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Jennie Rhodes
Friday, 20 March 2026, 10:46
Back in mid-January I decided I was already suffering from news anxiety, which was concerning for two reasons: 1. We were only halfway through the first month of the year and 2. I am a reporter for a newspaper.
However, in the same month that Trump launched his military attack on Venezuela and set his sights on Greenland, with murmurings of what he might do in Iran, Spain grabbed the international headlines after the Adamuz tragedy, which was soon followed by two more railway accidents.
In February there were floods and more floods in some parts of Malaga and even in areas that were less severely affected, the rawness of what happened in Valencia and concerns about rivers bursting their banks again closer to home here in Malaga are never far from our minds.
Earlier this month, Trump did launch his attack on Iran and it was early in the month that I heard British journalist Beth Rigby admit on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast she co-presents that she was also suffering from "news anxiety".
It is, she admitted, "unfortunate because it's the business I'm in". It was at least reassuring to hear that I wasn't alone.
A poem by British poet Brian Bilston popped up somewhere and it was timely. Perhaps the algorithms were sensing my disquiet:
"Send me a slow news day, a quiet, subdued day, in which nothing much happens of note, just the passing of time, the consumption of wine, and a re-run of Murder, She Wrote. Grant me a no news day, a spare-me-your-views day, in which nothing much happens at all - a few hours together, some regional weather, a day we can barely recall".
Spot on up until the regional weather bit at the end as, with increasing frequency, the weather is the news. To quote another British literary figure, the weather in Malaga has been, "the best of times...the worst of times".
Despite the floods, the accidents and even fatalities, Malaga's reservoirs are full and the drought it would seem, is for the time being, over.
The best of times indeed, especially for farmers and the tourism sector (so that's most of the province happy, then). I don't think I need to spell out why it's been the worst of times.
I am sure that Beth Rigby and I are not the only people, or even journalists, for whom the first quarter of 2026 has triggered news anxiety.
The various wars rage on and apparently Trump has his sights set on Cuba next, but here in Spain, at least, PM Pedro Sánchez has made his country's position clear. Should that make us more or less anxious? Trump is so unpredictable that it's impossible to say.
There have been good news stories too and a quick internet search shows up a website dedicated solely to sharing uplifting stories. Something to bear in mind when we realise we've been doomscrolling for far too long?
We can only hope that as we go into spring, maybe the regional weather reports will be unmemorable; there'll be a few slow news days and the only murders will be of the She Wrote variety.