We’ve all been there: It’s a chilly 50 degrees, too warm for heavy layers but too chilly to bare your legs. In other words, the perfect day to don a pair of tights, the transitional weather warrior. You grab a recently bought pair of sheer tights, slip them on, and head into the world. You’re outside for approximately two seconds when you walk a little too close to some spiky hedges and your once intact pair of tights is officially snagged. The dread. The horror. The woe. You are now forced to take them off and shiver for the rest of the day or suck it up and hope the one rip comes off as “edgy” at best. Then rinse and repeat the next day with another pair of $10 tights that are sure to suffer the same fate. We all know this feeling all too well, but what if this unfortunate series of events could be avoided forever? Enter Sheertex, an intimates brand dedicated to fixing this exact issue with its tougher-than-steel, seemingly indestructible tights.

Hostess, the maker of snack classics like Twinkies and HoHos, is being sold to J

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Keke Palmer has revealed what she’s learned about unhealthy relationships following her breakup from ex-boyfriend Darius Jackson. The Nope star, 30, recently admitted she had a “rude awakening” after witnessing firsthand the effects of toxic relationships in a new episode of her podcast, Baby, This Is Keke Palmer. In the podcast episode, titled: “How to Deal with Abusive Relationships, Boundaries, and Narcissism”, Palmer sat down with guest Dr Drew Pinsky for a wide-ranging conversation about narcissistic personality disorder and setting boundaries. The Nickelodeon alum began by praising her mother and father, Sharon and Larry Palmer, for providing an example of healthy relationships while she was growing up. However, the actor soon learned that not all partnerships are the same. “I’ve been really naive because my dad is great and my uncles are great, so misogyny came at me hard and quick,” Palmer said. “I grew up in a house where my mom would say: ‘This is what it needs to be.’ And Larry would be like: ‘Okay, Sharon. Go on ahead, Sharon.’” “When I entered outside of my household and I saw that everybody doesn’t really respect their wives or even women in the way that my dad respects my mom, it was a pretty rude awakening,” she continued. Earlier this month, Palmer was granted temporary sole custody of her eight-month-old son - Leodis “Leo” Andrellton - after accusing Jackson of domestic abuse. The Hustlers star alleged in a court filing on 9 November that her ex-boyfriend and father of her son exhibited violent behaviour towards her, at times in front of their child, as she detailed several instances of alleged abuse. Speaking to Pinsky, Palmer echoed a similar sentiment that many people ask themselves after ending an unhealthy relationship. “I think a lot of people have this question and the question is: ‘Am I the bad one?’” she asked. “We’re all in different dynamics with friends, family, lovers, and you find yourself saying: ‘Well, damn it. Am I playing a game on myself, and I’m actually the person that’s doing wrong?’” Palmer wondered. “How does someone know if they’re - and look, it takes two to tango, right? - but how does someone know when they did the wrong thing and they’re really the issue? How do you know when you’re the issue?” However, the TV personality assured Palmer that those who engage in self-reflection on the heels of a bad breakup are usually not the person who’s in the wrong. “Keke, the person who is re-evaluating themselves, trying to do what’s right, contemplating they could be doing what’s wrong, that is rarely the person who’s doing wrong,” he replied. In court documents filed in California Superior Court, Palmer claimed that several incidents of Jackson’s alleged abuse included “striking and grabbing me around the neck, descriptions of Darius destroying my personal property”. She also alleged that Jackson, who she split from earlier this year, “hit” her and spewed “profanities about” her in front of their son. The “Serious” singer stated that the most recent incident took place on 5 November, when Jackson allegedly “trespassed” into Palmer’s home “without my knowledge or consent, threatened me, then physically attacked me - lunging for my neck, striking me, throwing me over the couch, and stealing my phone when I told him I was going to call the police”. After news of Palmer’s legal action broke, Jackson posted a photo with their son on X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption: “I love you, son. See you soon.” Following the court filing, a Los Angeles County judge declared that Jackson must stay 100 yards away from his ex and son. A hearing is scheduled for 5 December to determine further action about the temporary restraining order. While Palmer has yet to directly address the legal battle, she did reveal that she’s decided to choose happiness at this moment in her life. “And at that point, it was just like, I choose happiness and I choose joy, and I don’t choose to go back there,” she said. “And like you said, as time goes on, I’m like, I’m good. Whatever that was, I’m good.” The national domestic abuse helpline offers support for women on 0808 2000 247, or you can visit the Refuge website. There is a dedicated men’s advice line on 0808 8010 327. Those in the US can call the domestic violence hotline on 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org. Read More Rosalynn Carter remembered for her mental health advocacy at poignant tribute service Paris Hiltons says ‘mama bear instincts’ came out after comments about son’s head Smelling a mince pie could kill me, says woman allergic to Christmas Rosalynn Carter remembered for her mental health advocacy at poignant tribute service Paris Hiltons says ‘mama bear instincts’ came out after comments about son’s head Smelling a mince pie could kill me, says woman allergic to Christmas

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A chemical reaction that gives food flavour could have helped evolution, one study suggests. According to New Scientist, the Maillard reaction is when the temperature between sugars and amino acids rises above approximately 140°C. It often occurs in food such as toasted bread, meats and roasted vegetables. Caroline Peacock at the University of Leeds wanted to explore whether it could happen at lower temperatures. To do this, scientists added iron or manganese minerals to a solution made up of sugar glucose and the amino acid glycine. When the substance was incubated at 10°C, the process was sped up by around 100 times. The temperature is said to be similar to the seabed at the edges of continents. Peacock and the team discovered that the Maillard reaction also occurs on the ocean floor, where iron and manganese minerals are often found. If this is the case, it could cause the carbon in sugars and amino acids to be stored in "large, complex polymers that microbes find harder to ingest," Peacock said, as per the publication. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "If you can get your carbon through the 1-metre danger zone [at the top of the sea floor], where carbon generally is attacked and degraded and turned back into carbon dioxide by microbes, that will lock it away from the atmosphere," she explained. The team estimated that the minerals could lock away roughly 4 million tonnes of carbon every year. If this process didn't exist, the atmosphere could have warmed by a further 5°C over the past 400 million years, the study suggested. "This process has such a profound impact on atmospheric oxygen," she says. "Because complex life forms require higher levels of oxygen, as they’re more energetically demanding, we think it’s reasonable to surmise this process had a hand in creating conditions required for complex life." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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More tourists came to Japan in October than in the same month in 2019 before the pandemic, a

Fewer than a quarter of local authorities in England have enough holiday childcare provision for parents working full-time and costs have risen across Great Britain since last year, new research has found. Six weeks of summer childcare for each school-age child could cost almost £1,000, according to the Coram Family and Childcare charity’s annual survey. It said families in Great Britain face costs of £943 per child for this holiday period, which is £538 more than they would pay for after-school childcare in six weeks of term time. The research, based on surveys from local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales between April and June, found that the cost of holiday childcare has risen 3% since 2022. A place at a holiday club now costs an average of £157 per week – 2.3 times higher than the cost of an after-school club during term time, the charity said. Wales has the highest weekly price at £168, followed by Scotland at £157 and England at £156. While costs have risen, availability has decreased, according to the charity, with just 24% of local authorities in England saying they have enough holiday childcare for parents working full-time, down 2% on last year. Provision for eight to 11 year-olds has dropped by 7% on last year, with 23% of local authorities saying they have enough for this age group. The high of cost of holiday childcare is going to put a further strain on families’ already stretched budgets Megan Jarvie, Coram Availability of holiday childcare for disabled children in England has also continued to fall, Coram said, with just 5% of local authorities reporting they have enough to meet local demand, down from 7% in 2022. In Scotland, there has also been a drop in the proportion of local authorities reporting sufficient childcare – down 15% for 12 to 14 year olds, down 14% for children living in rural areas, down 12% for parents working full time and down 11% for eight to 11 year olds. No local authorities in Scotland reported having enough holiday childcare in all areas for disabled children, working parents, parents working atypical hours or children in rural areas. While Wales also has low levels of sufficient childcare for disabled children (5%) and 12 to 14 year olds (5%), the proportion of local authorities reporting sufficient childcare in all areas across all categories of holiday childcare, except parents working atypical hours and children in rural areas, has risen. Local authorities in Wales report the highest level of sufficiency of holiday childcare in all areas for parents working full time (18%), followed by four to seven year-olds and eight to 11 year-olds at 14%. Costs and availability of holiday childcare varies depending on where families live, the charity said, stating that parents in inner London pay up to 25% more than those in the East of England – £177 per week compared to £142. In the East Midlands, some holiday childcare places cost 104% more than the national average, while others are 58% less, Coram said. The charity is calling on the Government to extend childcare funding announced in the Spring Statement to include support during school holidays. Megan Jarvie, from Coram, said: “The high of cost of holiday childcare is going to put a further strain on families’ already stretched budgets. Even if families are able to afford these costs, many will struggle to find a place as we have found shortages right across the country. “Starting school doesn’t mean that childcare needs end. Instead, many find that it becomes more challenging to find options that are right for their family, particularly during the long school holidays. “New Government funding to help improve childcare options during term time is welcome – but families need childcare right through the year.” Coram is also calling on those in charge in England, Scotland and Wales to increase support for family information services to provide good quality holiday childcare information and ensure access to local provision that meets families’ needs, expand provision of school holiday activity and food programmes, and improve the accessibility of holiday childcare for children with special educational needs and disability (Send). Rapid price increases in essentials like food, housing and energy bills have left a growing number of the families we work with stretched and barely keeping their finances afloat Jamie Masraff, OnSide chief executive The Local Government Association (LGA) said “concerted investment and recruitment of quality staff” is needed to ensure correct provision for disabled children, and said it was “disappointing” that the Government had not extended childcare support to include summer holidays. Councillor Louise Gittins, chair of the LGA’s children and young people board, said: “While councils recognise the importance of ensuring there is sufficient provision available for children with Send, it can be difficult to ensure the right provision is available, particularly given the challenging situation that many providers face at the moment.” A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by £200 million per year to 2025, provides healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families over the holidays. “We are also investing £30 million to test new and innovative approaches to short respite breaks for families of children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities.” Youth organisation OnSide called for the HAF scheme to be expanded to working parents, saying it is “increasingly hearing from working families who don’t qualify but are struggling to afford holiday clubs”. Its chief executive, Jamie Masraff, said: “Rapid price increases in essentials like food, housing and energy bills have left a growing number of the families we work with stretched and barely keeping their finances afloat. For too many, there’s simply nothing left to pay for vital summer childcare.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live How to create a kitchen herb garden What is trail running and should we all be doing it? These are the women making waves in the cycling world

A new study has found that placenta abnormalities could be the reason for miscarriages. In the United States, there are approximately 5 million pregnancies per year with 1 million ending in a miscarriage and over 20,000 ending in stillbirth, according to a paper published in the journal Reproductive Sciences. “To have a pregnancy loss is a tragedy. To be told there is no explanation adds tremendous pain for these loss families,” said senior author of the paper and research scientist at Yale School of Medicine, Dr Harvey Kliman “Our goal was to expand the current classification systems to decrease the number of cases that remained unspecified.” For the study, researchers worked to create a classification system for miscarriages based on a test that examines a sample of the body’s tissues – known as pathologic examination. The team looked at a series of 1,527 single-child pregnancies that ended in miscarriage, and the data was then sent to Yale for evaluation. After excluding cases without adequate material for examination, 1,256 placentas from 922 patients were examined. Of these, 70 per cent were miscarriages and 30 per cent were stillbirths. By adding the explicit categories of “placenta with abnormal development” (dysmorphic placentas) and “small placenta” (a placenta less than the 10th percentile for gestational age) to other incidents such as cord accident, abruption, thrombotic, and infection – researchers were able to determine the results of 91.6 per cent of the pregnancies, including 88.5 per cent of the miscarriages and 98.7 per cent of the stillbirths. The most common results for unexplained miscarriages were dysmorphic placentas (placenta with abnormal development) which was around 86.2 per cent. For stillbirths, there was 33.9 per cent due to a small placenta. “This work suggests that the over 7,000 small placentas per year associated with stillbirths could have been detected in utero — flagging those pregnancies as high risk prior to the loss,” said Dr Kliman. “Likewise, the identification of dysmorphic placentas may be one way to potentially identify genetic abnormalities in the almost 1 million miscarriages that occur in our country every year.” He said having a definite explanation “for a pregnancy loss helps the family understand that their loss was not their fault, allows them to start the healing process, and, when possible, prevent similar losses — especially stillbirths — from occurring in the future.” When asked what the most effective way might be to prevent stillbirths, Dr Kliman responded, “Measure the placenta!” Read More 'Please, keep beating little heart': Man gives raw account of wife's miscarriage and fears for new unborn child Woman who had six miscarriages celebrates pregnancy with rainbow baby photoshoot Miscarriage: The loneliest grief of all Nearly a fifth of parents fear children will ignore health issues while at university Brits feel their mental health declining due to cost of living crisis How often should you wash your pyjamas?