How is fire both a friend and a foe

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

b. cronkite, a trusted television personality, declared that the war was unwinnable and told the american people that the government had better find a way out

even though it went against everything the news anchors typically stood for, cronkite voiced an opinion and took a stance, telling the us that there was no way they were going to win, the war was going to end in a stalemate.