Latest news with #VivekMurthy
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Just like Inside Out, Pixar's Elio takes on real epidemic children face
Pixar has always had a strong message at the heart of their movies, and in recent years films like Inside Out and Turning Red explore the personal struggles that children face with Elio tackling one of the toughest subjects at all: loneliness. The movie centres on Elio (Yonas Kibreab), a young boy desperate to make contact with alien life, not because he is fascinated by the prospect of discovering life outside of Earth but because he thinks he will find a place for himself with them. Elio has just lost both his parents, has no friends, and feels like a burden to his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldana), so being with aliens feels like a better option — and then he is abducted by them. Exploring loneliness and grief felt incredibly important to the team behind the film, co-directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian, and producer Mary Alice Drumm, because it is a real-life issue. Shi tells Yahoo UK: "I think with all of our movies we kind of start from with ourselves and our own kind of experiences with feeling lonely. we had like lots of writing sessions, brainstorming sessions, where we all shared stories. "And also, paired with that, Pete Docter [Pixar's chief creative officer] encouraged us to talk to a lot of experts as well, child psychologists, the US surgeon feneral doctor Vivek Murthy who is leading this global campaign on talking about the epidemic of loneliness in a lot of our youth. I think it was just something that we all realised as we were talking that we're all experiencing [it], or crew members were noticing that their kids were experiencing post-pandemic this struggle to connect with other kids and other people. "And and one of the things that we found out was that when you do feel alone a lot of the times people, especially kids, are too ashamed to admit that they feel alone. It's kind of like you feel guilty, like there's something wrong with you if you're feeling this way or you can't make friends, there must be something wrong with you." "But really the step towards connection and to not feel as lonely is to admit that you're struggling, that you are feeling alone," Shi adds, saying of the film's exploration of Elio's friendship with alien Glordon: "That's kind of what we do in the movie with Glordon, Elio's first real friend. There's this moment where they are vulnerable with each other and I feel like it that is the moment where their friendship truly cements." When Yahoo remarks how Elio feels like a good companion piece to Inside Out as a result of its subject matter, Drumm adds: "We would talk about that." Kibreab tells Yahoo UK that he was impressed with the way in which the writers explored the subject matter, because it's important for children to understand how they might be feeling: "They really did a good job on getting those points across, I feel like with any Pixar movie there's always a big message that helps you with life in general, and I think there's a lot of them in Elio and they they touched up on every one of those [issues]. "But I think the best [message] is how important friends and family are because you see that bond with Glordon and Aunt Olga." Brad Garrett, who voices villain (and Glordon's dad) Lord Grigon, added that the movie also aptly explores important subjects for the adults watching too, namely the fear that one might not be a good parent: "Parenting, you can always do better and there's no manual to it. I love that connection that Elio was able to bring to Glordon and Grigon in the end." "It's the first villain I've ever played, so that was really kind of cool," the actor adds. "But I loved how he did have that other side to him. Most villains have trouble tapping into that side." Elio has a deeply moving story at its heart but it's also a stunning film to look at, with creative worlds and characters for the character to meet along his journey. This meant that the animators at Pixar needed to be as inventive as possible to imagine a world we have seen before on-screen, which led them to the Communiverse — a congregation of all alien life. But there was a lot of pressure to make the film stand out, Sharafian says: "We were very aware of the fact that Pixar has already made two sci-fi movies, and sci-fi is just a very popular genre in general, so our production designer Harley Jessup really wanted to make a very unique fresh take on space. "He tried to do the opposite of a lot of things we've seen before, instead of being cold and dark and sort of a metallic, hard lines, scary space he wanted a warm, soft glowing world. Even the technology has a softness and a gooeyness to it and, of course, the aliens themselves do too. "While they're diverse and they have a different number of legs, arms, eyes, they all were designed to be friendly and beautiful so that when Elio sees the Communiverse he's just enchanted by it and wants nothing more than to stay there, and our hope was that the audience would feel the same way. That it's just this gorgeous, glittering jewel hanging in the sky, and I'm so proud of how it turned out. I think it's a really cool interpretation of what space could be." Kibreab, for one, was very impressed by Pixar's take: "I'm a really bad drawer, like I'll mess up on stick figures. But the fact that they can just come up with that in their head and just put it down on paper it's so crazy to me, and I think their goal was to create something that's never been seen before and the Communiverse has never been seen before. "It's such a magical place and I think they did also just an amazing job creating these aliens, I saw early storyboards of Glordon and Elio, they wrote it and then they just drew it and it's crazy to me because, like I said, I'm not a very good drawer." And of course it wouldn't be a Pixar movie without a few Easter eggs, the studio are well known to hide things like the Luxo Ball, the Pizza Planet truck, and A113 in all of their movies, as well as nods to the next project that the studio is working on. For Sharafian, Shi, and Drumm it was a delightful experience to see where and how the animators would hide these references. "I think every film has Easter eggs, but we love Easter eggs so there's actually a spreadsheet of them and we actually don't know where they are because we encourage crew to put them in," Drumm says. "But we do have the classics, we have the Pizza Planet truck, A113, we have the Luxo ball and then we have small ones for Maddie's short [film] Burrow, and there's a small, very abstract one for Turning Red which is a piece of graffiti. "So yeah, there's quite a few and to find some you're gonna have to watch the film a little bit more slowly, over and over again, to catch them. But they're there!" Detailing their favourite easter eggs, Shi says: "I like that we snuck the Luxo ball onto Elio's boxers." "That was a fun one," Sharafian adds. "Because they put in the Easter eggs and they don't tell us they're coming, so I didn't know that the sunscreen that Elio uses has the rabbit from Burrow on it. And it says 'Sunny Bunny' and I thought it was so cute. I want that, I want that bottle." And Drumm adds: "I love when Jude [Brownbill], our supervising animator is animating Olga typing and the scene was changing a little bit so she had to do it again, and I just was like, 'what are you having her type?' And she's like, 'oh, Pixar!'" Elio is out in UK cinemas on Friday, 20 June.
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Health
- Business Standard
US set to drop daily alcohol limit from dietary guidelines: Report
The updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which could be released as early as this month, are expected to include a brief statement encouraging Americans to drink in moderation Reuters US Dietary Guidelines are expected to eliminate the long-standing recommendation that adults limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks per day, according to three sources familiar with the matter, in what could be a major win for an industry threatened by heightened scrutiny of alcohol's health effects. The updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which could be released as early as this month, are expected to include a brief statement encouraging Americans to drink in moderation or limit alcohol intake due to associated health risks, the sources said. The guidelines are still under development and subject to change, two of the sources and a fourth individual familiar with the process said. Currently, the recommendations advise limiting drinking to one serving or less per day for women and two or less for men, widely seen as a moderate level. Similar guidelines exist in countries such as the United Kingdom, which advises limiting drinking to 14 units per week, while Canada, however, has adopted a more cautious stance, warning that health risks begin to increase after just two drinks per week. Even moderate drinking is linked to some health risks, such as higher risk of breast cancer, though some studies have also found an association with possible health benefits, such as a lower risk of stroke. The fourth source said that the scientific basis for recommending specific daily limits is limited, and the goal is to ensure the guidelines reflect only the most robust evidence. The new guidelines, developed by the US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture, are closely watched internationally and influence policies ranging from school lunch programs to medical advice. Neither department responded to requests for comment. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known teetotaler, has remained largely silent on alcohol but has emphasised a focus on whole foods in the upcoming guidelines. Some alcohol executives had feared a move towards tighter recommendations on alcohol intake as authorities like the World Health Organization upped their warnings about alcohol's health risks. Former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer and called for warning labels on alcoholic drinks. Major industry players, including Diageo and Anheuser-Busch InBev, have lobbied lawmakers throughout the review process. Senate records show the companies spent millions on lobbying efforts related to the guidelines and a range of other issues such as tax and trade in 2024 and 2025. Both companies declined to comment. Shares in alcohol companies rose shortly after the announcement, with both AB InBev and Diageo's shares hitting an intraday high. The new guidelines are set to move away from suggesting consumers limit alcohol consumption to a specific number of daily servings, according to the three sources, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely. One person said the new alcohol-related recommendation will probably be limited to a sentence or two. Another said the existing numbers tied to moderate drinking could still appear in a longer appendix. While industry representatives have lobbied lawmakers on the guidelines or how they should be decided, some officials and researchers advocated for tighter restrictions. Reports intended to inform the guidelines have meanwhile drawn different conclusions about alcohol's health effects and the science around this. 'UNHELPFUL' Science Over Bias, a group representing US growers, producers, distributors and retailers of beer wine and spirits, said the industry has consistently maintained that the guidelines should be determined by sound scientific evidence and free from bias or conflicts of interest. "Information on responsible alcohol consumption has been part of the Dietary Guidelines for decades and has provided useful guidance for consumers who choose to consume alcohol and their health care providers," the group said. The guidelines, which are reviewed every five years, have advised drinking in moderation and defined that as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two for men since 1990. Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit focused on nutrition, health and food safety, said the more general language expected in the guidelines was "so vague as to be unhelpful". Under such a change, the message that even moderate drinking can increase risks, especially for breast cancer, would get lost, she continued. Two studies were produced to inform the development of the guidelines. The first found that moderate drinking was associated with increased risk of some cancers, but a decreased risk of dying from any cause and some cardiovascular problems like stroke. The evidence for some other health impacts was insufficient to draw conclusions, it found. The other report conversely found the risk of dying from alcohol use, including increased risk for seven cancers, begins at any or low levels of alcohol use and increases with higher consumption.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
US to drop guidance to limit alcohol to one or two drinks per day, sources say
U.S. Dietary Guidelines are expected to eliminate the long-standing recommendation that adults limit alcohol consumption to one or two drinks per day, according to three sources familiar with the matter, in what could be a major win for an industry threatened by heightened scrutiny of alcohol's health effects. The updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which could be released as early as this month, are expected to include a brief statement encouraging Americans to drink in moderation or limit alcohol intake due to associated health risks, the sources said. The guidelines are still under development and subject to change, two of the sources and a fourth individual familiar with the process said. Currently, the recommendations advise limiting drinking to one serving or less per day for women and two or less for men, widely seen as a moderate level. Similar guidelines exist in countries such as the United Kingdom, which advises limiting drinking to 14 units per week, while Canada, however, has adopted a more cautious stance, warning that health risks begin to increase after just two drinks per week. Even moderate drinking is linked to some health risks, such as higher risk of breast cancer, though some studies have also found an association with possible health benefits, such as a lower risk of stroke. The fourth source said that the scientific basis for recommending specific daily limits is limited, and the goal is to ensure the guidelines reflect only the most robust evidence. The new guidelines, developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are closely watched internationally and influence policies ranging from school lunch programs to medical advice. Neither department responded to requests for comment. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a known teetotaler, has remained largely silent on alcohol but has emphasised a focus on whole foods in the upcoming guidelines. Some alcohol executives had feared a move towards tighter recommendations on alcohol intake as authorities like the World Health Organization upped their warnings about alcohol's health risks. Former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said alcohol consumption increases the risk of at least seven types of cancer and called for warning labels on alcoholic drinks. Major industry players, including Diageo and Anheuser-Busch InBev, have lobbied lawmakers throughout the review process. Senate records show each company spent millions on lobbying efforts related to the guidelines and a range of other issues such as tax and trade in 2024 and 2025. Both companies declined to comment. The new guidelines are set to move away from suggesting consumers limit alcohol consumption to a specific number of daily servings, according to the three sources, who asked not to be named in order to speak freely. One person said the new alcohol-related recommendation will probably be limited to a sentence or two. Another said the existing numbers tied to moderate drinking could still appear in a longer appendix. While industry representatives have lobbied lawmakers on the guidelines or how they should be decided, some officials and researchers advocated for tighter restrictions. Reports intended to inform the guidelines have meanwhile drawn different conclusions about alcohol's health effects and the science around this. 'UNHELPFUL' The guidelines, which are reviewed every five years, have advised drinking in moderation and defined that as no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two for men since 1990. Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a non-profit focused on nutrition, health and food safety, said the more general language expected in the guidelines was "so vague as to be unhelpful". Under such a change, the message that even moderate drinking can increase risks, especially for breast cancer, would get lost, she continued. Two studies were produced to inform the development of the guidelines. The first found that moderate drinking was associated with increased risk of some cancers, but a decreased risk of dying from any cause and some cardiovascular problems like stroke. The evidence for some other health impacts was insufficient to draw conclusions, it found. The other report conversely found the risk of dying from alcohol use, including increased risk for seven cancers, begins at any or low levels of alcohol use and increases with higher consumption.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Bottom's up? US will no longer tell people exactly what the safe amount to drink is, report claims
Federal health and agriculture officials are reportedly planning to drop the long-standing guidance that Americans limit their alcohol consumption to just one or two drinks a day. Citing three sources familiar with the matter, Reuters said Wednesday that the new U.S. Dietary Guidelines were expected to include a 'brief' statement that encourages people to drink in moderation or limit intake due to health risks. It remains unclear what that might look like, but another source familiar with the process said that the update was to ensure the guidelines reflect only the strongest evidence. However, the guidelines are still in development, the sources noted. They are updated every five years and may be released as soon as this month. The Independent's request for comment from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services was not immediately returned. Excessive drinking can raise the risk of illness, injury, and disease, resulting in about 178,000 deaths every year. More research has come out on the deadly consequences of drinking this year, including the rise in associated liver disease and cancer deaths over the past two decades. In January, Biden-era Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for a new label on drinks to warn of the cancer risk. Although, some researchers have identified surprising benefits of alcohol, including a reduced risk of cardiac arrest and protection against stroke. Right now, the guidelines say that drinking less alcohol is better for health than drinking more. American women should limit themselves to one drink or less in a day, while men should stick to two. A drink is defined as a five ounce glass of wine, a one-and-a-half-ounce glass of distilled spirits, or a 12-ounce bottle of beer. 'Individuals who do not drink alcohol should not start drinking for any reason,' the guidelines note. The last systematic review on alcohol and health conducted for the guidelines focused on all causes of related death in 2020. However, questions related to weight changes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurocognitive health, and lactation have not been examined since 2010, the National Academies Press said. Eva Greenthal, a senior policy scientist at the non-profit Center for Science in the Public Interest, told the agency that the more general language expected in the guidelines was "so vague as to be unhelpful". Under such a change, the message that even moderate drinking can increase risks, especially for breast cancer, would get lost, she continued.
The Verge
2 days ago
- Health
- The Verge
The bill is headed to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk and follows a
New York passes a social media warning label mandate. similar bill passed in the Minnesota legislature. If signed, the bill would require 'addictive social media platforms' to display about warnings about the potential mental health harms of using of their products. It's a concept endorsed by former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and many state attorneys general, but has been critiqued by industry stakeholders as a violation of First Amendment rights.
