Pixie Lott has shared a snippet of a new song about pregnancy alongside an array of adorable behind-the-scenes snaps documenting her journey.

The singer, 32 – who is currently expecting her first child with husband Oliver Cheshire, 35 – took to Instagram on Wednesday to give followers an insight into her pregnancy so far.

She revealed that she had also penned an emotional song about expecting a child as she gave fans a brief teaser of the lyrics and soundtrack. 

Introducing the song and clips, Pixie shared: ‘So I wrote this song a couple of weeks ago with my friend Toby. 

‘And I wanted to show you because it makes the most sense now, lyrically, before the bubba comes because it’s all about expecting and preparing. I wanted to know what you guys think.’

After introducing the track, Pixie included a montage of clips, including a sweet video of her and Oliver becoming emotional as they looked at their ultrasound.

Another clip showed Pixie and and Oliver finding out their baby’s gender as they reacted to each other and share a sweet kiss.

Pixie then shared a look at the adorable outfits she already has picked out for her unborn child.

As the videos played, the emotional lyrics of Pixie’s song went: ‘I cleared out my room for you and painted all the walls // I took down the posters too, put up a picture of us. 

‘All these seeds you’ve been sewing are growing and so am I // I waited so long for you, guess good things take time.’ 

Last week, Pixie showed off her baby bump in an Barbie-inspired shoot with her husband Oliver for Arcadia magazine on Wednesday.

The singer chatted about her excitement at becoming a mother with the publication and revealed they are keeping the gender a surprise.

Asked what they are most excited for when they become parents, Pixie said: ‘Meeting the baby! We are so excited for that, it’s mad to think that.

‘We’ve been together such a long time, it’s going to be a very amazing new chapter to experience together.’

On the gender of their little one, she added: ‘We’re keeping it a surprise. It just ended up that way. I wanted to keep it a surprise for myself because I love surprises, but Ollie was like, no let’s find out. 

‘On the day we found out what we were having, we were jumping around. Well you, [Oliver] were jumping around like Tigger!’

In regards to baby names, Pixie said that they have made lists of options but that they haven’t fully decided on anything yet.

But she did add that there one ‘front-runner’ that ‘keeps coming out’ which things is a sign they should choose it.

Pixie took to her Instagram in June to share the jovial news of her pregnancy with a whole host of sweet snaps of her growing baby bump.

At the time, she told how she was already 31 weeks along as she kept her baby news a secret but is now counting down the days until welcoming her first child. 

Pixie and Oliver finally tied the knot last June at Ely Cathedral after their wedding was cancelled several times due to Covid.

They were forced to cancel their big day multiple times throughout the Covid pandemic after getting engaged on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in 2016.

Pixie rose to fame with her hit debut album, Turn It Up, in 2009.

FOOD

THE FOOD ADVENTURERS 

by Daniel E. Bender (Reaktion Books £20, 352pp)

When I lived in France and my parents-in-law came to visit from Wyre Piddle in Worcestershire, they would fill their car with trusted groceries — Robertsons jelly, Bird’s custard, Heinz ketchup, Branston pickle, sliced white bread and Cheddar cheese.

They weren’t going to risk any fancy foreign muck, like garlic or olive oil.

Daniel Bender, a professor of food studies in Toronto, suggests people are quite right to be nervous of new eating experiences, especially the ‘fiery torments’ of curries and spices, which can burn the mouth ‘like a live coal’ and ’cause tears to flow’. Exactly. The most intense pain I ever endured was in Borneo, when I chewed what I thought was a humble broad bean. It was a chilli.

Who really wants to go all the way to Australia for kangaroo tail stew, or to Bali for minced sea turtle? And it’s never a good idea to drink the water. Typically, ‘worms of various kinds invaded the lymph, circulatory and urinary systems. All from a glass of water carelessly consumed’.

In 1923, the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention told travellers to expect ‘diarrhoea, nausea and fever’, and people were informed not to be surprised if most places overseas served meals which were ‘unwholesome, dirty, smelly, inedible and contaminated’.

Nevertheless, there have always been hardy souls who positively enjoy tracking down bizarre lunches and dinners, e.g. Anthony Bourdain, who in 2013 swallowed a beating cobra heart in Vietnam.

Bender finds accounts of 18th- and 19th-century travellers who cheerfully tucked into ‘mouldy fish and eggs ready to hatch into chicks’. In Canton (now Guangzhou), people have eaten ‘hashed dog, sinews of whale and rat croquettes’. As Bender argues, though tourists always say they intend ‘to seek out restaurants and food stalls where locals eat’, in practice they prefer to rely on guide-book recommendations, and enter premises where health and safety inspections have been carried out.

Thomas Cook, Cunard, the Hilton hotel chain and other holiday businesses have developed a successful formula, in effect moving passengers from their home environment to foreign parts, while keeping them in isolation. When I went on a Saga cruise up the Amazon with Maureen Lipman for a travel story, our meals had been assembled in Southampton.

Of course, not everyone could be protected by holiday company guarantees. The chief drawback of being European soldiers, administrators, tea and rubber planters and residents, in the days of the empire and the Raj, was the food. Sooner or later everyone ‘succumbed to a variety of illnesses, to dysentery and malaria’.

But you can’t subsist forever on tins and packet soups. If I myself spent more time on the lavvy when I returned from India than I’d spent in the country in the first place, no wonder — bottled water often comes from the kitchen hose pipe, the plastic caps re-sealed with a heated pin.

It’s at this juncture Professor Bender gets a bit woke and political. He’s unhappy with the traditional view about the ‘ignorance, superstition and filthiness of the natives’.

Bender doesn’t like the way ‘tourists enjoyed the racial privilege of servants’, and he’s dismissive of the Hilton hotels’ Trader Vic’s bars, as they represented a false, kitsch idea of Polynesia as ‘a primitive paradise of sensuous women’. He’ll be glad to know, therefore, that the London branch closed last December after 60 years. It was where Peter Sellers took Britt Ekland on their first date.

Where I see travel as involving fantasy, grand hotels, says Bender, were a continuation of imperialism — the demand for comfortable rooms with telephones and private bathrooms ‘a relic of imperialism’.

He is one of those authors, of whom there is an increasing number, encouraged by progressive publishers, who can’t stop fretting about ‘the legacies of race and racism that had produced not only the empire but fascism’. Which is a lot to deduce from a mention of bamboo salad.

Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan shared ‘smoking gun’ documents he says proves that Facebook took down content on social media at the direction of the Biden White House.

Jordan shared the string of documents ahead of a scheduled committee markup hearing during which Republicans were expected to take action to move forward a contempt of Congress charge against Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

‘These documents, AND OTHERS that were just produced to the Committee, prove that the Biden Admin abused its powers to coerce Facebook into censoring Americans, preventing free and open discourse on issues of critical public importance,’ Jordan tweeted Thursday.

He said that Facebook only produced the documents after the committee announced its intention to hold Zuckerberg in contempt.

The documents ‘PROVE that government pressure was directly responsible for censorship on Facebook,’ the chairman continued.

Jordan said that he would suspend the markup on Zuckerberg’s contempt charge based on Facebook’s ‘newfound commitment to fully cooperate’ with the Republican investigation.

But that only stands ‘for now.’

‘To be clear, contempt is still on the table and WILL be used if Facebook fails to cooperate in FULL,’ he threatened.

Jordan subpoenaed executives from Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft back in February soon after Republicans took control of the committee over any ‘collusion’ with the federal government to suppress free speech. 

The subpoenas demanded internal communications between the company and the federal government over content moderation, deletion, or ‘suppression’ of content and related documents. 

The thread of documents shared by the chairman began with an email from April 2021 to Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.

It stated: ‘We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the [Biden] White House’ to remove posts. 

An additional April 2021 email from Facebook’s president for global affairs Nick Clegg to his team said that senior adviser to Biden Andy Slavitt was ‘outraged . . . that [Facebook] did not remove’ a particular post.’

The post had to do with the COVID-19 vaccines that the White House wanted labeled as ‘misinformation’ and removed off the social media platfrom. 

Clegg responded to the White House saying that removing that content would ‘represent a significant incursion into traditional boundaries of free expression in the US.’

According to additional emails, Facebook sought to ‘repair’ its relationship with the Biden administration.

‘Given what is at stake here, it would also be a good idea if we could regroup and take stock of where we are in our relations with the [White House], and our internal methods too,’ Clegg wrote in another email.

Another key instance stuck out to Jordan – when the social media company demoted a video post by Tucker Carlson in response to White House demands.

‘Facebook was ready to tell the White House that it had demoted a video posted by Tucker Carlson by 50% in response to the White House’s demands, even though the post didn’t violate any policies,’ he wrote on Twitter Thursday.

The chairman said Biden’s surgeon general was also in on the censorship push, especially monitoring content put out by the ‘disinformation dozen’ that were allegedly spreading ‘misinformation’ about COVID.

Jordan wrote Zuckerberg last week to re-up his demands for the documents – this time mentioning Meta’s new platform Threads, which is a direct competitor to Elon Musk’s Twitter, which has brought back suspended accounts by conservatives and former President Donald Trump, and is now rebranding itself as ‘X.’

‘In light of Meta’s introduction of a new social media platform, ‘Threads,’ we write to inform you that it is the Committee’s view that the subpoena of February 15 covers material to date relating to Threads,’ Jordan wrote.

‘Since the Committee’s subpoena to Meta, we have obtained additional evidence that the federal government has coerced or colluded with technology, social media, and other companies to moderate content online. These examples reinforce the Committee’s serious concerns about whether the Executive Branch is engaging in censorship by proxy—using surrogates to censor, suppress, or discourage speech in a manner that the government is unable to do itself.’

Jordan claimed Twitter has faced ‘political persecution from the Biden Administration following Musk’s commitment to free speech,’ a charge the administration denies. 

The move is largely symbolic, although a contempt of Congress citation can be referred to full house, where a vote can refer it to prosecutors, which could bring fines and jail time. 

Donald Trump has been banned from publicly sharing information in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case after his dramatic Miami arraignment last week.

The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart also put strict conditions on Trump’s access to the materials.

The former president can only view evidence in the presence of his lawyers and cannot post anything on social media or mention it during interviews. 

It includes Truth Social, where he has posted attacks on Special Counsel Jack Smith in the two weeks since he announced he had been indicted over allegations he illegally moved files on the nation’s biggest secrets to his Florida club.

The restrictions are similar to those put on him in the Stormy Daniels hush money prosecution in Manhattan. 

If Trump violates the order, he could face contempt of court charges or criminal sanctions.

It is the latest development in the first federal prosecution of a former president and comes after a DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll found most Americans think it was right to indict him. 

Last week, Trump also called for the charges to be thrown out, claiming he was allowed take classified documents from the White House.

‘The Discovery materials, along with any information derived therefrom, shall not be disclosed to the public or the news media, or disseminated on any news or social media platform, without prior notice to and consent of the United States or approval of the Court,’ the order filed on Monday said.

The order granted a motion filed last week by prosecutors who had asked the court to put conditions on how the defense stores and uses the documents.

Trump, who is the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, was indicted on federal charges earlier this month. 

He was accused of illegally retaining classified government documents after leaving the White House and then conspiring to obstruct a federal probe of the matter.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts in court.

The former president faces other legal hurdles, having been indicted by New York prosecutors earlier this year in the Daniels case.

He is due in court in March 2024, in the middle of his presidential campaign. 

Special Counsel Smith, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is also probing Trump’s alleged role in actions surrounding his loss in the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the January 6 Capitol Riot.

Trump’s prosecution has split the nation on political lines, but results of the DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll released over the weekend suggests how it might play into the 2024 election.

Of 1,000 respondents, some 46 percent thought it was ‘very reasonable’ to charge Trump. Another nine percent said it was ‘fairly reasonable.’

That compares with 31 percent who said it was ‘very unreasonable’ and nine percent who said it was ‘fairly unreasonable.’ 

At the same time, 50 percent said it was politically motivated while 42 percent said it was not.

James Johnson, co-founder of polling firm J.L. Partners, said: ‘The average American voter’s verdict on Trump’s indictment is that he probably did something wrong, but that the charges are political.

‘This balance – a little more nuanced than many give voters are often given credit for – gives some indication of how the case might affect the 2024 race. 

‘Make it a referendum on Trump’s behavior, and voters get reminded of what they see as his worst instincts. 

‘But if the Trump campaign can succeed in making this about the system pursuing him for political gain, then independents and other key voters may yet side with the former president on the issue.’

Polling began as Trump flew from his New Jersey golf club to Miami for his court appearance.

Congressional Republicans unloaded on the Justice Department in the minutes after former President Donald Trump was charged with mishandling classified documents and said he would report to a Miami courthouse Tuesday.

Senior Republicans immediately connected the prosecution to charges House Republicans have leveled at Biden family members based on sealed FBI documents based on tips that have yet to be released or verified.

‘If the people in power can jail their political opponents at will, we don’t have a republic,’ tweeted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), coming to the defense of Trump, who led supporters in chants of ‘lock her up’ during the 2016 campaign. 

‘DOJ indicts former President / candidate Trump SAME DAY DOJ/FBI restricts access to unnecessarily redacted Biden allegations And they wonder why ppl think there r two standards for justice,’ fumed Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Judiciary Committee member, on Twitter.

Grassley has spent weeks joining Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to press the FBI to hand over information containing allegations about Biden. 

The fury came as a source told DailyMail.con Trump has been indicted on seven counts of federal charges related to possession of classified documents and obstruction of justice.

The chair of the House Republican Conference, Rep. Elise Stefanik, a former Trump critic who has become a leading Trump loyalist, blasted the FBI and accused Biden of weaponizing the DOJ. She, too, made reference to the internal the FD-1023 document that the FBI shared with lawmakers this week. 

‘The exact same day that the FBI is forced to turn over to Congress absolutely damning and credible allegations regarding Joe Biden’s illegal, egregious, and treasonous corruption, Joe Biden weaponizes his Department of Justice to indict Donald Trump,’ she said in a statement.

‘The American people are smart and understand this is the epitome of the illegal and unprecedented weaponization of the federal government against Joe Biden’s leading opponent, President Donald J. Trump. The radical Far Left will stop at nothing to interfere with the 2024 election in order to prop up the catastrophic presidency and desperate campaign of Joe Biden.’

She said she was committed to cutting out ‘rot’ in federal agencies and holding feds accountable, and she echoed Trump’s own words, calling it an ‘illegal witch hunt against President Trump. 

‘In 2024, we will vote like this country has never seen before and we will elect President Trump back to the White House to save America,’ she said.

The decision by Special Counsel Jack Smiths’ office to bring the first federal charges against a former president are certain to bring scrutiny, whichever way the case goes. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith after Trump announced his run for president in order to remove the investigation from his direct supervision.

House Republicans since they took over the chamber have already been crusading against ‘weaponization’ of agencies and alleged FBI malfeasance. 

‘It’s a sad day for America. God bless President Trump,’ wrote Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Chairman who heads a special ‘weaponization’ subcommittee and who has vowed to root out alleged bias within the FBI. 

As usual, Trump was his own most forceful defender on Truth Social where he wrote that ‘The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional Boxes in Chinatown, D.C., with even more Boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is ‘secured’ by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time.’

He referenced multiple locations where material marked ‘classified’ was found on properties linked to Biden.

That matter is being probed by a different special counsel. There are distinctions that may weigh heavily in the president’s favor. His team says it was been fully cooperating whenever government documents were found, and there has been no search warrant nor lengthy and contentious negotiations as was the case with Trump.

Trump, who is at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, called it ‘a DARK DAY for the United States of America.’

The feds days ago announced that it was closing a probe of former Vice President Mike Pence over documents discovered on his property.

‘We ought to defund and dismantle the DOJ. I stand with President Trump,’ wrote Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), one of several Republicans subpoenaed by the House January 6 Committee when Democrats were in control.

In addition to the possession of documents and obstruction charges, Trump was charged with willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act, making false statements and an obstruction of justice conspiracy, the New York Times reported.

Biden himself laughed off the corruption allegations when asked about it at a White House press conference Thursday.

‘Where’s the money?’ he said.

‘I’m joking. It’s a load of malarkey,’ he added.

Biden was also asked what he was doing to protect the independence of the Justice Department, after years of attacks by Trump when he was in and out of office.

‘You’d notice, I have never once – not one single time – suggested [to] the Justice Department what they should do or not do relative to bringing a charge or not bringing a charge,’ he said. ‘I’m honest.’