Lauren Boebert revealed she has ‘peacefully parted ways’ with her Aspen bar owner theatre date after the pair were caught on camera fondling each other and kicked out of a Denver performance of Beetlejuice.

Speaking on Fox News on Friday night, the Colorado Congresswoman apologized to her constituents for her behavior. 

‘I messed up. I went on a date night in I am a congresswoman and a public figure but believe it or not, I am human too. Obviously everyone is interested in my personal life in me going through a very difficult divorce,’ Boebert began.

‘It has certainly been taxing to have this experience broadcast before the whole world, something that was in the dark is certainly heartbreaking to watch to see and I have apologized to my constituents, and will continue to do so. 

‘All of those in Colorado who may have felt let down, I hear you and all I can do is promise to do better. I will live and lead with strength and grace with humility moving forward.’

Toe-curling footage showed Quinn Gallagher groping Boebert’s breasts as she in turn rubbed his crotch. 

Footage also showed Boebert waving her hands, singing loudly, using flash photography and vaping before being aggressive with staff who removed her from the theater.

On Friday, Boebert denied being drunk at the time of the incident.

‘No, I was very excited about the actual musical. I’m a huge fan of Beetlejuice. Anyone should go and see the musical if it’s in your area and please let me know how it ends because I have yet to see the ending,’ she joked. 

‘It has been 20 years since I was on the dating scene and there were not infrared cameras back then watching my every move. It’s a lesson learned, as I said I’m truly humbled and apologize to my people and Colorado’s Third District,’ she went on.

‘It is my responsibility to bring levity to my constituents lives, never gravity.  Never should my actions burden those who I represent. It will work to only bring levity to them and bring as many solutions as possible. This whole week has been a total distraction.’

Asked whether she was still with her date, Quinn Gallagher, Boebert revealed how the pair had broken up.

‘I hope we stay friends for a long time, but he and I, we have peacefully parted ways. He’s a very nice man but right now, all future dates have been canceled with him and everyone else. I have work to do.’

Yet when DailyMail.com caught up with him in Aspen this week it seems that Gallagher may not have got that memo.

Seen for the first time since we revealed him to be Boebert’s ‘mystery man,’ Gallagher – who co-owns Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen – remained tight lipped and smiled slightly when asked if he and Boebert had really broken up.

When pressed he responded: ‘I’m sorry I’m not in a position to say anything about that.’

As he walked away, the congresswoman’s then boyfriend then hastily placed what turned out to be a lengthy phone call.

During the evidently animated conversation that followed, he put his head in his hands and gestured in the air more than once. 

Dressed in plaid shirt and jeans, at times he paced on the sidewalk opposite his Aspen bar while at others he sat on a nearby park table.

He remained with his head down and engrossed in his phone, texting long after the call had finished.

Earlier this week it emerged that Gallagher, identified by DailyMail.com, was a registered Democrat whose bar hosted drag shows – which Boebert has described as immoral.

The 36-year-old grandmother said drag shows offend her Christian beliefs, tweeting: ‘Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.’ 

The Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen, co-owned by Gallagher, staged ‘a winter Wonderland Burlesque & Drag Show,’ according to social media posts.

Aspen Gay Ski Week hosted ‘an evening of cocktails, appetizers, and laughs’ at Hooch in January 2020 according to a Facebook post.

It is not clear when Gallagher and Boebert’s relationship became romantic, but the bar owner originally comes from the congresswoman’s hometown of Rifle, Colorado, and he still has family there.

It is just a stone’s throw from the controversial congresswoman’s home in Silt.

The controversial congresswoman had originally denied the happenings in the Denver theater claiming the vape smoke was actually from a fog machine and issued a sarcastic statement playing down the anger.

But she made a startling U-turn blaming her behavior on her ‘public and difficult divorce.’ 

‘The past few days have been difficult and humbling, and I’m truly sorry’ she wrote in a statement. 

‘There’s no perfect blueprint for going through a public and difficult divorce, which over the past few months has made a challenging personal time for me and my entire family.’ 

Speaking about the controversy, she also blamed the media for drawing so much attention to her raucous behavior.

Boebert’s divorce from Jason, 36, her husband of 18 years and father to her four children, is ongoing after the couple’s shock split in May.

At the time Boerbert insisted that she had always been faithful throughout her marriage.

DailyMail.com revealed on Wednesday that Boebert, and Gallagher, a divorced father of a 16-year-old son, have been secretly dating for several months.

Surveillance footage from last Sunday’s incident shows Boebert, wearing a tight, low-cut gold dress and high heels, making a considerable fuss as she and Gallagher left – taking a selfie as she left the auditorium and angrily baring her teeth at staff.

She also gave ushers the finger. The Denver Post spoke to a pregnant woman who says she was sitting behind Boebert, but who was too scared to give her name for fear of MAGA-reprisals. 

The woman claims Boebert said ‘no,’ when asked to stop vaping, sang with her hands in the air, blew vape smoke at her, kissed her date and took repeated videos during the show. 

Boebert is also said to have told the complainer she was a ‘miserable’ person.

The eyewitness claims she asked to move seats in the intermission – and that staff at the theater said theirs wasn’t the only complaint about the erratic lawmaker. 

The woman also told the Post that Boebert’s lover Gallagher offered to buy them cocktails as a peace offering, which she had to decline because of her pregnancy.

An incident report noted the two received a warning at intermission about their behavior.

But five minutes into the second act, security officials received another complaint about a person being loud and recording the show.

‘They told me they would not leave,’ an usher said, according to the report.

‘I told them that they need to leave the theater and if they do not, they will be trespassing.

‘The patrons said they would not leave. I told them I would (be) going to get Denver Police. They said go get them.’

Afterwards, Boebert and her smartly-dressed date were caught on camera walking off through the empty nighttime streets of Denver.

Once outside Boebert’s indignation quickly dissipates as she holds her new lover’s hand, dances coquettishly and twirls for him in the street as they make their way through the city – a three-hour drive from Gallagher’s home near Aspen and even further from Boebert’s home in Silt, Colorado.

It’s set to be one of the hottest days of the year, with the mercury expected to hit 33C (91F) in parts of the UK today.

But while many welcome the six-day heatwave, which began yesterday and is set to run until Sunday night, others struggle to cope with the extreme weather.

Drinking plenty of water, staying in the shade and avoiding exercise and direct sunlight at the hottest points of the day are common tips to avoid overheating.

Here, MailOnline shares expert-backed ways to stay cool during the hot weather.  

Avoid drinking coffee

Coffee may provide a much-needed boost of energy, but it’s not the best drink during hot weather. 

The pick me up suppress the hormone ADH, which usually causes the kidneys to retain water when your body is low on stores.

This causes you to urinate more frequently than normal, resulting in dehydration.

So experts say it’s best to stick to water in hot weather.

Dehydration — when the body loses more fluids than it takes in — can trigger splitting headaches, dizziness and tiredness.

It can even result in hospitalisation if it becomes severe — causing a weak or rapid pulse, fits or low levels of consciousness.

Feeling thirsty, dark yellow pee, feeling dizzy and having sunken eyes are all signs of dehydration in children and adults, according to the NHS.

The NHS advises people to drink caffeine in moderation during a heatwave. It suggests checking the label for drinks that are high in caffeine.

However, some experts have questioned coffee’s dehydrating effect, suggesting the loss of fluids it causes is replaced by the drink itself.

Eat spicy food

While a cooling ice cream may be most appetising in hot weather, tucking into a spicy curry may actually be the best way to cool down. 

That’s because spicy food raises the body’s internal temperature, mirroring the weather, and causes it to sweat. 

The active chemical in chili peppers, called capsaicin, can trigger the body to sweat and induce thermogenesis — the process by which cells convert energy into heat.

US researchers say this chemical stimulates a receptor found in sensory neurons, creating the sensation of heat and subsequent reactions like redness and sweating.

The body’s heat causes sweat to evaporate, which has a long-lasting cooling effect. 

For comparison, downing a cold drink or having an ice cream raises the body’s temperature in response to being cold, leaving people feeling warmer. 

Take a warm bath before bed

Staying cool when trying to sleep can be one of the biggest struggles during spells of hot weather.

And while it may seem, counterintuitive, running a hot bath could do the trick. 

Sleep and core body temperature are both controlled by the brain’s circadian clock, which drives 24-hour patterns of sleep and wakefulness. 

At night, body temperature drops by about 2C. This helps with conserving energy and directing energy to organs that need it.  

But this cycle can be disrupted during periods of hot weather, potentially causing a miserable night’s sleep.

However, the science says hot baths can help you cool down rapidly.

Researchers at the University of Texas found that taking a warm bath before going to bed will help your body cool down. 

That’s because the warm water causes the blood vessels in the surface of the skin to dilate, encouraging blood to flow from the internal core of the body to the hands and feet.

So, once you get out the bath, this causes the body to cool down rapidly.

This method works best when taking a 10-minute warm bath or shower an hour or two before going to bed, according to the report published in Sleep Medical Reviews Journal in 2019.

Put your bedding in the freezer 

Fresh, cool sheets are the perfect way to get a good night’s sleep after spending the day in the sun. 

And, though it may sound strange, putting bedding in the freezer can work wonders for lowering body temperature before bed. 

As with the hot bath trick before bed, relaxing into cool sheets helps allow the body’s temperature to drop by the required 2C needed for good sleep.

But rather than causing your body to radiate heat away, this directly cools you from the outside in, preventing your internal temperature jumping back up as it readjusts to the outside.

Dr Mike Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, said putting bedding in the freezer for a couple of minutes at night will help you stay cool throughout your sleep. 

However, remember to put your bedding in a plastic bag to prevent dirty bedding contaminating your food or vice versa.

With the launch of iPhone 15 is around the corner, owners of older iPhones are bracing for their devices to slow down – but there are some tricks to counter the dreaded slowdown.

Apple previously faced fines and a $115 million settlement over a ‘batterygate’ controversy where older phones were deliberately made sluggish – although Apple said that this was in order to preserve their batteries.

Apple fans have long been convinced that iOS updates (in particular ones around the launch of a new handset) can slow older devices – but there are steps to take, a phone refurbishment expert has told DailyMail.com.

Kewin Charron, Senior Lead Refurbishment Operations Manager at Back Market said, ‘As the cost of smartphones continues to rise, opting to repair and prolong the life of your device not only presents a more sustainable alternative to purchasing new technology but is also a significantly more economical choice.’

If your iPhone is slowing down, Charron recommends taking the following steps: 

Stop apps slowing your phone down

Today’s iPhones contain more apps than ever before – and if you’ve installed lots, they could be slowing your device down, Charron said.

These apps tend to consume substantial amounts of RAM and CPU resources (which can slow your phone) while operating in the background, often without the user’s awareness.

Charron said: ‘A simple hack for speeding up your old iPhone is to go into your Settings> General > Background App Refresh and select Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi & Cellular Data, or Off to stop Background App Refresh entirely.

‘This quick fix means that iPhone users can adjust their settings to automatically control and stop apps running in the background; allowing the phone to run smoother.’

Check your battery health

Your slow iPhone might be due to an issue with the battery, Charron said.

Even newer batteries can malfunction if they’re defective or have been over- used.

If you’re using iPhone 6 or later (with an up-to-date version of iOS), go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health to view your battery’s maximum capacity.

This should fall somewhere between 0 and 100%.

Charron said, ‘A typical Apple battery should maintain up to 80% of its original capacity.

‘As the battery ages, this percentage may decrease, resulting in the battery no longer being able to hold charge.’

If it’s below that, you should consider taking it to a repair store and replacing the battery, Charron said.

Check peak performance

There’s another statistic buried in iPhone’s menus which it’s well worth checking out, Charron advised.

Charron said, ‘Under the ‘Battery Health’ segment, it’s also worth taking a look at ‘Peak Performance Capacity.’ 

This particular metric offers valuable information about the battery’s performance status, showing if the battery is operating correctly or not. 

Should you observe any malfunction in your battery, it could be wise to consider opting for a replacement.’

Unclog your memory

Slow iPhone performance can stem from limited storage capacity, with full or nearly full storage resulting in reduced available memory and impacting CPU performance, which slows your phone down, Charron said.

Charron said: ‘iPhones need around 10 percent of available storage for caching and temporary files that facilitate smooth app operation and software updates.

‘To enhance your iPhone speed, allocate time to review installed applications and uninstall those no longer needed. 

‘Sorting through old photos and videos and eliminating unnecessary content is also beneficial.’

The nuclear option

If your phone isn’t responding to the other tips, restore it to its default settings – ie to how it was before you started using it, Charron said.

This can clear out ‘hidden’ data which could be slowing your device, Charron said.

He said, ‘For a more thorough storage clear out, firstly create a backup of your phone data. 

‘Then, restore the device to its default settings before reapplying the backup. This process removes cached data and clears the phone’s ‘other’ storage. Alternatively, uninstall and then reinstall specific apps.’

What do Napoleon Bonaparte and Elvis Presley have in common?

The surprising connection is they both suffered from chronic constipation. In the case of Bonaparte, it led to haemorrhoids (piles) so bad he couldn’t ride his horse to survey the battlefield at Waterloo. Some historians claim this contributed to the French losing this crucial battle, changing the course of European history.

Constipation is, of course, no laughing matter: according to the NHS, at any given time, around 14 per cent of the UK population are constipated, defined as meaning fewer than three bowel movements a week.

Although constipation may have contributed to the death of Elvis Presley — according to his doctor he died from a massive heart attack, straining on the loo at the tragically young age of 42 — it rarely causes such serious complications. That said, chronic constipation can lead to unpleasant and embarrassing outcomes such as piles, rectal bleeding and rectal prolapse.

Why am I talking about it? Well, it’s been in the news recently, thanks to some rather alarming research presented at a meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association in the Netherlands last month, which showed a link between being constipated and an increased risk of dementia.

This disturbing claim is based on a study of more than 12,000 American doctors and nurses carried out by Harvard Medical School. Back in 2012, the study’s participants were asked to do cognitive tests (checking things such as memory and reaction times); they also filled in questionnaires about their bowel movements.

When they redid the tests many years later, the results showed that the people who’d reported having three or fewer bowel movements a week were 73 per cent more likely to show signs of cognitive decline than those who were more regular.

Analysis of the participants’ stool samples showed that those who were constipated had fewer ‘good’ bacteria in their guts, particularly the type that turn the fibre in our diet into butyrate, a chemical that reduces inflammation.

Butyrate also helps maintain the blood-brain barrier, which protects our brain from viruses and other toxins that travel in our blood. Having fewer ‘good’ bacteria in our guts, and more ‘bad’ ones, could help explain the link between constipation and poor brain health.

To improve gut health and constipation, the senior researcher on this study, Dr Dong Wang, recommends eating lots of foods rich in fibre and beneficial plant compounds, such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains; drinking plenty of water every day and being active.

Certain vegetables have recently been identified as being particularly effective at boosting our levels of ‘good’ butyrate-producing bacteria, including garlic, leeks, onions, dandelion greens and Jerusalem artichokes.

But if you’ve tried the water, the exercise and the fibre-rich foods and are still bunged up, one more novel suggestion is to look at how you sit on the loo.

The way our anatomy is designed means that the optimum position for opening our bowels is squatting — this keeps the rectum straight and relaxes the muscle at the bottom of it.

A more practical alternative is to sit on the loo with your feet on a small stool, as this lifts your knees to your chest. One study showed that, after just two weeks of using a stool — or a Defecation Posture Modification Device as the researchers call it — people suffering from constipation reported spending less time on the loo (from nearly six minutes to just over four), less straining and ‘increased bowel emptiness’, according to the American Journal of Gastroenterology. Two thirds of them were so impressed they decided to continue using the stool.

Another novel option on the horizon is a vibrating capsule. Researchers from the Medical College of Georgia and Augusta University Health in the U.S. have created and tested a capsule to treat constipation, which they describe as ‘the first of its kind in the entire world’. The capsule, which is nearly an inch long and contains a small battery, is programmed to start vibrating once it reaches your colon, or large intestine. These vibrations are apparently subliminally detected in the brain and, over time, help the colon regain more normal function. (The spent pill is expelled in the usual way.)

And it seems to work: in a study published last year, patients with constipation were asked to swallow a pill, once a day, five days a week, for eight weeks. At the end of the trial, those given the vibrating pill experienced double the number of ‘complete spontaneous bowel movements’ a week compared to those taking a placebo (which looked exactly the same).

They also saw improvements in ‘straining, stool consistency and general quality of life’ compared to the placebo group.

And while 11 per cent reported a ‘mild vibrating sensation’ in their guts, this didn’t seem to bother them. This device has recently been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so it may soon find its way over here .

And finally, what about a few electric shocks to get your bowels moving? Some of you may have come across a TENS machine: for those who haven’t, this is a small, battery-operated device that sends out harmless low-voltage electrical currents which can help block pain. TENS machines are used by health professionals to help during childbirth or to treat back pain.

But they can also ease constipation, reported the American Journal of Gastroenterology last year. After four weeks of using a TENS machine twice daily, for an hour, patients with constipation were having three-and-a-half complete spontaneous bowel movements a week, which was almost twice the number in a placebo group, and they reported less pain.

Importantly, while you might find this problem embarrassing, your doctor won’t, and if you have constipation for two weeks without improvement, do speak to them.

Why our phones are a turn-off  

A confession: I’m a phubber, someone who ignores the people they’re with to focus on their phone. It really annoys my wife, Clare, who sometimes snatches my mobile out of my hand or just sighs loudly.

Not surprisingly, a study of married couples, carried out in Turkey last year, found ‘phubbing significantly and negatively predicted marital satisfaction’.

To tackle it, you need to agree some ground rules with your partner — most importantly, not to have your phone on at the table or turned on when eating together. Research has shown even having a mobile in the same room can be distracting: scientists at the University of Texas found that when students were asked to take a series of tests, those who put their phones in another room did far better than those who had them face down, or in their pocket, switched off. It seems a phone’s very presence reduces our ability to pay attention to anything else. I now leave my phone in another room when we eat. It seems to be working.

Like many Britons, my bones are weaker than they should be. While filming a series about healthy ageing last year, I had a DXA scan, which uses low-dose X-rays to see how dense (or strong) your bones are. 

Although I have a sturdy spine, my hip bones aren’t in great shape, though I don’t have osteoporosis. The best way to prevent osteoporosis is to ensure you get enough calcium from your diet and vitamin D (from the sun or supplements). As well as obvious good calcium sources such as dairy and leafy green veg, you may want to top up on prunes. 

A study last October in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, involving 235 older women, concluded eating 5-6 prunes a day improved bone density. The theory is that anti-inflammatory compounds in prunes may slow bone breakdown. 

And consider taking up running, football or even hopping: the aptly-named Hip Hop study, published in 2015 by researchers at Loughborough University, showed just two minutes of hopping a day can strengthen hip bones and reduce the risk of fracture after a fall.

I recently wrote about research which showed that when old mice were infused with blood taken from young mice they ran for longer on a treadmill, did better in mazes and were able to remember their way to food much faster.

Now a study, published last week in Nature Medicine, has shown that surgically attaching a young mouse to an old one, so they share the same blood supply, lengthens the older rodent’s lifespan by up to 10 per cent. It’s a gruesome finding, but no doubt will spark the interest of ageing billionaires already funding research into the benefits of young blood.

I’m a doctor and here are four ways to control your hay fever WITHOUT taking medication, including a household cleaning tip

By Gina Kalsi For Mailonline

Published: 02:29 EDT, 23 June 2023 | Updated: 03:45 EDT, 26 June 2023

Netflix finally cracked down on password sharing this week, sending ‘freeloaders’ hysterical — but savvy users have already come up with an easy workaround.

Under rules brought to 103 countries including the US and UK this week, people who were watching Netflix under someone else’s account now have to create and pay for their own logins.

Those who want to go down the official route can pay an extra $7.99 per month (£4.99 in the UK) to add another member to their Netflix account from outside their household. 

The only problem here is that the option is only available to Netflix’s Standard and Premium subscribers, who already pay $15.49 and $19.99 per month, respectively.

Here’s how you can get around the new crackdown without paying a penny extra: 

Just don’t log on to Netflix via your smart TV or streaming box

Netflix defines what they think of as your household by the preferences you manage on the main TV you use, whether it’s a smart TV, like Roku, or a streaming box, like AppleTV or Amazon Fire Stick. 

So, just don’t set up a household. 

If you’re comfortable keeping your Netflix streaming to portable devices, your laptops, tablets, and phones, this should work nicely. 

You can even cast Netflix onto your TV from your phone or hook the television up to your laptop with an HDMI cable to get that home theater experience, no new fees required. 

Of course, some users may find these hardware fixes annoying, if they instinctively recoil at the thought of adding bulky cables or added hardware.

Fortunately, it’s not the only workaround.  

Set-up auto-forwarding for the email verification codes

Beyond your main household TV, Netflix uses your IP address and wireless network as part of its definition of your household. 

Practically speaking, that means Netflix set up a roadblock and sends the account’s primary owner a verification code every time they or someone else tries to log on from a new wireless network. 

This can get quite tedious, if the owner’s account is set to send those codes via text message and everyone sharing the membership pesters them for verification codes they need to enjoy that subscription too.  

But Netflix will also email those verification codes to the main account holder instead, if a phone number is not attached to the account. 

And there are many easy ways to have all those verification number emails, from info@account.netflix.com, auto-forwarded to your distant, beloved household members and friends. Google’s gmail and Microsoft Outlook both make auto-forwarding emails a snap.   

Log-in on the account holder’s Wi-Fi 

Is it really that hard to visit your mom or dad, or your best friend once in a while for a sleepover?

Because Netflix uses the IP address and wireless of the primary account holder as part of its definition of the household, you should be in great shape if you can log into Netflix, at least once in while, from the Wi-Fi connection at the account owner’s home. 

Once you have logged in there, whether on a phone, laptop or tablet, you should be able to stay logged in and watch your favorites anywhere else you go.  

It’s possible that Netflix will change their rules and require you to reconnect with that household’s Wi-Fi more frequently at some point in the future. 

But for now, there is nothing at Netflix’s Help Center to suggest you will need to re-verify your location after certain intervals of time away.

Dailymail.com will update this post as Netflix reveals more about the new policy.  

From Armageddon to the Day After Tomorrow, there have been plenty of Hollywood movies about how our world might end.

But if there is to be a global apocalypse, what might be to blame for wiping out all life on Earth?

A wandering black hole, giant asteroid impact and nuclear war could all trigger such disaster, as could the rise of killer robots or the reversal of our planet’s magnetic field.

Many of these might seem far-fetched but with the Doomsday Clock being placed at a record 90 seconds to midnight this year – and scientists warning that humanity’s continued existence is at greater risk than ever before – the threat is now all to real.

So how exactly would these devastating possibilities come about? MailOnline takes a look.

1. Giant asteroid impact

It ended the reign of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, so there’s every chance a space rock-related apocalyptic event could one day happen again.

The Chicxulub asteroid slammed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico — sparking a massive tsunami and releasing a huge soot and dust cloud which triggered global climate change and wiped out 75 per cent of Earth’s animal and plant species.

Astronomers estimate that one of these monster asteroids should smash into our planet once every 100 million years or so. 

That would put us on course for another extinction-level event in around 30 million years’ time, but with continued technological advances it is unlikely to pose the same danger as Chicxulub.

Just last year, NASA successfully carried out humanity’s first ever planetary defence test involving the deflection of an asteroid deep in space.

The US space agency’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft altered the orbit of a 520ft-wide (160m) space rock known as Dimorphos when it smashed into it at 14,000 miles per hour.

Dimorphos wasn’t a danger to us, but the success of the mission suggests that we’d already have a pretty good chance of deflecting any huge asteroid heading for Earth.

Add to that improved monitoring: NASA knows of no asteroid or comet currently on a collision course with our planet, so the probability of a major collision is quite small.

All in all, despite blockbuster films such as Deep Impact and Armageddon warning of the apocalyptic dangers of asteroids, the likelihood of humans meeting the same fate as the dinosaurs would seem unlikely. 

2. Killer robots

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the dangers posed by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

Following the success of chatbots like ChatGPT, which has taken the world by storm since its release at the end of last year, a Silicon Valley civil war has erupted over whether more should be done to police the rapidly evolving technology.

The world’s greatest minds are split about whether AI is a good or bad thing for humanity, with the likes of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on one side of argument, and Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak on the other.

The bitter argument spilled into the public domain earlier this year when more than 1,000 tech tycoons signed a letter calling for a pause on the ‘dangerous race’ to advance AI.

They said urgent action was needed before humans lose control of the technology and risk being wiped out by robots.

The row only intensified last week when the ‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton quit his job at Google, citing fears that ‘scary’ chatbots could soon be smarter than humans.

Warning that they are already capable of holding more general knowledge than a human brain, he said it was only a matter of time before AI also eclipses us when it comes to reasoning. 

At this point, he added, ‘bad actors’ such as Russian President Vladimir Putin could use AI for ‘bad things’ by programming robots to ‘get more power’.

Dr Hinton is not the first AI expert to voice concerns about the technology.

In 2018, renowned MIT professor Max Tegmark warned that humans could one day become enslaved by the intelligent machines they create, while the UN Secretary-General has previously called for a ban on ‘machines that have the power to kill’.

That intervention from Antonio Guterres came amid fears that advances in AI will soon lead to the development of robots that can select and attack targets without human input.  

Such robots represent the ‘third revolution’ in warfare after gunpowder and nuclear weapons, scientists and campaigners have warned, but could bring our very existence into question.

Despite films like ‘The Terminator’ and ‘I, Robot’ being science fiction, with fearsome killing machines not far away, the chances of them being a catalyst for the end of the world would seen a very worrying possibility.

Many computer scientists think the singularity – the point at which AI overtakes human intelligence – is near, meaning we will soon find out whether robots will be a good or very bad thing for humanity.

3. Supervolcano

Seen by some as the most serious natural threat to our existence, supervolcanoes have the potential to trigger a very fiery demise for our species.

The positive is that eruptions involving the 20 known supervolcanoes on Earth occur only rarely — on average, about once every 100,000 years.

But when they do, they have a devastating impact on our planet’s climate and ecology.

One of the world’s most famous in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming has erupted three times in the past 2.1 million years and is still highly-active.

Others include Lake Toba in Indonesia, Lake Taupo in New Zealand, and the somewhat smaller Phlegraean Fields near Naples, Italy. 

If one were to erupt again today, experts have explained how it could lead to the end of the world.  

First there would be a series of powerful earthquakes as magma raced to the Earth’s surface, before a ‘titanic eruption’ spewed lava up to 40 miles (64km) away and sent ash and toxic gases hurtling skywards.

It is the latter which would pose the biggest threat to life on Earth.

The gases, which would be spit out over a number of days, would hurtle 15 miles (24 km) high and plunge much of the US into darkness, while also doing appalling damage to people’s lungs.

This spread of volcanic ash would also impact the global population, scientists have said, because it would cause temperatures to plummet, make it hard to farm, and in turn lead to starvation worldwide. 

That being said, they also caution that this is ‘very unlikely to happen’, so it’s not anything to lose sleep over.

4. Aliens

The big worry with aliens is that if they were capable of reaching Earth, the species would likely be so technologically advanced that we would be defenceless to any exterminating motives.

According to author Bryan Walsh, who wrote End Times: A Brief Guide To The End Of The World, such a scenario ‘would not be like Independence Day or any of these movies’, but more as though the US military was ‘taking on a primitive tribe’.

Most experts agree that alien life almost certainly exists somewhere in the universe, considering more than 5,000 exoplanets have so far been discovered in our galaxy and factoring in that there are around 200 billion galaxies in total.

‘It’s purely a numbers game. It is probability,’ as space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock puts it.

But what is more contentious is whether any of this would be intelligent.

Based on the possibility above, it would be fair to hope that’s not the case.

As the late great physicist Professor Stephen Hawking once warned: ‘If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilisations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced.’ 

He showed support for efforts to find aliens by listening, but cautioned against actively reaching out in the form of radio messages based on what humanity’s past has taught us about how risky that might be.

That hasn’t stopped scientists, however.

Last year it emerged that experts are planning to broadcast a radio message containing Earth’s location deep into space, in the hope that it may one day be received and understood by an alien civilisation.

Called the Beacon in the Galaxy (BITG) message, it is essentially an updated version of the famous Arecibo message, which was first transmitted in 1974 for the same purpose.

Let’s just hope for the sake of humanity that if they do ever get a response, those aliens are friendlier than most experts forecast. 

5. Swallowed by the sun

Not the most exciting way for the world to end, you may think. Destroyed by the very thing that keeps us alive.

But there’s every chance that when the sun runs out of fuel it could engulf Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth in its wake.

Although this won’t happen for around five billion years, scientists revealed last week they had seen a glimpse of what it would look like after spotting a star swallowing a planet 12,000 light-years away in our own Milky Way galaxy.

Scientists said the hot, Jupiter-sized world would have been pulled into the dying star’s atmosphere and then consumed in its core. 

‘We are seeing the future of the Earth,’ researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

‘If some other civilisation was observing us from 10,000 light-years away while the sun was engulfing the Earth, they would see the sun suddenly brighten as it ejects some material, then form dust around it, before settling back to what it was.’

6. Reversal of Earth’s magnetic field

Historically, Earth’s North and South poles have flipped every 200,000 – 300,000 years.

However, the last one took place about 780,000 years ago, leading many scientists to believe that another reversal could be imminent.

This may sound disconcerting, but in an era of GPS rather than just compasses, it probably seems strange to imagine it signalling the end of our species.

Perhaps there’s lesson to be learnt from our ancestors, however.

Research has shown that a temporary reversal of the magnetic poles 42,000 years ago could have wiped out the Neanderthals by triggering catastrophic climate change.

This event ring the end of the Last Glacial Period, known as the Laschamps excursion, was a very short magnetic movement of the poles, but not a full reversal in the Earth’s magnetic field. 

When a complete flip does happen, it is preceded by the dwindling of Earth’s magnetic field to almost nothing, only to reappear around a century later with the poles reversed. 

What’s worrying is that the strength of our magnetic field today has decreased by about 5 per cent over the past 100 years.

This is significant because the magnetic field acts as a barrier to protect Earth’s ozone layer by deflecting cosmic rays and particle storms from the sun.  

Thankfully, a recent study offered reassurance that it is very unlikely Earth’s magnetic poles will flip any time soon.

Researchers from Lund University pieced together data on Earth’s geomagnetic field strength stretching back 9,000 years and say there’s no evidence a reversal is on the cards.

Time to breathe a sigh of relief. 

7. Pandemic

We had a terrifying taste of what this might look like when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

The virus is thought to have been responsible for some 20 million deaths worldwide and was only thwarted when the rapid development of vaccines helped protect people from serious illness and death.

But as deadly as Covid was at its peak, a future extinction-level pandemic would be far, far worse.

Such an apocalyptic disease would have to be incurable (like Ebola), nearly always fatal (like rabies), extremely infectious (like the common cold) and have long incubation periods (like HIV).

If these devastating features were to occur in a single pathogen then the death toll would be enormous.

It wasn’t until last week that the World Health Organization (WHO) finally declared that Covid-19 no longer represented a ‘global health emergency’. 

But the good news came with an eye-opening reminder.

‘We fully expect that this virus will continue to transmit and this is the history of pandemics,’ said Dr Mike Ryan, from the WHO’s health emergencies programme.

‘It took decades for the final throes of the pandemic virus of 1918 to disappear. 

‘In most cases, pandemics truly end when the next pandemic begins.’

8. Wandering black hole

Scientists still have much to learn about black holes, despite recently capturing the first ever image of one of the mysterious objects.

Described by experts as ‘a monster’, the black hole measures 24 billion miles (40 billion km) across – three million times the size of the Earth – and was found in a distant galaxy called M87. 

It is well known that a similar supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* sits at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, but as far as we’re aware there are no such objects in the immediate vicinity of Earth.

The discovery of the closest known black holes to our planet was actually revealed just last month. 

Gaia BH1 and Gaia BH2, which were spotted using data collected by the European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft, are just 1,560 light-years and 3,800 light-years away from Earth, respectively.

They are nothing for us to worry about, but what if a black hole did come wandering in our direction.

As far-fetched as this may seem, the idea is not inconceivable given that so-called ‘recoiled’ black holes have been detected ominously travelling through space in a similar way to rogue planets.

Only last month, NASA warned of an ‘invisible monster on the loose’, in the form of a ‘runaway’ black hole. 

The object is 7.5 billion light-years from Earth and currently triggering star formation as it ploughs into gas in front of it. 

That is nowhere near us, but if a black hole the size of the moon was to pass through our solar system it could spell disaster.

With light unable to escape black holes, Earth would have little chance either.

Our planet would be sucked in to the object’s event horizon and either ripped apart of possibly thrown into another part of the universe.

Extremely unlikely though such a scenario might be, let’s hope for the latter.

9. Nuclear war

The fear of apocalyptic nuclear war has gripped the global community for decades. 

Starting with the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and continuing today with Russia’s war in Ukraine and the uncertain threat posed by Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea, the prospect of such annihilation never seems far away.

Such is the threat that some estimates put the risk of nuclear war breaking out over the next century at around 10 per cent. 

Whether the war had an extinction-level impact would depend on whether it triggered a ‘nuclear winter’ — the creation of a cloud of smoke high in the atmosphere that would block the sun’s rays, plunging temperatures below freezing, and possibly destroy the ozone layer.

In order for this to happen, the bombs would have to start massive firebombs that could lift the dust into the atmosphere.

The fallout would likely lead to the disintegration of the global food supply, making widespread starvation and the collapse of states likely.

10. Global warming

Extinction is a part of life, and animals and plants disappear all the time. About 98 per cent of all the organisms that have ever existed on our planet are now extinct. 

In fact, over the past 500 million years there have been five great mass extinction events that have changed the face of life on Earth.

Some scientists warn that a sixth is already under way and have blamed it on the growing spectre of global warming. 

Experts currently predict climate change caused by human activity could lead to an average global temperatures increase of 7.2°F (4°C) unless countries take immediate and significant action to curb global warming.

As dire as that warning may seem, there is a risk the warming could be even more extreme — and rise up to 10.8°F (6°C).

The impact of this would be felt the most in poorer countries, which would become uninhabitable, research has suggested, leading to mass deaths, famines and mass migration.

Harvard Medical School scientists have also claimed that a balmier planet could aid the spread of infectious disease by providing a more suitable climate for parasites and spreading the range of tropical pathogens.

In terms of total annihilation, if global temperatures keep rising then it could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect that in the utmost of extremes would have Earth more closely resembling Venus, where the high on a typical day is 900°F (482°C).