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5 things to know for July 21: Flooding, Gaza, Russia-Ukraine, LA crash, Washington Commanders

5 things to know for July 21: Flooding, Gaza, Russia-Ukraine, LA crash, Washington Commanders

CNN3 days ago
A system-wide ground stop for all Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air flights was issued on Sunday night due to an IT outage. Although the cause of the outage wasn't released, the flights were halted for more than three hours. In a statement to CNN, the airline warned of further travel disruptions and delays on Monday. Travelers are advised to check their flight status before heading to the airport.
Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.
This summer has been defined by a tragic surge in deadly flash floods across the US, underscoring the escalating volatility of our warming world. First, there was the devastating Texas floods that occurred on July 4 that killed more than 130 people. Three more people died after flash floods hit Ruidoso, New Mexico, on July 8. Major roads in Chicago were suddenly under water when a 1,000-year rainfall event struck in early July. New York City saw its second-heaviest rainfall total in one hour on July 14. Torrential rains and flooding also hit portions of North Carolina and Kansas City this month. Despite this chain of events, the Trump administration recently paused work on a new database designed to provide Americans with updated estimates about their risk of experiencing flash floods. However, after reporting by CNN and The Washington Post, and discussions between NOAA leadership and Commerce Department officials, NOAA has received permission to move ahead with work on the database
At least 76 children and 10 adults have reportedly died of malnutrition in Gaza since the conflict with Israel began in October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization, most of those deaths have occurred since Israel imposed a humanitarian aid blockade in March. The latest casualties reflect a deepening crisis in the enclave. Aid agencies say the amount of food, medical supplies and fuel reaching Gaza is far too little to sustain the population. And each day, thousands risk their lives to find something to eat. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid between late May and July 7.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for talks with Russia this week in an effort to reach a ceasefire deal. 'The dynamics of the negotiations must improve. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russian side must stop avoiding decisions regarding prisoner exchanges, the return of children and the cessation of killings,' Zelensky said. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that Russia was 'ready to move quickly' on achieving a peace deal with Ukraine, but its 'main goal' was to achieve its 'objectives.' The latest round of talks in Istanbul ended in early June, with Russian and Ukrainian delegates meeting for barely over an hour before calling it quits. Since then, Russia has launched waves of deadly missile and drone strikes at Ukraine. Russia may also be days or weeks away from starting a heightened summer offensive, perhaps using the 160,000 troops Ukrainian officials have said are amassing near their front lines.
A man who was reportedly kicked out of a nightclub early Saturday is accused of intentionally driving into a crowd that had gathered outside for valet services, food stands and entry into the hotspot. The crash at The Vermont Hollywood left at least 36 people injured and seven in critical condition. The driver, identified as Fernando Ramirez, 29, was then dragged out of his vehicle by bystanders, beaten and shot in the lower back. Ramirez was transported to the hospital for surgery and arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The man believed to have shot Ramirez remains at large. Mayor Karen Bass called the incident a 'heartbreaking tragedy' and praised the swift response of more than 100 police and fire personnel.
President Donald Trump is threatening to restrict a stadium deal in Washington, DC, unless the Washington Commanders change their name back to the 'Redskins.' The football team dropped the old name in 2020 after decades of criticism from Native American groups. But on Sunday, Trump posted on his social media network: 'I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.' In April, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to build a new stadium on federal land at the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and bring the Commanders back to the district. The proposal is currently stalled before the DC Council. CNN has reached out to the Commanders and the DC mayor's office for comment on Trump's posts.
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The president claimed that Woodward had released audio from their interviews without his consent and sought nearly $50 million in damages.
The giant prop experienced a serious malfunction during the pop star's show in San Francisco.
After years of Marvel movies, audiences are up for a little DC action with the Man of Steel.
Researchers have finally decoded an error in the 12th-century epic, 'The Song of Wade.' Apparently, the hero doesn't battle elves.
And it was all due to one lucky mistake.
$14.75 millionThat's how much one famous prop from the 1941 movie, 'Citizen Kane,' sold for at auction.
'I should have just stayed renting.'
— Angel Scheid, who purchased her one bedroom, one bathroom Los Angeles home in 2022 for $915,000, with a 5.99% interest rate. She was planning to refinance her mortgage, but interest rates have remained too high.
🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump officials seem open to embracing psychedelics to treat conditions such as trauma, depression and drug addiction. The shift has advocates excited, but some experts worry the hype could be getting ahead of science and safety. In part one of a two-part series, we hear from someone who says a powerful hallucinogen helped kick her drug habit.
Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
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Fibermaxxing is trending right now — here's what to know before you try it
Fibermaxxing is trending right now — here's what to know before you try it

Tom's Guide

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Fibermaxxing is trending right now — here's what to know before you try it

Protein has long been the poster nutrient of the fitness and health world, essential for building muscle, aiding recovery, and keeping you feeling full. But recently, fiber has started to share the spotlight. Rather than replacing protein, fiber is being recognized as an overlooked powerhouse with benefits for gut health, digestion, skin, metabolism and even heart health. This growing interest has sparked a trend called 'fibermaxxing,' where people are finding ways to add more fiber to their diets to improve digestion, clear up their skin and support metabolic health. But is this just a passing online fad, or is there real science behind it? While official guidelines suggest women aim for around 25 grams of fiber per day and men for about 31 grams, most Americans fall short. According to the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, just 5% of the U.S. population meets these recommendations. The original Nutribullet makes it easy to load up on fiber-rich fruits and veggies. With 600 watts of power and a no-fuss design, it turns whole foods into smooth, nutrient-packed drinks in seconds. Fibermaxxing aims to close that gap by encouraging people to add more fiber-rich foods like oats, lentils, berries, beans,and leafy greens to their daily meals. It can also involve sourcing little top-ups like adding chia seeds to recipes or swapping in high-fiber snacks and supplements. Multiple studies have shown that hitting your fiber goals isn't just good for digestion, it's linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic health problems. According to one study, higher fiber consumption is linked to a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. According to a study published in The Lancet, higher fiber consumption is linked to a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. Fiber helps regulate blood sugar, promotes healthy gut bacteria, and reduces inflammation. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. However, experts caution that increasing fiber too quickly can lead to digestive discomfort, such as bloating or gas. The Mayo Clinic recommends gradually adding fiber to your diet while drinking plenty of water. This gives your digestive system time to adjust and helps you get the full benefits of fiber without the side effects. There's no denying a fiber-rich diet comes with plenty of benefits from keeping your digestion on track to supporting heart health and managing blood sugar. The key is to increase fiber gradually and focus on whole foods like beans, berries and greens. Don't forget to drink plenty of water to avoid any tummy troubles. Everyone's body reacts differently so if you're thinking about making big changes, it's a good idea to chat with a healthcare professional first. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.

Black box warning on menopause hormone therapies should be removed, experts say
Black box warning on menopause hormone therapies should be removed, experts say

CNN

time12 minutes ago

  • CNN

Black box warning on menopause hormone therapies should be removed, experts say

All menopause treatments containing the hormone estrogen are mandated by the US Food and Drug Administration to carry a black box warning on the label, stating that the treatments could increase the risk of strokes, blood clots, dementia and breast cancer. Now, that advisory may be going away. Last week, a panel of experts convened by the FDA urged the federal agency to remove the cautionary language on at least some forms of hormone therapy. I wanted to understand more about why these warnings were first added and the arguments for and against removing them now. What are hormone therapies used for, and what are the different forms of treatment? What is the history behind adding black box warnings, and why are some experts pushing to remove them? What should women know about managing menopause symptoms? I turned to CNN wellness expert Dr. Leana Wen to answer these questions. Wen is an emergency physician and adjunct associate professor at George Washington University. She previously was Baltimore's health commissioner. CNN: When does menopause occur, and what kinds of symptoms do women experience during menopause? Dr. Leana Wen: Menopause is the stage in a woman's life when her menstrual periods permanently stop. It marks the end of fertility and is accompanied by a decline in reproductive hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. In the US, most women begin the menopause transition between ages 45 and 55, and the average age is 52. The definition of menopause is a full year without having a period. Except in situations where menopause is induced by surgery (for example, removal of ovaries) or specific medical conditions, this period is generally preceded by a stage called perimenopause, when women may have irregular periods and start experiencing menopause symptoms. Symptoms associated with menopause can include hot flashes and night sweats. Hot flashes are sudden sensations of heat, skin flushing and sweating that can significantly disrupt daily activities. About one-third of women have more than 10 hot flashes per day. When they occur at night, they can disrupt sleep and increase fatigue and irritability during the day. Menopausal declines in estrogen also may cause vaginal dryness, decreased libido and discomfort during intercourse. Some women experience other symptoms such as mood changes, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, dry skin and weight gain. Moreover, while this is not a symptom of menopause per se, the risk of developing chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis increases significantly after menopause. This rise in risk is thought to be linked to the decline in estrogen levels, as estrogen has a protective effect on maintaining healthy blood vessels and supporting bone density. CNN: What are hormone therapies used for? What are the different forms of treatment? Wen: Hormone therapies are prescription drugs that are used to treat menopause symptoms. They replace the hormones that decline during menopause. It's important to differentiate between two types of hormone therapy. The first is systemic therapy in which hormones are given in a way that is absorbed into the bloodstream. That could be through taking pills or using patches, sprays or gels. Systemic therapy is used to treat symptoms that affect the entire body, such as flashes and night sweats. The second type is low-dose vaginal estrogen therapy. This is a cream or suppository administered into the vagina to treat vaginal dryness and reduce tissue thinning. Unlike systemic therapy, this type of therapy works locally; its purpose is not to raise hormone levels throughout the body. CNN: What is the history behind adding black box warnings, and why are some experts pushing to remove them? Wen: For decades, hormone therapy was considered the standard of care for menopause-related symptoms. Then, in the early 2000s, a landmark study called the Women's Health Initiative was published that suggested hormone therapy increased the risk of breast cancer, heart disease and stroke. It concluded that the benefits of this therapy did not outweigh these risks, leading to the FDA adding the black box warning in 2003. Many researchers have since examined the methodological problems of the study. One significant issue was that the average age of participants was 63. The women studied were mostly postmenopausal, so the question answered was regarding the risks and benefits to postmenopausal women, not menopausal women. Last year, scientists — including some of the original researchers of the Women's Health Initiative — published an updated analysis in the journal JAMA. They concluded that, in fact, hormone treatment with a combination of estrogen and progesterone is safe and effective for treating hot flashes and other systemic symptoms if started before age 60 or within 10 years of starting menopause and if the woman does not have specific contraindications — for instance, an estrogen-sensitive breast cancer. This updated analysis is one reason cited by many advocates to remove the warning. Another major reason is that the black box warning is currently on all types of hormone treatments, including vaginal therapies that deliver far lower doses and do not have the systemic effect of, say, an estrogen-containing pill. Advocates argue that putting all forms of hormone therapy under the same warning misrepresents risk and makes it harder for women to receive relief from troublesome symptoms. Women are still able to access the therapies despite the warning, but some may be more hesitant to use them after seeing the warnings. 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Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?
Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?

The Hill

time41 minutes ago

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Why are data nerds racing to save US government statistics?

The data nerds are fighting back. After watching data sets be altered or disappear from U.S. government websites in unprecedented ways after President Trump began his second term, an army of outside statisticians, demographers and computer scientists have joined forces to capture, preserve and share data sets, sometimes clandestinely. Their goal is to make sure they are available in the future, believing that democracy suffers when policymakers don't have reliable data and that national statistics should be above partisan politics. 'There are such smart, passionate people who care deeply about not only the Census Bureau, but all the statistical agencies, and ensuring the integrity of the statistical system. And that gives me hope, even during these challenging times,' Mary Jo Mitchell, director of government and public affairs for the research nonprofit the Population Association of America, said this week during an online public data-users conference. The threats to the U.S. data infrastructure since January have come not only from the disappearance or modification of data related to gender, sexual orientation, health, climate change and diversity, among other topics, but also from job cuts of workers and contractors who had been guardians of restricted-access data at statistical agencies, the data experts said. 'There are trillions of bytes of data files, and I can't even imagine how many public dollars were spent to collect those data,' Jennifer Park, a study director for the Committee on National Statistics, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, said during the conference hosted by the Association of Public Data Users (APDU). 'But right now, they're sitting someplace that is inaccessible because there are no staff to appropriately manage those data,' Park added later. 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Beth Jarosz, senior program director at the Population Reference Bureau, thought she was in good shape since she had previously downloaded data she needed from the National Survey of Children's Health for a February conference where she was speaking, even though the data had become unavailable. But then she realized she had failed to download the questionnaire and later discovered that a question about discrimination based on gender or sexual identity had been removed. 'It's the one thing my team didn't have,' Jarosz said at this week's APDU conference. 'And they edited the questionnaire document, which should have been a historical record.' Among the groups that have formed this year to collect and preserve the federal data are the Federation of American Scientists' which monitors changes to federal data sets; the University of Chicago Library's Data Mirror website, which backs up and hosts at-risk data sets; the Data Rescue Project, which serves as a clearinghouse for data rescue-related efforts; and the Federal Data Forum, which shares information about what federal statistics have gone missing or been modified — a job also being done by the American Statistical Association. The outside data warriors also are quietly reaching out to workers at statistical agencies and urging them to back up any data that is restricted from the public. 'You can't trust that this data is going to be here tomorrow,' said Lena Bohman, a founding member of the Data Rescue Project. Experts' committee unofficially revived Separately, a group of outside experts has unofficially revived a long-running U.S. Census Bureau advisory committee that was killed by the Trump administration in March. Census Bureau officials won't be attending the Census Scientific Advisory Committee meeting in September, since the Commerce Department, which oversees the agency, eliminated it. But the advisory committee will forward its recommendations to the bureau, and demographer Allison Plyer said she has heard that some agency officials are excited by the committee's re-emergence, even if it's outside official channels. 'We will send them recommendations but we don't expect them to respond since that would be frowned upon,' Plyer, chief demographer at The Data Center in New Orleans, said. 'They just aren't getting any outside expertise … and they want expertise, which is understandable from nerds.'

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