; I think it was close to 17 or 18 who traveled 3,000 miles just be there.

This is the constant pendulum swing. They sort of faded away there for a little while and then came roaring back with this racial extremism.

Q: Let’s talk about the Donald Trump factor and how that has fueled some of this.

A: ‘Fueled’ is the right word. He’s certainly done nothing to dissipate it, unlike past national leaders. Hatred needs a fuel to burn it. You need these people who are on the edge in the first place, who need that oxygen to set them off. And he has unfortunately provided that.

Look at [Pres. George W.] Bush after 9/11. You can criticize Bush on Iraq and any number of things that he may have done in foreign policy. But to his credit, he did say just days after 9/11, after there’s been a whole slew of attacks on Muslims, he went to a mosque, even though we’d just been attacked by 19 Muslim hijackers, and he said, “This is not a war on Islam. This has to stop.”

It’s tough to imagine Trump doing something analogous to that in that situation, and that was credited with having an enormous psychological, emotional and, of course, political impact.

It’s no coincidence, as I say in the book, that the hate crime numbers started to surge a decade ago, which is at the same time as he declared his candidacy. The rhetoric in this country just took a nose dive in 2015, with things that we never thought we would hear on the national stage suddenly becoming acceptable.

Q: You point to social media’s role in the rise of hate in America, too.

A: The other factor you need to cite in terms of the national stage is the effect of the social media platforms, where they’ve really bowed to Trump in dropping their guardrails in the name of free speech. And the guard rails were pretty flimsy to begin with.

They weren’t much of a safety rail, but now with [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg and [Elon] Musk at Twitter, or X, it’s basically the wild west. It’s anything goes.

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Q: Let’s shift to the sources in Orange County and elsewhere who were important for you to have in the book.

A: I spoke with the Bernstein parents, both Gideon and Jeanne Pepper, and also a lot of Blaze’s friends in the lead-up to the trial. [Samuel Woodward’s family declined to be interviewed for the book.]

I also talked to a bunch – I have to say, unfortunately – but a fair number of neo-Nazis. James Mason, I spent a number of hours talking to him once I was able to track him down in Colorado. He was this figurehead leader of the neo-Nazi movement who Sam Woodward had gone out to pay pilgrimage to just before the killing.

I spent hours in person and then on the phone talking to him, trying to understand just what the draw is. What is the attraction of something like that – he’s in his mid-70s now – to this younger generation? He had basically been exiled for years and years, and now there’s this whole new crew of kids in their 20s who deified him and this horrible racist screed called “Siege” that he wrote back in the ’80s.

So I talked to him and others. Rob Rundo from Orange County, who’s been prosecuted since then, and a number of other American Nazi Party guys, to try to understand. Their one universal theme is how much oxygen Trump has given them.

Q: I was less familiar with the parts of the book you wrote about the hate experienced by a Chinese American family and a Black family in Orange County’s Ladera Ranch. These weren’t physical attacks, but the racism was extreme.

A: They experienced psychological torture. Sort of small arms warfare, where they were harassed for months in one of these sad situations where the cops wouldn’t intervene. It came up to the neighbors to really – to their credit – do something. They literally stood vigil for, I think, over a month.

I saw that as an example of where local law enforcement doesn’t know what to do with cases like this. They throw up their hands. Either they don’t want to do anything or they don’t know what to do, and there are too many cases like that where they’re afraid to intervene.

Q: That example offered a small ray of hope in the book, thanks to the majority of the neighborhood standing up to racist bullies.

A: Yeah, what the neighbors did there was quite inspiring. One in particular, I spent an hour with her, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman I believe was from Georgia originally. She said she was ready to leave. Like, if this is still going on, I would take my kids and move out. It was quite a position to take.

Q: So, in your opinion, what can turn the direction the country has taken away from hate?

A: I wish I had an easy answer for you. Just since I started this, it seems to have gotten worse, not better. I did not envision Trump’s re-election. We’ve had a whole other round with the anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim stuff growing out of Gaza.

Different in some ways, somewhat the same, because that’s not exclusively far-right stuff. You’ve got some of that coming from the left in terms of the anti-Semitic stuff.

Q: You focus on Orange County here, but it’s not the only place in the country that’s experiencing more hate.

A: I think it’s an extreme version. If you look at the number of hate groups in the county, collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups, it has more than its share of hate crimes. It has more than its share of hate groups. So it’s sort of overrepresented, both historically and currently.

That’s not to say it’s the worst of the worst, but it’s an extreme case that kind of reflects what’s going on at the moment with this surge, this real epidemic that we’re seeing. I think you’re seeing the extreme in Orange County of what you’re seeing around the country.

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By JESSICA DAMIANO

If you grow houseplants, you probably know that sinking feeling you get when you notice the almost imperceivable movement of a dot, fine webbing between a leaf and its stem, or a leaf that just looks off.

You thought (hoped!) the moment would never come, but the pests have moved in, and here we are.

Check out the plant before buying it

The old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure also applies to houseplant infestations, and this all could have been avoided if you had taken precautions, starting at the nursery.

Before bringing home a plant, inspect it closely. Look at the soil, stem, leaves and, importantly, under the leaves, where some pests like to make their homes. Use your phone’s camera to zoom in on questionable specks. If all looks good, go ahead and buy the plant, but repot it once it crosses your threshold.

A string of dolphins plant is displayed in Old Westbury, N.Y. on Jan. 2, 2026. (Jessica Damiano via AP)

What to do when you bring the plant home

Remove the plant from its container and gently shake, then wipe as much of the soil from the roots as possible. This is important because even in the absence of visible pests, there could be eggs waiting to hatch in the soil.

Repot the plant using fresh, sterile potting mix in a clean container with a drainage hole at the bottom. If reusing the original pot, first wash it and disinfect it with a 90/10 water-to-bleach solution.

Plant the roots exactly as deep as they were in the original pot, and tamp the soil down firmly to eliminate air pockets. Then give the plant a moderate drink of water.

When the soil surface dries, sprinkle it with about ¼ inch of food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE). To ensure even distribution, consider using a powder duster, sometimes called a puffer.

Wear a mask; the dust isn’t toxic to people or pets, but it will irritate your lungs if inhaled. Insects that crawl across the dry powder, which is composed of tiny shard-like particles, become dehydrated and die.

Diatomaceous earth must be kept dry to maintain its effectiveness, so bottom-water plants by placing pots in a shallow container of water. Allow the soil and roots to soak up what they need for about 15 minutes, then discard any remaining water. Bottom watering also helps prevent fungal diseases and root rot, so it’s a good practice regardless of pest concerns.

DE should be reapplied occasionally because soil moisture will degrade it over time, even when watering from below.

Protect your other plants

If you have other houseplants, quarantine your newcomer in a separate room for three to four weeks. Inspect it every few days as you did at the nursery, as some pests may not show their faces for a while.

When you’re confident all is clear, go ahead and introduce your plants to the rest of the family.

Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.

For more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening.

Amy Lindgren

For anyone just starting their working life, the immediate future is filled with firsts: The first performance review, the first promotion, and, sadly, perhaps the first layoff. Although the basics don’t differ much over the years, the context for each generation does.

Take, for example, Gen Z. That’s the cohort born between 1997 and 2012. Sometimes called Zoomers, Gen Z is the first group to join the workforce with an intimate knowledge of digital processes, including remote meetings and even artificial intelligence tools. Gen Z is also encountering one of the toughest job markets for new workers in recent memory.

Although this cohort is still young — 14 years old on the low end — enough fall into the working ages of 18-24 to merit career advice. Read on for tips on how Gen Z workers might handle a few of the more common career firsts.

• First job review. Reviews can be stressful at any time, but when the job market is tight and the worker is young, the stakes seem higher. Luckily, this “first” is predictable, making it easier to prepare for. The first step is to confirm with your boss or the human resources department when a review is likely to happen — after three months, for example, or a year?

Even if the review is months away, now is a good time to start tracking examples of things you’ve learned, things you’d like to improve and things you’re proud of achieving. Gather this information along with your goals for the position and you’ll be ready.

• First promotion to management. Management isn’t for everyone and Gen Z folks who spent the pandemic in remote learning settings may be less prepared than previous generations for this transition. Go ahead and accept the promotion and give it your best; that’s the only way you’ll find out if you’re happier as a leader or as an individual contributor.

In either case, you’ll benefit from finding a mentor, either internally or outside the company, to help you navigate the early stages of this promotion.

• First call from a recruiter. In a strong job market, leaving one position for another (higher-paying) role is almost a no-brainer. But when jobs are more scarce, it’s important to factor in the “what if” questions. What if the new job doesn’t work out, for example, or the new company makes cuts and the last ones hired (you) are the first to go?

If a recruiter tries to “head hunt” you away to another job, ask to talk or meet briefly offline. Your goal is to cement the acquaintance first, as recruiters are important people to know. As for the opportunity, only move forward if the job truly interests you; otherwise, provide the recruiter with referrals if you can and ask to be considered for other jobs if they’re a fit.

• First resignation from a job. You’re young. It’s a tight market. Are you sure you want to leave this job? Assuming you have good reasons to leave and something better lined up, here’s the process. First, write a brief note or email to your manager but don’t follow the temptation to vent or otherwise complain. In fact, even if the job has been awful, you need to thank your boss for the opportunity, because that’s the professional thing to do. Finish by stating the date when you’ll be leaving and then ask for a meeting to wrap up last details.

• First layoff from a job. If you’re laid off, you’ll want to ask questions and gather as much information as possible. Talking with someone outside the organization can give you perspective on what to ask, but the short list includes details on whether there’ll be severance, when you can have a letter of recommendation, what assistance the company provides for finding new work, etc.

It’s common to be asked to sign something, so plan on requesting a copy to review at home (and share with an adviser) before you complete this step.

• First career transition. At some point, you’ll likely question whether you’re working in the right field. Rather than pushing the issue aside, your best bet is to start a conversation with your mentor or career coach. Career transitions that happen gradually as your thoughts emerge are generally less stressful than those that erupt with the snap of the final straw in your job.

As a bonus, organizing your career change process while things are still good might transform this transition from being a desperate escape into a move from one enjoyable thing to the next. That’s a “first” that you’ll want to repeat often in your career.

• Possible first union experience. If your first career job is covered by a collective bargaining agreement, some of the above, such as performance reviews and layoffs, will be spelled out there. You’ll want to familiarize yourself with those, and also ask yourself if you’d like to get involved in union activities during your off-work hours; doing so might be rewarding or stressful and might either help or hurt your professional future, so weigh the pros and cons carefully.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.