Elbahrain.net Americans are revolting against McDonald’s and fast-food chains. That’s hurting french fry suppliers like Lamb Weston.

Lamb Weston, the largest producer of french fries in North America and a major supplier to fast-food chains, restaurants and grocery stores, is closing a production plant in Washington state. The company announced last week that it would lay off nearly 400 employees, or 4% of its workforce, and temporarily cut production lines in response to slowing customer demand.

Shares of Lamb Weston (LW) have dropped 35% this year.

The potato giant is oversupplied at a time when demand is sluggish. Restaurant prices in recent years have increased faster than grocery store prices, leading customers to pull back at fast-food chains.

“Many of these promotional meal deals have consumers trading down from a medium fry to a small fry,” Lamb Weston CEO Thomas Werner said last week on an earnings call.

Lamb Weston did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

McDonald’s, its largest customer, accounts for 13% of Lamb Weston’s sales. As McDonald’s goes, so goes Lamb Weston.

And McDonald’s is struggling. Sales at US restaurants open at least a year fell 0.7% last quarter from the same period a year earlier, dragged down by fewer customers visiting the chain.

Lamb Weston is also highly exposed to other fast-food chains, analyst R.J. Hottovy at analytics firm Placer.ai said in a research note to clients last week.

Customer traffic to fast-food chains dropped 2% last quarter and 3% the previous quarter compared to the same time last year, according to Lamb Weston.

Self-service kiosks at McDonald’s and other fast-food chains have loomed as job killers since they were first rolled out 25 years ago. But nobody predicted what actually happened.

In one of the earliest mentions of kiosks in fast-food settings in 1999, now-defunct trade industry publication Business Information said that McDonald’s was working to “develop an electronic order-taking system that may eventually replace some of its human equivalents.”

Instead, touchscreen kiosks have added extra work for kitchen staff and pushed customers to order more food than they do at the cash register. The kiosks show the unintended consequences of technology in fast-food and retail settings, including self-checkout. Chains are now experimenting with artificial intelligence at drive-thru lanes, and the experience with kiosks holds lessons for them.

Today, instead of replacing workers, companies deploy kiosks to transfer labor to other tasks like handing off pickup orders, help increase sales, easily adjust prices and speed up service. (Many chains, including Subway, Chick-fil-A and Starbucks, don’t use them much or at all.)

Kiosks “guarantee that the upsell opportunities” like a milkshake or fries are suggested to customers when they order, Shake Shack CEO Robert Lynch said on an earnings call last month. “Sometimes that is not always a priority for employees when you’ve got 40 people in line. You’re trying to get through it as quick as possible.” Kiosks also shift employees from behind the cash register to maintaining the dining area, delivering food to customers or working in the kitchen, he said.

Kiosks have also been threatened as a fast-food industry response to higher minimum wage laws.

“I told you so,” former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi said in 2016 after the company expanded kiosks. “I and others warned that union demands for a much higher minimum wage would force businesses with small profit margins to replace full-service employees with costly investments in self-service alternatives.”

California this year raised the minimum wage for the state’s fast food sector workers by $4 to $20. It raised a familiar refrain that those workers would be replaced by, such as kiosks.

But the quick-service and fast-casual segments of the restaurant industry continue to grow. Staffing levels were nearly 150,000 jobs, or 3%, above pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest Labor Department data.

Cans of Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup line a supermarket shelf in Bellingham, Washington, U.S. April 25, 2024.

Self-checkout also has not caused retail job losses. In some cases, self-checkout backfired for chains because self-checkout leads to higher merchandise losses from customer errors and more intentional shoplifting than when human cashiers are ringing up customers.

Fast-food chains and retailers need to do a better job communicating what the potential benefits of kiosks and self-checkout are to consumers and employees, Andrews said.

“What I think will be central for customers is that they see how this technology is providing them with more or better service rather than more unpaid busywork,” he said. “Otherwise, the public is just likely to view it as yet another attempt to reduce labor costs via automation and self-service.”

Elbahrain.net Hurricane Milton has winds of 155 mph, which is still a Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. ET update. The storm is about 560 miles southwest of Tampa, moving east-northeast at 12 mph.

The storm is expected to regain Category 5 strength Tuesday morning and maintain this strength through the day Tuesday. Milton is expected to make landfall as a major Category 3 hurricane late Wednesday.

“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the hurricane center said. “Milton is still a relatively compact hurricane, but the wind field is expected to continue to grow in size as it approaches Florida. In fact, the official forecast shows the hurricane and tropical-storm-force winds roughly doubling in size by the time it makes landfall.”

This means the dangerous winds, life-threatening storm surge, and heavy rain are expected to impact areas far beyond the forecast cone.

Milton is currently completing an eyewall replacement cycle, meaning re-intensification should begin shortly, according to the hurricane center. An eyewall replacement cycle is a common in major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher). In an eyewall replacement cycle, a large outer eyewall develops and becomes dominant as the inner eyewall shrinks and collapses. This leads to slight weakening, but also tends to cause the size of the hurricane to increase. As the outer eyewall begins to tighten, the hurricane can strengthen once again.

Both the NOAA and Air Force hurricane hunters are scheduled to investigate Milton again this morning.

As disaster-weary communities in Florida prepare for another catastrophic storm, beloved local meteorologist John Morales became emotional while delivering his forecast on air Monday.

“It’s just an incredible, incredible, incredible hurricane. It has dropped — it has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours,” Morales said, his voice breaking and becoming shaky as he spoke of the stunning drop in atmospheric pressure that accompanied Milton on Monday.

“I apologize. This is just horrific,” Morales said after he took a brief pause during an NBC6 in Miami broadcast.

Morales took to X later in the day to say, “extreme weather driven by global warming has changed me. Frankly, YOU should be shaken too, and demand #ClimateActionNow.”

Morales is fixture in the South Florida community and has helped guide residents through its major hurricanes including Andrew in 1992, a wave of Florida hurricanes in 2004 and 2005 that included Katrina and Wilma, and most recently Hurricane Matthew, Irma and Maria — which struck his native Puerto Rico.

Hurricane Milton has weakened momentarily and is now a Category 4 storm, according to an update from the National Hurricane Center.

The storm has winds of 155 mph, down from 165 mph. It is located about 585 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida and is moving east at 9 mph, the hurricane center said.

While the storm has dipped into Category 4 status, it is expected to regain Category 5 strength Tuesday morning and maintain this strength through the day. It is expected to fluctuate in intensity before ultimately making landfall on Wednesday as a Category 3 storm.

More than 12 million people are under hurricane watches and warnings, and over 8 million people are under tropical storm watches.

“Hurricane conditions are expected in the warning area on the west coast of Florida as early as Wednesday afternoon, with tropical storm conditions beginning early Wednesday. Hurricane conditions could begin along the east coast of Florida in the watch areas on Wednesday night, with tropical storm conditions possible beginning Wednesday afternoon,” warns the hurricane center.

Rainfall of 5 to 10 inches with isolated totals up to 15 inches is possible across Florida through Thursday. The Florida Keys could see 4 to 7 inches of rainfall through Thursday as well. Nearly 20 million people are under flood watches across Florida.

Storm surge of 10 to 15 feet above ground is possible from the Anclote River to the north of Clearwater then south to Englewood, Florida, an area that includes Tampa Bay.

Elbahrain.net Israel’s military said it has expanded its “limited, localized, targeted operations” into southwestern Lebanon.

Israel’s 146th Division targeted operational activities against Hezbollah targets and infrastructure in southwestern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Tuesday.

“The 146th Division is the first reserve division to operate in southern Lebanon as part of the ongoing operations against Hezbollah in the northern arena,” the IDF said, adding that the division “has served as a defensive regional brigade and its forces were deployed in northern Israel, the Gaza Strip” and the occupied West Bank.

The division will be working alongside the 213th Artillery Brigade.

The Israeli military’s ground incursion in southern Lebanon, which began a week ago, had been focused on the eastern part of the border area.

It’s morning in the Middle East and war is raging on multiple fronts. Here’s what to know

As the Israeli military battles Iran-backed militant groups on multiple fronts, the Middle East faces its greatest upheaval in a half-century.

Israel will “continue to fight,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks. Israel has said its goal in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas and bring back the remaining hostages, but neither has been achieved a year into the war.

Israel intercepted dozens of strikes from multiple directions on the anniversary, including projectiles launched from northern Gaza and Lebanon, and a surface-to-surface missile fired from Yemen.

Israel has launched a new offensive in northern Gaza, where it has failed to defeat Hamas, and it continues to mull an anticipated retaliation against Iran for last week’s barrage of missiles.

Here are the latest developments in the region:

Department said there must be a path forward on “governance in Gaza by someone other than Hamas.”

Israel marked October 7: Israel marked the anniversary of the Hamas attacks with tears and anger on Monday. Commemorations were held across the country, including at the site of the Nova music festival and kibbutz Nir Oz.

On the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks, Gaza’s north was hit with more Israeli strikes, with no end in sight to the war devastating the enclave. Israel’s objective of defeating Hamas still seems far from reach as its military offensives in Gaza continue to ramp up.

Israel launched a new ground operation in northern Gaza on Sunday and encircled the Jabalya refugee camp, where it says it saw signs of Hamas regrouping. Hamas’s military wing said its fighters clashed with “enemy forces” in Jabalya, an indication the group has been able to maintain a presence there. Earlier this year, Israel’s military said it had defeated Hamas in northern Gaza, only to announce new offensives there in May.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least 10 people in the Jabalya camp on Monday. The camp was targeted early on in Israel’s response to Hamas’ attacks one year ago and has been struck several times during the war.

The Israeli military also issued fresh evacuation orders to residents in northern and southern Gaza on Monday, as it ramped up its attacks in both parts of the pummeled enclave.

The war has displaced 1.9 million people, according to the United Nations. Residents who spoke to CNN said they feel there is no safe place to go.

A worker for the non-profit organization Mercy Corps that CNN spoke to said she has been displaced more than a dozen times since last year. She now lives in a shelter in central Gaza. CNN is not using her real name due to concerns for her safety.

Elbahrain.net A few metres from a charred home in Kibbutz Be’eri, Simon King tends to a patch of ground in the sunshine. The streets around him are eerily quiet, the silence punctuated only by the sound of air strikes that ring in the near distance.

In this community alm ost a year ago, 101 people were killed after gunmen from Hamas and other groups rampaged through Be’eri’s tree-lined streets, burning homes and shooting people indiscriminately. Another 30 residents and their family members were taken to Gaza as hostages.

Survivors hid in safe rooms all day and long into the night – exchanging horrifying details with each other over community WhatsApp groups, as they tried to make sense of what was happening.

The kibbutz was a strong community, where people lived and operated together as one. Neighbours were more like extended family. It is one of a small number of kibbutzim in Israel that still operates as a collective.

But now, post-7 October, the collective is splintered – psychologically and physically.

About one in 10 were killed. Only a few of the survivors have returned to their homes. Some travel back to the kibbutz daily to work, but can’t face overnight stays. Many, after months in a hotel, are now living in prefabricated buildings on another kibbutz 40km (25 miles) away.

The community, built up over nearly 80 years, is being tested like never before, and its future is uncertain.

There are reminders everywhere of those who didn’t survive – says Dafna Gerstner, who grew up in Be’eri, and spent 19 terrifying hours on 7 October holed up in a safe room – designed to protect residents from rocket attacks.

“You look to the left and it’s like, ‘Oh it’s my friend who lost her parents.’ You look to the right, ‘It’s my friend who lost her father,’ [and then] ‘She lost her mother.’ It’s everywhere you look.”

Inside Be’eri, surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire, you are never far from a house completely burnt or destroyed, or an empty patch of land where a home, wrecked that day, has been demolished.

Some streets might, upon first glance, appear almost untouched – but look closely and even there you will see markings spray-painted on walls by military units on or after 7 October. Houses where people were killed or kidnapped have black banners on the facades with their names and photos.

In the carcass of one burnt-out home, a board game rests on top of a coffee table, next to a melted television remote control. Food, long-rotten, is still in the fridge-freezer and the smell of burning lingers.

“Time stood still in the house,” says Dafna, 40, as she pokes through the ash-covered wreckage. She and her family had been playing that board game on the eve of the attacks.

Here, her disabled father and his Filipina carer hid for hours in their fortified safe room, as their home burned down around them. Dafna says it is a miracle they both survived.

Her brother did not. A member of Be’eri’s emergency response squad, he was killed in a gunfight at the kibbutz’s dental clinic. Dafna was staying in his house at the time, on a visit from her home in Germany.

Dozens of buildings in Be’eri are spattered with bullet holes – including the nursery. The play park and petting zoo are empty. No children have moved back, and the animals have been sent to new homes.

The kibbutz’s empty streets sometimes come alive, though, in a surprising way – with organised tours for visitors, who give donations.

Israeli soldiers, and some civilians from Israel and abroad, come to see the broken homes, and hear accounts of the devastation, in order to understand what happened.

Two of those who volunteer to lead the tours, Rami Gold and Simon King, say they are determined to ensure what happened here is remembered.

Simon, 60, admits this can be a difficult process.

“There’s a lot of mixed feelings and [the visitors] don’t really know what to ask but they can see and hear and smell… it’s a very heavy emotional experience.”

Rami, 70, says these occasions are often followed by restless nights. Each tour, he says, takes him back to 7 October.

He is one of the few who moved back to Be’eri after the attacks.