What happened
Thousands of copies of Sarah Ferguson’s new children’s book are reportedly being “pulped” after she was stripped of her royal titles over her links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The former duchess of York’s book, “Flora and Fern: Kindness Along the Way”, was due to be published last month, but was rescheduled for 20 November after her 2011 emails to the late sex offender were released. Now an insider says the book has been withdrawn altogether and the title has disappeared from New Frontier Publishing’s website.

Who said what
Printed copies are “being sent to the recycling centre”, the source told the Daily Mail. “It’s an acknowledgment of the inevitable. No one is going to want to buy it.”

Planned book signings and talks have also been cancelled. One bookshop that was forced to refund meet-and-greet tickets told The Telegraph: “It’s a mess. The book is unsalvageable.”

Ferguson has also been “dropped by numerous charities with whom she had long-term associations”, said The Guardian.

What next?
Neither New Frontier Publishing nor Ferguson have commented on the decision. Her other books remain available to purchase.

What happened
Ultra-processed foods are the leading cause of the “chronic disease pandemic”, according to a new study by 43 global experts published in The Lancet. UPFs, which include a vast array of products such as ready meals, ice cream and biscuits, have been linked to obesity and a number of diseases including cancer. And the consumption of them is rising, with UPFs accounting for more than 50% of food eaten in the US, according to Reuters.

Who said what
Study author Professor Carlos Monteiro said UPFs “harm every major organ system in the human body”. The evidence “strongly suggests” that people are “not biologically adapted” to process them properly. The study proposes having stronger restrictions on advertising, banning UPFs in schools and putting limits on their sales.

But there is still “room for doubt and clarification from further research”, said Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University. The research “certainly doesn’t establish that all UPFs increase disease risk”.

What next?
The study’s authors acknowledge that “more evidence is needed”, said Reuters, but maintain that the findings of the report are “already strong enough” to require government action. 

“Maybe in 20 years every one-year-old will have a beauty routine,” said Ally Nelson, host of the “UnTrivial” wellness podcast. She was “joking, mostly”, said The New York Times. But in the same week social media went into meltdown when “Pretty Little Liars” actor Shay Mitchell launched Rini, a new skincare line for children aged three and up. 

Skincare lines for “pre-teens” and younger “have become a robust product category” – and “a battlefield for parents and critics”. A “growing list” of companies sell skin products for pre-teens that are packaged to “look like candy dispensers”. The advertising works: in the US, households with children between the ages of seven and 12 spent almost $2.5 billion on skincare last year, according to Nielsen IQ consumer research.

The brands say their tween-orientated wares are “safer alternatives to adult products”. But some critics see “something more pernicious”: a strategy to “hook children on unnecessary products, laying the groundwork for ever-earlier anxieties about their appearance”.

Children’s growing interest in beauty products already has a “catch-all” name: “Sephora kids”, after the beauty store chain, said The Guardian. Shop-floor employees say young children are “filling shopping baskets to the brim with testers” while their parents are “elsewhere in the store”.

“In the rage-bait frenzy” that followed the Rini launch, the line’s “mission statement” was “missed”, said Ariana Yaptangco in Glamour. It’s “play skincare”. The products are “similar to the play make-up I used as a child” and probably an improvement on Claire’s palettes.

The “uproar” against Rini is “misplaced at best and overblown at worst”. It’s not about whether a skincare routine for tweens is “necessary” or not, but rather about children being “able to experiment with products responsibly and safely”.