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Metro
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Metro
Steve Coogan reads the names of over 15,000 children killed in Gaza at vigil
Steve Coogan made a statement at a vigil at the Houses of Parliament as he read the names of 15,000 children who have died in Gaza. The actor and comedian, 59, was among the many people at the vigil organised by Choose Love on Thursday morning. The Alan Partridge actor, was one of the many artists who, for several minutes, read a long list of names of children who had been killed during the Israel-Hamas war. 'They were the names of children who have been killed in the bombing of Gaza in the last 20 months. 'It was just showing that those names are not just statistics, they are real people, real children who had lives who died and it's to some extent to humanise them. 'There's a world war phrase that one death is a tragedy and 10 thousand is a statistic,' he said, speaking to Sky News he said that he was at the event. In the same interview, he added: 'I'm here to protest about the, basically, enforced starvation of thousands of women and children in Gaza by the weaponisation of the blockade on aid to those people. 'And also it's to give this the coverage that a lot of mainstream news outlets aren't giving.' He said human rights should apply to everyone, and criticised tough rhetoric from governments in the UK, France and Canada as He added that human rights should be applied to every human and rhetoric from UK, French, and Canadian governments was 'too little, too late'. 'Tragically, it's taken the mass, indiscriminate killing of innocent people to get to this stage,' he said. 'I think more and more people are realising that it has to stop.' Juliet Stevenson, best known for acting in Bend It Like Beckham and Truly, Madly, Deeply, was also among the actors reading the exhaustive list of names. This vigil comes as the celebrities supporting Palestine grow, with stars including Dua Lipa, Gary Lineker and Benedict Cumberbatch calling on the Government to suspend arms sales to Israel in an open letter. More Trending The open letter read: 'We urge you to take immediate action to end the UK's complicity in the horrors in Gaza.' It highlights: 'Right now, children in Gaza are starving while food and medicine sit just minutes away, blocked at the border. Words won't feed Palestinian children – we need action. Every single one of Gaza's 2.1 million people is at risk of starvation, as you read this.' 'Mothers, fathers, babies, grandparents – an entire people left to starve before the world's eyes. 290,000 children are on the brink of death – starved by the Israeli government for more than 70 days.' This was about Israel's 11-week blockade of food and other supplies into Gaza, which was lifted last week to allow a 'basic amount of food into Gaza'. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Gazan doctor receives the charred remains of nine of her 10 children after Israeli bombing MORE: A mum in Gaza told me her children are waiting to die MORE: Everything we know so far about Washington DC shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez
San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
We taste-tested High Noon. Does America's most popular spirit live up to the hype?
In case you haven't noticed, High Noon is everywhere. Gallo's canned vodka seltzer is the top-selling spirit by volume in the U.S. — meaning more of this stuff is sold than Tito's or Jack Daniel's. When my colleague Jess Lander and I learned that extraordinary fact, we knew we had to write about it. What we discovered in our reporting was a whole subculture devoted to Nooners, as the drink is known to some of its dearest fans, spanning golf clubs, Barstool Sports and basically every bar in the Marina District. Nearly every source we interviewed for the story said that they believe High Noon is a superior product to competitors like White Claw and Truly. The vodka-based drink is also more expensive than its malt-based competitors, due to the fact that spirits are taxed more highly. I outed myself long ago, in the hard seltzer infancy period of 2019, as a White Claw detester. When Jess and I set out to write this story, I had never actually tasted High Noon, but I was eager to see if I could in good conscience jump on the bandwagon. So we conducted a tasting at the Chronicle newsroom. I bought a couple cases of High Noon and enlisted colleagues from various newsroom departments — including several representatives of Gen Z — to sample eight flavors with me. (According to its website, High Noon comes in 26 different flavors.) The good news is that the session was nowhere near as punishing as the blind hard seltzer tasting I organized back in 2019, when I subjected my colleagues Janelle Bitker, Soleil Ho and Paolo Lucchesi to 38 hard seltzers that were uniformly terrible. The bad news is that I found the High Noons mostly undrinkable, and my colleagues, even the Zoomers, largely agreed. 'This tastes like if you dropped two cherry Starbursts in a Perrier and left it overnight,' said Chronicle culture critic Peter Hartlaub of High Noon black cherry. Copy chief and native Minnesotan Linda Houser observed, 'This one will sell in the Midwest.' 'Bubblicious cotton candy flavor' is how investigative reporter Susie Neilson (a Pulitzer finalist!) characterized the raspberry iced tea. These drinks shouldn't taste that sweet, based on their nutrition facts (2.6 grams of sugar per can for the non-iced tea variations we tried), but they all smelled like candy, and several of them tasted like candy too. The pineapple variation reminded us of a gummy bear; the watermelon was like a Jolly Rancher that had melted in the sun. The High Noon iced teas tasted downright cloying, despite the fact that they have zero grams of sugar. We had to assume — though could not verify, since ingredient labeling is not required for alcohol — they had been jacked up with an artificial sweetener like Stevia. Some colleagues liked the lemon iced tea, which graphics reporter Harsha Devulapalli likened to a spiked Arizona, in a good way. By far the best of the flavors we tried, in my opinion, was grapefruit, which restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan accurately described as a ringer for pamplemousse La Croix. It had a not-too-artificial grapefruit smell, was pleasantly tart and wasn't too sweet. I'd drink it. But if given the choice, I'd rather mix vodka with soda water and squeeze a juicy slice of grapefruit into it.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
How a California wine company created the nation's bestselling spirit
It's America's unofficial beverage of beach days, tailgates, frat parties and music festivals. Its tagline is simple: 'real vodka + real juice.' But this slender can of High Noon, with its cheery yellow sun set against a blue sky, is the surprising growth vehicle for the largest wine company in the country, a product that's rewritten the rules of the alcohol industry. Launched by wine giant Gallo in 2019, High Noon had by 2022 become the top-selling U.S. spirit by volume, dethroning vodka powerhouse Tito's. High Noon — 'Nooners' to its most avid followers — has expanded to 14 flavors, plus a line of tequila seltzers and hard iced teas. Last year, its production grew 13.5% to just under 25 million cases a year, according to alcohol industry publication Shanken News Daily. High Noon's meteoric rise may seem remarkable for a wine company, but it speaks to a calculated strategy developed over decades. The winery that the Gallo brothers started in Modesto in 1933 has diversified in recent years and quietly grown into a spirits behemoth. Fueled by the success of High Noon and New Amsterdam vodka, which Gallo founded in 2008, it's now the second-largest spirits producer in the U.S. That shift has proven useful, since spirits, driven largely by canned drinks, is the only type of alcohol whose consumption is growing. As the wine industry continues to flounder — per capita wine drinking in California hit a 30-year low during the last fiscal year, according to state data — High Noon could be Gallo's ticket to riding out a global downturn. Make it vodka High Noon did not start as a hard seltzer. But in 2018, as Gallo executives watched the exploding popularity of seltzers White Claw and Truly, they wanted to get their own product to market quickly. It was October, and Gallo chief commercial officer Britt West set an ambitious goal of launching something by Memorial Day. But creating a new brand and trademark would take longer than that, and West didn't want to simply lob the product onto an existing brand, as had been done by breweries like Corona, with its Corona Hard Seltzer. Luckily, Gallo already had a brand at the ready. The company was market testing a traditional vodka called High Noon. 'We said, 'That's the perfect name,' said West, 'so let's stop doing that test.'' What set High Noon apart from the rapidly growing competition was that it was made with vodka. White Claw and other hard seltzers get their alcohol from malt, making them more similar to beer than to a cocktail. 'Consumers didn't really understand what the alcohol type was, what the base was,' said West of hard seltzers. When he was out at bars, he'd ask seltzer drinkers what they thought the alcohol was. Most of the time, they'd say, 'Vodka, right?' There seemed to be a notable lack of transparency. 'The insight (was) really very simple,' West said. 'If people think it's vodka, why don't we make one that actually is vodka?' That decision looked like 'a risky move' to Ron Alvarado, founder of the San Francisco hard seltzer brand Ficks. Being spirits-based meant that High Noon couldn't be sold in certain retail environments, like any grocery store or gas station in Texas. And because a vodka-based drink would be taxed higher than a malt-based one, High Noon would be meaningfully more expensive than its competitors: A 12-pack costs $25.99, as opposed to $20.99 for a 12-pack of Truly and $17.49 for White Claw. 'But the way the category has changed, it's been a smart bet for them,' Alvarado said. Vodka sounds more 'premium' than malt liquor. 'They've clearly carved out this niche as a higher-quality product.' That first summer, High Noon took off in popular destinations like the Jersey Shore and the Michigan lakes. West had been wise to rush: Within a year, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and the hard seltzer category boomed. Retail sales jumped 160% between 2019 and 2020, according to NielsenIQ data. By 2021, roughly two to three new hard seltzer products were launched each day in the U.S., said Marten Lodewijks, president of alcohol beverage data analyst IWRS Americas. The pandemic presented problems, too: West recalled having to air-freight cans from Malaysia during the because of an aluminum shortage in the U.S. But High Noon was 'the right beverage for the right time in that scenario,' he said, perfect as people spent time outdoors hiking, golfing and picnicking. In the summer of 2021, High Noon's sales were up over 300% from the previous year. In 2022, they surpassed $1 billion. Targeting the tailgate In June 2023, an old-timey sailboat pulled into the Boston Harbor flying a High Noon flag. Onboard were 342 cases of the company's newest product — vodka iced tea — an homage to the 1773 Boston Tea Party, in which protesters tossed 342 chests of British tea into the harbor. Cheeky marketing stunts like this one — a stark departure from the wine industry's often stodgy approach — have been a cornerstone of High Noon's success, especially among younger generations. Last year, a 'Baywatch' spoof featured a buff, shirtless and heavily oiled High Noon 'Lifestyle Guard,' whose job is to rescue not lives, but parties. Arguably the brand's most powerful marketing engine is a strategic partnership forged in its early days. In 2020, High Noon initiated a sponsorship with Barstool Sports, one of America's largest sports media companies. 'We started thinking, where do spirits have a hard time going?' West said. The answer: 'Tailgating. You need ice, you need a cup, you need glass, which isn't convenient and it's heavy, and you need mixers.' He wanted to target venues where 'beer really, really wins,' he said, converting dedicated sports-fan beer drinkers to High Noon drinkers. Barstool has a core audience of 21 to 30 year olds, said West, and does an annual college tour centered on tailgating. 'As a young brand, we felt we didn't have quite the money and the budget to immediately be highly relevant,' he said. 'Beer advertising dollars are big dollars. We didn't have the money to go head-to-head with those Super Bowl sponsorships, so we had to be clever about it.' The partnership exploded in visibility, fueled by personal endorsements from Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who has regularly claimed to be 'the face of High Noon.' The company has its own 'El Pres' High Noon variety pack, a reference to Portnoy, plus a Nooners merchandise collection of T-shirts, hats, swim trunks and can coolers. Last month, High Noon launched a spin-off product, Lucky One Vodka Lemonade, a reference to Portnoy's dog. More recently, High Noon has found a surprising new market: golfers. In 2024, it became the official spirits-based hard seltzer of the PGA of America and the PGA Championship, one of the sport's four majors. The partnership, which includes a High Noon clubhouse on the tournament course, came just as golf is experiencing a major revival, largely due to the popular Netflix docuseries 'Full Swing.' High Noon also launched a giveaway with NBA player-turned-golf podcaster J.R. Smith and a collaboration with trendy golf apparel company TravisMathew. 'Golf is traditionally associated with an older audience, but it's continued to get more diverse in people who play and watch,' said Luke Reissman, PGA of America's senior director of global partnerships. 'It's gotten younger, it's become cooler and there are more content creators and influencers than ever. High Noon has a younger following and an energetic marketing vibe, so when they reached out to us, it was a pretty easy thing for us to get excited about.' At Bay Area golf courses, High Noon has largely replaced the light beers that golfers would previously have toted through the course. It's the most popular drink order at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, said clubhouse manager Bob Mazer, outselling the most popular beer almost two to one. He attributes its success to the fact that High Noon seems to have transcended other seltzer brands' associations with specific demographics. 'Hard seltzer used to be a woman's beverage, a college kid's drink,' Mazer said. But with High Noon, people — even middle-aged male golfers — 'aren't embarrassed to drink it.' Just another fad? Despite High Noon's success so far, history is not on its side. While the hard seltzer category is relatively new, the concept of 'ready to drink' (RTD), industry lingo for pre-packaged mixed drinks, 'has been around for decades,' said IWSR's Lodewijks, pointing to past fads like Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice and Gallo's Bartles & Jaymes wine cooler. 'They would spike for a short period and then come back down,' he said. 'There's a general concern that RTDs may do the same thing.' Zima, a malt-based drink whose meteoric rise in the 1990s mirrors that of High Noon, provides one of the most sobering history lessons. MillerCoors grew the clear beverage to 1.3 million barrels at its peak, only to fall two years later to around 400,000, undone apparently by its women-centric marketing approach. It was the highest-profile casualty of what came to be known as the decade's 'clear craze,' a trend that bears several similarities to hard seltzer. West is acutely aware that the wave High Noon has been riding may not last forever. With new product types 'it's like a gold rush, everybody jumps in,' he said, 'and then at the end of the day, the top one, two, maybe three brands survive.' The shakeout has already begun. Ficks, for one, discontinued its hard seltzer brand last year due to increased competition, now focusing solely on its cocktail mixers. But if any hard seltzer brand is likely to survive, High Noon is surely one of them, and Gallo is going all in. Although it has produced spirits since 1975, when it introduced E&J Brandy, it's High Noon that has transformed the nation's largest winery into its second-largest spirits producer. Since creating High Noon, Gallo has made other spirits investments, like acquiring the RumChata brand in 2021, and while Gallo is certainly not divesting from wine — the company produces an estimated 25 million cases of High Noon and 94 million cases of wine — the spirits focus has put it in a much stronger position as wine consumption declines. Gallo's strategy looks somewhat similar to that of wine conglomerate Constellation, which in April sold off many of its lower-priced wine brands as it shifts its focus to beer, the one category in which the company is experiencing growth. Lodewijks believes hard seltzer is more likely to have staying power than the fads that came before it. RTDs now represent 8% of all alcoholic beverage servings, he said, and spirits-based RTDs like High Noon are the fastest-growing segment within it, up 16% from 2023 to 2024. (Malt-based RTDs were down 3%.) If part of Zima's downfall was the fact that nobody knew exactly what the product was made of — its motto, 'zomething different,' seemed only to exacerbate this confusion — High Noon has the advantage of a clear message. It's vodka and soda. When choosing an RTD, Lodewijks said the flavor, not the brand, is what matters most to consumers, and the general consensus seems to be that High Noon tastes better than the alternatives. Most of the hard seltzers out there 'are overly sweet and kinda miss the mark,' said Brett Frost, owner of the San Francisco bars the Summer Place, Wizards & Wands and Moez Tavern. 'High Noon in my opinion has the best balance.' Some Bay Area bars have stopped carrying any hard seltzer other than High Noon. Lake Merced Golf Club discontinued White Claw; Marina Lounge in San Francisco did away with Truly. Now, Marina Lounge owner Kevin 'Sully' Sullivan said he goes through six to seven High Noon cases a week. 'The younger crowd, they're definitely enjoying it,' said Sullivan, who is in his 60s. 'But the older folks are catching on too.' As he spoke on the phone to the Chronicle for this story, he admitted he had cracked open a High Noon vodka iced tea. 'Do I think it will last forever? Probably not,' said Frost. 'However, people seem to love it at the moment, so we have to adapt with the times.'
Time of India
7 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Vi rolls out international roaming plans with unlimited data, calling from Rs 749: Benefits, country list and other details
Summer travel season is here and Vi has announced 'Truly Unlimited' international roaming (IR) packs offering unlimited data, voice, and SMS benefits. Vi Truly Unlimited postpaid IR packs start at Rs 749 for 1 day, Rs 3,999 for 10 days, and Rs 4,999 for 14 days. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now While the Truly Unlimited Prepaid IR packs are available at Rs 3,495 for 7 days, Rs 4,695 for 10 days and Rs 5,195 for 14 days. Vi's unlimited international roaming benefits are available across 29 countries, ensuring more Indian travellers to stay connected without limits. Vi has also rolled out a new feature called Easy+, allowing users on corporate postpaid plans to directly purchase international roaming packs for personal use via the Vi App. List of Vi Truly unlimited Postpaid and Prepaid IR plans IR Pack Validity Data Outgoing Local & to India Incoming Calls SMS Postpaid Rs 749 24 Hrs Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Rs 3999 10 days Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Rs 4999 14 days Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Prepaid Rs 3495 7 Days Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Rs 4695 10 days Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Rs 5195 14 days Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited List of countries where Vi Truly Unlimited postpaid IR plans are applicable Indonesia Spain Sri Lanka Czech Republic France Germany Greece Italy Malaysia Netherlands Singapore Thailand UAE United Kingdom USA Australia Brazil Hong Kong Macau Albania New Zealand Portugal Romania Vatican City & more.
Scottish Sun
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
I flew to Mexico for a cheap BBL & almost died – I had 6 blood transfusions, 5 surgeries & it's so big everybody stares
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AN ONLYFANS creator has revealed that she flew to Mexico for a cheap BBL, but it ended up almost killing her. The influencer and reality TV personality, who is known online as 'TheeHtxHottiee', explained that she wasn't impressed after her first BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift), so decided to go under the knife again, for the second time. 4 A mother has revealed that after flying to Mexico for a cheap BBL, she found herself in hospital for almost four months Credit: Youtube/@truly-channel 4 The content creator has had two BBLs Credit: Youtube/@truly-channel 4 She almost died after her second surgery and had to have skin grafts, six blood transfusions and five emergency surgeries Credit: Instagram/@theehtxhottiee 4 She now regrets the surgery and has a bum that is "way bigger" than she expected Credit: Instagram/@theehtxhottiee But things didn't go quite to plan for the content creator, who is from Houston, Texas, as she then spent almost four months in hospital after the cosmetic procedure. Not only did she wake up from the surgery with a bum that was much larger than she expected, but soon after she had to have numerous blood transfusions and emergency surgeries. A BBL is a cosmetic surgery that reshapes and volumises the buttocks by transferring fat from other parts of the body. It involves using liposuction to remove excess fat from areas like the thighs, abdomen, or hips, and then injects that purified fat into the buttocks to create a more rounded, lifted appearance. The mother, who gave birth at the age of 17 and has 24,700 followers on Instagram, revealed all on her surgery nightmare to Truly, on a recent episode of Hooked On The Look. TheeHtxHottiee explained that after experiencing weight gain and stretch marks after giving birth, she decided to get a BBL. She first went to Mexico for a cheap BBL in 2018 but not long after had a second one, in an attempt to get "more hips" and rid of her persistent stretch marks. But as well as nearly losing her life, she also ended up with a booty a LOT bigger than she imagined. She was left gobsmacked when she looked in the mirror at her 'insane' bum, as she explained: 'My butt turned out way bigger than I expected or asked for.' The mother explained that things were 'seemingly normal for a few days' after the second procedure, but she then ended up passing out while getting a massage. TheeHtxHottiee had suffered a nasty infection and as a result, she expressed: 'I went to the hospital to get checked out and I didn't get out for another three and a half months.' The influencer, who earns a living by posting content on OnlyFans, also recalled: 'I almost died. I had to have six blood transfusions, I had five emergency surgeries." I had the same procedure as tragic BBL mum, I was moments from death & live in constant pain, they must be banned NOW TheeHtxHottiee also confessed: "Every day was not knowing if you're going to wake up again." As a result of the trauma she went through, TheeHtxHottiee admitted: "I definitely regret it." I almost died. I had to have six blood transfusions, I had five emergency surgeries TheeHtxHottiee Now, when out and about, TheeHtxHottiee attracts lots of attention over her large derrière. She admitted: 'You can see judgement on a person's face or a whisper, or a point, or somebody trying to sneak and take a picture of you.' What are the risks of getting surgery abroad? IT'S important to do your research if you're thinking about having cosmetic surgery abroad. It can cost less than in the UK, but you need to weigh up potential savings against the potential risks. Safety standards in different countries may not be as high. No surgery is risk-free. Complications can happen after surgery in the UK or abroad. If you have complications after an operation in the UK, the surgeon is responsible for providing follow-up treatment. Overseas clinics may not provide follow-up treatment, or they may not provide it to the same standard as in the UK. Also, they may not have a healthcare professional in the UK you can visit if you have any problems. Source: NHS She also gets a lot of negativity online too, but is unfazed by the attention. TheeHtxHottiee shared: 'It doesn't make me feel put-down or woe is me, it just makes me feel like, why are you placing your judgement on my booty cheeks?' Social media users react YouTube users were left totally stunned by TheeHtxHottiee's BBL story and many eagerly raced to the comments to share their thoughts. It's not even symmetrical, just a big blob YouTube user One person said: 'I'm so glad she's alive to tell her story. This could've gone so bad.' Another added: 'She's actually really a beautiful lady. I don't think she needed surgery at all. I hate that she's gotta go through this, though.' What are Brazilian Butt Lifts and why are they so popular? Buttock enlargement surgery - known as a Brazilian butt-lift (BBL) - is used to make the bum look bigger, rounded and lifted. Surgeons transfer fat, inject filler or insert silicone-filled implants. It is the fastest growing cosmetic procedure but also one of the most dangerous, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS). Many patients are travelling to the likes of Turkey or seeking out unregistered surgeons in the UK and are not given full information on the risks. BBLs carry the highest risk of all cosmetic surgeries - with more than one death occurring per 4,000 procedures. Due to celebrities undergoing such ops, many women are hoping to emulate their looks. Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Anu Sayal-Bennett, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society, told the BBC: "Despite there being so much about body positivity, there are pressures for women - and men too - to look a certain way." Many people travel abroad for the procedure because it is cheaper and advertising is "terribly seductive", combined with the idea of a beach holiday, added Dr Sayal-Bennett. A third commented: 'This is absolutely gross....I feel so bad for her that she felt she had to do this.' Meanwhile, one troll slammed: 'It's not even symmetrical, just a big blob.' Not only this, but someone else claimed: 'Dayum, they did her wrong. You get what you pay for.' Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme - Sun Club
