Gabby Douglas, the three-time gold medal-winning Olympic gymnast, has announced her return to the sport after a seven-year hiatus. She expressed her excitement and gratitude for the opportunity to return, and mentioned that she is in a good mental health place, having "found peace." Douglas has been keeping busy since her last Olympics appearance in 2012, and her return to the sport is sure to be an exciting one.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a statement regarding the safety of aspartame, an artificial sweetener found in Diet Coke and other sugar-free foods and drinks. The WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) categorized aspartame as a Group 2B carcinogen, based on limited evidence for cancer in humans. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not agree and believes that aspartame is safe to consume in high amounts. Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the department of nutrition and food safety at WHO, has said that science is continuously expanding to assess the possible initiating or facilitating factors of cancer.
Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of Elvis Presley, died of a small bowel obstruction in January, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's report. The obstruction was caused by adhesions that developed during bariatric surgery years ago, and her death was due to natural causes. Her family and fans mourned her passing, as she was 54 at the time of her death.
Federal prosecutors have filed an 11-page motion to protect classified materials in the prosecution of President Donald Trump. The motion outlines the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and proposes a protective order to limit the use of classified information to the courtroom and prevent it from being shared with third parties. The court must now determine if the information is necessary for the defense and rule on the motion.
This article discusses the current situation in the Senate regarding President Joe Biden's nomination of Julie Su to serve as Secretary of Labor. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) has announced his opposition to Su, likely dooming her chances of confirmation in the narrowly divided Senate. Under a 1946 law, amended in 1986, Su is permitted to continue to run the department without being confirmed, leaving the Democrats to decide how to move forward in order to ensure the Department of Labor is led by an experienced and qualified leader.
After two weeks of negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) failed to reach an agreement, SAG-AFTRA has voted to go on strike. The union's chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said the strike will begin at midnight and affect 65,000 actors, potentially crippling film and TV productions across the U.S. and impacting the entertainment industry.
Alexander Mashinsky, the former CEO of Celsius Network, was arrested on Thursday on federal fraud charges. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) alleged that Mashinsky misled customers about key aspects of the business and illegally manipulated the price of Celsius’s proprietary crypto token. The company agreed to pay a $4.7 billion settlement with government regulators, one of the largest in the FTC’s history, and the settlement highlights repeated deceptions by Celsius and Mashinsky. The indictment against Mashinsky is a sign that the government is taking a hard line against crypto-related fraud.
Negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have broken down, leading to the possibility of a strike by thousands of actors represented by SAG-AFTRA. The union is demanding better pay, improved safety protocols, and more transparency from the studios, as well as residual payments for streaming services. The AMPTP has not yet commented on the situation, but the two sides are likely to continue to negotiate in the coming days.