Diddy took a spin with James Corden, as they jammed to hits in the latest “Carpool Karaoke.” During the rapper’s first appearance on the segment, he discussed everything from his songs to his youngest child. He even shared some advice on how to set the tone for an intimate night, which he says starts with turning on a red light, putting the children to bed and disconnecting from your phone.
The setup, according to Diddy, then continues with the playing of sensual music, some dancing and his signature tequila.
“You gotta take your time and smell her and talk sweet nothings into her ear, man… it’s not a rush-in,” Diddy said. He then advised that you turn away from all other concerns, including the “mold in the garage,” by simply saying, “‘Shhhh… tonight it’s about you, don’t worry about the mold.’”
Elsewhere in the segment, Diddy discussed his many nicknames, which he says fans are authorized to use. When it comes to his birth name however, there’s only two individuals who can address him as such: Jay-Z, as they both call each other Sean, and his mom.
“You can call me any of the approved names,” Diddy continued. “I was born Puffy and then I became P. Diddy. Then they called me Diddy because I was so pretty. And then Puff Daddy and then I became who I am now, which is Love. L-O-V-E, not Brother Love, just Love.”
Diddy dubbed The Late Late Show host Corden Love as well, noting “We’re both Love, we’re both trying to have fun.”
Some of the songs played during the ride were Diddy’s “Bad Boy for Life,” “Diddy” and “I Need a Girl (Part 2).”
Jeremy Drey/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — A new report claims that the popular cosmetic treatment CoolSculpting may pose a higher risk for a serious side effect than previously thought.
A recently published New York Times examination, which reportedly included a review of “internal documents, lawsuits, medical studies and interviews,” concluded that the risk of a possible side effect of disfigurement only correctable by surgery, may have been previously underreported.
“I spoke with over a dozen doctors who all said that they think the side effect is underreported by the company and this is something they’ve either observed in their own practice or have noticed in research,” Anna Kobe, a New York Times reporter, told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
The CoolSculpting device was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration in 2010. Allergan Aesthetics, the parent company of Zeltiq Aesthetics, which markets and licenses the CoolSculpting devices, says the treatments are able to “freeze” fat away, citing in 2010 that the treatment is a safe and painless alternative to other fat reduction services, like liposuction.
CoolScupting has since become nearly ubiquitous in dermatology offices, plastic surgery practices and medical spas.
The technology, which was developed in a lab associated with Harvard Medical School, uses a technique called “cryolipolysis,” a nonsurgical technique that applies extreme cold to targeted areas of fat, ultimately reducing some of the fat cells, according to research published in the journal Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology in 2014.
Once treated, some of the frozen fat cells die over the course of a few months, leaving a desired slimming effect.
However, for some patients, the procedure produces different results. A serious side effect — known as paradoxical adipose hyperplasia — may occur in some cases, which is when some of the fat cells enlarge, harden and sometimes take the shape of the applicator — leaving blocky chunks around treated parts of the body.
CoolSculpting states on its website that “rare side effects” may occur following CoolSculpting treatment, including paradoxical hyperplasia, which the manufacturer says occurs in a current reported rate of about 1 out of 3000 treatments.
“These procedures are not for everyone,” it states, adding, “You should not be treated with CoolSculpting or CoolSculpting Elite if you suffer from cryoglobulinemia, cold agglutinin disease, or paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria.”
In response to the New York Times report, Allergan Aesthetics said in a statement that CoolSculpting “has been well studied with more than 100 scientific publications” and claimed “more than 17 million treatments have been performed worldwide.”
Allergan said the company is “compliant with all adverse event reporting requirements” and added that they encourage doctors and their patients to discuss side effects before the start of any CoolSculpting treatments.
“All procedures, including those which involve the use of a medical device, have potential side effects. We encourage doctors and patients to discuss potential benefits and risks before any procedure. While the cause of PH is currently unknown, we have continued to inform healthcare providers and provide educational materials for them to discuss PH risk with patients. In addition, we offer a comprehensive training and education curriculum in partnership with CoolSculpting® providers,” Allergan said.
The company also said it will “continue to review scientific literature related to PH and update provider materials as new data emerges.”
CoolSculpting found itself in the spotlight in September 2021 after model Linda Evangelista alleged that CoolSculpting left her “brutally disfigured.”
The model claimed on Instagram that the treatments had left her “permanently deformed” even after undergoing several corrective surgeries. She claimed she had “not [been] made aware” of the risk of developing paradoxical adipose hyperplasia prior to the treatments.
“PAH has not only destroyed my livelihood, it has sent me into a cycle of deep depression, profound sadness, and the lowest depths of self-loathing,” she wrote in a statement posted to her Instagram account. “In the process, I have become a recluse.”
Evangelista filed a $50 million lawsuit that same month against Zeltiq Aesthetics, claiming the CoolSculpting treatments had caused her to suffer disfigurement, pain, severe emotional distress and economic losses that rendered her unemployable.
At the time, Zeltiq declined to comment on ongoing litigation. In a December court filing, the company claimed that Evangelista had been warned of the procedure’s risks beforehand and asked the court to toss out the case.
Evangelista stated in July 2022 that she had settled her case against Zeltiq, adding that she was ready to move forward and “put this matter behind me.”
A Zeltiq representative told British Vogue that month that the company was “pleased to have resolved this matter with Ms. Evangelista.”
“Our focus continues to be on empowering confidence by providing safe, reliable aesthetics products and services backed by science,” the representative said. “CoolSculpting is an FDA-cleared, non-invasive treatment for visible fat bulges in nine areas of the body.”
DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Friday that the U.S. will begin training Ukrainian forces on American-made Abrams tanks in the coming weeks.
“The M1s that the Ukrainians will use for training will arrive here in Germany in the next few weeks,” Austin said, speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
Thirty-one Abrams M1A1s will arrive at a training area in Grafenwoehr, Germany, in mid to late April, with up to 250 Ukrainian troops beginning a 10-week course there soon after, according to U.S. officials. Follow-on maneuver training might also be done on a different base in Germany.
“I do think the M1 tank, when it is delivered, will make a difference,” said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaking beside Austin.
“But I would also caution there’s no silver bullet in war,” he added.
In March, after consultation with Kyiv, Pentagon officials announced a plan to dramatically speed delivery of the 31 tanks the U.S. had committed to Ukraine by refurbishing older models instead of building new ones from scratch, which was the original plan. Building new M1A2 Abrams could have taken years, according to defense officials.
Milley clarified that the 31 tanks heading to Germany are training models not suitable for combat. The training will be conducted as the U.S. refurbishes another set of 31 Abrams M1A1 tanks to send to the battlefield, which are expected to arrive on the battlefield this fall.
Roughly 8,800 Ukrainians have already completed various types of military instruction in Germany, with thousands more training now.
“In Germany, approximately 2,250 Ukrainian Soldiers – four motorized infantry battalions – continue to conduct combined arms training at Grafenwoehr and/or Hohenfels training areas. An additional approximately 250 are currently conducting platform training and staff training,” said Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for U.S. Army Europe and Africa.
The Offspring has announced a reissue of the band’s 2008 album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace in honor of its 15th anniversary.
The collection is due out June 16 on vinyl and digital platforms, and includes two bonus live recordings.
“We are pumped to be putting out the 15th-anniversary special edition of Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace,” says frontman Dexter Holland. “We have always been very proud of this record — it has one of our most well-known songs, ‘You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid’ on it — and we can’t wait to get this special edition out. Enjoy!”
Along with “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid,” Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace spawned the singles “Hammerhead,” “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?” and “Half-Truism.”
The Offspring’s most recent album is 2021’s Let the Bad Times Roll. They’ll launch a U.S. tour in continued support of the record in August. Sum 41 and Simple Plan will also be on the bill.
Roger Waters is finally releasing physical copies of his 2022 digital release The Lockdown Sessions. CD and vinyl copies of the six-song recording are due out June 2.
The release features songs Waters recorded and filmed at home during COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, along with “Comfortably Numb 2022,” which he recorded during his 2022 This Is Not a Drill tour.
In addition to “Comfortably Numb 2022,” the release features performances of Pink Floyd tracks like “Mother” and “Vera” from The Wall, and “Two Suns in the Sunset” and “The Gunner’s Dream” from The Final Cut. It also features “The Bravery of Being Out of Range,” from Waters’ solo album Amused to Death.
Waters explained that he originally had an idea to record an album of all the encores he did on tour, but the COVID lockdowns got in the way. That’s when he shifted plans. As for the new version of “Comfortably Numb,” he said he added it to the end, “as an appropriate exclamation point in closing this circle of love.”
Waters is currently in Europe on his This Is Not a Drill tour. He plays Budapest, Hungary on Sunday, April 23. A complete list of dates can be found at RogerWaters.com.
(NEW YORK) — Synthetic chemicals are being detected in America’s water supply at a rapid rate, potentially affecting millions of people over the past two decades, according to a data analysis by ABC News.
Researchers say that when people are exposed at high levels, these chemicals can increase certain health risks.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or forever chemicals, are a group of approximately 12,000 chemicals used to make a variety of industrial and consumer products such as nonstick pans, food packaging and firefighting foam.
Researchers are still studying the potential health impacts, but exposure at high levels have been linked to various health problems, including kidney and testicular cancer, high cholesterol and reduced response to vaccines, according to Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University.
The ABC News analysis of reported PFAS water contamination found that 43% of U.S. ZIP codes have had at least one water source where PFAS contamination was detected over the past 20 years.
The data, collected by ABC News from federal and state environmental agencies, show the number of new detections in water sources each year rose from 753 in 2013 to 2,321 in 2021.
That equates to at least 143 million Americans who have been possibly drinking, bathing and cleaning with contaminated tap water during that period. Additionally, millions more who may have been exposed to PFAS through contaminated water supplies at military installations, airports, manufacturing plants and other sources.
Researchers say that although most people in the U.S. have some level of PFAS in their blood, the health risks are greatest for those that have the highest exposure.
Last year, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine put out medical guidelines suggesting that people whose blood contains a high level of PFAS (more than 2 nanograms per milliliter) should get additional screening for high cholesterol, cancer and other potential health risks. People with lower levels of PFAS in their blood “are not expected to have adverse health effects,” according to the committee.
An ABC investigation found significant disparities in PFAS exposure in the U.S.
While PFAS contamination is widespread, contaminated water sites are more prevalent in ZIP codes that are poorer and more racially diverse than the national average, the analysis also found.
Of the ZIP codes where PFAS was detected in water sites, 49% were in ZIP codes where the median household income was below the 2020 national average of $67,521.
One in six ZIP codes with PFAS-contaminated water sites have a higher proportion of non-white population than the national average of 42.2%.
“(Contamination) is sprinkled in every single state in the country. It’s sprinkled in communities small, large, rural, urban, suburban. It’s all over the place,” Erik Olson, the senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told ABC News.
The 191-mile Cape Fear River, which runs through the region, is the most industrialized in the state — lined with manufacturing and agricultural plants. It is a drinking water source for more than 1.5 million residents in the region.
A North Carolina newspaper first reported in 2017 that a former DuPont chemical plant had dumped PFAS chemicals into the Cape Fear River for nearly 40 years.
DuPont owned the facility that polluted the river from 1968 until 2015, when it spun-off its PFAS business to a separate business, the Chemours Company.
Because Chemours was operating the facility at the time contamination was discovered in the river, the state of North Carolina investigated and fined the company $12M for violating clean water laws — part of a consent order the company agreed to in order to avoid further litigation.
DuPont officials would not respond to interview requests from ABC News. They were not charged with any wrongdoing because they had sold the company prior to 2017.
Although the Chemours Company declined to speak to ABC News for this story, they did provide an emailed statement saying, “We have and continue to implement state-of-the-art technologies, including a thermal oxidizer completed in December 2019 that destroys over 99.99% of PFAS air emissions.”
The company says it does additional work to treat the “legacy pollution” and reduce PFAS compounds from reaching the Cape Fear River.
Still, there’s an ongoing impact from PFAS contamination on residents in the region.
“North Carolina is kind of ground zero for unlocking and understanding where we are right now with PFAS contamination, especially with drinking water,” Emily Donovan, co-founder of Clean Cape Fear, told ABC News.
“It was kinda like a slow, rolling nightmare. Like a nightmare that you can’t wake up from,” Donovan said.
Blood tests performed between 2020 and 2021 on hundreds of residents in New Hanover and Brunswick counties in the Cape Fear region show almost all had levels of 44 different PFAS chemicals in their bodies.
The median blood level for PFAS chemicals in residents of New Hanover and Brunswick counties was 6 parts per trillion — far above the national average.
In nearby Cumberland County, Carolyn McDonald, a lifelong area resident, is convinced PFAS contamination has contributed to her health problems.
She used to love the taste of well water straight from the ground. But when she heard the groundwater was contaminated, she began to worry.
“I’ve been drinkin’ groundwater from the well all my life,” she said.
Now, McDonald, and her family, who live in the Fayetteville, North Caroline, area, buy bottled water twice a month.
June 5 will mark five years since she began kidney dialysis treatment. She wakes up at 3 a.m., three times a week, to travel about 30 miles to her dialysis center.
McDonald said she was shocked when she was diagnosed with kidney disease.
While impossible to prove PFAS was the cause of McDonald’s illness, research studies say that PFAS contamination increases the risk of kidney disease.
She says she also has nephews, a niece, brothers and friends who also lived in the area and drank the well water — who also suffer from kidney-related problems.
When she learned the contaminated groundwater could be a contributing factor for kidney disease, she says it all made sense.
“All these illnesses, all (of) us … drinkin’ the water. There’s gotta be a connection between the illness and the water,” she said.
The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for monitoring PFAS contamination across the U.S. In October 2021, the EPA released its plan for addressing the problem, but by early 2023, it had only issued a few advisories and missed key deadlines.
This past March, the EPA proposed the first federal limits on six forever chemicals in drinking water. The proposal includes setting a limit of 4 parts per trillion, the lowest level that can be accurately measured, for two types of PFAS chemicals called PFOA and PFOS.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said his strategy is to “hold corporate polluters accountable and work towards regulations that make it very clear what is safe and what is not safe.”
Genesis frontman and drummer Phil Collins landed his first-ever solo number one with “Against All Odds (Take A Look at Me Now).”
The track was featured in the romantic thriller Against All Odds, which starred Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward and James Woods.
In addition to being number one, the song was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Grammy.
Collins went on to have 14 top-10 solo hits and six more solo number-one songs: “One More Night,” “Sussudio” and “Separate Lives,” featuring Marilyn Martin, which were all released in 1985; 1988’s “Two Hearts” and “Groovy Kind of Love”; and 1989’s “Another Day in Paradise.”
Queen is back with the latest installment of their YouTube series Queen The Greatest Live, with this week’s episode taking another look at their iconic stage wear — this time with a special performance of the track “Ogre Battle.”
The performance is from their 1975 Christmas Eve show at the Hammersmith Odeon, which was broadcast live on BBC TV and radio, and eventually released as A Night At The Odeon.
The concert featured an ambitious production from the band, including elaborate lighting that flooded the stage in a green glow. And the band went for it with their look, as well, with Freddie Mercury in a chest-baring white satin catsuit and Brian May in a winged cape. The pair also wore contrasting nail colors, Mercury with black and May with white.
“The black and white stuff we got into – it’s all designed to be dramatic,” May explained in a previous episode. “It’s designed to accentuate our movements and accentuate the moods of the songs.”
Prime Video/Imagine Documentaries/Obscured Pictures
Judy Blume Forever, a documentary about the beloved, boundary-pushing children’s book author, hits Prime Video on April 21. The following week, the film adaptation of Blume’s Are You There God? It’s Me, Margarethits theaters. It wasn’t planned that way, but Judy Blume says she’s making the most of it.
“Well, it wasn’t my idea,” Blume tells ABC Audio. “The fact that both movies are coming out at the same time, almost — that wasn’t supposed to happen, but things happen.” She laughs, “I don’t know — I’m 85, why not enjoy it?”
The movie’s directors, Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, agree: the more Judy, the better. “We love that Judy Blume is having a moment right now, and we love that the films are coming out at the same time,” says Wolchok. “I think they really complement each other.”
“I mean, you can get to know Judy’s life story and understand a little bit deeper into her perspective … and then to see this really loyal, beautiful, cinematic adaptation of her seminal work, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, a week later and share that with your kids — they’re a great double feature.”
In Judy Blue Forever, Blume tells her own story, but there’s also archival interview footage, commentary by famous fans like Molly Ringwald and excerpts from the thousands of letters that Blume’s received from readers over the years. We also hear from two of those young readers, who went on to correspond with Blume for decades.
“Even though so many of the details of our lives have changed … the feeling of being young and wondering, ‘Am I normal? … Why don’t my parents understand me?’… I think holds true for kids today,” says Pardo. “They don’t go away. And because Judy captured them so accurately, her books really still resonate with kids.”
Add Kim Petras to the list of artists who are finding inspiration in dance hits of the late ’90s.
The “Unholy” star has teamed up with one of her heroes, Nicki Minaj, for the song “Alone,” which samples the 1999 global electronic/trance hit “Better Off Alone” by Alice Deejay. Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Kim says of Nicki, “I love her and I’m so inspired by her always, it’s crazy to me. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s just the greatest ever. I’m so happy that she likes the song.”
As for why she wanted to sample “Better Off Alone,” Kim explains, “I was born and raised in Germany, and that song is a classic in clubs all over Europe, so I grew up to it. I had a lot of amazing moments, some bad moments, so many club moments in general to that song … I’m just so honored that Alice Deejay let us do this s*** because it’s epic.”
Other artists who’ve recently released singles sampling ’90s dance hits include David Guetta, who did it twice — once with Bebe Rexha, and once with Anne-Marie and Coi Leray — and Rita Ora.
In other Kim news, she tells Zane that her first official major label album is done. She worked with the legendary Max Martin on it, as well as Ian Kirkpatrick — who’s produced smashes for Dua Lipa, Selena Gomez and Jason Derulo — and Cirkut, who worked on “Unholy” and has produced hits for everyone from Katy Perry to Lil Nas X.
“I’m really passionate about this album, and about every single song,” she says.
Kim will perform at New York’s Governors Ball in June and at Life Is Beautiful in Vegas in September.
