Last week, Kaya Clementine Breen filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against multiple California healthcare providers and hospitals for alleged medical negligence, stating that she was wrongly diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

At the age of 11, she was ‘struggling with the thought of developing into a woman’ and thought that her life would possibly be ‘easier’ if she was a boy.

Kaya then spoke to her school counselor at the time about how she was feeling, and they apparently told her ‘that she was transgender and called her parents to tell them the same thing’.

The then-middle school student was taken to a children’s hospital in Los Angeles by her parents and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Mayo Clinic defines gender dysphoria as ‘the feeling of discomfort or distress that might occur in people whose gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth or sex-related physical characteristics’.

It’s thought that Kaya was also suffering with mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder at the time (PTSD), the lawsuit further claims.

By the time she was 12, she started receiving puberty-suppressing medication, and from ages 13 to 19, took cross-sex hormones.

As well as this, Kaya had a double mastectomy at the age of 14, after which her ‘mental health progressively declined’ following her treatments, the suit claims.

Kaya’s lawsuit further alleges: “This case is about a team of purported health care providers who collectively decided that a vulnerable girl struggling with complex mental health struggles and suffering from multiple instances of sexual abuse should be prescribed a series of life-altering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, ultimately, receive a double mastectomy at the age of 14.”

Speaking to NBC about the filing on Thursday (December 12), Kaya said that she wished that someone suggested therapy rather than gender-specific treatment, however, she added that she doesn’t believe the health practitioners ‘intentionally acted in poor faith’.

“In retrospect, I wish that somebody had suggested real, genuine therapy first, instead of gender-specific therapy, because really the only therapy that I received until much later was specifically focused on gender dysphoria, and didn’t connect my gender dysphoria to anything else,” she told the news outlet.

It was when Kaya started dialectal behavior therapy earlier this year that she started to question her transition.

“I sort of started questioning my own gender identity and if I was doing this for the right reasons.” she said.

Several parties have been named in her lawsuit, including a handful of doctors and healthcare centres located across California.

One expert has warned of a series of ‘hidden dangers’ to be aware of which could be ‘damaging’ your body despite your good intentions.

Dr Yvonne Burkart is a toxicologist who specialises in identifying hidden toxins and chemicals in every day items around the home.

She has issued a series of warnings around some of our most loved items that many of us will have in and around the house, in our fridge, or on our bodies.

Lighting candles

It’s bad news if you’re a fan of a scented candle as part of your relaxation routine, according to Dr Burkart.

“When you light a candle you’re not just liberating fragrance molecules but there’s also toluene, benzene and other toxic chemicals that are known to be human carcinogens, through the route of inhalation, being released into the air”, she explained.

Yep, it seems you might be getting more than you bargained for when you light that French vanilla fragrance.

Th expert continued: “When you are using a conventional candle with synthetic dyes, petroleum based wax and synthetic undisclosed fragrance in particular, you’re releasing ultrafine particulate matter which is the most hazardous type.

“These chemicals are not just staying in the air, they attach to house dust and deposit on the surfaces of your home, so if you have a baby that’s crawling around on the floor, putting things in his or her mouth, inhaling all of this and ingesting all of these particles, they cannot detoxify the way that adults can. Their bodies are developing and these early life exposures have lifelong consequences.”

If you really can’t go without, she advises going for as natural and high quality a candle as possible.

Cooking with non-stick cookware

If you’re a fan of a non-stick pan to prevent your omelette from turning into scrambled eggs, Burkart suggests you think again: “Non-stick coatings on cookware are primarily made of man-made chemicals known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (or PFAS for short).”

What are PFAS exactly?

“There are 15,000 types of chemicals within this broad class according to the EPA. The first reports of Teflon toxicity date back over 70 years yet only now are the health effects in humans becoming widely known”, Burkart explained.

She also said some of the risks according to the Environmental Protection Agency include ‘infertility, hypertension during pregnancy which can be deadly, developmental effects or delays in children including low birthweight, accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioural issues’.

“There can also be increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, and the reduced ability of the body to fight infections including reduced response to vaccines,” she warned.

“They can also lead to interference which is known as endocrine disruption, increased cholesterol levels or risk of obesity. Intestinal inflammation has also been noted with PFAS exposure which is similar to conditions like ulcerative colitis.”

Eating processed foods

Cooking from scratch constantly can be a chore, but in the US, Dr Burkart says there are numerous food additives to be aware of, and for the harm they might cause.

“These food additives are banned in other countries but still allowed in the US,” she said.

“Titanium dioxide is a possible human carcinogen and is banned from foods in the European Union, but it’s still found in US foods like Kraft cheese. Brominated vegetable oil was banned by the FDA in July of 2024 for thyroid disruption and is still found in citrus flavoured soda and drinks, especially store brands.”

Yum! Maybe not…

She added: “Propol paraben is a xenoestrogen and suspected endocrine disruptor that is used in store bought baked goods.”

Not filtering your water

We all know we need to be staying hydrated (and ten cups of coffee doesn’t count, sorry), but the toxicologist advises that you ‘absolutely should’ filter your tap water.

“Absolutely if you live in an area where your water has been fluoridated,” she insisted.

It depends what type of filter you go for though she says, with some being better than others: “Lower cost options don’t remove fluoride or nearly enough chemicals, and tap water is a source of hormones, endocrinian disruptors, pesticides, fluoride if it’s added to the water, agricultural run-off, there’s a bunch of different contaminants in tap water depending on where you live.

“We’ve got to be careful with the water that we’re using to drink and cook with.”

Not opening your windows

In the middle of winter, it can be tempting to keep the windows closed and the heating cranked up on full, with three of those scented candles lit that we mentioned before.

Dr Burkart says even though it’s cold, opening the windows is a must: “Air quality indoors can be up to five times worse than air quality outside, which shocks a lot of people!”

“That stat comes from the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA. The reason being is that people are not adequately ventilating their homes.”

She added: “Cooking generates particulate matter too, but do we need to stop cooking? No. We need to prioritise what’s important and what’s not important.

“Make sure you’re opening the windows. Indoor air is absolutely imperative if you want to improve your health. You have to clean up your indoor air.”

Drinking from ‘to go’ coffee cups

If you’re a coffee fiend, the toxicologist says you might want to invest in a ceramic coffee cup, to give to the barista for your third caffeine hit of the day.

“Disposable coffee cups are the issue, it’s the plastic lined, paper to-go cups with the plastic lid on them,” advises Dr Burkart.

“They are lined with a thin layer of plastic and unfortunately when you pour hot liquids like coffee that are acidic and hot into this plastic lined cup, they will leach plastic particles and heavy metals into your drink that you are consuming.”

Yummy!

“They’ve been detected in human lungs, placenta, heart, they’re everywhere. They’re not going anywhere. We can’t digest them,” she insists.

“The mechanism of detoxification is not clear so it’s not like we can load up on some supplements and get rid of them, as we don’t know if the body can process them at all.”

Using cosmetics with these ingredients

Many of us use dozens of different beauty products a day, but Dr Burkart asks when you last stopped and looked at the ingredients in them.

She referred to previous research that has been carried out: “They took breast cancer cells, and measured breast cancer genes before and after the intervention.

“The intervention was very simple, only switch out your personal and beauty care products, avoiding certain ingredients – parabens, phthalates and phenols.

“After 28 days they saw a significant reduction in breast cancer gene expression, which is huge. This is in humans, this is doses that you would see in products that are being sold on the shelves that people are using day in and day out.”

Wearing plastic/chemical-filled clothing

You might think that you’re doing the best thing for you by going for a run or working out, but the toxicologist said to be mindful of what you’re wearing to exercise because ‘substances in clothing can be ingested, inhaled or absorbed into the bloodstream’.

“Recent studies found that popular workout gear contain high levels of bisphenol, an endocrine disrupting chemical,” she advised.

“These are usually tight fitting and rub against the skin, creating friction especially during workouts, and breath rate, body heat, and also sweat are uncreased during exercise, which could mean increased chemical penetration and absorption into the bloodstream,” she added.

There’s those pesky plastics again, too: “Not to mention, synthetics like polyester release microplastics.”

What can we do instead?

“This is why I work out in organic clothing as much as possible”, she explained, and recommended organic cotton tees and sweats.

So, what next?

It’s worth noting that not everyone agrees with Dr Burkart and say that a pinch of salt is needed, with one expert replying: “Medical Toxicologist here. I’ve spent years taking care of actual human patients and I disagree with the claims here, you are not being ‘poisoned’ by everyday household products, plastic, candles or food. You don’t need to purchase any ‘detox’ remedies either.”

“I’m sorry, she lost me on.. ‘no candles’…. I guess I’ll just die on that fragrant hill”, joked one social media user.

“Small changes, done consistently over time, make a big difference,” agreed one fan.

“I’m surprised she didn’t mention alcohol!” added another.

Will you be making any changes?

A woman who is currently behind bars for the murder of her boyfriend has explained why she falsely accused three university students of raping her in 2006.

Crystal Mangum, from Durham, North Carolina, publicly admitted to lying for the first time in a new interview on the Let’s Talk with Kat podcast, which she conducted from behind bars.

The admission comes almost 20 years after Magnum first made the accusation, and just over a decade after she was sentenced to up to 18 years in prison for the 2011 murder of Reginald Daye, 46.

In the interview, Magnum said of the students: “’I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn’t and that was wrong, and I betrayed the trust of a lot of other people who believed in me.”

Magnum’s accusation came after she performed as a stripper for an off-campus party held by members of Duke University’s lacrosse team.

Following the party, Mangum accused students Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans of raping her in a bathroom.

After he was indicted, Evans said: “You have all been told some fantastic lies, and I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come, as they already have in weeks past…. The truth will come out.”

Mike Nifong, the Durham District Attorney at the time, pursued charges of first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual assault against the three players. However, North Carolina’s attorney general scrapped the charges when inconsistencies began to emerge between the evidence and the accounts given by Magnum.

DNA evidence in the case did not match to any of the 46 players on the lacrosse team, and Attorney General Roy Cooper ultimately said there was no credible evidence against the players, declaring them as innocent.

Now, Magnum has explained exactly why she lied about the events that unfolded on that day in 2006.

Magnum went on to express her hope that Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann could one day forgive her for the false accusations, saying they ‘didn’t deserve’ them.

“I hope that [the players] can heal and trust God and know that God loves them and that God is loving them through me, letting them know that they’re valuable and they didn’t deserve that,” she said.

After the charges against the three players were dropped, they each received $20 million in a settlement. Mangum was never charged with making false accusations.

Top porn star Riley Reid’s husband has spoken out about what he thinks about her career.

The vows we take in marriage are sacred, and that can often mean overlooking some things about your spouse or choosing to disregard other people’s opinions of your partner.

But for Pasha Petkuns, who married Reid in 2021, he’s got his own outlook.

The couple have well and truly begun married life, and even became parents in 2022.

But there are always going to be those who cannot understand why he’s with a former adult star.

Speaking on No Jumper with Adam22, another porn star who has actually filmed intimate scenes with Reid, he shared his view on it all.

Petkuns said that ‘at first it was like, “Oh, like is it is it normal? Not normal?”’

But he explained that one conversation with his friend helped him to understand.

Petkuns continued: “He said the best thing, ever he’s like ‘no matter what you’re gonna do, people [are] gonna tell you you’re stupid’.”

He then realised that what his friend was saying was true, and it clicked for him.

Petkuns went on to share that his family are chill people, and regarding Reid’s career, ‘it’s just life’.

The father-of-one also made the comparison to what would be a dealbreaker for him and said that it’s not like his wife has ‘killed anyone’.

When Adam22 asked if she was shooting porn in another room of the house, Petkuns replied that she had already stepped away from the industry by the time they got together and was instead focusing on her OnlyFans content with exclusively women.

While he’s pretty chill about the whole thing, he did admit that ‘two of my friends’ said something to him about what they thought of his relationship with Reid and ‘unfollowed’ him.

But ‘that’s about it’.

Regarding his parents, they’re also fine with the arrangement as his mum only wanted to know if he was ‘happy’.

Petkuns did, however, explain that he had to ‘prepare’ her for people to talk to her about Reid’s career and even ‘pull up videos’.

But she was ready to take it head-on.

Their relationship seems solid, and it’s also brought about a new chapter in Reid’s life.

Reid has opened up a lot about her past, particularly on why she hates her close friends and family calling her ‘Riley’.

Despite winning 45 awards for her work and having millions of followers on Instagram, she likes to separate work from home.

Speaking to Adam22 in another episode of his podcast, Reid shared: “It’s definitely a real fact that my career will affect my kid at some point in some degree and it is up to me as a parent to try and coach it in the most appropriate manner possible.

“And so, I worry in certain senses, like for example when you signed our baby shower card you signed it to Riley.”

Adam22 said: “Whoops.”

With him and his wife, another adult star known as Lena The Plug, being close friends, she wants them to use her real name – Ashley Matthews.

One man’s quick thinking meant he was able to have both of his arms reattached, after a horror accident on a farm in North Dakota.

In 1992, teenager John Thompson was by himself when he got into an accident with a tractor, causing him to lose both arms.

Despite the terrible odds against him, John managed to stagger 100 yards to the house to try and get help.

Unable to dial a phone the usual way after his limbs had been chopped off, the distraught teen miraculously had the presence of mind to get hold of a pencil in his mouth.

Using the pencil, he was able to call his cousin who lived nearby in an attempt to get help.

He then recalls going into the bathroom so he didn’t bleed all over his mother’s carpet.

Against all odds, Thompson survived and managed to have both arms reattached, during a painstaking six hours of surgery.

More than 30 years after the accident, he can still remember every detail of what happened.

He told a documentary about how his shirt tails got caught in the shaft of the machine, and he reached to free himself.

“It got wrapped in with the power shaft. The next thing I know, everything is dark and I’m feeling funny.”

He woke to his dog licking his face, and soon realised that he had lost both arms from just below the shoulder.

“I’m just lying there on the stretcher and thinking ‘Why don’t they have the sirens turned on.’ And so I was complaining about that because they didn’t want to excite me and I’m like ‘well just turn the siren on.’ And then I remember the one gal who was with me in the back looked and told the guy to slow down. And I’m like ‘Ok, I have no arms, don’t slow the ambulance down just get me there,’” said Thompson.

“That was probably the hardest thing I had to deal with, was the notoriety,” he said.

“I keep trying to get away from it, but I have nowhere else to go, so I just keep going back to it. I can’t find nothing else,” he said. “I try doing other things and they just haven’t worked out. It always comes back to people knowing me and wanting to use me.”

He told the Star Tribune: “I keep trying to get away from it, but I have nowhere else to go, so I just keep going back to it. I can’t find nothing else,” he said.

“I try doing other things and they just haven’t worked out. It always comes back to people knowing me and wanting to use me.”

Nowadays he can flex his arms, but his hands are stuck with clenched fists unless he manually opens them.

His surgeon has offered prosthetic hands to help with his mobility, but Thompson says he has adapted and doesn’t want to lose his sense of touch.

“They said, ‘This is Oprah Winfrey,’ ” he said. “Good, this is John Thompson. I’m not canceling. I gave these people my word.

“I’d like to see what would happen to you if you’re 18 and you get thrown into all this. I’m damned impressed with what I’ve done.”

I guess we all make mistakes, right? They’re just not usually multi-billion dollar ones. At least, not in my case.

But I suppose when you’re the first person in history to surpass a $400,000,000,000 net worth, they’re the kind of figures you’re playing with on a daily basis.

Musk’s inadvertent hit on Tesla took place in 2020, when Musk took to Twitter – back when it was still Twitter – with a complaint about the electric car company’s stock price.

All it took was six words, and Tesla share prices were started to dramatically sink, according to reports at the time.

CNBC reported that Tesla shares dropped as much as 12 percent before closing down to 10.3 after the tweet, while the BBC said that a staggering $14 billion was knocked off the carmaker’s value.

Not only that, but the tweet resulted in $3 billion being wiped from Musk’s own stake in Tesla.

So, what six words could do so much damage?

In his tweet, Musk wrote: “Tesla stock price too high imo.”

That’s it. He thought it was too high, and as a result chaos ensued.

Musk later admitted to the Wall Street Journal that his damaging post had not been looked over by the company before he posted it.

Following the message, Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Reuters: “We view these Musk comments as tongue in cheek and it’s Elon being Elon.

“It’s certainly a headache for investors for him to venture into this area as his tweeting remains a hot button issue and [Wall] Street clearly is frustrated.”

Though the tweet did result in a big loss for Tesla, the car company clearly managed to survive the incident and has a market capitalization of $1.31 trillion at the time of writing (December 13).

Meanwhile, Musk surpassed the heady milestone of a $400,000,000,000 net worth earlier this week, when he was declared $198 billion richer than the second richest person in the world, Jeff Bezos, who has a net worth of $249 billion.

The news comes as Musk prepares to take on a new role in the White House, as President-Elect Donald Trump announced him as his pick to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump went on to explain that the pair would ‘pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement’.