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You can find plastic containers storing food in just about every grocery store. But a new study makes a strong case for never eating out of a plastic container, especially those meant to be heated, ever again. The new study, published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, found that eating out of plastic containers, even for a short period of time, is alarmingly dangerous for heart health. The research demonstrated that particles from plastic containers were able to leach into food products, and those particles had a clear, and very fast-moving impact on changes that lead to heart failure. The study was performed in two parts. The first polled 3,000 people on their plastic exposure and heart disease status. The second part studied rats after they ingested water that had been boiled in plastic containers. In the first part of the study, researchers found a strong correlation between people who had more exposure to plastic, such as eating out of plastic containers, and a risk for developing congestive heart failure. The subjects with higher plastic exposure were 13% more likely to develop the heart condition. In part two of the study, researchers studied rat’s feces after ingesting the water for a three-month period. They found that both their gut biome had been altered and their heart tissue was damaged. The water was boiled for different intervals: one minute, five minutes, and 15 minutes. But it didn’t seem to matter how long the water had been boiled, either. Even the shorter exposure time heeded the negative results for the rats. “The results indicated that ingestion of these leachates altered the intestinal microenvironment, affected gut microbiota composition, and modified gut microbiota metabolites, particularly those linked to inflammation and oxidative stress,” the study found. “Additionally, this exposure resulted in damage to the heart muscle tissue of the rats, alongside increased markers of myocardial injury, inflammation, and oxidative stress.” Past studies have raised concerns about the risks that come with plastic containers. Plastics contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) like bisphenol A (BPA), phthalates (PAEs) and plasticizers, which are linked to higher CVD risk,” the study researchers cited from an earlier study. However, the new study, which showed just how quickly heart health can be impacted by plastic exposure has the study authors advising to be vigilant about avoiding eating from plastic containers. The authors say more research is needed but noted in the study that in order “to prevent ongoing harm from plastic products to human health, it is essential to avoid using plastic containers for high-temperature food, reduce the use of plastic products in daily life, and implement timely plastic pollution control measures.”
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E-Commerce
Wikipedia has faced political threats for years, but this time, it may be at a breaking point. Republicans have ramped up attacks against Wikipedia as yet another “woke” institution. Leaked documents from The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank that, show a plan for exposing specific Wikipedia editors. In January, Elon Musk, the billionaire-turned-government-efficiency-czar, called the online library an extension of legacy media propaganda. (He also once offered to pay $1 billion for the site if it changed its name to Dickipedia.) Conservatives have long accused Wikipedia of political prejudice. (And it’s not just staunch Republicans: Wikipedia cofounder Larry Sanger, who has never publicly identified himself as a Republican, turned on the digital library almost immediately after leaving in 2002, claiming it had a top-down left-wing bias.) In 2006, critic Andrew Schlafly even founded his own iteration of the site, Conservapedia. That conversation of bias continued for the following 20 years, and conservative think tanks have continually pumped out reports about Wikipedias supposed liberal tilt. Musk is in the middle of the latest controversy But those were complaints, not attacks. Now, Musk and the MAGA movement could effectively kill Wikipedia. This cycle started with Musks inauguration arm-raise, which his Wikipedia page said was compared to a Nazi salute, but added that Musk denied any meaning behind the gesture. That particular entry sent Musk into a tirade on his social media platform X, first posting about Wikipedia as propaganda, and later saying that we should defund it. (Wikipedia is supported by individual and corporate donationsnot federal funds.) Wikipedias cofounder Jimmy Wales shot back: I think Elon is unhappy that Wikipedia is not for sale. While Musk is the public face of the latest crusade, there’s been plenty of behind-the-scenes discussion about Wikipedia. According to documents obtained by Forward, The Heritage Foundation aims to target not just Wikipedia, but the sites editors. These individual contributors often work under online pseudonyms but, using strategies like digital fingerprinting and edit-tracking, The Heritage Foundation seems to promote finding these editors’ real-life identities. It’s still unclear how The Heritage Foundation would use the information tracked, but the idea of being targeted itself could spook editors off the platform. These threats have Wikimedia executives worried. According to 404 Media, the leaders hosted a series of calls in the past few weeks about their ongoing political struggles, with Wales saying that he’s “keeping an eye on the rising noise of criticism from Elon Musk and others.” Considering that The Heritage Foundation was behind Project 2025the legislative blueprint that has made its way into the White House during Trump’s second termtheir fears may be justified. Wikipedia at the center of language politics The left has gotten in some jabs against Wikipedia, too. Liberals have struggled with the site’s glacial conversations around potential edits to sensitive subjects. Should Ernest Hemingways trans daughter be referred to as Gloria or their birth name, Gregory? Should the term “squaw,” which the federal government deemed derogatory, be removed from the names of notable locations? These conversations can take weeks. Pro-Palestine activists have also been frustrated with the sites language surrounding Israel. Our politics has centralized around language. The left and the right have spent years squabbling over just which words are appropriatebut now, under Trump, the right is turning that fight into legislative shutdowns. Any site that traffics in words is under threat, from the online databases that Trump has shut down to the trans terminology Trump scrubbed from the Stonewall Monument. The culture wars have come for our public information sources. And Wikipedia is on the chopping block.
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E-Commerce
UnitedHealth Group, Americas largest insurer, is facing yet another crisis. The companys stock price (NYSE: UNH) plummeted in early trading this morning after a new report alleged that the private insurance provider is facing a probe from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over its Medicare billing practices, a claim UnitedHealth Group denies. Heres what to know: UnitedHealths Medicare billing practices Shares in UnitedHealth Group fell this morning after the Wall Street Journal published a report stating that the $400 billion company was under investigation by the DOJ over its Medicare billing practices. The report states that the investigation is a civil fraud case and not a criminal one. At the heart of the investigation are DOJ concerns that UnitedHealth is recording patient diagnoses that generate additional payments to its Medicare Advantage plans. As the WSJ notes, UnitedHealth Group (aka UHG) and other insurers get lump sum payments from the federal government via the Medicare Advantage system. If patients have certain conditions, those lump sum payments can increase, generating more profit for insurers. Fast Company reached out to the DOJ for comment. The alleged investigation follows a December report from the WSJ in which the publication looked at billions of Medicare records. Those records allegedly showed that patients who joined Medicare Advantage plans saw huge increases in diagnoses that were more lucrative to UnitedHealth. Doctors said UnitedHealth . . . trained them to document revenue-generating diagnoses, including some they felt were obscure or irrelevant, the Journal reported. The company also used software to suggest conditions and paid bonuses for considering the suggestions, among other tactics, according to the doctors. In short, the DOJ may be concerned that UHG is trying to pad its bottom line by assigning unneeded diagnoses to patients in order to increase their taxpayer-fueled payments from the federal government. Reached for comment by Fast Company, a UnitedHealth Group spokesperson sent the following statement: “The Wall Street Journal continues to report misinformation on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. The government regularly reviews all MA plans to ensure compliance and we consistently perform at the industrys highest levels on those reviews. We are not aware of the launch of any new activity as reported by the Journal. We are aware, however, that the Journal has engaged in a year-long campaign to defend a legacy system that rewards volume over keeping patients healthy and addressing their underlying conditions. Any suggestion that our practices are fraudulent is outrageous and false.” Yet another crisis for UHG The alleged DOJ civil fraud investigation is the second major recent crisis for UnitedHealth Group. On December 4, a gunman fatally shot Brian Thompson, CEO of UHG’s UnitedHealthcare unit, as he arrived for an early-morning investors conference in midtown Manhattan. Yet the murder of UnitedHealthcares CEO did not generate an outpouring of support for the company, as might be expected. Instead, it generated widespread glee on social media from Americans increasingly angry about the state of the countrys private healthcare industry, which many find unfair and unaffordable. That glee saw UnitedHealthcare and many other health insurers remove photos of their executives from their websites. UnitedHealth received further scorn after UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty published an ill-received op-ed in the New York Times, which generated an outpouring of new responses from Americans conveying the challenges theyve faced trying to get needed treatmentor getting UnitedHealth to pay for the treatment. In the aftermath of Thompsons killing and the public outcry from Americans about the struggles theyve faced with UnitedHealthcare, UnitedHealth Groups stock fell and hasnt recovered since. UNH shares fall again Before the public outcry against UnitedHealthcare began in early December, the UnitedHealth Groups stock price was trading at over $600 per share. By mid-December, it had fallen to below $500 per share. Today, the companys stock is even lower. As of the time of this writing, UNH shares are down nearly 9% on news of the alleged DOJ probe. Shares are currently trading below $460 each. As of todays fall, UNH shares are now down over 9.4% year-to-date. Over the past 12 months, UNH shares have fallen over 12%.
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E-Commerce
The prospect of banning the sale of so-called lab-grown meat might seem like a no-brainer in Nebraska, where beef is king, but some of the proposal’s staunchest opposition has come from ranchers and farming groups who say they can compete without the government’s help.Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen one of the largest pork producers in the country is behind the push to ban cultivated meat, saying he wants to protect ranchers and meat producers. The Republican governor signed an executive order last August to keep state agencies and contractors from procuring lab-created meat, even though it could be years before such products are on store shelves.A number of ranchers and meat industry groups are pushing back on the governor’s plan.Dan Morgan is a fourth-generation cattle rancher from central Nebraska who supplies high-end beef to all 50 states and six countries. He welcomes companies seeking to produce lab-grown meat to “jump into the pool” and try to compete with his Waygu beef. Stifling competition in a free market should be anathema in a Republican-dominated state like Nebraska, he said.“It sounds like a bunch of right-wing Republicans echoing a bunch of left-wing Democrats,” he said, adding that the government should be limited to regulating the new product’s labels and inspecting its facilities to ensure food safety.“After that, it’s up to the consumer to make the decision about what they buy and eat.”Nebraska is among about a dozen states that have introduced measures to ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of lab-grown products. Two states Florida and Alabama have already enacted such bans.The target of the bills is “cell-cultivated” or “cell-cultured” meat, which is grown from the cells of animals in bioreactor steel tanks. The cells are bathed for weeks in nutrients, prompting them to grow and divide, turning them into skeletal muscle, fat and connective tissues.The push to ban cultivated meat comes well before the innovation could be considered an industry. While more than two dozen companies are working to develop such meat products, only two Upside Foods and Good Meat, both based in California have been approved by the federal government to sell cultivated chicken in the U.S. Even then, none of the companies are close to mass producing and selling the products on store shelves.In recent weeks, supporters of the Nebraska bill have shifted their arguments from industry protection to questions of safety surrounding cell-cultured meat. That includes its sponsor, state Sen. Barry DeKay, a Nebraska rancher, and Sherry Vinton, the director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. Both testified in support of the bill at a committee hearing earlier this week, calling cultured meat “synthetic food” and voicing concern about possible health implications from eating it.But it’s been no secret that the push for a ban is rooted in shielding Nebraska’s traditional meat industry. Nebraska tops all other states for beef production and beef exports, according to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture.Pillen named the ban among his top priorities during his State of the State address last month.“The backers of these products are cut from the same cloth as the anti-farmer activists who want to put our agriculture producers out of business, and we need to recognize them as such,” he said.The Association for Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation, the lobbying group for the emerging cultured meat industry, disputes Pillen’s insistence that it’s a threat to the traditional meat industry, noting studies that show global demand for meat-based protein will double by 2050.“We’re really a complementary component here,” said Suzi Gerber, executive director of the association. “So it’s a little bit mystifying to me why any individual stakeholder would see this as a threat.”Several farm organizations, including Nebraska Farm Bureau, Nebraska Cattlemen and the Nebraska Pork Producers, agree they’re not worried about competition from the emerging industry. Those groups prefer a sister bill that would only require they be clearly labeled as lab-grown products to separate them from traditional meat. More than a dozen states have also issued similar labeling bills, and some like Colorado have seen ban efforts abandoned in favor of labeling measures.Paul Sherman is an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which is representing Upside Foods in its lawsuit challenging the Florida ban. He said it’s no surprise most of the proposed bans are being pushed by those with connections to traditional agriculture.“I think it certainly shows that the purpose of these laws isn’t about protecting public health and safety,” he said. “It’s about protecting traditional agriculture from economic competition. And that is not a legitimate use of government power.” Maregery A. Beck, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
In a James Bond shakeup that stirred the film industry, Amazon MGM announced Thursday that the studio has taken the creative reins of the 007 franchise after decades of family control. Longtime Bond custodians Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said they would be stepping back.Amazon MGM Studios, Wilson and Broccoli formed a new joint venture in which they will co-own James Bond intellectual property rightsbut Amazon MGM will have creative control.Financial terms weren’t disclosed. The deal is expected to close sometime this year.“With my 007 career spanning nearly 60 incredible years, I am stepping back from producing the James Bond films to focus on art and charitable projects,” Wilson said in a statement. “Therefore, Barbara and I agree, it is time for our trusted partner, Amazon MGM Studios, to lead James Bond into the future.”Amazon bought MGM Studios in 2022 for $6.1 billion, a purchase that was significantly motivated by the acquisition of one of the movies’ most beloved and long-running franchises. Since the Daniel Craig era of 007 concluded with 2021’s No Time to Die, Broccoli and Wilson have reportedly clashed with Amazon MGM over the direction of Bond.The announcement Thursday means that for the first time in the more than half a century of Bond, a Broccoli won’t be greenlighting the next 007 film, or picking who inherits his tux. Amazon MGM also anticipates expanding the franchise beyond movies.“We are grateful to the late Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman for bringing James Bond to movie theaters around the world, and to Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli for their unyielding dedication and their role in continuing the legacy of the franchise that is cherished by legions of fans worldwide,” said Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios. “We are honored to continue this treasured heritage, and look forward to ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world.”Bond had been a family business since Albert “Cubby” Broccoli secured the rights to adaptations of Ian Fleming’s novels and kicked off a run of 25 Bond films produced by Eon Productions, beginning with 1962’s Dr. No. Those movies have accrued $7.6 billion in box office.In 1995, the elder Broccoli handed over control of Eon to his daughter, Broccoli, and stepson, Wilson. In recent years, the 64-year-old Broccoli has largely taken the lead as Wilson, 83, has aged into retirement.“My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli,” Broccoli said in a statement. “I have had the honor of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of ‘No Time to Die’ and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”Broccoli and Wilson’s previous standoff with Amazon MGM had essentially frozen development on the next Bond movie. No script, director or star has yet been announced for the next installment, an unusually long break for a franchise that has typically spaced films two or three years apart. Broccoli also produced the 2022 film Till and the musical Buena Vista Social Club, opening next month on Broadway.A key point for the producers in the Amazon acquisition of MGM was a commitment to theatrically release James Bond films. That Bond’s future is now in the hands of an e-commerce giant with one of the leading streaming services will immediately prompted doubts from some fans about Bond’s new corporate overloads. Other billion-dollar movie franchises, such as the Disney-owned Star Wars and Marvel brands, have in recent years struggled with over-saturation.Even Joe Russo, codirector of four Marvel Cinematic Universe films including Avengers: Endgame, pleaded to Amazon MGM: “DON’T cinematic universe James Bond.”“It is one of our last, great theatrical events,” Russo said on X. “Don’t dilute that with a plethora of streaming spin-offs.”In an interview last fall ahead of receiving an honorary Oscar alongside her brother, Broccoli told the Associated Press that, in an era of upheaval in the movie industry, boldness was necessary.“People are playing it very safe,” Broccoli said. “I think in times of crisis like this, you’ve got to be brave.” Jake Coyle, AP Film Writer
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E-Commerce