January 2024 – Page 7 – The Tarbabys Blog

Russia’s elite paratroopers and marines are refusing orders to launch ‘human wave attacks,’ Ukraine official says

Business Insider

Russia’s elite paratroopers and marines are refusing orders to launch ‘human wave attacks,’ Ukraine official says

Nathan Rennolds – January 20, 2024

Elite Russian troops are refusing to launch “human-wave attacks,” a Ukrainian official said.
Nataliya Humenyuk said marines and paratroopers are concerned over huge losses in the assaults.
She said former prisoners and poorly trained reservists typically carry out costly frontal assaults.

Russian marines and paratroopers are refusing to launch certain types of assaults due to concerns over the huge losses other troops are suffering, a Ukrainian official said, the Kyiv Post reported.

Nataliya Humenyuk, a press secretary for the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s Joint Command South, said that the soldiers considered “themselves ‘elite troops'” and did not “want to go into frontal assaults” that former felons and reservists typically carry out, the outlet reported.

Throughout the Russian invasion, Russia has become increasingly reliant on high-risk frontal assaults involving waves of attacks that probe Ukrainian positions and seize small portions of territory at the cost of substantial casualties.

The leader of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died in a plane crash last August after leading a failed mutiny in June, described the tactic as a “meat grinder.”

Humenyuk cited Russian attacks on Krynky in the Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine, saying that Russian troops assaulting Ukrainian marine positions there were being hit with losses of more than 50%.

“At present in our sector the number of units of the type ‘Shtorm-Z’ [low-grade Russian units made of up older reservists and former felons, often committed to carry out human wave attacks] is falling and we are seeing more naval infantry and paratroopers,” Humenyuk said.

“But they consider themselves ‘elite troops,’ and they don’t want to go into frontal assaults like that,” she added.

One of Russia’s newly formed paratrooper units, the 104th Guards Airborne Division, appeared to be hit particularly hard in its combat debut in the Kherson region late last year, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an update on the conflict in December.

It said the unit “highly likely suffered exceptionally heavy losses and failed to achieve its objectives during its combat debut in Kherson Oblast,” aimed at dislodging Ukrainian positions near Krynky.

Krynky has been the scene of heavy fighting over the past few months as Ukrainian forces have attempted to recapture ground across the Dnipro River.

A group of Ukrainian marines sail from the riverbank of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. — A group of Ukrainian marines sail from the riverbank of Dnipro at the frontline near Kherson, Ukraine, in 2023.AP Photo/Alex Babenko

Conditions in the region have made fighting difficult for both sides, with marshes, water-filled bomb craters, and mud making it almost impossible for troops to dig in, The New York Times reported.

Despite Ukrainian officials’ claims that the country’s marines had gained ground on the eastern side of the river, soldiers and marines told The Times that this was an exaggeration.

“There are no positions. There is no such thing as an observation post or position,” Oleksiy, a soldier who fought in Krynky and only gave his first name, said. “It is impossible to gain a foothold there. It’s impossible to move equipment there.”

“It’s not even a fight for survival,” he added. “It’s a suicide mission.”

But its success in the skies above the Dnipro bolstered Ukraine’s difficult position on the ground.

Russia appears to be struggling to defend against Ukraine’s drone attacks because of a shortage of electronic-warfare capability in the area, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.

Ukraine’s forces have been using first-person-view drones to strike Russian vehicles, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update.

The ministry said that a Russian military blogger estimated that 90% of Russian military equipment deployed around Krynky has been destroyed.

The 1 Thing Sleep Doctors Never, Ever Do In The Morning

HuffPost

The 1 Thing Sleep Doctors Never, Ever Do In The Morning

Leigh Weingus – January 19, 2024

You’ve likely heard that a good night of sleep starts in the morning, and sleep experts agree with this statement wholeheartedly. This is because of our circadian rhythm, or our body’s natural sleep-wake cycle, which is a 24-hour process.

“The circadian rhythm, your internal biological clock, operates on a roughly 24-hour cycle and dictates when you feel awake or sleepy, largely influenced by light exposure,” explained Dr. Chester Wu, a double-board certified psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist. “Health behaviors in the morning reinforce a strong circadian rhythm, promoting wakefulness during the day and sleepiness at night.”

Conversely, according to Wu, irregular sleep patterns, excessive evening light exposure and sedentary lifestyles can disrupt this rhythm and sleep pressure balance, leading to sleep issues.

Considering they’ve dedicated their careers to helping people sleep better, it’s safe to say the morning routines of sleep doctors are ones we want to emulate. So, what do sleep experts avoid doing in the morning to ensure they get a good night’s sleep?

They never lie in bed after their alarms go off.

In what may be the most unrelatable (but definitely smart) action ever, sleep doctors don’t lie in bed, scrolling on their phones for 15 minutes before dragging themselves out of bed. “I try not to linger in bed because I definitely feel like that causes me to feel more lazy or groggy,” Wu said.

Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist and sleep expert, also doesn’t do this. “I never stay in bed and do activities that aren’t related to sleep and intimacy. This means when I wake up, I get out of bed immediately and go somewhere else in my house,” she said. “This helps to maintain my brain’s association that the bedroom is only a place of rest, which promotes high-quality sleep.”

“I never remain in my dark bedroom,” added Dr. Chris Winter, a neurologist and sleep health expert. “It is essential to get into the light. Light effectively shuts off your brain’s production of melatonin and lets your body know the day has begun.”

While not lying in bed was the most popular tip among the sleep experts we consulted, Carleara Weiss, a sleep specialist and research assistant professor at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, gave a slightly different answer: For her, in addition to getting up as soon as she wakes up, she makes sure not to sleep in.

“The reasoning for that relates to the circadian rhythms,” Weiss said. “Regular wake-up times help the biological clock regulate physiological functions, not just sleep. Sleeping in on the weekends leads to social jet lag and causes difficulty concentrating, fatigue, irritability, and headaches.”

Dr. Raj Dasgupta ― a physician who is a quadruple board-certified physician in internal medicine, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine ― is also wary of sleeping in.

“While occasionally sleeping in is unlikely to have a lasting impact on your overall sleep quality, it may affect your ability to fall asleep later in the evening,” he said. “Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, where you wake up and go to bed at the same time every day, is really important for ensuring you have a good night of quality sleep.”

Staying in bed after your alarm goes off can be doing more harm than good.

What do sleep doctors do in the morning instead?

We know what they don’t do in the mornings. So, what do sleep doctors do? One thing that came up consistently was ensuring they were exposed to light early in the morning.

“One of the first things I do in the morning, usually within 30 minutes of waking, is exposing myself to natural sunlight by going outside or sitting by a window,” Rohrscheib said. “Light during the day is very important for keeping our circadian rhythm well-regulated. Studies have shown that a lack of sunlight exposure can reduce the quality of your sleep, contribute to insomnia, and negatively impact mood.”

Dasgupta also makes sure to get sun exposure first thing in the morning. “Getting sunlight exposure first thing in the morning upon waking up can increase alertness and energy during the day, leading to improved sleep at night,” he said.

Another big tip that came up? Exercise. “Getting active quickly is a fantastic way to signal to your brain that the day has begun,” Winter said. “The exercise does not have to be particularly intense. I start my day off by walking my dogs every day or walking with my wife to work.”

Interestingly, another thing Winter always makes sure to do is make his bed. “It’s not only symbolically powerful, but it’s also a great deterrent for individuals who might want to slip back into bed during the day and feel the napping might adversely affect their sleep the upcoming night,” he said.

As far as we’re concerned, the fact that sleep doctors don’t say anything about giving up coffee is a big win. As long as we can have our coffee, we don’t mind dragging ourselves out of bed before checking emails and scrolling through Instagram.

Related…

At 93, he’s as fit as a 40-year-old. His body offers lessons on aging.

The Washington Post

At 93, he’s as fit as a 40-year-old. His body offers lessons on aging.

Gretchen Reynolds – January 19, 2024

Richard Morgan competes in an indoor rowing competition in 2018. (Row2k.com)

For lessons on how to age well, we could do worse than turn to Richard Morgan.

At 93, the Irishman is a four-time world champion in indoor rowing, with the aerobic engine of a healthy 30- or 40-year-old and the body-fat percentage of a whippet. He’s also the subject of a new case study, published last month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, that looked at his training, diet and physiology.

Its results suggest that, in many ways, he’s an exemplar of fit, healthy aging – a nonagenarian with the heart, muscles and lungs of someone less than half his age. But in other ways, he’s ordinary: a onetime baker and battery maker with creaky knees who didn’t take up regular exercise until he was in his 70s and who still trains mostly in his backyard shed.

Even though his fitness routine began later in life, he has now rowed the equivalent of almost 10 times around the globe and has won four world championships. So what, the researchers wondered, did his late-life exercise do for his aging body?

Lessons on aging from active older people

“We need to look at very active older people if we want to understand aging,” said Bas Van Hooren, a doctoral researcher at Maastricht University in the Netherlands and one of the study’s authors.

Many questions remain unanswered about the biology of aging, and whether the physical slowing and declines in muscle mass that typically occur as we grow older are normal and inevitable or perhaps due, at least in part, to a lack of exercise.

If some people stay strong and fit deep into their golden years, the implication is that many of the rest of us might be able to as well, he said.

Helpfully, his colleague Lorcan Daly, an assistant lecturer in exercise science at the Technological University of the Shannon in Ireland, was quite familiar with an example of successful aging. His grandfather is Morgan, the 2022 indoor-rowing world champion in the lightweight, 90-to-94 age group.

What made Morgan especially interesting to the researchers was that he hadn’t begun sports or exercise training until he was 73. Retired and somewhat at loose ends then, he’d attended a rowing practice with one of his other grandsons, a competitive collegiate rower. The coach invited him to use one of the machines.

“He never looked back,” Daly said.

Highest heart rate on record

They invited Morgan, who was 92 at the time, to the physiology lab at the University of Limerick in Ireland to learn more, measuring his height, weight and body composition and gathering details about his diet. They also checked his metabolism and heart and lung function.

They then asked him to get on a rowing machine and race a simulated 2,000-meter time trial while they monitored his heart, lungs and muscles.

“It was one of the most inspiring days I’ve ever spent in the lab,” said Philip Jakeman, a professor of healthy aging, physical performance and nutrition at the University of Limerick and the study’s senior author.

Morgan proved to be a nonagenarian powerhouse, his sinewy 165 pounds composed of about 80 percent muscle and barely 15 percent fat, a body composition that would be considered healthy for a man decades younger.

During the time trial, his heart rate peaked at 153 beats per minute, well above the expected maximum heart rate for his age and among the highest peaks ever recorded for someone in their 90s, the researchers believe, signaling a very strong heart.

His heart rate also headed toward this peak very quickly, meaning his heart was able to rapidly supply his working muscles with oxygen and fuel. These “oxygen uptake kinetics,” a key indicator of cardiovascular health, proved comparable to those of a typical, healthy 30- or 40-year-old, Daly said.

Exercising 40 minutes a day

Perhaps most impressive, he developed this fitness with a simple, relatively abbreviated exercise routine, the researchers noted.

Consistency: Every week, he rows about 30 kilometers (about 18.5 miles), averaging around 40 minutes a day.

A mix of easy, moderate and intense training: About 70 percent of these workouts are easy, with Morgan hardly laboring. Another 20 percent are at a difficult but tolerable pace, and the final 10 at an all-out, barely sustainable intensity.

Weight training: Two or three times a week, he also weight-trains, using adjustable dumbbells to complete about three sets of lunges and curls, repeating each move until his muscles are too tired to continue.

A high-protein diet: He eats plenty of protein, his daily consumption regularly exceeding the usual dietary recommendation of about 60 grams of protein for someone of his weight.

How exercise changes how we age

“This is an interesting case study that sheds light on our understanding of exercise adaptation across the life span,” said Scott Trappe, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University in Indiana. He has studied many older athletes but was not involved in the new study.

“We are still learning about starting a late-life exercise program,” he added, “but the evidence is pretty clear that the human body maintains the ability to adapt to exercise at any age.”

In fact, Morgan’s fitness and physical power at 93 suggest that “we don’t have to lose” large amounts of muscle and aerobic capacity as we grow older, Jakeman said. Exercise could help us build and maintain a strong, capable body, whatever our age, he said.

Of course, Morgan probably had some genetic advantages, the scientists point out. Rowing prowess seems to run in the family.

And his race performances in recent years have been slower than they were 15, 10 or even five years ago. Exercise won’t erase the effects of aging. But it may slow our bodies’ losses, Morgan’s example seems to tell us. It may flatten the decline.

It also offers other, less-corporeal rewards. “There is a certain pleasure in achieving a world championship,” Morgan told me through his grandson, with almost comic self-effacement.

“I started from nowhere,” he said, “and I suddenly realized there was a lot of pleasure in doing this.”

Send Channel migrant boats to Ukraine to help war effort, Government urged

The Telegraph

Send Channel migrant boats to Ukraine to help war effort, Government urged

Danielle Sheridan – January 19, 2024

Boats used by migrants to cross the Channel to the UK should be sent to Ukraine to help the war effort, a volunteer organisation has told the Government.

Since October, British and Ukrainian volunteers have delivered 15 inflatable dinghies and rigid inflatable boats to soldiers fighting along the Dnipro River.

The small boats, which were in relatively poor condition, were driven from the UK to the south of Ukraine, where they were refurbished. This included the installation of new engines and painting the vessels khaki.

They have provided a lifeline to the Ukrainian soldiers holding three established bridgeheads on the occupied eastern side of the river, by carrying vital supplies and evacuating wounded soldiers.

When MissionUkraine, the organisation leading the small boats initiative, initially appealed to the Government for boats used by migrants to cross the Channel to be sent to Ukraine, it was informed by Border Force that this would not be possible.

Officials said: “The majority of boats are not fit for re-sale or to ever go to sea again, because they arrive in very poor condition. These boats also deteriorate and perish over the period, and are therefore often destined for recycling.

“The boat engines might also be sold at auction, but again, over time, they are no longer operational, or require additional funds to bring their condition back to normal.”

A small boat that was taken from the UK to Ukraine, repaired and then delivered to the front line – Alex Kruglyak/MissionUkraine UK

A government spokesman told The Telegraph that while it was “committed to supporting Ukraine” it “cannot donate unsafe and dangerous small boats which will put more lives at risk”.

However, Alex Kruglyak, one of the leaders of MissionUkraine, said poor quality boats were still useful to troops because marine engineers in Ukraine were able to refurbish them to a decent operating standard, meaning they were seaworthy again.

“All of the boats we deliver go through a boat maintenance procedure which is done by marine experts and all the engines go through an engine testing and maintenance procedure done by guys with decades of experience,” he told The Telegraph. “We will pay for all transport and maintenance costs – we are not asking for a penny.”

In June last year, the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was breached, causing widespread flooding that stopped Ukrainian troops advancing via the Dnipro River.

By October, troops had started to cross the Dnipro, but were using rowing boats in order not to attract attention from the Russians.

There are now three established bridgeheads on the occupied eastern side of the river, with the Ukrainian troops at those secured areas dependent on small boats.https://www.youtube.com/embed/viYOh8tkwJY?enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&origin=http://www.telegraph.co.uk&rel=0

To date, MissionUkraine has delivered second hand boats to Kharkiv, Zaporizha, and Dnipro, which have then been transported to soldiers on the frontlines.

Mr Kruglyak, 35, originally from Odesa but living in London, added that it “made sense” for the Government to donate the boats confiscated from migrants, which are currently in a pound in Dover.

His calls were echoed by Paul Watson, 69, from Bridgend, Wales, who has driven to Ukraine’s front line numerous times with his friend Martin Blackwell, 70, to deliver both 4x4s and small boats.

Mr Watson said that the rigid inflatable boats they had transported so far were purchased from private owners for prices ranging between £1,500 and £4,000, with money raised through their local church.

Some of them were “in a very bad state when we first took them out,” he said, adding: “In any time of crisis, people can be very versatile and alter things to become usable. If one boat saved one life it was worth it.”

The US is struggling to handle an immigration surge – here’s how Europe is dealing with its own influx

The Conversation

The US is struggling to handle an immigration surge – here’s how Europe is dealing with its own influx

Tara Sonenshine, Tufts University – January 19, 2024

Workers from the Spanish nonprofit Open Waters rescue 178 migrants from different countries, off the coast of Italy in September 2023. <a href= — Workers from the Spanish nonprofit Open Waters rescue 178 migrants from different countries, off the coast of Italy in September 2023. Jose Colon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

As record-high numbers of undocumented migrants cross the United States-Mexico border illegally, one key question is how the U.S. got into this situation, and what lessons can be learned from how other countries respond to border security and immigration problems.

Having worked both inside the U.S. government and in the private sector, I have observed the growing importance of welcoming foreign citizens to one’s country for improving economic growth, scientific advancement, labor supply and cultural awareness.

But migrants entering and staying in the U.S. without visas or proper documentation can create problems – for the migrants themselves, and for overtaxed governments that lack the ability to quickly process asylum cases in immigration courts, for example, or to provide temporary shelter and other basic services for large numbers of arriving migrants. These strains are happening now in many places in the U.S.

Immigrants arrive at Ellis Island in 1923, one year before Congress reformed immigration laws in the U.S., making it harder to enter the country. <a href= — Immigrants arrive at Ellis Island in 1923, one year before Congress reformed immigration laws in the U.S., making it harder to enter the country. Underwood & Underwood/Underwood Archives/Getty Images

U.S. immigration trends

In 1924, after decades of the U.S. welcoming foreign-born citizens to its shores, Congress passed the Immigration Act, restricting the numbers and types of people who could legally enter and stay in the U.S.

That legislation ushered in even more xenophobia and division in the U.S. over the ethnic origins of immigrants – cutting off large-scale immigration, especially from Europe and Asia, until jobs needed to be filled – and there weren’t enough people in the U.S. to fill them.

In the 1960s, immigration laws were reformed again, ushering in waves of immigration from Asia because the U.S. needed people to work at unfilled jobs.

Today, once again, some U.S. politicians are pushing for new ways to restrict immigration. Much of their work focuses on making it harder for migrants to get asylum – meaning legal permission to remain in the U.S. if they have a legitimate fear of persecution in their home countries.

Overall, U.S. border officials encountered more than 1.1 million people illegally crossing the U.S. border from April 2022 through March 2023 – a sharp rise from previous years, when the number of people illegally crossing each year hovered at less than 300,000.

U.S. authorities are now stepping up deportations, quickly sending more undocumented people back to their home countries.

A shifting response to immigration

Globally, international migration to rich countries reached an all-time high in 2022.

So, how do other countries, including Canada and Germany, respond to migrants crossing their borders without a visa or proper documentation?

One answer has been to reform their immigration systems to make deportation easier.

Germany, for example, has been wrestling with increases in undocumented immigration.

Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced at the end of 2023 that he supports large-scale deportations for migrants who are rejected for asylum.

Germany deported close to 8,000 people, many of them fleeing the war in Ukraine, in the first part of 2023. In total, an estimated 92,119 immigrants entered Germany illegally from January through September 2023.

New German government reforms will increase that figure and no longer require officials to announce deportations in advance.

Italy, which is also battling a huge influx of undocumented migrants from North Africa, recently doubled the amount of time that it can detain undocumented migrants, rising from three months to at least six months. This decision is seen as an effort to deter more migrants from illegally entering Italy.

In November 2023, Italy signed an agreement to build two new immigration detention centers across the Adriatic Sea in Albania.

This allows Italy to skirt a European Union policy that requires its member countries to consider and process all asylum applicants’ requests within a year of their arrival. Since Albania is not part of the European Union, it could quickly deport the migrants that Italy sends there.

In December 2023, the European Union’s 27 countries also voted on a major overhaul of asylum laws. These changes will make it easier for countries to deport migrants who fail to get asylum. They also direct the European Union to give money to countries that allow more asylum seekers to stay in those countries.

Other approaches

Right now, Italy and Greece bear much of the brunt of migration in the EU.

More than 31,000 undocumented migrants, mainly from Syria, crossed into Greece in 2023, up from 18,000 undocumented people who entered the country in 2022.

The parliament in Greece is considering new laws that would enable the country to issue tens of thousands of undocumented migrants residence and work permits to address labor shortages.

Greece is also pushing the European Union to slap economic sanctions on countries, like Pakistan, that refuse to take back the undocumented migrants that Greece deports to their home countries.

Closer to home, Canada is also experiencing a surge of undocumented migration into Quebec and other places, prompting some Canadians to feel growing anxiety, in part because of perceptions that the sudden population growth is also raising the country’s already-high housing costs. Canada deported 7,232 undocumented people in the first six months of 2023 – a rise compared to the 7,635 deportations Canada carried out in the entire year of 2021.

Canada also announced in December 2023 that it is planning to allow people who entered the country with valid, short-term visas, and who continue living in Canada after these visas expire, to apply for permanent residency. This would mainly affect foreign students and temporary workers.

A Canadian officer speaks to migrants as they arrive in Quebec in March 2023. <a href= — A Canadian officer speaks to migrants as they arrive in Quebec in March 2023. Sebastien St-Jean/AFP via Getty Images

An uncertain way ahead

Back in the U.S., the fight over immigration continues, with Republicans eager to crack down and Democrats who generally want to avoid harsh new standards that could lead to more deportations and mass roundups of undocumented immigrants.

Traditionally, Democrats have been supportive of immigration and the rights of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

But the wave of migrants who arrive in cities like New York and Chicago without any money, jobs or places to live is severely straining city governments’ capacity and budgets. Local leaders like New York Mayor Eric Adams are pleading with the federal government to help with a crisis that, as Adams said in September 2023, has no clear end in sight.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.

It was written by: Tara Sonenshine, Tufts University.

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Tara Sonenshine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Trump Brags He ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test, Correctly Identified a Whale

Rolling Stone

Trump Brags He ‘Aced’ Cognitive Test, Correctly Identified a Whale

Charisma Madarang – January 17, 2024

Donald Trump, who has a penchant for crowing about hoarding classified documents and the crowd size on Jan. 6, 2021, boasted about acing a basic cognitive test in his continued efforts to prove his self-proclaimed title of an “extremely stable genius.”

During a campaign stop in New Hampshire Wednesday night, the former president touted his ability to correctly identify animals of different shapes. “I took it, and I aced it,” he told the crowd of supporters. “I think it was 35… 30 questions. And let me tell you, you know, they always show you the first one: a giraffe, a tiger or a whale. ‘Which one is the whale?’”

Trump then proceeded to weaponize his very average performance against President Joe Biden, saying he was sure Biden wouldn’t get far on the test — a tactic Trump has leaned into since bragging about the results of his annual physical while still in office. Spawning countless memes, the former president touted back in 2020 how well he had done on a 10-minute assessment designed to detect mild cognitive impairment (such as early-onset dementia) during an interview with Fox News.

“The first questions are very easy, the last questions are much more difficult. Like a memory question,” Trump preened in the interview. “It’s like, you’ll go, ‘Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’ So they’d say, ‘Could you repeat that.’ So I said, ‘Yeah. So it’s person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.’”

As Trump supporters stood in the cold waiting for the ex-president to take the stage on Wednesday, the scene echoed his visit to the state just a day before in southern New Hampshire where fans waited in the snow for the presumptive Republican nominee. When speaking Tuesday at the Atkinson Resort & Country Club, Trump lamente d that he had to leave the White House after losing the 2020 election and said it “was ridiculous that we had to leave, but we had to leave, we have to follow the laws of our land.”

He quickly doubled down on his 2020 election lies: “They don’t investigate the people that cheated in the election. They investigate the people that understand they cheated and go after them. But they don’t investigate the people who cheated like hell. We have to have fair and free elections.”

Trump, who has achieved the feat of being the only (four-time) indicted former or current president, was charged for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which his own officials at the time claimed was the most secure in U.S. history. As the former president prepared for legal proceedings in ongoing cases against him, Trump swooped a historic win in Iowa on Monday with 51 percent of the caucus vote, defeating former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by dozens of percentage points.

More from Rolling Stone

I Was Diagnosed With Colon Cancer at 32. Here Are the First Symptoms I Had

Self

I Was Diagnosed With Colon Cancer at 32. Here Are the First Symptoms I Had

Julia Ries – January 18, 2024

Raquel A./powerofforever/Getty Images

Raquel A., 33, never guessed she had cancer, even though she had symptoms that worried her. A few years ago, her bowel movements became increasingly frequent and abnormal, which she figured was due to undiagnosed irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or a food intolerance. She didn’t have health insurance, so she put off going to the doctor and tried to ease her discomfort with fiber supplements and dietary changes. After getting a job that offered medical coverage, she saw a primary care physician, who told her she likely just had anxiety. Her symptoms worsened, and in 2023, she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer. Raquel has been sharing her experience with the condition—as well as what she wants others to know about seeking help as early as possible—on TikTok. Here’s her story, as told to health writer Julia Ries.

I first started having noticeable gastrointestinal issues in 2019, right before the pandemic. I was living with a roommate, and one day we started talking about how I was going to the bathroom all the time. I could go number two 8 to 10 times a day and never feel like I had a complete bowel movement. I told my roommate I suspected I wasn’t getting enough fiber, or perhaps I simply wasn’t eating “healthy enough.” Maybe I had irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), or a gluten or dairy sensitivity. It never occurred to me that I might have cancer.

I didn’t have health insurance. As a result, going to the doctor—unless I had an absolute emergency—wasn’t something I did in my 20s. Instead of checking in with a primary care doctor, I started intermittently taking Metamucil, a fiber supplement, to help regulate my bowel movements and treat random bouts of diarrhea. This helped, at least for a little while.

In 2021, I moved to the greater Seattle area, where I landed a job in the tech industry and, with it, good health insurance. My symptoms remained quiet until they came back in 2022. I was going to the bathroom a lot again, and my bowel movements became uncomfortable. My stools were pencil-thin, sometimes orangish-red in color, and occasionally there’d be a little blood. I got abnormally full after eating. I was bloated, no matter what I ate—I tried being dairy-free, then gluten-free. Looking back, these were major warning signs that something was wrong, and I wouldn’t find out until later that they were classic signs of colorectal cancer.

I scheduled a physical—my first in over a decade—in May of 2023. I told my doctor about the digestive issues I’d been experiencing since 2019: the frequent—and sometimes painful—bowel movements, the bloody stools, the early satiety. I shared that it felt like my symptoms were getting worse, and she said I likely had anxiety—and maybe gas—and scheduled a psychiatric appointment for me.

I believed her. I thought, “Maybe she’s right: I’m worrying too much about these symptoms and should just let it go.” In retrospect, she was incredibly dismissive, which I think was a result of my being so young at the time—I was 32, a woman, and a minority. Statistically speaking, people who fall into any of those categories, let alone all three of them, tend to have their health issues dismissed by doctors.

Three weeks after that exam, I developed severe abdominal pain. It wasn’t just localized to my lower stomach or my side—the pain radiated throughout my entire abdomen and toward my lower back. It was unbearable. I nearly fainted in my apartment. I’m not somebody who’s quick to take medication or go to the doctor, but I knew something was wrong, so I went to the emergency room. Again, I doubted myself and thought that perhaps I was making a big deal out of nothing. Fortunately, my ER physician took my pain seriously—she ordered a CT scan, scheduled an abdominal ultrasound, and ran a full panel of blood work. When the results came in, she sat down and told me they found cancer on my ovaries and liver. I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

I met with an oncologist and had a liver biopsy. That’s when they discovered that the cancer, adenocarcinoma, had originated in my colon and metastasized, or spread, to other organs. I was diagnosed with stage four colorectal cancer. I had an endoscopy and a colonoscopy so the doctors could get a better look—my colorectal cancer was so large and so advanced that they had trouble getting the scope through my colon.

I learned that colorectal cancer is very slow-growing. I could have had cancer for 8 to 10 years, potentially all of my 20s, without knowing it. With colon cancer, you usually don’t start having noticeable (or even severe) symptoms until it’s progressed to stage three or four. Plus, the symptoms, like nausea, constipation, diarrhea, or difficulty going to the bathroom, can be due to so many other conditions—some serious, like ovarian cancer, but others more benign, such as IBS.

After my diagnosis, I started chemotherapy. The cancer had caused a buildup of fluids in my stomach, the source of the bloating, that I had to have drained. I met with a GI specialist who advised me to tweak my diet—for example, I had to limit how much meat I was eating, cut out raw fruits and vegetables, and stick to soft foods, like pudding and mashed potatoes—which immediately improved my bowel movements. I’ve done various blood tests that assess how my cancer is progressing—including a CEA (a marker for colorectal cancer), CA125 (a marker for ovarian cancer), and CA19 (another cancer marker) tests—and have undergone genetic testing to better understand how my genes may have contributed to the cancer.

I continue to get chemotherapy biweekly, though I’ve switched to another chemotherapy drug because I experienced unpleasant side effects with the first type, and the cancer on my liver and lungs wasn’t responding to that treatment. My doctors informed me that eventually the chemo will stop working because my condition is terminal. I don’t qualify for surgery, since my cancer has spread so deeply, but I’m continuing to look into surgical options along with new treatments and clinical trials I can participate in. My chances of reaching survival two years after the diagnosis was 20%. At five years, that drops to 5%, but I’m determined to beat the odds.

Throughout this entire experience, I’ve learned how to advocate for myself. After I received my diagnosis, doctors took my condition very seriously and quickly scheduled multiple procedures and appointments for me—but that wasn’t always the case. I’d been dismissed for years, and even after I started chemotherapy, I felt as though my doctor wasn’t listening to my concerns, so I found a new oncologist who has been very responsive and attentive. I’ve learned how important it is to get a second opinion—all you need is that one doctor who is going to listen and fight for you. You might not find that person right away, but keep pressing: Getting screened could be a matter of life or death.

If I hadn’t followed my intuition—if I skipped going to the ER that day in 2023, or stuck with doctors who said nothing was wrong—there’s a chance I wouldn’t be alive. It’s so easy to doubt yourself, especially if medical professionals are downplaying your symptoms, but if you feel like something is wrong, go with your gut. It’s usually right.

Related:

Should you use protein powder before or after a workout? Here’s what a sports nutritionist says

Fit & Well

Should you use protein powder before or after a workout? Here’s what a sports nutritionist says

Dan Cooper – January 18, 2024

Person placing scoop of protein powder into a blender.

Everybody agrees that you need protein to build muscle, but there’s still some debate on when you should consume it.

Sports nutritionist Roo Whelan says that the timing is actually less important than making sure you eat adequate amounts. Most studies also suggest that your muscle gains aren’t affected by when you eat your protein-filled snack.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t any benefits to filling up on protein before or after your gym session. We got Whelan to explain how it affects your body.

Benefits of protein before a workout

The main benefit of eating protein before a workout is that it could improve your performance. According to Whelan, downing a shake before you exercise can stabilize blood sugar and provide sustained energy levels.

Consuming protein before you exercise will also ensure that your body has easy access to the amino acids it needs to repair and grow your muscles.

This could minimize muscle breakdown, which happens during strenuous training sessions, and also encourage your muscles to repair themselves during your workout.

Benefits of protein after a workout

According to Whelan, your body is in a heightened state of nutrient absorption after exercise. This means that it’s especially receptive to any protein you consume, using it to immediately repair damaged muscle fibers.

If your protein shake also comes with a serving of sugar and carbs, your body can use this to replenish your diminished glycogen (energy) stores.

It’s not clear how long this heightened state lasts for, but you probably have a few hours before your body returns to normal.

The other benefit of eating your protein after you exercise is that it’s easier on your digestion. Who likes doing burpees on a full stomach?

So should you eat protein before or after a workout?

Studies suggest that there’s minimal difference between consuming protein before or after a workout when it comes to muscle gains. If you want to take advantage of all of the above benefits, you could try eating protein before and after you work out.

But unless you’re a competing athlete, it’s important not to get caught up in the weeds here. If you are trying to build or maintain muscle, the main thing is just getting enough protein regardless of when you consume it.

Looking to up your protein levels without drastically increasing your carb intake? Have a read through our guide to the best protein powders for weight loss

Pastor Mock: In 2024, democracy is on the ballot, choose the democracy candidate – Biden

Erie Times News – Opinion

Pastor Mock: In 2024, democracy is on the ballot, choose the democracy candidate – Biden

Charles Mock – January 17, 2024

According to The Washington Post, and I quote, “A Post-University of Maryland poll published this week shows a sizable share of Americans accept lies about the 2020 election and the insurrection that followed on Jan. 6, 2021. Only 62 percent say Joe Biden‘s victory was legitimate, down from 69 percent two years ago, and far lower than after the contested 2000 election. One-third of U.S. adults say they believe there’s ‘solid evidence’ of ‘widespread voter fraud’ in the 2020 election. Regarding Jan. 6 itself, 28 percent say former president Donald Trump bears no responsibility, 21 percent say the people who stormed the Capitol were ‘mostly peaceful’ and 25 percent say the FBI probably or definitely instigated the attack.”

With each presidential election, comes opportunities to vote for the person whose policies best represent the best values, principles, processes and practices of a constitutional democracy. If we are not careful as citizens, we will be voting for a person’s policies rather than voting for democracy.

Democracy is far more important than the policies that constitute it. It is not policies that sustain democracy. It is democracy that sustain policies.

If we do not like a president whose personal policies are pro-abortion, pro-same-sex marriage, pro-transgender, etc., we can always use our vote to vote him or her out of office because the power of democracy rests on the freedom to vote and freedom of choice.

It has become obvious there is no pure democracy. Democracy is always an experimental work in progress. Some decades require much more work than others. For example, we read of present egregious challenges such as growing disparities of wealth and autocratic tendencies within our democracy. These autocratic tendencies are driven by multinational corporations that continue placing democracy at risk.

Insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. The Department of Justice is prosecuting those who violently stormed the Capitol.

If we want to kill the democracy that makes autocratic, financially oppressive mega-corporations normalize greed, all we have to do is change our form of government from a democracy to pure dictatorship or a king-centered monarchy. In dictatorships the dictator determines the means of corporate capitalism. I pray we choose otherwise.

In a real sense, democracy is being voted for or against in 2024. We cannot afford to vote for candidates based on three or four particular policies we might find immoral. We must vote for candidates who will be governed by a constitution that upholds and sustains democracy as the chosen form of governance. For better or for worse, democracy is still the best form of governance. I have heard it said and believe it true that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the rest.

Without democracy there’s no genuine freedom to vote or freedom to choose.

Choose today which government you will serve. As for me and my house, I choose democracy. The Rev. Dr. Charles Mock is the interim pastor at Second Baptist Church in Erie.

These voters will pick the next president. They’re frightened about American democracy.

Politico

These voters will pick the next president. They’re frightened about American democracy.

Zach Montellaro – January 17, 2024

WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 12: Members of the U.S. National Guard arrive at the U.S. Capitol on January 12, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Pentagon is deploying as many as 15,000 National Guard troops to protect President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, amid fears of new violence. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

NAZARETH, Pennsylvania — Earlier this month, 15 voters in this closely contested area of Pennsylvania convened to discuss the state of American democracy.

To say they were discouraged as the 2024 election gets underway would be an understatement.

Three years after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, half of the voters in the focus group immediately started nodding when asked about the possibility of violence around the election.

Sitting around folding tables in an arts center just off of the small town’s Rockwell-esque Main Street, the voters painted a bleak picture over the next hour: A largely negative view on everything from trusting that their votes and their neighbors’ votes will be fairly counted, the speed it takes to get results and that those results will be accepted by the losers.

“I almost feel numb to it,” Jackie, a younger voter in the focus group, said of the violence on Jan. 6. “We’re going to have another election, could that happen again? I probably won’t even react the same, because I’m like ‘this is what happens.’ … Something’s probably going to happen.”

The focus group was brought together by Keep Our Republic, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that seeks to educate the public about strengthening the democratic system. It was convened in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, a swing county in one of the most important swing states in the nation.

The participants’ pessimism encapsulates one of the most pressing challenges in American politics right now — the loss of public trust in democracy itself and the electoral infrastructure that supports it. It is a problem that stretches far beyond just Nazareth; a Gallup poll released the day after the focus group found that a record low 28 percent of American adults are satisfied with the way democracy is working in this country.

Their distrust comes at a moment of intense polarization in America — and after former President Donald Trump has spread constant lies about the security of American elections in the three years since the Capitol riot.

“Everybody agreed on one thing: That there’s a very good chance there’s gonna be violence in the next election,” said former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), who sits on the state advisory board of Keep Our Republic. “There’s a heightened sense of, or concern about, civil disorder in the next election.”

The voters in the focus group are, in a literal sense, the mythological “Main Street” swing voters that politicians talk about in their stump speeches. Christopher Borick, a pollster and professor at nearby Muhlenberg College, selected them from his neighbors who lived on or near the town’s Main Street.

The group was overwhelmingly white, like both the town of Nazareth and Northampton County more broadly, but was otherwise emblematic of the voters who will decide 2024. They were all registered voters — and those who said how they voted in 2020 during the focus group seemed evenly divided between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Borick asked them to participate because he never saw a political sign pop up on their front lawns. POLITICO observed the focus group under the condition that voters would be identified by their first names only.

The focus group came just a day before Biden gave a speech near Valley Forge, about an hour’s drive away, on the state of the country’s democracy. There, the president cast the 2024 election as a referendum that will decide “whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause.”

But the focus group made clear that much of the distrust in the democratic system is rooted in the broader political polarization of the moment.

Borick often tried to steer the conversation away from the politics of the 2024 election to the mechanics of it, but participants consistently returned to their displeasure in another Biden-Trump rematch.

Almost to a person there was a wariness — and in some cases an outright distrust— of the democratic process in the county. Two voters, distinctly in the minority, repeated conspiracy theories popularized by Trump about mail ballots being used to steal the election from him. And roughly a third of participants said they believed unregistered people were casting ballots.

But more broadly, the participants were confused by the process, with complaints especially about the time it takes to know the winner. Pennsylvania did not allow for election officials to pre-process mail ballots in 2020 — a significant cause of the state’s elongated vote count — and is now an outlier state that hasn’t updated its laws to allow for it in 2024.

“America’s Got Talent can tally 50 million votes in 15 minutes,” Mike, a middle-aged engineer, joked during the focus group. “How can we not elect officials effectively, and not feel confident? Across the board, I don’t feel a lot of confidence here that all of our votes are getting counted properly.”

Northampton voters’ suspicions are fueled by a string of recent election administration failures. In recent municipal elections, election machines have faltered twice: In 2019, initial vote totals showed a candidate who would go on to narrowly win their contest only initially get less than 200 votes across some 55,000 ballots. And just last year, the printout of a person’s ballot would in some cases display the wrong selection on judicial retention elections.

In both cases, election officials stressed that the final outcomes were correct. A paper trail backup was used to count the votes in 2019, and election officials said last year’s erroneous printouts were due to human error when programming the machines and that they were able to correctly tally the final count as voters intended.

“If they tell me they’re working, I am hoping they’re working,” Jimmy, another participant in the group, said of the voting machines. “I try to be optimistic.”

But election officials and groups like Keep Our Republic face a tough climb ahead, even in counties that did not have demonstrable problems like Northampton did.

Keep Our Republic’s theory is that the group can reverse — or at least slow — the declining trust in the democratic process by working with local leaders in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The group has hosted legal education classes for attorneys in Pennsylvania about the state’s election laws, and meetings with local election officials and their community in Wisconsin. The goal of the group, in the words of the group’s executive director Ari Mittleman, is to educate the local “chattering class” — local attorneys, community leaders and regular voters.

“If you look at the climate, I think we should assume that it’s going to be incredibly, incredibly tumultuous,” Mittleman said in an interview over a plate of pierogi and beer at a local brewery. “All we can do is put up speed bumps. And our hypothesis is … who is turned to in these communities in purple America, in these three states? It’s not the president. It’s not the politicians.”

The hope, he said, is that instead of turning to national pundits or politicians, voters turn inward to their community with questions. The theory is that another parent on a child’s Little League team or a church elder would be a more effective messenger about the democratic process than a prominent politician or expert parachuting into the community. And when there are questions over things like election litigation, or problems that do occur, community leaders would be inherently more trustworthy.

“I’ll be the first to say, it’s a total hypothesis that might be proven wrong. People might tune into national news, talking heads and experts who’ve never been to Northampton County or Kent County, Michigan, or whatever,” Mittleman said. “But I have a feeling they’re going to go and say to people in their community, ‘What’s this all about?’”