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Challenging our perceptions of ‘perfection’
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With health influencers raising the bar for success, the wellness space now often feels like a performative space where people strive to showcase peak physical and mental strength.While seeing others’ achievements can be motivating, it can also be discouraging if your progress doesn’t match theirs.
Each person is chasing the perfect version of themselves — whether it’s a body or a lifestyle — which is dangerous because this is typically an impossible or dangerous version to achieve, Curran said. He added that this type of comparison creates a dangerous cycle in which people constantly feel dissatisfied with their own progress.
“It’s a fantasy in many ways, and once you start chasing after it, you constantly find yourself embroiled in a sense of doubt and deficit,” he said.
Curran also noted that wellness challenges can be particularly damaging for women who struggle with perfectionism, as they tend to be bombarded with impossible beauty standards and societal expectations.
Renee McGregor, a UK-based dietitian who specializes in eating disorders and athlete performance, encourages people to approach wellness trends with curiosity and skepticism. That’s because some influencers and celebrities could be promoting products because there’s a financial benefit for them.
“The thing to ask yourself about the person you’re taking advice from is what do they gain from it?” McGregor said. “If they are going to gain financially, then you know that they (could be willing) to sell you a lie.”
Whether you want to try a new challenge or product that promises amazing results, McGregor suggests doing your research and seeking diverse perspectives, including consulting with doctors when possible.Family affair
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Americans Brittany and Blake Bowen had never even been to Ecuador when in 2021 they decided to move to the South American country with their four children.Tired of “long commutes and never enough money” in the US, the Bowens say they love their new Ecuadorian life. “We hope that maybe we’ll have grandkids here one day.”
Erik and Erin Eagleman moved to Switzerland from Wisconsin with their three children in 2023.
“It feels safe here,” they tell CNN of their new outdoorsy lifestyle in Basel, close to the borders with France and Germany. Their youngest daughter even walks to elementary school by herself.
For adventures with your own family, be it weekend breaks or something longer-term, our partners at CNN Underscored, a product review and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have this roundup of the best kids’ luggage sets and bags.
Starry, starry nights
For close to 100 years, Michelin stars have been a sign of culinary excellence, awarded only to the great and good.Georges Blanc, the world’s longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant, has boasted a three-star rating since 1981, but this month the Michelin guide announced that the restaurant in eastern France was losing a star.
More culinary reputations were enhanced this week, when Asia’s 50 best restaurants for 2025 were revealed. The winner was a Bangkok restaurant which is no stranger to garlands, while second and third place went to two Hong Kong eateries.
You don’t need to go to a heaving metropolis for excellent food, however. A 200-year-old cottage on a remote stretch of Ireland’s Atlantic coast has been given a Michelin star. At the time of awarding, Michelin called it “surely the most rural” of its newest winners.
Scientists redid an experiment that showed how life on Earth could have started. They found a new possibility
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In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr. Henry Frankenstein howling his triumph was an electrifying moment in more ways than one. As massive bolts of lightning and energy crackled, Frankenstein’s monster stirred on a laboratory table, its corpse brought to life by the power of electricity.Electrical energy may also have sparked the beginnings of life on Earth billions of years ago, though with a bit less scenery-chewing than that classic film scene.
Earth is around 4.5 billion years old, and the oldest direct fossil evidence of ancient life — stromatolites, or microscopic organisms preserved in layers known as microbial mats — is about 3.5 billion years old. However, some scientists suspect life originated even earlier, emerging from accumulated organic molecules in primitive bodies of water, a mixture sometimes referred to as primordial soup.
But where did that organic material come from in the first place? Researchers decades ago proposed that lightning caused chemical reactions in ancient Earth’s oceans and spontaneously produced the organic molecules.
Now, new research published March 14 in the journal Science Advances suggests that fizzes of barely visible “microlightning,” generated between charged droplets of water mist, could have been potent enough to cook up amino acids from inorganic material. Amino acids — organic molecules that combine to form proteins — are life’s most basic building blocks and would have been the first step toward the evolution of life.
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards
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Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny, rainforested country.It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019, Exxon and its partners, US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC, had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650,000 barrels of oil a day, with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027.
Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035.
This country — sandwiched between Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush, well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90% of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate.
While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand, and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources, critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world, and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Greenland’s leader says US officials’ visit is ‘highly aggressive.’ Trump says it’s ‘friendliness, not provocation’
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Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials, including second lady Usha Vance, is “highly aggressive,” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory.But despite the backlash, Trump has insisted the visit is about “friendliness, not provocation” – and claims the US team was “invited.”
Vance, the wife of US Vice President JD Vance, will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week, according to a source familiar with the trip.
Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday, and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit.
“What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us,” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.”
Trump claimed on Monday that people in Greenland have responded warmly to the US’s recent interest in the territory. “They’re calling us. We’re not calling them. And we were invited over there,” he said.
“We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to them being properly protected and properly taken care of,” Trump told reporters following a meeting with his Cabinet.
“I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future,” Trump added.
The president said he believes Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be traveling to Greenland too.
Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory, which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries, and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion, even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.
New design revealed for Airbus hydrogen plane
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In travel news this week: Bhutan’s spectacular new airport, the world’s first 3D-printed train station has been built in Japan, plus new designs for Airbus’ zero-emission aircraft and France’s next-generation high-speed trains.Grand designs
European aerospace giant Airbus has revealed a new design for its upcoming fully electric, hydrogen-powered ZEROe aircraft. powered by hydrogen fuel cells.The single-aisle plane now has four engines, rather than six, each powered by their own fuel cell stack.
The reworked design comes after the news that the ZEROe will be in our skies later than Airbus hoped.
The plan was to launch a zero-emission aircraft by 2035, but now the next-generation single-aisle aircraft is slated to enter service in the second half of the 2030s.
Over in Asia, the Himalayan country of Bhutan is building a gloriously Zen-like new airport befitting a nation with its very own happiness index.
Gelephu International is designed to serve a brand new “mindfulness city,” planned for southern Bhutan, near its border with India.
In rail travel, Japan has just built the world’s first 3D-printed train station, which took just two and a half hours to construct, according to The Japan Times. That’s even shorter than the whizzy six hours it was projected to take.
France’s high-speed TGV rail service has revealed its next generation of trains, which will be capable of reaching speeds of up to 320 kilometers an hour (nearly 200 mph).
The stylish interiors have been causing a stir online, as has the double-decker dining car.
Finally, work is underway in London on turning a mile-long series of secret World War II tunnels under a tube station into a major new tourist attraction. CNN took a look inside.
Mindful wellness challenges
If you’re the type of person who thrives on challenges and pushing your limits, this doesn’t mean you need to shy away from wellness challenges altogether. But before diving in, take a step back and ask yourself if you’re pursuing the challenge for the right reasons, McGregor said.
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Some people want to try these challenges because they believe something is missing from their life, and they’re looking to attain “worth” or receive validation, McGregor noted.A good way to assess your motivation is by considering whether the challenge will benefit your health or if it’s about showcasing your accomplishments on social media or some other reason.
Before trying any new trend, make sure you have the foundation to handle it and be aware of any potential risks, McGregor said.
For casual runners, this might mean signing up for a 5K but building your endurance gradually while incorporating other strength training exercises into your routine. For more intense challenges, such as a marathon, McGregor encourages people to consult with professionals or a coach who can monitor your progress and condition along the way.
Focusing on sustainable habits
Both McGregor and Curran emphasize the importance of fostering sustainable health habits before embarking on more extreme challenges.Rather than chasing the idea of being “healthy,” McGregor suggests focusing on actual healthful behaviors and starting small.
If you’re a highly sedentary person and want to add more movement to your day, try doing lunges while brushing your teeth or taking short walks throughout your typical routine.
‘White Lotus’ villain Jon Gries reveals the true crimes that inspired his twisty take on Greg/Gary
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When Season 3 of “The White Lotus” premiered last month, the shock was palpable when returning character Belinda recognized a familiar face at the resort in Thailand: Greg Hunt, the wily suitor of the late Tanya McQuoid.As the season has unfolded, Greg (played by Jon Gries) has emerged as an antagonist, particularly after Belinda dove into the investigation surrounding Tanya’s death and learned that Greg, who now goes by Gary, evaded questioning by authorities.
On a show famous for reinventing itself, the same has been asked of the actor, who says that playing the ever-shifting character has been a welcome challenge and, like “White Lotus” itself, full of twists.
“In the beginning, I totally played him for a guy who was, you know, on his last legs,” Gries said in a recent interview with CNN, referencing Greg’s very apparent ill health in the first season of “White Lotus,” which premiered to rave reviews in summer 2021. He added: “When you play a character, you want to find his empathetic side, and you want to understand where they came from, and what got them to where they are.”
But when he was contacted by creator Mike White about appearing in Season 2, Gries realized he would have to adjust his framing of Greg, despite having previously imagined a “comprehensive history” for him on his own.
“(White) said, ‘I’m writing it right now, and I’m writing you, and I just need to know here and now: If you’re in, I’ll continue writing. If not, I’ll stop,’” Gries recalled.
Critics say this power imbalance is clear in the 2016 contract Guyana signed with Exxon. Under the agreement, Exxon keeps 75% of everything it makes from its oil operations in Guyana, with the remaining 25% shared equally between the company and the government, which also takes a 2% royalty.
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“It was a bad deal,” Ali said in the BBC interview, but he has rejected the idea of unilaterally changing the agreement, which was signed by the previous government. He says the next contract with Exxon will be on different terms.An Exxon spokesperson said the contract is “globally competitive for countries at a similar stage of exploration” and said Guyana is averaging $1 billion a year in “oil profits.”
Exxon has also faced a number of lawsuits over its potential environmental impact, many filed by Melinda Janki, a Guyanese international lawyer, who drafted the country’s Environmental Protection Act back in the 1990s.
A big victory for Guyana’s people and environment came in 2023, when the court ruled Exxon should have unlimited liability for the costs of any oil spill. Exxon has since appealed the ruling and has posted a $2 billion guarantee while it awaits the appeal outcome.
Exxon said this commitment supplements “its robust balance sheets … and the insurance policies they already had in place.” Janki says this isn’t enough. Offshore oil spills can be extremely expensive to deal with, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill cost nearly $70 billion to clean up.The push and pull between those who say oil offers Guyana a brighter future and those who fear the industry’s impact will continue.
Exxon said it’s had a positive impact on the country, including employing more than 6,200 people, investing more than $2 billion with local Guyanese businesses since 2015 and spending more than $43 million on community projects.
Of course, he said yes to coming back to the series, which eventually required him to live in Italy for a few months for filming.
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During production, White revealed to Gries that Greg is “very sinister.” That became rather irrefutable by the season’s climax, which saw Tanya’s demise orchestrated by her now-husband.Come Season 3, Gries had to rewrite Greg’s backstory again, this time drawing from some unlikely sources for inspiration, like HBO docuseries “The Jinx,” about late convicted killer Robert Durst, and the case involving the man who came to be known as the Tinder Swindler.
Gries said he was struck by Durst’s “kind of seemingly even keel personality,” which served as a model for where Greg was headed, someone “who doesn’t really show a great deal of emotion, doesn’t seem to get too angry, just gets a little bit irritated and is dangerous.”
“There’s a bridled rage underneath. And those kind of people I find – at least with respect to Gary, Greg, Gary – fascinating,” he said.
And yet, while searching for an empathetic way back to portraying his character, Gries kept wondering if there was anything still redeeming about Greg.
An important “wake up moment” came during a decisive conversation he had with White just before filming in Thailand, in which the show’s creator said of Greg, in no uncertain terms: “He’s a psychopath.”“And that was it. It was like, ‘back to the drawing board.’ And it really did help me,” Gries said.
The penultimate episode of the series will air on Sunday, an evening that thanks to “Lotus” and other shows has again become a night of appointment viewing amid a general move away from binge watching. Gries said he appreciates the shift.
“We’re a society that in a weird way doesn’t understand the beauty of waiting. The beauty of the space between the notes,” he shared. “If I binged (‘White Lotus’) I’d feel like I just ate too many chocolates. It just wouldn’t be the same. You need to process this.”
“The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO, with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max, like CNN, are owned by the same parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
The voice of ‘White Lotus’ star Walton Goggins is the lullaby we didn’t know we needed
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While his “White Lotus” character Rick has been the source of some stress this season, Walton Goggins is here to soothe us into a state of dreamy sleep to make up for it.The actor has partnered with relaxation and meditation app Calm for one of their famed Sleep Stories, lending his smoky voice to a fable titled “The Yard Sale.”
Goggins announced the Sleep Story on his verified Instagram on Tuesday, writing, “A friend once said to me the first question you ask someone shouldn’t be, ‘How are you?’ but rather, ‘How did you sleep last night?’ I agree.”
The post included an excerpt from the story, in which Goggins is heard languidly instructing listeners to relax their bodies and get into bed. “You could even climb into a hammock,” he added. “I wouldn’t do that because I’ve never gracefully got in or out of one.”
In the caption, the actor also wrote that he “wanted to create a Sleep Story that feels dreamlike, helping people slow their minds down by wandering through a yard sale (which happens to be one of my favorite things to do), uncovering hidden treasures.”
“It’s the Walton Goggins version of counting sheep. I hope you enjoy,” he added.
Other celebrities who have read bedtime stories in the hopes of putting audiences to sleep include Dolly Parton and the late Jimmy Stewart, whose voice was featured in a Calm Christmas Sleep Story in 2023 thanks to generative AI technology.
Goggins currently stars on “The White Lotus,” where his character is often the most stressed out and tortured of the ensemble, at one point setting a slew of snakes free.
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards
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Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny, rainforested country.It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019, Exxon and its partners, US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC, had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650,000 barrels of oil a day, with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027.
Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035.
This country — sandwiched between Brazil, Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush, well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90% of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate.
While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand, and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources, critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world, and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Since Exxon’s transformative discovery, Guyana’s government has tightly embraced oil as a route to prosperity. In December 2019, then-President David Granger said in a speech, “petroleum resources will be utilized to provide the good life for all … Every Guyanese will benefit.”It’s a narrative that has continued under current President Mohamed Irfaan Ali, who says new oil wealth will allow Guyana to develop better infrastructure, healthcare and climate adaptation.
“You have a government that is reckless about what is going to happen to Guyana,” said Melinda Janki, an international lawyer in Guyana who is handling several lawsuits against Exxon. It’s pursuing “a supposed course of development that is actually backward and destructive,” she told CNN.
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And while plenty of Guyanese people welcome the new oil industry, some say Guyana’s startling economic statistics do not reflect a real-world prosperity for ordinary people, many of whom are struggling with the higher prices accompanying the oil boom. Inflation rose 6.6% in 2023, with prices of some foods shooting up much more rapidly.“Since the oil extraction began in Guyana, we have noticed that our cost of living has gone sky high,” said Wintress White, of Red Thread, a non-profit that focuses on improving living conditions for Guyanese women. “The money is not trickling down to the masses,” she told CNN.
CNN contacted President Ali, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finance for comment but received no response.
Guyana, a former Dutch then British colony which gained independence in 1966, is one of only a handful of countries that is a “carbon sink,” meaning it stores more planet-heating pollution than it produces. This is due to its vast rainforest; trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow.The country has protected its biodiversity where others have destroyed theirs, President Ali said in a BBC interview last year. In 2009, the country signed an agreement with Norway, which promised Guyana more than $250 million to preserve its 18.5 million hectares, or nearly 46 million acres, of forests.
Ali insists the country can balance climate leadership and fossil fuel exploitation. The new oil wealth will allow Guayana to develop, including building climate adaptations such as sea walls, he has said. He has also pointed to the continued failures of wealthy countries, already grown rich on their own fossil fuels, to help poorer countries with climate finance.
But there are concerns Guyana could fall victim to the “resource curse,” in which vast, new wealth ?can actually make life worse for those who live there.
Look of the Week: Naomi Watts is twinning with her canine co-star
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What’s white and black and red all over? Naomi Watts and her 145lb co-star, Bing, a Great Dane, taking a dog walk on the crimson carpet for the New York premiere of “The Friend.”Directed by Scott Mcgehee and adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel of the same name, the film — set to release in US theaters on March 28 and in the UK on April 25 — follows a solitary writer and teacher named Iris whose life is upended after a close friend bequeaths his giant pet dog to her following his death.
In front of the cameras Monday evening, the “Mulholland Drive” actor and Bing looked like they were cut from the same cloth — both in temperament and in their matching black polka dots. Watts was dressed in a white gown with fur-tufted spots that bore a striking resemblance to Bing’s own coat, but the Cruella de Vil comparisons ended there. Instead, Watts and Bing were captured in the throes of lots of paw-shakes, puppy kisses and head scratches.
The dress that Watts wore, titled the “Domino” and designed by Jacquemus, debuted during the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris couture shows in January. The look was both elegant and offbeat, with a high-cowl neck and open-back, asymmetrical waistline that mimicked a French tuck. It was styled with a skirt that sprouted furry black polka dots, which close up were unnervingly reminiscent of body hair. But from afar they gave the impression of soft-edged dabs of watercolor bleeding downstream.The look was styled by Jeanann Williams, who has also been working with “The White Lotus” star Leslie Bibb. Williams’ decision to coordinate Watts with Bing was a new take on method dressing — the thematic styling trend that has dominated celebrity red carpets since Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023. Since then, the sartorial trope, which connects actors to their on-screen characters through clothes, has become somewhat tired — with some observers claiming that the 7-month-long “Wicked” press tour, in which Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande became prisoners to the colors green and pink, was peak saturation.
Aged 15, New Zealander Sam Ruthe has already run a four-minute mile. He would ‘love to try and qualify’ for the 2028 Olympics
[url=https://parasvvap.org]paraswap[/url]Sam Ruthe had the eyes of thousands on him when he stepped onto a running track in Auckland just over a week ago.
Undaunted by the occasion, Ruthe went on to become the first 15-year-old to run a sub-four-minute mile, even managing a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders as he crossed the finish line.
The race was almost entirely engineered for the high school student to break the fabled four-minute barrier – a feat first achieved by Roger Bannister more than 70 years ago – but the weight of running history was a burden that Ruthe seemed to bear lightly.
The first three laps, he later said in a video documenting the race, “felt pretty comfortable – nothing too crazy.”
Perhaps the most intimidating part of his achievement occurred when Ruthe returned to school the next day, only to be immediately called into the principal’s office.
“He’s like, ‘Alright, so you’re gonna have to go up on stage and we’ll get the whole school to clap you,’” Ruthe tells CNN Sports’ Patrick Snell. “It was really scary, actually. I headed into class and everyone thought I was famous.”
It’s easy to forget, given his history-making performance last week, that Ruthe is like most other 15-year-olds in New Zealand. He goes to school, spends time with his friends, and helps with chores around the house.
He also just happens to be one of the most exciting middle-distance runners on the planet, one of the latest star athletes to emerge from sports-mad New Zealand.
