Though drinking more than three or four cups of coffee a day might be bad for us, a growing body of research suggests that coffee drinkers might live longer and even age better.

This may be especially true if we opt for black coffee with no sugar.

And according to a 2020 paper in the British Journal Of Nutrition, when we drink our morning cup of Joe matters too.

The scientists recorded participants’ blood responses to different consumption habits after a disrupted night’s sleep and a normal night’s sleep.

On one day, participants were given a glucose drink on waking from an uninterrupted sleep; on another, a glucose drink after a bad night’s kip; and on yet another day, a cup of coffee before the glucose drink (also after poor sleep).

The glucose drink was meant to mimic the nutritional content of a “normal” breakfast.

In this study, the researchers found that one night of bad sleep did not significantly negatively affect healthy participants’ metabolism.

But drinking coffee on an empty stomach before the glucose drink appeared to increase participants’ blood glucose response to the ‘breakfast’ by around 50%.

Harry Smith, the study’s lead researcher, told the University of Bath: “Starting a day after a poor night’s sleep with a strong coffee did have a negative effect on glucose metabolism by around 50%.

“As such, individuals should try to balance the potential stimulating benefits of caffeinated coffee in the morning with the potential for higher blood glucose levels, and it may be better to consume coffee following breakfast rather than before.”

“We know that nearly half of us will wake in the morning and, before doing anything else, drink coffee – intuitively the more tired we feel, the stronger the coffee,” Professor James Betts, who oversaw the study, added.

“Put simply, our blood sugar control is impaired when the first thing our bodies come into contact with is coffee, especially after a night of disrupted sleep. We might improve this by eating first and then drinking coffee later if we feel we still… need it.”

Dietitians recommend eating whole grains and protein first thing for a sustainable energy boost.

Hayden Panettiere, the star of Nashville, Heroes and the Scream movie franchise, has claimed that a “well-respected” Oscar-winning actor once exposed himself to her at a party.

In an excerpt of her new memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning published by People magazine, Hayden wrote about how when she was 19, she went to an event with a friend.

Making small talk with a group of men made her uncomfortable, she wrote, so she decided to call it a night.

That’s when an “Oscar-winning actor and director” came up to her as she was putting on her coat and pointed down to what he claimed was gum on his pants.

“I looked down and recoiled,” Hayden recalled. “This well-respected, award-winning actor’s testicles were hanging out from his unzipped fly.”

Hayden said the stunt “hadn’t hurt me and I was sure it was a drunken joke, but I’d never seen a grown man do something like that”.

“I was shocked,” she noted.

Hayden also wrote about a sketchy friend who took her to a cabin on a luxury yacht where “a famous thirtysomething British singer-songwriter was lying in a bed” per Entertainment Weekly.

The now-36-year-old claimed: “He was shirtless and propped up on a few pillows with his arms positioned behind his head. From the waist down, he was covered by bedsheets, and I could see the outline of his body underneath.”

She claimed her friend then pulled the sheet away and told her: “I want you to get in bed with him. He has a huge dick.”

“The shock was so great it didn’t even occur to me to say no,” Hayden wrote.

However, she said, she didn’t let things go any further and made arrangements to leave the yacht.

As for the identities of these famous men, the I Love You, Beth Cooper actor wasn’t about to name certain names in her book.

“Things happened a long time ago, but it was to protect me and my company from being sued by some very pissed-off famous people,” she explained to The Hollywood Reporter.

• Rape Crisis services for women and girls who have been raped or have experienced sexual violence – 0808 802 9999
• Survivors UK offers support for men and boys – 0203 598 3898

A government plan to ask supermarkets to voluntarily cap the prices of certain products to tackle the cost of living crisis has echoes of Venezuela, according to the BBC’s business editor.

Simon Jack said it could even lead to food shortages amid a mounting backlash to the idea.

The Financial Times reported that the Treasury had spoken to supermarkets about offering “incentives” to encourage them to cap the price of essentials like eggs, bread and milk.

That could include easing packaging policies and delaying potentially costly changes to healthy food rules.

On Radio 4′s Today programme, Jack said: “The British Retail Consortium said the history of price controls is not a good one. A lot of people will be forced to potentially sell things at a loss, and when that happens people stop making them.

“If you look back through history, whether it’s the US in the 70s or Venezuela more recently, you can end up with food shortages when you try and impose price controls.”

Economist Paul Johnson said he was “lost for words”.

He posted on X: “Never thought I’d see a British government trying to set food prices. If there is one highly competitive sector it is food retailing.

“Do we really want to live in a country where the state sets these prices?”

But Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson said price controls “isn’t something we’re looking at”.

He told Sky News: “The government is not looking at doing this.

“Instead, what we’re doing is looking across the economy at what are the different ways that we can help households.”

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Imagine you have met the love of your life and over time, you get married and have children. You have a long, happy 10 years as a family and everything is as it should be.

Then, you look at your living room lamp and it just looks… weird. Still 3D but somehow inverted.

You can’t look away from this lamp. For days on end, you just stare. Your wife is worried, nobody can distract your from this. Then, you realise, thanks to this lamp’s distortion, that your life isn’t real. Your wife, your kids, your home, none of it is real.

This is apparently what happened to Reddit user u/temptotasssoon, who said: “My last semester at a certain college I was assaulted by a football player for walking where he was trying to drive (note he was 325lbs I was 120lbs), while unconscious on the ground I lived a different life.”

He explained that while he was staring at the lamp, it got ‘wider and deeper’ but still with inverted dimensions before he eventually woke back up.

He said: “I heard voices, screams, all kinds of weird noises and I became aware of pain…. a fucking shit ton of pain… the first words I said were “I’m missing teeth” and opened my eyes.

“I was laying on my back on the sidewalk surrounded by people that I didn’t know, lots were freaking out, I was completely confused.”

Following the accident, he was still haunted by the memories he made when he was unconscious.

He said: “I went through about 3 years of horrid depression, I was grieving the loss of my wife and children and dealing with the knowledge that they never existed, I was scared that I was going insane as I would cry myself to sleep hoping I would see her in my dreams.

“I never have, but sometimes I see my son, usually just a glimpse out of my peripheral vision, he is perpetually 5 years old and I can never hear what he says.”

Now, TikTok has given the story a new lease of life and users are sharing what their dream lives would be before realising the lamp was weird.

Grandma Droniak, a creator with 14 million followers shared her own, saying: “When my parents tell me how proud of me they are because I wanted to be famous since I was a little girl. They always believed in me but then the lamp starts to look weird.”

Another user, Nalle, said: “When I finally don’t feel excluded, I don’t compare myself to others, I actually feel good about myself and I’m not the angry daughter anymore but then the lamp starts to look weird.”

While the Reddit user’s grief may be enough to believe this really happened to them, any skeptics can rest assured that scientists widely agree that we still don’t fully understand consciousness, meaning that we definitely can’t dispute this.

• Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
• Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI – this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
• CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
• The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk
• Rethink Mental Illness offers practical help through its advice line which can be reached on 0808 801 0525 (Monday to Friday 10am-4pm). More info can be found on rethink.org.

Kylie Minogue has shared that underwent cancer treatment for the second time in 2021.

The Grammy winner opened up about the condition in her new self-titled Netflix documentary, which premiered on the platform on Wednesday.

“My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself,” she explained. “Not like the first time.”

She continued: “Thankfully, I got through it. Again. And all is well.”

Pointing out that “who knows what’s around the corner”, Kylie added that “pop music nurtures me” and that her “passion for music is greater than ever”.

Opening up about why she chose not to share her diagnosis until now, the Can’t Get You Out Of My Head singer said it was something she didn’t feel “obliged to tell the world”.

“And actually I just couldn’t at the time,” she added. “Because I was just a shell of a person. I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point.”

Referring to her musical resurgence in 2023, two years after her diagnosis, Kylie noted: “Padam Padam opened so many doors for me but on the inside I knew that cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life.

“And I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it. I’d sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, ‘now’s the time’, but I kept it to myself.”

She did, however, address the subject in her music, albeit in a subtle way that passed fans by at the time, on her album track Story, taken from her 2023 release Story.

Kylie recalled: “I needed to have something that marked that time.”

In a press release to promote her Netflix doc, Kylie said she received her second diagnosis after a routine check-up, and said she made the “choice” to disclose her illness in the hopes it could help others.

“There will be someone out there who will benefit from a gentle reminder to do their check ups,” she said. “Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today.”

Kylie was first diagnosed with cancer in May 2005, at the age of 36.

At the time, she was in the middle of a headlining tour and had been booked to headline Glastonbury, both of which had to be cancelled while she underwent treatment.

Upon receiving the all-clear, Kylie resumed her world tour, and made a return to pop with her 2007 album X and the documentary White Diamond.

She eventually made a guest appearance at Glastonbury in 2010, during the Scissor Sisters’ performance, and delivered her own triumphant set on the Pyramid Stage in 2019, in the Sunday afternoon “Legends” slot.

Ministers have been slammed for relaxing sanctions on Russian oil despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The government said it would allow the import of jet fuel and diesel refined in third countries amid concerns about potential shortages caused by the war in Iran.

The move flies in the face of a previous government pledge to block Russian oil refined in other countries in order to “further restrict the flow of funds to the Kremlin”.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch posted on X: “After 18 months of ‘standing up to Putin’, the Labour government quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.

“Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences. We are now importing from Russia instead of drilling in the North Sea. Insane.”

Prices at the pump have soared since the start of the Iran war, which has led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway which previously transported around one-fifth of the global oil supply.

On Tuesday, the RAC said the average price of a litre of petrol at UK forecourts stands at 158.5p, which is the most expensive it has been since December 2022.

In March, energy secretary Ed Miliband insisted the UK government would not copy America’s decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil.

He said: “We’ve not lifted our sanctions against Russia because it is very, very important that we continue to show solidarity with the Ukrainian people.

“This was an illegal invasion launched more than four years ago. Our solidarity with the Ukrainian people has been incredibly important throughout these four years.

“We continue to believe that for the good the UK, we continue to maintain sanctions on Russia. We think it is incredibly important that we send a clear message to Putin on these questions.”

The Treasury has been contacted for comment.

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