In The Spotlight
More News
...
NASA’s Europa Clipper[1] spacecraft, headed to Jupiter’s ice-covered moon[2] Europa in October 2024, will carry a laser-etched message[3] that celebrates humanity’s connection to water. The message pays homage to past NASA missions that carried similar
The MV Dali, a 984-foot, 100,000-ton cargo ship, rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge[1] when leaving Baltimore harbor on March 26, 2024, causing a portion of the bridge to collapse.
In an interview, University of Michigan civil engineer Sherif El-Tawil
Many people assume that horses first came to the Americas when Spanish explorers brought them here about 500 years ago. In fact, recent research has confirmed a European origin[1] for horses associated with humans in the American Southwest and Great Plains.
Business & FinanceDeals
Reuters exclusively reported[1] that the United States is pressing Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, the biggest Western bank in Russia, to drop plans to buy a 1.5 billion euro industrial stake of a Russian tycoon.
Technology
Reuters exclusively reported[1] on EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager warning that new fees for Apple and Meta Platforms services could hinder users from enjoying the benefits of the Digital Markets Act.
Market Impact
Apple announced a slew of
Deals
Reuters exclusively reported[1] that the founding family behind Nordstrom Inc is seeking to take the U.S. department store operator private, six years after a similar attempt proved unsuccessful.
Market Impact
Nordstrom shares rose 12% to $19.22 on the
Service members still aren't getting enough sleep, in large part because there's no coherent Pentagon effort to remedy the problem, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office released this week[1].
The GAO found that fatigue among service members "appeared to be more the rule than the exception," with active-duty troops sleeping less than seven hours nightly twice as often as civilians. That lack of sleep has contributed to safety mishaps, near-misses and numerous deaths[2].
"There's recognition of this [problem] within the military," GAO report author and military readiness expert Diana Maurer told Military.com in a phone interview. "The problem is no one owns it."
Read Next: All US Commissaries Plan to Offer Home Delivery of Groceries Starting in Late Summer[3]
Health experts recommend seven to nine hours of sleep[4] for adults. It's not just quantity: Sleep quality is important[5] too, making it hard for troops with uncomfortable mattresses[6] or pilots dealing with noise and light to get meaningful shut-eye.
Pilots, missileers, aircraft maintainers and vehicle operators all noted in the report how fatigue has led to near-misses at work.
"Sometimes when I'm driving, I find myself falling asleep and I have to catch myself," one vehicle operator said in the report. "I could kill someone on accident because I'm not getting the right sleep."
Despite the military undertaking almost 130 fatigue-related research projects since 2017, most research findings are stovepiped, inhibiting information-sharing and sowing confusion over who within the Defense Department should oversee sleep and fatigue issues. Offices that manage training, readiness, safety and suicide prevention don't share information on fatigue-related events under their purviews either.
"There is universal recognition that it's an area of concern," Maurer said. "Everyone agrees that someone should do it, to take actions to address it, but it wasn't clear who that someone should be.
"So, if no one's in charge of addressing the problem and everyone else thinks someone else's taking care of it, you're not going to see major change," she said.
The report comes as the DoD has recently refused to say whether troops are getting adequate rest time at home[7] between deployments, and as service members are spending more time away from home than ever[8].
Almost 500 deaths, serious injuries and property damage events were reported within the Department of the Navy[9] between 2015 and 2019 -- all related to driving while fatigued, according to the GAO report.
"DoD recognizes that impairment from fatigue can be equivalent to the effects of alcohol intoxication and significantly increases the risk of physical injury," the report says.
In 2017, two disastrous Navy ship collisions[10] led to the deaths of 17 sailors and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage. Fatigue was later identified as a contributing factor in both collisions.
It's not just safety that sleep affects. Chronic conditions[11] such as obesity, depression and heart disease can all be spurred by sleeplessness.
The report also noted the links between lack of sleep and increased risk of death by suicide, a longtime struggle for the DoD[12]. It's overlap like this that makes Dr. Vince Mysliwiec, a sleep researcher at University of Texas Health-San Antonio and former sleep medicine consultant to the Army[13]'s surgeon general, wish the DoD would create a stand-alone office to oversee better sleep and human performance practices.
"The implementation of these [best sleep] practices servicewide is what needs to happen," he told Military.com in a phone interview. "They've identified the problem too much."
Mysliwiec added that, while the study captured the need more a more focused effort, it didn't reference two other issues likely affecting some troops struggling with sleep -- alcohol[14] and smartphones[15], both of which are notorious sleep disruptors.
But any actual implementation from new sleep efforts ultimately won't fall to the top brass, Mysliwiec said. It will be up to unit leaders.
"At the end of the day, when the mission is there, you have to recognize the ultimate responsibility for the military is to accomplish the mission," he said. "And then at times, sleep will be sacrificed. But it doesn't have to be sacrificed every day."
-- Kelsey Baker is a graduate student at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, and a former active-duty Marine. Reach her on X at @KelsBBaker or
Related: Crew Shortages, Bad Mattresses Causing Navy Surface Sailors to Lose Shut-Eye, Watchdog Says[17]
© Copyright 2024 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here[18].
A year-old Pentagon policy of paying for travel for service members who need reproductive health care that is not offered by the military -- including abortions -- was used 12 times from June through December, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.
Paying for transportation, lodging and meals for those 12 round trips from a service member's home station to the location of their health care cost the department $44,791, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said during a public briefing to reporters. It was unclear how many of those trips involved abortion services, the area of the policy that has generated the most controversy.
Still, the numbers indicate that the travel policy, which was created in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and was the impetus for an Alabama Republican senator blocking hundreds of military promotions[1] last year, has had minimal effect on a force of more than 2 million troops and a budget of more than $800 billion.
Read Next: Coast Guard Boats, Aircraft Search for Victims of Massive Bridge Collapse in Baltimore[2]
"These policies ensure that service members and their families are afforded the time and flexibility to make private health care decisions, as well as supporting access to non-covered reproductive health care regardless of where they are stationed," Singh said.
She noted that the newly released data had several limitations, including that the department did not start tracking usage until months after the policy was implemented.
The Pentagon first announced in October 2022 that it would soon start providing travel allowances and offer administrative leave for service members who need reproductive health care that is not covered by the military and not offered by civilian doctors in the state they are based in.
The announcement came months after the Supreme Court issued the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization in June 2022 that allowed states to start banning abortion. In February 2023, the Pentagon filled in more details about the policy and said it would take effect the following month.
While most attention on the policy has been related to abortion, it is also intended for service members who need to travel for fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization, which has also recently come under threat by court rulings[3].
Days after the Pentagon's February 2023 announcement, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., announced he would block quick confirmations for all nominees to be general and flag officers until the Pentagon reversed the policy.
Tuberville's blockade lasted until December and eventually entangled more than 430 general and admiral nominees. As his Republican colleagues grew increasingly publicly frustrated that his actions were endangering national security, Tuberville dropped his hold in December with no concessions[4] from the Pentagon and the reproductive health care policy still in place.
Among Tuberville's at-times shifting reasons for his protest were claims that the Pentagon policy could facilitate thousands of abortions a year. His claim was based on an estimate from a 2022 Rand Corp. report that between 2,573 and 4,136 active-duty service women have abortions annually. But the authors of the report had said it was likely fewer women[5] would take advantage of the Pentagon policy.
Democrats, meanwhile, argued that Tuberville was risking the military chain of command over a policy that would have negligible effect compared to the overall size of the force and Pentagon budget.
Some of Tuberville's GOP supporters also pointed to the small number of troops expected to use the policy -- to argue the Pentagon was digging in its heels over a policy they contended there was little evidence was needed.
"My Republican colleagues and I asked you for evidence to support the Department of Defense's claim in a June 28, 2022, memorandum that the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization would have 'significant implications' for the 'readiness of the Force.' To date, we have yet to receive any substantive data to support these assertions," Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote in a September letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Wicker's letter also said he had "received information" that "approximately 12" women had used the travel and leave policy.
The data released by the Pentagon on Tuesday tracks how many round trips were taken, not how many service members used the policy. Some treatments such as IVF could require multiple trips to the doctor, and service members are allowed to use the policy more than once, meaning potentially fewer than 12 service members used the policy between June and December.
The Pentagon has also not tracked[6] what type of reproductive health care service members were traveling for, meaning it's impossible to know whether anyone received an abortion.
And while travel and leave were available as early as March 2023, the Pentagon did not start tracking the policy's usage[7] until August, Military.com reported. While the Pentagon was able to collect data from as early as June, that still leaves usage in March, April and May unaccounted for.
Singh described the numbers released Tuesday as a "snapshot."
Also still unknown is whether any service members took leave without applying for travel reimbursement. The Pentagon did not release data Tuesday on the number of administrative absences taken under the policy.
Related: Six Months After New Abortion Leave Policy, Pentagon Doesn't Know How Many Troops Have Used It[8]
© Copyright 2024 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here[9].
WASHINGTON — U.S. defense leaders met with Israel's minister of defense on Tuesday as the United States warns against a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but rising tensions between the two allies put any progress in question.
In remarks at the start of the Pentagon meeting, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said they would discuss alternative ways to target Hamas in Rafah, and he described civilian casualties in Gaza as “far too high” and aid deliveries as “far too low.” But he also repeated the belief that Israel has the right to defend itself and the U.S. would always be there to help.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, emphasized the ongoing threats to Israel, and said the meeting would address ways to destroy Hamas and get the Israeli hostages released, as well as plans to return displaced residents to their homes.
Austin made no mention of threats to limit or condition future military aid to Israel on humanitarian gains, a growing sentiment among members of Congress and others. And Gallant only said that the meeting would include discussions about the important cooperation between the two countries to “ensure Israel's military edge and capabilities.”
The meeting, which also included Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, comes as tensions have spiked between the U.S. and Israel, stemming from the widespread global frustration over the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza and political discord surrounding efforts to achieve a cease-fire.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu abruptly canceled a high-level visit to Washington this week in protest over the U.N. Security Council decision[1] to call for an immediate cease-fire. The U.S. abstained, deciding not to use its veto power, and the resolution passed 14-0.
Israel says it cannot defeat Hamas without going into Rafah[2], where it says the group has four battalions composed of thousands of fighters. But U.S. officials are pressing Israel to forego a ground invasion and consider other ways to defeat Hamas.
“There are ways to go about addressing the threat of Hamas, while also taking into account civilian safety. A lot of those are from lessons, our own lessons, conducting operations in urban environments,” Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, Pentagon press secretary, said on Monday. “I would expect the conversations to cover those kinds of things.”
Israel’s offensive has killed over 32,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and driven a third of Gaza’s population to the brink of starvation. It was launched in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed some 1,200 people.
Hamas-led militants also took around 250 people hostage. They are still holding around 100 hostages, and the remains of around 30 others, after most of the rest were freed during a cease-fire last year in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners.
The Security Council resolution calls for a cease-fire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan[3]. Netanyahu accused the U.S. of “retreating” from a “principled position” by allowing the vote to pass without conditioning the cease-fire on the release of hostages.
The dispute signals an erosion in the U.S.-Israel relationship that has been under a microscope for months as the military assault on Hamas continues, escalating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. was disappointed in the decision to cancel the delegation's visit this week. He said the talks with Gallant would likely include some of what the U.S. had planned to discuss with the Israeli delegation on the possible Rafah invasion.
Gallant met Monday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Kirby said those meetings, however, had not been intended as a replacement for the delegation meetings.
Associated Press broadcast reporter Sagar Meghani contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2024 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
...
...
...
Read more https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/16/ronna-mcdaniel-republican-national-committee-00127506
...
Read more https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/leonard-leo-firm-conservative-nonprofit-00127488
...
Lake and Robson met in Phoenix in lateRead more https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/15/kari-lake-mccain-republicans-00127464
LOS ANGELES -- Alabama coach Nate Oats had been firm with his team. During the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Crimson Tide had beaten teams -- Charleston and Grand Canyon -- that they were supposed to beat. As far as Oats was concerned,
BOSTON -- The Illinois men's basketball team is so experienced that many of its players wouldn't get carded at a local dive bar. They are physical enough that their frontline looks like they could be auditioning for linebacker spots at the NFL combine.
What an MLB Opening Day!
All 30 teams were scheduled to be in action Thursday before rain postponed the scheduled Milwaukee Brewers-New York Mets and Atlanta Braves-Philadelphia Phillies openers to Friday.
The Los Angeles Angels and Orioles got things
Thousands of earthquakes in recent weeks have shaken the Icelandic fishing town of Grindavík, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of the capital Reykjavik. They have triggered evacuations and warnings that a volcanic eruption may be imminent.
While the idea of magma rising was no doubt scary for tourists visiting the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, which was closed as a precaution, Iceland’s residents have learned over centuries to live with their island’s overactive geology.
So, why is Iceland so volcanically active?
As renewable energy production expands across the U.S., the environmental impacts of these new sources are receiving increased attention. In a recent report, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine examined whether and how constructing offshore wind farms in the Nantucket Shoals region, southeast of Massachusetts, could affect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The Conversation asked marine scientists Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod, Douglas Nowacek, Eileen E. Hofmann and Josh Kohut, all of whom served on the study committee, to explain the report’s key findings.
PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that have been raising health concerns across the country, are not just a problem in drinking water. As these chemicals leach out of failing septic systems and landfills and wash off airport runways and farm fields, they can end up in streams that ultimately discharge into ocean ecosystems where fish, dolphins, manatees, sharks and other marine species live.
We study the risks from these persistent pollutants in coastal environments as environmental analytical chemists at Florida International University’s Institute of the Environment.
The primitive hate on display in the streets around the globe cries out for a Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.
It is time to end the Jewish Problem once and for all.
Both the problem and solution are simple, and this instruction can be short.
The decision and responsibility for it are yours.
First one bank announced it will only accept digital currency.
Now the Reserve Bank of Australia has announced it is heading into digital currency.
As the moth is to the flame, so are the follies of man.
Artificial intelligence and the next level of quantum computing will render passwords and encryption efforts obsolete.
The point of having a nation of laws is twofold: (a) you know how to prosper, and (b) you know how to stay out of jail.
The persecution of President Trump has revealed a new threat of charlatan prosecutors and agency administrators cobbling together disparate statutes which the media kindly calls “innovative”, “artful” or “novel” interpretations or constructions.
But these recombinations are actually new laws because they are the nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and contexts in criminal statutes, strung together in new combinations to create newly criminalized conduct after a citizen has engaged in some conduct.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, Hurricane Otis made landfall near Acapulco, on Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, at 1:25 a.m. CDT as a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 165 mph. The storm had rapidly intensified off the coast, and according to the National Hurricane Center, Otis was the strongest hurricane in the Eastern Pacific to make landfall in the satellite era.
Mitch began as a tropical storm over the southwestern Caribbean Sea on October 22, 1998, and strengthened to a hurricane by the 24th. Mitch then rapidly strengthened, becoming a monster Category 5 hurricane with a central pressure of 905 mb on the 26th. To this day, Mitch still ranks as the second-strongest October hurricane on record and remains tied for the eighth-most intense of any Atlantic hurricane on record.
Mitch made landfall in Honduras as a much weaker Category 1 hurricane, but it battered the offshore islands with high winds, waves and storm surge. The greatest impact, however, was from the widespread heavy rain and severe flooding in Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador that left thousands dead or missing and caused tremendous property, infrastructure and crop damage in Central America.
Scorching temperatures have put millions of Americans in danger this summer, with heat extremes stretching from coast to coast in the Southern U.S.