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  • ‘Fruits, seeds and water’ were pivotal in keeping four children alive in the Amazon rainforest | CNN

    ‘Fruits, seeds and water’ were pivotal in keeping four children alive in the Amazon rainforest | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    When four young indigenous children were found last week after 40 days in the Colombian Amazon jungle, their rescuers noticed that the oldest, 13-year-old Lesly Jacobombaire Mucutuy, had something hidden between her teeth.

    “We found she had a couple of seeds slowly chewed between her cheeks and her jawbone,” said Eliecer Muñoz, one of the four indigenous guards who made the very first contact with the children.

    Muñoz told CNN the seeds were from a native Amazon palm tree called Oenocarpus Bataua, colloquially known as “milpesos” in Colombia.

    Its fruits are rich in fat and Amazon tribes use them to make a vegetable oil, but Leslie’s seeds were still unripe when she was found, Muñoz said.

    “She was keeping them so that the warmth of her mouth would open up the seeds and she could feed the pulp to her younger siblings,” Muñoz says. “That’s how they stayed alive.”

    Ever since the children were brought home, reporters and survival experts have been trying to answer this question: How did four children – the youngest just an infant – survive in the heart of the Amazon rainforest for so long?

    It took a team of over 130 special force commandos and some of the most skilled indigenous guides in the country to find them.

    The stretch of the jungle they were found in is one of the most remote and inhospitable in Colombia, where wild animals like jaguars, anacondas or poisonous bugs abound, rains can pour for over 15 hours a day and visibility is sometimes limited to 10 meters due to the thick vegetation.

    Lesly and her siblings were dangerously emaciated when they were finally found. In more than a month without adults, they appear to have survived on wild fruits and three pounds of cassava flour, a high-protein traditional staple of the Amazon diet, that they retrieved from the wreckage of the plane crash that stranded them in the forest.

    Part of the children's survival was down to knowledge of the native palm tree, the Oenocarpus Bataua.

    They had also found one of the hundreds of survival kits left in the jungle by the search and rescue operation, which included small rations of food, electrolytes, and lighters.

    “We understand they only used one of the kits of the Army, for the rest just fruits, seeds and water,” says Henry Guerrero, an indigenous elder who was also part of the team that found them.

    Only someone with deep knowledge of the forest and remarkable personal resilience could survive there for over a month – much less keep three other people alive too.

    Weeks ago, most of the Colombian public following their story could not have known the extent to which Lesly and her siblings possessed those skills. But their great-uncle, Fidencio Valencia, did not despair: “They already know the jungle… they are children, but we hope they are alive and that they have access to water,” he told reporters on May 19.

    His words have been vindicated.

    The children have not yet spoken publicly and are recovering in Colombia’s central military hospital in Bogota. On Thursday, a statement from the hospital said the children are out of immediate danger but still considered at high risk due to infectious diseases they contracted and serious malnourishment.

    The traces of their survival show impressive botanical knowledge and foresight.

    During the search, rescuers found discarded fruits like avichure, a wild plant similar to the passion fruit that the children ate while alone in the forest. Seeds of milpesos were also found along their footprints, and Colombian authorities believe Lesly took some baby’s formula from the discarded plane to feed Cristin, 11 months old, for a few days.

    The Cessna 206 plane wreckage that killed the four children's mother after it crashed in the jungles of Caqueta in Colombia.

    When found, the children had bottles they used to collect water, either from streams or from the rain, which was plentiful during the month of the search.

    The accomplishment feels like a moment of pride for the indigenous community of the Colombian Amazon. “Thanks to these kids we won over technology,” Guerrero gleamed at a recent press conference in Bogota. “Thanks to the kids we realized that we, the indigenous, we are important.”

    While their survival remains a marvel, it was no doubt facilitated by traditional knowledge of the forest they embraced from a remarkably young age, and while Colombia deployed its army, it was four local indigenous guides who first spotted the little ones.

    Lesly, in particular, is hailed for not only staying alive herself, but also making sure her younger siblings would survive following the loss of their mother in the plane crash.

    When found, one of the first sentences four-year-old Tien Ranoque Mucutuy whispered to the rescuers was “my mother is dead,” Muñoz told CNN.

    One of the traditional tasks of indigenous women is to look after one’s siblings as if they were your own children. An older sister is basically a second mother, and I think that is exactly how Lesly was brought up with,” says Nelly Kuiru, an indigenous activist from the murui settlement of La Chorrera.

    But Kuiru believes that that prowess goes far beyond botanical expertise: “Ancestral, traditional knowledge is not just that Lesly learnt to pick up fruits or so, but there’s something much deeper there, a spiritual connection with the forest surrounding us.”

    When the father of two of the children, Manuel Ranoque, learned the plane carrying his wife and their four children crashed on the way to San Jose del Guaviare, he requested the help of traditional elders and sages in his community, like Guerrero and Muñoz, who joined forces with the Colombian military to locate the children.

    The military brought GPS technology, advanced radio communications, and operated over four hundred flight-hours over the jungle.

    The indigenous murui searchers taught soldiers how to read tracks and move around the jungle. Traditional elders like Guerrero attempted to bridge a spiritual link with the children using traditional plants like tobacco, coca, and yagé, the sacred, hallucinogen plant also known as ayahuasca.

    In the end, it was a mix of the two worlds that saved the children: Muñoz and his team finally found them, all but starved to death, in an area clear of trees they had inspected in previous days. Within a few hours, they were taken out of the jungle on a Blackhawk military helicopter.

    Magdalena Mucutuy was a woman of the chagra – a sacred space that acts both as a harvesting garden and community school for traditional knowledge – who often brought her children to the forest, according to her husband.

    There, they likely learned the skills that allowed them to survive until rescuers came.

    “Traditionally, (indigenous) children’s upbringing takes place in the natural environment, in the forest, especially when they are very young,” says Kuiru. But she warns that intimate familiarity with the wild that allowed Leslie and her siblings to survive is under threat, she says.

    “Our traditions are being contaminated by deforestation, by the presence of external actors [like criminal syndicates] and in a way, assimilation. There’s not just a physical colonization, like for example the clothes we now wear, but a colonization of knowledge and ours is being lost,” Kuiru told CNN.

    In recent years, indigenous populations have abandoned the forest, pushed towards urban areas by the presence of criminal groups in the countryside and by lack of work and education opportunities, according to a 2010 study by the Colombian Amazon Institute of Scientific Research.

    Ranoque himself says he was forced to abandon their native settlement in Araracuara, Amazonas, due to threats from guerrilla groups. He said that his wife and her children had also been fleeing encroachment from armed groups when their plane crashed on May 1, killing Magdalena, the pilot, and an indigenous leader – and stranding the children.

    Kuiru would like the Colombian state to support and protect indigenous lifestyles and knowledges, while also offering opportunities to enter the mainstream economy. In education, that could mean allowing children to spend only half of the day in state schools and then go to the chagras to receive traditional education, she says. Or it could mean supporting local entrepreneurship to create jobs in the region and encourage young people to stay in the Amazon.

    In a way, just like the four children were saved by a mix of tradition and modernity, only the two sides together can bring real development to the region.

    “We should not fear modernization, but we must go back to our roots, what defines us and makes us different as indigenous people of the Amazon. If not, we will end up empty, like eggshells without filling,” she said.

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  • ‘Horrific bus tragedy’ in Australian wine region leaves multiple dead, police say | CNN

    ‘Horrific bus tragedy’ in Australian wine region leaves multiple dead, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    At least 10 people are feared dead after a late-night bus crash in the Australian state of New South Wales on Sunday, local police say.

    Emergency crews responded just before midnight to reports about a bus rolling over at a roundabout near the town of Greta, which is located in the wine growing Hunter region, New South Wales Police Force said in a statement.

    Authorities said initial reports indicate 10 people died and 11 others were hospitalized. Eighteen other passengers were uninjured.

    Police said multiple helicopters, highway patrol, as well as fire and ambulance responded to the crash.

    “The driver of the bus – a 58-year-old man – was taken to hospital under police guard for mandatory testing and assessment,” they said. Authorities are investigating the cause of the wreck and remained at the scene early Monday local time.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted his condolences to those affected by the crash.

    “All Australians waking up to tragic news from the Hunter send our deepest sympathies to the loved ones of those killed in this horrific bus tragedy. For a day of joy to end in such devastating loss is cruel indeed. Our thoughts are also with those who have been injured,” Albanese said in the post.

    He also tweeted his thanks to the first responders saying, “Thank you to all the first responders who rushed to the scene, and those continuing to assist and care for those affected by this tragedy.”

    The Hunter region – also referred to as the Hunter Valley – is about two and a half hours northwest of Sydney.

    It is one of Australia’s leading wine regions and popular for weekend getaways and weddings.

    Australia’s local station Channel 9 reported the bus was transporting wedding guests back home when the crash happened.

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  • A ‘once-in-200 years’ heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common | CNN

    A ‘once-in-200 years’ heat wave caught Southeast Asia off guard. Climate change will make them more common | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Every day, countless mopeds criss-cross the congested city of Hanoi, in Vietnam, with commuters traveling to work or motorbike taxis dropping off everything from parcels to cooked food and clients.

    One of them is Phong, 42, who starts his shift at 5 a.m. to beat the rush hour, navigating the dense swarm of mopeds and drives for over 12 hours a day with little rest.

    But an unprecedented heat wave that engulfed his country in the past two months has made Phong’s job even more arduous. To get through the heat of the day, he equipped himself with a hat, wet handkerchiefs and several bottles of water – precautions that provided little relief as recorded daytime temperatures soared to more than 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

    The average May temperature in Hanoi is 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).

    “If I get a heatstroke, I would be forced to suspend driving to recover,” he told CNN. “But I cannot afford it.” 

    Phong, who declined to give his surname, said he carries a tiny umbrella to protect his phone, the main tool he uses for work as a driver for the ride-hailing platform Grab, along with his bike. If the phone breaks, he misses out on much-needed income. “I was worried that the battery would overheat once exposed to the sun,” he said.

    Nearby in the same city, sanitation worker Dinh Van Hung, 53, toils all day cleaning garbage from the bustling streets of Hanoi’s central Dong Da district.

    “It is impossible to avoid the heat, especially at noon and early afternoon,” Dinh told CNN. “Extreme temperatures also make the garbage smell more unpleasant, the hard work is now even more difficult, directly affecting my health and labor.”

    Dinh says “there is no other way” but to change when he starts and finishes his shift.

    “I try to work early in the morning or afternoon and evening,” he said. “During lunch break when the temperature is too high, I find a sidewalk in a small alley, spread out the cardboard sheets to rest for a while and then resume work in the afternoon.” 

    Phong and Dinh are among millions of drivers, street vendors, cleaners, builders, farmers, and other outdoor or informal economy workers across Southeast Asia who were hit the hardest during what experts called the region’s “harshest heat wave on record.” 

    Workers like them make up the backbone of many societies but are disproportionately affected by extreme weather events, with dangerously high temperatures greatly impacting their health and the already precarious nature of their professions.

    April and May are typically the hottest months of the year in Southeast Asia, as temperatures rise before monsoon rains bring some relief. But this year, they reached levels never experienced before in most countries of the region, including tourism hotspots Thailand and Vietnam. 

    Thailand saw its hottest day in history at 45.4 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) on April 15, while neighboring Laos topped out at 43.5 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) for two consecutive days in May, and Vietnam’s all-time record was broken in early May with 44.2 degrees Celsius (112 degrees Fahrenheit), according to analysis of weather stations data by a climatologist and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.

    Herrera described it as “the most brutal never-ending heat wave” that has continued into June. On June 1, Vietnam broke the record for its hottest June day in history with 43.8 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) – with 29 days of the month to go.

    In a recent report from the World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international coalition of scientists said the April heat wave in Southeast Asia was a once-in-200-years event that would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

    The scorching heat in Southeast Asia was made even more unbearable and dangerous due to high humidity – a deadly combination.

    Humidity, on top of extreme temperatures, makes it even harder for your body to try and cool itself down.

    Heat-related illnesses, such as heat stroke and heat exhaustion, have severe symptoms and can be life-threatening, especially for those with heart disease and kidney problems, diabetes, and pregnant people.

    “When the surrounding humidity is very high, the body will continue to sweat trying to release moisture to cool itself, but because the sweat is not evaporating it will eventually lead to severe dehydration, and in acute cases it can lead to heat strokes and deaths,” said Mariam Zachariah, research associate in near-real time attribution of extreme events to climate change at World Weather Attribution initiative at Imperial College London. 

    “Which is why a humid heat wave is more dangerous than a dry heat wave,” she told CNN.

    To understand the health risks of humid heat, scientists often calculate the “feels-like” temperature – a single measure of how hot it feels to the human body when air temperature and humidity are both taken into account, sometimes alongside other factors such as wind chill.

    Perceived heat is usually several degrees higher than observed temperature and gives a more accurate reading of how heat affects people.

    CNN analysis of Copernicus Climate Change Service data found that between early April and late May, all six countries in the continental portion of Southeast Asia had reached perceived temperatures close to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) or more every single day. This is above a threshold considered dangerous, especially for people with health problems or those not used to extreme heat.

    In Thailand, 20 days in April and at least 10 days in May reached feels-like temperatures above 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). At this level, thermal heat stress becomes “extreme” and is considered life threatening for anybody including healthy people used to extreme humid heat.

    Throughout April and May, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia all had several days with potential to cause extreme heat stress. Myanmar had 12 such days – until Cyclone Mocha brought relative relief, but severe devastation, when it made landfall on May 14.

    The April-May heat wave in Southeast Asia caused widespread hospitalizations, damaged roads, sparked fires and led to school closures, however the number of deaths remains unknown, according to the World Weather Attribution report.

     The study found that, because of climate change, the heat was more than two degrees hotter in perceived temperature than it could have been without global warming caused by pollution.

    “When the atmosphere becomes warmer, its ability to hold the moisture becomes higher and therefore the chances of humid heat waves also increase,” Zachariah, one of the authors, told CNN.

    If global warming continues to increase to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), such humid heat waves could occur ten times more often, according to the study. 

    And if emissions continue to increase at the same pace, the next two decades could already see 30 more deaths per million from heat in Thailand, and 130 more deaths per million by the end of the century, according to the UN’s Human Climate Horizons projections.

    For Myanmar that number would be 30 and 520 more deaths per million respectively, for Cambodia – 40 and 270, data shows.

    Extreme weather events also expose systemic inequalities.

    “Occupation, age, health conditions and disabilities, access to health care services, socioeconomic status, even gender – these are all factors that can make people more or less vulnerable to heat waves,” said Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, one of the WWA report’s authors and lecturer at the department of geography at Chiang Mai University in Thailand.

    Marginalized members of society, those without adequate access to healthcare and cooling systems, and those in jobs that are exposed to extremely hot and humid conditions are most at risk of heat stress.

    “It’s important to talk about who can adapt, who can cope, and who has the resources to be able to do this,” Emmanuel Raju, also an author and director of the Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research, said in a press conference on May 17.

    “For those working in the informal economy a lost day means a day lost in wages,” Raju said.

    More than 60% of the employed population in Southeast Asia work in informal employment, and over 80% in Cambodia and Myanmar, according to a 2018 International Labour Organization (ILO) report.

    Farmers and children harvest rice in a field in the southern Thai province of Narathiwat on March 27.

    In late April, Thai health authorities issued an extreme heat alert for the capital Bangkok and several other places across the country, warning people to stay indoors and of heat stroke dangers.

    But for migrant workers like Supot Klongsap, nicknamed “Nui,” who temporarily left his home to work in construction in Bangkok during the pre-monsoon season, staying indoors was simply not an option.

    He said that this year’s hot season was exceptional, causing him to sweat all the time and feel exhausted. “I started to sweat from 8 a.m., and it was difficult to work. I felt very exhausted from losing so much water.”

    Nui, who slept at the construction site, said even the nights were unbearable. “Water coming from the pipe even during nighttime remained very hot just like it was boiled. It was difficult to find comfort.” 

    He said the accommodation for construction workers is roofed and walled with corrugated sheets, and it barely protects from heat. Any access to air-conditioned rooms is a luxury Nui couldn’t afford. “We had to rely on buying ice and adding it to our drinks, our simple way to cool down,” he said.

    A 2021 study found that outdoor workers in developing countries have higher core body temperature than to those working indoors, and they are two to three times more at risk of dehydration, leading to a higher chance of reduced kidney function and other related conditions. 

    Pedestrians use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 25.

     In Thailand, the government recommends reactive measures, such as staying indoors, hydrating adequately, wearing light-colored clothes, and avoiding certain foods, Chaya told CNN. 

    “But that doesn’t mean that everybody has the same capacity to do so.” 

    The burden of cost often falls on individuals, Chaya said, making it their responsibility to cope with the heat.

    What is needed, he said, is a cohesive international plan that can protect the more vulnerable populations in the face of increasing climate change risks, and proactive measures to prevent potential health issues.

    Governments need to develop large-scale solutions, such as early warning systems for heat, passive and active cooling for all, urban planning, and heat action plans, World Weather Attribution scientists recommended in their report.

    Intensifying heat waves not only affect individuals’ health, but threaten the environment and people’s livelihoods, worsen air quality, destroy crops, increase wildfire risk, and damage infrastructure – so the need for government action plans on heat waves are vital.

     In Yotpieng and Phon villages in northeastern Laos, people’s livelihoods are intimately connected with weather patterns.

     Villagers’ lives here revolve around tea. For centuries, every day at 7 a.m. the tea farmers start collecting leaves, until 11 a.m. when they would bring the harvest back home. The survival of these communities depends on collecting tea leaves to generate income for whole families.

    But this year’s extreme heat is disrupting their ability to work according to their ancient working habits – they had to change from working in the morning to the afternoon during heat waves, and they are worried the quality and quantity of tea leaves will be affected, members of the local community told CNN.

     ”[The] weather is extremely hot for everyone this year and farmers are struggling,” according to Chintanaphone Keovichith, management officer at the Lao Farmer Network.

     “This year the weather is hotter than last year, and the tea leaves are dry,” said tea farmer, Boua Seng.

    The manager of a 1,000-year-old tea processing factory, Vieng Samai Lobia Yaw, said she is worried this year’s tea leaves have not grown enough, which decreases harvest by almost 50% daily.

    This photo taken on May 30 shows a woman watering her rooftop to cool it down in Hanoi, Vietnam.

    “It’s so wasteful – we spend more capital on laborers’ fees but getting less product,” she said.

    For now, tea farmers in Laos have invented solutions to protect their trees. Some have planted large fruit trees, such as peach or plum, to provide shade for tea plantations, while others added more compost to nourish their plants.

    “The tea [trees] in the shade will have a nice green leaf, but the ones without shade will have yellow leaf,” explained tea farmer Thongsouk. “We also collect additional income by selling fruit products.” 

    But they cannot do it alone.

    Without a comprehensive international approach to rapidly reduce planet-warming pollution and to address the interconnected impacts of extreme weather events on individuals, communities, and the environment, the health and economic costs from heat waves will only worsen as the climate crisis unfolds.

    As May turns into June, many are still waiting for some respite.

    “May was the worst month – that’s when the rain usually comes in, but this year [it] still hasn’t arrived yet,” said Chintanaphone.

    Data graphics
    Lou Robinson and Krystina Shveda

    Editing
    Helen Regan

    Photo editing
    Noemi Cassanelli

    Additional reporting
    Kocha Olarn in Bangkok

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  • Bud Light sales keep slipping. But it remains America’s top-selling beer | CNN Business

    Bud Light sales keep slipping. But it remains America’s top-selling beer | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Roughly two months after Bud Light endured a self-induced injury that torpedoed sales, the brand continues to lose ground to its competition. But there are signs the worst might be over.

    Sales for the week leading into Memorial Day weekend fell 23.9% from the same period a year ago. That constitutes a slight improvement compared to the week prior when sales were 25.7% lower than a year earlier. That could indicate that the “bottom has been hit and we are seeing a turn-around in performance,” according to Bump Williams, an alcohol industry expert.

    For the past several weeks, Bud Light sales declines have hovered around 25% weekly because of customer revolt following an Instagram partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. A single can bearing her face was given to her for a post, but some right-wing media attacked the brand, and some social media posts spewed transphobic comments.

    Anheuser-Busch’s tepid statement about the controversy also angered some LGBTQ+ groups.

    In response, Anheuser-Busch

    (BUD)     said it was bolstering marketing on Bud Light and would offer rebates to customers. Last weekend, the company offered $15 back on 15-packs of beer, leading to cases priced as low as $1.50 in some states, which Williams said contributed to part of its minor turnaround.

    Still, Bud Light remains the top-selling beer in America, according to NIQ data provided to CNN by Williams. NIQ measures sales at convenience, liquor and grocery stores across the United States. Bud Light has made up 35.1% of domestic beer sales this year (through May 27), according to NIQ. That easily beats No. 2 Coors Light, which controls 21.6% of the market.

    Although Bud Light’s share of the domestic beer market has slipped considerably over the past couple months, it remains in the lead. In the week ended May 27, Bud Light controlled 28.8% of the market, compared to Coors Light, which made up 25.6% of overall sales, NIQ reported.

    The biggest beneficiaries of Bud Light’s slipping sales continue to be MolsonCoors’ Miller Light and Coors Light, with sales up a whopping 26% and 23% respectively, according to NIQ. Beer Business Daily reported Monday that some distributors are reporting shortages, but a company spokesperson told CNN that its supply is strong for the summer.

    Another bright spot is Modelo, distributed by Constellation Brands

    (STZ)    . Sales of its Modelo Especial and its recently launched low-carb beer Modelo Oro are strong, with sales up 9.5% and its share of the total beer category surpassing Bud Light last week, Williams said. He added that it’s “not a surprise” because of a halo effect from Cinco de Mayo and heavy advertising supporting its Oro launch.

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  • 20 classic French dishes everyone needs to try | CNN

    20 classic French dishes everyone needs to try | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The roots of French cooking run deep.

    The foundations of the country’s culinary empire were laid as early as the mid-1600s when chef François Pierre La Varenne penned his hugely influential “Le Cuisinier François” recipe book, which emphasized regional and seasonal ingredients and highlighted complementary flavors.

    “French cooking is, at its core, about making beautiful, refined food out of simple ingredients,” said Maryann Tebben, author of “Savoir-Faire: A History of Food in France.”

    “There is some mystery and magic to French cuisine that still draws people in. Even the basics – a perfect baguette, flaky pastry, potatoes simmered in cream – are astonishingly good even if we can’t quite figure out what makes them so delicious.”

    The cuisine of France “keeps inspiring people. It is entertaining. It is delicious. It is accessible. It is possible,” said Michelin-starred chef Daniel Boulud.

    Whether it’s country fare or haute cuisine that inspires, take a look at 20 classic French dishes:

    Is there possibly a more French way to prepare beef than to marinate it in red wine? Named boeuf Bourguignon after the famed red wine from the Burgundy region of France, this dish combines a nice, fatty cut of beef with a dry pinot noir and plenty of fresh vegetables to create a hearty and indulgent stew.

    It has been the focus of many discussions over which cuts of beef and types of wine create the best flavor profiles. But the most important ingredient for success is patience – like any good stew, boeuf Bourguignon is best when left overnight before serving.

    Not a fan of beef? Another French favorite, coq au vin, takes the Burgundian preparation and gives chicken the leading role instead.

    Bouillabaisse: This dish is an elevated take on the catch of the day.

    With a long name and an even longer list of ingredients, bouillabaisse is Marseille’s gift to France’s culinary canon. The soup, once a poor man’s dish and now a mainstay on many a Michelin-starred menu, elevates the catch of the day beyond your standard soupe de poisson.

    According to the Mediterranean port’s bouillabaisse charter, in an attempt to standardize the ingredients and preparation of the classic dish, the soup must include at least four of six specific fish selections that are cut up in front of the diners.

    Alongside optional crustaceans and a spicy broth, no self-respecting bouillabaisse is complete without a topper of croutons dipped in rouille, a peppery garlic sauce.

    Tarte Tatin: The rustic upside-down caramelized apple tart has deep, buttery flavor.

    This list of classic French dishes would be incomplete without the inclusion of something from the country’s extensive repertoire of patisserie. Though not as refined or architectural as some treats seen in the windows of French sweet shops, the buttery, simmering tarte Tatin, essentially an upside-down caramelized apple tart, is famous around the world for its rich flavor and unique history.

    Legend has it that sisters Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin were working in a restaurant in the Loire Valley of France in the late 19th century when Stéphanie was overwhelmed in the kitchen by the influx of customers during hunting season.

    She accidentally left the apples in her apple pie cooking too long and tried to salvage it by covering the apples in pastry and baking. The resulting dish – steaming apples under caramelized sugar with a flaky crust – was so popular it was eventually named after the sisters: la tarte des demoiselles Tatin.

    Though tarte Tatin is sure to be delicious anywhere you try it, it might be best sampled where it originated.

    “Northern France is very known for its apples,” said David Lebovitz, author of “The Sweet Life in Paris.” “They have spectacularly good cooking apples.”

    French onion soup: The cozy, brothy soup is topped with bread and melted cheese.

    Onion soup is not a new invention or even a dish that can be directly tied to France. Some of the earliest iterations of it can be traced back to ancient Rome. But the most famous version? The version you think of when you think “onion soup”? The version you order to start off your meal made with beef stock, onions, toasted bread and ooey-gooey Gruyère cheese?

    That’s all France.

    The element that really sets this soup apart from other, less indulgent onion-based options is the layer of cheese that tops the steaming broth. That comes from baking the soup in a broiler to melt the cheese and produce what the French call au gratin.

    The gratin “technique (is) about making something in a shallow dish that will bake and get croûte on top – which means creating a crust – and that crust can be cheese, can be bread, can be all kinds of things. But a nice crust,” explained Boulud, who opened Le Gratin, an entire restaurant dedicated to highlighting the technique, in New York.

    The most popular dish at the restaurant is another cheesy French favorite, gratin Dauphinois, or gratin potatoes.

    Escargot: Snails with parsley and garlic butter are a French delicacy.

    Escargot is perhaps one of the most famous – or infamous, depending on who you ask – French dishes around. The delicacy, which can be traced all the way back to the Roman Empire, might not be for everyone, but it’s definitely worth a try for the adventurous eater.

    The classic recipe involves snails with parsley and garlic butter. The snails are served warm either inside their shells or in a specific dish fashioned with six to 12 small compartments. Often the dish comes with some bread to help soak up the rich, buttery flavor.

    These aren’t your average backyard snails either. The most popular snail species for escargot are the particularly well-regarded Burgundy snail, which is highly protected in France.

    Chocolate soufflé: This rich yet lightweight dessert is a challenge to master but well worth the effort.

    Aptly named after the French term souffler, meaning “to puff up,” the experience of eating a chocolate soufflé or one of its savory counterparts is a bit like biting into a cloud. The rich yet lightweight dessert has been gracing French tables since the 18th century, but was really perfected by esteemed chef and arbiter of haute cuisine Marie-Antoine Carême in the mid-1800s.

    Though notoriously difficult to prepare, the soufflé has a relatively simple ingredient list.

    The distinctive airy texture comes from separating the egg whites from the yolk and whipping them into a stiff meringue before folding them back into the chocolate batter. The baking time and cooking temperature is specific, and easy to get wrong, but the payoff is immediate – soufflés are served hot and fresh from the oven.

    Crepes: Ultrathin pancakes can be filled with sweet or savory ingredients.

    Not every French dish can be served all day, but then again, the crepe isn’t just any French dish.

    As France’s biggest-hitting entry to the global pancake catalog, crepes have a uniquely versatile quality. They can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They can be made with buckwheat flour, the tradition of the Brittany region’s savory galettes, or with more widely used white flour. They can be folded into triangles or rolled into logs.

    The paper-thin pancake is prepared rather theatrically on large griddles at crêperies. You can now find crepes made with any combination of sweet or savory ingredients, but crêpes suzette are still a popular iteration, consisting of caramelized sugar, orange juice and, for a flash of drama, flambeed liqueur.

    Salade Niçoise: This dish is a celebration of fresh, colorful produce at its peak.

    Salade Niçoise is a celebration of the fresh, colorful produce available throughout the French Riviera, where the dish originated. Elegantly plated on a tray or large platter, the salad features a bed of lettuce and a simple olive oil dressing or vinaigrette that lets the real star of the dish truly shine – the crudités, or raw vegetables.

    A purist’s salade Niçoise might feature a seasonal selection of fresh tomatoes, black olives, capers and green beans, all served cold, with the optional addition of anchovies or tuna. But as the salad’s popularity has grown outside of Nice, a number of ingredients have become common additions, such as hard-boiled eggs, potatoes, red bell peppers, fava beans and cucumbers.

    The sandwich version of this salad, pan bagnat, is also worth a try. Picture all the delicious ingredients of a Niçoise salad tucked into pain de campagne, or French sourdough.

    Crème brûlée: Fire is required for this caramelized dessert.

    Every bite of a crème brûlée is an exercise in opposites. The sweet vanilla custard flavor contrasted with the almost bitter flavor of the bruléed topping; the crunch of the caramelized sugar against the smooth, creamy texture of the custard underneath; the gentle water bath used to bake the custard compared with the dramatic blowtorch flame used to melt the sugar – in this dish opposites definitely attract.

    It’s hard to pinpoint when and even where the first crème brûlée might have been made. There were similar recipes floating around France, Spain and England dating back as early as the fifth century. But one thing for sure is that humans throughout history have always loved a good, creamy dessert. And who are we to disagree with 1,500 years of good reviews?

    Cassoulet: The earthy stew is the heartiest of hearty French dishes.

    Perhaps the heartiest of hearty French dishes is the cassoulet.

    A bean-centric ragout that originated in the southern town of Castelnaudary, the cassoulet can have different ingredients, depending on the region. In Castelnaudary, the white beans are prepared with duck confit, pork and sausage. Carcassonne features gamey meat such as mutton. Toulouse adds a bread crumb topping.

    The general and historical premise is the same – take all the hearty and edible ingredients available and put them in a pot or, more specifically, an earthenware cassole.

    This dish is so beloved by the French, Castelnaudary has its own brotherhood to defend it – the Grande Confrérie du Cassoulet.

    “The purpose of the Grande Confrérie is to honor, disseminate and defend the reputation of Cassoulet de Castelnaudary, ensuring respect for traditions and quality,” a statement on the brotherhood’s website explains.

    Quiche Lorraine: A butter crust and savory egg custard make this a winning dish.

    Creamy eggs, smoky bacon, flaky pastry crust – the quiche Lorraine is the quintessential French brunch item. But what has become a staple item at any decent French bistro or boulangerie had a rather tumultuous start.

    The term quiche originates from the German word for cake – kuchen. This is because the first quiches were made in the Lotharingia kingdom of Germany which, during the Middle Ages, spanned several modern Western European countries.

    The egg-and-cream custard pie was beloved in the Lothringen region, which was later annexed by France to become, you guessed it, Lorraine. The borders changed, but the dish stuck around. Now, quiches are served worldwide with any number of delicious and inventive flavor combinations.

    Confit de canard: The slow-cooked duck will have meat so tender it falls off the bone.

    What was once a method of preserving meat or vegetables before the existence of refrigerators has become one of the most famous French food preparation methods. The confit process produces juicy, tender meat with crispy skin that’s been enriched with the flavors of salt, herbs and its own fat. What’s not to love?

    Confit certainly isn’t the easiest process, but it’s hard to conceive of a more delicious way to prepare duck. First, the raw meat is cured with salt and aromatics such as thyme or garlic, then it’s poached at a low temperature for several hours until the fat is fully rendered. The meat can then be stored with the fat in an airtight container for weeks or even months until you’re ready to fry it up and eat it.

    This technique can easily go awry, but when done right, it produces a cut of duck that’s nutty in flavor and fall-off-the-bone tender.

    Ratatouille: The colorful, tangy vegetable dish is a Provençal specialty (and also a great movie).

    Among so many heavy hitters featuring beef and poultry in the French culinary tradition, there is still one famous entrée suitable for vegetarians: ratatouille. From the French word touille, meaning “to toss,” ratatouille originated in the Provence region but quickly gained popularity throughout France for its use of fresh summer vegetables.

    Featuring a colorful collection of eggplant, zucchini, peppers, onion and tomatoes, ratatouille can be prepared by either baking all the vegetables like a casserole or sautéing them with olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. The resulting stew can be served hot or cold.

    It pairs great with a crusty baguette topped with an egg, Parmesan, or both, according to the James Beard Foundation.

    Profiteroles: What's better than a cream puff? A cream puff covered with chocolate.

    Beautiful, sweet and small enough to eat more than is probably advisable, profiteroles come in any assortment of flavors. Filled with vanilla custard, cream or even ice cream, these little cream puffs can be topped with chocolate sauce, fruit or just served plain.

    The airy, delicate pastry is pâte à choux, or choux pastry. One of the backbones of French patisserie, choux is the dough used for éclairs, beignets, the Paris-Brest and more. It’s made by cooking flour with water, milk and butter before mixing in the eggs. The resulting dough is wet and pipable and puffs up when baked.

    Because of their simplicity, profiteroles are a common dessert taught young in French homes, David Lebovitz explained. “French cooking is very technique oriented and pâte à choux is a very easy technique to master.”

    Sole meunière: This fish dish showcases one of France's most iconic ingredients: butter.

    This fish dish is fit for a king – literally. Sole meunière is said to have been a favorite of King Louis XIV during the late 1600s. The deceptively simple dish has few ingredients, but the flavor profiles are complex due to the specific techniques used to cook the fish.

    For the most classic preparation, the Dover sole is the fish of choice because of its firm flesh and fresh flavor. The sole is breaded with flour and sautéed in butter until delicately crisp and golden, then topped with parsley and sizzling brown butter, or beurre noisette, which has a rich, nutty flavor.

    “The flesh is transparent. It’s absolutely delicate. It’s one of the finest things in life,” said chef Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch, former personal chef to French President François Mitterrand, in “Julia,” the CNN Film documentary about Julia Child. “Perfect fish in butter. It’s perfect!”

    Terrine: A loaflike shape defines this dish, but you can experiment with many flavor combinations.

    A terrine is the great dish for the most creative of chefs. Named after the earthenware pot used to mold its distinctive, loaflike shape, this dish has a specific look, but the flavor combinations are almost limitless. Make a terrine rustic with ingredients such as pork and beans or go lavish with ingredients such as rare game and truffles. The dish can be made with poultry or fish, or even entirely of vegetables.

    The most important feature for any ingredient? Big flavor.

    Not to be confused with other popular charcuterie elements such as paté or rillettes, a terrine is made by layering forcemeat with any combination of additional ingredients in a terrine mold to cook slowly in a water bath. This dish can be dense enough to serve as an entrée or makes a great hors d’oeuvre with crusty bread and cornichons, which are tiny crisp pickles.

    Steak frites: This simple and universally loved meal of steak and fries pairs well with red wine.

    Try to name a more classic combination than steak and potatoes. Since its origins in France and Belgium, steak frites has been a centerpiece of brasserie and bistro menus throughout Europe – and for good reason. The elements are simple and universally loved: a sizzling cut of beefsteak with a side of piping-hot, crispy fries.

    The steak is often served with a side of creamy béarnaise. Made from clarified butter, herbs and egg yolks, the sauce creates a rich accompaniment to the juicy cut of rib eye or porterhouse.

    Paired with a nice red wine to cut through the heavy flavors, this dish becomes the ultimate casual dinner entrée.

    Jambon-beurre: Assemble good-quality ham, butter and a baguette -- nothing more and nothing less.

    The jambon-beurre is exactly what it claims to be: jambon, or ham, layered on a coating of beurre – butter – between two slices of bread, nothing more and nothing less. The simplicity of this sandwich forces its maker to use only the best ingredients because every element is as important as the last.

    The bread, always a baguette sliced neatly down the center, must be freshly baked to perfection with a crunchy crust and a chewy interior. The ham is best if it’s jambon de Paris, sourced directly from the French capital, sliced thin and free from additives and preservatives. The butter, ideally directly from the northwestern Normandy region, should be lightly salted and spread generously.

    Also known as the Parisien, the jambon-beurre is used as a marker of sorts for the popularity of classic French cuisine among the country’s residents. According to Maryann Tebben, an annual index measures the number of jambon-beurres purchased compared with the annual number of hamburgers, lest the country stray too far from its roots.

    Blanquette de veau: Tender meat in a creamy, comforting sauce is a go-to dish for French home cooks.

    A favorite of home cooks across France, blanquette de veau is a veal stew prepared en blanquette, meaning neither the meat or the butter is browned during cooking. This process produces a dish of tender meat and mellow flavors with a creamy, comforting sauce coating it all.

    The white sauce is made using one of France’s biggest contributions to cooking techniques worldwide – combining melted butter with flour to create a roux. The flour acts as a thickening agent, creating a denser base, and also acts as a bonding agent between the roux and other ingredients such as cheese or cream.

    You can thank this technique for creating the base of dishes such as gumbo, some curries and creamy mac and cheese.

    Pot-au-feu: The beef and vegetable stew is the perfect cold-weather dish.

    Move over chicken noodle soup. There’s another dish that makes a strong claim for the perfect cold-weather dish. Pot-au-feu (meaning “pot on fire”) is a warm, simple and flavorful slow-cooked meal.

    Considered a national dish of France, pot-au-feu has no definitive recipe, and many regions of France have their own versions.

    It’s generally made with meat, root vegetables, herbs, spices and bone marrow, which are prepared together but served in separate courses: the marrow starter, followed by the broth and then finally the meat and vegetables.

    A large helping of pot-au-feu is thought to epitomize the spirit of French cooking – that sharing food, wine and conversation with a table full of loved ones is what makes life worth living.

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  • Joel Dahmen gives golf fan $100 to buy beers after hitting him with errant ball at PGA Championship | CNN

    Joel Dahmen gives golf fan $100 to buy beers after hitting him with errant ball at PGA Championship | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    One golf fan has found an unusual way to bypass having to pay for beers at the PGA Championship this week – take a Joel Dahmen tee shot to the leg.

    Dahmen was at the first tee of his final practice round Wednesday when his wayward drive struck spectator Caleb McGuire, the spectator said in a tweet.

    Pictures showed a sizeable bruise on the fan’s calf, but his pain was eased when the American golfer subsequently asked about the cost of a beer at the major, hosted at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York.

    When told each beer cost $17, Dahmen handed over $100 for some refreshments, McGuire said, with the tweet showing the duo posing for pictures with the bill.

    Dahmen’s act of generosity comes a year after two-time PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas expressed his disbelief at the reported $18 cost of beer at the 2022 edition of the major in Tulsa.

    “Sorry about that! Hope you enjoyed the beers,” Dahmen tweeted in response.

    “It was a pleasure just to meet you!” McGuire replied. “We couldn’t stop talking about it for the rest of the day. Go ahead and win this week!”

    Reporter asks Justin Thomas about high concession stand prices

    Dahmen shot to fame following his starring role as the self-proclaimed, self-depreciating, “goofball” of the PGA Tour in “Full Swing”, Netflix’s fly-on-the-wall docuseries released earlier this year.

    In an episode titled “Imposter Syndrome,” the show offered a candid insight into the 35-year-old’s wrestles with self-belief.

    “I’m a middle of the road PGA Tour player,” Dahmen explained.

    Dahmen (L) won hearts after his appearance in Netflix's

    “The top players … they’re just built differently. They’re mentally just different. They hit it further and they chip and putt better. I’m not a threat when I walk into these things, really.

    “I am not going to be a hall of famer. When I retire from golf, no one’s going to remember who I am. I understand that, I’m fine with it. I’m not playing for legacy. Some people are like, ‘That’s why you’ll never be great Joel, coz you don’t believe it.’”

    However, the episode ended on a high note with Dahmen finishing inside the top 10 at the US Open in June last year, a career-best major performance.

    The world No. 108 enjoyed a strong end to 2022 but has endured a tough start to the current season, missing the cut in four of his last seven PGA Tour appearances.

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  • Where to travel in 2023: The best destinations to visit | CNN

    Where to travel in 2023: The best destinations to visit | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As peak vacation season sails into view and the world shakes off the last shackles of the pandemic, it feels like the appetite for hitting the road has never been greater.

    International tourism reached 80% of pre-pandemic levels in the first quarter of 2023, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, with an estimated 235 million tourists traveling internationally in January, February and March. And experts are cautiously optimistic about a continued travel rebound.

    Demand is high, with many popular destinations booking out earlier in the year.

    Thankfully, there’s so much out there still to see and do.

    Travel expert explains why you should book your dream vacation now

    Here are 23 destination ideas from CNN Travel to get you started:

    From the main square in Krakow, pictured, to forests, lakes and mountains, Poland invites exploration.

    We could list new openings in Poland – such as Hotel Verte, the new Autograph Collection property in Warsaw, which threw open its gilded doors (it’s in a humongous Baroque palace) last August. But the reason you should visit Poland in 2023 isn’t for the chance to stay in a place fit for royalty. It’s to show solidarity with a country which has, in turn, shown solidarity to the people of Ukraine.

    Sharing a 300-plus-mile border with a country under attack has meant that Poland has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than anywhere else. Add to that plummeting tourist numbers (though they’re on the rise again), and you have a tricky situation.

    So whether you fancy that Warsaw palace, a city break to the likes of Krakow, Gdansk, Wrocław or Poznań – all hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian border – or to get away from it all in the forests, lakes and mountains of the countryside – now’s your chance to do some good by taking a vacation. – Julia Buckley

    A full solar eclipse will be visible in April in Exmouth, Western Australia. The landscape is worth a long look, too.

    Back in April, thousands of people descended on the town of Exmouth and the greater Ningaloo Peninsula, to witness a rare total solar eclipse as it became visible over the northwestern edge of Australia.

    Organizers spent more than a year planning for the event, which lasted about a minute, and featured musical performances, educational opportunities to learn about science and astronomy, and a three-day festival.

    But the state of Western Australia offers much more than some 60 seconds of wonder.

    Spanning one-third of the entire continent of Australia, it stretches from the lively, growing state capital of Perth across deserts including the Great Victoria and Great Sandy to the wine country of Margaret River, the dramatic clifftops of the Kimberley and the quokka-covered Rottnest Island. – Lilit Marcus

    Mersey paradise: Liverpool.

    England’s port city of Liverpool, best known around the world as the birthplace of The Beatles, has added another chapter to its musical legacy.

    It’s the host city of Eurovision 2023, the spangly extravaganza of song that brings an influx of thousands of flag-waving fans from across the continent. The annual event is an opportunity for the city to bounce back after the ignominy of being stripped of its UNESCO World Heritage status in 2021.

    In June, the city will celebrate 25 years of the Liverpool Biennial contemporary visual arts festival, as more than 30 international artists and collectives take over spaces in the city until September.

    England is also marking the Year of the Coast in 2023, with food festivals and beach cleans taking place along the country’s shores. Just a half hour from Liverpool city center by train, Crosby Beach is the permanent home of sculptor Antony Gormley’s “Another Place,” where 100 cast-iron figures stand facing out to sea. – Maureen O’Hare

    Charleston, a city of undeniable refined, historic beauty, is also looking more closely at its troubled past.

    Charleston parades its past like no other US city, but it often glossed over the history of its Black residents. It’s been taking steps to fix that.

    Enter the much-delayed International African American Museum, which is now expected to open in late June.

    Located on the shoreline of the Cooper River in the spot where many Africans first set foot in North America, it will explore the lives of slaves and their descendants.

    Visitors in late May and early June can enjoy the world-renowned Spoleto Festival featuring opera, theater, dance, musical acts and artist talks.

    In March, foodies headed to the Charleston Wine and Food Festival to sample Lowcountry favorites.

    For fancy Southern fare, try Magnolias. Opened in 1990, it helped spur the city’s culinary renaissance. For something informal, try Bertha’s Kitchen in North Charleston, where red rice with sausage, fried chicken and lima beans rule. The eatery even caught attention of “Roadfood” author Michael Stern. – Forrest Brown

    Self-effacing Vilnius admitted in an ad campaign this year that nobody really knows where it is. If their brilliant video didn’t make you want to book a trip there immediately, perhaps this will: the capital of Lithuania celebrated its 700th anniversary on January 25, 2023.

    To mark the milestone, a packed program of events, including music festivals and exhibitions, are being held throughout the year. But use the anniversary as a push to visit rather than following a program religiously.

    The entire city center is a UNESCO World Heritage Site – putting it up there with its fellow V-cities, Venice and Vienna. Vilnius makes it on the list thanks to its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings, all sitting on a medieval street plan, but it’s best known for its Baroque architecture.

    Don’t miss the frothy bell tower of St. John’s church (you can climb it for sweeping city views) or the church of St. Casimir, topped by a giant crown. Got an eye for social media? This is Europe’s only capital city that allows hot air balloons to cruise over the city skyline. – JB

    Scenes like this await visitors to Fiji.

    Brilliant blue waters, expansive coral reefs and hundreds of peaceful islands: Fiji is not a hard sell. But why go there in 2023? For one, the country only reopened post-Covid at the end of 2021, meaning that visitor numbers to the South Pacific paradise have yet to fully rebound.

    While the country is spoiled for underwater beauty, take an opportunity to explore its above-ground treasures, too. The country’s lone UNESCO World Heritage site is the town of Levuka, a former capital and an important port, which is studded with British colonial-era buildings amid coconut and mango trees.

    To learn about the local Indigenous communities, travelers can take part in a kava welcoming ceremony – named for the traditional drink at its center – or enjoy a lovo, a meal cooked by hot coals in an underground pit covered with banana leaves.

    Fiji Airways now has direct flights from Los Angeles and San Francisco, making it relatively easy to get to the islands. As the Fijians say, bula! – LM

    As the fate of the Amazon rainforest hangs in the balance, two eco-lodges around Manaus – the capital of Brazil’s Amazonas state, and gateway to the river – have used their pandemic pause to get even more environmentally friendly.

    Juma Amazon Lodge, about 50 miles south of the city, is now fully powered by a new $400,000 solar plant, whose 268 double panels swagger nearly 40 feet into the air above the canopy (meaning no trees had to be cut). They’ve also built a biogas system to increase the efficiency of organic waste treatment, reducing annual carbon emissions by eight tons.

    Meanwhile, Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, northwest of Manaus on the Rio Negro river, opened an off-grid “advanced base” during the pandemic that’s 30 miles from the main lodge and accessible only via river.

    Guests can take long jungle hikes through territory home to jaguars, pumas and giant armadillos in what’s one of the Amazon region’s most remote hotel facilities, then spend the afternoon in a hammock or by the pool. For 2023, the lodge is planning overnight stays in a creekside tent for small groups.

    Don’t miss Manaus itself – eating behemoth Amazonian fish outside the pink 1896 opera house is a bucket list experience. – JB

    Enticing flavors, history and proximity to beaches and mountains are just a few factors working in this Greek city's favor.

    There’s been no shortage of reasons to visit Greece’s second city in recent times, with a UNESCO-endorsed local food scene that recently celebrated the refurb and reopening of its century-old Modiano food market.

    Throw in a popular waterfront and proximity to beautiful beaches and inland mountains, Thessaloniki is surely a contender for one of Europe’s best city-break destinations.

    What could make it even better? How about a gleaming new metro system? All being well, November 2023 should see the opening of the main line of an infrastructure megaproject that will eventually connect the city’s downtown to its international airport. Driverless trains will whisk passengers through tunnels whose excavation has added to Thessaloniki’s already rich catalog of archeological discoveries, many of which will be on display in specially created museum stations. – Barry Neild

    January 2023 saw the official opening of Rwanda’s most exciting hotel yet: Sextantio Rwanda, a collection of traditionally crafted huts on an island on Lake Kivu, one of Africa’s largest lakes.

    It’s the first project outside Italy for Daniele Kihlgren, whose part-hotel, part-living history projects keep local tradition alive. A nonprofit delivering money straight to local communities, Sextantio sees guests fishing on the 1,000-square-mile lake, paddling in dug-out canoes, trying local banana beer and wildlife-spotting – and not just the chickens, cows, pigs and goats that roam around the property.

    Of course, you’ll want to see gorillas. Adjoining Volcanoes National Park, the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund opened the 4,500-square meter Ellen DeGeneres Campus in 2022. Its visitor center includes exhibits, virtual reality gorilla “encounters” and nature trails.

    Over in Akagera National Park, white rhinos – transferred from South Africa in 2021 to aid conservation – are already calving. It’s easier to get there, too. A new route from London joins Brussels, Dubai, Guangzhou and Mumbai as the only direct flights to Kigali from outside the African continent. – JB

    Voted the world’s most sustainable destination in the world for six years running, Sweden’s second-biggest city is finally emerging from the shadow of Stockholm.

    Once a major trading and shipping town, Gothenburg is now considered to be one of the greenest destinations in Europe, with 274 square meters (2,950 square feet) of green space per citizen, while 95% of its hotels are certified as eco-friendly.

    Although Gothenburg officially turned 400 in 2021, the celebrations were put on ice because of the global pandemic. But they’re finally taking place in 2023, so it’s a great time to visit.

    Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustav, who celebrates 50 years on the throne this year, will be in town on June 4, Gothenburg’s official birthday, and the city’s major anniversary festival is being held in the Frihamnen port district from June 2 to 5, with concerts and art events among the activities on offer.

    The festivities will continue throughout the summer until the September 3 kick off of Göteborgsvarvet Marathon, a new 26-mile race following on from the city’s popular half marathon on May 13. – Tamara Hardingham-Gill

    The Dhayah Fort in Ras al-Khaimah is one of the few remaining hill forts in the United Arab Emirates.

    When travelers think of the United Arab Emirates, the dazzling skyline of Dubai is usually what springs to mind.

    But the UAE has a lot to offer nature lovers too – particularly the northernmost emirate Ras al-Khaimah, which is aiming to become the Middle East’s most sustainable destination by 2025 thanks to a new “Balanced Tourism” strategy.

    Just 45 minutes from Dubai, it’s often called the “adventure Emirate,” and for good reason. Offering beaches, deserts and mountains, outdoor attractions abound, such as sand boarding, trekking, wakeboarding, skydiving, scuba diving and even the world’s longest zipline.

    But it’s not all about the adrenaline rush. Ras Al Khaimah is where you’ll find the highest restaurant in the United Arab Emirates, 1484 by Puro, which sits in the emirate’s Jebel Jais Mountains. Culture seekers can head for the historic Dhayah Fort, which dates back to the Late Bronze Age (1600-1300 BC).

    Where to stay? Luxury hospitality brand Anantara is opening a fabulous new resort there later this year that will offer 174 guestrooms, suites and overwater villas along with specialty restaurants and a spa. – Karla Cripps

    Three-tiered Kuang Si Falls is just south of UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang.

    Sharing borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Myanmar, landlocked Laos has long been a must-hit spot for time-rich travelers making their way through the Southeast Asia circuit.

    But now, thanks to the 2021 opening of a semi-high-speed railway, it’s easier than ever to get around the country at a quicker pace, shaving hours off journeys that previously took full days to travel.

    You’re still going to have to make some hard choices – there’s a lot to see in Laos.

    Towering karst peaks await visitors to adventure-haven Vang Vieng, while UNESCO-listed Luang Prabang is filled with French-colonial heritage, Buddhist ritual and natural beauty. (Luxury seekers will want to check into the Rosewood Luang Prabang, with its stylish hilltop tents)

    The mysterious Plain of Jars, a megalithic archaeological site, can be found in the Xiangkhoang Plateau. For a once-in-a-lifetime experience that makes a difference, head for Bokeo Province and join one of the Gibbon Experience’s overnight treks. Guests of this tourism-based conservation project spend the night in the world’s tallest treehouses – only accessible by zipline – among wild, black-crested gibbons. – KC

    Rolling hills, medieval buildings – and the officially crowned world’s best cheese. Welcome to Gruyères, Switzerland.

    Everywhere you look in this tiny, hilltop town, there’s a different picture-perfect view – from the medieval market square to the turreted 13th-century castle. A doable day trip from Geneva, summer promises hiking opportunities aplenty, while winter allows for venturing to the nearby Moléson-sur-Gruyères ski resort.

    To taste Gruyères’ namesake fromage, stop off at the wood-lined Chalet de Gruyères. And to learn how cheesemakers perfect this creamy goodness, head to La Maison du Gruyère factory. For further foodie delights, there’s the Maison Cailler chocolate factory – from the outside it looks like something from a Wes Anderson movie, inside it offers a glimpse into the secrets of Swiss chocolate making.

    Gruyères is also home to the surreal HR Giger Museum, celebrating the work of the acclaimed Swiss artist behind the eponymous alien in the 1979 movie “Alien.” A drink at the museum’s bar, designed by Giger in an eerie skeletal aesthetic, offers an antidote to Gruyères’ fairytale vibe. – Francesca Street

    A modern Indigenous restaurant in Minneapolis has earned one of the culinary world’s highest honors, and it’s not alone in shining light on Native communities in the area.

    At Owamni, a James Beard Award winner for best new restaurant, Indigenous ingredients – trout, bison, sweet potatoes and more – make up “decolonized” menus where ingredients such as wheat flour and beef are absent. The restaurant is a partnership between chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota and Dana Thompson, who is a lineal descendant of the Wahpeton-Sisseton and Mdewakanton Dakota tribes.

    Earlier this year, one of the pair’s community-owned initiatives, Indigenous Food Lab, opened a market in Minneapolis’ Midtown Global Market, a former Sears building housing businesses that represent more than 22 cultures.

    The open-air Four Sisters Farmers Market (Thursdays June through October) also focuses on Indigenous products. And at the Minnesota History Center in neighboring St. Paul, the exhibit “Our Home: Native Minnesota” looks at thousands of years of Native history in the state. – Marnie Hunter

    While Colomia's busy capital can be congested, it's also home to the historic neighborhood of La Candelaria.

    Caribbean coast destinations such as the Rosario archipelago or the UNESCO heritage list city of Cartagena are rightly top of most Colombia travel wish lists, but also deserving a look-in is the country’s somewhat unsung capital of Bogotá.

    Yes, it’s a messy, traffic-snarled urban sprawl, but it’s also a high-altitude crucible of culture and cuisine. There are tours that chart the city’s transformation from graffiti wild west to incredible street art gallery.

    Equally colorful are the restaurants that make the most of Colombia’s diverse natural larder of flora on menus that range from delicious peasant dishes to mind-blowing Michelin-level gastronomy. And then there’s the coffee!

    The congestion (except on regular cycle-only days) thins quickly on its outskirts, allowing day trips to see historic and modern treasures. Itineraries include Lake Guatavita, where conquistadors once plundered sunken gold offerings left by indigenous Muisca people, or the majestic subterranean Zipaquirá salt cathedral. – BN

    Famed for its mountain treks through ancient trails that once facilitated trade between the Himalayas and India, Nepal’s stunning Mustang Valley sits on the doorstep of Tibet.

    Expect to hear a lot more about this remote destination in the coming months thanks to the arrival of the soon-to-open Shinta Mani Mustang. Part of the Bensley Collection, this all-inclusive resort perched above the small town of Jomsom in the Lower Mustang will offer luxury seekers 29 suites inspired by traditional Tibetan homes.

    In addition to trekking, Mustang visitors can explore ancient villages and Buddhist monasteries. Also not to be missed, the man-made Mustang Caves sit above the Gandaki River and are filled with 2,000-year-old Buddhist sculptures and paintings.

    Getting to the Mustang Valley is part of the adventure. Travelers will need to take a 25-minute flight from capital Kathmandu to Pokhara then hop on another plane for the 20-minute journey to Jomsom. The views alone might make this option more pleasing to some than the alternative – a 12-hour drive from Kathmandu. – KC

    From the spectacular wildlife to the beautiful national parks and beaches, Tanzania is absolutely bursting with visual splendor.

    The East African country holds a seemingly endless list of incredible sights, with Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, UNESCO world heritage site Serengeti National Park, and the Zanzibar Archipelago, among its many highlights.

    This year, flag carrier Air Tanzania will launch new routes to West and Central Africa, along with the UK, in a bid to transform the country’s largest airport in Dar es Salaam into a transport and logistics hub, while construction on the country’s first toll expressway is also scheduled to begin.

    Meanwhile, the Delta Hotels by Marriott brand made its Africa debut with the opening of its Dar es Salaam Oyster Bay property earlier this year. –– THG

    Cairo is pulsing with life and a rich blend of cultures.

    Could this finally be the year tourists can see the Grand Egyptian Museum? After delay upon delay, the museum is expecting a 2023 opening.

    GEM will be the largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, costing around $1 billion and holding the entire King Tut collection. See video here of a CNN insider visit.

    If you arrive in Cairo before it opens, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square can still scratch your antiquity itch.

    While the Pyramids of Giza are the city’s tour-de-force, there’s still more to see. Start with Islamic Cairo. This area has one of the largest collections of historic Islamic architecture in the world. While there, visit the Al-Azhar mosque, which dates back to 970.

    The city also has a rich Christian tradition. Coptic Cairo, part of Old Cairo, has a concentration of Christian sites that pre-date the arrival of Islam.

    If you need a respite from Cairo’s cacophony, Al Azhar Park has a nice expanse of greenery and a design inspired by historic Islamic gardens. And the affluent neighborhood of Zamalek, which sits on an island in the Nile River, serves up restaurants, antique stores and swanky hotels. – FB

    Yayoi Kusama has the distinction of being the best-selling living female artist on the planet. In particular, she has become a global icon for her sculptures of giant polka-dotted pumpkins, one of which was reinstalled at the pier of Naoshima, one of Japan’s “art islands,” in 2022 after being swept into the sea the year before.

    However, Naoshima is so much more than its famous yellow gourd or its works by Kusama.

    There are five small, walkable “art islands” in the Seto Inland Sea, which is located between the main islands of Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoku in southeastern Japan. The largest collection of things to see – not to mention the only hotel – is on Naoshima. Together, the five champion modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on Japanese artists.

    Don’t come here expecting calligraphy and other classical forms. Instead, be awed by Tadao Ando’s massive stone monoliths, a tiny gallery where patrons can listen to nothing but the beats of human hearts, a makeshift thunderstorm created inside a wooden house and an exhibit where jumping in and taking a bath is intended to be part of the artistic experience. – LM

    With direct flights to Belize City from about a dozen North American airports, this Central American country is a low-hassle hop for many travelers during the November to April high season.

    Most visitors head directly to Belize’s Caribbean coastline. The country’s largest island, Ambergris Caye, sits next to Belize Barrier Reef – the world’s second largest coral reef system. Margaritaville Beach Resort opened on the island in March, and “eco-luxury” resort Alaia Belize opened in 2021.

    Farther south, the Great Blue Hole – a massive underwater sinkhole – is an aquatic magnet for both scuba divers and aerial photographers.

    But Belize offers way more than its enticing islands.

    Lush rainforests, cave networks, winding rivers and rich Mayan archaeological sites invite exploration in a country that’s had an evolving sustainable tourism master plan since 2012. Ruins of the Mayan city of Altun Ha are just about an hour north of Belize City. Or farther west, Lamanai is one of Belize’s largest and most fascinating Mayan sites. – MH

    Mexico is arguably as rich in culinary heritage as it is in Mesoamerican archaeological treasures, and Eva Longoria explores many distinctive flavors in her series “Searching for Mexico,” which aired on CNN this year.

    The state of Oaxaca, which Longoria visits, has an especially deep well of culinary traditions. Plus, Oaxaca produces most of the world’s mezcal.

    Tlayudas, known as Oaxacan pizzas, are a street food staple. A large corn tortilla is typically layered with lard, beans, traditional Oaxacan cheese, pork and other toppings such as avocado and tomato. The state is also renowned for its seven mole sauces, with recipes that may call for dozens of ingredients from chiles and sesame seeds to chocolate and dried fruit.

    In the city of Oaxaca, Mercado Benito Juárez is one of many markets across the state selling items such as dried chiles, fresh produce, handicrafts and crunchy grasshoppers. To sample the state’s increasingly popular beverage, the town of Santiago Matatlán is the place for mezcal distillery tours and tastings. – MH

    In the winter, the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa becomes the world's largest skaing rink.

    It doesn’t have Montreal’s French flair or Toronto’s international oomph, so the Canadian capital can get overlooked. That would be a mistake. Graceful and understated, Ottawa has its own draws.

    Music lovers should take note of two Ottawa Jazz Festivals. The winter edition took place in February, and the summer edition will run from June 23-30.

    If you love hockey, watch the Ottawa Senators do their NHL thing at the Canadian Tire Centre in the western suburbs. If that ticket is too pricey, check out the Ottawa 67’s, a more affordable option of junior men’s hockey games at downtown’s TD Place Arena.

    The Rideau Canal turns into the world’s largest skating rink from sometime in January to late February or early March, depending on ice thickness. It’s free and accessible 24/7. When it’s warmer, it’s a great spot for people and boat watching.

    A don’t-miss is Parliament Hill, home to Canada’s federal government and the visually striking Parliament buildings on a promontory overlooking the Ottawa River. – FB

    Treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest are among Uganda's highlights.

    There’s considerable change brewing in Uganda’s travel offerings at the moment with the East African country looking beyond the traditional staples of safari and wildlife spotting to appeal to both regional and international visitors.

    Keen to revitalize post-Covid tourism in all corners of the country, not just the big-ticket businesses offering wealthy visitors a glimpse of the Big Five beasts or mountain gorillas, it’s turned to marketing its other attributes.

    And why not? From the expansive shores of Lake Victoria to the snowy Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda is a beautiful wilderness playground, with opportunities for adventure including treks through the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest or up to the craters of the Virunga volcano chain or whitewater rafting along the Victoria Nile.

    There’s also an emphasis on connecting visitors with Ugandan communities – promising tastes of Ugandan food, music and culture. Last year saw the launch of the Uganda Cycling Trail, a 1,600-kilometer mainly unpaved 22-stage route designed to appeal to all levels of cyclist from hardcore solo bikepackers to fully-guided easy riders. – BN

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  • Refined carbs and red meat driving global rise in type 2 diabetes, study says | CNN

    Refined carbs and red meat driving global rise in type 2 diabetes, study says | CNN

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    Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. Our eight-part guide shows you a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that will boost your health for life.



    CNN
     — 

    Gobbling up too many refined wheat and rice products, along with eating too few whole grains, is fueling the growth of new cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide, according to a new study that models data through 2018.

    “Our study suggests poor carbohydrate quality is a leading driver of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes globally,” says senior author Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University and professor of medicine at Tufts School of Medicine in Boston, in a statement.

    Another key factor: People are eating far too much red and processed meats, such as bacon, sausage, salami and the like, the study said. Those three factors — eating too few whole grains and too many processed grains and meats — were the primary drivers of over 14 million new cases of type 2 diabetes in 2018, according to the study, which was published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.

    In fact, the study estimated 7 out of 10 cases of type 2 diabetes worldwide in 2018 were linked to poor food choices.

    “These new findings reveal critical areas for national and global focus to improve nutrition and reduce devastating burdens of diabetes,” said Mozaffarian, who is also the editor in chief of the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.

    Mozaffarian and his team developed a research model of dietary intake between 1990 and 2018 and applied it to 184 countries. Compared with 1990, there were 8.6 million more cases of type 2 diabetes due to poor diet in 2018, the study found.

    Researchers found eating too many unhealthy foods was more of a driver of type 2 diabetes on a global level than a lack of eating wholesome foods, especially for men compared with women, younger compared to older adults, and in urban versus rural residents.

    Over 60% of the total global diet-attributable cases of the disease were due to excess intake of just six harmful dietary habits: eating too much refined rice, wheat and potatoes; too many processed and unprocessed red meats; and drinking too many sugar-sweetened beverages and fruit juice.

    Inadequate intake of five protective dietary factors — fruits, nonstarchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and yogurt — was responsible for just over 39% of the new cases.

    People in Poland and Russia, where diets tend to focus on potatoes and red and processed meat, and other countries in Eastern and Central Europe as well as Central Asia, had the highest percentage of new type 2 diabetes cases linked to diet.

    Colombia, Mexico and other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean also had high numbers of new cases, which researchers said could be due to a reliance on sugary drinks and processed meat, as well as a low intake of whole grains.

    “Our modeling approach does not prove causation, and our findings should be considered as estimates of risk,” the authors wrote.

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  • The cream-cheese-stuffed bagel is here | CNN Business

    The cream-cheese-stuffed bagel is here | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    In the 1990s, Pizza Hut unveiled an important cheese-in-bread innovation, the stuffed crust pizza. Now, Philadelphia cream cheese and H&H Bagels, a New York City-based bagel shop, are trying to please the carbohydrate- and dairy-loving communities with a new and dubious spin on the stuffed crust: The bagel stuffed with cream cheese.

    But unlike stuffed-crust pizzas, the bagel is filled with cheese after it is baked, making it more of a cream cheese bagel donut, if not in spirit then at least in form.

    The bagels are “baked fresh daily and then cooled to be individually stuffed with Philly’s signature cream cheese one at a time,” according to Jay Rushin, CEO of H&H. “H&H Bagels use a pastry tool to pipe in the Philly cream cheese by hand,” he added. “The process leaves very small holes where the insertions are made, similar to a jelly donut.”

    The obvious question, as is often the case with food mash-ups, is why. What’s so wrong with slicing a bagel and slathering on a healthy amount of cream cheese? Why must we pre-cheese the bagel? Because, Philly owner Kraft Heinz and H&H say, the simple acts of cutting and spreading are taxed, at least in New York.

    “New York City may be the bagel capital of the world, but its residents incur a ludicrous ‘bagel tax’ each time they opt to purchase a bagel that’s sliced and schmeared with cream cheese,” the companies said in a release.

    That’s true, sort of. New York doesn’t have a specific bagel tax, explained Ryan Cleveland, a representative of the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance. But certain food products, including baked goods, are tax exempt, while prepared foods are not.

    “It’s when a bagel becomes a sandwich or a prepared food that it then becomes taxable,” he said. In New York City, food sold at restaurants is taxed at 8.875%.

    Philadelphia and H&H plan to skirt this rule with the stuffed bagel, which is available at H&H’s Manhattan locations for $1.90 each, from Friday through Tax Day on Tuesday, April 18; and also online.

    “In today’s landscape, people are juggling enough hurdles, and having to pay an extra tax to enjoy their favorite bagel with Philly cream cheese should simply not be one of them,” said Keenan White, senior brand manager of Philadelphia cream cheese, in a statement.

    White and Kraft Heinz

    (KHC)     may well care about their customers’ tax payments. But for food companies, marketing stunts are about creating buzz and staying at the forefront of customers’ minds when they visit the supermarket — or bagel shop.

    Kraft in particular has in recent years been leaning into questionable combinations, like the Velveeta Martini and a hot dog flavored popsicle, to promote its brands and get attention.

    Philadelphia cream cheese, which struggled with shortages in the past, turned that issue into a marketing opportunity as well. There’s no problem with supply now, according to the brand.

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  • Fuzzy first photo of a black hole gets a sharp makeover | CNN

    Fuzzy first photo of a black hole gets a sharp makeover | CNN

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    Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.



    CNN
     — 

    The first photo ever taken of a black hole looks a little sharper now.

    Originally released in 2019, the unprecedented historic image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy Messier 87 captured an essentially invisible celestial object using direct imaging.

    The image presented the first direct visual evidence that black holes exist, showcasing a central dark region encapsulated by a ring of light that looks brighter on one side. Astronomers nicknamed the object the “fuzzy, orange donut.”

    Now, scientists have used machine learning to give the image a cleaner upgrade that looks more like a “skinny” doughnut, researchers said. The central region is darker and larger, surrounded by a bright ring as hot gas falls into the black hole in the new image.

    In 2017, astronomers set out to observe the invisible heart of the massive galaxy Messier 87, or M87, near the Virgo galaxy cluster 55 million light-years from Earth.

    The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, called EHT, is a global network of telescopes that captured the first photograph of a black hole. More than 200 researchers worked on the project for more than a decade. The project was named for the event horizon, the proposed boundary around a black hole that represents the point of no return where no light or radiation can escape.

    To capture an image of the black hole, scientists combined the power of seven radio telescopes around the world using Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry, according to the European Southern Observatory, which is part of the EHT. This array effectively created a virtual telescope around the same size as Earth.

    Data from the original 2017 observation was combined with a machine learning technique to capture the full resolution of what the telescopes saw for the first time. The new, more detailed image, along with a study, was released on Thursday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

    “With our new machine learning technique, PRIMO, we were able to achieve the maximum resolution of the current array,” said lead study author Lia Medeiros, astrophysics postdoctoral fellow in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, in a statement.

    “Since we cannot study black holes up-close, the detail of an image plays a critical role in our ability to understand its behavior. The width of the ring in the image is now smaller by about a factor of two, which will be a powerful constraint for our theoretical models and tests of gravity.”

    Medeiros and other EHT members developed Principal-component Interferometric Modeling, or PRIMO. The algorithm relies on dictionary learning in which computers create rules based on large amounts of material. If a computer is given a series of images of different bananas, combined with some training, it might be able to tell if an unknown image does or doesn’t contain a banana.

    Computers using PRIMO analyzed more than 30,000 high-resolution simulated images of black holes to pick out common structural details. This allowed the machine learning essentially to fill in the gaps of the original image.

    “PRIMO is a new approach to the difficult task of constructing images from EHT observations,” said Tod Lauer, an astronomer at the National Science Foundation’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab. “It provides a way to compensate for the missing information about the object being observed, which is required to generate the image that would have been seen using a single gigantic radio telescope the size of the Earth.”

    Black holes are made up of huge amounts of matter squeezed into a small area, according to NASA, creating a massive gravitational field that draws in everything around it, including light. These powerful celestial phenomena also have a way of superheating the material around them and warping space-time.

    Material accumulates around black holes, is heated to billions of degrees and reaches nearly the speed of light. Light bends around the gravity of the black hole, which creates the photon ring seen in the image. The black hole’s shadow is represented by the dark central region.

    The visual confirmation of black holes also acts as confirmation of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity. In the theory, Einstein predicted that dense, compact regions of space would have such intense gravity that nothing could escape them. But if heated materials in the form of plasma surround the black hole and emit light, the event horizon could be visible.

    The new image can help scientists make more accurate measurements of the black hole’s mass. Researchers can also apply PRIMO to other EHT observations, including those of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

    “The 2019 image was just the beginning,” Medeiros said. “If a picture is worth a thousand words, the data underlying that image have many more stories to tell. PRIMO will continue to be a critical tool in extracting such insights.”

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  • Some customers are complaining the new olive oil-infused Starbucks drink is making them run to the bathroom | CNN Business

    Some customers are complaining the new olive oil-infused Starbucks drink is making them run to the bathroom | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Starbucks is betting big on olive oil infused coffee, hoping customers will be enticed by the anomaly and the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil.

    “It is one of the biggest launches we’ve had in decades,” Brady Brewer, Starbucks’ chief marketing officer, told CNN. Former CEO Howard Schultz added in an interview with Poppy Harlow that it will “transform the coffee industry,” and be “a very profitable new addition to the company.”

    But what the company may not have taken into account: Some customers say it’s making them have to run to the bathroom.

    “Half the team tried it yesterday and a few ended up… needing to use the restroom, if ya know what I mean,” a barista on the Starbucks Reddit page posted. CNN has reached out to the Redditor for comment.

    It might be the sheen from the oil. Or it could be the aftertaste. Social media was swift with condemning the drink – and the after effects.

    “That oleato drink from starbs makin my stomach speak,” one user tweeted.

    Those with sensitive stomachs are already weary.

    “IBD patient here. I wouldn’t touch these drinks with a ten-foot pole,” one Redditor said.

    The new platform, Oleato, rolled out in Italy in February. Each beverage – an oat milk latte, ice shaken espresso with oat milk and a golden foam cold brew – are made with a spoonful of oil, adding 120 calories to a drink. Select Starbucks stores in Seattle and Los Angeles and Reserves in Chicago, Seattle and New York are now serving the platform of beverages.

    CNN has reached out to Starbucks for comment.

    Olive oil is a staple in Mediterranean culture and some drink bits of olive oil in the region daily.

    But the Starbucks drink has a potentially fragile combination: caffeine, which is a stimulant, and olive oil, which is a relaxant.

    A 16-ounce drink has as much as 34 grams of fat, which is more than what many find in a meal, registered dietitian nutritionist Erin Palinski-Wade said. And mineral oils like olive oils tend to be used to treat constipation because it helps soften the stool, making it easier to go the bathroom.

    “If you combined high fat in a meal or in a beverage along with coffee, which already stimulates the bowels,” Palinski-Wade said, “that combination can cause cramping. It can cause increased mobility in the colon and therefore have that laxative effect.”

    Some customers said the speed at which they had to use the restroom after having the drink caught them off guard. But high fat meals take longer to digest than liquid olive oil, which will hit the digestive track faster, Palinski-Wade said. And most people in the US are drinking coffee on the go and aren’t pairing the drink with any carbohydrates and fibers to negate the impact.

    The benefits of olive oil are widely circulated, linked to lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease to lowering blood pressure (though the positive health outcomes could be because the Mediterranean diet replaces unhealthy fats like butter with olive oil, The New York Times reported.)

    “(The drink) is not going to make somebody physically ill from the standpoint of having a negative impact on health,” Palinski-Wade said. “But more of that uncomfortable feeling of having to go in the bathroom or potentially cramping.”

    In the Mediterranean, taking a spoonful of olive oil a day is part of a daily routine. Former CEO Howard Schultz picked up this habit himself from olive oil producer Tommaso Asaro while in Sicily, Italy.

    “When we got together and started doing this ritual I said to [Asaro], I know you think I’m going to be crazy, but have you ever thought of infusing a tablespoon of olive oil with Starbucks coffee?” Schultz told CNN’s Poppy Harlow. “He thought it was a little strange.” Asaro is the chairman of United Olive Oil, through which Starbucks is sourcing its olive oil.

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  • Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

    Here’s why beef is still pricey | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A slowing economy may lead to a decline in sales of pricey beef cuts, but don’t look for any bargains just yet.

    Market forces that have been building for a long time, including devastating droughts, will likely keep hamburger and steak prices steady — and relatively expensive.

    In part, that’s because there’s less beef. A contraction in beef supplies “has been coming for a while,” said David Anderson, a professor in Texas A&M University’s agricultural economics department. “We’re starting to see the effects that we knew were going to be coming for a couple of years.”

    When extreme drought hit the United States in recent years, farmers started to rapidly sell cattle because the dry conditions, along with higher feed costs, made it expensive or impossible to maintain their herds. That wave of sales, particularly of cows used to breed, has led to supply constraints this year.

    “Tightening cattle supplies are expected to cause a significant year-over-year decrease in beef production, the first decline since 2015,” a March market outlook from the US Department of Agriculture noted.

    “If we produce less beef, the pressure’s on for higher prices,” said Anderson. The “big unknown is going to be consumer demand.”

    The beef supply tends to grow and shrink in roughly 10-year cycles, said Lance Zimmerman, senior beef analyst for the North American market with Rabobank. When supply shrinks, consumer prices tend to go up. But with people nervous about the economy, this year’s more complicated.

    “The biggest thing that looms large, in all of our minds as market analysts right now, is do we have recession risk that we need to price into the market for next year,” Zimmerman said. “If that’s the case, beef prices may be steadier.”

    And with food inflation stubbornly high, consumers are already cutting back on certain items, including beef.

    Tyson

    (TSN)    , which processes about a fifth of the country’s beef, poultry and pork, noted a sales dip in beef in the three months ending December 31, 2022.

    With grocery inflation stubbornly high, some consumers trade down.

    Beef sales “were down 5.6% compared to record high sales in the prior year,” said CFO John Tyson during a February analyst call discussing the quarterly results, noting that prices were down in the quarter due to “softer domestic demand for beef.” The company said that it expects its beef margins to fall this year because of the smaller domestic supply.

    “Retailers through last year continued to push price on the consumer,” said Adam Speck, senior livestock analyst at Gro Intelligence. Now they have to answer a question as they plan for the year: Will demand be high enough to warrant raising prices even more?

    “The answer is probably no,” said Speck. That may not be a huge relief, as beef prices are still relatively high. In 2022, fresh choice beef retailed for $7.59 per pound, according to March data from the USDA. That’s up from $7.25 per pound the previous year.

    Stores may try to test the waters during barbecue season.

    In the spring, “we’re at the bottom of our traditional seasonal demand,” said Bernt Nelson, an economist with American Farm Bureau Federation. Demand for beef typically dips after the holidays, and picks up when people fire up their grills in the summer, he noted. If demand remains strong, “we may see some higher beef prices,” towards the fall and later, Bernt said.

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  • Iranian women arrested for not wearing hijab after yogurt thrown on them | CNN

    Iranian women arrested for not wearing hijab after yogurt thrown on them | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two women in Iran were arrested after a man threw yogurt on them for not wearing the hijab at a store in the northeastern city of Shandiz, according to a video and report published by the Mizan News Agency, the state-run media for Iran’s judiciary.

    Video of Thursday’s incident shows a man approaching one of the women who is unveiled and speaking to her before proceeding to grab a tub of yogurt from the store and throwing it, hitting both women in the head.

    Iranian women risk arrest for not covering their hair. Many have been defying the mandatory dress code as part of protests that followed the death of a young woman in custody who allegedly violated hijab rules.

    The video appears to show a male staff member removing the suspect from the store. CNN is not able to verify what was said immediately before the confrontation.

    The two women were arrested after being issued an arrest warrant for failing to wear the hijab in public, according to Mizan News Agency. The incident is under investigation, and the male suspect has been arrested for a disturbance of order, Iranian officials said.

    On Saturday the Iranian authorities repeated their stance that wearing the hijab was compulsory,

    “The important matter is that today we have a legal mandate,” said Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, according to Reuters. “The legal mandate makes it mandatory for everyone to follow the law.”

    “If there are people who say that they do not share this belief of ours (the mandatory hijab), then this is a place for scientific and cultural centers as well as schools to discuss this and convince them,” Raisi added.

    Iran’s Ministry of Interior said that the “hijab is an unquestionable religious necessity,” according to a tweet from the agency on Saturday.

    Iranians have taken to the streets nationwide in protest for several months against Iran’s mandatory hijab law, and political and social issues across the country, following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September.

    Women have burned their headscarves and cut their hair, with some schoolgirls removing their headscarves in classrooms.

    Those arrested for participating in anti-government demonstrations have faced various forms of abuse and torture, including electric shocks, controlled drowning, rape and mock executions.

    School students who protested faced being detained and taken to mental health institutions.

    Some protestors have even been sentenced to death and executed.

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  • FDA sketches out plan to bolster fragile US infant formula supply management | CNN

    FDA sketches out plan to bolster fragile US infant formula supply management | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The US Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday its initial strategy to boost and strengthen the management of the country’s supply of infant formula.

    The announcement came just ahead of a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about what went wrong during last year’s infant formula shortage.

    Committee members and experts who testified were critical of formula makers and the FDA’s food safety program, which the agency has pledged to revamp in order to protect the nation’s food supply and promote better nutrition. Many experts are concerned that the formula shortage of 2022 could easily happen again, even with those changes.

    “While we stand here today, more than a year since the recall, it is my view that the state of the infant formula industry today is not much different than it was then,” testified Frank Yiannas, who stepped down from his role as the agency’s deputy commissioner of food policy and response in late February.

    “The nation remains one outbreak, one tornado, flood or cyberattack away from finding itself in a similar place to that of February 17, 2022.”

    A formula shortage that started in 2021 was exacerbated when the United States’ largest infant formula maker, Abbott Nutrition, recalled multiple products in mid-February and had to pause production after FDA inspectors found potentially dangerous bacteria at its Sturgis, Michigan, plant.

    A former Abbott employee filed a whistleblower complaint about the plant with the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration in February 2021. The complaint suggested that the plant lacked proper cleaning practices and that workers falsified records and hid information from inspectors.

    The complaint was filed February 16, 2021, and was passed on to Abbott and the FDA three days later.

    Yiannas testified that because of the siloed nature of the agency, he wasn’t made aware of the complaint until February 2022. It was only then that he learned that children had gotten sick with Cronobacter after consuming powdered formula made at the plant.

    The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigated at least four illnesses and two deaths in three states in connection. The agency sequenced bacteria from two of the children to compare against the samples the FDA took at the facility, but it did not find that the samples were closely related.

    Cronobacter infections are rare but can be serious and even fatal, especially in newborns. The bacteria lives in the environment, but when these infections are diagnosed in infants, they are often linked to powdered formula.

    “Clearly, I really wish, and I should have been notified sooner, so I could have initiated containment steps earlier. Had that happened, I believe we might not be here today,” Yiannas said Tuesday. “Had the agency responded quicker to some of the earlier signals, I believe this crisis could have been averted or at least the magnitude lessened.”

    With more demand for other brands after the Abbott recalls, families across the country had to hunt through multiple stores for formula last year. Stock rates of baby formula stayed lower than they were the year before for much of 2022. Even in October, when rates had improved, nearly a third of households with a baby younger than 1 said they had trouble finding formula over the course of one week, according to a survey by the US Census Bureau.

    The FDA said Tuesday that its new national strategy helps ensure that the country’s supply of formula will remain constant and safe.

    The agency said it will work with the industry on redundancy risk management plans that will help companies identify possible supply chain problems. It will also continue to enhance inspections of infant formula plants by expanding and improving training for agency investigators.

    According to the strategy, the FDA will expedite review of premarket submissions for new products to prevent shortages. It will continue to closely monitor the formula supply and has developed a model to forecast any potential disruptions.

    It also plans to work closely with the US Department of Agriculture to build in more resiliency with its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children program, or WIC, the nation’s largest purchaser of infant formula.

    The new strategy is just a first step; the long-term strategy is expected to be released in early 2024.

    Dr. Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said in a statement that the new strategy aims to incentivize “additional infant formula manufacturers to enter the market.”

    Many parts of the strategy are underway, the FDA said.

    “Safety and supply go hand-in-hand. We witnessed last year how a safety concern at one facility could be the catalyst for a nationwide shortage. That’s why we are looking to both strengthen and diversify the market, while also ensuring that manufacturers are producing infant formula under the safest conditions possible,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a news release. “Now, with this strategy, we are looking at how to advance long-term stability in this market and mitigate future shortages, while ensuring formula is safe.”

    Formula stock rates are still not where they once were before last year’s crisis, Yiannas said, but the problem can’t be solved overnight. He said it was a good step for Congress to ask for a resiliency report from the industry.

    One positive development that came out of the crisis is that manufacturers are reporting formula volume to the FDA on a weekly basis even though there is no legal requirement to do so, he said.

    Historically, the FDA has focused on food safety and nutrition, not supply chain availability, but the Covid-19 pandemic opened eyes and served as the “biggest test on the US food system in 100 years,” Yiannas said. Food supply shortages made experts realize that the agency needed more intelligence on how companies’ supply chains worked.

    “Progress is being made, but it’s not being made fast enough,” Yiannas said.

    The FDA is now tracking sales and stock rates of baby formula. He said he’s talked to formula companies that say they have ramped up production, even though they might have cut back on the number of varieties of product they offer.

    The FDA said Tuesday that it has also done a study to better understand what led to the recall of infant formula at the Abbott plant. The agency had conducted a routine surveillance inspection at the plant in September 2021 and even then found problems like standing water and inadequate handwashing among employees.

    Abbott is facing additional investigations from the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the US Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice as well as lawsuits from customers.

    Yiannas told the House committee Tuesday that one strategy to head off similar shutdowns would be to require manufacturers to report Cronobacter bacteria found in its products. Currently, only the Abbott plant in Michigan is required to report the bacteria as part of the consent decree that allowed it to reopen.

    The FDA said in November that it would like Cronobacter infections added to the CDC’s list of national notifiable diseases, which would require doctors to report cases to public health officials so the CDC and the FDA could keep better track of infections. Only two states have such a reporting requirement now.

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  • The company behind Johnnie Walker and Guinness appoints first female CEO | CNN Business

    The company behind Johnnie Walker and Guinness appoints first female CEO | CNN Business

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    London
    CNN
     — 

    One of the world’s largest alcoholic drinks companies has appointed its first female CEO.

    Diageo, which makes Guinness beer and Johnnie Walker whisky, said Tuesday that chief operating officer Debra Crew would succeed Ivan Menezes, who will retire from the company after 10 years at the helm.

    Crew is to take over on July 1, the company said in a statement. Her appointment means women will make up more than 50% of Diageo’s executive committee, it added.

    Diageo is the seventh-largest member of the FTSE 100

    (UKX)     index and will now become the largest UK-listed company led by a woman. There are just nine other FTSE 100

    (UKX)     companies led by women, including pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline

    (GLAXF)     and bank NatWest.

    Diageo is the world’s fourth biggest alcoholic drinks company by market value, after AB InBev

    (BUD)     and China’s Wuliangye Yibin and Kweichow Moutai. It is fifth biggest if French luxury goods group LVMH

    (LVMHF)    , which sells Moët champagne and Hennessy cognac, is included.

    Menezes is stepping down following a very successful tenure at Diageo, during which the company’s share price has almost doubled. It sells more Scotch whisky, tequila, vodka and gin by net sales value than any other business in the world.

    “Ivan has transformed Diageo’s global footprint, brand portfolio and strategic focus, positioning our business as a clear leader in premium drinks,” chairman Javier Ferrán said in the statement.

    “The Board has diligently planned for Ivan’s successor, and we are delighted to have appointed a leader of Debra’s calibre to the role,” he added. “I have no doubt that Diageo is in the right hands for the next phase of its growth.”

    Crew joined Diageo in 2020 from Pepsi

    (PEP)    Co. She is the former CEO of tobacco company Reynolds American and has worked at Kraft Foods, Nestle

    (NSRGF)     and Mars.

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  • How Girl Scouts found itself in a cookie debacle | CNN Business

    How Girl Scouts found itself in a cookie debacle | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    For decades, Girl Scouts has used cookie sales to raise funds and teach scouts about entrepreneurship. This year, thanks to the Raspberry Rally cookie, members got a painful lesson in what can happen when high demand meets limited supply.

    The much-hyped Rally, a raspberry-flavored spin on the Thin Mint, was always supposed to be a limited-edition cookie. But interest in it seemed to have taken Girl Scouts leadership by surprise — perhaps because of a new online-only ordering system.

    As demand surged, with some cookies even ending up on eBay, in some cases listed for about $40 per box, supply stayed the same because cookie makers couldn’t quickly pump out more Rallies. One of the Scouts’ manufacturers, ABC Bakers, said it needs lots of lead time to make limited-edition cookies. The other, Little Brownie Bakers, said bad weather caused power outages at a Kentucky plant, contributing to other inventory issues that lead to tight supply.

    As a result, the Rallies sold out rapidly, leaving scouts and parents to explain the situation to annoyed shoppers even as they tried to make sense of it themselves.

    For young scouts, having to tell customers there are no Rallies available “is a particularly frustrating transaction,” scout parent Betsy Everett told CNN. “When people ask for the new cookie, we tell them the situation and then they don’t want to buy anything. It’s disappointing for the girls.”

    Some parents have been frustrated not only by the shortages, but by what they say is piecemeal communication from Girl Scouts USA. And after years of Covid-related disruptions, their own patience is wearing thin.

    “Right now we are focused on ensuring all Girl Scouts have a successful Cookie Season,” Girl Scouts USA told CNN in a statement, adding that it is also focused on optimizing its operations “in real-time, and [capturing] learnings that will inform our strategy going into future seasons.”

    But for the scouts, those learnings have been hard-won.

    Predicting demand for the Rallies may have been especially difficult, because Girl Scouts introduced a whole new way to buy them, said Terry Esper, associate professor of logistics at the Fisher College of Business of the Ohio State University.

    Unlike other cookies, the Raspberry Rally was offered exclusively online with shipments sent directly to customers. That meant shoppers could order it themselves, though Girl Scouts encouraged them to ask scouts to place the orders. Girl Scouts, which has been relatively slow to move sales online, said when it introduced Rallies that the sales channel would help scouts learn about e-commerce. The Rallies aren’t supposed to be sold at scouts’ cookie booths.

    “Whenever you introduce a new way of buying a product, or a new channel to get access … that opens new [consumer] behavior,” Esper explained.

    The ease of online ordering may have attracted more customers. Plus, Girl Scouts built a lot of hype with the limited-time offer, creating a sense of urgency, Esper noted.

    Girls Scouts sell cookies in Los Angeles in February, 2022.

    Yet as customers clamored for the cookie, scouts and their parents learned there was no chance of increasing supply by the end of the cookie season in April.

    ABC fulfilled the “seasonal plan that was communicated to councils in June 2022” in regard to the Rallies, says an FAQ dated February 16 on the Girl Scouts Iowa site. “We cannot produce more at this time, as we do not have unique materials and packaging. The lead times … are too long to produce in time for the remainder of this season,” according to the FAQ.

    In March, Little Brownie Bakers informed local chapters about the multifaceted issues it was facing.

    “We share the frustration that some Girl Scout troops feel this cookie season,” a Little Brownie Bakers spokesperson told CNN. “Global supply chain issues, compounded by local labor shortages and a weather-related power outage … continue to impact production.” LBB’s problems constrained supply for other cookies, as well.

    Scout parents responsible for ordering the cookies have been left to deal with the fallout, on top of the usual job of helping scouts through the cookie-selling season, which runs roughly from January to April.

    Everett, the scout parent, orders cookies for three troops in Southeastern Michigan. She ended up getting a few cases of Raspberry Rallies but other families in her troop could not.

    “Out of our 30 scouts [across the troops], about three of them managed to order some cookies before they were gone,” she said.

    This is just another disruption for Everett, who said part of her initial cookie order went unfilled last year, meaning that cookies were missing from early cookie booths and only showed up weeks later.

    Chad Huset, whose two daughters are scouts in the Minneapolis area, watched his daughters field question after question about the unavailable Rallies at a recent cookie-selling event.

    Earlier in the season, when his wife placed an order for Rallies, it was promptly canceled. A separate Raspberry Rally FAQ page, posted to a Wisconsin Girl Scouts page, explained “ABC’s selling platform did not immediately shut down access to customers ordering [Rallies]…Because of that time lapse, they were selling cookies that were not available.”

    Huset’s wife received a similar explanation following the cancellation in a series of emails. ABC referred CNN’s request for comment for this story to Girl Scouts USA.

    Huset thinks Girl Scouts should have been clearer about the situation earlier, to allow the troops time to pivot.

    “It comes down to communicating what’s happening, not after the fact,” Huset said.

    Some of the scout community is finding silver linings, however.

    Deb Perry, a scout parent and co-leader of a Girl Scouts troop outside of Seattle, didn’t even bother to try ordering Raspberry Rallies. The selling season starts earlier in other parts of the country, and she heard the many reports of shortages elsewhere.

    “We didn’t even push it, or encourage it with our troop,” she said. “We just encourage them to sell what we have on hand.”

    Perry saw the situation as a chance to teach the scouts how to adapt and embrace the challenge. Scouts in her daughter’s troop have been encouraging shoppers who ask for the Rally to try the Adventureful, introduced last year, instead.

    “When things don’t go as planned, or when people say no,” she said, “the girls learn from that.”

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  • Supreme Court humors itself as it considers whether Jack Daniel’s can stop a dog toy company from parodying its brand | CNN Politics

    Supreme Court humors itself as it considers whether Jack Daniel’s can stop a dog toy company from parodying its brand | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday delved into the complexities of federal trademark law in a case concerning a poop-themed dog toy that resembles a Jack Daniel’s bottle, at times erupting into laughter as the justices explored how much protection should be given to parodists that rip off trademarks they don’t own.

    At the center of the case is a “Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker” toy created by VIP Products that is strikingly similar to Jack Daniel’s bottles. The distiller sued the company over the toy – which is replete with scatological humor – claiming it violated federal trademark law, which usually centers around how likely a consumer is to confuse an alleged infringement with something produced by the true owner of the mark.

    But at oral arguments, at least one justice admitted she didn’t understand the joke being sold by VIP Products.

    “What is there to it? What is the parody here?” Justice Elena Kagan asked an attorney for the toy company, leading the courtroom to burst into laughter. “Because maybe I just have no sense of humor. But what’s the parody?”

    Kagan went on to list a number of different marks the company pokes fun at, drawing laughter from Justice Clarence Thomas: “Doggie Walker, Dos Perros, Smella Arpaw, Canine Cola, Mountain Drool. Are all of these companies taking themselves too seriously?”

    And a misunderstanding by Lisa Blatt, an attorney representing Jack Daniel’s, over a hypothetical posed by Justice Samuel Alito led to another round of giggles.

    Alito was trying to ask how likely it was that a reasonable person would believe Jack Daniel’s approved the toy at hand or a similar theoretical toy that joked it contained “dog urine.”

    “So a reasonable person would not believe Jack Daniel’s had approved this?” he asked Blatt.

    “I think if you’re selling urine you’re probably going to win on a motion to (dismiss), but you’re probably also violating some state law,” she replied.

    “Oh no, you’re not selling urine. It’s exactly this toy, which purportedly contains some sort of dog excrement or urine,” Alito said, humoring the courtroom as he attempted to clarify his hypothetical.

    “Well, just showing how confused I was suggests that I would be your perfect consumer,” Blatt said.

    Jokes – intentional or not – aside, some of the justices were skeptical of the distillery, whose attorneys want the court to toss out a heightened standard of review an appeals court used when it ruled in favor of the toy maker.

    “I have some hesitation doing away with the Rogers Test,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in part, referring to a court-created test used to determine whether a potential trademark infringement in non-commercial instances enjoys constitutional protection.

    Alito seemed to agree.

    “Well, I’m concerned about the First Amendment implications of your position and you began by saying, by stressing that Rogers is atextual, it was made up.”

    “You know, there is a text that says that Congress shall make no law infringing the freedom of speech. That’s a text that takes precedence over the Lanham Act and you said there are no constitutional issues,” he added, referring to the trademark law at the center of the dispute.

    Joining the dog pile, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she was “concerned about impairing artists” if the court sided with Jack Daniel’s and issued a decision that effectively prevents the unauthorized use of marks in artistic works.

    The case pits the rights of a famous trademark holder against the First Amendment rights of a company that wants to use those marks to sell a humorous product.

    VIP’s “Bad Spaniels Silly Squeaker” toy has the same general shape of a Jack Daniel’s bottle. The plastic bottle, like its glass counterpart, has a similar font style and uses a black label.

    VIP borrows Jack Daniel’s “Old No. 7 Brand Tennessee Sour Mash Whiskey” to sell “The Old No. 2 On Your Tennessee Carpet,” a reference to dog excrement. And it changes the liquor bottle’s “40% ALC. BY VOL. (80 PROOF)” with “43% POO BY VOL.” and “100% SMELLY.”

    A tag affixed to the toy notes that it’s “not affiliated with Jack Daniel Distillery.”

    That, however, was not enough to keep Jack Daniel’s from suing the company to take the toy off the market. The distiller argues VIP violates federal trademark law and that the toy, especially the references to dog excrement, damage its reputation because it could confuse consumers into thinking the product belongs to the “oldest registered distillery in the United States.”

    “To be sure, everyone likes a good joke,” lawyers for Jack Daniel’s wrote in court papers. “But VIP’s profit-motivated ‘joke’ confuses consumers by taking advantage of Jack Daniel’s hard-earned goodwill.”

    Depending on how they rule, the justices could strip away some trademark protections by giving entities cover to legally use registered marks not belonging to them so long as they do so in a way that expresses humor.

    A district court ruled in favor of Jack Daniel’s, finding that the toy infringed on the distiller’s trademark. But an appeals court later sided with VIP Products, invoking the so-called Rogers Test.

    The court said VIP’s use of Jack Daniel’s trademark was non-commercial and that because it was done humorously for an “expressive work,” it’s protected by the First Amendment.

    The case “deals with a very common thing of pitting somebody who has trademark rights … against another who is saying, ‘I’m entitled to (use those marks) under the First Amendment because it is parody. And I need to take enough of the mark in order to make it funny. People have to get the joke,’” said Mark Sommers, a trademark attorney based in Washington, DC.

    Sommers added that the justices’ decision in the matter has the potential to be a landmark ruling if they “help define that line that exists between the First Amendment right of expression – be that parody, be that art, whatever you want to express – versus the important trademark issues that are here where brand owners who have invested a tremendous amount of goodwill don’t want their trademarks used in a manner which could result in potential confusion among the consuming public.”

    Attorneys for Jack Daniel’s told the justices in court papers that the appeals court ruling “gives copycats free license to prey on unsuspecting consumers and mark holders,” and warned that if it wasn’t reversed, companies could use trademarks they don’t own to flood the markets with allegedly unserious products.

    Santa Claus, the KKK, and other bizarre hypotheticals raised by Supreme Court in LGBTQ rights case

    “No one disputes that VIP is trying to be funny. But alcohol and toys don’t mix well, and the same is true for beverages and excrement,” they wrote. “The next case could involve more troubling combinations – food and poison, cartoon characters and pornography, children’s toys and illegal drugs, and so on.”

    VIP argues consumers can easily distinguish between the two products, with lawyers for the Arizona-based company writing in court papers that it “has never sold whiskey or other comestibles, nor has it used ‘Jack Daniel’s’ in any way (humorously or not). It merely mimicked enough of the iconic bottle that people would get the joke.”

    “This is a case about speech, and a popular brand’s attempts to control that speech by weaponizing the Lanham Act,” they wrote, referring to the federal trademark law at the center of the dispute.

    “It is ironic that America’s leading distiller of whiskey both lacks a sense of humor and does not recognize when it – and everyone else – has had enough,” the toy company told the court.

    The Biden administration had urged the justices to take the case, with the Justice Department siding with Jack Daniel’s in the dispute.

    “The First Amendment does not confer any right to use another person’s trademark, or a confusingly similar mark, as a source identifier for goods sold in commerce,” the department wrote in court papers. “Indeed, the absence of any such right is a basic animating premise of trademark-infringement law. If such a right existed, states and the federal government might lack authority to prohibit trademark infringement.”

    Several major companies also filed briefs to the court in support of Jack Daniel’s, including Nike and Levi Strauss & Co.

    “Though defendants will often have an incentive to label it as such, not every humorous use of another’s trademark is a parody,” Nike wrote in its brief. “Courts therefore should take a disciplined approach to this important classification in cases where ‘parody’ is claimed.”

    The Supreme Court is expected to rule later this term in another high-profile intellectual property law case, with the justices having heard arguments last year in a copyright infringement case concerning the late Andy Warhol and the late musician Prince. During those arguments, the justices attempted to determine when a new work based on a prior piece is substantially transformative, and when it simply amounts to a copycat version of an existing work subject to copyright rules.

    This story has been updated with additional developments.

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  • Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation | CNN Business

    Price hikes are double whammy for pet owners who are crushed by inflation | CNN Business

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    Minneapolis
    CNN
     — 

    As head of PAWS Atlanta, Joe Labriola can get a good sense of the region’s economic well-being from the day-to-day activity of the city’s oldest no-kill animal shelter.

    Through the course of the past year, it’s become increasingly clear to him that people in the area are struggling under the weight of inflation and economic uncertainty.

    Practically the entirety of the daily call volume consists of requests to rehome pets. The shelter’s “surrender queue” is full, awaiting adoptions to free up space in the main shelter. And the shelves at PAWS Atlanta’s Pet Food Pantry quickly go bare.

    But perhaps the most heartbreaking indicator is something this particular shelter never had to track before 2022. Last year, 166 pets were found abandoned at the shelter’s front gate.

    “A number of animals are being abandoned that have serious medical issues,” Labriola told CNN. “The only thing we can guess is that people just can’t afford those expenses, and they’re hoping by dropping off [their pets] at our facility that we’re going to be able to pick up the slack. And we do as best we can, but it’s really putting a strain on our resources.”

    Overall inflation remains high across the United States, but has slowly and methodically stepped down since setting a fresh 40-year record of 9.1% in June 2022, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. However, during the past eight months, inflation in pet-related products and services has only worsened, rising in some cases to record-setting levels.

    In February, when annual CPI declined to 6%, the catch-all “pets, pet products and services” index rose to 10.9%, veterinary services jumped nearly 2 percentage points to 10.3% and pet food increased to 15.2%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

    Those price increases are a double whammy for pet owners whose household finances have been weakened by persistently high inflation and for those who fear for rising instances of “economic euthanasia,” when animals are humanely put to death for financial reasons.

    The recent pet-specific price spikes also are compounding pressures facing organizations tasked with providing a safety net for animals in need.

    Nationwide, shelters are not seeing increases in pets being surrendered, said Kitty Block, chief executive officer and president of the Humane Society of the United States. However, when there are certain communities seeing spikes in abandoned or surrendered pets, that’s a sign of broader societal hardship, she said.

    “When people are having to surrender their animals for economic reasons or because they’re in the middle of a horrible disaster or war zone area, that’s a people problem; this is not some issue that is not relevant to people,” Block said. “This is bigger than dogs or cats in shelters. It’s about the people who love them.”

    At the store level, many pet products saw double-digit average unit price increases during the past year, with several items — including pet food, non-clumping cat litter and bird grooming items — seeing year-over-year price hikes north of 20%, according to Nielsen IQ data for the 52-week period ended January 28, 2023.

    “Throughout 2022, price increases were pretty extensive — all the way up to 20% and almost 30% price hikes versus the year prior — across the pet department,” said Andrea Binder, vice president of NielsenIQ North America. “In early 2023, we have started to see those start to taper off a little bit. Prices are still increasing but at a lower rate than they were in 2022.”

    The price hikes have been attributed to rising input and ingredient costs, she added.

    “The cost of chicken, the cost of beef, the cost of aluminum to make a wet cat food can … a lot of those commodity prices have been rising pretty dramatically throughout 2021 and 2022, which has caused manufacturers to increase their costs, and then therefore a lot of retailers follow suit,” she said.

    Linda Harding's dogs, Lola and Phoebe.

    Pet products, services and food have become “exponentially” more expensive, said Linda Harding, who lives in San Diego with two dogs. She said her pet food costs for Lola, her Australian Shepherd mix, and for Phoebe, her Golden Retriever, have doubled to $250 per month.

    Harding has cut back on her own expenses. She hasn’t turned on the heat much all winter, she’s limited electricity use and she has stopped buying items like clothes and eggs.

    “When you take on a pet, you take on a big responsibility,” she said. “It’s almost like when you buy a car, you’re going to have a lot of responsibility with that car. That car is going to break down, that car’s going to need repairs. It’s an investment.”

    She added: “And they’re our furbabies. We love them to pieces. So it’s not really even a question. I need to find the money to keep them as healthy as possible so we can love them as long as possible.”

    Mary Avila, a disabled veteran who lives on a fixed income, keeps things simple.

    She doesn’t go clothes shopping anymore, she buys cheaper cuts of meat, and she does try to sock away money in case her pets need a small medical procedure.

    “They always give,” said Avila, who lives in Bakersfield, California, with her cat, Jack, and two dogs, Domino and Squirt. “The cat doesn’t give as much, because cats. But the dogs, they always give, they’re always happy, they always want you around. They always are there for you.”

    Patricia Kelvin of Poland, Ohio, said her Social Security benefits and pension can only go so far, so when the cost of utilities, food or trash collection go up, she has to cut back.

    But not for her cat, Jesse.

    Patricia Kelvin's cat, Jesse.

    “If he had some major medical concern, there are a lot of things I would give up so he would get care,” she said. “There’s just no question in my mind. If my diet was going to be more beans than something else, I wouldn’t hesitate. If I had to sell my sterling silver, which I’ve had for 60 years, that would go before my little ‘Whiskers’ would be deprived.”

    The Animal Rescue League of Iowa is the largest nonprofit rescue organization in the Hawkeye State and adopted out 8,400 dogs, cats and small farm animals throughout last year.

    As pet support services manager, Josh Fiala’s role at ARL is to help keep animals out of the shelter by offering programs — such as a pet food pantry, vaccine clinics, veterinary assistance and crisis care — to help keep pets with their people.

    “We definitely, without question, have seen a dramatic increase in pretty much every one of those services,” he said, noting that the pet food pantry in particular has seen spikes in demand.

    Josh Fiala, Animal Rescue League of Iowa's Pet Support Services Manager, helps load pet food into a vehicle during a Pet Food Pantry in January 2022.

    ARL gave out about 40,000 pounds of pet food in both 2020 and 2021. Last year, it distributed 146,000 pounds of food.

    Waggle, a pet-dedicated crowdfunding platform for medical expenses and emergencies, has seen recent spikes in the volume of postings on its website — with some of the biggest increases coming from pet owners in rural communities and areas with high costs of living, said Steven Mornelli, chief executive officer and founder. Additionally, Waggle has also seen a 30% increase in posting for help with medical bills $250 and under, he told CNN.

    “We have taken that as a correlation with the stresses of inflation,” he said.

    In 2022, 4% more animals entered shelters than left, according to Shelter Animals Count, a national database of animal shelter statistics launched by some of the largest animal welfare organizations in the United States.

    That’s the largest gap seen in the past four years and is the result of fewer pets leaving shelters, not increases in surrenders, said Christa Chadwick, vice president of shelter services at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

    Adoption levels have remained essentially flat, but there has been a large decline in animals being transferred to other shelters because of staffing and driver shortages, she added.

    Joey, a shelter dog at Baypath Humane Society in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, on April 9, 2021.

    But she also highlighted the economic pressures affecting current and prospective pet owners.

    “It’s heartbreaking to know that there are situations where pet owners are being put in a position where they are making a decision about their pet, whether it’s to surrender that pet to an animal shelter or they have to make a decision about euthanasia because they can’t afford care, she said.

    “People tend to get angry at the pet owner when they [abandon or surrender their pet] but our experience has shown that when pet owners get to that point, it’s the only option they see available to them,” Chadwick. “And that’s real, and that’s hard for everybody involved, and that’s really hard for the animal who’s at the center of that.”

    Chadwick sees a role for shelters and other organizations to provide a safe and welcoming place for owners who may feel like they have no other option.

    Despite the broader economic challenges occurring within the US, PAWS Atlanta’s Labriola has had its share of feel-good success stories this year.

    PAWS Atlanta's staff members take care of pets during a public vaccine clinic on February 23.

    Donations have remained strong as has the volunteer program, he said. The low-cost public vaccination and spay and neuter clinics are sold out, indicating that people are taking advantage of inexpensive ways to care for their pets, he added.

    And just recently, the shelter’s focus of working with dogs who have been there for more than a year, or “long-term guests,” is starting to pay off, he said.

    “We’ve been able to place three long-termers into forever homes recently, freeing up space to rescue more homeless dogs,” he said.

    • Shelters, veterinarians and local rescue groups can serve as first points of contact.
    • The Humane Society of the United States’ website has a variety of resources for people facing financial challenges and need vet care, food, boarding, supplies and information to help keep pets with their families. The website has a list of national, state and local organizations.
    • Inquire if veterinarians accept Care Credit, ScratchPay or a similar service but be sure to carefully review the terms of repayment and how interest rates would be applied.
    • Ask if your veterinarian has a client-driven donation fund to help other clients in need; consider fundraising platforms such as Waggle and GoFundMe
    • Consider purchasing pet health insurance.

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  • Inspired by a trip to Indonesia, Snoop Dogg launches new coffee line | CNN Business

    Inspired by a trip to Indonesia, Snoop Dogg launches new coffee line | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    Rapper and entrepreneur Snoop Dogg is expanding his business empire yet again, this time branching out into a line of premium coffee products with beans sourced locally from Indonesia.

    He has partnered with Indonesian coffee entrepreneur Michael Riady to launch INDOxyz: “a premium lifestyle coffee brand created for and inspired by the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators,” according to a press release sent to CNN.

    “My relationship with coffee goes way back,” Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, said in the statement. “The many long nights in the studio making hit after hit, coffee provided the fuel which kept us going. Today marks the launch of a new company I created along with my partner Michael, who introduced me to the best tasting Indonesian coffee,” he said. “All it took was one sip and Snoop was hooked.”

    Snoop added: “Indo is going to change the industry, I can promise you that,” referring to his coffee brand, which is also a common abbreviation for Indonesia. The country is a top global producer of coffee.

    Coffee cultivation began in the late 1600s during the Dutch colonial period. Indonesia produces both Arabica and Robusta beans as well as Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, a historic yet controversial brew which consists of partially digested coffee berries from civet cats.

    Snoop’s coffee beans will be sourced from Gayo, a region in Aceh on the island of Sumatra.

    “The Gayo region is renown for producing a high quality Arabica, grown in the lovely mountain basin surrounding Lake Tawar and the town of Takengon,” the statement said.

    In addition to releasing more than a dozen studio albums and receiving multiple Grammy nominations as a rapper, Snoop Dogg has been expanding his business empire. The rapper has expanded into pet accessories and a gluten-free cereal called Snoop Loopz.

    In 2020, he launched his own wine label. As a vocal cannabis advocate, he has his own line of cannabis products.

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  • Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 poultry plant workers | CNN Business

    Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 poultry plant workers | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Tyson is laying off nearly 1,700 workers as it closes two poultry plants in an effort to boost profits.

    The company will shutter a chicken processing plant in Glen Allen, Virginia that employs 692 people, as well as one in Van Buren, Arkansas, with 969 employees, on May 12.

    The closure decision “[reflects] our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing the full available capacity at each plant,” a Tyson Foods

    (TSN)     spokesperson told CNN in an emailTuesday. The scale of the facilities as well as an “inability to economically improve operations has led to the difficult decision to close the facilities,” according to the spokesperson.

    Tyson had about 124,000 US employees as of October.

    Several companies have been laying off workers amid still-high inflation and fears of a recession, many of those workers in the tech sector. In this case, Tyson is pointing to weakness in its poultry operations.

    Tyson, a major meat and poultry processor, mentioned problems in its chicken business during a February analyst call discussing the company’s most recent quarterly results.

    In the three months ending on December 31, “demand didn’t appear in the parts of the market where we had expected,” Tyson CEO Donnie King said on the call. “As a result, we had to move things around.” That led to higher costs and lower prices, he added.

    “As we think about moving forward, efficiency in our operations in our company will be the focal point for us,” he said.

    The company has been shaking up that part of the business amid broader turnover.

    Tyson announced Wes Morris as the new head of its poultry business in January. Morris, a long-time employee of the company, left Tyson in 2017 and had since consulted for its poultry business. He replaced David Bray, the previous poultry president, who had just stepped into that role in 2021 -— the same year that Tyson reported its chicken volumes were low because of breeding issues.

    Also in 2021, King became CEO, replacing the previous chief executive Dean Banks, who had been at the helm for under a year. Tyson also tapped a new head of its fresh meats division in December.

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