A $220 million fine against Meta Platforms by Nigeria's competition watchdog for violating local consumer, data protection and privacy laws has been upheld following an unsuccessful appeal, Nigeria's Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal said on Friday.

Nigeria's Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) fined Meta last July for discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers, compared with other jurisdictions with similar regulations.

Reuters

Missile launched from Yemen into Israel intercepted, Israeli army says

The Israeli army said in the early hours of Saturday that a missile that was launched from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Sirens sounded in a number of areas in Israel following the launch, the Israeli army added in a statement.

There was no immediate comment from Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, who have been launching attacks against Israel as well as ships they perceive as affiliated to Israel, in what they say is to support the Palestinians in Gaza against the Israeli offensive on the enclave.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia and Ukraine 'very close to a deal', says Trump

US President Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine "are very close to a deal", hours after his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow.

Trump said it had been a "good day" of negotiations, while the Kremlin described the talks - which Ukraine was not present at - as "constructive".

Earlier, Trump said on social media that "most of the major points are agreed to," and urged Russia and Ukraine to meet "at very high levels" and "to finish it [the deal] off".

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his video address late on Friday that "real pressure on Russia is needed" to accept an unconditional ceasefire.

Earlier in the day, Zelensky told the BBC that territorial issues between Kyiv and Moscow could be discussed if a "full and unconditional ceasefire" was agreed upon.

Reports suggest Ukraine would be expected to give up large portions of land annexed by Russia under a US peace proposal.

Trump - who spoke to reporters as he arrived in Rome for Saturday's funeral of Pope Francis - has said he would support Russia keeping the Crimean peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014. Zelensky rejects this idea.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and Moscow currently controls almost 20% of Ukrainian territory.

On Friday, traffic was halted in Moscow as a convoy of cars carrying Witkoff arrived ahead of the high-level talks, the fourth such visit he has made to Russia since the start of the year.

The three-hour talks were described as "very useful" by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

It had brought the "Russian and US positions closer together, not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues", he said.

"Specifically on the Ukrainian crisis, the possibility of resuming direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed," he added.

Earlier this week, Putin signalled for the first time since the early stages of the war that he was open to talks with Zelensky.

His remarks were believed to be in response to a proposal by the Ukrainian president for a 30-hour Easter truce to be extended for 30 days. No truce has yet been agreed on.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

Crimea has become a particular flashpoint.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea of recognising the peninsula as part of Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Friday: "Our position is unchanged - only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian."

However, in later remarks he suggested to the BBC that "a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything".

He also referenced comments made by Trump in an interview with Time magazine, in which the US president said "Crimea will stay with Russia".

"What President Trump says is true, and I agree with him in that today we do not have enough weapons to return control over the Crimean peninsula," Zelensky said.

Washington's peace plan has not been publicly released, but reports suggest it proposes Russia keeps the land it has gained - a condition that is in Moscow's favour.

On Friday, Reuters news agency reported it had seen US proposals handed to European officials last week, as well as subsequent counter-proposals from Europe and Ukraine.

It said there are significant disparities between them.

The US deal offers American legal acceptance of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and de facto recognition of Russian control of other occupied areas, including all of the Luhansk region.

By contrast, the Europeans and Ukrainians will only discuss what happens to occupied Ukrainian territory after a ceasefire has come into effect.

The US plan also rules out Ukraine's membership in the Nato military alliance, according to Reuters.

What would it mean for Ukraine to temporarily give up land?

As the meeting between Witkoff and Putin was taking place, Trump claimed talks were going in the right direction.

"They're meeting with Putin right now, as we speak, and we have a lot of things going on, and I think in the end we're going to end up with a lot of good deals, including tariff deals and trade deals," he told reporters in the US.

He said his aim was to bring about an end to fighting in Ukraine which he said was claiming the lives of 5,000 Ukrainian and Russians a week, adding he believed "we're pretty close" to a peace deal.

Trump also said Zelensky had not signed the "final papers on the very important Rare Earths Deal with the United States".

"It is at least three weeks late," he said, adding that he hoped it would be signed "immediately".

The long-talked of minerals deal, which would give the US a stake in Ukraine's abundant natural resource deposits, was meant to be signed in February but was derailed after an acrimonious meeting between Trump and Zelensky in Washington.

Russia and Ukraine's positions in securing a peace deal still seem miles apart, with no representative from Ukraine invited to take part in the talks in Moscow.

Writing on social media on Friday, Zelensky criticised Russia for failing to agree to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US on 11 March and urged allies to apply more pressure to it.

"It's been 45 days since Ukraine agreed to President Trump's proposal for quiet in the sky, sea and the frontline," he said. "Russia rejects all this. Without pressure this cannot be resolved. Pressure on Russia is necessary."

He said Russia was being allowed to import missiles from countries such as North Korea, which he said it then used in a deadly missile strike on Kyiv on Thursday, which killed 12 people and injured dozens.

"Insufficient pressure on North Korea and its allies allows them to make such ballistic missiles. The missile that killed the Kyiv residents contained at least 116 parts imported from other countries, and most of them, unfortunately, were made by US companies," Zelensky alleged.

Following the attack on Kyiv, Trump said he was "putting a lot of pressure" on both sides to end the war, and directly addressed Putin in a post on social media, saying: "Vladimir STOP!"

Since then, however, Trump has blamed Kyiv for starting the war, telling Time magazine: "I think what caused the war to start was when they [Ukraine] started talking about joining Nato."

Ahead of the talks between Witkoff and Putin, a senior Russian general was killed in a car bomb attack in the Russian capital. The Kremlin accused Ukraine of being responsible. Kyiv has not commented.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Zelensky contradicts Trump on deal with Russia

President Donald Trump has claimed that “most of the major points” in an agreement to end the Ukraine conflict have been resolved, even as Vladimir Zelensky once again publicly rejected a reported key clause in the proposed US peace framework.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held lengthy talks with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday, described by Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov as “constructive and very useful.” Trump also expressed satisfaction with the negotiations, praising a “good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine.”

“They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to ‘finish it off.’ Most of the major points are agreed to,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social late Friday, adding that “SUCCESS seems to be in the future!”

The agreement proposed by Washington reportedly includes US recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, a “freezing” of the conflict along the current front line, and acknowledgment of Moscow’s control over large parts of the four former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia.

“Crimea will stay with Russia” under a final settlement of the Ukraine conflict, Trump said in an interview with Time Magazine published on Friday.

However, in direct contradiction to Trump, Zelensky reiterated on Friday that Kiev will not even discuss formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory.

“Our position is unchanged: only the Ukrainian people have the right to decide which territories are Ukrainian,” Zelensky told reporters in Kiev, arguing that “the constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories... belong to Ukraine.”

Zelensky went on to claim that his “vision” of a resolution includes more “sanctions, economic and diplomatic pressure” on Moscow – even as Washington’s peace framework reportedly includes a phased removal of restrictions imposed on Russia.

Trump has previously blamed Zelensky’s public statements for harming the negotiation process and warned that he risks losing the entire country if he continues to stall talks with Moscow.

The US-proposed deal would also reportedly prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, an ambition enshrined in Ukraine’s constitution. Kiev’s intention to join the US-led bloc likely “caused the war to start,” Trump acknowledged in his interview with Time.

The Kremlin has consistently said it remains open to diplomacy and has expressed gratitude for Trump’s peace efforts. Ushakov confirmed that Friday’s talks touched on the possibility of resuming direct bilateral negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, but offered no details. No direct talks between the two sides have taken place since Ukraine pulled out of the Istanbul negotiations in 2022.

According to Putin, Zelensky – who has banned himself from engaging in talks with Moscow – is actively sabotaging any peace process, as it would require lifting martial law, which currently allows him to remain in power. Moscow maintains that without martial law, Zelensky would be compelled under the Ukrainian constitution to either hold elections or transfer presidential authority to the current speaker of Ukraine’s parliament.

BBC/RT

Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, is facing a dire poverty forecast according to the World Bank's latest Africa's Pulse report released during the ongoing Spring Meetings in Washington, DC. The report paints a troubling picture of Nigeria's position as a global poverty epicenter, with current conditions expected to deteriorate further over the next few years.

The World Bank projects that poverty in Nigeria will increase by 3.6 percentage points through 2027, bucking the trend of poverty reduction expected in non-resource-rich African countries. Currently, Nigeria accounts for a staggering 19% of sub-Saharan Africa's extremely poor population—translating to over 106 million Nigerians living on less than $2.15 per day. This represents approximately 15% of the world's poorest people, underscoring the severity of the crisis in Africa's most populous nation.

Sub-Saharan Africa remains the global center of extreme poverty, hosting 80% of the world's 695 million extremely poor people in 2024—roughly 560 million individuals. Within the region, half of these impoverished people are concentrated in just four countries, with Nigeria leading, followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (14%), Ethiopia (9%), and Sudan (6%).

The report highlights that resource-rich, fragile countries like Nigeria face particularly challenging prospects for poverty reduction due to structural economic issues, slowing oil prices, and weak fiscal structures. "This follows a well-established pattern whereby resource wealth combined with fragility or conflict is associated with the highest poverty rates—averaging 46% in 2024, which is 13 percentage points higher than in non-fragile, resource-rich countries," the report states.

Despite some recent gains in Nigeria's economic activity, particularly in the non-oil sector during the last quarter of 2024, these improvements have not translated to meaningful poverty reduction. The country's persistent poverty reflects deep structural challenges including high inflation, naira depreciation, insecurity, and widespread unemployment. PwC projects that an additional 13 million Nigerians will be pushed into poverty in 2025 alone due to these economic headwinds.

The continental outlook is equally concerning, with the number of extremely poor people in sub-Saharan Africa expected to increase by 90 million between 2022 and 2027, pushing the total from 576 million in 2025 to 589 million by 2027.

To address these challenges, the World Bank recommends that Nigeria focus on improving fiscal management and building a stronger fiscal contract with citizens to promote inclusive economic development and sustainable poverty alleviation.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Air Peace has announced that it will resume full flight operations on Friday, April 25, 2025 (today), following the suspension of the industrial action by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet).

NiMet staff had embarked on an indefinite strike on Wednesday over unresolved welfare issues, including the agency’s failure to implement agreed financial allowances, outstanding payments linked to the 2019 minimum wage, and wage awards. Workers also alleged that the management withheld crucial documents, ignored requests for inclusion of omitted staff in previous disbursements, and prioritized executive retreats over essential staff training.

The strike disrupted Air Peace operations nationwide due to the unavailability of QNH reports — vital weather data required for safe aircraft landings.

However, the strike was called off after a closed-door meeting between the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, and NiMet leadership.

In a statement released Thursday, Ejike Ndiulo, Head of Corporate Communications at Air Peace, confirmed the resumption and thanked customers for their patience and loyalty.

“We are pleased to announce the resumption of all flight operations on Friday, April 25, 2025, following the suspension of the industrial action by NiMet and other aviation unions,” the statement read.

“We sincerely thank you for your patience, understanding, and unwavering support during this challenging time. Your trust in us is deeply appreciated.”

Israeli fire kills at least 44 people in Gaza, hits a police station

An Israeli airstrike hit a police station in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least 10 people, local health authorities said, and Israel's military said it had struck a command centre of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad groups.

Medics said two Israeli missiles hit the police station, located near a market, which led to the wounding of dozens of people in addition to the 10 deaths. The identities of those killed were not immediately clear.

The Israeli military said in a statement apparently referring to the same incident, that it attacked a command and control centre operated by Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad groups in Jabalia, which militants used to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces.

It accused Palestinian militant groups of exploiting civilians and civil properties for military purposes, an allegation Hamas and other factions deny.

Local health authorities said Israeli strikes have killed at least 34 other people in separate airstrikes across the enclave, bringing Thursday's death toll to 44.

The Gaza Health Ministry said the Durra Children's Hospital in Gaza City had become non-operational, a day after an Israeli strike hit the upper part of the building, damaging the intensive care unit and destroying the facility's solar power panel system.

No one was killed. There was no Israeli comment on the incident.

Israel's military said on Thursday that one soldier was killed during combat in the northern Gaza Strip, while an officer and a reservist were severely injured.

Gaza's health system has been devastated by Israel's 18-month-old military campaign, launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory's hospitals out of action, killing medics, and reducing crucial supplies.

Since a January ceasefire collapsed on March 18, Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,900 Palestinians, many of them civilians, according to the Gaza health authorities, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced as Israel seized what it calls a buffer zone of Gaza's land.

Efforts by Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have so far failed to reconcile disputes between the two warring parties, Israel and Hamas.

The attack on Israel by Hamas in October 2023 killed 1,200 people, and 251 hostages were taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 51,300 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to health officials.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Missile that killed 12 in Russian strike on Kyiv was North Korean, Zelenskiy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday the Russian missile that struck a residential building in Kyiv overnight and killed 12 people was supplied by North Korea, confirming an earlier Reuters report.

A North Korean KN-23 (KN-23A) missile hit a residential block in the Sviatoshynskyi district west of Kyiv's centre during a major aerial attack by Russia, a Ukrainian military source told Reuters.

"According to preliminary information, the Russians used a ballistic missile manufactured in North Korea. Our special services are verifying all the details," Zelenskiy said on X, without providing further details.

Russia made no comment on Zelenskiy's remarks. Russia and North Korea have denied weapons transfers that would violate U.N. embargoes.

Russia's military cooperation with North Korea grew rapidly as Moscow became internationally isolated after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine says North Korea has supplied Russia with vast amounts of artillery shells as well as rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles, which Moscow began using for strikes against Ukraine at the end of 2023.

By the start of 2025, Pyongyang had supplied Russia with 148 KN-23 and KN-24 ballistic missiles, Ukraine's military spy agency says.

KN-23 (KN-23A) missiles are armed with warheads of up to one tonne, which is more powerful than the Russian equivalent missiles, the Ukrainian source said.

In the initial readout after the Russian attack, Kyiv said seven ballistic missiles were used in total, identifying them broadly as Iskander-M/KN-23.

North Korea's involvement in Ukraine has alarmed not only European capitals but also South Korea and its allies in Asia, who fear that lessons learned from war could be unleashed on them one day.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Massive Ukrainian drone raid on Crimea repelled – Moscow

The Russian military has downed almost a hundred Ukrainian drones overnight across several Russian regions, including half of them over the Crimean Peninsula, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

In a statement on Thursday morning, the ministry said Russian air defense forces destroyed or intercepted a total of 87 fixed-wing Ukrainian drones.

Of the total, 45 drones were shot down over Crimea. Elsewhere, ten each were intercepted in the border Belgorod and Kursk regions, and eight in Voronezh. Four drones were downed in each of Bryansk, Lipetsk, and Nizhny Novgorod regions, while two were intercepted near Moscow. The statement did not specify whether any of the drones caused damage or casualties.

Crimea, which joined Russia after voting in a public referendum in 2014 following a Western-backed coup in Kiev, is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and has frequently been targeted throughout the conflict with Ukraine. Moscow has accused Kiev of attacking the peninsula’s civilian infrastructure, including the strategic Crimean bridge that connects it to the mainland.

The issue of Crimea is reportedly at the center of negotiations to end the Ukraine conflict. According to multiple media reports, US President Donald Trump has floated a draft proposal that includes American recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and an agreement to bar Ukraine from NATO membership, which has long been a key concern for Moscow.

However, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has refused to discuss recognition of Crimea as Russian, with a Washington Post report claiming that his rebuttal of the US peace roadmap had “angered” officials in Washington.

Trump has described Zelensky’s stance as “very harmful to the peace negotiations with Russia in that Crimea was lost years ago,” while accusing the Ukrainian leader of prolonging the conflict.

Reuters/RT

It’s nothing to laugh off, however tempting. If the movies imitate life, we may not be as far away from an African pope. It happened in The Conclave, a film by Peter Straughan released in 2024, based on the novel by Robert Harris.

Through the intrigues, rivalries and scandals of the plot, Adeyemi, a Nigerian cardinal at the Conclave, almost emerged as pope before a contestant snookered him with the scandalous love story involving him and a nun, Shanumi, who had a child for him while he was 39 and she was 19.  

If the plot sounds like something from the fertile imagination of the movie director, a Nigerian, Arinze Cardinal, came close to claiming the papacy in 2005. Arinze didn’t miss it because of any scandals. Once the youngest Catholic bishop in the world, he was judged not just as one of Africa’s best but also as a global theological legend. Still, he was a nearly pope.

Banking on hope

That was two decades ago, when the papacy was a relay amongst a few European countries, with Italy claiming the lion’s share of 217. Pope Francis was the first Jesuit and cardinal from the Americas to rise to the top of the papacy, raising hopes that the next one may come from Africa or Asia.

This hope is not based solely on legend. Africa is the fastest-growing region for the Catholic Church, with about 20 percent of the church’s 1.4 billion population. This demographic shift has spurred optimism that, after the Americas, Africa or Asia could produce the next pope, and better if he is the first Black pope in modern history.

What does it mean for Africa?

An African pope will inspire faith across the continent, demonstrating that, when it matters, the church casts its vote where its mouth is. Papal historians say that some early popes were from North Africa, citing Victor I, Miltiades I, and Gelasius I, from Roman-era Africa.

But Africans are unwilling to exhume the tombs of papal history going back to the 5th century for the remains of the last Black pope. They argue, for example, that if grace is the leveller, the rock upon which Peter’s Church is built, the baton of its highest office cannot be made to look like the exclusive right of three European countries – Italy, Germany and France.

An African pope might be the most unambiguous indication yet that the Catholic Church might be inclined to continue with the legacy of Pope Francis, especially his advocacy for the poor, marginalised, and developing countries. And perhaps more than any time in the recent past, Africa has a solid lineup at this year’s Conclave.

The lineup

OK, only a few bookmakers are betting on any of the 18 African cardinals in Rome. Most forecasts put their chances at 14 percent or less. Yet, Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson of Ghana, Cardinal Fridolin AmbongoBesungu of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Cardinal Ignace Bessi Dogbo of Côte d’Ivoire are among the best crop you can find anywhere in the world.

The least favoured African candidate, Cardinal Robert Sarah from Guinea, is not because of competence. He is a risky candidate because of his age (79, three years older than when Francis assumed the papacy) and his conservative views. His position on various issues, from LGBTQ rights to the exclusive use of Latin for the liturgy, puts him at odds with most European electors.

Stars not enough

Despite its bright stars, why does Africa still appear unlikely to get the number one spot? Cardinal Sarah’s dilemma – his mainly conservative views – reflects not only the sentiment amongst the other 17 cardinals and the predominant position of the 281 million faithful on the continent, this conservatism also impairs the chances of the African cardinals.

The beggar church

Yet, conservatism is only one of the many obstacles. The African church may have the fastest-growing flock, but it is also the begging bowl. In a world where money is the bicycle of the gospel, the African church is the largest recipient of many forms of financial aid. Although the irony is less rampant among the Catholic church than it is among Pentecostals, Africa has some of the world’s richest Forbes-worthy pastors in contrast to the majority of the poor flock.

According to one statistic, at 32.6 percent between 2020 and 2023, the African Catholic church received the largest assistance per region from the Catholic Charity Aid. Compare this with the German national church, for example, which has $26 billion of the net assets of the Church.

Some also argue that African cardinals have limited chances because they have faced less scrutiny. An article published by www.devdiscourse.com on April 22 acknowledged that even though a figure like Cardinal Turkson has emerged as a potential candidate, “Vatican insiders highlight the lack of public scrutiny by African contenders compared to their Western counterparts, potentially complicating their candidacy.”

Conclave politics

Yet, others say politics may be the most potent obstacle against African candidacy, reminiscent of the deadly secret plots in Straughan’s movie once the doors in the Domus Santa Martha were shuttered and millions of the faithful waited outside the Sistine Chapel to see the white smoke and the face of the new pontiff.

It won’t take very long to find out. Pope Francis wantedhis successor elected within two weeks of his death. It used to take much longer. In The Conclave, for example, which spiked 283 percent across streaming platforms in one day from 1.8 million to 6.9 million, it took five votes over an unspecified period to elect the cardinal from Kabul, Cardinal Benitez.

The longest papal conclave after the death of Pope Clement IV lasted almost three years, from November 1268 to September 1, 1271, after which Pope Gregory X was elected.

Long road to change

For the pontificate and the faithful, it’s been a long road since. The Catholic Church has evolved from its medieval conflicts, reformation and counter-reformation through seasons of loss of power.

While books like In God’s Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I by David A. Yallop highlight the tragedy of an institution endangered by internal corruption and fierce power play, the bestseller,The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown explores the grip and fascination of theological myth over the faithful and even millions of non-believers.

Yet the encyclicals of Pope Francis, his willingness to confront dogma with doubt and creed with charity, show the extent of introspection and modernisation in the Church. As the world waits for the white smoke from the Conclave, those who hope these changes may be so profound as to produce an African pope may have to wait a bit longer. Perhaps a sequel to Straughan’s movie would be the sign.

The odds, this time, favour yet another Italian pope.

** Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP and author of the book Writing for Media and Monetising It.

A growing body of evidence has increasingly linked diet sodas and other no- or low-calorie foods with weight gain — so much so that the World Health Organization issued an advisory in May 2023 saying not to use sugar substitutes for weight loss.

"Replacing free sugars with non-sugar sweeteners does not help people control their weight long-term," Dr. Francesco Branca, director of WHO's Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, said at the time.

Now, a new study may shed light on why consuming too much of the artificial sweetener sucralose could be counterproductive. Instead of the brain sending a signal to eat less, sucralose triggers an increase in appetite when consumed in a drink.

"Sucralose activates the area in the brain that regulates hunger, and that activation, in turn, is linked to greater ratings of hunger," said lead study author Dr. Katie Page, an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Research Institute at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

In fact, people who drank water with sucralose said their appetite increased by nearly 20% compared with drinking water with table sugar, Page said.

In the United States, sucralose is a key ingredient in some Splenda sugar substitutes. In Europe, sucralose is known as E955 and is found in sugar substitutes sold under the brand names Candys, Canderel Yellow, Cukren, Nevella, Splenda, SucraPlus, Sukrana and Zerocal.

The study only investigated the impact of sucralose and did not research other popular artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame-Kand sodium saccharin.

"This is a very high quality study, using state of the art methods and careful analysis," said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine, via email. Katz, founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative, a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine, was not involved in the study.

The authors interpreted their results carefully yet make a strong case that "non-caloric sweeteners, and sucralose specifically, interfere with normal appetite regulation in ways that could have adverse effects on weight control and health," Katz said.

A spokesperson for Heartland Food Products Group, which manufactures Splenda, said that low-calorie and zero-calorie sweeteners are backed by research and expert recommendations.

"Low- or zero-calorie sweeteners like sucralose are recommended by healthcare professionals, food safety experts and credible health organizations for diabetes and weight management based on trusted scientific research showing that the impact of low- or zero-calorie sweeteners on body weight is similar to that of water, and that sweet-tasting products have decreased the want for additional sweets while also helping people manage weight, reduce intake of calories from added sugars, and manage blood sugar levels," the spokesperson wrote via email.

Study findings support prior research

The idea that artificial sweeteners may be increasing hunger signals from the mammalian brain isn't new — a prior study coauthored by Page found women and people with obesity were especially sensitive.

"Animal studies have hinted at some of these effects," Katz said. However, "this is, to my knowledge, the most decisive study to date in humans of direct effects on the appetite center."

All cells in the body require glucose for energy. The brain is the biggest user, gobbling up to half of all sugars circulating in the blood. Nature, however, designed the brain to respond to natural sugars such as glucose found in whole fruits and some vegetables.

Artificial sweeteners, therefore, appear to confuse the brain, Page said, by sending signals of sweetness without delivering the needed calories the brain requires. Scientists have hypothesized that when those promised calories don't arrive, the brain may send out a signal to eat more.

Same people, three drinks

The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Metabolism, asked 75 people to consume one of three drinks on three separate occasions: plain water, water sweetened with table sugar (sucrose), and water sweetened with sucralose.

During each visit, the research team tested participants' fasting blood sugar levels, followed by a brain scan called Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which tracks blood flow to capture activity in different regions of the brain.

"They came out of the scanner and consumed one of the three drinks, and went back into the scanner," Page said.

One glass contained 300 milliliters of water and 75 grams (about 2.5 ounces) of sugar (sucrose), which is the equivalent of a 16-ounce can of sugary soda, Page said.

Another drink contained enough sucralose to match that sweetness. Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The third drink was plain water, which served as a control.

During the brain scanning, Page and her team did another round of blood sampling at 10 minutes, 35 minutes and 120 minutes after consuming the drink and asked participants to rate their hunger level.

"(The study) is particularly strong because it used repeated measures within the same participants and included different methods such as brain imaging, blood draws, and subjective ratings to test their hypothesis," said Kyle Burger, a scientist at the nonprofit Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, which investigates human senses of taste and smell. Burger was not involved in the study.

Three possible explanations

In addition to finding that drinks with sucralose increased the sensation of hunger by about 17%, Page and her team found increased connections to other parts of the brain responsible for controlling motivation.

"Sucralose appears to affect your decision-making skills," Page said. "For example, we found increased brain connectivity between the hypothalamus and the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls the risks and rewards of a decision."

In addition, blood tests showed sucralose had no effect on hormones the brain uses to tell when we are satisfied and no longer hungry, Page said.

"There's no signal, no signal at all," she said. "There's a sweetness signal, but there's no hormone signal telling you you're full. Sucralose doesn't have an effect on those hormones."

Not everyone, however, may feel the combined effects of sucralose in the same way, Katz said.

"Those with insulin resistance, for instance, may be especially prone to disruption of normal appetite control with sucralose," he said.

What to do?

Recommendations on how to manage the body's reactions to artificial sweeteners are currently complex, Page said. For example, the American Diabetes Association tells people with insulin resistance and diabetes to use no-calorie drinks and foods, but sparingly.

"I'm an endocrinologist so I see patients for diabetes and obesity," Page said. "I would never say drink or eat more sugar.

"Instead, I tell my patients to not rely on non-caloric sweeteners as a substitute for sugar and try to reduce the overall intake of dietary sweeteners in general," she said.

Katz agreed, preferring to suggest a form of taste bud "rehab" that can reduce overall use of sugars, no matter what their form.

"A truly wholesome diet has little added sugar in the first place, and thus no sugar to 'replace' with sucralose and related compounds," Katz said.

Just as many people have cut their use of salt, it's possible to cut your use of sweeteners by teaching taste buds to desire fewer sweets, he said. Taste buds will respond by finding sugary foods that used to be delicious now cloyingly sweet, or in the case of sodium, much too salty, research has shown.

Start out by finding hidden sources of sugar in foods you may not realize are sweetened, Katz told CNN in a prior interview.

"If I asked you to boycott all the desserts in your life, you would probably rebel or fail," Katz said. "But there is a massive amount of added sugar and sweeteners hiding in foods that are not sweet — in salad dressing, pasta sauce, bread, crackers, even salty chips."

By choosing products without sweeteners, he said, it's possible to reduce a person's daily intake of sugar or sweeteners "by a third, maybe even a half as many grams a day before we even lay a hand on anything that you actually expect to be sweet."

CNN