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The U.S. federal disaster agency FEMA has sharply reduced training for state and local emergency managers ahead of the start of the hurricane season on June 1, according to current and former officials, memos seen by Reuters, and three sources familiar with the situation. The training cutbacks could leave storm-prone communities less prepared to handle the often devastating aftermath of hurricanes, the sources and some of the current and former officials warned. Leading forecasters predict a busier-than-average Atlantic hurricane season this year, with 17 named tropical storms, including nine hurricanes. If state directors and local emergency managers are not briefed on the federal government’s latest tools and resources, it will impact their ability to prepare for and warn communities of impending storms, said Deanne Criswell, who headed FEMA during President Joe Biden’s administration. Some 2,000 FEMA employees – or about a third of full-time staff – have been fired or accepted incentives to quit since President Donald Trump took office in January and declared that the agency should be abolished and its functions handed over to the states. Last week, Trump fired FEMA’s acting chief, Cameron Hamilton, a day after Hamilton told lawmakers that the agency should be preserved. Hamilton’s successor, David Richardson, told FEMA employees on Friday that he would “run right over” any staff opposed to his implementation of Trump’s vision for a smaller agency. Online training FEMA’s National Hurricane Program and the National Hurricane Center typically conduct in-person workshops and presentations for state and local emergency officials each spring to help them prepare for hurricane season. These training sessions are used to share the latest data on hurricane modeling, build relationships between local, state and FEMA officials to improve coordination on disaster preparedness and relief, and review evacuation routes and other planning measures. Relationship building is critical for coordination in the event of a storm, according to three emergency managers and experts. Some planned hurricane training sessions and workshops have been moved online. FEMA, which is overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, confirmed the training cutbacks in a statement to Reuters. “At the direction of President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’re done offering duplicate trainings that promote waste, fraud and abuse and that are not a good use of American taxpayers,” the statement said. “The National Hurricane Program continues to deliver readiness trainings ahead of the 2025 Hurricane Season to emergency managers nationwide with virtual trainings.” Steve Still, the emergency manager for New Hanover County, a hurricane hotspot on North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast, said online training, while useful, was less effective than in-person events. “If there’s any practical applications or exercises, you need in-person training,” Still said. Despite the reduced training, emergency management officials in North Carolina and Louisiana – states regularly battered by hurricanes – told Reuters they have FEMA-certified trainers on staff who can lead in-person disaster training. “FEMA courses have continued as planned in the state without issue,” said Justin J. Graney, a spokesman for North Carolina Emergency Management. Travel restrictions Since February 5, FEMA staff have been barred from travel unrelated to disaster deployment and other limited purposes. Since early March, staff must have their speaking engagements and presentation materials approved by the Office of External Affairs and Office of Chief Counsel, according to two internal memos seen by Reuters. Few speaking requests have been approved, leading the National Hurricane Program to cancel some trainings for emergency managers in storm-prone areas or move them online, according to a source familiar with the situation. Organizers of April’s National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans canceled several FEMA-led sessions – including one aimed at helping emergency managers make evacuation decisions during hurricanes – after FEMA staff dropped out due to the travel restrictions, said John Wilson, chairman of the conference. Wilson said the director of the National Hurricane Center usually speaks at the conference about lessons learned from past hurricane season and shares forecasting model updates, but did not this year. “It was kind of bizarre to have a National Hurricane Conference without the National Hurricane Center director opening it up,” Wilson said. NHC Director Michael Brennan said in a statement that he did not attend the conference due to travel restrictions but noted that the center recently organized a virtual course with 500 participants. He said the NHC’s “dialogue with partners continues and remains unchanged.” Concerns Lynn Budd, president of the National Emergency Management Association, an organization of state emergency managers, and director of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, said states need more time and resources if they are expected to make up for cuts to FEMA staff and activities. “There is room to reduce the footprint of FEMA in their regular deployment activities, but there is also expertise provided by FEMA for state and local jurisdictions that the states simply dont have at this time,” Budd said. NEMA would not comment specifically on the reduced trainings. The lack of training sessions at disaster preparedness conferences leaves state and local emergency managers more vulnerable to inaccurate or inadequate advice ahead of the storm season, said Bryan Koon, the former head of Floridas Division of Emergency Management who now heads a disaster preparedness consultancy. “These conferences are really important, because lots of FEMA trainings are normally done at them,” Koon said. “Thats one of the critical things new information is released to state and local emergency managers.” If local emergency managers are not trained in new forecasting models, for example, then there might be critical information the public won’t get ahead of a hurricane, Koon said. Leah Douglas, Nathan Layne, Nichola Groom and Tim Reid, Reuters
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E-Commerce
The rideshare market has reached a crossroads. Autonomous vehicles are on the rise, driver unrest is mounting, and customers are questioning everything from pricing to trust and safety. In the midst of it all, Lyft is mounting a comeback. CEO David Risher, who came into the role at Lyft two years ago, is taking a birds-eye view on the operation and pushing to reposition the company squarely against their competitor, Uberwith faster execution, bold new programs, and Lyfts biggest international acquisition to date. This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with todays top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. [A recent letter you wrote to shareholders] includes this phrase “falcon mode,” which has also sparked a bunch of interest. I wanted to ask you to explain, what is falcon mode? So falcons fly thousands of feet in the air. But of course, they can’t stay up there always because theyve got to eat. So falcons have adapted to become extremely perceptive at seeing very small things on the ground and then being able to dive down very, very quickly, grab the mouse or whatever it is, and then go back up to cruising altitude. I use that kind of figurative language to help my team actually understand my job, which is to try to stay up at the high level. I mean, a CEO doesn’t hopefully need to be in the details every single day, but I have never found a successful CEO, and I’ve worked for some very successful CEOs, I’m very lucky in that way, who doesn’t also judiciously decide when to come down and to go really, really deep into the things, to get to the point where you’re literally saying, “You know what, I think this language on the screen isn’t quite doing the job,” as an example. How much of that is about you identifying something that’s strategic that you could have seen at 30,000 feet that maybe others are missing versus pointing to your team that this is the way you want them to act? I think if you never do it yourself, if all you’re doing is telling your team, “Go look at this, go look at this, go look at this, go look at this,” I think the chance of you having good intuition on that, where to actually go deep, is low. But then on the other hand, hopefully they see you doing it, and they become comfortable themselves. And again, I want to make a distinction: you haven’t mentioned the word micromanagement, but that’s a word that sometimes people say, “Well, doesn’t that sound like micromanagement?” And for me, the distinction I make is I try, again, sometimes unsuccessfully to be clear, but I try not to use it as a way to propose answers. Of course, sometimes I do. I’m a human being, I have ideas, but I try more to use it as a way to understand a problem space better. A story I tell in the letter is you can understand the issue of surge pricing at a generic level. People don’t like prices that are unpredictable, and that gives you a certain amount of insight. But when I drove and I picked up a woman named Anne, and she said, “Sometimes the price is 20, sometimes it’s 30, sometimes it’s 40. When it’s 20, I take a Lyft. When it’s 40, I drive myself, but I’m really annoyed. I get up at six in the morning, just check the price every single morning.” You have these conversations, and you get so much more empathy and understanding for the contours of that problem and why it matters so much at an individual level. And then you can go back to your team and say, “You know what, guys, I know we’ve been talking about trying to get rid of surge pricing or at least some of it for a while. Let me give you some examples that I’ve picked up by going deep that maybe help us understand both why this is a big problem for people and maybe understand, as I say, the contours of this space a little bit better as a result.” And so this is why you get on the road and you drive a Lyft every six weeks for a day, so you’re close to the experience of both sides of your marketplace, the driver and the rider. It’s exactly it. And it’s so interesting. I actually took my first drive, I think it was a week before I joined even. So it’s been a little bit over two years now. And at first what I really thought it was going to be is really understanding the driver app and the driver experience. And I learned a lot, but what it’s really taught me is how the rider experiences the ride. And it’s so different to look at the data versus talk to the riders and ask them, “Why did you choose Lyft today versus the other guys? What are some of the perceptions you have?” And sometimes people talk about a credit card deal we have with Chase Sapphire Reserve, and sometimes people will talk about a bad experience they had on the other guys. Sometimes they’ll talk about how they think they like our values better or they like Women+ Connect, which is a service we have. So you get a sense of both sides of the marketplace, and it’s quite efficient. I mean, it’s only two or three hours, and gosh, you can learn a lot in two or three hours if you really, really focus on them. You have more riders than ever, you have more drivers than ever, but you’re still far behind Uber, which has 75% of the market or something. I mean, we’ve heard a lot about the streaming wars in TV, and there’s arguably a ridesharing war going on. Do you have to beat Uber to become like Netflix in streaming, or is it just about staying competitive? You don’t have to be Netflix. If you can be BritBox, and that’s you, that’s okay. So a couple of things I think about that, every year just in the U.S., so we’re not even talking about overseas, just in the U.S., people take about 160 billion rides in their own car, 160 billion. So every single one of those rides, they’re getting behind the wheel, their stress level is probably going up a little bit, hopefully they’re not texting, but they’re certainly tempted to text every time they come to a stoplight, they’re road rage sometimes, frustrated. At the very least, they’re not able to do very much else with their life, and then they got to park, and then they got to pay for parking, and all these different things. So there are a lot of times where, you know what, it’s actually kind of nice to have someone else pick you up. You can do the texting, you can sit back, you can make a phone call if you want to, you can put on your makeup if you’re a woman, whatever it is, guy too, whoever. So the point is it’s a better experience, and we want to do it so reliably and at such a high service level that we move from, call it, 800 million rides a year, which is about what we do, to a billion to two billion to three billion to four billion. So do I have to compete with someone else to do that? Not really. Now, we have to compete with private cars, and to a certain extent, with people staying at home on their couch. I mean, hose are things I have to compete with, but I don’t really need to dominate the other guy. Now, having said that, there is another guy in the marketplace. Our share when I joined was about 26% share. Now it’s about 31% share. So we’ve made nice progress there, and that’s hard. I mean, every single point of share you get over a bigger competitor is quite hard. I’ll give you two stats that I’m very proud of. One is we pick you up about 30 seconds faster than they do. Second is for our drivers, we have a 23-point advantage, 23-point advantage in preference of dual-appers, people who use both apps. Who would you prefer to drive for? So I consider those to be very good leading early indicators that we’re doing some things well. The share thing is a little bit of a trailing indicator. It’s just an interesting little thing to look at. Leading indicator is more to people like you more, you get better service. And over time, that tends to grow a business quite nicely.
Category:
E-Commerce
Now that the 100 men vs. one gorilla debate has been settled, a new question is circulating on social media: Who would win, 100 Americans or 100 Brits? British creator @2mwad_ first posed the question on TikTok: I got a new one, 100 British people versus 100 Americans. One big room, no weapons, whos winning? The video has since gained over a million views, succeeding in uniting both nations against a common, historical rival. @2mwad_ #fyp #2mwad original sound – 2mwad The patriotism sparked in the comments section is truly something to behold. Our president is a felon who you think is winning, one American wrote. Do they have the Britain man? We have the Florida man, another added. A third chimed in, 100 British people vs one Waffle House shift. But the Brits werent going down without a fight, and if theres one thing British people do best, its getting under Americans skin. British people 100%, one wrote. Dont get me started. I might start sounding patriotic, added another. In a follow-up video, the creator made the hypothetical brawl more specific. He said the British side would include groups of 20 from Birmingham, London, Manchester, Nottingham, and Liverpool. For the Americans, the fighters would be drafted from Louisiana, L.A., New York, and Chicago. (For what its worth, as a Brit, my money is on the Americans.) @2mwad_ #fyp #2mwad original sound – 2mwad Theres something so uniquely special about being American because our country can be in complete shambles . . . but as soon as someone tries to attack America, we are all patriotic, said creator @adivunsolicited in a video with 1.2 million views. The only people Americans are scared or intimidated by are other Americans, he added. TikTok creator Keara Sullivan posted her ideal American lineup: two people from Appalachia, two Floridians with criminal records, two blue-collar workers from Boston, one drunk Eagles fan born and raised in Philadelphia, and one Waffle House employee from any state. On the British side, TikToker Max Baledge pushed back: Guys, you would not be allowed guns. Id like to see all of those people have a bare knuckle bash with someone from Newcastle. One commenter replied: We already did thiswe celebrate it on July 4th.
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E-Commerce
If youre a frequent eye drop user, nows the time to check your medicine cabinet: The pharmaceutical lab BRS Analytical Service, LLC has issued a voluntary recall of five different ophthalmic solutions, including some eye drops and artificial tears, due to concerns that the products may be of unacceptable quality. Heres what to know: What is the reason for the recall? According to a notice published by the distributor AvKare, the recall was initiated when a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) audit found manufacturing cGMP deviations in the production of the five eye products. CGMP, or Current Good Manufacturing Practice, refers to the required manufacturing process guidelines set by the FDA for a certain item. Per the AvKare notice, Health Hazard to the user is unknown, cGMP deviations may lead to products of unacceptable quality, and it is not possible to rule out patient risks resulting from use of these products. Separately, an FDA enforcement report surrounding the five products notes that there was a lack of assurance of sterility found during the agency’s audit. BRS Analytical Service voluntarily initiated the five recalls on April 23. On May 6, the FDA classified each as a Class II, meaning it is considered a situation in which exposure to the product may cause reversible adverse health consequences, or where the probability of serious health consequences is remote. Which products are being recalled? The recall encompasses five products, totaling over 75,000 cases of ophthalmic solution, shipped over a two-year period: May 26, 2023, to April 21, 2025. The products include: NDC# 50268-043-15 Artificial Tears Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0404-2025 NDC# 50268-066-15 Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium Ophthalmic Gel 1%; recall number D-0405-2025 NDC# 50268-068-15 Carboxymethylcellulose Sodium Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0406-2025 NDC# 50268-126-15 Lubricant Eye Drops Solution; recall number D-0407-2025 NDC# 50268-678-15 Polyvinyl Alcohol Ophthalmic Solution; recall number D-0408-2025 Detailed lots numbers and specific expiration dates can be found here. Where were the products sold? According to the FDA, the items were distributed nationwide in the U.S., though specific states and stores were not listed. What should I do if I have one of the recalled products? If you have a recalled eye solution, do not use it. Instead, AvKare requests that you follow the instructions listed in its notice to alert the company that you received the recalled product, and then ship the affected items back to its headquarters. With any follow-up questions, AvKares customer service email is customerservice@avkare.com.
Category:
E-Commerce
Rich Diviney spent 21 years as a Navy SEAL, leading and operating on missions around the globe. In that time, he completed multiple combat deployments and had the honor of serving as the Commanding Officer of a SEAL Command. One of his most pivotal roles was running a specialized Selection and Assessment program for one of the most elite SEAL units. He also spearheaded the SEALs Mind Gym to train soldiers minds to perform better under stress. Today, he teaches optimal performance to thousands of business, athletic, and military leaders. Whats the big idea? What makes someone able to thrive in conditions of extreme stress, challenge, and uncertainty? Why do some people falter when the pressure rises, while others step forward with clarity and strength? High performance under pressure isnt limited to Navy SEALs. Its not about being fearless or superhuman. Its about tapping into human capabilities that we all possesscapabilities that can be trained, honed, and applied in any environment. Below, Rich shares five key insights from his new book, Masters of Uncertainty: The Navy SEAL Way to Turn Stress into Success for You and Your Team. Listen to the audio versionread by Rich himselfin the Next Big Idea App. 1. Uncertainty is the only certainty On May 2, 2011, a SEAL team launched one of the most daring missions in modern history: the operation to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. They trained relentlessly. They built a replica of the compound. They rehearsed every move, down to the second. The moment they got on target, everything changed. One of the helicopters crashed. Timelines shifted. Entry points failed. All that preparation didnt mean muchunless they could adapt. That mission succeeded not because they had a perfect plan, but because they knew how to perform inside the chaos. Thats what Masters of Uncertainty is about. Peak performance is a myth. It depends on perfect conditions, and life is rarely perfect. What matters more is optimal performance: showing up with the best you have in that moment, no matter what that best looks like. In the book, I show you how to develop a fluid kind of performance that is resilient and real. Uncertainty isnt a curveball. Uncertainty is the game. Once you stop chasing perfection and start learning to thrive inside the unpredictable, you unlock your true edge. 2. The Mastering Uncertainty Method High performers dont have superpowers. What they do have is a system that allows them to take the raw chaos of a moment and make it work in their favor. That system is what I call the Mastering Uncertainty Method. I built it by observing elite SEALs, world-class athletes, and business leaders who consistently perform under pressure. What I noticed was that they werent calm by accident. They practiced something specific, something trainable. These steps are rooted in how humans are wired. The first part of the methodMove Horizonsis what you do when the world is swirling. You anchor in the present and ask, What do I know? What can I control? Like George, an ultrarunner who started his journey at 450 pounds. Day one: he bought the shoes. Day two: he put them on. He moved horizonsone mailbox, one street corner at a timeuntil he ran a marathon. Then theres Keep Going, learning to set meaningful goals that trigger the brains dopamine system. And Stay Cool, the art of modulating your stress response to stay focused and clear-headed. These steps are rooted in how humans are wired. Once you train them, youll discover you were built for uncertainty all along. 3. Attributes, Identity, and Purpose drive behavior When everythings spinning, we like to believe well rise to our trainingto our values, our beliefs. But the truth is, we dont rise. We revert to our instincts and core wiring. Thats why understanding your Attributes, Identity, and Objectives is vital. Ill never forget one SEAL candidate during assessment who, on paper, was a rock star. He was physically gifted, razor-sharp, and highly trained. But when things got murky and unpredictable, he couldnt make decisions. He lacked the attributes we couldnt teach: adaptability, resilience, situational humility. In that moment, it wasnt his skills that failed him. It was who he was underneath them. This part of the book is about helping you discover who you are when things arent going according to planwhen the tools fall away and only instincts remain. Youll learn to identify the traits that drive you, reshape the beliefs that hold you back, and root everything in a sense of purpose that doesnt crack under pressure. In uncertainty, the person you are matters far more than the roles you play. 4. Dynamic Subordination and trust in teams I love to ask teams, When the plan falls apart, who leads? Because in high-stakes environments, its not always the person with the rank. Its the person with the clarity. We call that Dynamic Subordination. Its a principle we lived by in the SEAL Teams. Leadership flowed to the person with the most relevant expertise in the momentnot the most stripes on their sleeve. That only works in a culture built on trust. Leadership flowed to the person with the most relevant expertise in the momentnot the most stripes on their sleeve. I remember one mission where our comms guynormally the quietest person in the roomstepped up mid-operation and made a call that saved lives. He wasnt the senior guy. He wasnt the loudest. But he had the best information, and we trusted him enough to follow. Most teams say they want adaptability, but they dont build the trust required to make it real. I teach how to build trust, implement dynamic subordination, and create a culture where leadership is a function of moment, not title. When uncertainty hits, rigid hierarchy cracks. Trust flexes. Flex wins. 5. Stress as a performance enhancer Most of us treat stress like the enemysomething to fight off, push down, or escape. But stress isnt the problem. Misused stress is. Your stress responsewhat scientists call autonomic arousalis built to help you. It gives you energy, alertness, even clarity. Its what helped me stay sharp jumping out of planes, navigating combat zones, or stepping onto a keynote stage. The challenge is knowing when to turn the dial up and when to turn it down. This chapter is about rewiring your relationship with stress. Ill teach you the same breathwork, visual cues, and mental framing used by elite performers. Once you stop fearing stress and start partnering with it, you unlock performance you didnt know was possible. Stress isnt the villain. Its the voltage. You just have to learn how to use it. Uncertainty isnt ging anywhere. Its not something we can out-plan, out-muscle, or outrun. But we can learn to meet it with strength, clarity, and purpose. Whether youre leading a team, navigating change, or just trying to show up better in your life, the ability to move forward in the unknown is a trainable skill. One that starts with awareness, grows with intention, and gets stronger every time you choose to lean in rather than pull back. Learn to master the moment youre in. Thats where your power lives. This article originally appeared in Next Big Idea Club magazine and is reprinted with permission.
Category:
E-Commerce
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