Thursday, March 12, 2026
Home Blog Page 71

Russia’s Shoigu snubs military commanders who refuse to "waste" troops: ISW

Fox News
-
0
Russia’s Shoigu snubs military commanders who refuse to "waste" troops: ISW

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has signaled that he wants to praise his commanders who counterattack rather than retreat in the southern sector of the front in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.

The think tank’s daily assessment on Tuesday noted how during a conference call with Russia’s military leadership that day, Shoigu had celebrated an “odd group” of Moscow forces’ armed formations in the western Zaporizhzhia oblast.

The sector is part of where Ukraine’s forces are fighting in their counteroffensive that started around June 4 and which aims to recapture Russian-occupied territory.

Shoigu said Russian troops had successfully defended around Robotyne and Verbove, settlements south of the city of Orikhiv. In doing so, he praised his forces’ 70th Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, the 56th Air Assault (VDV) Regiment, the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade and the 291st Guards Artillery Brigade.

While it is possible that Shoigu simply wanted to celebrate only a few formations, “he may have highlighted some of these formations for political reasons,” the think tank said.

This is because Russian milbloggers have described how commanders face “a choice between either ‘wasting’ their troops in counterattacks to hold tactical positions, or standing up to the Russian military command by retreating to previously prepared positions, thereby risking their careers.”

“Shoigu could be snubbing formations who are advocating for tactical retreats to prepared defensive positions,” the ISW assessment said.

It noted how the Russian Defense Ministry “has routinely deliberately snubbed or amplified the achievements of certain commanders in order to achieve Shoigu or the Russian military command’s political objectives.”

Newsweek has emailed the Russian Defense Ministry for comment.

The Ukrainian General Staff said on Tuesday its forces had conducted offensive operations in the Melitopol direction in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and towards Bakhmut in the Donetsk oblast.

Russian sources said Kyiv’s forces continued ground attacks near Klishchiivka and Andriivka south of the city which has been fiercely fought over.

It comes as Ukraine has continued to step up drone strikes on targets within Russia. Ukrainian media reported that a Russian S-400 Triumph air defense system had been struck near the city of Belgorod in the early hours of Wednesday, citing Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) sources.

Videos on Russian Telegram channels purportedly have the sounds of explosions over the city although SBU sources did not specify how much damage had been done. Meanwhile, Russia said that its forces shot down 31 Ukrainian drones overnight over Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk oblasts.

Another bloody conflict in Europe brews on sidelines of Russia-Ukraine war

Fox News
-
0
Another bloody conflict in Europe brews on sidelines of Russia-Ukraine war

As the international community’s attention remains fixated on Russia’s ongoing conflict in Ukraine, another potential war in Europe is brewing as tensions between two longtime foes in the Balkans approach dangerous heights.

Last week, a Kosovo Albanian police sergeant and three heavily armed Serb attackers were killed in a deadly North Kosovo gun battle in which at least one leading Serbian politician acknowledged he took part. Days later, the United States issued a stark warning over the weekend in response to Serbian military movements observed near the country’s de facto border with mostly ethnically Albanian and religiously Muslim Kosovo, whose independence from majority-Serb and Christian Serbia is disputed among members of the international community.

While a number of Serbian troops have reportedly been recalled from the frontier and Serbian President Aleksandar Vuvic has declared he “does not want a war,” envoys on both sides of the long-running rivalry have expressed to Newsweek the potential for further escalation if underlying tensions are not addressed.

“The security of the whole region is at stake,” Ilir Dugoli, who serves as Kosovo’s ambassador to the United States, told Newsweek. “Vucic cannot be trusted as he once again tries to manipulate in the face of irrefutable evidence of Serbia’s direct involvement in training and planning of a military aggression.”

But Marko Duric, Serbia’s ambassador to the U.S., cast the blame for worsening frictions on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, whom Duric said has pursued “efforts to persecute the Kosovo Serb population and to provoke a conflict with Serbia.”

“In the two years since Kurti came to power, he has promoted the most extreme and violent approach to dealing with the Serb community in Kosovo,” Duric told Newsweek, “which has resulted in over 275 violent attacks on innocent civilians.”

Though the threat of new violence erupting is a very present danger, the Serbia-Kosovo feud is rooted in tensions that linger in the Balkans after the breakup of the former socialist state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The collapse of the multiethnic union first forged in the aftermath of World War I fueled a decade of conflicts along ethnic, nationalistic and religious lines, and drew in NATO‘s first-ever combat intervention.

Emerging from the turmoil were the modern states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia, with the status of Kosovo remaining a matter of international dispute since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Countries that recognize Kosovo’s independence include the U.S. and much of NATO and the European Union, with the notable exceptions of Cyprus, Greece, Romania and Spain. Others that do not recognize Kosovo’s independence are Serbia, both Russia and Ukraine, and the influential core BRICS members, which, in addition to Russia, include China, Brazil, India and South Africa.

While the international community may be split nearly exactly in half over the issue, instances of violence such as that which struck late last month have drawn universal concern. And yet, two diverging narratives have emerged.

Duric stated that “the Serbian government sincerely regrets and deplores the tragic violence that took place on September 24th.” At the same time, he said “it is telling that Kurti has not allowed the European Union’s mission in Kosovo (EULEX) to participate in the post-violence investigation.”

“As President Vucic has said, we have considerable evidence that unarmed prisoners were denied medical attention, and in at least one case, shot to death while lying on the ground,” Duric affirmed. “We need a full international investigation to get to the bottom of what happened.”

The Serbian envoy also questioned why Kosovo security personnel were in the ethnic Serb-dominated North Kosovo in the first place, something he argued was only permissible with NATO’s approval, based on a decade-old agreement. He pointed to what he alleged to be a long line of abuses that could cultivate the conditions for such an incident to occur.

“We have been warning for years though that the human rights situation in Kosovo is unbearable,” Duric said, “and that sooner or later someone will—out of pure frustration and desperation—take matters into their own hands, simply to ensure their basic safety and survival and the security of their homes and families.”

Dugoli, for his part, however, said Kosovo had “concrete evidence” that the operation was a result of “Serbia’s hybrid warfare.”

“This terrorist attack, planned and supported both financially and politically by Serbia, represents a grave threat to Kosovo’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security,” the Kosovo ambassador said.

Tempers between Serbia and Kosovo have been flaring at crisis levels since at least July of last year, as an 11-year period allowing for ethnic Serbs in Northern Kosovo to continue using Serbia-issued license plates for their vehicles expired. Protests, mass resignations of Kosovo Serbs and occasional outbreaks of violence simmered for about a year until local elections this April served as a new flashpoint, with Kosovo police deploying to North Kosovo to install ethnic Albanian mayoral candidates who won a low-turnout vote largely boycotted by ethnic Serbs.

Clashes erupted, injuring dozens, including members of NATO’s peacekeeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) attempting to quell the violence. Serbian and Kosovo officials blame one another for deliberately instigating the unrest.

Now, in the wake of the latest deadly clash, Kosovo is calling for the international community to take action against Serbia.

“We are grateful to our partners for their quick reaction,” Dugoli said, “and hope that this is a time when we will not be going back to business as usual with a country that sponsors terrorism, seeks to destabilize the region, that consistently threatens its neighbors, and a country that has made it clear it is awaiting for the moment to try and complete the project of Greater Serbia, now euphemistically referred to as ‘Serbian world.'”

“This is a time that asks for condemnation and concrete sanctions against a regime that feeds on tension and promotes violence,” he added, calling on the international community to “ensure that Serbia recognizes and respects the independence and sovereignty of its neighbors.”

Yet his Serbian counterpart asserted that “Serbia has no incentive, either politically or economically, to escalate military conflict.” Rather, Duric argued, “the Serbian government is currently doing everything in its power to de-escalate tensions.”

“We are mobilizing to hold any Serb citizen involved in the violence fully accountable,” Duric said, “we are asking our international partners in Washington and in Brussels to authorize NATO’s KFOR mission to take over policing and security duties in Serb-populated regions, and we are calling for the establishment of an international investigation into what happened in Banjska on September 24th.”

“We just wish Kurti would do the same,” he added.

FEMA emergency alert: Why your phone will get a text

Fox News
-
0
FEMA emergency alert: Why your phone will get a text

Your electronic devices may sound an alarm on Wednesday as FEMA tests a nationwide emergency alert on cell phones, wireless devices, radios and TVs. However, there is no need to take action after receiving the alert.

In coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), FEMA will conduct the nationwide emergency alert test at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET. This is part of a standard test that has happened at least once every three years since 2015 as FEMA is required under federal law to test the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.

What Is an Emergency Alert?

The emergency alert messages that make up the test consist of two groups—the Emergency Alert System (EAS) for radios and televisions, and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for wireless phones—which both are scheduled to happen at the same time.

According to FEMA, the national test is conducted to help ensure that WEA and the EAS continue to be effective ways to warn the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level.

Wednesday will mark the seventh nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System as six previous tests were conducted over the years between November 2011 and August 2021.

This will also be the third nationwide test of wireless alerts, and the second nationwide test transmitted to all cell phones, FEMA said in a statement.

What Will Happen During the Test?

The Wireless Emergency Alerts portion of the test will use FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), a centralized internet-based system used by FEMA that allows authorities to send authenticated emergency messages to the public through multiple communication networks. The WEA test will be administered via a code sent to cell phones as phones should only receive the message once, according to FEMA.

At the designated time, cell towers will broadcast the test for approximately 30 minutes. During this time, compatible wireless phones that are on, within range of an active cell tower, and whose wireless provider participates in WEA, should be receiving the test message.

The message will read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

For those who have set their phones to Spanish, the message will read: “ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita acción.”

The Emergency Alert System test, impacting radios and TVs, is scheduled to launch at the same time, but will only last for one minute.

When it launches, the test will interrupt regular television and radio programming, regardless of which channel you’re watching or which station you’re tuned into, to broadcast a message that says: “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”

I save families in crisis—I give them all the same piece of advice

Fox News
-
0
I save families in crisis—I give them all the same piece of advice

I was born on a fault line of trauma and emotional wreckage. Sudden deaths, substance abuse and mental health problems were part of my life from a young age.

I can remember the night my father died. I was seven years old and the house smelled like alcohol. Nobody told me the truth about what had happened. I lived with a lot of family secrets.

It wasn’t until some snotty little girl on the playground came skipping over to me and told me exactly how my father died, that I realized he had taken his own life.

While mine was a harsh life, it was a resilient one. And I had many screens of opportunity. As luck would have it, in the midst of all that confusion, chaos, sadness and trauma, I was sent away to a camp, Camp Wood Echo, which was run by a social worker.

My experiences there were key to my later becoming a social worker and a university professor. I was able to run and play, shoot bows and arrows and just found a safe haven in which to be a kid again.

The camp owner, Mr. Rubenstein, also ran a local community center—where the true impact of community mental health activities was imprinted on my brain.

I stumbled through high school like most teenagers do; making out in the backseats of cars and not really caring about my studies. My mother, who looked and dressed like Cher long before the height of her fame, subsequently married a gentleman who also had a substance use problem.

Luckily, by hook or by crook, I got accepted into the University of Pittsburgh, where I did a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and sociology, later receiving my master’s degree in social work from San Diego State University and my doctorate in education from the University of San Diego.

While at San Diego State, I was given the opportunity to create one of the first graduate school courses in substance abuse or alcohol—open to social workers, counseling, self-development, public health or psychology students.

Because guest lecturers would often pass San Diego on their way to the newly founded Betty Ford Center, they often stopped to give speeches in my classroom.

One day, Dr. Frank Picard, head of an independent treatment center called Springbrook walked into my classroom. He was tall, stately, soft-spoken, and mesmerizing.

When he spoke my heart stopped, because he was describing my family. He was describing how one does an intervention and how one can help and identify a loved one’s treatment. I was immediately smitten. I knew I was really great at dealing with crises.

I had worked as an ER social worker—give me a crisis, I just am just magnificent. Give me sudden death, I am phenomenal. So I said: “I can learn how to do this.” Under his tutelage and on the side, I began doing interventions and continue to do so to this day.

Since that time, I have published three books and had the opportunity to speak all over the world, but it really comes from my family of origin.

Today, I feel honored to work in many different venues. I consult with behavioral healthcare centers, helping their clients and working collaboratively with some of the top behavioral health care centers in the world. I also work with a young group out of New York called Youth Prevention Mentors, which really combines my basic love of peer mentoring and parent-based intervention.

I work with families who have young adults, from 13 through to 27. In that arena there is always an identified loved one—usually, it’s the young person—who has been acting out.

That could involve anxiety, depression, executive functioning problems, difficulty with school or substance abuse.

I also help adults in crisis. I am currently working with three women who were widowed, a woman who has intergenerational trauma and processes her disorder by shopping and gambling and have previously worked with CEOs and COOs and their families.

While working with the family unit, we often try to help that young person by putting a wellness mentor with them, and I work with the family to effectuate change without sending a young person away somewhere else.

For example, last year we worked with a gender-fluid 17-year-old who was self-harming. They were abusing alcohol and not doing their work. Their parents were definitely very high-achieving, very talented, and wanted to send them away to an institution.

But I said no, we don’t need to do that. We can work together by helping them with a wellness coach, who could help explore further their identity, and a psychiatrist who was able to prescribe the right medication.

The outcome of that story was really good. They recently celebrated over a year of recovery in Twelve Step and is currently a freshman at a prestigious college in Boston.

In my eyes, the most important thing to know about families is that when they come together and ask for help, they have been functioning in a way that has a status quo for a long time.

What we’re asking is not just for the identified loved one, who comes with the problem, to change. We need to invite everybody to change. And change takes place very slowly.

I’m working with a very interesting family right now who has a 24-year-old female who really hasn’t learned how to live life yet, and is in a relationship with a 52-year-old male.

Her mom is very successful, but going through her own existential crisis about who she is. What I am trying to do is help her live her own life and be able to detach. A lot of the work has to do with learning how to talk; what do we say and how do we say it? Learning to talk in “I” and feeling terms.

The other big thing is self-care; giving people opportunities to grieve their losses, unpack what has happened in their lives, and give them permission to begin taking care of themselves physically and emotionally, consistent with their values or spiritually.

When I work with people I always give them assignments, but they’re always invitations to change. For example, could you do nine things this week to take care of yourself physically and emotionally?

That could be walking, or skipping, or playing pickleball. What do you do? Do you do a gratitude list? Do you like being creative? I think the most important thing is joining up where that person is, and being present with those individuals.

The toughest problem I encounter is resistance and denial. People are stuck in their ways, and it takes 90 days to change a behavior even if you want to.

Wonderful research from Prochaska and DiClemente suggests there are various stages of change. First, it’s not even in your head. Then, you’re a little bit pre-contemplative. You’re thinking about it, and then suddenly you take action, but you go backward and need to get back to that action phase.

I believe the biggest thing is having patience. As someone who does interventions, you’re fast—like an ER doctor who has to make a quick decision. But you have to have patience, a lot of empathy and to understand the stages of change.

Think about how difficult it is to give up chocolate or cigarettes. That is difficult enough for one person, with a family you are inviting an entire system to change, not just one person.

I’m famous for helping people develop change agreements. Often in families that have problems, one doesn’t know where one starts and the other one stops. My mantra is: “I love you and I care about you and I’m only going to support you in health and wellness.”

But that means that you are actually only able to support them in health and wellness. That does not mean you pay for their phone which is a direct link to their drug dealer. And I have found this often the hardest thing in the world for parents to give up.

In the event of a family member not following through with rules that have been set, they experience the consequences of their behavior.

Mental health and substance abuse are brain diseases, and you’re trying to take a look for a strength-based positive solution to that disease. But sometimes people don’t want to follow directions and they have to experience the consequences of their actions.

What you can do is encourage help, set limits and be their accountability coach. Even for something as simple as a gratitude list. I can’t even begin to tell you how many people send me their gratitude lists every day, and I write them back. I want them to be able to follow through and have some structure.

I tell all families I work with: “You did the best you could do with the resources you have. And now maybe we can learn to do something a little different.”

If I could share one piece of advice to be a better family member, it would be to seek help. To question behavior and look outside. Understand that there’s always, in my mind, hope and a strategic solution.

I still pick up my own phone and talk to everybody who calls. I give them 15 minutes of my time. I don’t want people to be afraid of asking for help, and I want them to know they’re not alone.

So many families worldwide experience mental health issues, substance abuse, or some other type of problem. COVID-19 has caused more anxiety and depression than we’ve ever seen before.

We’re living in an anxiety-fueled world that, for young people, is uncertain. We’ve had riots and natural disasters; we have social media.

But in my eyes, there is always a solution. Wherever you are in the world, I believe there is a resolution for you and your family.

Dr. Louise Stanger is an award-winning interventionist, author, social worker who specializes in substance abuse disorders, process addictions, mental health disorders, sudden death, trauma, grief and loss.

All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

As told to Newsweek’s My Turn associate editor, Monica Greep.

Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? Email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com.

I suddenly realized why my marriages failed. I was to blame

Fox News
-
0
I suddenly realized why my marriages failed. I was to blame

At first, everything with my husband Doug and I seemed to be going well. We had dated for three years before we got married and blended our four children into one family.

But soon there were conflicts. We fought a lot about the kids, Doug’s lack of earnings, and how much I was doing around the house compared to him. At the time I was the chief financial officer of a large private school and the main breadwinner for our family.

Doug and I went to marriage counseling, where we blamed each other in front of a perfect stranger. Rides to our appointments were cold and distant, and we’d fight all the way home.

Before I knew it, our lack of intimacy resulted in me begging, pleading, and crying. I felt so undesired and lonely. This lack of connection both physically and emotionally seemed to spark fighting about everything.

Eventually, I moved into the guest room when we both started threatening each other with divorce.

At the time, my approach to marriage and relationships was that I knew better, and was sure Doug was parenting wrong, should be making more money and definitely having sex with his wife. I thought taking him to marriage counseling would fix everything.

I wanted to feel safe, so I controlled everything. At the time, I didn’t know it was to an unreasonable degree. I thought the more I lectured and or explained how he should be a good husband that he’d jump up and do what I wanted, but nothing changed.

I thought if I got mad, or cried and begged, that he’d see how much he was hurting me and would change, but nothing changed. In fact, he became more distant and uninterested. I went to the gym, lost weight, and got fit, but that didn’t improve the intimacy or connection in our marriage.

I was ready to get a divorce—which would have been my second—but I knew it would be devastating to our four kids. Neither of our previous spouses were involved, and we were trying to create a family life for them.

But we just didn’t know how to overcome conflicts. I didn’t know how to go on without the connection, intimacy, and fun we experienced when we dated.

I was living in the guest room and didn’t want my second marriage to fail. The Cold War was excruciating. I wanted to do whatever I could to make our marriage work. I just didn’t know I had anything I could do. I thought it was Doug who needed to change.

I blamed my husband because I didn’t see how I was doing anything wrong. I was the breadwinner, I was a single mom before we married, raising two kids by myself, owned my own home, and had a successful career.

Doug only had his kids once a month, during the summer and school holidays, so he wasn’t used to managing bedtime, homework, and chores. I was so frustrated and so were his kids, since they didn’t much like the tight ship I was running with strict bedtimes.

My husband struggled financially and used credit cards to buy things I didn’t think were necessary. I thought his lack of interest in physical intimacy was his way of punishing me for something.

I didn’t know what I was doing wrong except constantly complaining and begging for him to see my point of view, which never worked. At that time, I felt superior, smarter, and more capable than Doug.

Therapy created more fights, both before and after sessions, but while in sessions, were in front of a professional so weren’t as forthcoming or we overindulged in complaining and criticizing each other. I didn’t learn much except I didn’t want to go back to marriage therapy.

I complained to my girlfriends while pretending at work that everything at home was fine. The fighting got so bad that one day, my best friend told me to either shut up or get a divorce. It was shocking, but she had become sick of me complaining about Doug.

I was devastated. I booked a flight to visit my mother. I knew she would listen, and she would know what I should do. I brought some books with me, including one titled The Surrendered Wife.

Upon reading that book, I felt ashamed and embarrassed. For the first time, I realized that I was responsible for my failed marriages. It was very painful. I sobbed that night and all the next day. But under my pain, I felt a glimmer of hope.

I realized how repelling my control was, and that it was creating the opposite result I craved. I believe the reason I became so controlling was because I was raised in an unsafe childhood where I experienced physical and sexual abuse.

I was controlling when no control was necessary, but I didn’t realize it. Being vulnerable or not knowing what was going to happen was terrifying.

I realized that respect is like oxygen for men, and that I didn’t need to be doing so much. Being controlling had me doing everything and then being resentful about it.

Learning to say “I can’t” and focusing on self-care was so impactful in my tolerance for everyday life. My nagging and complaining went way down. I learned to be grateful and look at the glass half full instead of half empty.

I felt so relieved to know that another wife, the author Laura Doyle, saved her marriage from the brink of divorce. It gave me hope that I could do it single-handedly too.

I learned that as the wife, I set the tone in my home. That old saying “happy wife, happy life” began to be true at my house. I learned to be more vulnerable and receive support rather than doing everything myself. I also learned to listen and not have to defend or argue or have the last word.

My marriage improved when I started saying things like “whatever you think” when my husband asked me what he should do with the cell phone plan. Not only did my husband appreciate being trusted, but I felt relieved that I didn’t have to do everything, and that I could trust my husband to take care of our finances and decisions like cell phone plans.

My husband started planning romantic trips and pursuing me physically and emotionally. We were laughing again and cooking together, traveling, and enjoying raising our four kids together.

After changing my approach to my relationship, I felt dignified and respectful. I felt grateful and happy instead of resentful and exhausted. I felt like I had a whole new husband and marriage. I was smiling a lot more, and the intimacy and peace were back.

Now, my marriage is as good as I can stand it. We will celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary in December, and it feels like a fairy tale dream come true.

I’ve had people say it’s unbelievable, even our adult kids tell us how proud they are of us. All of our adult children come around often because they love the love they see in us and experience when we are all together as a family.

We have more physical intimacy and emotional safety and connection than I ever knew possible. Our marriage continues to get better and better as adventure through different stages of life together. I feel cherished and adored and my husband feels respected and appreciated.

I’m so grateful for the personal change I made within myself. My whole family was saved from a painful heartbreaking divorce, and my personal transformation from the days of raging and fighting is unrecognizable.

It made me realize that being a ridiculously happy wife is not only possible, it’s easy.

Kathy Murray is a relationship coach from California.

All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.

Do you have a unique experience or personal story to share? Email the My Turn team at myturn@newsweek.com.

Fact Check: Do Donald Trump indictments bar him from House speaker role?

Fox News
-
0
Fact Check: Do Donald Trump indictments bar him from House speaker role?

Kevin McCarthy’s ousting as speaker of the House on Tuesday led to questions over the possibility of Donald Trump being able to, in theory, take over the role. McCarthy’s removal was instigated by pro-Trump Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz.

At least three GOP House members—Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas, Greg Steube of Florida, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia—have already indicated that they will support the former president in voting to select a new House speaker.

However, one commentator suggested that Trump’s indictments would automatically stop him from hammering the House gavel.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by New York’s former assistant attorney general Tristan Snell, posted on October 4, 2023, viewed 300,600 times stated “BIG DEAL – Trump CAN’T be Speaker—because of his indictments. House Republicans’ own rules require a leader to step aside if indicted for a felony of 2+ years of prison.”

The post included screengrabbed text which stated: “Rule 26—Temporary Step Aside of a Member of Leadership who is Indicted (a) A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.”

The Facts

The text quoted by Snell is from the House Republican Conference for the 118th Congress, internal congressional rules agreed upon by the GOP.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the rule quoted by Snell has been adopted since January 3, 2005. The advisory sentencing guidelines for the charges, for instance, relating to Trump’s alleged mishandling of multiple classified documents after he left the White House, are roughly between 15-and-a-half and 19-and-a-half years. The rule would then, therefore, seemingly restrict the former president from congressional leadership.

However, these rules are not statute and can be changed by the GOP. It would require the creation of an ad hoc committee, appointed by the speaker and chaired by a senior Republican member of the Committee on Rules of the House.

Does this mean that Trump could qualify, as long as congressional Republicans changed their own guidelines?

Politics professor Todd Landman, of the University of Nottingham, told Newsweek that while it’s possible to change the rules, this would not be without risk for the GOP.

“Changing the indictment rule risks charges of hypocrisy towards the Republican Party,” Landman said.

David Andersen, an associate professor of U.S. politics at Durham University, told Newsweek that there were “enough never-Trumpers and long-term members who respect the institution of the House within the GOP” to create division and opposition in the event that such a change was proposed.

“Even for those who support Trump, this would be akin to turning over the House majority to someone who would only use the office to run a presidential campaign,” Andersen said. “What this would lead to is a deep internal divide about whether to remove the rule or not, but Trump would likely win this battle.”

Even after such a corralling, Trump would need to be voted in and the likelihood of that would be a significant challenge, as Iwan Morgan, professor emeritus of U.S. studies at University College London told Newsweek.

“Getting Trump elected speaker would be a tougher task—every Democrat would vote no, and it only requires five non-MAGA GOPs to follow suit,” Morgan said.

“And some conservative Republicans would think twice, too, about the likely damage to the reputation of Congress if this were done. Note that House Rules Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK), who voted for McCarthy to retain his office, warned that his ouster was ‘simply a vote for chaos.'”

So while on a number of technicalities, the Republican party could change its rules to accommodate Trump, it may cause even further division within the party at a time when it has already been left reeling by Kevin McCarthy‘s exit.

Furthermore, even if the rules were changed, Trump would still have to face a vote that could quite plausibly not land in his favor.

Trump has also previously stated that he is not interested in the position.

“No, it’s not something I want to do. I want to look at what’s happening, and then we’re going to be doing something else. No, it’s not something I would be interested in,” Trump said in an interview in March 2022.

The Ruling

Needs Context.

The rule restricting Republican leadership appointments has been adopted by the House Republican Conference since 2005. It is, however, not statute and can be altered by the GOP.

This means it could be changed to allow Trump to become House speaker. Yet doing so may risk further dividing the GOP, even before Trump could be voted in.

While, technically, he could still become House speaker while indicted, the effort required to engineer it makes the chances of it happening very thin.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team

Needs Context: The claim requires more information to set it in the appropriate context. The claim as presented may be partly true, but cannot be fully or correctly understood without the right context. Read more about our ratings.

Green tech: The hot climate issue

Fox News
-
0
Green tech: The hot climate issue

With the world possibly witnessing its warmest year ever and NASA declaring this past summer as the hottest on record, influential leaders from across the globe poured into New York City last month for Climate Week NYC to discuss global warming.

The annual climate event coincides with the United Nations General Assembly’s session, and all eyes were on diplomats and heads of state to make major announcements on their efforts to combat climate change and facilitate environmental sustainability.

In the United States, President Joe Biden appears to have placed his bets heavily on green technology. According to his administration’s estimates, over $200 billion has been allocated toward clean manufacturing and green technology following his signing of a signature climate bill last year. With business leaders also focusing on green technology at Climate Week NYC, it’s imperative to deconstruct green tech and its future in the world economy, particularly in the U.S.

Green tech combines science and technology to formulate products and services that facilitate environmental sustainability. The technology includes varied innovative solutions designed to reduce human environmental impact and conserve resources. Recycling, renewable energy, waste management, sustainable transportation, emissions treatment, ecological treatment and other energy-efficiency solutions are some of the approaches businesses are increasingly adopting, and they are revolutionizing industries.

With governments offering huge incentives and investors expressing mounting interest in businesses supporting sustainability, green tech has become a burgeoning industry attracting massive investment capital. The global green technology and sustainability market size is projected to reach $51.09 billion in 2029, at a compound annual growth rate of 20.6 percent from 2022 to 2029, according to a Fortune Business Insights report.

However, green tech is not limited to climate engineering solutions. It also encompasses the growing space of impact data and analytics, with companies like GIST Impact offering advanced solutions to help businesses gauge their environmental impacts.

“There have been considerable advances in data science and AI which can be intelligently applied to make it easier for companies to measure and manage their on-ground environmental impacts, flag hidden risks and reveal instances of greenwashing,” Mahima Sukhdev, head of commercial development at GIST Impact, told Newsweek.

“Impact data leaves no room for hiding and paves the way for more accurate sustainability reporting,” Sukhdev continued. “And as governments tighten environmental regulations, companies that adopt a science-based and data-first approach to address sustainability concerns proactively are more likely to adapt successfully, mitigate risks and attract capital.”

An increasing number of private companies in the U.S. are stepping up to address climate change by adapting green tech. The nation’s top companies leading the green tech revolution range from industries like electric aviation to futuristic farming, according to Privco’s latest Leaders in Climate Tech report. The high-growth companies are aggregated in biological engineering for sustainable farming and animal product alternatives, micro-mobility and innovative engineering, the report’s data shows.

The top 10 companies in the country that are pioneering in green technology adaptation, based on funding, revenue and employee growth, are Bowery Farming (AI and robotics agricultural technology), Wren Climate, Aurora Solar (solar software), Arcadia Power (clean-energy tech platform), Rad Power Bikes (electric bike manufacturer), Pivot Bio (biotechnology), Solugen (carbon negative molecule factory), LA Solar Group (residential and commercial renewable-energy solutions), Aeroseal (lowering carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings) and Farmers Business (tech platform and farmer-to-farmer network).

Basil Hamadeh, chief executive officer of Privco, a private company data-services provider, said he believes that green and climate tech are here to stay.

“Climate tech is a massive industry, projected to grow from $20.34 billion in revenue today to $100 billion in revenue by 2030,” he told Newsweek.

“Private companies are leading the charge, from creating innovative products like small modular nuclear reactors from X-energy to helping companies measure, reduce and report their carbon emissions from Watershed,” he continued. “At Privco, we are measuring this industry at regular intervals, given the incredibly fast pace of innovation and the importance of the solutions to the sustainability of the planet.

“We believe that climate tech will eventually become one of the largest industries on the planet, behind only telecommunications and energy in terms of overall size,” Hamadeh said.

The Russia-Ukraine war has made it evident that energy is imperative for a smooth-functioning economy and that we need to collectively channel our resources to push for less volatile and greener alternatives.

With governments incentivizing green technology on a massive scale, private companies implementing green innovation in their core functionalities and investors actively gauging a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance as their key deciding factor, it is clear that green, clean and climate technology is paving the way for a more sustainable and green future.

Let’s taco ’bout how to get a taco a day for a month

Fox News
-
0
Let’s taco ’bout how to get a taco a day for a month

It’s officially the last day to claim a taco a day for a month from Taco Bell for just $10.

Taco Bell is offering fans the hotly anticipated Taco Lover’s Pass on its app, and it guarantees you access to a taco a day for 30 days straight. Rewards members have until the end of today to purchase the pass for just $10.

“We’re embracing our fan’s passion for this digital pass along with the potential it holds to transform our retail experiences,” Taco Bell’s chief digital officer Dane Mathews said in a statement.

The Taco Lover’s Pass officially went live on Tuesday, October 3, and now there are just hours left to secure the deal.

Immediately after purchase, customers will have the pass activated in the Rewards Dashboard section of the app, where they can then redeem a taco each day for the next month.

Seven tacos are available to choose from under the new savings deal, including the Soft Taco, Soft Taco Supreme, Spicy Potato Soft Taco, Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos, Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos Supreme, Crunchy Taco and Crunchy Taco Supreme.

The pass arrives in honor of National Taco Day on Wednesday.

Taco Bell’s Latest Innovations

Before unveiling its Taco Lover’s Pass, Taco Bell also made headlines for its brand new breakfast taco offering coming soon.

The chain will soon debut its Toasted Breakfast Tacos, which come with eggs, melted cheese and your choice of bacon, sausage or potato wrapped in a grilled tortilla. The new morning snack will be available beginning October 12 for just $1.49.

“The addition of all-new Toasted Breakfast Tacos will spark a breakfast campaign from the brand, featuring a certain Taco Bell partner with a hot take on the most important meal of the day,” the company said in a statement.

Taco Bell is also adding new options for its plant-based guests. The chain’s new vegan nacho sauce will soon be available to add to your orders on October 12 as well. The sauce is also certified by the American Vegetarian Association.

“With the new Nacho Fries with Vegan Nacho Sauce, ordering vegan at Taco Bell has never been easier, so fans can feed their cravings without compromising or customizing,” the company said in a statement.

Taco Bell describes the sauce as made from a chickpea and soy base, and it is likely to complement the chain’s Nacho Fries, which made a comeback to menus in late September.

Earlier in the year, Taco Bell also brought back its rolled chicken tacos, which can be ordered at a price of $2.99 for two or $5.49 for four.

The chicken enchilada burrito is also a new option. The item includes grilled chicken, seasoned rice, red sauce, sour cream, and cheese all inside a warm tortilla. Customers can currently order the entree for just $2.

Are robots the answer to restaurant labor shortages?

Fox News
-
0
Are robots the answer to restaurant labor shortages?

In the near future, restaurant guests could see a robot take their order, make the meal and charge them for it, too.

As Chipotle implements a robot to assemble customers’ burrito bowls, it has both restaurants and customers alike asking how the industry will navigate the rise of automation technology.

For many restaurants that experienced the strife of labor shortages during the coronavirus pandemic, robots could be the answer to labor concerns down the line.

Customers should expect increased restaurant robots in the future, Sherri Kimes, a professor of service operations management at Cornell University, told Newsweek. This is because, in theory, and most of the time in practice, it can speed up customer orders while adding extra convenience and accuracy.

Dining customers are already seeing it firsthand. Both Chipotle and Sweetgreen are experimenting with a robotic production line to craft customers’ orders while Grubhub is using robots to deliver food on college campuses.

“We believe that automation will enable us to elevate the quality and integrity of our food, while also providing a faster and more convenient experience for our customers, and a better, more dynamic job for our team members,” Jonathan Neman, Sweetgreen’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement when the chain first went live with its robot-infused Infinite Kitchen restaurant in Naperville, Illinois, earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Chipotle partnered with tech company Hyphen to debut a robotics-enabled digital order makeline.

“Chipotle’s new digital makeline built by Hyphen embodies our commitment to leveraging robotics to unlock the human potential of our workforce, ensuring an elevated dining experience for our guests,” Curt Garner, chief customer and technology officer, said in a statement. “Our goal is to have the automated digital makeline be the centerpiece of all our restaurants’ digital kitchens.”

Chipotle and Sweetgreen are just two restaurants embracing the technology, but it indicates there’s more to come for the industry, experts say.

“Restaurants are more frequently adopting robot technology in non-customer facing functions and then redeploying their staff to focus more on customer service,” Kimes told Newsweek. “This is good for the customer, good for employees and good for the restaurant chains.”

Still, some have doubts about how willing customers are to accept robots in restaurants as a common occurrence.

According to the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 State of the Industry Report, 46 percent of American consumers would order food prepared by automated systems or robots and 37 percent would be fine with delivery from these types of technology.

A study by PYMTS indicated that 83 percent of consumers worry about food quality.

Consumer Views on Robots

According to Jeffrey Lolli, a professor in the field of tourism and business management at Widener University, many customers might have the wrong idea about what a robot in restaurants really entails.

“Many individuals have a perception of robots taking over in industry from what they see in movies such as The Terminator or the beloved Rosey the Robot in the futuristic cartoon, The Jetsons,” Lolli told Newsweek.

But in reality, restaurants have been incorporating automation and robotic tools in the kitchen for many years.

“While not fully automated, these machines enhance operations by adding speed and accuracy to traditional manual or repetitive and timely processes allowing employees to do more in less time thus allowing restaurants to be more efficient in running their business,” Lolli said.

Instead of cutting hundreds of potatoes by hand, cutting machines can do that far faster and with greater accuracy than one human alone. The same can be said for the robots coming into the fold of the restaurant industry today.

Already, automation is changing the front of the house, as well. Instead of relying on just cashiers to take all orders, many fast food chains have implemented kiosks that allow for greater efficiency.

This can prove beneficial in several ways—customers do not necessarily have to feel the frustration of waiting in line, and they also bypass the possibility of being misunderstood by an employee on what they ordered.

Accuracy and efficiency are two commonly cited reasons for restaurants to implement robots, but so far it has mainly been confined to quick-service restaurants. Fine dining has typically stayed away from the practice, and this is likely because customers at those establishments are seeking something beyond quick and convenient food service, according to Lolli.

“Restaurants have been reluctant to use robotics or automation in high-touch guest contact areas,” Lolli said. “In restaurants, part of the experience is the ambiance and the service interaction with the server which all contribute to an outstanding meal. People go out to eat not to just fulfill a biological need but also to fulfill an emotional and psychological need by connecting with others.”

How Robots Could Solve the Labor Shortage

Beyond just greater efficiency and accuracy for customers, robots are cited by restaurants to bring a high return on investment because they solve many of the labor challenges the industry has faced while ultimately being cheaper than employing another worker in many cases.

“Being able to use robots to perform repetitive tasks can be helpful and can be used to reduce labor costs,” Alex Susskind, the director of the Food and Beverage Institute at Cornell University, told Newsweek. “We have seen this with call centers, drive-thrus, and through the use of pre-prepared products and ingredients. Robots are machines, and they have been successfully used in manufacturing for a very long time.”

While the industry is closing the gap on pre-pandemic staffing levels, there is still much progress to be made, Lolli said.

In January, there were still approximately 1.5 million job openings in the combined restaurants and accommodations sector, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Downside of Robots in Restaurants

That’s not to say robots are without fallbacks, experts say.

For one, automation can be costly and requires a significant upfront investment that not all restaurants are able to afford. Small businesses increasingly will be cut out of this technology while the large chains have more buying power to invest in robotics to serve their bottom line.

There’s also the issue of robot management. Just like humans working in restaurants, robots need to be managed, and they are prone to breakdowns and maintenance, meaning they aren’t exactly perfect substitutes for human labor in a restaurant setting.

“While a robot won’t call in sick, it may break down in the middle of a shift with little or no notice,” Susskind said.

And even beyond that, some restaurants are hesitant to implement the tools because of fears of customer reactions.

“Even these types of restaurants have been reluctant to use this type of technology in guest-facing areas because it makes the service element impersonal,” Lolli said. “Having a person serve you in a restaurant has always been important and I would argue, even more important post-pandemic where we were isolated for over a year.”

Essentially: even if the food is amazing, the server can make or break the dining experience.

“In the end, restaurants, yes, provide food, but they equally provide a service,” Lolli said. “Many elements go into this and the ‘secret sauce’ has always been and will always be people.”

Susskind also shares his reservations that robotics could ever fully replace humans in the service-oriented restaurant industry.

“I firmly believe that removing the human touch from restaurants is a slippery slope,” Susskind told Newsweek. “One element of a restaurant experience is having the restaurant make you feel special. I have yet to see a robot that can replace that human element of the service experience.”

While robotic technology is rapidly improving, Lolli believes it will never fully replace the strong people skills that are needed to create powerful guest experiences in the restaurant industry.

“When you leave a restaurant, what do you have to take with you? Yes, you had a wonderful meal but that has already been consumed,” Lolli said. “What you leave with is a memorable experience that was created by people, not robots.”

Dr. Vanessa Kerry prescribes climate solutions to save lives and cut carbon

Fox News
-
0
Dr. Vanessa Kerry prescribes climate solutions to save lives and cut carbon

Dr. Vanessa Kerry, who has worked on global health issues for two decades, recently took a more prominent role as the World Health Organization’s first Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health.

Kerry also directs the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and she has a family tie to climate action. Her father, John Kerry, is President Joe Biden‘s Special Envoy for Climate. With the WHO appointment in June Vanessa Kerry is now a climate envoy as well, a position she said can bring broader awareness of the climate connection to health.

“We’re really discovering all the ways that we’re being impacted by the increasing acceleration of climate change,” Kerry told Newsweek in a recent extended interview. “The climate crisis is a health crisis.”

Much of Kerry’s work over the past 20 years has been in sub-Saharan Africa, both as a clinician and as leader of the nonprofit Seed Global Health, which trains health care workers in the region. In that time, Kerry said, she has noticed an accelerating and disturbing trend as climate-driven weather extremes contribute to public health problems.

In her interview with Newsweek, which has been edited for length and clarity, Kerry cited the example of the southeastern African nation of Malawi, which has been battered by tropical storms over the past two years.

The World Weather Attribution group, an international consortium of climate researchers, said the region’s storms in 2022 were made worse by climate change, and a 2022 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said a warmer climate means cyclones in the area could have more intense rainfall and higher wind speeds. One extraordinary storm early this year, Cyclone Freddy, spun its way across the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks, becoming the longest-lasting and most energetic cyclone ever recorded. Kerry said the dramatic damage those storms inflict at landfall is just the start of the health impacts.

Newsweek: Tell me a little about what you see in your work in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the effects that are related to climate change—the public health effects.Dr. Kerry: We’ve discovered that climate change has actually made our work harder and is threatening to reduce the progress that we have made not only in our work, but that globally we’ve made in public health throughout the years.

Just to give an example, in Malawi, where Seed has worked for 13 years, they just suffered the longest and largest cholera outbreak they’ve ever had in the country’s history. And this was because of a series of tropical storms that have come with increasing frequency and increasing intensity over southern Africa. And that did everything from change water sources to increasing the amount of malaria, but also with the change of water sources, put people at risk of getting cholera. And as we were doing our work, we ended up also then having to respond to a cholera epidemic.

And then when the bridges washed out from the storm, we ended up having to stand up new maternity birthing centers so that women could deliver safely. So, there’s a really long and large impact that comes from climate change.

Now, as I say this, it’s not all doom and gloom. We do have solutions and we know what we can do to change these outcomes. So that’s been the privilege of working through Seed Global Health, is that we’ve seen the power of investing in strong health systems, in healthcare workers that can deliver care and to meet these challenges.

But we need more of that.

These are fascinating examples that show just how intersectional climate change is. And I think it can be really overwhelming when we try to think about climate change because it does affect every aspect of our lives in some way. But to your final point there, it also suggests some ways that we can tackle more than one problem at a time. I guess the term here is “elegant solutions,” right?I love elegant solutions. There’s an expression in medicine called an Occam’s razor, which means your different symptoms are caused by a single disease. And I think there’s an Occam’s solution here, if you will, which is the sense that a single solution can solve many problems.

So yes, climate change can absolutely be overwhelming. There’s a lot happening, and it’s been accelerating over the summer, and it can feel very apocalyptic. But truthfully, we do actually know what to do. I mean, we have all the tools in our capacity. First and foremost, we have to reduce greenhouse gases. That is the cause of this harm.

We also know that, for example, if you reduce greenhouse gases, which is the main driver of air pollution, which causes seven million deaths a year, if we halve the amount of greenhouse gases we put into the planet by 2050, we could see up to a 50 percent reduction in deaths from air pollution.

We also know that if you stop driving a vehicle and you bike or you walk more, you can actually have better benefits to your own cardiovascular health; that when we create green spaces, there’s huge benefits to mental health.

So, there’s ways that just by reducing our contributions, we can see the co-benefits of health.

I’m assuming that this is a major goal for you as the WHO’s special envoy. What does that mean, being a special envoy, and how does it help you achieve these things?It’s interesting because this the first-ever Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health from the WHO and I think it really does reflect the urgency of the crisis we’re facing, and also the opportunities to change how we are engaging in responding to that crisis.

The focus of this position for me is to very much help the WHO and to help other colleagues and allies to really understand this nexus of climate change and health, to help frame, I think, solutions for policymakers and for financiers. There is opportunity to build strong health systems that can meet existing burdens of disease and future burdens of disease. And we can start to invest in our well-being in a way that we are prioritizing people’s health, their livelihoods and their ability to go to work, and to care for their families.

With the big climate change gathering coming up [the United Nations COP 28, or Conference of Parties], what do you think are the most immediate steps you’d like to see specific to this connection between climate change and public health?Well, I think it’s incredibly exciting that COP 28 for the first time ever has a dedicated day of health [programming]. So really focusing on the intersection of climate change and health, that has never happened. The opportunity here is to make sure that this intersection is understood at the highest political levels to be able to help shift policies that are going to invest in better health and in all of the savings and co-benefits that we see with that. I sound like a broken record, I’m sure, but it is really urgent that we reduce the amount of greenhouse gases.

And I think it’s an opportunity specifically for world leaders to understand that the health crisis being driven by climate change has an impact across every sector. We’ve talked about some of the economics, but the World Bank expects [as many as] 132 million people to be pushed into poverty by climate change, a third of those specifically by the health impacts of climate change. That’s a complete reversal of progress that we’ve made over recent years.

I wanted to ask about your father because he’s obviously the president’s climate envoy, but he’s also just been very active on this issue for so long as Secretary of State, and—boy, I’m really dating myself with this—20 years ago I interviewed him when I worked on Capitol Hill about climate change. I’m just wondering how that influenced you in your decisions to incorporate climate change in your professional life?It’s an interesting question because climate change is an intergenerational problem. It has been an issue actually for years before we chose to recognize it. It’s been an issue, and it will be an issue for my children and their children.

It was actually my grandmother [Rosemary Forbes Kerry] who I think inspired a lot of the engagement in protecting our earth and, you know, sort of honoring it. And I remember that from the days of growing up and I know it influenced my father and my father, in turn, influenced me.

But again, I think as a physician and as somebody who’s done this work for 20 years, climate change has become inevitable to the work that I do. There’s no way for me to do my job without coming square into climate change.

So, it’s been an incredible connection, obviously, to be my father’s daughter, because he’s taught me the power of service, and the power of being a global citizen and the importance to fight for what matters at every second, and that is a really powerful lesson to have taken forward.

But it’s also fun because I get to teach him now because there’s so much that he’s learning about this intersection that he didn’t know. And it’s fun to be alongside him. We’re in this with a big group of people who want to see some big change.

1...707172...86Page 71 of 86

EDITOR PICKS

POPULAR POSTS

POPULAR CATEGORY