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 They are the bête noire of many nutritionists - mass-produced yet moreish foods like chicken nuggets, packaged snacks, fizzy drinks, ice cream or even sliced brown bread. So-called ultra-processed foods (UPF) account for 56% of calories consumed across the UK, and that figure is higher for children and people who live in poorer areas. UPFs are defined by how many industrial processes they have been through and the number of ingredients - often unpronounceable - on their packaging. Most are high in fat, sugar or salt; many you’d call fast food. What unites them is their synthetic look and taste, which has made them a target for some clean-living advocates. There is a growing body of evidence that these foods aren’t good for us. But experts can’t agree how exactly they affect us or why, and it’s not clear that science is going to give us an answer any time soon. While recent research shows many pervasive health problems, including cancers, heart disease, obesity and depression are l...

 Timing, luck or talent  What do an Italian communist student of mime, a toddler with an eye for a ball and a comedian who jokes about nothing have in common? They all went on to become members of a very select global club. Miuccia Prada, Tiger Woods and Jerry Seinfeld are among about 2,800 people on the planet who are US-dollar billionaires. But the list of super-rich is very international. According to the American media firm Forbes, which tracks the fortunes of the world's richest, the United States has 813 billionaires, China (including Hong Kong) is second with 473, and India is third with 200. The size of these fortunes can be hard to comprehend. A billion is a huge number - to give an idea of scale, one million seconds is 11 days, but a billion is 32 years. And for some, the very existence of billionaires is obscene. Eighty-one of the world's richest people - about a bus-full - have more combined wealth than the poorest four billion people in the world. In a 2023 report...

It’s a situation familiar to many women: They go to the hair salon for a cut and spend a small fortune, while their male partners, brothers, uncles, and guy friends spend considerably less in the barbershop, or in the same salon. But are women really paying more for the same service? Can any differences in price be justified? Or is this another example of a “ pink tax ,” where products and services targeted at women cost more than those targeted at men for  no discernible reason ? The available data certainly lends credence to many women’s frustrations. Last year, the average cost for a standard women’s haircut was $51.71 compared with $34.56 for a men’s haircut across the United States, according to transaction data provided exclusively to CNN by Square, a payment systems provider. The cheapest women’s haircut could be found in South Dakota for $31.43 — almost one and a half times more than the $21.59 paid by men for their cheapest haircut, also in that state. Across the pond...

  Donald Trump has told one of the largest cryptocurrency events of the year that if he is re-elected president he will fire the chairperson of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the first day. Trump was the keynote speaker at Bitcoin 2024 on Saturday, a gathering of industry heavyweights in Nashville, Tennessee. The Republican presidential candidate used the event to court voters and encourage campaign donations from the tech community. Cryptocurrency has emerged as a political battleground for Republicans, with Trump claiming the Democratic Party and Vice-President Kamala Harris were “against crypto”. The audience was at its most animated when Trump declared “on day one I will fire Gary Gensler”, the SEC chair nominated by current President Joe Biden. The crowd cheered loudly and started to chant “Trump” at this declaration. Mr Gensler led a  crackdown on the crypto industry , and has previously said the sector is rife with “hucksters”. The SEC brought charge...

A Pornography Blackout Is Rolling Across The US Papers please: for millions of Americans, accessing online pornography now requires a government ID. It could have global implications for the future of the web. Pay a visit to the website Pornhub while in the state of Texas today and you may be disappointed. Instead of the usual content you might find on a pornographic website, you'll get just a single video. It features a fully-clothed adult film star called Cherie DeVille – and she's discussing public policy. "As you may know, your elected officials are  requiring us to verify your age  before allowing you access to our website," DeVille says  in the video . Rather than asking its users to hand over photographic ID on every visit, she explains, Pornhub and its network of sister sites decided to simply block everyone in the state. Texans aren't alone. As you read this, a pornography blackout is rolling across the US. In 2023, Arkansas, Mississippi, Utah and Virgini...

  Cheetahs are famous for being the fastest land animals – but research suggests there's much more to their athleticism than just speed. Imagine you are an impala, racing across the African savannah to try and escape a cheetah – the world's fastest land animal, which can reach a running speed of  more than 100 km/h  (62 mph). It may seem like a hopeless effort, but in real life, impalas do sometimes manage to get away. Which running strategy do you think would give you the best chance of beating the cheetah? A. Fast and in a straight line B. Fast and zig-zag C. Slow and in a straight line D. Slow and zig-zaga Agrowing body of research on wild cheetahs and their prey not only reveals the answer to this quiz – more on this below –by but also offers wider insights into why exactly cheetahs are so fast, and what we might learn from them to help our own athletic pursuits. Alan Wilson, a professor of locomotor biomechanics at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, ...