‘Cozy cardio’ is a kinder, gentler way to start getting �it

For many people, the thought of sweating in a noisy gym full of strangers or out under
a hot sun is unappealing. If that sounds like you and you’re looking for a way to improve your
health, consider giving “cozy cardio” a try.
Cozy cardio is a term popularized by social media in�luencer Hope Zuckerbrow, who is
based in Paradise, Texas. In her TikTok videos, which have gained 34 million likes, she is often
seen on a walking pad in her living room, which softly glows from colored lights and candles.
As she strolls on the pad, sometimes in pajamas and a fuzzy robe, Zuckerbrow watches TV and
sips her favorite protein coffee drink. After a half hour or so, she’s done.
Before these cozy cardio workouts, Zuckerbrow followed a workout plan, �illed with
loud music, to lose 100 pounds. But after regaining about half of that weight, she didn’t want
to return to an intense regimen to improve her health. “I realized I needed to heal my
relationship with exercise,” Zuckerbrow said. “Exercise wasn’t fun anymore, and I was only
moving to lose weight, not to feel good or be healthy. I wanted to spark joy when it came to
movement.”
So she gathered her favorite items — those candles, colored lights and protein coffee
— and began a slow, relaxing stroll on her walking pad early one morning. The �irst TikTok
video she posted of her new exercise routine garnered 400,000 views, and cozy cardio was
born. But is a slow, short walk effective exercise?
“Getting that initial momentum is great,” said Dr. David Sabgir, a cardiologist at
OhioHealth Physician Group in Columbus, Ohio. “You can’t go from 0 to 60 right away. Just
getting those endorphins and adrenaline going will facilitate getting into a more regular
routine and a more intense level of exercise.” Indeed, Zuckerbrow now walks faster and longer
than she initially did, progressing from 15- or 20-minute walks to 45- or 60-minute treks at a
faster clip.
“Finding an accessible way for people to start engaging with physical activity is
excellent,” agreed �itness specialist Nick Occhipinti, an assistant professor of anatomy at
Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. That’s partly because there’s an inverse relationship
between step count and all-cause mortality, he said. “The more steps you take, the less likely
you are to die,” Occhipinti said.
Progressing beyond cozy cardio
While cozy cardio sessions are de�initely better than no exercise at all, they should
ideally lead to more vigorous activity, experts say. Adults should be getting 150 minutes of
moderate-intensity physical activity each week, according to the Physical Activity Guidelines
for Americans, published by the US Department of Health and Human Services. “If cozy cardio
is your �irst step to building up to that higher intensity, excellent,” Occhipinti said. “But if that’s
all you’re doing, and it’s your understanding that that’s enough, that’s a little misguided.”
To progress to moderate-intensity exercise, Occhipinti suggested going outside and
timing how long it takes you to walk a mile. The next time you head out for a stroll, try to beat
that time. Then continue trying to best your time each week. “Exercise doesn’t have to mean

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sweat dripping everywhere and your heart racing, but you do have to get to the point where
you’re working hard enough to elicit �itness adaptations,” he said.
Shifting your workouts to the outdoors — at least some of the time — is ideal, Sabgir
said, as the health bene�its of being outdoors are phenomenal. One study from January showed
visiting nature three or four times a week was linked to lower use of medication for issues such
as high blood pressure and asthma. In addition, if you grab some friends to work out with you,
you’ll reap even more bene�its.
Sabgir started the global program Walk with a Doc in 2005 to get people moving and
address the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Physicians lead their patients on outdoor
treks in their own communities. He and his peers soon realized the social connection
component of these walks was nearly as valuable to the participants as the physical exercise.
“Medical literature has shown in the past few years that social connections reduce
hospital admissions for respiratory disease in older adults,” Sabgir said, adding that social
isolation increases the risk of death from heart attacks and strokes. Walking with friends is also
a great distraction, as it keeps your mind off any anxieties you have and makes the time pass
more quickly.
Cozy for life
Zuckerbrow’s �itness and stamina continue to increase, and trips to the gym have
replaced some of her cozy cardio workouts. Yet she has no plans to ditch them entirely. “I don’t
see myself ever stopping cozy cardio,” Zuckerbrow said. “Those workouts feel like meditational
moments and truly bring joy to my day.” That’s absolutely �ine, Occhipinti said, as physical
�itness is a lifelong pursuit. “Just get started, go slow and be patient,” he said. “Over time, you
will reap the bene�its.”
Sabgir agreed that easing into a new routine can help lay the groundwork for longtime
success. “Just dip your toe in the water,” Sabgir said. “Do something. That will empower you to
more and more activity. I can’t remember one patient who started with something super small
and stayed super small.”.

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 Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning!

1. Stroll :
2. Groundwork :
3. Entirely :
4. Accessible :
5. Mortality :
6. Physicians :
7. Gathered :
8. Respiratory :
9. Initial :
10. Inverse :
11. Sedentary :
12. Peers :
13. Cozy :
14. Pursuit :
15. Partly :
16. Unappealing :
17. Robe :
18. Engaging :
19. Ditch :
20. Admissions :
21. Vigorous :
22. Dip :
23. Regaining :
24. Ease :
25. Regimen :

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Health care is in crisis. The looming strike by 75,000 health workers
is just another sign of that

Savonnda Blaylock, a pharmacy technician in northern California, has worked for

health care giant Kaiser Permanente for 22 years and she’s never been on strike. That could
change on Wednesday when she becomes one of 75,000 workers who participate in the
nation’s largest health care strike in history.
“When we try to schedule appointments (for my mother), we’re told they don’t have
the staff to accommodate her,” said Blaylock. “When I came to Kaiser, this was the best place to
work. This was where I wanted to retire from. Now I think about leaving, though I don’t want
to. On my shift now, there are probably about 12 of us. Pre-Covid there were 18. We’ve lost so
many workers over the past three years.”
If the coalition of unions does go on strike it would affect dozens of facilities in
California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, DC. Members of the
coalition of unions — including nurses, therapists, technicians, dietary services, maintenance
and janitorial staff — are set to walk out for a three-day strike starting on Wednesday. Kaiser
said it has contingency plans in place to continue to provide care to patients during a strike.
“While these plans to strike are disappointing, we remain committed to reaching an agreement
that is good for our employees, our members, and our organization, and we will continue to
bargain in good faith,” Kaiser said in a statement.
Blaylock, who is on her union’s negotiating team, says Kaiser is disregarding the
demands to �ix the staf�ing crisis. Management denies that’s true, although it does acknowledge
it is facing a staf�ing problem. “Every health care provider in the nation has been facing staf�ing
shortages and �ighting burnout. During the Great Resignation in 2021-22, more than 5 million
people left their health care jobs across the country. Up to two-thirds of health care staff are
saying they are burnt out and more than 1 in 5 are quitting,” the company said in a statement.
“Kaiser Permanente is not immune from these challenges.”
While Kaiser admits to the dif�icult challenge of �illing health care jobs, the stress to its
current workers has contributed to increased labor tension in the health care industry. Kaiser
said it hired 29,000 staffers in 2022 alone, ending the year with 224,000 non-physician staff
members. The company has hired 22,000 so far this year, and nearly 10,000 of those new hires
are for union-respresented positions. Kaiser said it already pays as much as 20% more than
competing health systems.
The company says is it is “con�ident that we will reach an agreement that strengthens
our position as a best place to work while ensuring that our high-quality care remains
affordable and easy to access.” From the start of 2022 through August of this year, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics has tracked 42 work stoppages of 1,000 or more strikers. Its count shows a
third of those strikes were in the health care industry. That’s up from 24% of major strikes in
2019, the year before the pandemic. The increased number of health care strikes have
happened despite health care workers making up only about 9% of private sector union
members nationwide.

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 Yet, convincing workers in health care to go on strike can be more dif�icult than in many
other industries, according to experts. “A strike is always emotional, no matter your profession.
I don’t think many people ever want to go go on strike,” said John August, director of of the
study of heath care labor relations at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor
Relations. “But for health care workers, it is different. You’re leaving babies, the elderly, the sick.
There’s no question there’s more of an emotional strain.”
And even though many of the people who could be on strike at Kaiser are not nurses, it
doesn’t mean they’re not important to patient care, said August. “Those that work in the
kitchen or brings meals to room, that’s part of the healing process,” he said. “Patients have
speci�ic dietary needs. The housekeeping staff keep all the rooms infection free. They’re often
people who are invisible to the public. But just because they’re low-paid and not licensed
doesn’t mean they’re not important.”
Among the major health care strikes so far this year was one in January involving 7,000
nurses in New York City. The strikes can have a personal attachment for nurses, like Naniaka
Camara, who works at Monte�iore Hospital in the Bronx. She grew up and still lives in the area
and has gone to the hospital for her own medical care. Camara often recognizes or knows the
hospital’s patients. During the strike, she told CNN she loves her job and went on strike out of
the frustration of not providing patients with the care they deserve.
“Sometimes I feel like what I did was pointless. I’m apologizing for stuff that has nothing
to do with me,” Camara said from the picket line in front of her neighborhood hospital. She said
she’s often late providing medication or other services that patients need due to staf�ing
shortages that can stretch her shifts to 12 or 14 hours. Camara said she goes to bed as soon as
she gets home. “I don’t like to think about the previous shift because I won’t want to come in
for the next one,” she said. “It’s extraordinary that number of (registered nurses) are striking,”
retired union organizer Bob Muehlenkamp told CNN during the New York nurses’ strike.
Nursing shortage put patients at risk
Nursing shortages and dif�icult work conditions have created a surge in strikes and
union organizing efforts, Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers,
told CNN in January. While staf�ing shortage began before 2020, the pandemic was the tipping
point for many nurses. “They learned during the pandemic that their employer was not worried
about their safety, or the safety of their patients,” Rosselli said. ECRI, an independent health
care research �irm, ranks the industry’s staf�ing shortage as the greatest risk to American
patients. It doesn’t expect that to change any time soon.
“Unfortunately, there’s not a short-term �ix for this issue,” said Dr. Marcus Schabacker,
ECRI’s CEO, during the January New York nurses strike. Beyond an aging US population, some
of the surge in hospital stays has come from “demand that was pent up during the pandemic,
with patients coming back to hospitals for elective procedures.” Schabacker also cites the
increasing “need to treat patients with post-covid complications. That all puts additional
pressure on a system that for a long time was understaffed.”

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 The nursing shortage is only going to get worse, he said. “A few years ago, we estimated
that by 2025 there would be a shortage of 1 million nurses nationwide,” Schabacker said. With
those who left the �ield during the pandemic, that could be an undercount, he said. ECRI data
shows the median age of a registered nurse is 52 years old, with 20% of them 65 and older. The
dearth of nurses also has created a scarcity of nursing instructors. In 2019, ECRI estimated that
over 80,000 quali�ied applicants were turned away from nursing schools due to a lack of
teachers.
“A lot of nurses join because they’re motivated to help patients,” said Schabacker. “When
there is a shortage, they’re prone to step in and do an extra shift, come in on weekends. If
someone is tired, overworked, sleep deprived, they’re going to make more mistakes.” A nurses
strike won’t help patients in the short term, he said. “It’s a sign of true, understandable
desperation.”

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 Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning!

1. Shortage :
2. Appointments :
3. Housekeeping :
4. Meals :
5. Elderly :
6. Attachment :
7. Recognizes :
8. Frustration :
9. Lack :
10. Burnout :
11. Picket :
12. Apologize :
13. Janitorial :
14. Coalition :
15. Staf�ing :
16. Extraordinary :
17. Risk :
18. Median :
19. Scarcity :
20. Overworked :
21. Deprived :
22. Nursing :
23. Aging :
24. Affordable :
25. Labor :

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 Australia braces for severe bush�ires as Sydney swelters under
record September heat

The threat of intense bush�ires looms over New South Wales as record spring
temperatures and high winds fan the �lames of more than 60 blazes already burning in
Australia’s most populous state, authorities have warned. Several cities along the east coast
saw record spring temperatures Tuesday, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meterology
(BOM). Sydney, the NSW capital, was expected to record its hottest September day ever
Wednesday, with BOM forecasting a high of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit).
Senior BOM meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said NSW was experiencing “record
September heat, dangerous �ire weather conditions and gusty winds,” in a video posted
Wednesday to X, formerly known as Twitter. As of Wednesday afternoon, 65 �ires were burning
across NSW, nearly a third of which were uncontained, the state’s Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS)
said in a statement on Facebook.
“It’s the worst risk we’ve faced since the Black Summer �ires of 2019,” NSWRFS
commissioner Rob Rogers said Tuesday, according to public broadcaster ABC, referring to the
2019-2020 bush�ire season that killed dozens of people and a billion animals as it burned
through more than 10 million hectares. The NSWRFS on Tuesday enacted a total �ire ban,
including on barbecues, camp �ires and activities like welding, for Sydney and the surrounding
area.
The warnings for NSW come as bush�ires also burn in Queensland, Tasmania and parts
of central Australia near the tourist town of Tennant Creek. As of Monday, the Tennant Creek
�ire had burned more than a million hectares of land in the Northern Territory, according to
authorities. Last month, the Australasian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC), the national council
for �ire and emergency services in Australia and New Zealand, predicted an increased risk of
bush�ires across Australia – especially in the Northern Territory, Queensland and New South
Wales – due in large part to climate change.
“The climate in�luences driving increased risk of bush�ire this season are widespread,”
said AFAC CEO Rob Webb. “Almost the entire country can expect drier and warmer conditions
than normal this spring, so it is important for Australians be alert to local risks of bush�ire over
the coming months, regardless of their location.” It comes after the country saw its 10th driest
August and what BOM senior climatologist Zhi-Weng Chua said in a Facebook video was the
“warmest winter on record.”
Australia now seems poised for especially hot months ahead. On Tuesday, BOM
declared an El Niñ o weather event was underway, which typically results in a warmer, drier
spring and summer and an increased risk for bush�ires. “This summer will be hotter than
average and certainly hotter than the last three years,” said Karl Braganza, BOM manager of
climate monitoring, according to CNN regional af�iliate 9News. The BOM forecasts cooler
temperatures in NSW for the coming days, with the heat wave and �ire danger threats expected
to move north then west by the end of the week.

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 Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning!

1. Looms :
2. Heat :
3. Flame :
4. Blaze :
5. Bush�ire :
6. Formerly :
7. Across :
8. Uncontained :
9. Nearly :
10. Spring :
11. Regardless :
12. Alert :
13. Risks :
14. Surrounding :
15. Threat :
16. Northern :
17. Entire :
18. Dozens :
19. Referring :
20. Certainly :

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 Indonesia jails woman who recited Muslim prayer before trying
pork on TikTok

A Muslim woman has been sentenced to two years in prison under Indonesia’s
blasphemy law over a video she shared on TikTok which showed her reciting an Islamic prayer
before trying out pork while visiting the tourist island of Bali. Lina Lut�iawati, known as Lina
Mukherjee on social media, was tried on Tuesday in the Palembang district court on Sumatra
island. The 33-year-old was found guilty of “spreading information aimed at inciting hatred
against religious individuals and speci�ic groups,” court documents read.
In addition to her two-year prison sentence, the court �ined her $16,245 (250,000,000
Indonesian rupiah), a small fortune in a country where the annual per capita wage is around
$4,300. Her jail term could be extended by three months if she does not pay the �ine, the court
added. Speaking to reporters outside court on Tuesday after the trial, Mukherjee expressed
shock at the sentence. “I know I was wrong but I really did not expect this punishment,” she
said, in comments carried by CNN af�iliate, CNN Indonesia. It is possible that she will �ile an
appeal, CNN Indonesia added.
Blasphemy cases on the rise
Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim nation, where 231 million people, at least 93%
of its adult population, identify as Muslim. Religious conservatism has been on the rise in the
country in recent years and rights groups have warned that blasphemy laws are being
“increasingly weaponized” against religious minorities and those deemed to have insulted
Islam. Pork is forbidden in Islam and eating it remains taboo among most Indonesian Muslims.
But the meat is commonly consumed by millions of non-Muslims, including the country’s
ethnic Chinese population as well those living on the Hindu-majority island of Bali.
Mukherjee, who identi�ies as Muslim, commands a combined social media following of
more than 2 million. Known for her lifestyle and food videos showing her sampling various
dishes, she received backlash over a video she shared on TikTok in March, which showed her
sitting at a dining table and reciting the Islamic phrase “Bismillah” (In the name of Allah) before
consuming crispy pork skin. Bismillah is one of the most important and common holy phrases
in Islam. It is the �irst phrase in the Quran and is often uttered by Muslims before eating. It is
also frequently used as a generic declaration.
The video, which Mukherjee said had been �ilmed when she was traveling in Bali,
featured her trying babi guling, a popular street food of rice and chunks of spit-roasted pork
and crackling served with vegetables. She speaks into the camera and grimaces as she tries a
piece of pork crackling. The video drew millions of views but was condemned by religious
groups, including the Indonesian Ulema Council, the country’s top Muslim clerical body, which
issued a ruling calling it “blasphemous.”

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 It also prompted a public complaint which sparked police investigations, which led to
Mukherjee being prosecuted. Photos and videos taken of Mukherjee throughout the trial and
carried by CNN Indonesia often showed her in tears and accompanied by a heavy security
presence. “She’s done nothing wrong but it says a lot about (the state of) Indonesia… how a
self-proclaimed moderate Muslim country is becoming a radicalized Muslim nation,” Human
Rights Watch’s Indonesia researcher Andreas Harsono told CNN.
“The blasphemy chapter in the criminal code has been increased from one to six articles
– a serious setback to protecting freedom of religion and belief in Indonesia,” he added. “It
bucks a global trend to either not enforce blasphemy laws or to scrap them altogether.”
One of Indonesia’s most high-pro�ile blasphemy cases was that of Basuki Tjahaja
Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Indonesian politician widely known as Ahok who served as
Jakarta’s �irst non-Muslim governor in 50 years. He went on trial for blasphemy in 2017 after
angering hard-line Muslims by referencing a verse from the Quran while campaigning for re-
election in 2016 and was jailed for two years despite making a public apology.

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 Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning!

1. Blasphemy :
2. Crackling :
3. Guilty :
4. Extended :
5. Often :
6. Radicalized :
7. Trial :
8. Grimace :
9. Featured :
10. Recent :
11. Prosecuted :
12. Taken :
13. Self-proclaimed:
14. Throughout :
15. Moderate :
16. Reciting :
17. Aimed :
18. Presence :
19. Commonly :
20. Taboo :

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 Top Chinese university scraps English tests in move cheered by
nationalists

A top university in northwest China has scrapped English tests as a prerequisite for
graduation, rekindling a heated debate about the role of the world’s lingua franca in the
country’s education system after years of rising nationalist sentiment under leader Xi Jinping.
In a notice Wednesday, the Xi’an Jiaotong University in the capital city of Shaanxi province said
students will no longer need to pass a nationwide standardized English test – nor any other
English exams – to be able to graduate with bachelor’s degrees.
The announcement caused a stir on social media, with many praising the decision and
calling for more universities to do the same. “Very good. I hope other universities will follow
suit. It’s ridiculous that Chinese people’s academic degrees need to be validated by a foreign
language (test),” said a comment with more than 24,000 likes on microblogging site Weibo,
where a related hashtag attracted more than 350 million views Thursday.
Passing the College English Test, a national standardized exam �irst held in 1987, has
been a graduation requirement at the majority of Chinese universities for decades – although
the government has never made it an of�icial policy. The common practice underlined the
importance Chinese universities placed on English – the world’s predominant academic and
scienti�ic language – especially when the once-insular and impoverished country was opening
up and eager to catch up with the developed world after the turbulence of the Mao Zedong era.
But in recent years, some universities have downgraded the importance of English,
either by replacing the national College English Test with their own exams or – as in the case
of the Xi’an Jiaotong University – dropping English quali�ications altogether as a graduation
criteria. “English is important, but as China develops, English is no longer that important,” said
a Weibo post from a nationalist in�luencer with 6 million online followers after the university’s
announcement. “It should be the turn for foreigners to learn Chinese,” the in�luencer said.
The downgrade comes as China turns more nationalist and inward under Xi, who has
called on the country to strengthen “cultural con�idence” and fend off “Western in�luence.” In
schools and universities, teachers have been forbidden from using Western textbooks or
talking about “Western values” such as democracy, press freedom and judicial independence.
There has also been moves to downgrade English teaching in classrooms.
In Shanghai, China’s most cosmopolitan city, authorities in 2021 banned elementary
schools from holding �inal exams on the English language, citing the need to ease the academic
burden on students. Some lawmakers and government advisers have also proposed to remove
English as a core subject in schools and from the country’s university entrance exams. In
contrast, across the strait in Taiwan, the government has rolled out a plan for the island to be
bilingual by 2030.
China made English a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools in 2001,
the same year the country joined the World Trade Organization. At the time, the education
ministry hailed the requirement as part of a national strategy to make Chinese education “face
modernization, face the world and face the future”.

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 For some liberal-leaning Chinese, the downgrade of English is symbolic of China’s
inward turn and a tightening of ideological control. “We should have cultural con�idence, but
it’s not the same as being culturally arrogant, short-sighted or closed-minded,” a comment on
Weibo said. “We need English to understand the world. This is a fact and it cannot be covered
up by the banner of nationalism,” said another.
Others cheered the scrapping of English tests at universities from a practical
perspective, arguing it was a waste of time and energy as graduates seldom use the language
in their daily life or career after graduation – and when they do, arti�icial intelligence and
machine translation can help out anyway. But some disagreed, citing English’s importance as
the language for the world’s leading academic journals, especially in science and technology.
“You don’t have to link it [to graduation], but don’t underplay the importance of English.
These days, if you don’t understand English, you’ll still fall behind in the scienti�ic and
technological world,” a Weibo user said.

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 Fill in the Blank With Appropriate Meaning!

1. Scrap :
2. Translation :
3. Graduation :
4. Arrogant :
5. Sort sighted :
6. Tightening :
7. Cheered :
8. Hailed :
9. Compulsory :
10. Foreigners :
11. In�luencer :
12. Nationwide :
13. Lingua franca :
14. Lawmakers :
15. Replacing :
16. Banner :
17. Judicial :
18. Values :
19. Forbidden :
20. Rekindling :
21. Sentiment :
22. Degrees :
23. Hashtag :
24. Ridiculous :
25. Attracted :

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