By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

(CNN) — The search for immortality is a tale as old as time, but it certainly has taken on a new look.

The ancient Mesopotamian epic “Gilgamesh” chronicles a king’s search for immortality after the loss of a friend. Myths of a “fountain of youth” prevailed from the times of Alexander the Great to the golden age of Spanish explorers in the 16th century.

Now, tech billionaires are using artificial intelligence, supplements and medical treatments in their attempt to crack the code on living –– if not forever –– as long as they can.

This search — and the truth behind what leads to a longer, healthier life — is the subject of a six-part CNN Original Series called “Kara Swisher Wants to Live Forever.” The show, premiering 9 a.m. ET/PT Saturday, asks just how far the human effort toward longevity should go, what is mere snake oil, and how access to better health can make its way to the general population.

Swisher’s main takeaways? A lot of the investment the “tech bros” are making in longevity miss the point, but there are real, meaningful ways to increase people’s lifespan –– and health span, or living as long as you can, as healthy as you can that you can get started on now by slowly but steadily making lifestyle changes.

Here’s what the billionaires are getting wrong about longevity, and what you can start getting right today.

The point of it all

Another classic story of the search for immortality comes from Greek mythology. Eos, the goddess of the dawn, fell in love with Tithonus, a prince of Troy, and she sought to give him eternal life. But she made a mistake and didn’t specify that he would remain forever young. So, he lived forever, but he kept aging and his health kept declining.

The story raises a key question in the longevity conversation, Swisher said. Why do you want to live forever, at what cost and what would you do with more time?

Xuan-Mai Nguyen, a health science researcher for the Million Veteran Program at the VA Boston Healthcare System, tells her patients that as much as they may want to focus on adding years, she also wants them to maximize the present day.

“If you’re living five to 10 years in addition, what are those things that you want to do? Try to kind of be mindful and be purposeful in terms of what you’re trying to accomplish,” she said.

Many of the cultural icons who are seeking the elixir of youth are missing an important point. Like it or not, they –– like everyone before and everyone after –– will die; and instead of focusing on increasing the number of years, the cultural focus may be better served on relationships, purpose and impact on others, Swisher said.

When thinking about your older years, consider the difference between lifespan and health span: the number of years you live compared with the number of years you spend healthy.

“Our lifespan is much longer than our health span,” Swisher said. “How can we bring those two together?”

People are tending to live longer, but a longer life often means an increased risk of chronic disease, which can mean more frailty and disability in later years, said Dr. John Batsis, a geriatrician and associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“My experience is that living longer is less important than living a healthier, disability-free life,” he said in an email, referring to patients. “I take care of older adults, and many would rather have greater function rather than live longer with greater disability.”

Drops in the bucket vs. worthwhile investment

If you like saunas, red light treatments and trendy workouts, that

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By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — The UK has been forced to pause its plan to hand over the Chagos Islands, on which the US air base in Diego Garcia resides, after US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized the deal.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his government are not completely scrapping the plan to hand the islands to Mauritius. A spokesperson told CNN that “we continue to believe the agreement is the best way to protect the long-term future of the base.”

However, it is understood that there is not enough time left in the current parliamentary session to enshrine the deal into British law.

The UK government has long said the deal could not proceed without US support and it is understood there hasn’t yet been an exchange of notes with Washington, a normal procedure before which any treaty could be enacted.

According to British newspaper The Times, the bill also won’t be included in the King’s Speech next month, which sets out the UK government’s legislative agenda for the upcoming year. The Foreign Office would not comment on that report.

A UK government spokesperson told CNN that “Diego Garcia is a key strategic military asset for both the UK and the US.”

“Ensuring its long-term operational security is and will continue to be our priority – it is the entire reason for the deal,” they added. “We are continuing to engage with the US and Mauritius.”

CNN has contacted the White House for comment.

When the deal to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, which claims sovereignty over the Indian Ocean territory, was first announced it was fully supported by the US.

Under the proposed deal, the UK and the US would still have access to the base on Diego Garcia – the largest of the Chagos islands – since the UK would pay Mauritius £101 million ($136 million) a year for a 99-year lease.

But Trump later backtracked on that support, attacking the deal as an “act of great stupidity” in January amid a general fraying of US-European diplomatic ties over his designs on Greenland. He then doubled down on that position in February, writing “DO NOT GIVE AWAY DIEGO GARCIA!” in a post on Truth Social, adding that the base could be used in any operations against Iran.

Starmer ultimately blocked Trump’s request to allow US forces to use UK air bases, including on Diego Garcia, for offensive operations against Iran, according to multiple reports in British media in February.

British control over the islands is a relic of its colonial past. In 1965, an agreement between the US and UK split the Chagos Islands from Mauritius and, though Mauritius gained independence three years later, the Chagos Islands remained under British control. Over time, many Chagossians were removed from the island to create space for a military base, with most resettling in Mauritius more than 1,000 miles away.

The US base on Diego Garcia, which was first built in 1971, has become of Washington’s most important overseas assets, helping to launch two invasions of Iraq and serving as a vital landing spot for bombers flying missions across Asia.

But Mauritius has claimed sovereignty over the islands for decades and in 2019, the International Court of Justice ruled that the UK must return the islands to Mauritius “as rapidly as possible.”

Although the ruling was non-binding, the UK has faced growing international pressure to comply, and successive British governments have framed it as a test of the country’s commitment to international law.

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CNN’s Christian Edwards and Brad Lendon contribute

By Alli Rosenbloom, CNN

(CNN) — For the first time in several years, festival season will welcome back shirt-optional crowd-pleaser, Justin Bieber.

His Coachella performance this weekend will mark an important moment in his slow-walked return to the stage following a turbulent few years marked by health struggles and cancelled tours, as well as bright spots like fatherhood and Grammy nominations. The first-time headliner’s performance could be a comeback or so much more than that — a throwback to the best days of Bieber.

He last appeared live in front of tens of thousands of people at the Rock in Rio festival in Brazil in 2022, but a lot has happened off the stage since Bieber last performed for an audience this big.

Before last year’s release of a pair of “Swag” albums, his last new effort had been 2021’s “Justice.” He was on the world tour supporting that album in 2023 when he was forced to cancel the remaining tour dates due to health issues, sharing that he had Ramsey Hunt Syndrome, a nerve disorder that caused the singer to experience temporary facial paralysis.

“I’m going to be ok, but I need time to rest and get better,” he said in a statement at the time.

Since then, Bieber became a father when his son Jack Blues was born in 2024. He and wife Hailey have been married since 2018.

What could have been a quiet 2025 for Bieber turned out to be anything but thanks to a double-dose of surprise album drops, with “Swag” and “Swag II” coming out within two months of each other. “Swag,” his seventh studio album released in July, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. It also produced hits including the viral “Daisies” and “Yukon,” and scored four Grammy nods for the singer.

Just 11 days after the September release of “Swag II”, Bieber was announced as a Coachella headliner.

Even after his comeback kicked off, Bieber’s penchant for candid social media musings raised some concerns that were assuaged by his representative.

After Bieber wrote a post on his verified Instagram in which he said he felt “unworthy” of his life, a representative for the singer said not only was he doing well, but he was undergoing a “transformative” year after ending “several close friendships and business relationships that no longer served him.”

Bieber is no stranger to Coachella. He previously attended as a concertgoer and has made sporadic guest appearances during other artist’s sets, including with Ariana Grande in 2019 and Daniel Caesar and Giveon in 2022. Also, who can forget that sweet moment he shared with fan-turned-Coachella headliner Billie Eilish?

He’s been seemingly warming up for it all year.

In March, Bieber reportedly performed a full set of songs “Swag” and “Swag II” at Los Angeles’s Roxy Theater, presumably in preparation to sing these new songs for the horde of Gen-Zers making their annual migration to the desert this weekend. This came after the Grammys in February, during which he performed “Yukon” wearing only a pair of silverly blue silk boxers.

There was none of the usual fanfare that comes with a Grammys performance — just Bieber, his boxers and a guitar.

Maybe for the Coachella crowd, simply Bieber and all his swag will be enough.

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By Aleena Fayaz, CNN

(CNN) — Running in a contentious race to keep his seat, Sen. John Cornyn put out an ad vowing to fight “radical Islam.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Cornyn’s opponent in the May 26 runoff, accused his rival of helping “radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas.”

Rep. Chip Roy, running to replace Paxton as attorney general in a runoff next month, has alleged without evidence that parts of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, home to thousands of Muslims, have become what some Texas women believe to be “no-go zones” in which they are “increasingly feeling uncomfortable, as if they are somehow immersed in the Middle East.”

Certain Republicans in Texas have made anti-Islamic rhetoric part of their primary campaigns, arguing that Muslims have made the state less safe. That’s a notable message in the nation’s largest conservative state and one that’s echoed by a handful of Republicans nationally, including members of Congress.

Border issues have long animated conservatives – particularly in Texas, which has the longest section of US-Mexico border of any state – and were seen as critical to President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory.

Vinny Minchillo, a Republican strategist based in Plano, Texas, said that with illegal immigration hitting lows during Trump’s presidency, it made sense for GOP candidates to drive at another immigration-related concern and that opposition to Sharia law, or Islamic religious law, in particular was a winner in primaries.

“It is playing as well as anything I have ever seen with Texas Republican voters,” said Minchillo, who worked on the media team for Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign and Mitt Romney’s 2012 bid. “It’s solid gold.”

Muslim leaders living in Texas argue that the ramp-up of rhetoric endangers their communities and spreads misconceptions about Sharia law and about Islam in general.

“These congressmen and these state representatives live in neighborhoods where Muslims live. They shop at stores where Muslims shop,” said Sameena Karmally, an Indian American Muslim who lives in Collin County and previously ran for the state House in 2014.

Particularly with the outbreak of the war with Iran, Karmally argued, “They need some kind of demon and we’re going to be it.”

The recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Grapevine, Texas, leaned into the issue, featuring a panel called “Don’t Sharia My Texas,” in which one speaker, former Tarrant County GOP chairman Bo French, denounced what he called the “Islamification of Texas and America.”

And a number of national Republicans, meanwhile, have called for the deportation of all Muslims or their exclusion from public life. Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee wrote: “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.” Texas Rep. Brandon Gill said, “We will never stop Sharia law until we stop Muslim immigration.” Rep. Randy Fine of Florida posted: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”

Several candidates in Texas have pointed to a deadly shooting in Austin, the state capital, in which the suspect, a natura