Category: Business

  • I’m a single mom running my own business. I deal with admin at the playground.

    Nicola Prentis collaged with playground slide
    Nicola Prentis is a single mom and often takes care of her company's admin at the playground.

    • Nicola Prentis runs her business, teaching courses on personal finance, as a single mom.
    • Due to limited working hours, she has adjusted how and when she eats and finds strange times to work.
    • She even involves her kids in brainstorming sessions to get fresh ideas.

    This isn't one of those "how I became a millionaire single mom" stories. As inspiring as those might be, most of us are much closer to the beginning than the end of that path.

    Single parents with businesses are juggling clients and deadlines with school pick-ups, endless laundry, and meal prep. We can turn three pieces of bread, a can of beans, and last week's carrots into a child-friendly meal for fusspots.

    Using that same ingenuity, I've managed to stretch my available working hours into the productivity and income of a full-time job.

    I changed when I eat

    Adopting the "16:8" pattern meant I could eat breakfast later, after completing the morning school run. But the real game changer was my 3 p.m. lunches. It keeps me full past my children's 7 p.m. dinner time. One less meal to plan, shop, and prep.

    It does help that I live in Spain, where lunch is traditionally the main meal and dinner is a much lighter — and often later — snack. But this also feels right for my body.

    I changed what I eat

    I rarely batch cook. The problem with batch cooking is that it's still cooking, and cooking is a time-sucker. I opt for no-cook or low-cook, things like pre-made soups and salads or stir-fries with noodles or gnocchi, which cook in just a few minutes.

    I do, however, batch shop. I work out how many of each thing we get through a week for perishables and a month for non-perishables and buy enough at once.

    This is made easier because I eat the same meal for as many weeks as I can stomach. So far, my limit has been five weeks of salmorejo — a cold Spanish soup, similar to gazpacho. The soup hits all the main food groups as it's served with croutons, chopped veggies, jamon, and a crumbled boiled egg.

    I do my admin in the playground

    I spend almost 2 hours a day watching my two sons in the playground after school. That was dead time until I started taking my little Chromebook with me and working. I leave certain kinds of tasks specifically for this extra slot I've magicked into my day, like admin and emailing. When they're happily playing with friends, I often get a stretch of time long enough to write marketing content.

    Also, on the walk back from dropping off the kids or picking them up from school, I send myself voice notes that I can later transcribe by AI and turn into material. It's a great time for listening to podcasts relevant to my business too.

    Walking has another plus: it can enhance creativity. That's what Stanford University researchers found in a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The participants who went for walks saw an 81% increase in tests measuring divergent thinking, a thought process associated with creativity.

    I make use of sleepless nights

    My children are 6 and 9 but they still regularly wake me in the night for anything from going to the bathroom to throwing up. In the past, if I couldn't get back to sleep, I'd just lie there, restless and awake, until the alarm. Now I get up and work instead. Thanks to some of these pre-dawn wakeups, I have built a website, launched my business, and regularly beat deadlines.

    Don't get me wrong — I'd never wake up that early on purpose, but making the most of it has been productive. I usually get a full night's sleep the next night because I have to go to bed early to compensate. But it's not like I'm sacrificing my evening social life because I don't have one as a single mother anyway.

    I use my kids as inspiration

    I run ideas past them, and things like logos and my business name have evolved with their input because children have unique and amazing insights. My then 8-year-old once suggested a pricing strategy I later heard from a business coach — to put up prices until people stopped buying and then go back to the figure just before that.

    My kids have also been useful in other ways. For example, as I teach courses on personal finance, explaining the concept of the stock market to a 9-year-old has helped. Hearing how he explained it back to me also led to successful posts on social media. It was told from the perspective of "if a child can understand this, everyone can."

    I may not be a millionaire entrepreneur — yet — but if I get there, this will be how I did it.

    Got a personal essay about life as a single parent that you want to share? Get in touch with the editor: akarplus@businessinsider.com.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Elon Musk confirms 3rd child with his Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis

    Elon Musk with kid
    Elon Musk has 11 known children.

    • Elon Musk quietly had a third child with Neuralink's Shivon Zilis, Bloomberg reported.
    • Musk has at least 11 children, including five with his first wife and three with Grimes.
    • Musk has faced scrutiny over his relationships with female employees at SpaceX.

    Elon Musk quietly had another child with an executive at one of his companies.

    Neuralink's director of special projects, Shivon Zilis, had another of Musk's children earlier this year, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

    On Sunday, the billionaire confirmed the news to Page Six, telling the outlet that the child was no "secret" to those close to him.

    "As for 'secretly fathered,' that is also false," Musk told the outlet. "All our friends and family know. Failure to issue a press release, which would be bizarre, does not mean 'secret.'"

    It's his third child with Zilis. The billionaire quietly had twins with the Neuralink executive in 2021, according to court documents that showed Musk filed a petition to change the twins' names to "have their father's last name and contain their mother's last name as part of their middle name."

    It's not clear how many children Musk has in total, but he has 11 living who are publicly known: five with his first wife, the author Justine Musk, three with the musician Grimes, and three with Zilis.

    Musk cofounded Neuralink and serves as its co-CEO. The company develops brain-computer technology. The news about another child with Zilis comes a couple of weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported Musk had "boundary-blurring relationships" with female employees at SpaceX.

    One former SpaceX employee accused Musk of asking her to have his babies on more than one occasion, the report said. The Journal said she declined the offer and later said she was denied a raise. The outlet reported that she eventually left the company and received an exit package valued at over $1 million.

    Musk has talked publicly for years about his views on the risks of declining birth rates and has said he considers the issue to be the biggest threat to civilization. He has also said he's encouraged his friends to have more children. A day after Business Insider reported he had fathered twins with Zilis, he posted on X that he's doing his best "to help the underpopulation crisis."

    Musk isn't the only tech mogul who wants to reproduce as a way to save humanity. The ideology has gained traction among some powerful figures who believe they can counteract the risks of falling birth rates by producing genetically superior offspring.

    Zilis and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Nvidia’s chips are very popular. Its brand, less so.

    Nvidia
    Nvidia's logo includes a green spiral shaped like an eye.

    • Nvidia recently joined Microsoft and Apple in the multi-trillion dollar valuation club.
    • But Nvidia's brand doesn't have the household familiarity of the iconic Apple logo or Nike swoosh.
    • Consulting firm Interbrand's list of top 100 global brands doesn't even include the chipmaker.

    Some of the world's most iconic brands can be recognized by simply describing their logos.

    The apple. The golden arches. The swoosh.

    But what company comes to a consumer's mind when referencing a green spiral? Is it an eye? A portal to another dimension?

    That's a question best aimed at Nvidia, which recently turned into a multi-trillion dollar company thanks to its valuable chips that are crucial in the artificial intelligence race.

    While its current valuation has led CEO Jensen Huang's company to join the ranks of Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon, the chipmaker may have some ways to go before it becomes a household name.

    According to Interbrand, a New York consulting firm, some of the 100 most valuable global brands in 2023 include storied companies like Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Nike, and McDonald's — brands whose logos and products instantly recall a familiar memory in people's minds.

    Nvidia, however, is nowhere on the list.

    "As a product company recently moving onto a global stage, Nvidia has not had time, nor has it dedicated resources, to change its role of brand and strengthen its brand to protect future revenue," Greg Silverman, the global director of brand economics at Interbrand, told CNBC.

    An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment.

    A tale of two chipmakers

    Part of Nvidia's brand issue could be that the company hasn't been focused on consumer-facing products since its inception in 1993. Nvidia's chips were originally designed for video games and became a computer hobbyist's favorite company.

    Intel, a once-dominant chips manufacturer that has lost its lead in recent years, faced a similar branding issue before it launched the "Intel Inside" campaign in the '90s.

    "Before the "Intel Inside" campaign, Intel had been largely unknown to consumers," the company states on its website. Intel currently ranks 24th on Interbrand's list of the most valuable brands despite its current market cap of about $132 billion compared to Nvidia's $3.1 trillion valuation as of June 23.

    In the past few months, Nvidia's stock and recognition have soared because the company's chips are required to power the technology behind AI.

    Companies like Meta, Tesla, and Microsoft need, and sometimes fight, for what is a limited supply of Nvidia's GPUs.

    Those chips positioned the 31-year-old company for its recent trillion-dollar success story, and now Nvidia dominates the AI-computing market. But that position is not guaranteed.

    A growing list of companies and start-ups are trying to carve their own space in the chips market. Some of them, including Meta and Microsoft, rely on Nvidia's chips.

    If Nvidia's dominance in chips falls, getting people to recognize the swirling green eye will be the least of the company's problems.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Anthropic CEO says we need to think bigger than a universal basic income if we want to solve the AI inequality problem

    Dario Amodei Anthropic
    Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei thinks universal basic income isn't going to cut it.

    • Rapid advances in AI may concentrate power and wealth among a small elite.
    • Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says a universal basic income may not sufficiently address the shift.
    • He says there needs to be a broader economic reorganization.

    The rapid advances in AI could consolidate power and wealth in the hands of a small few, which is why many in the tech industry have called for a universal basic income.

    But some AI leaders worry even a UBI wouldn't be enough.

    "I certainly think that's better than nothing," Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei told Time. "But I would much prefer a world in which everyone can contribute. It would be kind of dystopian if there are these few people that can make trillions of dollars, and then the government hands it all out to the unwashed masses."

    Amodei, a former OpenAI employee, launched Anthropic in 2021 with his sister, Daniela, and five other OpenAI colleagues. They believed AI would have a dramatic impact on the world and wanted to build a company that would ensure it was aligned with human values. Amodei described it to Time as a company focused on "public benefit."

    Many in the tech industry have expressed support for universal basic income, a recurring cash payment to all adults in a given population regardless of their wealth or employment status, to mitigate the economic impact of AI. The idea is that it will act as a safety net for individuals whose jobs have been threatened by the technology.

    But Amodei thinks that AI will alter society in such a fundamental way that we need to design a more comprehensive solution. "I think in the long run, we're really going to need to think about how do we organize the economy, and how humans think about their lives?" He doesn't have the answer, in part, because he believes it needs to be a "conversation among humanity."

    Amodei isn't the only one thinking beyond universal basic income. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while a vocal proponent of it, has also proposed the idea of a "universal basic compute." The idea is that as large language models advance, owning a slice of one will be more valuable than money.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Gretchen Whitmer says Biden isn’t getting credit for the infrastructure law because voters are ‘stressed out’

    Gretchen Whitmer
    Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

    • President Joe Biden has struggled to make his infrastructure success resonate with voters.
    • Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer told the Times that many voters simply aren't plugged into DC.
    • "I think the pandemic's taken a toll. People are stressed out," she told the newspaper.

    When Gretchen Whitmer first ran for the Michigan governorship in 2018, she pledged to "fix the damn roads."

    The slogan stuck and was a big part of Whitmer's winning campaign that year. So she knows a lot about effective political messaging.

    In a recent interview with The New York Times, Whitmer was asked why President Joe Biden has so far struggled to earn widespread credit for the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law among voters.

    Her response? Voters have been worn out by the pandemic and many just haven't been tuned in to what's happening in Washington.

    "I think the pandemic's taken a toll. People are stressed out," Whitmer told the Times. "They're just trying to pay the grocery bill, get the kids off to school, show up at their job, and maybe get a little bit of sleep at night. They're not consuming everything."

    Whitmer, a cochair of Biden's reelection campaign and a figure often touted as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, remarked that Democrats have to go out and effectively speak with voters about the merits of the infrastructure overhaul and laws like the CHIPS Act — which was crafted to turbocharge semiconductor manufacturing in the United States.

    "We've got to tell that story better," the governor added.

    Biden counts the infrastructure law passed by Congress in 2021 as one of his crowning political achievements.

    But voters in recent surveys have only given him a slight edge on the issue compared to Trump — who floated infrastructure reforms numerous times during his presidency but failed to produce a concrete framework for lawmakers.

    In a Politico-Morning Consult poll conducted in April, 40% of registered voters said Biden had done more on infrastructure upgrades and job creation, while 37% of respondents selected Trump.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Gen Z pays more for housing and has more debt than millennials did 10 years ago. That will likely impact the presidential race.

    Apartment for rent.
    • Gen Z pays more in housing costs than millennials did a decade ago, according to WaPo.
    • In an economy battered by inflation, higher costs have created economic uncertainty for Gen Z.
    • In 2020, Biden easily won young voters. But he now faces a tougher challenge to win them over.

    During the Great Recession and much of the 2010s, millennials bore the brunt of one of the biggest economic upheavals in generations.

    A tough job market — where layoffs and high unemployment sidelined many budding careers — defined the earliest stages of adulthood for many millennials.

    More than a decade after the Great Recession and over four years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gen Z is now enduring its own economic challenges.

    Gen Z is spending more on housing and car insurance than their millennial counterparts did at the same age, and the younger generation is also holding more debt than millennials did, according to The Washington Post.

    The newspaper reported that Gen Z workers are more likely to have attended college and earn higher pay than millennials, but debt is weighing them down: About 1 in 7 Gen Zers have hit their credit card limits.

    "Gen Z consumers have seen their finances significantly impacted by the pandemic and its aftermath, even more so than the challenges faced by millennials as a result of the global financial crisis," TransUnion US research head Michele Raneri told the Post. "Both of these cohorts have emerged from a difficult financial situation, but Gen Z is having a harder time affording this new cost of living."

    These findings are significant as President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both fight for Gen Z votes ahead of the November election.

    Spending more and more

    Gen Z is spending 31% more on housing costs compared to what millennials paid 10 years ago, a figure which also factors in inflation, according to the Post.

    According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, car insurance costs increased more than twofold for Americans aged 16 to 24 between 2012 and 2022, and health insurance costs spiked 46% for this group during the same time span.

    Debt accounted for 16% of Gen Z income at the end of 2023, whereas debt among millennials only accounted for 12% 10 years ago, the Post reported.

    Gen Z has seen an economic recovery since the throes of the pandemic, buoyed by a 4% unemployment rate. But with higher costs taking out a large chunk of their salaries, many Gen Z workers feel like they're falling behind.

    Biden Trump
    President Joe Biden, left, and former President Donald Trump.

    Biden v. Trump redux

    In 2020, young voters overwhelmingly supported Biden. That year, the president carried voters aged 18 to 29 by 24 points (59% to 35%) over Trump, according to Pew Research.

    During that cycle, the leading issues among young voters included the economy, student-loan forgiveness, reproductive rights, climate change, the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, and racial inequality.

    This year, Gen Z has once again prioritized the economy as a defining issue of the election. And Biden — already struggling with younger voters over the conflict in Gaza — will have to craft a persuasive defense of his policies to ensure their support.

    In the latest New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College swing-state poll conducted in late April and early May, 18% of registered voters aged 18 to 29 listed the economy as their top issue.

    This age group was the most pessimistic of any generation regarding the economy: 59% rated it as "poor," while 32% rated it as "only fair." About 7% of registered voters said the economy was "good."

    Only 1% of registered voters aged 18 to 29 rated the economy as "excellent."

    Trump is campaigning in cities like New York and Philadelphia to make inroads with younger and more infrequent voters to cut into the Democratic margins that are key for Biden.

    The struggles of Gen Z — whether it's high rents or elevated insurance costs — are poised to be a defining issue for the Biden and Trump campaigns during this critical summer stretch. And whoever finds a way to address Gen Z concerns and craft potential solutions effectively will likely emerge as the presidential victor in November.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • The unregulated multibillion-dollar life coaching industry can be a haven for discredited therapists

    Picture of woman's hands
    • Some therapists who have lost their licenses have rebranded themselves as "life coaches."
    • The life coaching industry generated $4.5 billion in revenue in 2022.
    • Life coaching is an unregulated industry, so prospective patients should tread carefully.

    When therapists lose their licenses, even for serious offenses, they don't always have to change careers. They can try "life coaching" instead.

    Life coaches are wellness professionals who offer clients advice on improving their lives. Unlike therapists, they're not required to be trained or held to ethical guidelines, and they are not regulated by the state or federal government. This loosely defined group of professionals generated $4.5 billion in revenue in 2022, according to The International Coaching Federation.

    While many people credit life coaches with positively changing their lives or careers, anyone can call themselves a life coach, and therein lies the problem.

    Jodi Hildebrandt, a former therapist in Utah who famously ran the controversial parenting YouTube channel ConneXions with Ruby Franke, called herself a life coach for years. The two were sentenced this February for up to 30 years in prison for child abuse.

    Hildebrandt is an extreme example. But a new ProPublica report found that at least a third of the 43 mental health professionals in Utah who've given up their licenses since 2010 have continued doing similar work. They refer to themselves on LinkedIn as mental health "associates," motivational speakers, and, of course, life coaches.

    There are a range of reasons a therapist might lose their license, from disclosing confidential information to engaging in inappropriate relationships. ProPublica's analysis found that a handful of therapists who were still practicing had lost their licenses for "serious reasons," ranging from drug and substance abuse to inappropriate contact with patients to sexual exploitation.

    Mark Steinagel, a director in the Utah state government who oversees licensing, told the outlet that licensers can't prevent these individuals from doing the same work as life coaches. However, investigators do try to watch them to ensure they don't veer back into therapy.

    The Hildebrandt case inspired legislation in Utah to regulate the life coaching industry. The bill is now undergoing legislative review.

    In the meantime, prospective patients should research before choosing a life coach.

    "Coaching is not therapy and I don't want it to be confused in any way," life coach Suzanne Culberg said in an interview about the ethics of life coaching with the YouTuber Danielle Ryan.

    Over her career, Culberg said she's seen life coaches misrepresent themselves by inflating their annual earnings and overselling their qualifications.

    "They say all the right things, and their sales pages look slick," she said. But "coaching is an unregulated industry."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Thousands of Iran-backed fighters ready to join Hezbollah’s battle with Israel as UN chief warns of catastrophe ‘beyond imagination’

    Hezbollah militants parade during a ceremony.
    Hezbollah militants parade during a ceremony.

    • Thousands of Iran-backed fighters are ready to join Hezbollah in its fight against Israel.
    • The Israel Defense Forces have approved plans for a potential offensive in Lebanon.
    • The UN Secretary-General warned of a catastrophe "beyond imagination" if the conflict escalated.

    Thousands of Iran-backed fighters are ready to join the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon as tensions rise with neighboring Israel, the Associated Press reported.

    In a speech Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that militant leaders from the Iran-led "axis of resistance" have offered to send tens of thousands of fighters to support Hezbollah as the group's clashes with Israel threaten to spill over into all-out war.

    "We told them, thank you, but we are overwhelmed by the numbers we have," Nasrallah said, per the AP, adding that Hezbollah already had 100,000 fighters in its ranks.

    An Atlantic Council report from May 2020 said that Hezbollah had about 30,000 active fighters and up to 20,000 reserves at the time.

    One unnamed official with an Iran-backed group in Iraq told the AP in Baghdad that if there were an all-out war, "we will be (fighting) shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah," adding that some advisors from Iraq were already in Lebanon.

    Hassan Nasrallah
    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

    Hezbollah has been launching strikes against Israel in support of the Palestinian militant group Hamas since the latter's October 7 attacks, which killed around 1,200 people in Israel.

    Israel has struck back hard against the group, targeting its commanders and infrastructure in southern Lebanon.

    Israel has also been weighing an all-out war with the group, with the country's defense minister, Israel Katz, saying on Tuesday that a decision on such a move was near.

    "We are very close to the moment of decision to change the rules against Hezbollah and Lebanon. In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit," Katz wrote on X.

    It came as the IDF announced plans had been approved for an "offensive" in Lebanon.

    On Friday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that an escalation in the conflict would have devastating consequences.

    "Let's be clear: The people of the region and the people of the world cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza," he said.

    "One rash move – one miscalculation – could trigger a catastrophe that goes far beyond the border, and frankly, beyond imagination," he said.

    A report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank that was published in March said that even if Israel achieved a decisive defeat of Hezbollah in an all-out war, it would likely "not lead to the group's destruction given its deep roots in Lebanon and strong support from Iran."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • How an elite Ukrainian unit is using viral videos to attract hundreds of fresh-faced volunteers a month

    Members of the 3rd Assault Brigade during a trench clearing training exercise on October 14, 2023 in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.
    Members of Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade.

    • Ukraine is facing a severe manpower shortage as it continues to battle Russia's invasion.
    • But Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade is one of the most popular units in the Ukrainian army.
    • It attracts new recruits with its PR-savvy approach and 12-strong media team.

    For months, Ukraine's armed forces have faced a severe manpower shortage.

    In April, one brigade commander told Ukrainian news outlet Suspilne that the country's manpower problems were "much more important than ammunition" and that one Ukrainian soldier was having to carry out the tasks of three to four soldiers.

    Since December, Ukrainian military officers have sought as many as 500,000 extra recruits.

    Lawmakers have since taken steps to try to address that need.

    In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed into law a bill lowering the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25.

    And in May, Ukrainian lawmakers passed a bill allowing convicts in certain categories to serve in the military.

    Though people recognize the need to fight, "since the mobilization system is not very well organized and is not perceived as just, this lowers motivation," Julia Kazdobina, a Senior Fellow at Ukrainian Prism's Security Studies Program, and a former advisor to the Ukrainian Information Policy Minister, told Business Insider.

    The 3rd Separate Assault Brigade

    Recruits of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade take part in military training at one of the training bases in Kyiv, on June 18, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Photo by Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP) (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
    Recruits of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade taking part in military training.

    But one place Ukraine isn't struggling to find new recruits is in the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, an elite fighting force that has taken part in a number of the war's most intense battles, from Bakhmut to Avdiivka.

    The squad emerged from the Azov Brigade, a controversial regiment founded by the right-wing politician Andriy Biletsky in 2014 that played a crucial role in the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022.

    The 3rd Brigade has since become famous for its battle-hardened, fearless approach to combat.

    But this is just one of the reasons the unit is receiving more than 900 volunteers a month, according to an April report by the Washington DC-based think tank the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

    While many brigades use social media platforms to advertise and celebrate battlefield wins, the 3rd Brigade is especially skilled at PR.

    The unit has 12 full-time media staff, including press officers, cameramen, and editors — and they are "pioneers in running a public recruitment campaign," Kazdobina said.

    "The brigade is run by people with extensive combat experience and a reputation for bravery," she added.

    The 3rd also has a professional website as well as a YouTube channel with more than a million subscribers — where some videos have attracted more than nine million views.

    Last week, the brigade released a video appearing to show Russian troops emerging from a trench with their hands raised or tied behind their backs. The prisoners of war were later filmed and interviewed, sitting in what appeared to be a school classroom.

    All of this is designed to appeal to young and eager potential recruits.

    Training

    Elina Beketova, a defense fellow at CEPA, told BI that the brigade has had success recruiting "because they have a system."

    "They start with intensive training to prepare volunteers for frontline duties both physically and mentally," she said. "Then, they match people's preferences with different roles. If someone isn't ready for combat, they continue training them and find the best role for that person."

    Four Ukrainian soldiers of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade  and mortar rounds
    Four Ukrainian soldiers of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade preparing mortar rounds for intensive firing at a position near Andriivka on September 25, 2023, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine.

    The brigade has four recruitment centers — Kyiv, Dnipro, Lviv, and Odesa.

    The unit's website says it offers a seven-day training course for potential recruits who want to assess their readiness to join the armed forces.

    "If you realize that the army is not for you, you can halt the test and leave at any time," it says.

    Those who choose to join undergo a 30-day training program. If, at the end of this program, the recruit does not feel ready, the training period can be extended.

    Yurii Kovtun, a brigade sergeant, told Radio ROKS last year: "Our task, if he is weak, is to make the weakest the strongest."

    "We will not send him somewhere to die," he added.

    The 3rd also tries to help recruits with specific skills find the role that best fits those abilities.

    "The 3rd Brigade customizes mobilization and contracts tailored to individuals. If someone isn't ready for artillery work but is prepared for another role, they will try to find a different position for that individual," Beketova said.

    Ukraine's Defense Ministry has noted the benefit of this.

    In March, the department announced that it would be rolling out a new recruitment algorithm for the armed forces.

    This algorithm "offers a clear mechanism for voluntary enlistment through recruiting centers and online," Beketova said. "Candidates undergo interviews and tests before being assigned to their chosen unit."

    The brigade also offers a "patronage service," which is designed to care for wounded fighters and prisoners of war.

    "One often hears that there are two Ukrainian armies," Kazdobina told BI.

    "One following Soviet tradition of inefficiency and humiliation and one that is dynamic, well organized and respects soldier lives," she said. "The Third Assault Brigade falls into the second category."

    The 3rd Brigade did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Trump says he proposed a ‘migrant league of fighters’ to UFC head Dana White: ‘It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had’

    L: A general view of the Octagon during the UFC Fight Night event at Kingdom Arena on June 22, 2024, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
R: Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, walks offstage after speaking at a campaign rally at the Liacouras Center on June 22, 2024, in Philadelphia.
    UFC Fight Night event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and Donald Trump.

    • Donald Trump said he proposed a "migrant league of fighters" to UFC president Dana White.
    • Trump shared his idea at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's conference in Washington.
    • "It was a joke," Dana White said. "But yeah, he did say it."

    Donald Trump told an audience on Saturday that he had pitched a "migrant league of fighters" to the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White.

    Trump was speaking to Christian conservatives at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Road to Majority" conference in Washington.

    "Did anyone ever hear of Dana White?" Trump said at the event. "He's a legend, right?"

    "I said, 'Dana, I have an idea," the former president continued. "Why don't you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters, and then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants. I think the migrant guy might win; that's how tough they are."

    "He didn't like that idea too much, but actually it's not the worst idea I've ever had," he added.

    President Joe Biden's campaign reacted quickly to criticize the former president's comments.

    "Fitting that convicted felon Donald Trump spent his time at a religious conference threatening to round up Latinos, bragging about ripping away Americans' freedoms, and promising to be even more extreme if he regains power," Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, said.

    "Trump's incoherent, unhinged tirade showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again," she added.

    When asked about Trump's comments, White, who has led the UFC since 2001, said: "It was a joke."

    "I saw everybody going crazy online. But yeah, he did say it," he added.

    Trump has put immigration at the core of his policies since his 2016 presidential campaign and has frequently criticized Biden over the topic in his latest run for the White House.

    During his speech at the Faith & Freedom Coalition, Trump repeated a number of dehumanizing terms he has previously used about migrants while campaigning, saying they were "nasty, mean," and "tough."

    In a speech in Michigan at the beginning of April, the former president also referred to migrants as "animals" and "not human" as he ramped up his focus on border issues.

    Business Insider contacted the Trump campaign for comment.

    Read the original article on Business Insider