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The harrowing revelations in Britney Spears’s new memoir are an uncomfortable reminder of how women were treated in the ‘90s and noughties. Objectification, ridicule and “slut”-shaming were a core part of the so-called lads culture that shaped so much of popular culture at the time. Now, anyone thinking, “It can’t have been that bad,” should take a look at a video montage that’s been doing the rounds on social media. The one-minute clip was shared by fitness influencer Hayley Madigan earlier this month, with the caption: “POV: You grew up in the 90’s and now realise why your relationship with your body was so bad…” The round-up begins with an excerpt from an interview between Dutch TV presenter Ivo Niehe and a 17-year-old Britney. Somewhat breathlessly, he tells her: “Everyone’s talking about it…” prompting the teenager to innocently ask: “What?” “Well, he replies, your breasts.” It then cuts to American radio star Howard Stern telling former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith: “The way you dress and stuff, I don’t think you’re aware that you’re a heavy-set woman.” “I know I’m a big woman, so what?” she replies. He then tells her he’s been “guessing her weight” and asks her to step on some scales to check how well he did. We then see Scott Disick telling Kourtney Kardashian: “If I would have fallen in love with you a couple pounds overweight (sic), this would be my ideal weight, but I fell in love with you when you were super skinny." Next, it’s the turn of Simon Cowell, who tells an X Factor contestant that she “sounds nice but looks like a shop girl.” Clarifying, she says: “I’m overweight, basically,” to which he responds: “You really are.” Speaking of weight (and people did, a lot), we’re then treated to a clip from the now-axed Channel 4 show TFI Friday. The segment, from 1999, was filmed just two months after Victoria Beckham gave birth to her first son Brooklyn. After asking her how she got back into shape after the birth, host Chris Evans then asks if her weight was now “back to normal”. She tells him that “it is”, but he’s not satisfied. “Can I check?” he then asks, jumping from his seat and leading her to a set of bathroom scales. The penultimate excerpt is taken from a Jay Leno monologue, in which he tells viewers of his Tonight Show: “Monica Lewinsky said that President Clinton would often compliment her on her figure. “He would say things like, ‘Oh, you look skinny today.’” Pausing, Leno then doled out his punchline, saying: “You know, if you didn’t think this guy was the biggest liar in the world before…” which was met with peals of laughter from his audience. Finally, another scene from Keeping Up With the Kardashians, in which Bruce (now Caitlin) Jenner, tells his step-daughter Khloé: “I’ll get shot for bringing this up but don’t you think you should lose a few pounds?” Shaking her head dejectedly, she simply replies: “What?” The compilation racked up more than 5.4 million views and 200,000 likes in just three weeks on Madigan’s Instagram alone. In a statement accompanying the reel, the self-styled “female empowerment” guru wrote: “Whether it was in magazines, on talk shows or on reality TV… we continuously watched women get criticised. “We watched men talk negatively about women’s appearances, about their weight, about their body autonomy… and this complete disregard for women’s dignity forced a societal pressure amongst many of us who were growing up watching it.” Reflecting on her own response, she went on: “I constantly compared myself even at the young age of 12 I remember wanting to be as skinny as possible like the models on the TV. I had no desire to be anything but exactly what they looked like and I deemed them to be perfect. “I constantly heard negative opinions about women who weren’t perfect, women who weren’t small and women who didn’t fit the ideal stereotype that men created.” Wrapping up her message, she continued: “Seeing these talk shows and reality TV clips hits hard, women weren’t treated equally, we were continuously degraded and this put pressure on all of us growing up.” Then, concluding on a note of optimism, she added: “We’ve still not got to where we want to be but I feel somewhat change is happening and we will make sure the generations to come don’t endure the same pressure and issues we faced back then.” Commentators were quick to share their horror at the montage, with many condemning what they termed “male audacity” at the time. Others agreed with Madigan that it highlighted how far we’ve come in addressing such behaviours. “People often say ‘you can’t even say xyz anymore these days’,“ one wrote. “I think this video is a great testament that that is actually a positive development.” Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter 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

Ukraine's parliament and its speaker have taunted billionaire Elon Musk after he posted a meme on his social media platform mocking President Volodymyr Zelensky's pleas for assistance against Vladimir Putin's forces from the West. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine's defence effort, but his statements have sometimes angered Kyiv since the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February last year. Follow the latest in our live blog here Early on Monday, Musk posted a meme on his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showing Zelensky and the caption: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't asked for a billion dollars in aid." The Ukrainian leader and his top lieutenants have appealed to their allies throughout the war to secure billions of pounds of military aid to weather and push back Russia's invasion. The speaker of Ukraine's parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, hit out at Musk's jibe with his own post on X. "The case when [Elon Musk] tried to conquer space, but something went wrong and in 5 minutes he was up to his eyeballs in s***," an apparent reference to SpaceX's failed rocket launch in April. Ukraine's parliament, on its official page on X, accused Musk of spreading Russian propaganda, posting its own version of the meme with a picture of Musk and the caption: "When it's been 5 minutes and you haven't spread Russian propaganda". A Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, who has criticised some of Musk's statements in the past, said in a post on X that being silent or ironic about Ukraine played into the hands of Russian propaganda. "Unfortunately, not everyone and not always, while being significant media figures, but being thousands of kilometres away from the war's epicentre, is able to realize what the daily bombardments and cries of children losing their parents are." Ukrainian officials criticised Musk earlier in the war for suggesting that they should consider giving up land for peace, a position that Kyiv has staunchly rejected. Zelensky visited the United States in September and met top officials in a bid to secure further aid. Over the weekend, aid for Ukraine was omitted from a stopgap funding measure passed by Congress in Washington to avert a US government shutdown. Washington has been the largest single donor to Ukraine since Russia's full invasion last year, giving tens of billions of dollars in military and financial aid. Although right-wing Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump have increasingly called for funding of Ukraine to be halted, President Joe Biden's administration says it expects the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to pass a measure to keep the aid flowing. On Sunday, Biden pressed congressional Republicans to back the aid, saying he was "sick and tired" of the political brinkmanship that had nearly closed the government down. Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Monday that Kyiv was still confident of US backing. "We don't feel that the US support has been shattered... because the United States understands that what is at stake in Ukraine is much bigger than just Ukraine," he said. He added that what happened in the US Congress at the weekend was just "an incident". "We have a very in-depth discussion with both parts of the Congress – Republicans and Democrats," he said. Reuters Read More Germany's government and Elon Musk spar on X over migrant rescue ships Elon Musk visits Texas border on X livestream ‘to see what is really going on’ Elon Musk’s visit to US border blighted by tech issues on his own platform X

Authorities in Honduras are beginning to hand over to relatives the hacked, burned corpses of 46 women killed in the worst riot at a women’s prison in recent memory

Wild video footage captured an Iowa police officer clinging to the roof of a man’s car as he drove at speeds of up to 50 mph during a traffic stop that escalated into a full-blown car chase. Police in the town of Carroll stopped Dennis Guider, Jr, of Illinois, for a traffic violation, only to discover that he had an active warrant in Illinois for forgery. Body camera footage released last week in court showed Officer Patrick McCarty approaching the window of a red sedan during the 5 March stop. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but it sounds like you’ve got a warrant out of Illinois,” he told Guider and a female passenger. The suspect then shoved the woman out of the driver’s seat and drove away slowly. Officer McCarty drew his gun and jumped on the hood of the vehicle while ordering Guider to slow down. He then accelerated with the officer still on the hood, leading officers on a chase in which he hit reported speeds of up to 50mph. During the chase, Officer McCarty fell off the roof of the car and broke a vertebra in his lower back. Guider was sentenced to up to five years in prison on Thursday for the felony of serious injury by vehicle, after pleading guilty and avoiding an eluding arrest charge. The Illinois man, who is Black, told an Iowa court he feared for his life and was afraid when the white police officer jumped on his car with a gun drawn. “I feared for my life after the officer pull(ed) out his gun and jump(ed) on the hood of my car,” he wrote in a February letter. The officer in the case admitted in a hearing last week that he hadn’t been trained to jump onto the hood of a moving vehicle. “Each situation is different,” Officer McCarty said. “It certainly didn’t play out the way I intended.” “Officer McCarty was polite and respectful when he approached the car, was treating everybody with dignity, and then you kick your girlfriend out of the car and you take off,” District Associate Judge Joseph McCarville said during sentencing, the Des Moines Register reported. Read More Harry and Meghan – latest news: Rishi Sunak gives abrasive response to ‘near catastrophic’ car case Chilling video shows New Mexico teen gunman’s shooting rampage: ‘Come kill me’ Grandma who lost finger in dog attack told by police that animal is ‘friendly’

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