Tim Paradis

I led communications at FEMA during a hurricane — and had to flee my home after a death threat

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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jaclyn Rothenberg, senior vice president for reputation management at Avoq, a communications and lobbying firm. From July 2021 to late 2024, she was a spokesperson and director of public affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.

It was the fall of 2024. I was the director of public affairs at FEMA during Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which was a huge moment in the world of misinformation because there was so much of it, so fast. And it was in the middle of the election cycle.

My job was to communicate on behalf of the administration. The primary goal was to make sure that people were connected to services and support so they could get back on their feet.

In the middle of the response, as we were communicating safety and recovery information, other public officials and I were targeted. A mix of people were insinuating that we weren’t doing our job. They were also spreading misinformation.

As I reflect, what was really surprising to me at the time was getting attacked for my religion. I’m Jewish. There were a lot of people online who could say anything and everything without knowing me — very hurtful things.

‘How can you keep doing this?’

I remember my husband saying how upset he was. I think I had mentally tried to block out as much as I could because I felt empowered by continuing to do my job and communicating life-saving information.

I remember him saying, “How can you keep doing this?” The reality is, I was hired to do a job. In Judaism, they really do teach you to do what’s best for people. It’s a phrase called tikkun olam.

I continued to work through it as much as I could. The social media posts made fun of my appearance, my last name. There were very terrible things said and photos that were shared, and very antisemitic rhetoric.

It forced the agency to put security protection on me, because someone threatened to kill me. That was surreal because I was hired to be a communications lead for the agency. I was technically a political appointee, as a Biden administration official. Still, it felt like one of the first times when people weren’t just going after politicians, but also federal employees for doing what they were hired to do.

A contractor had been working with us to help identify misinformation. I believe they alerted the senior-most folks at my agency, who then brought the threat to my attention. Everyone was working almost 24-hour days. A colleague said, “We need to speak with you urgently.” They told me that there was a real, serious threat.

Staying vigilant

The catalyst was a public statement I had put out, pushing back against misinformation. I left my home because the people who were targeting me online found my address, my husband, and my parents. They looked into my work history. I called my husband and said, “We need to call our friends. We need to sleep there. Let’s get the dogs and go.”

Members of senior leadership personally reached out to ensure that I felt safe.

It wasn’t just my parents and my husband. They identified my extended relatives and posted those on social media. The agency worked hard to help me scrub some of that, and I’m thankful for it, but it’s something that a lot of companies should be thinking about. It’s important for people to stay vigilant.

It’s not just the CEO they’re going after

In hindsight, the incident was probably more traumatizing than it felt in the moment, because I think I was in shock. Also, I was still doing my job. I was committed to communicating in these critical moments for survivors, and I don’t think it fully hit me — the magnitude of that incident — until months later. The fact that I had to be silenced for my own protection and couldn’t help other people was hard for me.

I had to tone down public communication from the spokesperson account. I had to stop doing media interviews about the topics that I was trying to get out there. We saw a decrease in registration for assistance. There was real impact.

As a result, one of the things I’ve counseled clients on, both at the C-suite level and below, is that it’s not just the CEO they’re going after. They’ll go after the head of HR, the head of communications.

This is the new normal, unfortunately. It’s important for companies to do exercises on how to respond and how they can protect their senior executives and employees at the same time.

Companies have to think about what protection looks like from a privacy standpoint on social media. I don’t think people really realize the online footprint that they have.

Do you have a story to share about a challenging experience in your career? Contact this reporter at tparadis@businessinsider.com.




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Armed with longer-range missiles, a top Russian fighter jet is posing a bigger threat, analyst says

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Russia’s Su-35 fighter jets are increasingly flying with longer-range air-to-air missiles that make them a potentially greater threat to NATO air operations, a leading airpower expert assessed in a recent report.

Justin Bronk, a researcher at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute, said in his assessment of Russian air power that regularly arming Su-35 and Su-30SM2 jets with R-37M missiles “has significantly contributed to increasing the threat that they can theoretically pose to NATO air operations.”

The R-37M missile, which NATO calls the RS-AA-13, is “much more capable at long range” than the R-77-1 missiles the Su-35 had previously relied on, Bronk told Business Insider in a discussion of his recent report.

R-77-1 missiles have a range of about 62 miles, while R-37M missiles are understood to have a range of around 200 miles. Real-world kills at range depend on a mix of factors, but reach still matters.

Bronk told Business Insider that the longer-range R-37M missiles had been “very much a specialist weapon” for a limited selection of Russian jets. But “now you see absolutely routine employment” of the weapon on Russia’s Su-35S.

The Su-35 fighter is “the primary air superiority aircraft for the Russians,” he added. The jet is key for Russia’s air force, with the UK Ministry of Defence in 2023 describing it as Russia’s “most advanced combat jet in widespread service.”

Bronk told Business Insider that for the NATO alliance, the regular arming of Su-35s and Su-30SM2s with the R-37M is “a problem” because it puts “more credible long-range air-to-air missiles at play from the Russian side.”

Those missiles used to be contained within a smaller part of the force, mainly Russia’s MiG-31s. Now, Bronk said, having them on more jets “is obviously a significant growth in the potential threat that they can pose to NATO aircraft in a direct conflict.”


A grey fighter jet in a light blue sky with fire visable in its two engines

The R-37M was previously concentrated on Russia’s MiG-31 jets.

Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images



Additionally, he said, Russia’s Su-35 crews are “generally more highly selected, better trained, more capable than the crews on the MiG-31s.” Russia’s better pilots tend to fly its top jets, and those will be the pilots operating these missiles.

Having them routinely carry long-range air-to-air missiles, rather than the “really pretty limited” R77-1 that they used to carry, Bronk said, “is a significant shift.”

A missile with a longer reach

The R-37M’s combat effectiveness has been spotlighted by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Late that year, a RUSI report said the R-37M, combined with Russia’s MiG-31BM interceptor aircraft, was proving to be “highly effective and difficult for Ukrainian pilots to evade due to its speed, very long range, and specialized seeker for low-altitude targets.”

At that time, it said Russia was just starting to put them on Su-35S jets.

A newer report from RUSI in November highlighted how much more the R-37M missile was being used, saying that this missile “in particular, has been used to destroy several Ukrainian aircraft at long range,” including one kill recorded at more than 109 miles.

“This is significantly beyond the engagement range of most NATO air-to-air munitions,” the report said. But it also said that the missiles’ success was “heavily determined by Ukraine’s lack of effective radar warning receivers,” something NATO has fielded far more robustly across its air forces.

The Su-35 threat

Making the Su-35 more powerful is a big move for Russia. In 2022, analysts at the RAND Corporation described the Su-35 as Russia’s “signature heavy fighter.”

Ukraine has shot down multiple Su-35s in its fight against Russia’s invasion, but Bronk said that despite reported losses, the fleet has “marginally increased since the start of the full-scale war.”

He estimated that in late 2020, Russia had about 90 Su-35s. Between eight and 10 have been lost in combat or accidents, he said, but 55 to 60 new aircraft have since been delivered — leaving Russia with roughly 135 to 140 Su-35s overall, a net increase despite the attrition.

Bronk’s analysis was based on interviews with Western air forces and ministries, data from Ukraine’s armed forces, and open-source information.

He said that the Russian air force has gained so much valuable combat experience against Ukraine that its air force is now “a significantly more capable potential threat for Western air forces than it was in 2022.”

He said that in air-to-air combat, where Russian aircraft take on Western ones, the West still has a strong advantage, but longer-range air-to-air missiles complicate the picture.

And any fight would not only be in the air. The West would face not only Russia’s air force but also its vast ground-based air defense network, which the war has also made more formidable.

Bronk told Business Insider that Su-35 crews are typically “much better at working with the ground-based air defenses,” meaning the jets can operate more effectively under the umbrella of Russian surface-to-air missile systems and are therefore “more credible as an air-to-air threat.”

He said that the improvement of those ground-based defenses throughout the war — combined with the fielding of more powerful missiles on Su-35s that are increasingly integrated with them — is one reason why Russian airpower “represents a greater threat to Western air power capabilities in Europe” than it did before the full-scale invasion.




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Taylor Rains

Trump’s threat to ‘decertify’ Canadian planes is a safety risk

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President Donald Trump’s threat to “decertify” Canadian-made aircraft — the backbone of many US carriers’ regional jet fleet — is a threat to aviation safety, industry watchers said Friday.

The president also doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally declare planes unworthy to fly in the US, Henry Harteveldt, an aviation industry authority and president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Business Insider. That authority belongs to the FAA.

The trade spat — another in a continuing back-and-forth between Trump and Canada — comes after Canada hasn’t fully certified newer US-made Gulfstream jets to fly in its skies. (It has certified older models.) Gulfstream planes are used almost exclusively by private aviation companies, governments, and the ultrawealthy.

Trump said on Thursday night, in a Truth Social post, that he would “decertify” Canada-made Bombardier jets until Canada approved the Gulfstream models. He also threatened a 50% tariff on “any and all” Canadian aircraft sold in the US until the situation was corrected.

Bombardier said in a statement that it’s in contact with the Canadian government. The FAA referred Business Insider to the White House. A White House official said decertification would not immediately affect aircraft already in operation; it would apply only to new deliveries.

That would be a relief for US airlines like American, Delta, and United, whose regional affiliates operate Bombardier CRJ aircraft to cities across the country.


SkyWest crj700.

Regional carrier SkyWest, operating on behalf of the Big 3 and Alaska Airlines, is the largest operator of Canadian-made planes. It has 238, per Cirium.

Fabrizio Gandolfo/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images



Still, any move to decertify these more than 2,000 passenger airliners and private jets — part of almost 5,550 Canadian-made aircraft and helicopters certified in the US, according to Cirium — could trigger thousands of flight cancellations a day. A 50% tariff would likely raise airline ticket prices.

Aviation analysts said Trump’s threat posed a safety risk in itself.

“Anything that intrudes on the turf of safety regulators coming from politics, trade issues, or personal grievances is a very, very bad idea,” Richard Aboulafia, managing director of the aviation consultancy AeroDynamic Advisory, told Business Insider.

Aboulafia said aircraft certification is intentionally non-political for a reason: Regulators are meant to evaluate risk, not respond to trade threats. Once certification becomes a political weapon, trust in the system erodes for manufacturers, operators, and the flying public, he contended.

Why is the Gulfstream certification delayed in Canada?

In Canada’s case, the delay in certification is likely not obstructionism but the result of independent regulatory decisions.

For the Gulfstream G700 and G800, Canada hasn’t completed its own certification, while the FAA has granted Gulfstream a temporary exemption from certain fuel‑icing rules designed to ensure aircraft engines and systems operate safely in extreme cold.

The FAA waiver means Gulfstream has until the end of this year to meet those requirements — meaning the aircraft is operating under essentially conditional certification in the US, despite being allowed to be delivered.

These waivers are not unusual and are typically granted to allow new aircraft to enter service while completing certain technical tests and paperwork, rather than because the planes are unsafe.

Still, history shows what can sometimes go wrong when thorough certification and safety protocols are deprioritized. The most consequential example was the Boeing 737 Max, which suffered two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019 due to systemic design issues, killing 346 people.

More recently, in early 2024, a door plug separated on another 737 Max due to quality-control issues at Boeing’s Washington factory, further exacerbating scrutiny of production and certification. No one died in that incident.

Part of the reason the 737 Max issues slipped past regulators is that, for decades, global authorities often relied on reciprocal approvals, effectively rubber-stamping each other’s certifications to speed aircraft to market.

The Max disasters exposed the risks of that approach. Today, regulators — including those in Canada — are expected to conduct their own full assessments rather than automatically rely on approvals from foreign authorities.

The FAA itself is taking extra precautions before certifying the Boeing 737 Max 7 and 10, as both aircraft have technical problems that could lead to engine overheating. Boeing initially asked for a waiver but rescinded it amid the scrutiny.




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Under threat, Ukraine’s drone schools are going to great lengths to stay off Russia’s radar

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The leaders of several drone schools training Ukraine’s operators for the fight against Russia say they’re targets and they have to act accordingly — tightly protecting information and even moving around.

Throughout its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has launched huge drone and missile barrages at factories, training sites, and civilian infrastructure across the country, often far from the fighting in the east, straining Ukrainian defenses and serving as a constant reminder that nowhere in the country is completely safe.

Drones are prolific on the battlefield in Ukraine. Operators are priority targets. It stands to reason the schools training them for war would be too. Officials from three drone schools told Business Insider that they take steps to avoid getting hit.

Tetyana, a Ukrainian veteran who goes by the call sign “Ruda” and is now the head of R&D for Dronarium, a drone training school with sites in Kyiv and Lviv, said that it must follow strict safety rules because “the entirety of Ukraine is not safe, missile-wise, drone-wise.”

Dmytro Slediuk, head of the education department at Dronarium, told BI the safety measures, including not disclosing publicly exactly where its training centers are located and also changing their location “from time to time,” are necessary to prevent Russia from interfering with its training

To keep certain location data from getting out, the school doesn’t allow photos and videos that might reveal where its facilities are based.

The school has been mentioned by Russia’s military bloggers, influential pro-war accounts that often circulate operational details and commentary to large audiences. Though they are typically in favor of the war, they are also sometimes critical of Russia’s performance and dispute some of its defense ministry’s claims.


Two figures stand in an open field beside a launcher with a grey winged drone in the air

Drone schools say they’re targets for Russia.

Ivan Antypenko/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images



Rybar, a media outlet with 1.5 million Telegram subscribers, listed Dronarium as an example of Ukraine’s drone training efforts. The UK has sanctioned Rybar, initially presented as a milblogger but actually a partially Russian government-sponsored information warfare operation, and the US has offered up to $10 million for information.

Tetyana said Russian outlets have been writing about the school since 2022, the year Russia started its full-scale invasion. “As long as they write and talk about us, it means that they are afraid of us,” she said. But it also means that they’re on Russia’s radar.

She said the school and its attendees strictly adhere to a set of critical cybersecurity rules, and said there are also general safety rules in place. “When the air raid siren is on, all training activities, all the work, everything gets suspended, and we deconcentrate and get into safe shelters.” She said no one is complacent.

Vitalii Pervak, CEO of another training school, Karlsson, Karas & Associates, said that safety steps are crucial because “the Russians are constantly hunting for places where military personnel gather.”

Ukrainian officials have confirmed that Russia has hit some Ukrainian military training sites, killing personnel. It’s the kind of thing air defenses can try to prevent, but Ukraine has suffered shortages throughout the war. Ukraine has also successfully hit Russian bases and gatherings of Russian personnel.

The key is to prevent Russia from gaining sufficient knowledge of the school to target it. Its steps include “everyone who works at KK&A, including the cleaners,” having to do a polygraph security interview.

He said they don’t share any information about the location of the training center or about the appearance of the instructors or cadets.

“Some of our employees may have relatives or acquaintances in occupied territories who could be tortured by Russians for indirect contact with someone who opposes Russia,” Pervak said. “This secrecy also protects the instructors and cadets themselves, as well as their relatives, from attacks by Russian agents.”

He said that while the added security “hinders publicity to some extent — good things should be spoken about loudly — war dictates its own conditions. We are well aware that failing to observe the principles of secrecy may result in the death of staff or cadets.”

Viktor Taran, the CEO of the Kruk Drones UAV training center, said that “Russia is interested in destroying us.”

“Thanks to God and air defence, we’re still operating.”




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