Le Journal

For three weeks, I wore stickers on my skin supposed to address all sorts of conditions. Are they a panacea, problem or performance?This morning, I woke up feeling a little groggy. My go-to remedy is usually a coffee and cold-water face plunge, followed by a compulsive phone scroll. But today called for something more, so I unpeeled a small, yellow “energy” patch the size of a walnut, popped it on to my upper arm and hoped for the best.The patch (£12 for 30) contains – so the packaging says – vitamins B5, B3 and a “microdose” of caffeine. It is made by Kind Patches, which is one brand in an increasingly crowded market of wellness stickers that claim to treat everything from lack of sleep to period pains to pimples. They are coin-sized, and often come in TikTok-friendly shades of sunflower yellow and peachy orange: you may have seen a teenager sporting a star-shaped one on their face to treat spots, or influencers patting blue magnesium ones on their wrists before bed. Continue reading...

Trump says failure to receive the Nobel peace prize means he no longer feels the need to think ‘purely of peace’ – key US politics stories from 19 JanuaryAn extraordinary text message exchange between Donald Trump and Norway’s prime minister has revealed the US president no longer felt “an obligation to think purely of peace” because he didn’t get the Nobel peace prize, as he again declined to rule out seizing Greenland by force.The disclosure of the exchange with prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre comes amid a concerted push by Trump to grab the territory, a largely self-governing part of Denmark. In recent weeks, he has said the US would take control of the Arctic island “one way or the other” and, over the weekend: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!” Continue reading...

Red caps are becoming a symbol of protest in Denmark as Donald Trump ratchets up the pressure on GreenlandRed baseball caps spoofing Donald Trump’s Maga hats have become a symbol of Danish and Greenlandic defiance against the US president’s threat to seize the frozen territory.The caps reading “Make America Go Away” – parodying Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan – have gained popularity, along with several variants on social media and at public protests, including a weekend demonstration held in freezing weather in Copenhagen. Continue reading...

Major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field may make northern lights visible far more south than usualThe aurora could be visible across Canada and much of the northern tier of US states on Monday night, and possibly even further south, following a major disturbance in the Earth’s magnetic field, a forecast shows.The forecast, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s space weather prediction center, comes amid intense geomagnetic and solar radiation storms, said Shawn Dahl, service coordinator at the center. Continue reading...

Cancer charity highlights apparent ‘postcode lottery’ of testing and diagnoses across different regions seen in studyProstate cancer is now the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer across the UK, surpassing breast cancer, according to a leading charity.There were 64,425 diagnoses of prostate cancer in 2022, an analysis of NHS figures by Prostate Cancer UK found, and 61,640 new cases of breast cancer. Continue reading...