Adnan Deumic, who was based at the bank’s London office, was playing in a casual “five-a-side” charity soccer tournament with other finance employees when he collapsed and was administered CPR, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
No cause of death has been announced, but this person told The Post cardiac arrest is suspected.
A 25-year-old Bank of America Corp. credit trader died suddenly on Thursday night. Adnan Deumic, a credit portfolio and algorithmic trader, collapsed of a suspected cardiac arrest playing soccer at an industry event and failed to respond to medical treatment including CPR Adnan Deumic/Facebook
“The death of our teammate is a tragedy, and we are shocked by the sudden loss of a popular, young colleague,” a spokesman for Bank of America told The Post. “We are committed to providing our full support to Adnan’s family, his friends and to our many employees grieving his loss.”
There is no known connection between Deumic’s unexpected death and his job at Bank of America. The Swedish-born trader was hired in 2022 and worked on the Credit Portfolio and Algorithmic desk.
Unlike Lukenas, Deumic worked closer to 60 hours a week – but his shift was highly stressful, another source with direct knowledge told The Post.
He was involved in trades worth as much as $1 billion some days despite his lack of experience, the person said.
“He probably worked 11 to 12 hours a day and those hours were incredibly intense… he didn’t have time to get coffee,” the source said.
Adnan Deumic/Linkedin
“The stress he was under was so much more than any of the other analysts… and he couldn’t take a day off. He was learning to do this all when he was very new to the job.”
Before his tragic death, Deumic seemed to be the picture of health, running a marathon in Spain last month and had played hockey in high school.
However, his affable nature hid a growing displeasure with the bank, the source said.
The “abysmal” management didn’t treat him well or give him the bonus or the affirmation he deserved, according to the insider.
Leo Lukenas III died on May 2 from an apparent blood clot. Leo Lukenas/linkedin
It was enough to make Deumic “desperate to get out” and find a similar job at another bank.
“He was not happy… he was looking at other jobs,” the source said.
Deumic was primarily motivated to make enough money so he could move back to Sweden to be nearer his friends, his family and his girlfriend — who had been visiting him this week, the person added.
People who knew Deumic said his colleagues are devastated.
A London-based trader for Bank of America died on Thursday evening during a charity soccer tournament — the second company employee to die this month. AP
“He was one of the nicest guys on the floor,” the source said. “The interns loved him because he was so open to helping other people even though there was no incentive to.”
Deumic’s death was the second to rock the bank this month. Lukenas, a former Green Beret, died from acute coronary artery thrombus. The married father of two worked in New York.
Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett criticized Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calling her “racist,” following a tense House Oversight markup Thursday evening that quickly devolved into personal attacks.
As the panel met to advance contempt proceedings against Attorney General Merrick Garland over his refusal to turn over audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, Greene, a Georgia Republican, sparked outrage when she commented on Crockett’s appearance. “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading,” Greene said.
Speaking to reporters on Friday about the incident, Crockett said, “That’s all it is, it is racism. And she decided that she was going to be that person out loud and out front on yesterday. The difference is I just wasn’t going to take it laying down.”
“She is racist. I mean, I don’t have any questions about that,” she added.
Asked for comment by CNN, Greene’s office said, “the only member that brought up any reference to color was congresswoman Crockett.”
The rules of the House dictate members can’t “engage in personalities,” meaning they are not allowed to make offensive comments about or toward another member.
If it occurs, the member who was insulted can ask for the words to be stricken from the record and, if that happens, the offending member is not allowed to speak for the remainder of the proceeding.
During the markup, there was a failed vote to strike Greene’s comments from the record and she was allowed to continue her remarks.
At the markup, Greene started by asking Democrats on the committee if any of them employ the daughter of Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the criminal trial in New York of former President Donald Trump. As Republicans have sought to curry favor with Trump, they have gone after Merchan’s daughter, who has ties to Democrats, as they seek to undermine the case.
Crockett, a Democrat from Texas, asked Greene, “Do you know what we’re here for?”
Greene shot back: “I don’t think you know what you’re here for … I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez immediately jumped in to get Greene’s words taken down.
“That is absolutely unacceptable. How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person,” the New York Democrat said.
After a series of votes in response to Greene’s explosive rhetoric, Crockett made a dig that appeared to be directed at the Republican.
“I’m just curious. Just to better understand your ruling. If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blonde bad built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct,” Crockett said.
Crockett said on Friday that Greene is unserious and does not respect the process.
“She’s lacking any ability to actually engage in actual discourse, she doesn’t know her job. She doesn’t know the issues that we’re dealing with when we’re in committee. So instead, she does what most of MAGA does which they seek to insult and personal attacks. She needs to get a staff that can get her up to speed so that she can actually talk about something of substance and actually represent her district,” Crockett said.
Crockett also said she is a “grown woman” and wasn’t going to take it “laying down.”
“One thing I’m not going to do is have somebody disrespect me as a duly elected official myself, and then I’m just going to say, well, that’s okay. And rub it off. No, we’re not going to do that.”
She added: “So if if they can’t follow the rules, I will have to fight for myself.”
Republican and Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee expressed shock and disgust at the “unacceptable” conduct during the committee meeting.
“It’s not appropriate. None of it’s appropriate,” said GOP Rep. Tim Burchett, who was seated next to Greene during the hearing. “I mean, ‘butch body’ and ‘bleach blonde’ hair, now that – there’s no place for that up here. And it’s just, it’s disgusting. And I got a little girl, I don’t want to hear her insulting somebody’s appearance like that. And yeah, it was pitiful,” he added.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, said that House Republicans’ behavior “brought disgrace to the whole institution,” criticizing Greene’s conduct in the hearing.
“When the chairman allowed the distinguished gentlelady from Georgia to attack another members’ eyelashes or her personal appearance, the whole meeting descended at that point,” he said.
Workers at two Mercedes-Benz factories near Tuscaloosa, Ala., voted on Friday against joining the United Automobile Workers, a stunning blow to the union’s campaign to gain ground in the South, where it has traditionally been weak.
The defeat, based on an unofficial union tally, came after Kay Ivey, Alabama’s governor, and other Republican leaders argued that a pro-union vote would choke off the investment that has transformed the state into a major auto producer. Hyundai and Honda also have large factories in Alabama that the U.A.W. is trying to organize.
The vote took on national significance as a test of whether the U.A.W. could build on a string of recent victories and gain ground in a state whose elected officials have been hostile to organized labor. The union has said it wants to organize every automobile factory in the United States, expanding its membership to include the employees of companies like Toyota and Tesla.
But the loss at the Mercedes plants will almost surely slow down the union’s campaign and probably force it to do more spadework to secure the support of workers before seeking to hold elections at other auto plants. Union leaders will want to spend time figuring out how best to counter the messages and tactics of local lawmakers and company executives.
“It hurts to lose, no doubt,” Elizabeth Shuler, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., said on Friday. “But we see it not as a loss, but a temporary setback. Workers will persevere no matter what it takes.”
Auto executives and conservative lawmakers are also likely to closely study the vote at Mercedes to figure out the best approaches to fend off the U.A.W. and other unions in future contests and to deter union campaigns from the get-go.
The South has become an important battleground. States like Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee are attracting much of the billions of dollars that automakers and suppliers are investing in electric vehicle and battery factories. The U.A.W. wants to represent workers at those factories.
Mercedes produces sport utility vehicles at a factory in Vance, Ala., and battery packs for electric vehicles at a plant in nearby Woodstock. Polling had been underway all week at the two factories under the supervision of the National Labor Relations Board.
In a campaign conducted largely by word of mouth, union activists argued that in addition to better pay and benefits, the U.A.W. would protect Mercedes’ 5,200 workers from abrupt changes in their schedules and long shifts, including on weekends.
“If it wasn’t for us building those cars, you wouldn’t be putting the money that you’re putting in your pockets,” said Kay Finklea, who works in quality control at Mercedes and campaigned for the union. “So treat us with dignity, treat us with respect and pay us.”
But activists acknowledged that many workers who were unhappy with working conditions at Mercedes were also reluctant to join the union, swayed by warnings from company executives and politicians that membership would lead to onerous dues and loss of control over their jobs.
Mercedes tried hard to block the union. Last month, in an apparent attempt to address employee complaints, the company shook up local management, appointing Federico Kochlowski as chief executive of the German company’s U.S. unit.
Mr. Kochlowski, who has worked at Mercedes for about 20 years in various manufacturing positions in China, Mexico and the United States, acknowledged that there were problems at the Alabama plants and promised to make improvements. “I understand that many things are not OK,” he said in a video posted by Mercedes online. “Give me a shot.”
Union activists noted that Mr. Kochlowski had already been a member of top management and interpreted his appointment as a last-minute attempt to fend off the U.A.W.
The U.A.W. has filed six charges of unfair labor practices against Mercedes with the labor relations board, saying the company disciplined employees for discussing unionization at work, prevented organizers from distributing union materials, conducted surveillance of workers and fired workers who supported the union.
Mercedes denies the claims.
Previous attempts by the U.A.W. to represent workers at Mercedes and other auto manufacturers in the South have failed. But the U.A.W. is stronger than it has been in years after winning a unionization vote at a Volkswagen plant in Tennessee last month after losing two previous elections at that plant. The union also won hefty pay raises last year for workers at Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram.
Mercedes workers who support joining the U.A.W. said they would keep fighting.
“Mercedes is going to be unionized,” Robert Lett, who works in the Woodstock battery factory and campaigned for the union, said ahead of the vote. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Friday or in the future. There’s too much frustration there for us to not eventually unionize.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was arrested Friday morning on his way to the PGA Championship, with stunning images showing him handcuffed as he was taken to jail for not following police orders during a pedestrian fatality investigation.
Scheffler, charged with assault after officer dragged near fatal crash, tees off at PGA Championship
In a span of four hours, the top-ranked golfer in the world was arrested wearing gym shorts and a T-shirt, dressed in an orange jail shirt for his mug shot, returned to Valhalla Golf Club in golf clothes and made his 10:08 a.m. second-round tee time.
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Louisville Metro Police Department said Scheffler was booked on four charges, including second-degree assault of a police officer after his vehicle dragged an officer to the ground.
Scheffler said the incident was a “big misunderstanding.”
“This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers,” he said in a statement released as he was warming up on the range. “It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do.
“I never intended to disregard any of the instructions,” he said. “I’m hopeful to put this to the side and focus on golf today. Of course, all of us involved in the tournament express our deepest sympathies to the family of the man who passed away in the earlier accident this morning. It truly puts everything in perspective.”
His attorney, Steve Romines in Louisville, also described it as a misunderstanding and told The Associated Press, “We will litigate the case as it goes.”
Louisville mayor Craig Greenberg said tournament vendor John Mills was the pedestrian killed and offered sympathies to his family. Greenberg also said the incident involving Scheffler and LMPD was “unfortunate” and that the police department was investigating.
Traffic was backed up for about a mile in both directions on the only road that leads to Valhalla in the morning darkness with light rain, with dozens of police vehicles flashing red-and-blue lights near the entrance.
Police said a pedestrian had been struck by a bus while crossing the road in a lane that was dedicated to tournament traffic and was pronounced dead at the scene about 5:09 a.m.
ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington witnessed the incident and said Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who was to start the second round at 8:48 a.m., drove past a police officer a little after 6 a.m. in his SUV with markings on the door indicating it was a PGA Championship vehicle.
The officer screamed at him to stop and then grabbed onto the car until Scheffler stopped about 10 yards later, Darlington said. The officer, identified in the arrest report as Det. Gillis, was dragged “to the ground” and suffered “pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist” after the car “accelerated forward,” according to Louisville police.
Scheffler was booked at 7:28 a.m. — about 2 1/2 hours before his updated tee time after the second round was delayed because of the fatality. In addition to the assault charge, he was booked on charges of third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic.
“The main thing is he was proceeding exactly as he was directed in a marked vehicle with credentials,” Romines said. “He didn’t do anything intentionally wrong.”
The officer was dressed in a high visibility reflective jacket when he stopped Scheffler’s car to give instructions, the arrest sheet said. Gillis was taken to the hospital for his injuries.
Darlington said police pulled Scheffler out of the car, pushed him up against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.
“Scheffler was then walked over to the police car, placed in the back, in handcuffs, very stunned about what was happening, looked toward me as he was in those handcuffs and said, ‘Please help me,’” Darlington said. “He very clearly did not know what was happening in the situation. It moved very quickly, very rapidly, very aggressively.”
Louisville Metro police spokesman Dwight Mitchell told Louisville radio station WHAS the man was crossing Shelbyville Road about 5 a.m. and the bus didn’t see him. Mitchell said the man was pronounced dead on the scene.
Scheffler was released by police and returned to the course at 9:12 a.m. He made his way to the practice area around 9:30 a.m. and was welcomed by fans — one shouted “free Scottie!” and others arrived later wearing “Free Scottie” T-shirts.
Scheffler seemed like his normal, relaxed self, sharing a few laughs on the driving range. Then he went out and made a birdie on his first hole of the day after sticking his approach shot to 3 feet.
With cars backed up in the morning darkness, other PGA-marked vehicles tried to move slowly toward the entrance. Traffic finally began to move gradually a little before 7 a.m.
It was a surreal start to what already has been a wild week of weather — the Masters champion and top-ranked player in the world, dressed in workout clothes with his hands in cuffs behind his back amid flashing lights.
Darlington, the ESPN reporter, said police were not sure who Scheffler was. He said an officer asked him to leave and when he identified himself being with the media, he was told, “There’s nothing you can do. He’s going to jail.”
Darlington said another police officer later approached with a notepad and asked if he knew the name of the person they put in handcuffs.
Louisville police have attracted negative national attention in recent years after the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor in 2020 and a federal investigation into its policing practices.
A Department of Justice report released last year said Louisville officers use excessive force and conduct searches based on invalid warrants. The report said Black motorists in Louisville were more likely to be searched during traffic stops, and officers used neck restraints, police dogs and Tasers against people who posed no imminent threat.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot by officers in who had come to her apartment with a warrant that federal officials later said was falsified.
PGA of America, which runs the PGA Championship, offered sympathies for Mills’ family and said in a statement, “As it relates to the incident involving Scottie Scheffler, we are fully cooperating as local authorities review what took place.”
Scheffler is coming off four victories in his last five tournaments, including his second Masters title. He was home in Dallas the last three weeks waiting on the birth of his first child, a son that was born May 8.
Scheffler opened with a 4-under 67 and was five shots out of the lead as he tries to become only the fifth player since 1960 to win the first two majors of the year.
Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan contributed.
golf: /hub/golf
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
After launching Slack AI in February, Slack appears to be digging its heels in, defending its vague policy that by default sucks up customers’ data—including messages, content, and files—to train Slack’s global AI models.
According to Slack engineer Aaron Maurer, Slack has explained in a blog that the Salesforce-owned chat service does not train its large language models (LLMs) on customer data. But Slack’s policy may need updating “to explain more carefully how these privacy principles play with Slack AI,” Maurer wrote on Threads, partly because the policy “was originally written about the search/recommendation work we’ve been doing for years prior to Slack AI.”
Maurer was responding to a Threads post from engineer and writer Gergely Orosz, who called for companies to opt out of data sharing until the policy is clarified, not by a blog, but in the actual policy language.
“An ML engineer at Slack says they don’t use messages to train LLM models,” Orosz wrote. “My response is that the current terms allow them to do so. I’ll believe this is the policy when it’s in the policy. A blog post is not the privacy policy: every serious company knows this.”
The tension for users becomes clearer if you compare Slack’s privacy principles with how the company touts Slack AI.
Slack’s privacy principles specifically say that “Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are useful tools that we use in limited ways to enhance our product mission. To develop AI/ML models, our systems analyze Customer Data (e.g. messages, content, and files) submitted to Slack as well as other information (including usage information) as defined in our privacy policy and in your customer agreement.”
Meanwhile, Slack AI’s page says, “Work without worry. Your data is your data. We don’t use it to train Slack AI.”
Because of this incongruity, users called on Slack to update the privacy principles to make it clear how data is used for Slack AI or any future AI updates. According to a Salesforce spokesperson, the company has agreed an update is needed.
“Yesterday, some Slack community members asked for more clarity regarding our privacy principles,” Salesforce’s spokesperson told Ars. “We’ll be updating those principles today to better explain the relationship between customer data and generative AI in Slack.”
The spokesperson told Ars that the policy updates will clarify that Slack does not “develop LLMs or other generative models using customer data,” “use customer data to train third-party LLMs” or “build or train these models in such a way that they could learn, memorize, or be able to reproduce customer data.” The update will also clarify that “Slack AI uses off-the-shelf LLMs where the models don’t retain customer data,” ensuring that “customer data never leaves Slack’s trust boundary, and the providers of the LLM never have any access to the customer data.”
These changes, however, do not seem to address a key concern for users who never explicitly consented to sharing chats and other Slack content for use in AI training.
Users opting out of sharing chats with Slack
This controversial policy is not new. Wired warned about it in April, and TechCrunch reported that the policy has been in place since at least September 2023.
But widespread backlash began swelling last night on Hacker News, where Slack users called out the chat service for seemingly failing to notify users about the policy change, instead quietly opting them in by default. To critics, it felt like there was no benefit to opting in for anyone but Slack.
From there, the backlash spread to social media, where SlackHQ hastened to clarify Slack’s terms with explanations that did not seem to address all the criticism.
“I’m sorry Slack, you’re doing fucking WHAT with user DMs, messages, files, etc?” Corey Quinn, the chief cloud economist for a cost management company called Duckbill Group, posted on X. “I’m positive I’m not reading this correctly.”
SlackHQ responded to Quinn after the economist declared, “I hate this so much,” and confirmed that he had opted out of data sharing in his paid workspace.
“To clarify, Slack has platform-level machine-learning models for things like channel and emoji recommendations and search results,” SlackHQ posted. “And yes, customers can exclude their data from helping train those (non-generative) ML models. Customer data belongs to the Slack AI—which is our generative AI experience natively built in Slack—[and] is a separately purchased add-on that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) but does not train those LLMs on customer data.”
A 2016 surveillance video obtained exclusively by CNN shows Sean “Diddy” Combs grab, shove, drag and kick his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura during an altercation that matches allegations in a now-settled federal lawsuit filed by Ventura in November.
The footage, compiled from multiple camera angles dated March 5, 2016, appears to show the rapper, producer and business mogul during an incident that, according to Ventura’s complaint, occurred at the now-closed InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. CNN verified the location based on publicly available photos of the former hotel’s interior.
In the video, Ventura exits a hotel room and walks to a bank of elevators. Combs, holding a towel around his waist, runs down a hall after Ventura. He grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor. Still holding his towel closed with one hand, he then turns to kick her, the video shows.
As Ventura is on the ground, Combs retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks Ventura again as she lies motionless on the floor. About four seconds transpire between the two kicks, according to the video. He then briefly drags Ventura by her sweatshirt toward a room before walking away.
Ventura is then seen slowly standing up. She gathers items from the floor and moves to pick up a phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Combs, still in a towel and socks, returns. A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Combs appearing to shove Ventura.
Seconds later, he sits down on a chair, grabs an object off a table and forcefully throws it toward Ventura. Combs is seen walking away, then turns toward Ventura once again when an elevator door opens and someone appears to exit.
Ventura, who reached an undisclosed settlement with Combs, declined to comment on the video obtained by CNN.
Ventura’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, said: “The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs. Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for Combs and InterContinental Hotels for comment. Combs has previously denied Ventura’s allegations.
Combs and Ventura, a model and singer known for songs like “Me & U,” were in an off-and-on relationship from 2007 – 2018. The two were photographed together at the Los Angeles premiere of the film “A Perfect Match” on March 7, 2016.
According to Ventura’s complaint, which cited the altercation as occurring “around March 2016,” Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms. Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye.”
After Combs fell asleep, Ventura attempted to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her,” the complaint said.
“He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape,” the complaint alleged.
After Ventura got in the elevator, her complaint states that she took a cab to her apartment.
“Upon realizing that her running away would cause Mr. Combs to be even angrier with her, and completely stuck in his vicious cycle of abuse, Ms. Ventura returned to the hotel with the intention of apologizing for running away from her abuser,” the complaint claims. “When she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment, suggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway.”
The complaint alleges Combs paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage of the incident. The incident was part of a number of allegations made in the November lawsuit in which Ventura claimed she was raped in 2018 and subjected to years of repeated physical and other abuses by Combs.
Chris Delmas/AFP/Getty Images/File
Sean “Diddy” Combs with Cassie Ventura attend the premiere of ‘The Perfect Match’ in Los Angeles on March 7, 2016.
Ventura, who was formally signed to Combs’ label, claimed in her suit that he “exerted his power and influence” over her throughout the course of their professional and romantic relationship. According to the complaint, she was 19 when they met and Combs was 37, and their business relationship lasted until 2019. It detailed claims that Combs was physically violent toward Ventura and forced her to engage in various sex acts with other men during that time.
Ben Brafman, an attorney for Combs, said in a statement to CNN on the day it was filed, “Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”
The suit was resolved the following day.
“A decision to settle a lawsuit, especially in 2023, is in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Brafman told CNN in a statement at the time. “Mr. Combs‘ decision to settle the lawsuit does not in any way undermine his flat-out denial of the claims. He is happy they got to a mutual settlement and wishes Ms. Ventura the best.”
Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
Since November, Combshas faced five other civil lawsuits accusing him of a range of sexual misconduct and other illegal activity. He has denied the allegations, and the cases remain active.
Authorities searched Combs’ homes in California and Florida in April as part of a federal investigation carried out by a Department of Homeland Security team that handles human trafficking crimes, according to a senior federal law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The investigation stems from many of the same sexual assault allegations put forth in the civil lawsuits, according to a second law enforcement source familiar with the searches.
Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Combs, issued a statement at the time, calling the searches a “gross overuse of military-level force.”
“This unprecedented ambush – paired with an advanced, coordinated media presence – leads to a premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits,” he said. “There has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations. Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, there are resources available, including the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Life coach and radio presenter Aarti Joshi has opened up on her battle with Crohn’s disease, and has shared the one lifestyle change she made which has helped keep the illness at bay.
Crohn’s is a lifelong condition where parts of the digestive system become inflamed. It’s an unpredictable disease where a person can go from being well to “incredibly unwell” to the point where their life could change completely.
Aarti’s symptoms included fatigue, an infection and a ‘weird skin rash’. The Scots-Indian who suffers from eczema says that the rash was different and that doctors misdiagnosed what is was because of the colour of her skin.
It wasn’t until she was rushed to A&E in 2019 – following a busy weekend working at TRNSMT for DF Concerts – when medics diagnosed her with Crohn’s.
She told Glasgow Live: “For about six months, I was exhausted but I wasn’t giving into it and refused to accept it. I had been working on TRNSMT that weekend and had known something was wrong.
“When I walked into the hospital, they asked me what I was up to at the weekend so I told them and they all looked at me really confused. They said “we are going to need to operate on you right away” and were not sure how I walked into the hospital.
“That was pretty shocking to me.”
Aarti’s diagnosis came as a relief as she finally knew the cause of her symptoms, however, there was a feeling of dread for what the future looked like.
Having been the head of marketing for DF Concerts for eight years, she loved her job but admits that it, at times, caused her stress – which doctors said was a factor in her Crohn’s flare up.
She added: “It can present in hundreds of different ways – you could be really ill or fine and it could be controlled. When I went to the hospital, they said that my Crohn’s was caused by stress, it was a large factor.
“I was telling everyone I wasn’t stressed and storing it inside. Looking back, I realise that I was in burnout. The minute you feel like that, it’s time to do something about it instead of waiting until you get really ill.
“When I get a flare up it’s really bad abdominal pain and my skin tends to flare up. I get red patches on my face and will be at the toilet a lot more than normally. I would also wake up and be really tired.”
Ultimately, Aarti decided to leave her job in March 2022 and went on to work as a presenter on GoRadio as well as a life coach at Freedom and Joy.
After changing her diet – by cutting out gluten and dairy – she noticed her health improving, including her eczema and asthma. She has not had a significant flare up in two years.
Aarti added: “The trigger for me was stress and my realisation was that the job I was in would cause stress. I had to do something different.
“DF were incredibly supportive and understanding throughout that time and I made a wild decision to leave. Making that change has been the best thing for my health.
“Some of what I was eating must have been causing that reaction but I never knew that. I am now managing the illness through my diet and am not on medication.
“It does scare me with how unpredictable the disease is. When it happens, you are just really sad and it can make me feel quite negative. Sometimes, I have to cancel coaching calls because I am not in a good place and my clients are understanding about it.”
Sharing her advice to others who might have or have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, Aarti said: “This is a warning to people: I’ve always been somebody who is like ‘it’ll be fine’.
“I kept going to the doctors for tablets and they weren’t brilliant with investigating this properly and then I ended up in the hospital for three different operations.
“With this disease, it’s important to understand that you can be very well for a long period of time and then become incredibly unwell – so much so that your life could change completely.
“As South Asians, we could be a bit closed off and stoic. It would be so great to talk about it more in our communities because I do think it impacts so many people in our community.
“You can live a really full life with this disease. Most people live with it every day and have great, happy and fulfilling lives.
“People with Crohn’s are exactly the same, it’s just that sometimes we have really bad days.”
Aarti says that knowing about the Catherine McEwan Foundation when she was first diagnosed would have been a huge support.
The charity, which aims to provide better treatment, care and life for patients battling Crohn’s or Colitis, has launched a campaign to highlight the isolation that comes with living with inflammatory bowel diseases ahead of World IBD Day this weekend (Sunday May 19).
Having launched in Glasgow today (Friday May 17), the campaign features a QR code made from 100 empty toilet rolls. On scanning, the QR code comes to life with a straight-talking film about how “sh*t” it is living with IBD.
The film features Scottish football legend, Alex McLeish OBE, and musician Rick Parfitt Jr, as well as a number of ‘real’ people living with IBD from across Scotland.
People in Glasgow can view the billboard this weekend on New City Road in Cowcaddens.
Find out more about the Catherine McEwan Foundation, and watch the video here.
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Scottie Scheffler pleads for help after being detained by police
Scottie Scheffler’s hopes of winning the PGA Championship were thrown into chaos on Friday morning when The Masters champion was arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club.
The American had been attempting to make his way to the course ahead of the start of the second round, but was stopped by police in attendance at a car accident nearby. Scheffler was placed in handcuffs and arrested, before being charged by the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections. The second round was pushed back by an hour and 20 minutes due to the fatal accident, with Scheffler’s revised tee time 3.08pm BST.
The 27-year-old has now been released by police and has arrived at Valhalla in the hopes of continuing his pursuit of the year’s second major, with Scheffler arriving 53 minutes before his scheduled tee time. He recorded a four-under round of 67 to sit tied for 12th after round one, five shots behind leader Xander Schauffele, with Rory McIlroy also in early contention.
Follow all the action from the second round of the PGA Championship below.
PGA of America confirms death after fatal accident
The incident involving Scottie Scheffler arose because a traffic jam was caused following a collision between a member of the public and a shuttle bus.
Now, the PGA of America have confirmed that the person involved has tragically been killed.
A statement released moments ago said: “This morning we were devastated to learn that a worker with one of our vendors was tragically struck and killed by a shuttle bus outside Valhalla Golf Club.
“This is heart breaking to all of us involved with the PGA Championship. We extend our sincere condolences to their family and loved ones.”
Scheffler has been released and has made his way to Valhalla, arriving 53 minutes before his revised tee time of 3.08pm BST. The start of the second round was delayed by an hour and 20 minutes due to the fatal car accident that occured in the early hours of this morning.
Scottie Scheffler arrested ahead of PGA Championship second round
Chaotic scenes at Valhalla this morning with Scottie Scheffler, one of the favourites for PGA Championship victory, arrested by Louisville Police just hours before the start of the second round. Here’s what we know:
Brevard Space Coast launch sites rockets spaceX ULA NASA
A quick look at which rockets lift off from various Brevard launch sites.
SpaceX is targeting Friday evening for the launch of another batch of Starlink satellites, according to Geospatial and FAA navigational warnings.
SpaceX has confirmed they are targeting a liftoff time of 8:32 p.m. as of Thursday evening. Should SpaceX not be able to launch at that time, backup opportunities exist until 11:30 p.m..
The Falcon 9 rocket will lift off from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) and follow a southeast trajectory.
After roughly eight and a half minutes into flight, the Falcon 9 will land on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean. The booster will be flying its 21st flight, and is most remembered for the Inspiration4 mission, which was the first all civilian mission to orbit, as well as the Axiom-1 mission.
This will be the latest launch of SpaceX’s internet satellites, which deliver internet to some of the most remote locations on Earth, including out at sea. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, SpaceX currently has 5,941 functioning Starlink satellites in orbit. If Starlink 6-59 contains the typical Space Coast 23 satellite payload, it will bring SpaceX to 5,964 satellites delivering internet to customers.
With over 80 launches already secured, the mega-company, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, aims to have half of the constellation in orbit by July of 2026. While Jeff Bezos may no longer be the CEO of Amazon, his rocket company, Blue Origin, is contracted to launch these satellites on its New Glenn rocket from Florida.
It’s not solely Blue Origin, as Amazon has enlisted ULA, Arianespace, and even SpaceX to launch their Kuiper satellites.
Amazon’s goal, much like SpaceX, is to deliver fast and affordable internet to underserved areas on Earth.
Follow the latest space news from the FLORIDA TODAY Space Team at floridatoday.com/space.
The ultraprocessed foods your kids eat now may be putting them a greater risk for cardiometabolic problems – like heart attack, stroke and diabetes – in adulthood, a new study suggests.
“One of the important things to learn is that some of the things that we deal with in the adult world, more likely than not start very early in life,” said Dr. Stuart Berger, a pediatric cardiologist and chair of the section of cardiology and cardiac surgery for the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was not involved in the research.
The study, published Friday in JAMA Network Open, analyzed data from more than 1,400 children ages 3 to 6 recruited from schools across seven cities in Spain.
The children’s caregivers met with researchers in person and completed questionnaires at home on physical activity, food consumption and demographics from 2019 to 2022, according to the study.
Researchers divided the data from the children into three groups based on the amount of ultraprocessed food they ate. Children who consumed the most ultraprocessed foods were more likely to have risk factors like a higher body mass index, systolic blood pressure and waist-to-height ratio, the study showed.
Ultraprocessed foods are those that contain ingredients “never or rarely used in kitchens, or classes of additives whose function is to make the final product palatable or more appealing,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Those ingredients — found in things such as sodas, chips, packaged soups, chicken nuggets and ice cream — can include preservatives against mold or bacteria, artificial coloring, emulsifiers to stop separation, and added or altered sugar, salt and fats to make food more appealing.
“Americans eat ultraprocessed foods every day,” said Dr. Andrew Freeman, director of cardiovascular prevention and wellness at National Jewish Health in Denver. He was not involved in the research.
A group of Americans in a study published on May 8 ate at least three servings of ultraprocessed food a day, with one group eating an average of seven daily servings, the study showed.
Many studies have shown the negative health effects of ultraprocessed foods in adults, but Friday’s study is among the first to show the impact they can have on the cardiometabolic health of young children, said Berger, who is also a professor of pediatrics at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.
“This particular topic, ultraprocessed food consumptions and risk, is a very important topic in kids,” he said.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
The ultraprocessed foods kids eat now may have lasting impacts, a new study suggests.
The study is observational, meaning that while researchers can identify an association between how much ultraprocessed foods children eat and their health, they cannot say that one causes the other, Berger said.
Nevertheless, it is crucial to be mindful of ultraprocessed foods for young children, because how they eat for the rest of their lives is greatly impact by their early nutrition, he said.
“What we know is people who eat a certain way, even moms who eat in utero, set up baby’s preferences,” Freeman said. “There are a ton of publications that have shown that what we eat early in life … actually sets the stage for what happens in the future.”
Shifting your child’s diet away from ultraprocessed foods and toward more fresh options is easier to do when they are very young, Berger said.
The problem is that avoiding ultraprocessed foods is not equally easy for everyone.
The study found that the children with the highest amount of ultraprocessed foods in their diet had mothers who were younger, had a higher BMI and had lower levels of education and employment.
In places where fresh food might be harder to obtain, ultraprocessed foods are more accessible and inexpensive, Freeman said.
“Ultraprocessed foods are also ultra-convenient,” he said. “As a result, people reach for them when they feed their kids, and their kids aren’t hungry, but they’re filled with all these different chemicals and substances and seasonings and salts of sugars and whatever that they become very addicted to.”
Freeman stressed that giving kids ultraprocessed foods without also providing fresh fruits and vegetables sets them up for problems down the road.
Adding in more nutritious foods and encouraging physical activity as much as possible is critical, Berger added.
“If you can do something to create a healthy lifestyle early, there’s a reasonable chance that you can you can eliminate metabolic syndromes later in life like diabetes, obesity, and all the complications associated with diabetes and obesity,” he said.
