Lorraine Kelly praised for sharing candid detail about her appearance on live TV
The broadcaster revealed during her show that she wears hair extensions "for telly," while speaking with celebrity hairstylist Richard Ward.
During the segment, the Gorbals telly star reached behind her head and removed one of the extensions on camera, saying: "Can I just say, every morning when I'm on the telly, I have these wee things."
She then playfully swung the extension in the air and said: "Look, da, da, da, da."
READ MORE: Lorraine Kelly admits 'I'm in trouble' after sharing huge rule break
Her guest, the famed stylist Richard Ward, exclaimed with amusement: "Oh my god, that's fantastic," to which Lorraine humorously answered: "Aren't they great?!
She continued saying: "I don't do it for real, true life, but I do it for telly. Helen puts them in in the morning."
She then held the hairpiece under her chin and joked: "Look, ta da! It can double as a beard."
READ MORE: Lorraine Kelly shares worry over weight loss drugs like Ozempic
(Image: Lorraine Instagram) Richard then declared: "That is amazing."
She replied: "It just gives you a little bit more round there."
This afternoon, fans witnessed the fun through a clip shared on Lorraine's official Instagram account
The caption read: "After celebrity stylist Richard Ward gave one viewer a transformation to help with thinning hair on today's show, Lorraine makes a confession about her own hair!"
Fans reacted warmly to the clip after it was shared on the show's official Instagram account.
One viewer said: "I just love you."
Another wrote: "Love you for doing this."
A third commented: "It's so nice that you're so normal, Lorraine!
"Love that dress too!"
Others praised her openness and relatability, with one writing: "I just love Lorraine, she is so real and down to earth."
Another commented: "Lorraine, I love you.
"Everything you do is about reality and what people are going through.
"My hair is thinning due to menopause, and I put the tracks in my hair to make it fuller.
"Thank you for being real."
Another fan said: "Thanks, Lorraine for being so honest about what ladies going through Menopause need."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ric Flair, Jiri Prochazka, Petr Yan, Lerone Murphy, Steven Nguyen and more
Ariel Helwani is BACK ... IN ... YOUR ... LIFE! Join "The Ariel Helwani Show" as Ariel and the Boys In The Back react to another busy weekend in combat at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT/6 p.m. UK time live on Uncrowned and YouTube. Monday's lineup can be seen below. 1 p.m. ET: Ariel and the gang react to anything and everything from the weekend in combat sports. 1:45 p.m. ET: Wrestling legend Ric Flair joins the program. 2:30 p.m. ET: Jiri Prochazka previews his UFC 320 showdown against Khalil Rountree Jr. 3 p.m. ET: Petr Yan stops by following his big win over Marcus McGhee. 3:30 p.m. ET: Lerone Murphy looks ahead to his short-notice return against Aaron Pico. 4 p.m. ET: Steven Nguyen calls in following his viral win over Mohammad Yahya. Catch all new episodes of "The Ariel Helwani Show" live every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET on Uncrowned and The Ariel Helwani Show's YouTube page. To listen to every episode, subscribe on Spotify or iTunes.


CNN
26 minutes ago
- CNN
Their five minute airplane chat led to lasting love
You can listen to this story on CNN's Chance Encounters podcast. On a recent transatlantic flight from Florida to London Heathrow, married flight attendants Hunter Smith-Lihas and John Lihas locked eyes across the aisle. The two men smiled at each other, before swiftly returning to serving champagne to first class travelers. This shared smile was fleeting, but spoke volumes. And later, when Hunter and John were on break at the same time, the couple found themselves sitting in the onboard crew lounge, reflecting on the shared life and careers they've built together. 'I met you for five minutes on the airplane when I wasn't even supposed to, and now we're living in the city together, and you're sitting across from me on the plane and we're working together,' Hunter recalls saying to John. 'You never think when you meet someone for the first time like that, that it'd go this far. So it's kind of surreal. And it honestly just makes you so happy, because you're like, how did I get here?' Prev Next How Hunter and John got here was via a series of unexpected moments and decisions starting six years ago, in 2017. Back then, Hunter was just known as Hunter Smith. He was in his early 20s and working as a gate agent for Spirit Airlines. He'd aspired to work in aviation since he'd starting watching a flight attendant who chronicled her job on YouTube. 'I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, this is the best job ever. I definitely want to do something like this,'' Hunter tells CNN Travel today. After he graduated college, Hunter secured a gate staff position in his home city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The role was the perfect foot in the aviation door. Working the airport gate, Hunter interacted with hundreds, if not thousands, of people each day. As a sociable person, he always enjoyed the conversations — however brief — with travelers and airline staff. But Spirit Airlines' employment pool was so big he rarely met the same flight attendants twice. One morning, one of Hunter's gate attendant coworkers asked if he could pass on some papers to the captain of a soon-to-depart Spirit flight, which was heading to Orlando, Florida. This kind of task, says Hunter, was 'typically not my job, I did not normally do that.' But off he went, walking down the gangway and onto the aircraft. He passed on the paperwork to the captain and then waited for the all-clear to disembark. It didn't come right away, so Hunter stood by the door, biding his time. 'There was some sort of delay in him processing the paperwork,' he recalls. Also standing at the front of the aircraft was another guy, the flight attendant looking after the front half of the plane. This, of course, was John. Back then, John was a total stranger to Hunter. Sure, they both worked for the same airline — but so did thousands of other people scattered across the United States. 'We had never seen each other prior to that day,' says John, who was in his late 20s at the time. As they waited, Hunter and John met eyes for the first time, and they smiled at each other. Hunter spotted a pin on John's lanyard. Intriguingly, it looked like the insignia of another airline. 'I'm like, 'Oh, I love the pin on your lanyard. Where'd you get it?' Because it was from another airline – I think it was a Delta Airlines pin,' recalls Hunter. 'I'm like, 'Did you work for Delta before? Where did you get it from? And that's how I started the conversation with him.' The two men chatted back and forth, talking about their respective careers so far, with John explaining he'd never actually worked for Delta. Then John asked Hunter his name, and what his schedule looked like for the rest of the day. They introduced each other properly. Still it was mostly 'just small talk,' as Hunter puts it: 'We never thought this small conversation was going to go anywhere after.' 'It was very short,' echoes John. 'The plane had to leave.' After about five minutes, the paperwork was processed and the aircraft got the go ahead to depart. Hunter said a quick goodbye to John and got off the plane. John watched Hunter head back down the gangway. 'I never thought I would see him again,' says John. Over the rest of his shift that day, as he ushered passengers on and off airplanes, checked hand luggage and made boarding announcements, Hunter kept replaying the short airplane interaction with John in his head. 'There's so many faces and people you meet every single day at the airport. But I don't know. I just had a weird feeling about this guy — a good feeling,' says Hunter That evening, he got out his laptop and Googled 'John Lihas.' A Facebook account with that name popped up right away, and there was John, smiling widely in the profile picture. 'There's so many faces and people you meet every single day at the airport. But I don't know. I just had a weird feeling about this guy — a good feeling.' Hunter Smith-Lihas 'I just wanted to Facebook stalk him,' says Hunter, laughing. 'I didn't even think to add him at the time. But then once I started scrolling through his profile, I'm like, 'I'm just going to do it. I'm going to send a friend request. I'm going to see what happens. If anything, we'll just be friends, coworkers, distant coworkers.' But I didn't really think anything was going to happen.' Hunter hit 'add friend.' The notification popped up on John's cell phone just as he reached his hotel room in Houston, Texas. He'd worked two flights that day, and was looking forward to putting his feet up. Then he saw the friend request. John wouldn't usually accept an invite from someone he didn't really know. But he'd really enjoyed meeting Hunter, even if their interaction was short and sweet. 'So I accepted, just because I was like, 'Hmm, it could be something you never know,'' says John. Then he sent a message to his new Facebook friend. 'Do you always stalk your flight attendants?' he wrote. 'It just started from there,' recalls John. 'One sentence became pages and pages of just talking back and forth.' Over the next few days, John and Hunter messaged regularly. They talked about their families, their ambitions and their shared love of travel. 'The craziest part about it was once we started talking, we realized how many coincidences there were in our life. Things were so similar,' says Hunter. They both had divorced parents, and coincidentally both had one parent who lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and one who lived in Tampa, Florida. And they shared similar hobbies and a positive outlook on life — not to mention a shared profession and passion for traveling. After about a week of messaging, John sent Hunter an unexpected question. 'Hey, I know this is kind of forward — you can totally tell me if you're not comfortable with this idea,' he said. 'But I have a layover in Myrtle Beach. I think you should fly down here. I'd love to fly you down here to have dinner with you and get to know you more.' Beachside Myrtle Beach, in South Carolina, is a 1 hour 30 minute flight from Pittsburgh. It's a short flight, in the grand scheme of things, but a long way for a first date. Hunter debated whether or not to go. Would it be crazy? Was it safe? He barely knew John. But he couldn't shake that 'good feeling' he'd had when he first met John on the airplane. Hunter decided to go for it. He figured he should tell someone about his plans — just in case. He ruled out his parents ('I thought they would think I was a little bit crazy') but filled in his roommate. Then he headed to the airport. John was nervous, too. He'd put himself out there, and wasn't sure how it would pan out ('I really don't do that,' he says of the spontaneous invite). And he didn't tell anyone, except the flight crew he was working with en route to Myrtle Beach, who were all excited for him. But any anxiety melted away when John and Hunter met at the airport, and went out to dinner together. Their connection was just as exciting as that first moment on the airplane. The conversation just as good as the messages online. Later, the two walked hand-in-hand on the boardwalk. As first dates go, it was 'magical,' says Hunter. After all the nerves, everything worked 'perfectly,' says John. Still, as the 36 hours wound to a close, the glow dampened a little bit. 'I was kind of sad, actually,' recalls Hunter. 'Because we were living in two different cities. I didn't know the next time I was going to see him.' But soon a pattern developed — whenever John's flight schedule found him in Pittsburgh, he'd hang out with Hunter. And whenever John had longer layovers in other cities, Hunter would come and meet him. 'Even though it was long distance, we still made it work,' says John. Hunter thinks the distance actually helped the relationship blossom. 'We actually had time to miss each other. We had time to plan more special things together. It wasn't like we were just going to each other's house every day,' he says. 'I actually liked the long distance part at the time, because it gave us time to really appreciate our time with each other.' Over the next several months, Hunter and John shared some fantastic moments together — from a trip to Los Angeles where they spent two days exploring the city, to Hunter's birthday, when John surprised him with a trip to Disney World in Florida. There were tougher moments too. At one point, Hunter and John stopped communicating for a few weeks. They were both stressed and overwhelmed by work and some other issues in their personal lives. They weren't mad at each other, but keeping up the connection from afar felt tricky for the first time. But they worked through it. 'Then, everything kind of just went back to how it was and I think it was better than ever after that,' says Hunter. About a year after he'd first met John, Hunter was hired by Spirit Airlines to work as a flight attendant. He was excited to leave the gate behind, delighted that his aviation dream had finally come true. And with this exciting opportunity came another big step — Hunter and John decided to move in together. Now that they were both traveling for work, the couple figured they could live pretty much anywhere. They decided to move to a new city together: Detroit, Michigan. 'That's kind of when things really stepped it up to the next level,' says Hunter. 'And even then I still couldn't believe, 'Wow, this is crazy how this all happened and everything fell into place perfectly. We're working at the same job now. We're working in the same base. Our families are in the same place.' It just all felt like everything fell perfectly into place.' Moving to a new city, and moving in together, was a big change. But the couple knew they had to 'take a chance,' as Hunter puts it, if they wanted their relationship to progress. 'It was an adjustment,' says Hunter. 'But I think overall, it was more of an adventure.' On their days off, Hunter and John explored Detroit together, discovering new restaurants together, decorating their apartment and making new friends. Sometimes it was tough to align their schedules. Hunter, as a new hire, was on call, so any day could end up on any flight. Then, one morning, Hunter got notified that he'd booked a trip, and was sent the crew manifest. He scanned through the names and then stopped short. 'I saw John's name on there,' Hunter recalls. 'And I ran into the living room from the bedroom. I was like, 'John, you're never going to believe it. Guess what trip I got today?' And he was thinking I'd got something international or something really great — I was like, 'No, I'm on the trip with you!'' That first shared workday was very special. The couple savored the time together. 'It felt nice going to work together and actually spending three full days together. And spending time at the layover hotel together, eating dinner together,' recalls John. 'When you work together, it's almost like you're on vacation,' says Hunter. 'Yeah, you are working through the day. But once you're done with the day, you're at the hotel, you can go to the pool.' Flying together for the first time also felt like a momentous step. Here they were, working a Spirit Airlines flight together, where a year previously they'd been strangers on another Spirit aircraft. 'You go back to that first time you met,' says Hunter. Months passed and the couple settled into life in Michigan. Conversations about marriage started to take place 'a little bit here and there,' as Hunter recalls. The two had a trip to Puerto Rico coming up — John was working and Hunter was coming along for a vacation. As they mapped out the trip, Hunter started to think this could be the perfect opportunity to ask John to marry him. He spoke to John's mother about his plans to propose. 'I really love your son. I really think I want to spend the rest of my life with him,' Hunter told her. He also spoke with one of the couple's mutual friends, a fellow Spirit Airlines flight attendant who'd be on the trip too — he wanted to have a friend on side who could document the proposal when it came. As for John, he had no idea what was coming. On the second day of the trip, John and Hunter were walking along a sandy beach together in San Juan. The other crew member was armed with her camera phone, ready to capture the moment. 'We were just walking around doing the touristy stuff. And I remember I had a coffee in my hand, I was looking out in the water, and then I turned around and he's on one knee,' says John. 'I was just completely shocked, and of course I said yes.' 'We were both so happy,' says Hunter. Straight away, John called his mother, he was crying happy tears and so was she. That's when John realized that she'd known what was coming. 'I'm like, 'Oh my god, this is actually happening.' It all clicked, like the rest of my life is coming together perfectly.' Hunter and John planned a small wedding, putting the money they would have spent on larger celebrations towards a honeymoon. 'So we did a super small wedding on the West Coast. We brought our parents, two friends,' says Hunter, who changed his name following the wedding, becoming Hunter Smith-Lihas. 'It was beautiful,' says John. Hunter and John's families get on really well, and always enjoy spending time together and with their respective sons-in-law. 'John's mom and my mom are great together. John's dad and my dad are great together. I love all his cousins, his nieces,' says Hunter. 'My dad loves you,' John tells Hunter. 'My grandmother, who recently passed in October, she was an old-school Greek person and she came to America when she was just 18. And when she met Hunter, she fell in love with him.' 'It's very nice that we all get along, our families just love each other.' After the wedding, John and Hunter headed off on what Hunter calls 'a lavish European vacation.' The trip also coincided with John's 30th birthday, so there was plenty to celebrate. En route, Hunter and John were upgraded to first class. They enjoyed flying in style — and the fact they were the ones being served, for once. 'It was the middle of winter. And when we landed in Paris, it was snowing. We saw all the snow and we went to the Eiffel Tower and there was snow everywhere. It was so magical,' says John. Today, John and Hunter still work together, although they're no longer at Spirit Airlines and now live in Florida. A few years ago, the couple both applied for jobs with another major US airline. They were keen for new career opportunities and more opportunities to travel internationally. It was a risky decision to make just as aviation was getting back on its feet in the wake of the pandemic. For a long stretch in 2020, both John and Hunter were grounded and unsure when — or if — they'd ever return to the skies. 'Not only was it a global health pandemic, but now you're out of a job for the time being, too. So it was just a lot. It was really scary at the time,' says Hunter. 'But we grew together, we made work,' says John. It was John who first suggested moving to a new airline. When he voiced the thought aloud, Hunter echoed it back to him. 'We both just wanted more, because Spirit only flew to the US, a little bit of South America and the Caribbean. Whereas where we're at now services all the continents except Antarctica,' says Hunter. 'So that was another huge step we took together.' Before they applied, Hunter and John talked about what might happen if one of them got the job, and the other didn't. 'We decided, if one of us gets it, that's great. We'll be fine. We'll make it work,' says Hunter. 'We believe in each other, that's the thing,' says John. The couple applied on the same day. They interviewed on the same day. And in the end, they both got hired on the same day and began training together. At their current airline, John and Hunter have the same level of seniority, so they can bid for the same flights. This makes it easy for them to coordinate their schedules and work the same flights. Nowadays they often work on large, wide body aircraft, so they don't always see each other much during the flight. 'If one of us is in economy, and the other is first class, we definitely see each other a lot less as opposed to when you're working in the same cabin,' says Hunter. 'But I mean, there's always like a time where I can just pop up there and say hi, or vice versa, John can come back and say hi.' And, of course, there are those moments — like on the recent flight to London — where they're both working in the same cabin, and can watch one another at work, excelling at their jobs, and share the odd secret smile. 'It just goes to show you never know who you're going to meet, when and where, you just never know who that one person is going to be.' Hunter Smith-Lihas Hunter's also followed in the footsteps of the flight attendant vlogger who first introduced him to the aviation profession and started documenting his job on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. He hopes his content might inspire or help others keen to work in the industry. Both Hunter and John plan to work up in the air for as long as they can. 'This is what I've dreamt about since I was six years old,' says John. 'I don't see myself doing anything else. I will be a flight attendant forever until I decide to retire.' 'I think for both of us, this is our career. This is our lifelong career,' says Hunter. 'Because what other job can you say, 'Oh, well on Monday, I'm going to New York and Tuesday I'm going to Africa.' There's always the element of surprise and adventure with this job.' Whatever the future brings, for Hunter and John, one of the most memorable on-the-job surprises will always be meeting each other. 'I saw so many different faces every day, it's hard to see the same face twice. And then suddenly, he comes along. And now it's been six years later, and I'm still seeing him,' says Hunter. 'I never thought this would happen to me, to be honest, never — even coming across so many people day to day, coworkers, passengers,' says John. 'I always believe it was always meant to be.' 'It almost makes me teary-eyed,' adds Hunter. 'When I look back, I just never in a million years thought that this is where we together would be after that chance encounter. It just makes me almost emotional, it makes me want to cry. It's just an overwhelming happiness. It just goes to show you never know who you're going to meet, when and where, you just never know who that one person is going to be.' EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally published in May 2023. It was republished in July 2025 to include a new episode of CNN's Chance Encounters podcast focused on Hunter and John's love story


Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Forbes Daily: U.S.-EU Trade Deal Sets 15% Tariffs, Lifts Stock Futures
When the iconic animated series South Park returned to Comedy Central last week, its season premiere struck a nerve with at least one viewer from the White House. Writer-producer duo Trey Parker and Matt Stone addressed the reaction to the episode—which prominently skewered President Donald Trump—at a San Diego Comic Con panel, with Parker joking that 'We're terribly sorry.' Parker and Stone also joined Hollywood's most elite club last week after securing a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount, making each of them billionaires and ensuring their satirical comedy will be around to poke fun at a very litigious president until at least 2030. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen shakes hands with President Donald Trump during a meeting at Trump Turnberry golf club on July 27, 2025 in Turnberry, Scotland.U.S. stock futures are up on news that President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to a 15% tariff rate on most EU goods. The deal was announced Sunday afternoon, just days before Trump's self-imposed August 1 deadline, and matches the rate secured with Japan in last week's deal. Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Sunday that Samsung will manufacture the car maker's next-generation AI chip at its upcoming Texas semiconductor plant as part of a deal worth $16.5 billion, in a significant boost for Samsung's struggling chipmaking arm. The multi-year deal will run through till the end of 2033, and Samsung's semiconductor fabrication plant in Taylor, Texas, is scheduled to begin operations in 2026. Tom Crowley Jr. at the Jacksonville, Florida, headquarters of Crowley Maritime. At 16, he was put to work scraping barnacles. JAMEL TOPPIN FOR FORBES Thomas Crowley Jr. is the third generation to run shipping business Crowley Maritime, and has figured out how to navigate a loophole in U.S.' protectionist laws. With 112 vessels that are Jones Act-compliant for domestic shipping, Crowley—who along with his immediate family owns some 80% of the company, worth an estimated $1.5 billion—is able to steer clear of whales like Denmark's Maersk ($56 billion revenue) and China's Cosco ($32 billion). WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP These days, tax savvy investors have an automated way to make sure good losses don't go to waste. With 'direct indexing' instead of owning an S&P index fund, you own positions in the individual stocks that make up the index. Then, if one stock drops, the computer sells it, harvesting the tax loss. Robo-advisor Wealthfront, with an account minimum of only $5,000, beats Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard at this game. MONEY + POLITICS A federal judge handed down the third ruling Friday against President Donald Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship in the U.S., meaning the president's executive order against the right to citizenship will remain blocked until the Supreme Court steps in. The high court ruled last month that lower courts cannot block nationwide policies, but did not explicitly address whether Trump's birthright citizenship rule was constitutional. The House Ethics Committee on Friday found Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) violated ethics rules after she 'impermissibly' accepted gifts during her appearance at the 2021 Met Gala and said the lawmaker must pay roughly $3,000 to settle the claims. Ocasio-Cortez paid just over $900 in 2021 for the white dress—which was adorned with the phrase 'Tax the Rich'—and other items she wore to the event, and the amount she must now pay will help cover the fair market price of the wardrobe. SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT David Ellison, 42, is set to become the chairman and CEO of Paramount once its merger with Skydance, approved by the FCC last week, is complete. Ellison is the son of Oracle founder and second richest person in the world Larry Ellison, and is a major Hollywood player, having produced blockbusters including Top Gun: Maverick . He will soon oversee brands including CBS, MTV and Paramount Pictures. The 12-minute monologue that The Late Show's host Stephen Colbert delivered after the news of his show's impending end has racked up more than 10 million views on YouTube, making it the most popular video on his channel in six years. While The Late Show is the top-rated program of the 11:30 p.m. ET hour, its popularity on YouTube peaked years ago, shedding some light on what could have led to the surprise cancellation. Until last week, only 10 videos in the past three years had managed to cross the 4 million view mark on YouTube. The latest Marvel and Disney film Fantastic Four: First Steps raked in about $57 million at the domestic box office for its opening day, marking the year's second-largest opening day so far—just behind A Minecraft Movie . Marvel's two other releases from this year, Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* , both lost money at the box office despite the latter film's positive reception. DAILY COVER STORY How Surfside Became The Fastest-Growing Alcohol Brand In America Surfside CEO Clement Pappas, center right, with cofounder Matt Quigley, center left, and his brother Bryan, far left, and Pappas' brother Zach, far right. SURFSIDE The backstory of Surfside, this summer's most popular ready-to-drink spirits beverage, starts with trash, and particularly what vodka entrepreneur Matt Quigley noticed on the streets of Philadelphia—a lot of discarded bottles of iced tea. 'People just don't naturally digest their surroundings enough,' says Quigley, the 41-year-old president of Pennsylvania-based Stateside Vodka. 'If you look at what is smashed on the curb and the street, it'll tell you a lot about what the people of your city are actually drinking. And, in Philadelphia, that means it's a ridiculous amount of iced tea. You'll find Twisted Tea, yes, but you'll also find Snapples, and a lot of other brands.' Quigley brought the idea to his business partner Clement Pappas, Stateside Brands' 51-year-old CEO, and they set out to produce alcoholic iced teas and lemonades to compete with hard seltzers and other canned drinks, as better-for-you versions of the classic Twisted Tea or Mike's Hard Lemonade. And now with Surfside in its third summer on the market, customers are crushing Surfside after Surfside, especially along the beaches of the Northeast coast. So far this summer, Surfside cans were the fastest-growing of any beer or ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktail, with an increase of $70 million in retail sales year-to-date. This month, Surfside hit the milestone of topping 5 million cases sold in 2025. 'I've been on a flat-out sprint for three-plus years now, trying to keep pace with it,' Pappas tells Forbes . Surfside is expected to sell as many as 12 million cases this year, which would mean hitting revenue of as much as $300 million. The RTD cocktail brand ended 2024 with $100 million in estimated revenue, and as the fastest-growing brand across all alcoholic beverages, according to NielsenIQ, hitting more than 360% sales growth compared to a year prior. WHY IT MATTERS RTD cocktails like Surfside are one of the few areas that are actually growing in the alcohol sector, says Duane Stanford, the publisher of Georgia-based Beverage Digest. Drinkers are switching from flavored malt beverages like White Claw and legacy hard teas and lemonades: According to NielsenIQ, hard lemonades made with malt declined nearly 10% so far this year, and hard malted teas dropped over 4%, whereas the spirits-based hard lemonades grew over 96% so far this year and the hard teas grew over 168%. 'Young consumers are moving to canned cocktails and they want flavor. Drinks like Surfside are leading this trend,' says Stanford. 'The use of crafted vodka and big flavor have been part of the secret to its success.' MORE How This $100 Million Popsicle Business Licks The Competition FACTS + COMMENTS The deal Columbia University struck with the Trump Administration last week settled allegations that it violated anti-discrimination laws, and restored billions in federal funding for the university—while scaling back diversity programs and initiatives in return. Many critics are concerned about the precedent it sets for independence at other universities: $221 million: The amount Columbia will pay, including a $200 million fine to the federal government, and $21 million to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission $1.3 billion: The amount of restored federal research funding '[F]ar more coercive and far more arbitrary': How Columbia Law School professor David Pozen described the resolution, or 'regulation by deal.' STRATEGY + SUCCESS Student loan policy is shifting at a rapid pace, and for those seeking relief, here's where things stand. Student loan forgiveness is blocked for three popular income-driven repayment plans—ICR, PAYE and SAVE—due to an ongoing legal challenge. However, forgiveness is still available under a number of other programs, including Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which allows borrowers to qualify for a discharge after working for 10 years in certain nonprofit or government jobs. VIDEO Beginning today, which major retailer is ending its decade-old program that promised to match prices on identical products sold at Walmart and Amazon? A. Costco B. Target C. Best Buy D. The Home Depot Check your answer. Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Chris Dobstaff.