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An agreement to raise the debt ceiling would expand the age bracket for eligibility for food assistance, adding a punitive and unnecessary barrier for poor Americans with only negligible savings for the federal government, advocacy groups have warned. Most Americans with low or no incomes who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) must comply with certain work requirements to be eligible to receive funds to help pay for groceries. But under a deal struck between President Joe Biden and Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, adults up to age 54 would be required to show proof of work. Republican lawmakers have pushed for years to expand those work requirements, but anti-poverty advocacy groups and progressives have argued that adding any such limitations to critical aid will only deepen hunger and poverty in the US, pointing to Congress’ own research showing that work requirements don’t appear to have any measurable effect on employment. “SNAP is a symptom of shortcomings in the economy,” Luis Guardia, president of the Food Research & Action Center, said in a statement. “Cutting off food for people unless they document sufficient hours of work does not improve their chances to secure family-sustaining wages, but does increase their food hardship.” In simple terms, a congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling would allow the US Department of Treasury to continue borrowing money to pay the country’s bills. But Republican lawmakers have leveraged the often routine though critical vote process to advance their agenda, as the nation stares down an imminent deadline that risks putting the US in default. “While we all recognize the catastrophic impact of a default, we are deeply disappointed that this deal includes cuts that further harm people experiencing hunger and poverty,” said Lisa Davis, senior vice president of Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign. “As a whole, the punitive and ineffective SNAP changes included in this bill will save the US very little money,” she added. “They will also do nothing to remove barriers to make employment more attainable or available for those they impact. Nor are they based on evidence or experience. Instead, they are born from and rely on pervasive myths and misperceptions about SNAP and the people who benefit from the program and stand only to restrict food assistance for some Americans.” Republicans hold a fragile majority in the House of Representatives, where Mr McCarthy is relying on a slim margin of support from a far-right caucus that argues the cuts don’t go far enough. Meanwhile, progressive lawmakers – frustrated with the GOP’s “hostage crisis” process for negotiating a debt deal – strenuously object to stiffening work requirements and cuts to aid programs on which millions of Americans rely. Democratic US Rep Pramila Jayapal, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, will not support the debt plan, pointing to members who are “deeply, deeply concerned” about the proposals and the way in which Republicans threatened to steer the US into default to get GOP concessions. On a call with reporters on 30 May, Ms Jayapal compared Republicans’ threats on the debt limit to the party’s attempts to undermine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. “We cannot have these constitutional obligations, including the very clear mandate to pay the country’s debts, as well as of course to ratify an election of a president that was voted upon by the democratic process ... taken hostage,” she said. The Biden administration has touted some new proposals in the deal as a victory: Military veterans, young people who have aged out of foster care, and people experiencing homelessness would be exempt from the SNAP work requirements. But “burdensome reporting requirements and bureaucratic red tape leave little confidence that this will outweigh the harmful expansion of these requirements for others in this category,” Ms Davis said in a statement. The nation’s largest food assistance program supported more than 42 million people in February, according to the latest data from the US Department of Agriculture. More than 65 per cent of SNAP recipients are in families with children, 36 per cent are in families with members who are older or disabled adults, and 41 per cent are in families that work, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. SNAP requires “able-bodied adults” without dependents to work or join job training programs for at least 80 hours a month to receive more than three months of benefits over three years. “SNAP’s primary objective is to help people put food on the table; any attempt to turn it into an employment program – particularly when extensive research shows that work requirements actually make it much harder, not easier, for people to find and keep jobs – runs contrary to the program’s mission and intent,” said Eric Mitchell, executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger. “In a time when food insecurity is rising and food prices remain high, we should be expanding our nation’s social safety net, not restricting it,” he added. The maximum monthly SNAP benefit for an individual is $281, “which makes the 80-hour work program route effectively the same as a job that pays $3.51 per hour,” or less than half the federal minimum hourly wage of $7.25, People Policy Project’s Matt Bruenig noted. Progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups have also lambasted the debt deal for tying the fate of federal programmes for some of the poorest Americans to a politically volatile debate. What happens for someone over 50 years old who is unable to work and is cut off from assistance? How can they navigate a difficult labour market rife with age discrimination? Anti-poverty advocates and critics of so-called “means-testing” structures around receiving government aid have argued that adding additional burdens for work requirements underscores their futility. “We shouldn’t be playing politics with programs that help Americans meet their basic needs,” Ms Davis said. Anti-hunger groups have also objected to other changes to other assistance programs for lower-income-earning Americans, including changes to a federal cash assistance program that House Republicans had previously threatened with drastic cuts. “Hungry people cannot wait – but now they will need to wait even longer,” Mr Garcia said. “Our leaders should be creating pathways to progress, not pulling out the rug from those trying to get back on their feet.” Read More Debt ceiling vote – live: AOC, Boebert and Gaetz join growing opposition as Biden-McCarthy deal faces full House vote today What’s in the cliffhanger deal struck by Biden and McCarthy to raise the debt limit? House Republican majority cut by one after shock resignation of congressman

Holly Willoughby, Laura Whitmore and Lauren Laverne are among the stars donning their festive knitwear in support of Save the Children's annual Christmas Jumper appeal.

Fashion lovers will soon have the chance to own a custom Oscar de la Renta gown worn by Sarah Jessica Parker at the 2014 Met Gala - for the hefty price of $7,500. The black and white floor-length gown is being auctioned on the luxury fashion label’s resale site, Encore, until Friday 29 September. The dress, made custom for the Sex and the City star, features a black velvet bodice with a v-neckline and petal-like pattern at the bottom. The gown’s ivory skirt also includes a trellis embroidery, complete with Oscar de la Renta’s signature at the train. “When Sarah Jessica came to the office for our first design meeting, she had a binder full of references to share with Oscar. It was a truly special collaboration,” said co-creative director Fernando Garcia in a statement. “And for me, who didn’t ever go to design school, it was the biggest fashion lesson I could have gotten - on the floor of Oscar’s office.” The commissioned piece took 224 hours to make. Nine years later, it was returned to the atelier where it was made to be restored to its original condition. Thirty per cent of proceeds from the sale of the dress will benefit the New York Public Library. In 2014, the And Just Like That star recounted the gown’s design process in an interview with Vanity Fair. “I said to Mr de la Renta, please let me use scarlet embroidery thread, and splash your name across the back. It was my idea. He would never in a million years have it done, he’s far too modest,” Parker said at the time. The theme for the 2014 Met Gala was in honour of legendary designer Charles James, called “Charles James: Beyond Fashion”. The dress code called for “White Tie and Decorations” - full evening dress of white bow ties for men and evening gowns for women. Parker, along with actor Bradley Cooper and de la Renta, served as co-chairs for the annual fashion event. Parker’s black and white gown was one of the last designs de la Renta showcased on the red carpet before he passed away in October 2014, five months after the Met Gala. The Hollywood star and fashion icon has been a mainstay on the Met Gala red carpet - which is rolled out every May at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City - for many years. Parker recently looked back on some of her many memorable fashion moments, including the time she attended the charity event with late designer Alexander McQueen in 2006. Speaking to Vogue in 2022, Parker explained that she “immediately” wanted to work with McQueen to design their matching tartan ensembles for the Met Gala’s “AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion” theme. However, she felt that she “didn’t really know him well enough to be so presumptuous” to assume he would want to attend with her. “Like everybody else, I was in love with him,” she told Vogue. “I have every pin he dropped from his mouth in my possession still. I have everything he cut off in my possession still. I have things that seem like nothing, from every fitting I ever did with him in my possession.” The groundbreaking designer died in 2010 at the age of 40, and was later commemorated by the Met Gala in 2011 with the theme “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”. For last year’s Met Gala, Parker paid homage to the first Black female designer in the White House - Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley - in a black and white gown designed by Christopher John Rogers. However, the style icon has maintained that preparing for fashion’s biggest night of the year should be “labour intensive”. “All I ever think about is the theme and influence,” she told Vogue in April 2022. “Whenever I go to the Met, I don’t understand how everyone else doesn’t spend seven to ten months working on it. Like how do you not arrive exhausted by the details of getting it right?” “It would be so easy to find a beautiful dress to wear that night,” Parker added. “Like that would be a great relief and like going on vacation. But that is not the assignment, the assignment is the theme.” Read More Sarah Jessica Parker reveals she adopted Carrie’s kitten from And Just Like That Kim Cattrall and Sarah Jessica Parker feud: A timeline of the beef between Sex and the City co-stars Sarah Jessica Parker rewears iconic Vivienne Westwood wedding dress in And Just Like That Victoria’s Secret was never feminist – why are they bothering to try now? Kim Kardashian debuts buzz cut and thin eyebrows for new photo shoot Travis Kelce wears ‘1989’ inspired outfit after leaving NFL game with Taylor Swift

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Boxer and rapper KSI and YouTuber-turned-WWE-star Logan Paul sure have hit the jackpot with their drinks company Prime, to the extent it’s sold for ridiculous prices, made one shop in Wakefield go viral, and even been reviewed by foul-mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay. The collaboration between Paul and KSI (real name Olajide “JJ” Olatunji) was announced back in January last year, with the pair just recently touring Munich, Barcelona, Copenhagen and Oslo to promote the drink. Prime has even become the drinks partner for both Arsenal and Barcelona football clubs. However, such success has also caught the attention of legislators, with one US senator, Democrat Chuck Schumer, calling for the company to be investigated by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA). In a letter to the regulator, Mr Schumer wrote: “A simple search on social media for Prime will generate an eye-popping amount of sponsored content, which is advertising. “This content and all the claims made should be investigated, along with the ingredients and the caffeine content in the Prime energy drink.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter While Prime Hydration is caffeine-free, the Prime Energy brand contains 200mg of caffeine per 12 ounces, which is about the same as six cans of Coca-Cola or almost two Red Bulls. On Twitter, Mr Schumer went further and claimed the drink contains so much of the stimulant that it “could endanger kids’ health”, but is being “marketed to kids” anyway. “Parents and paediatricians are worried. The FDA must investigate Prime for its absurd caffeine content and its marketing targeting kids on social media,” he wrote. Representatives for Prime, meanwhile, argue the product is clearly labelled as “not recommended for children under 18”. Although the FDA is yet to announce an investigation into the drinks brand, and therefore it’s not yet at risk of being banned in the US, how much money would KSI and Logan Paul stand to lose if such a decision was ever taken? Some insight into just how popular the brand is was given by Paul during an interview on the Australian radio show The Kyle and Jackie O Show in February, in which he said they had garnered “$250m in retail sales [and] $110m gross internally”. “In January of this year, we did $45m,” he added. But of course, Olatunji and Paul won’t see all of that money, with Prime being part of the Congo Brands company and the YouTuber duo reportedly having a combined share of 20 per cent in the brand. Although we don't have the exact estimations, but we imagine the answer to the big question is that the pair would certainly lose a lot of money if they were blocked from selling in a market as big as America. That’s yet to happen, though, and so instead, Prime looks to be getting more and more popular… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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