Reports suggest the World Health Organization could label the sweetener as possibly carcinogenic.
Aspartame – is it a possible cause of cancer?
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Kelly Clarkson Has A Lot To Say About Her Alleged ‘Beef’ With Carrie Underwood
Kelly Clarkson is eager to prove she has “no beef” with fellow American Idol winner Carrie Underwood.
The talk show host accidentally jumped the gun on addressing reports of a feud with the country singer during an appearance on Andy Cohen’s Watch What Happens Live.
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When a fan called in with a question and began to ask about Underwood, Clarkson jumped in and cut them off.
“Kelly, after years of everyone trying to pit you and Carrie Underwood against each other ― ” the fan said, as Clarkson responded, “I think I know where you’re going with this.”
“People always pit us together, and we don’t even know each other well enough to be pitted against each other,” she said. “Like, literally, we’ve run into each other a handful of times. There’s no beef between us. There’s nothing! We don’t know each other.”
Clarkson then got slightly embarrassed after Cohen stepped in to ask the fan, “What was the rest of your [question]?”
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When the caller said, “…What was your favorite part of having her as a guest on your talk show?” Clarkson laughed at her quick answer and got up from her chair.
“Look, everybody always asks me the ‘pitted against each other’ question,” the Since U Been Gone singer said of her immediate reply, before saying it “was awesome” to have Underwood on the show.
“I think the thing that was cool about it is that everybody always pits us against each other, and I don’t know why they do that ― they don’t do that with dudes!” she said. “We don’t even know each other well enough to do that. But I think I’d love to have her [on the show] in person. It was during Covid, so it was over Zoom.”
Clarkson has addressed the alleged feud between the two before, once taking to Twitter to shut down reports after Star magazine claimed the singers were engaged in an explosive fight and “TRASHING each other to friends.”
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“Someone just sent me this & I’m like why does she get the good pic & I have the worst expression I’ve ever made w/zero muscles being used in my face ha!” Clarkson tweeted back in 2019, alongside a photo of the cover in question.
“I officially have a feud w/whoever used this pic! At least give me a good pic if y’all are gonna be lying is all I’m sayin,” she quipped.
The two also graciously responded to a poll on Twitter, which asked fans to choose the “most iconic” Idol winner ― Underwood or Clarkson.
“I think we’re both winning in life and pretty blessed! Singers, mamas, CEO’s….” Clarkson wrote.
“Whatever, girl, I voted for you!” Underwood responded. “But seriously, I do wish more publications would just celebrate women’s success without pitting them against each other… Just my thoughts…anyway… Love ya’! Hope you’re well!”
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Tory Party Chair Leaves Twitter Bewildered With His Attempt To Mock Keir Starmer
Greg Hands left people scratching their heads when he posted a video on Twitter trying to show up Keir Starmer – and failed, miserably.
The Conservative Party chair shared a 14-second video on Twitter on Thursday lunchtime showing the Labour Party leader arriving to campaign in the Selby and Ainsty by-election.
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It comes after the Tory MP Nigel Adams resigned earlier this month. As a long-standing ally of Boris Johnson, he was expected to received a peerage in the ex-PM’s resignation honours but didn’t make the final cut.
When Starmer, deputy leader Angela Rayner and their team arrived at Selby train station, Conservative campaigners appeared to have arranged an ambush for them.
″Welcome to Selby, Sir Keir,” the Tories cheered, laughing and clapping as they spotted him.
But, the Labour leader looked far from taken aback. He just walked over to greet them, and the two groups seem to have an amicable exchange.
When Hands shared the footage on Twitter, though, he said: “North London Leftie lawyer and top flip-flopper Sir Keir is one of the Conservatives’ trump cards in the Selby By-Election!”
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Understandably, Twitter was pretty confused over the point of the tweet, noting there didn’t seem to be any “gotcha” in the video (or the caption) at all…
Others reminded Hands that he, too, is a London MP…
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And plenty said it just showed Starmer in an even better light.
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Other people just joked that this was a sign the seat was going to be passed over to Labour.
President Biden using sleep apnoea treatment device, White House says
The president uses a CPAP machine, the White House said after reporters spotted marks on his face.
NHS staff sickness hits record high in England
The equivalent of 75,000 staff are lost to illness, as the absence rate jumps 29% since before the pandemic.
Chrissy Teigen And John Legend Welcome Their Fourth Child Via Surrogate
Chrissy Teigen and John Legend are now parents of four.
Teigen announced the arrival of their son, Wren Alexander Stephens, in a thoughtful Instagram post on Wednesday, sharing how their baby boy was born on Monday, June 19, via surrogate.
In her post, the cookbook author detailed her unique experience being pregnant at the same time as her “incredible, loving, compassionate surrogate”, Alexandra, who gave birth to Wren just five months after the star welcomed daughter Esti in January.
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Teigen decided to pursue IVF while working with her surrogate in hopes of achieving her dream of having four kids. The star and Legend already shared daughter Luna, 7, and son Miles, 5, at the time.
Five months into Teigen’s pregnancy, she learned Alexandra was expecting their baby boy.
They celebrated by watching reality TV “with our growing bellies, our families blending into one for the past year”, she said.
“Just minutes before midnight on June 19th, I got to witness the most beautiful woman, my friend, our surrogate, give birth amidst a bit of chaos, but with strength and pure joy and love,” Teigen continued.
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“We want to say thank you for this incredible gift you have given us, Alexandra,” she added. “And we are so happy to tell the world he is here, with a name forever connected to you, Wren Alexander Stephens.”
Amy Sussman via Getty Images
“Our hearts, and our home, are officially full,” she added.
Teigen also remembered their late son Jack writing, “We know both their angel kisses are from you.”
The model and her EGOT husband lost Jack in October 2020 after she experienced complications while pregnant.
Teigen wrote about her experience on Instagram at the time, sharing, “We are shocked, and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before. We were never able to stop the bleeding and give our baby the fluids he needed, despite bags and bags of blood transfusions. It just wasn’t enough.”
Though Teigen’s pregnancy loss was widely reported as a miscarriage, she later revealed she had a life-saving abortion as the doctors told her she was carrying a “baby that had absolutely no chance” of surviving birth.
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“Let’s just call it what it was,” Teigen said during a talk in September 2022. “It was an abortion.”
Madonna Hospitalised After Being Found Unresponsive
Madonna was hospitalised on Saturday after being found unresponsive, according to multiple reports citing her manager, Guy Oseary.
Her manager said on Wednesday that she had developed a “serious bacterial infection,” but added that she is expected to make a full recovery.
“On Saturday June 24, Madonna developed a serious bacterial infection which lead to a several day stay in the ICU,” he wrote on Instagram. “Her health is improving, however she is still under medical care. A full recovery is expected.”
Oseary added that Madonna will postpone her Celebration tour, which she was scheduled to begin in mid-July.
Why Fears Over Thames Water’s Collapse Have Sparked A Debate About Nationalising Water Again
Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water supplier, could be placed in temporary state ownership if it fails to secure extra funding to pay-off huge debts, it has been reported.
Fears over the collapse of the utility that supplies about a quarter of Britain’s population is the latest controversy to beset the industry, and has prompted a debate over whether the sector should be nationalised again after being sold-off in the 1980s.
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What’s the problem?
Put simply, Thames Water is struggling with a £14 billion debt pile and rising interest rates – and needs to raise money to service it. The company said it was “continuing to work constructively” with its shareholders to help raise the £1 billion of fresh equity it says it needs to operate.
Thames Water is owned by a consortium of institutional investors that includes a Canadian pension fund. Around £1 billion of its debt is due to be repaid by the end of 2024, on top of other loans.
In a sign of the pressure the company is under, chief executive Sarah Bentley stepped down with immediate effect on Tuesday after two years trying to revive its fortunes.
What is the government doing to help?
The government has held talks with the regulator Ofwat about the situation, while water minister Rebecca Pow said it would act to ensure water keeps flowing regardless of the company’s financial situation. She told MPs it was not her place to comment on the financial position of a company, but said water firms were “considered resilient”.
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Sky News reported earlier that, under contingency plans being drawn up, Thames Water could be placed into a “special administration regime”, effectively state ownership.
That happened in 2021 in the energy supply sector, which like water is also a privatised regulated industry, when the government rescued energy supplier Bulb after it collapsed, in a deal which cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.
Ofwat said it had been in ongoing talks with Thames Water about the need for a credible plan to turn the business around.
What about re-nationalisation?
The industry was privatised by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives in 1989. Most water systems are in the public sector, including in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The idea was the private sector was better placed to improve drinking water and keep rivers and beaches clean than the government, which would always prioritise areas such as schools and the NHS.
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But the rationale has come under scrutiny in recent years amid a public outcry over the release of sewage into rivers and seas.
Such releases of sewage are only supposed to happen during exceptional rainfall to stop it backing up into homes, but campaigners say water companies are discharging sewage much more often than they should.
In 2022, water companies in England alone released raw sewage into rivers and the sea 301,091 times, an average of 825 times a day, according to data from the Environment Agency.
Public anger has been further stoked by the payment of dividends to investors and large salaries and bonuses to water industry executives.
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Thames Water said in its annual report in October that it had not paid a dividend to its shareholders for the last five years. Previous owners Australia’s Macquarie, however, was paid a dividend of £1.6 billion pounds over the decade to 2016, according to the Financial Times.
Labour’s shadow climate and net zero secretary Ed Miliband has said that the feared collapse of Thames Water is a “total scandal” but has insisted that the party are “cautious about nationalisation of water companies”.
He told Andrew Marr on LBC nationalising the water companies “would involve… billions of pounds of public money being given to the water companies’ shareholders”.
But Cat Hobbs, of the campaign group We Own It, said England’s privatised water companies “treat our rivers and seas like a sewer and their customers (who have no choice) like an ATM” – and the costs of re-nationalisation should not be off-putting.
She told The Guardian: “We, the public, should own them but we don’t, so they work for their shareholders around the world, not for us. That’s why our water bills prop up a profiteering racket instead of being invested to clean up the raw sewage in our rivers.
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“That means buying back the assets because Thatcher sold them off wholesale but in return we’ll get assets. Bringing water into public ownership pays for itself in around six years.”
ALMA digs deeper into the mystery of planet formation
An international research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs of planet formation. This survey was motivated by the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in the more-evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had been no systematic study to search for signs of planet formation in younger protostellar systems.
Planets form in a disk around a newborn star. These ‘proto-planetary’ disks only last a few million years, meaning that a forming planetary system only has this amount of time to finish its formation. However, it is still not clear just how rapidly planet formation begins within these disks. Recent ALMA observations have revealed that many proto-planetary disks have substructures such as gaps and rings, indicating that planets are already forming from the disk. “These previous results motivated us to examine even younger disks around protostars to answer the question, at what stage of star formation do planet forms,” says Nagayoshi Ohashi at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA, Taiwan), who led the team.
The team observed disks around 19 protostars located within about 650 light-years from the Earth. This is the first systematic study to investigate the detailed structure of disks around a large sample of protostars with high angular resolution. The observations clearly show that the disks around protostars are different from more-evolved proto-planetary disks. Among the 19 protostars, rings, and gaps, which are signs of planet formation, were observed only in a few disks. Moreover, the ring structures are less distinct than those seen in the proto-planetary disks.
“We did not expect to see such clear differences between disks around protostars and more-evolved disks,” says Ohashi. John Tobin, a Co-PI of the program at the National Radio Astronomical Observatory (USA) adds “Our results suggest that disks around protostars are not fully ready for planet formation. We believe that the actual formation of the planetary system progresses rapidly in the 100,000 years to 1,000,000 years after star formation begins.”
Mountains vulnerable to extreme rain from climate change
As the world warms, extreme weather events grow — and they also change. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) found that climate change is shifting snowfall to rainfall on mountains across the Northern Hemisphere. Those surges of liquid water bring a distinct set of dangers, including floods, landslides, and soil erosion.
“One quarter of the global population lives in or downstream from mountainous regions,” said Mohammed Ombadi, first author of the paper published today in Nature. “They are going to be directly affected by this risk.”
Scientists already expect climate change to increase the volume of water falling during extreme events (which typically take place over a few hours to a day), but this study is the first time researchers have looked at whether that extreme precipitation comes as rain or snow. They found that the fraction of water falling as snow decreased in mountainous regions, falling instead as rain — making mountains particularly susceptible to extreme rain hazards. They even put a number to it: For every 1 degree Celsius increase in the global temperature, researchers expect an average of 15% more rain at high elevations.
“This increase in rainfall extremes is not only something that is going to happen from now until the end of the 21st century — we’re already seeing it,” Ombadi said. “That same rate was also evident in the data from 1950 to 2019. Rainfall extremes in mountains have already been increasing, and will continue to change with that 15% rate.”
While all the mountain ranges in the Northern Hemisphere are seeing the shift from snow to rain, those at greatest risk of extreme rainfall events are the North American Pacific mountain ranges (the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and coastal ranges from Canada to Southern California), the Himalayas, and high-latitude regions. Researchers are still working to understand why those areas are at higher risk than other mountain ranges such as the Rockies or the Alps.
“We think that North American Pacific mountain ranges are more susceptible to the risk of rainfall extremes than other mountain ranges because a significant portion of snowfall in this region typically occurs at temperatures just below zero degrees Celsius,” Ombadi said. “The slightest change in air temperature will shift this snowfall to rainfall. This is unlike other mountain ranges where snowfall may occur at very low temperatures below zero degrees.”
Ombadi hopes that fellow climate scientists will incorporate the distinction between snowfall and rainfall to improve global climate models, and that civil engineers and planners will use the data to better prepare for intense rain events.
“We need to factor these results into how we design and build the infrastructure in these mountainous regions, so that they can withstand the negative consequences of increases in rainfall extremes,” Ombadi said.
Meanwhile, countries continue efforts to meet targets established by the Paris Agreement that would limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
“Our findings revealed a linear relationship between the level of warming and the increase in extreme rainfall: For instance, 1 degree of warming causes 15% more rain, while 3 degrees leads to a 45% increase in rainfall,” Ombadi said. “There are many technologies in progress that could help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions and how much the planet warms. To me, this study shows the need to invest in those clean solutions, and also start preparing for the consequences of warming now.”
This work was funded by the DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program.
