Officials in Nolan Wells’ hometown are voicing strong support for their sheriff amidst accusations of neglect in official duties, following claims made on Wednesday morning.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson has criticized Mississippi officials for their handling of the case. This came during a press conference where attorney Ben Crump shared the results of an independent autopsy.

“Our issue is with the state of Mississippi and local authorities,” Johnson stated. He emphasized the need for a thorough investigation to assure both Wells’ family and the community that any involved parties would face justice.

The 18-year-old, Wells, vanished on July 4th during a boating outing with friends to Horn Island, a barrier island along Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Intensive search efforts spanned two days before a National Park Service ranger discovered his remains on July 6th at the island’s northwestern edge.

Mississippi State Senator Jeremy England, who represents a portion of Jackson County, where the incident took place, told News Media the accusation by Johnson was “completely unfair.”

“Our sheriff and our district attorney here in Jackson County, our DPS commissioner over the state of Mississippi law enforcement, our crime lab, the offices they put together, I know many of them personally and professionally, and they have the utmost integrity and they want to get the facts correct and get out there. You know, they understand they’re under a microscope at this point in time, but they’re being unfairly attacked,” England said. “For no reason other than people trying to make shocking claims and get people to think something nefarious has happened or is going on.”

“But these are very good people, and it’s really disheartening to see their name and their reputation being dragged through the mud,” England said.

The state senator said Mississippi investigators won’t be swayed by public pressure, even as expectations build around the case.

“There’s not always someone to blame,” he said. “And here in Mississippi, we don’t have and we don’t follow what you see in some other states and some other communities where you have activist district attorneys and activist sheriffs, and they’re listening to the public and they’re wanting to respond to the public.”

“Our leaders, the people in that office, they don’t do that. They take their time, they make sure they get it right, and they’re doing that out of respect for the family and for the entire community at this point,” England said.

Congressman Mike Ezell, R-Miss., told News Media he has complete confidence in the current Jackson County sheriff, John Ledbetter, who is running the investigation.

“I have full confidence in Sheriff Ledbetter and all of our law enforcement officials as they are working hard to do a thorough investigation. As a former sheriff and police officer, I know firsthand the demands and pressure of their job, and I know they will handle this matter with integrity.”

During Wednesday’s news conference, Crump revealed that an area of “red discoloration” was found on Wells’ head, but said Dr. Roger Mitchell, who performed the autopsy, couldn’t come to a conclusion on a cause or manner of death “pending further investigation.” An official autopsy into Wells’ death hasn’t been completed.

When asked by News Media about the case, forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden said the head injury doesn’t point to foul play.

“So that could be from bumping into something in the water. There’s a lot of debris in the water, for example. It depends how deep it is, but it’s describing a really superficial impact that could have happened before death or after death,” Baden said. “What he’s describing is a minor injury that could be… totally innocent.”

Without having additional information, Mitchell wrote in his report that he couldn’t rule out the possibility that “non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death.”

The independent autopsy’s release comes as Rev. Al Sharpton said he’s offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the death of Wells. Authorities previously told the Associated Press that foul play isn’t suspected.

Wells’ friends returned to the mainland that afternoon without him. Ledbetter has said investigators believe Wells chose to stay on the island. It wasn’t until later that night that his mother learned he was missing from one of Wells’ friends and reported it to authorities.

While seated in a doctor’s office, Aaisha Alvi was suddenly confronted by an unsettling directive.

“Stab Lina! Stab Lina! Stab Lina!”

A vivid vision flashed before her eyes: a long carving knife repeatedly piercing the chest of her 4-year-old daughter, Lina.

“I didn’t want to do what the voice was telling me, but at the same time, I felt like it was going to make me do it,” she revealed to The Post.

This voice, heard only by her, had initially surfaced two months ago, following the heartbreaking loss of a miscarriage.

“At that point, I started screaming to the doctor, ‘Just give me something to make this all stop,’” recalled Alvi.

“I don’t want to be locked up,” she pleaded to the doctor, rambling verses of scripture about the sanctity of life. “I’m feeling forced to do bad things to people and to myself.”

When asked what those bad things were, Alvi couldn’t bring herself to say. “I didn’t articulate exactly what they were because it just felt like they were so profoundly evil that I couldn’t,” she remembered. “I just said they were evil things.”

Alvi said the doctor didn’t ask any follow-up questions, deciding she didn’t require hospitalization — and that admitting her would be a very difficult process anyway. Instead, the doctor prescribed medication for panic attacks.

“I did take the medications, but they continued to worsen,” she recalled.

Then, as had happened after four previous appointments with other doctors, she was sent home.

Nearly two decades later, that afternoon still haunts Alvi — not only because it was one of the darkest moments of her life, but because it represented a failure she believes should never have happened.

As the murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy begins, postpartum psychosis — a rare, severe psychiatric emergency —  has thrust a little-understood illness into the national spotlight.

Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty to killing her three young children in January 2023 before attempting suicide, leaving herself paralyzed.

Her attorneys are expected to argue that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis, while prosecutors contend the killings were deliberate.

The case has also prompted renewed questions about how postpartum psychosis presents, whether it can be recognized before tragedy occurs and why it is so often misunderstood and stigmatized. Alvi, an author, uses a pen name in her work and does not show her face for this reason.

How could psychosis drive a mom to violence?

For Alvi, that question is painfully familiar.

“I know it can be incredibly hard to believe an illness can make you think and do things you don’t want to do,” she said. “I would never have believed that myself if I had not experienced it.”

She had no reason to think she was at risk, with no history of mental illness before becoming pregnant with her daughter in 2002.

Her pregnancy had been relatively smooth, and she and her husband, Adam, had eagerly prepared a nursery and bought all the popular baby books.

But within a week of giving birth, anxiety settled over her with startling intensity. Depression followed. At first, the changes seemed almost explainable — the exhaustion of caring for a newborn, the emotional upheaval of childbirth, the overwhelming responsibility of keeping an infant alive.

Then reality itself began to shift.

She became convinced that members of her family wanted to harm her daughter. And, she recalled, “I started to believe that my baby was not really a baby, but that she was an adult pretending to be a baby.

“The worst symptom for me during that episode of postpartum psychosis was that I believed that my husband wanted to molest our daughter,” Alvi said. “They were delusions, but I didn’t know it at the time. I believed them so sincerely.”

Her husband remembers watching the transformation with growing alarm. Ordinarily, Alvi was deeply connected to her family — but she suddenly withdrew from them. At one point, she suggested they give their newborn daughter up for adoption.

“That’s how I knew something was not right with her,” Adam said.

The delusions eventually drove Alvi to attack him while he was driving them on the highway. “I was just so disgusted by the thought of what I believed he was planning to do to our daughter,” she said. “That’s how strong the beliefs that I had were.”

Despite the dramatic change in her behavior, doctors twice dismissed her symptoms. But four months later, the psychosis disappeared almost as suddenly as it had begun: “I just woke up one day and returned to my previous baseline.”

She had survived an episode of postpartum psychosis without ever learning its name.

When hallucinations take control

For the next four years, Alvi remained terrified of becoming pregnant again. But as time softened the memories, she and Adam decided to try for the second child they had always wanted.

Instead, the pregnancy ended in miscarriage. Grief arrived, then the worryingly familiar anxiety, depression and loss of reality.

She sought medical help immediately, multiple times, explaining to each provider that something was terribly wrong. Again and again, she was told she was grieving.

But, she recalled, “My symptoms kept worsening.”

Within weeks, the illness had progressed beyond anything she experienced after her daughter’s birth.

“I clearly expressed that I felt like I was hearing a voice,” said Alvi. “I told them I felt like I was being forced against my wishes to do evil things to others.”

The voice, which she described as sounding like a “very aggressive, angry man,” drowned her own thoughts, issuing horrifying commands.

“I experienced visual hallucinations of like corpses, decapitated heads — very, very terrifying things,” remembered Alvi. “I had gotten to the point of believing I was in a third dimension, where I would be able to see the devil.”

What terrified her most was the growing realization that she could no longer trust herself to know what was real.

“I began hearing command hallucinations, which were ordering me to stab my daughter to death,” she said. “I did not want to in any way harm my daughter. That’s why I was actually at the doctor, because I was looking for help.”

Her husband’s frustration grew with every appointment. He watched his wife stop eating. She barely slept. She lost interest in the daughter she had once doted on.

Only a few days into Alvi’s second bout of postpartum psychosis, her mother insisted she move into her home so she wouldn’t be left alone while Adam worked. He readily agreed.

“I could so clearly see something was wrong with her,” he remembered.

Why postpartum psychosis so often gets missed — even by doctors

Stories like Alvi’s illustrate why postpartum psychosis remains one of the most challenging psychiatric emergencies to recognize, Dr. Uruj Haider, a perinatal psychiatrist and medical director of MCPAP for Moms, told The Post.

Similar to postpartum depression, postpartum psychosis symptoms can wax and wane. “The women may be coherent and appear even normal one minute, but a couple of minutes to hours later, they may be very confused, and in rare cases, floridly psychotic,” explained Haider.

However, postpartum psychosis is the only postpartum condition marked by extremely rapid clinical deterioration, meaning it can onset suddenly within days of giving birth, causing hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behavior, similar to Alvi’s experiences.

Hallucinations are also not always present at the outset, and early warning signs — including severe insomnia, confusion, irritability, disorganized thinking and unusually rapid speech — can easily be mistaken for exhaustion or anxiety.

“There is a spectrum of psychotic symptoms, and the signs and symptoms can be very subtle, so I refer to these as pink flags” said Haider. “Examples of pink flag signs may be irritability, disorganization, disorientation or confusion and rapid speech.”

Although postpartum psychosis affects an estimated 1 to 2 women per 1,000 births, roughly half of cases have no previous psychiatric history, making it difficult for families and even clinicians to anticipate. The highest-risk period is generally within the first several weeks after childbirth, when profound sleep disruption and hormonal changes coincide.

For Alvi, the breakthrough came only after she found a perinatal psychiatrist familiar with postpartum psychosis.

Unlike the brief appointments Alvi had grown accustomed to, the evaluation lasted about 90 minutes.

And for the first time, someone recognized the illness Alvi had spent years trying to describe. She was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis and prescribed “the tiniest possible dose” of an antipsychotic medication.

Getting help

The change was almost immediate.

“I repeatedly called my psychiatrist over the course of a week, and she increased the dosage of antipsychotic medication from one pill to 10 pills a day,” recalled Alvi. “It was at that point that my psychosis broke.”

The hallucinations receded. The delusions loosened their grip. Within a few months, she was well enough to stop taking the medication.

“The fact that I could get better so fast is just so damning,” said Alvi. “If my doctor had not spent the time that she spent with me, I would not be alive today, and my daughter would not be alive today.”

Nearly 20 years later, she has never experienced another episode of psychosis outside the postpartum period. That recovery, she believes, is one of the most important parts of her story.

Public attention often focuses on the most tragic outcomes associated with postpartum psychosis. Far less attention is paid to the fact that the illness is treatable when recognized and caught early, particularly with specialized psychiatric care.

“The goal of treatment is to achieve full symptom control while minimizing adverse effects through careful monitoring and medication adjustments,” said Haider. “This includes using the lowest effective dose that maintains stability, regularly assessing symptoms and side effects and tailoring treatment to each patient’s clinical history, risk factors and reproductive goals.”

But because postpartum psychosis is uncommon, many frontline clinicians may encounter very few cases during their careers.

“If there’s any concern from the patient, the partner or family members, get that mom connected to a psychiatric clinician as soon as possible,” she advised. “If they are actually actively psychotic or manic, then get them to the ER and make sure the baby is being taken care of and with family.”

Lindsay Clancy’s story

Today, Alvi spends much of her time trying to ensure other women and families recognize what she could not.

She speaks publicly about postpartum psychosis, volunteers with maternal mental health organizations and wrote the memoir “A Mom Like That: A Memoir of Postpartum Psychosis,” hoping to give language to an illness that feels unspeakable for many women.

She published under a pen name because postpartum psychosis remains so misunderstood and stigmatized that many women who have experienced fear being judged or criminalized.

As the Clancy trial unfolds, Alvi hopes public attention extends beyond the courtroom. Whatever the legal outcome, she wants families, physicians and policymakers to come away with a better understanding of postpartum psychosis — and a greater sense of urgency.

“That’s the most sad part about Lindsey Clancy’s story and my situation,” said Alvi. “We were not hiding our symptoms. We did all the right things. We sought out care multiple times from the systems meant to help and protect us.”

She hopes one day those conversations begin much sooner, not just after a tragedy. And that the healthcare system is prepared to listen.

Because Alvi knows, perhaps better than most, how much can depend on being heard the first time.

“I don’t want what happened to me to happen to anyone else.”

If you or someone you know is or may be struggling with postpartum mental health issues, contact a medical professional and visit postpartum.net 

For 11 consecutive days, the U.S. has been embroiled in a relentless barrage of military strikes against Iran, with no cessation in sight. More concerning, however, is the apparent absence of a clear, attainable strategic goal.

Initially touted as a quick and decisive victory, the situation has instead devolved into a grinding war of attrition. This meandering approach is casting significant shadows over American national security, taking a toll that grows more perilous by the day.

Each day brings fresh rounds of air and naval bombardments targeting Iran’s bridges, tunnels, and key infrastructures. Yet, with astonishing resilience, Iran swiftly reconstructs and regroups. While these strikes certainly inflict damage, they fail to destabilize the regime’s grip or compel Tehran towards capitulation. What should be a demonstration of strategic decisiveness feels more like an exercise in superficial tactical maneuvers.

The harsh truth remains that the U.S. is not dismantling Iran’s formidable ‘missile cities.’ These fortified complexes, dug deep into Iran’s granite mountains, house ballistic missiles and drones that challenge international security by keeping the Strait of Hormuz on edge, thereby inflating global oil prices and risking a worldwide economic downturn.

The question lingers: Why have these missile fortresses not been eliminated? Simply put, the United States lacks the capability. American munitions, despite their power, cannot penetrate the granite fortifications of Iran’s missile cities deep enough to dismantle them, regardless of the sheer volume of firepower unleashed.

The White House and the Pentagon have chosen to ignore this unyielding physical reality. The United States has fundamentally run out of realistic options to defeat Iran militarily and the President is loath to engage in give-and-take diplomacy with a regime he labeled ‘evil’ and ‘scum.’ This total refusal by civilian and military leaders to accept hard facts on the ground is driving dedicated national security professionals and civil servants to panic – and to speak out.

As one official recently revealed in a sobering excerpt published by The Washington Post: ‘We do not have enough (missiles) to safely sustain operations, and I don’t think the White House is aware of that,’ the official said.

One highly placed White House source revealed to me in a recent exchange that officials very high up the food chain believe the current policies are not just ineffective, but creating a new vulnerability few are tracking: weakening America’s ability to successfully defend itself in an unexpected conflict against a near-peer competitor, like Russia or China.

In April, it was reported that Vice President JD Vance was concerned that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was misinforming the President on the actual conduct of the war. One of the specific concerns reported by VP Vance was the alarming reduction in US missile stockpiles.

In response to this reporting, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Mail: ‘The entire National Security team always provides the President with timely and accurate information so he can make informed decisions. There is absolutely no concern about the United States’ military capabilities and its ability to be lethal and effective under the President’s direction.’

Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell said: ‘America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing.’

I assess this concern to dangerously understate the depth of the self-imposed vulnerability.

It does not matter what political leaders want to do in time of war; it only matters what America’s forces can and cannot do. Fantasy is not a strategic plan. President Trump – and apparently Secretary of War Pete Hegseth – do not appear to recognize any limits to US military power and are reportedly considering returning to full-scale war against Iran, somehow expecting a different outcome from the first 40 days.

If Washington slides back into a major, sustained campaign, we will do so by burning through our already dangerously depleted stockpiles of JASSM (offensive, joint air-to-surface standoff missiles), Tomahawk (offensive, land attack cruise missiles), THAAD (defensive, terminal high altitude area defense interceptors) and PAC-3 (defensive, patriot advanced capability-3 missile Interceptors) weapons.

Every time the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer fires a multi-million-dollar salvo of interceptors to shoot down low-cost drones or missiles, every time a strike jet releases a standoff cruise missile against an easily repairable Iranian bridge, America’s global deterrence shrinks. These specialized munitions take years, not months, to manufacture and replace.

By extinguishing our stockpiles, or simply burning them down to critical red levels, we are plunging the United States into existential danger should we be forced to face a peer competitor.

If the unthinkable happens and we are dragged into a major war against Russia, China, or North Korea, we will urgently require every single offensive and defensive missile in our inventory. And given the sheer scale of a Great Power conflict, even our full baseline inventory might not be enough. Further, our defense industrial base is not able to produce new weapons at scale in anything less than multiple years as well.

Meaning, if we get into an unexpected war that isn’t our choice, we may literally run out of offensive and defensive weapons in a matter of weeks and our forces would be near defenseless against a better stocked enemy. Ultimately, it matters little how many advanced fighter jets we have, cutting edge warships, or launch systems if we don’t have missiles to fire.

By continuing to drain these precious reserves on a meaningless mission in the Middle East that simply cannot be accomplished, we are effectively disarming ourselves. We are leaving our forces in the Indo-Pacific and Europe exposed, inviting adversaries to test our resolve at the exact moment our magazines are running empty.

The dangers to our nation from continuing this failing campaign against Iran are grave, immediate and worsening with every passing day. We cannot bomb our way out of geographic and physical realities, nor can our defense industrial base magically produce years’ worth of advanced air-defense interceptors overnight.

Washington must abandon political posturing and confront the military math. To sacrifice America’s primary global strategic deterrence for a pointless, unwinnable excursion in Iran is not just poor leadership – it is to willingly plunge into an unprecedented risk to national security. It is time to halt this unsustainable drain on our nation’s firepower before the damage becomes irreversible.

Daniel L Davis is a retired Army Lt Col with four combat deployments, senior fellow at Defense Priorities and host of the Daniel Davis Deep Dive show on YouTube

In a heated exchange, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, harshly criticized New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Wednesday, labeling him a “clown” following Mamdani’s call for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon his arrival in the city.

The confrontation arose after Mamdani publicly accused Netanyahu of acting as a “war criminal” and orchestrating what he described as a “horrific genocide” against Palestinians. He urged federal authorities to act on an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister. For more details on Ambassador Danon’s role, visit Danny Danon’s official profile.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is on the agenda to deliver an address at the United Nations General Assembly in Manhattan this September.

“These outrageous statements about obstructing the Prime Minister’s visit are nothing more than a farce,” Danon expressed to News Media on Wednesday, underscoring his disdain by calling Mamdani’s efforts a joke and referring to him as a clown.

“Everyone knows it’s a show. It’s a stunt,” Danon added. “A mayor should be dealing with the homeless people, the garbage in New York, and leave foreign affairs to the people in Washington who are elected to do it. He should take care of the security of the people in New York, especially the Jewish community, which is seeing the rise of antisemitism. That is his first responsibility.”

The YouTube channel for the New York City Mayor’s Office released a video July 21, “Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people,” Mamdani said, repeating comments he made in an interview with The New York Times.

Mamdani leveled a series of allegations against the Israeli leader, claiming he was “responsible for the killing of more than 73,000 people, for the maiming of tens of thousands of children, as those who survive undergo amputation without anesthesia.”

He also accused Netanyahu of targeting neonatal hospitals and maternity care centers and alleged that he blocked food and humanitarian aid.

“Just last month, the U.N. confirmed that Palestinian children continue to be deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli armed forces, more than eight months after the so-called ceasefire,” Mamdani said. 

“All as we, as Americans, pay for the bombs that do the killing. There is a reason the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest.”

Danon pushed back sharply against the mayor’s accusations.

“There is a lot of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza every day,” Danon argued.

“Nobody speaks about those issues anymore, but he wants to resume spreading blood libels, promoting the claims of genocide, starvation and all those lies that were spread by him, by his wife and by other people during the war.

“He wants to go back to this situation, but today there are no humanitarian issues in Gaza,” Danon added.

“Mamdani continues to promote those blood libels against Israel and against the Jews.”

Mamdani also said that City Hall cannot act on the warrant unilaterally.

“It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. The federal government, however, does, and I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant,” Mamdani said.

“Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, nor is any other war criminal at large.”

Israeli officials strongly deny all charges. Netanyahu’s office has rejected the ICC’s jurisdiction, labeling it “a kangaroo court that has no jurisdiction over Americans or Israelis.”

“People are smart; they know there’s no legal basis for his remarks,” Danon said. “The U.S. is not part of the ICC. There is no warrant that is actually effective against the prime minister in the U.S. So it’s a political stunt.”

“We have serious issues to deal with — the war with Iran and other critical matters.

“The prime minister is not actually dealing with Mamdani’s remarks at all. He said it very clearly: He intends to come and speak at the U.N.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu will come to New York and will speak in the General Assembly,” Danon said. “The only thing the mayor can do is come to the U.N., grab a seat, listen to the Prime Minister and maybe learn something from his speech.

“Last year, Mayor Adams came to the prime minister’s speech,” Danon noted. “A local leader can come and hear. That’s the only thing he can do.”

For decades, the term “hospital food” has conjured images of bland, ultraprocessed meals, an irony considering hospitals are places dedicated to healing and recovery.

In an insightful discussion with Fox News Digital at the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C., Michelin-star chef Geoffrey Zakarian unveiled his passion project: revolutionizing hospital menus in the United States by embracing the philosophy that “food is medicine.”

Over the past three years, Zakarian has been spearheading efforts to transform hospital dining, with significant strides made at Tampa General Hospital, a substantial $4 billion nonprofit facility boasting 1,000 beds.

On July 16, a significant milestone was achieved when Tampa General Hospital’s CEO, John Couris, officially committed to the “Make Hospital Food Healthier” initiative. This pledge, underscoring the hospital’s dedication to offering healthier and less processed meals, was announced at a news conference attended by notable figures including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, and Zakarian himself.

This commitment marks a pivotal step in shifting the paradigm towards serving nutritious meals in hospitals, solidifying Zakarian’s vision of transforming patient care through dietary excellence.

“We’ve changed the entire menu,” the celebrity chef told Fox News Digital. “We’ve taken all seed oils out, sugar, maltodextrin. Anything bad in a box is gone. Anything good is brought in.”

“We’re serving mac and cheese. We’re serving hanger steak and fries. We’re serving chicken with couscous. We do all our protein shakes. No protein shakes in the box anymore. We do fruit shakes, smoothies, fresh sorbet,” the chef listed. “So, you’re eating like your grandmother’s cooking for you.”

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has also supported Zakarian in this mission, telling Fox News Digital that the chef has “revolutionized our thinking” around hospital food.

“How do we get the hospitals to do what [Zakarian] has been doing the frontier work on, get them to actually embrace food as part of the healing process?” he questioned. “Because most patients, and most doctors, know that the food in the hospital is not going to make you better.”

Oz noted that while hospital food may provide some nutrients, it is generally not seen as contributing meaningfully to patients’ recovery.

The biggest challenge to getting better food into hospital systems has been cost, Zakarian pointed out.

While “everything is fractionalized,” what’s left over after paying for supplies is put toward food, which generally “ain’t much,” he said.

“It’s, like, $3.50 a person per plate, which is an extraordinarily small amount,” the chef said. “You go to McDonald’s, and you spend 12 bucks for a happy meal, and we give you $3.50 in a hospital. So that’s an unhappy meal as far as I’m concerned.”

Instead of charging hospitals for each plate served, Zakarian’s approach relies on a flat annual fee, saving money through a smaller, higher-quality menu.

“Yummy food, not just food to fill people up,” he said. “Nutritious food, bioavailable food, food that’s satiating.”

“I’m cooking like I would cook in a restaurant. I’m cooking like my mother cooked for me. There’s no difference.”

The chef continued, “When you’re lying in bed in a hospital gown, you feel alone, you feel exposed, you feel sick … When you have a fresh protein shake or a fresh healthy smoothie, or you can order steak frites … that [makes] your day.”

Freelance writer Teresa Mull contributed to this report.

During the latest episode of The View, Joy Behar left viewers in disbelief when she shared a kiss on the lips with married actor Anson Mount. This unexpected moment unfolded live on air, capturing the attention of many.

The incident occurred just as the 53-year-old star of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds made his entrance from backstage, warmly greeting the show’s panelists. It was in these friendly exchanges that the surprise kiss happened.

Mount, who tied the knot with photographer Darah Trang in 2018, first made his way to Whoopi Goldberg and Sara Haines before approaching Behar, who is 83 years old.

In the midst of friendly greetings, Behar welcomed Mount with a cheek kiss, and then playfully puckered her lips, leading Mount to engage in an unexpected kiss on the mouth.

Behar further surprised the audience by wrapping her arm around Mount, seemingly inviting him to linger for a more extended kiss, turning the light-hearted exchange into a moment of buzzworthy television.

After he sat down, the audience laughed as co-host Sunny Hostin handed him a tissue to wipe off Behar’s lipstick from his mouth. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for The View, Mount and Behar for comment on the kiss. 

Hostin later quipped, ‘no wonder Joy has been talking about you all morning’ to which Behar replied, ‘I’m old, but I’m not dead.’

‘That’s it, Joy, because I am,’ Mount said in response to Behar’s joke.

‘Are you okay?’ Goldberg asked Behar.

‘I need a little bit of a touch-up,’ she replied, adding, ‘Last time he was here, he brought me flowers for my birthday, and it’s never been the same between us.’

‘Well, I got married,’ he stated. 

‘That’s what I mean!’ Behar replied.

After the moment went viral, Mount revealed that his wife thought the on-air kiss with Behar was ‘hilarious.’

‘I asked my wife to promise me she wouldn’t divorce me. She thought it was hilarious,’ he said in an interview with TV Insider. 

As for why the moment became a viral sensation, he said, ‘I think people just assume that I’m not around anymore because I have two young kids. I think maybe they were surprised to see that I’m still alive.’

The actor said his last appearance on The View was 13 years ago.

‘I brought her flowers for her birthday, and I guess I made an impression,’ he joked. ‘So, we’ll see what she does the next time.’

Mount and his wife share two daughters: Clover, four, and Violet, one.

Though Mount and Trang laughed off the moment, not all viewers were entertained.

‘He’s married. She crossed the line,’ one wrote underneath a TikTok video showing the kiss.

‘He plays it off well but I think she crossed a line,’ someone else added.

‘What would the view think if a man did that to a woman,’ another questioned.

Mount is best known for starring as Captain Christopher Pike on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Discovery.