LOS ANGELES — Shannon Elizabeth, the actress who became a defining face of early 2000s pop culture through her role in “American Pie,” has traded Hollywood red carpets for wildlife conservation work in South Africa, where she has spent nearly a decade building a foundation dedicated to protecting endangered animals.

Elizabeth first rose to widespread fame with her role as Nadia, the foreign exchange student who becomes Jim Levenstein’s crush in the 1999 teen comedy “American Pie,” a performance that turned her into an instant sex symbol and cultural fixture of the era. She followed that breakout with a memorable role in the horror-comedy parody “Scary Movie,” a performance still referenced today as inspiration for Halloween costumes, and appeared in Enrique Iglesias’ music video for “Be with You,” cementing her status as one of the most recognizable young stars of the early 2000s. She later took on a role in the ensemble romantic comedy “Love Actually,” further broadening her filmography beyond teen comedy.

Since 2016, Elizabeth has largely stepped away from the entertainment industry after relocating to South Africa to launch the Shannon Elizabeth Foundation, an organization focused on wildlife conservation. The move predated a wider wave of celebrities who left Los Angeles for quieter lives abroad in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, positioning Elizabeth as an early adopter of a lifestyle shift that has since become more common among entertainment figures.

Speaking to Fox News in April 2026 about her decision to relocate, Elizabeth described a growing sense that her work in Hollywood no longer felt as urgent as the conservation crisis she saw unfolding overseas. She said she came to feel that the entertainment work she had been doing “weren’t as important at the time,” explaining that she felt pulled toward being physically present for the issues she cared about rather than continuing to observe them from a distance. That realization, she said, ultimately led her to make the permanent move.

The shift in priorities has also reshaped Elizabeth’s public image. Where she was once associated with the glossy, style-forward aesthetic of Y2K pop culture, recent photos show her embracing a more relaxed, outdoor-oriented look reflective of her conservation work. In one photo shared to social media in April 2026, Elizabeth appeared in an army-green coat alongside an animal companion, a departure from her earlier red carpet image, though she still incorporated a nostalgic butterfly hair clip reminiscent of the early 2000s style she helped popularize.

Elizabeth’s more recent social media activity suggests she has maintained an active travel and lifestyle presence even while based in South Africa. On July 17, 2026, she shared a selfie taken during a boat excursion in Mauritius, showing her en route to a private island resort. Describing the experience in her caption, Elizabeth wrote that “this place kept finding new ways to take my breath away.” In the photo, she appeared in a black dress featuring nude cutout panels and a ruffled trim, with her signature wavy, warm-brunette hair largely unchanged from the look that made her recognizable to audiences more than two decades ago.

That consistency in appearance has drawn attention from fans and entertainment outlets alike, with commentary noting that Elizabeth’s hairstyle has remained comparatively stable over the years compared with the dramatic transformations some of her contemporaries have undergone. Her continued public profile also traces back to earlier recognition of her looks, including a placement on Maxim’s Hot 100 list in 2008, a ranking that reflected her status as one of the era’s most prominent sex symbols at the peak of her mainstream visibility.

Elizabeth’s transition from teen comedy star to conservation advocate reflects a broader pattern among entertainment figures who have used their platforms to shift focus toward environmental and humanitarian causes later in their careers. Her foundation’s work in South Africa centers on protecting the region’s wildlife populations, an effort she has described as driven by a sense of urgency around threats facing endangered species and the communities that depend on that ecosystem.

While Elizabeth has largely stepped back from a full-time acting career, her early filmography remains closely tied to her public identity, particularly her role in the “American Pie” franchise, which has continued to resonate with audiences through streaming rewatches and nostalgia-driven pop culture coverage in the years since its release. The franchise, which spawned multiple sequels and spinoffs, remains one of the most commercially successful teen comedy series of its era, and Elizabeth’s role as Nadia continues to be cited as one of its most memorable performances.

Elizabeth’s current life in South Africa stands in sharp contrast to the Hollywood-centered career that first made her famous, illustrating a broader shift many former stars of that era have made toward causes and lifestyles far removed from the entertainment industry that launched their careers. For Elizabeth, that shift appears to have brought a renewed sense of purpose, even as she continues to maintain visibility with fans through occasional glimpses of her travels and conservation work shared on social media.

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Operator

Good day, and welcome to the P3 Health Partners Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

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William Hoover

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We will refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call, including adjusted operating expense, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA per member per month, normalized adjusted EBITDA, medical margin, medical margin per member per month, and cash flow. These non-GAAP financial measures are in

Michaela founded the community uniform and children’s clothing bank at Colne Market four years ago.

Families can visit, browse and take away items they need completely free of charge, without having to formally apply.

“It was just going to be a temporary thing over the summer, and four years later we’re still at it,” she said.

“At the end of term I get loads and loads of bags.

“We’ve got a small space that we’ve been given by the local council, and we just hang it all up, nice and neat and tidy, and people are welcome to come and fill a bag with whatever they want. It’s all free.”

She said it is a “massive way of recycling”, describing how families “come down with one size, hang it up and take the next size along”.

“All that school uniform would end up in landfill otherwise,” she said.

She added that the stigma of using second-hand uniform is “definitely” lessening

“Teenagers, even more than adults, have embraced the whole second-hand culture,” she said.

“We get teenagers coming and getting their own uniform.”

According to the Department for Education (DfE), external, the average total expenditure on school uniform, based on the items required in the school year 2023/24, was just under £250 – with PE kit cost approximately £140.

A DfE spokesperson said some families would save “up to £50 per child” when the new law comes into effect at the start of the new school year, adding the government is supporting schools to take further steps to bring down the cost of individual items.

New vape shops will require planning permission and councils will get more powers to stop betting shops, under government plans aimed at improving high streets.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said town centres had been “hollowed out” by decades of decline and “for many people, the high streets they grew up with have become unrecognisable”.

BBC News has exposed organised crime on high streets across the country, revealing shops selling illegal cigarettes and vapes, selling cannabis and cocaine, enabling illegal working and suspected money-laundering.

The Conservatives and Reform said the proposals would lead to “more empty” shops, without tax relief for other small businesses.

Burnham said the measures will give councils more power to control what businesses open in town centres.

The proposals come as the prime minister embarks on a tour of the UK, with Downing Street saying he will be in “listening mode” during his visits as he works on a “10-year plan to bring back hope”.

The plans announced by the government include:

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates that at least £1bn of criminal cash is laundered through high street stores in the UK each year through businesses connected to the sale of fake goods, tax evasion, illegal working and illegal drug supply.

Burnham said “the rise of vape shops, betting shops and rogue operators have replaced the shops, services, and community spaces that people are crying out for”.

He added: “That’s not on. I said we would improve Britain’s high streets, and that’s exactly what we are starting to do.

“We’re putting communities back in control and giving local people a real say over what opens on their high street.”

Nvidia has teamed up with some of Wall Street’s largest banks to help raise $500bn (£370bn) in capital to develop artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure.

The chipmaker said it had struck deals with Apollo, BlackRock, Blackstone, Brookfield, Goldman Sachs and KKR, and that the banks were for the first time treating AI hardware and infrastructure, often referred to as “compute”, as a separate asset class.

“In AI, compute is revenue”, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said. “We are bringing the world’s leading long-term capital providers together to independently underwrite AI infrastructure.”

The financing will go towards Nvidia’s own projects and those being built by its partners.

Infrastructure projects backed by this fund will include the construction of new data centres to house, operate, and cool miles of stacked computer chips that process AI data and actions.

This will also back new factories to manufacture the AI chips needed to power these systems.

“Compute has become a critical infrastructure asset”, Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall, co-cheif executives of KKR, said in a joint statement. “As we’ve scaled our approach to digital infrastructure, we’ve learned that delivery, not ambition, is the hard part.”

Essentially every major technology and AI company uses Nvidia’s computer chips, or graphics processing units (GPUs), to power their services, AI platforms and AI chatbots.

Companies using Nvidia’s popular chips or GPUs include Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, SpaceX, Tesla, OpenAI and Anthropic.

Such companies have collectively spent over $1 trillion, external in just three years on AI projects and infrastructure, with much more spending expected. And their demand for Nvidia’s chips and services has driven the stock market value of the company up five fold in three years.

In a statement on Monday, Huang referred to Nvidia’s role as a chip-maker as the company’s beginning.

“Today, we are helping create a new class of productive, investable infrastructure: AI factories,” he said.

With a new ability to tap some funding from the banks partnering with Nvidia, such banks will be able to finance more of the AI boom.

Jim Zelter, president of Apollo, a lender which manages more than $800 million in assets, said: “Modern compute has emerged as a scarce, mission-critical asset class.”

It is also “positioned to drive significant long-term economic growth and productivity gains”, Zelter added.

BlackRock last month entered into an individual deal with Meta, external to finance and take a majority ownership stake in one data centre in Texas.

Anthropic also recently entered into a deal with Macquarie Asset Management and GIC, an investment bank in Singapore, for its own build-out of AI infrastructure.

The company did not specify the size of the deal, but said more financing was needed as its popular chatbot Claude had become so popular that the “demand requires significant new compute”.

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Wealthy Americans are investing in New Zealand’s “golden visas” as they look to relocate to the South Pacific nation.

The Financial Times reported that over 700 wealthy foreigners have applied for New Zealand’s golden visa in the last 14 months – an increase from 115 in the prior three years – after the government eased the criteria for approval.

Over one-third of the applications submitted since April 2025 were filed by Americans, according to the report. It also noted that Americans accounted for 277 of the applications, with many Californians expressing interest in the golden visa, which is formally known as the Active Investor Plus Visa.

The golden visa program requires applicants to make a minimum investment of $5 million New Zealand dollars over three years, with funds invested in local funds, companies or charities – though the philanthropic commitment is capped at 20% of the total investment.

PARADISE TRAVEL DESTINATION SEES ‘GOLDEN’ VISA BOOM, ROLLS OUT BRAND-NEW OFFERING

New Zealand’s golden visa program is designed to attract foreign investment to cities like Auckland, with indefinite residential status on offer. (Fiona Goodall/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

An additional 127 applicants have sought a golden visa under a separate program which entails investing $10 million in New Zealand’s passive assets, like bonds, over a five-year period.

Foreigners who receive a golden visa have the right to remain in New Zealand for an indefinite period of time, including the right to work in the country of over 5 million people.

The New Zealand government recently eased some of the other rules governing the golden visa programs, including removing an English language requirement and relaxing the amount of time required for recipients to spend in the country.

AMERICA’S ELITE LEAD BOOM OF ‘GOLDEN’ VISA APPLICATIONS TO VACATION DESTINATION

A cable car travels above the central business district in Wellington, New Zealand. (Mark Coote/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

It also reduced the minimum investment requirement from the original 2022 requirement of $15 million to either $5 million for the growth category and to $10 million for the “balanced” category, while the range of acceptable investments was also broadened for the balanced category to include bonds and property investments.

Individuals who apply for golden visas in the growth category must spend at least 21 days in New Zealand over three years, after the government eased the requirements around the amount of time that must be spent in the country.

Under the balanced investment category, holders of the golden visa must spend at least 105 days in New Zealand over five years.

LUTNICK SAYS TRUMP WANTS ‘THE TOP OF THE TOP’ WITH NEW GOLD CARD VISA PROGRAM NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

A view of Queenstown, New Zealand. (Varuth Pongsapipatt/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)

However, that time-in-country requirement may be reduced by 14 days for each $1 million in New Zealand dollars invested in growth category investments up to a maximum reduction of 42 days – at which point the visa holder must spend 63 days in the country over five years.

Investments made to reduce the time requirement would have to be proposed before the visa application is approved in principle.

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Fox News Digital’s Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.